A/n If it isn't too much trouble, please take some time to REVIEW this story. It's good to see so many people reading this but it would be better to know your thoughts on it. Thanks!
The next few weeks flew by, with Harry getting to know Dobby better as the elf continued to do a fantastic job as his employee. Madam Bones had responded to Harry's letter about Dobby within thirty minutes, saying that she was sorry for the inconvenience. Any magic done was assumed at the Ministry to be done by Dobby, which gave Harry free reign. He had Dobby add another room to his bedroom, this one a long chamber with many targets, attack dummies, and an authentic dueling field that he had seen in a book. The majority of his time was spent in that room, constantly repeating the spells he already knew, perfecting wand movements and accuracy. He also spent a lot of time buried in his old schoolbooks, namely Defense, Charms, and Transfiguration books, trying to pick up anything that may have flown by him in the past four years.
He had Dobby send a lot of spells his way so that he could practice shields, and the elf had volunteered multiple times to also be Harry's dummy for experimenting different spells on, in order to increase authenticity, but Harry laughingly refused and insisted that authenticity be sacrificed for safety. Before three weeks had passed, Harry had perfected every single offensive and defensive spell and every charm that he could find in his schoolbooks. Transfiguration had been a bit rusty, but he was still better than he had been before.
He also owled Flourish and Blott's Bookstore for a few books, including one that showcased combat spells, which ranged from more defensive and offensive spells to mild healing and reviving charms. The book was so interesting that he had a handle on almost every spell contained in it in just a few days.
On the downside, Harry's social life had found a new low. He had Dobby to talk to, but he missed Ron and Hermione. He had written them quite often, asking about their Summers, explaining everything that had happened to him, and even inviting them over to hang out and practice their magic as well. But all that he had received were very precise responses, saying that their Summers were just 'fine', that what happened with Dobby and his Aunt were just 'very interesting', and simply dodging his invites flat-out.
When Harry introduced Dobby to his Aunt Petunia, he could tell the that site of him almost made her faint, as she turned a pale-white and Harry could have sworn that her eyes threatened to roll into her head, but she seemed to be making an effort, saying that she didn't mind as long as he stayed to Harry's room, and even went as far as to shake the elf's hand, though she washed hers thoroughly afterwards. Harry could see that his aunt was really trying to make up for the past, and though he knew she wouldn't turn into a loving relative overnight, at least she had been slightly less cold to him, and could stop Vernon from treating Harry like he was gum on his shoe.
Not that Harry had given any of his relatives much of a chance treat him badly. Now that he had everything he needed in his not-so-little bedroom, he could eat, sleep, and train in privacy; it was like having his own apartment. The only time that he came out was to try and sneak in a little time watching the news downstairs. He had wanted to find some hint at what Voldemort was up to, and the Daily Prophet wasn't reporting so much as a rainy day anymore, let alone a resurrected mass-murderer. He remembered that two years ago the muggle news had reported on his fugitive godfather, Sirius Black, so he thought that maybe he could find some strange incident that could be connected to Voldemort on there.
The only problem was that Dobby could conjure a TV, but for some reason could not figure out how to connect it to the house's cable wires, since they didn't go up to Harry's room.
This found Harry downstairs in the sitting room one very hot night, wearing his invisibility cloak and leaning against the wall, not daring to breathe any louder than half a decibel. His aunt and uncle were watching the news, which was currently reporting on the hot sales at a local mall. Harry just stared at the ceiling, waiting for some sort of strange occurrence that the muggles couldn't explain, but it never came.
