PotterLock Down (A Crossover Fanfiction)

Chapter 17: A Near Miss

John sank into a chair and stared at the saucer-eyed creature.

"What is that?" He squawked.

The creature stared back at him.

Harry looked down with a little fondness in his expression. "Dr. Watson, this is Dobby, a house elf."

"Master Potter is a good, kind master," piped the little elf. "Dobby will do anything for him!" He looked up at Harry, who nodded.

"Right then, Dobby: this man is Dr. Watson, and his friend, Inspector Sherlock Holmes has been taken by the Death Eaters."

Dobby scowled. "Old master and his nasty friends, so cruel to poor Dobby!" He shook his head so his ears flapped, and in a flurry of magic all the napkins on the table turned into birds and flew out the open window.

Harry knelt down, "All we need is to find the place where they are keeping Mr. Holmes; can you take us to him?"

Dobby put a withered hand on Harry's knee. "Dobby serves the kind Master. Dobby will do his very best." The scrawny house elf stepped back and rubbed his hands so sparks of magic crackled around them.

Harry stood and looked at the others. "Everybody hold hands," he warned, taking John's hand on his right and Fred's on his left. The others circled around Dobby, and as soon as the last pair connected, Dobby jumped in the air with a snap of his fingers.

John felt a jerk like a gust of wind through a door, and all light seemed to vanish. One moment, they were standing in the kitchenette of their suite, and the next, in a musty-smelling room made entirely of stone.

"Where are we?" He stammered, completely disoriented.

"Lux," Hermione stated, and suddenly the tip of her wand glowed bright enough to illuminate the room.

"Blimey!" Ron gasped. "We're in Hogwarts!"

Harry was inspecting a wardrobe against the wall in front of them.

"A Vanishing Cabinet?" He muttered. "What's this doing here?" He looked down at Dobby. "Where is Inspector Holmes, and why did you bring us to a room with a Vanishing Cabinet?"

The little elf cringed. "Dobby hopes Kind Master will forgive him! Dobby has done his very best. Dobby knows that this cabinet will lead Master Potter where he wants to go, but Dobby can go no further!"

"Half a mo," George muttered, crossing to the side of the cabinet. "This one's been painted!"

Everyone gathered to see.

"I don't understand," said Hermione. "Why would anybody want to paint just one side of a Vanishing Cabinet to look like a brick wall?"

"Not to mention that the paint job looks nothing like the walls in here," Harry agreed.

Fred tilted his head to one side. "You know what it does remind me of, though, George?"

"What's that, Fred?"

"The hallway to the kitchens."

Harry whirled on them. "Wait, didn't you say Inspector Holmes disappeared after the ghost appeared at the entrance to Hufflepuff?"

"Sounds like our boy Potter is finally figuring things out, Fred."

"I knew it right from the start, George."

John's lips twitched. "Well, if Holmes vanished into this cabinet—" he flung open the doors, in spite of a warning from Harry, and pointed to the empty cabinet. "Then where the bloody hell is he?"