Eva Black. Year 2.

Chapter 2

Eva managed not to shout out, but it was a close thing.The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears andbulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. Eva knew instantlythat this was what had been watching them out of the garden hedgethat morning.

As they stared at each other, Eva heard Dudley's voice fromthe hall. 

"May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"

The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the endof its long, thin nose touched the carpet. Eva noticed that it waswearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm- andleg holes. 

"Er — hello," said Eva nervously. 

"Harry Potter!" said the creature completely ignoring Eva "So long has Dobby wantedto meet you, sir . . . Such an honor it is. . . ." 

"Th-thank you," said Harry, edging along the wall and sinkinginto his desk chair, next to Hedwig, who was asleep in her largecage. He wanted to ask, "What are you?" but thought it wouldsound too rude, so instead he said, "Who are you?"

"Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," said the creature.

"Oh — really?" said Eva. "Er — I don't want to be rude oranything, but — this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in our bedroom." 

Aunt Petunia's high, false laugh sounded from the living room.The elf hung his head.

"Not that We're not pleased to meet you," said Harry quickly,"but, er, is there any particular reason you're here?"  

"Oh, yes, sir," said Dobby earnestly. "Dobby has come to tellyou, sir . . . it is difficult, sir . . . Dobby wonders where to begin. . . ."

"Sit down," said Eva politely, pointing at the bed.  

To her terror, the elf burst into tears — very noisy tears. 

"S-sit down!" he wailed. "Never . . . never ever . . ."

Eva thought she heard the voices downstairs falter. 

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered, "She didn't mean to offend you or anything —"  

"Offend Dobby!" choked the elf. "Dobby has never been askedto sit down by a wizard — like an equal —" 

Eva, trying to say "Shh!" and look comforting at the sametime, ushered Dobby back onto the bed where he sat hiccoughing,looking like a large and very ugly doll. At last he managed to control himself, and sat with his great eyes fixed on Eva and Harry in an expression of watery adoration. 

"You can't have met many decent wizards," said Harry, trying tocheer him up.

Dobby shook his head. Then, without warning, he leapt up andstarted banging his head furiously on the window, shouting, "BadDobby! Bad Dobby!" 

"Don't — what are you doing?" Eva hissed, springing up andpulling Dobby back onto the bed — Zeus had woken up with aparticularly loud screech and was beating his wings wildly againstthe bars of his cage.  

"Dobby had to punish himself, ma'am" said the elf, who had goneslightly cross-eyed. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, ma'am. . . ."

"Your family?" 

"The wizard family Dobby serves, sir. . . . Dobby is a houseelf — bound to serve one house and one family forever. . . ."

"Do they know you're here?" asked Harry curiously. 

Dobby shuddered. 

"Oh, no, sir, no . . . Dobby will have to punish himself mostgrievously for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut hisears in the oven door for this. If they ever knew, sir —"