Harry had cut the grass and trimmed the hedges, and the flower beds were all done. It was just a little passed lunch time and the garage looked quite daunting. He already knew the garage would take forever. "Impossible " he muttered to himself. Harry decided to fix himself a sandwich for lunch. He turned back to the shed, the shelves, and the garage which prompted him to speak out loud.
"Man, I wish I could use use magic outside of school. I bet if Dobby were here he'd help me." Harry hear a small pop and there a stood Dobby. Dobby hurriedly grabbed Harry's legs and hugged them. "Dobby is so pleased to see the Great Harry Potter again. Dobby will always come any time the Great Harry Potter needs him. Just says Dobby' s name."
"Dobby... ummm... I'm sorry. I was not calling you. I just have a lot of work my family is forcing me to do, and since I can't perform magic outside of school i was just wishing I could. Then I said that I bet you'd help me if you were here." Dobby was nodding happily. "I did not mean for you to come. I am so sorry for wasting your time. Please forgive me and you do not have to come every time I say your name. You are a free elf and a great friend."
Dobby started crying.
"The Great Harry Potter is apologizing to Dobby? The Great Harry Potter considers Dobby his friend?" "Of course you're my friend Dobby. I am so sorry. Please don't be upset" Harry pleaded. Dobby stopped crying immediately and looks Harry in the eyes. "Harry Potter is the greatest wizard that's ever lived. Dobby will take care of any work the Great Harry Potter has to do for his mean family.
Harry almost took him on his offer 'til he remembered something. "But Dobby this is a niggle neighborhood. They should not see magic performed and they most certainly should not see a house elf, especially one using magic. It'll probably be better for you to go back to Hogwarts so no one will see you here. I will just have to quickly find a way to do the rest by myself. It was very nice to see you again Dobby."
"No, Master Harry Potter Sir. Dobby can do all your work for you and no one will see Dobby or the magic. A house elf can do a lot of things without being seen. The Great Harry Potter just needs to tell Dobby what needs to be done and Dobby will do it." "Wow Dobby. Are you sure you don't mind helping Me?" "It would please Dobby more than anything to help the Great Harry Potter." "Well Dobby let's take a look at the list and see where I left off."
Harry picked up the list and checked off the first 3 items then showed Dobby. "Great Harry Potter sir, Dobby will be right back." Dobby disappeared with a soft pop and returned 5 minutes later. Harry was just finishing his glass of water, and was ready to tackle the remaining jobs with Dobby's help. "Dobby has completed all of the Great Harry Potter's list. Is there anything else the Great Harry Potter needs Dobby to do for him?" Seeing the dirty plate and glass on the table from Harry's lunch, Dobby waved his hand and they were clean and put away. The table was shining.
Harry sat there for a few moments. "Ummm... Dobby? Did you say you were finished with all of my chores?" "Yes. Dobby has completed everything on the Great Harry Potter's list of chores. Please tell Dobby what else he could do for the Great Harry Potter." Harry walked out to the shed and saw that everything was in deed finished. He walked to the garage and saw that it was clean and organized.
Harry went back to the dining room to speak to the little elf. "Dobby I know that magic is wonderful but elf magic is outstanding! Everything is perfect! Thank you so much Dobby. There is no way that I could have ever accomplished all that the muggle way in less than a day." Harry was grinning when he saw Dobby bouncing in joy. "Since I know how fast you can do these things Dobby, then I will call you tomorrow if they give me more work than I can handle in the allotted time. You are a great friend Dobby." "Dobby will return tomorrow morning and take care of any chores that mean family gives you." There was a small pop and Dobby was gone.
"Wow" Harry said. "Free time." He then decided he would take a shower and get cleaned up since he did all of that yard work. Then he can spend some of the extra time going through the remaining items in the trunk he had found in his vault last summer. He did not have much time while at school due to the tournament, and Voldemort coming back. Harry had actually forgotten about it until he was forced back to the Dursleys. He had only skimmed the surface of the trunk so far last night, so far everything he had found was interesting to him. It was obvious that his parents had left it for him to discover. He was anxious to go through the rest of it, and to see what else he could find.
As he took his shower Harry's mind wondered back to that day last year when he had visited his vault to pick up some galleons for his school stuff and for some extra spending for the school year. He caught a glimpse of something in the back that appeared to twinkle or sparkle. He could have sworn too that it was calling out his name. It sounded like what he thought he remembered his mother's voice to sound like.
When he moved some galleons out of the way to get to the back of the vault. When he got there he saw some shelves against the wall with some books on them. Also under one of the shelves closer to the ground was a trunk that was sparkling gold. He could not figure out how to open it though so he shrunk it and slipped it into his pocket to look at it later.
He had asked the goblin with him if he could have something to carry the books in. For a small fee the goblin provided Harry with a small bag charmed with both extension and feather light charms. Harry was able to take all of the book with him so that he could look over them later. He put the small bag and trunk, and put them in his school trunk and pretty much forgot them.
When he had finally taken a look at the books he was shocked to find that many of them would have been quite helpful his first year at Hogwarts. Most of the questions he had about the magical world were answered in the books. There were books about the muggle world as well but they were a bit outdated. Technology in the muggle world was growing fast and it was difficult to keep up with the changes. There were also several books that were meant to expand on more than what Hogwarts taught for the years on all subjects. He had already read as much as he could while at Hogwarts this last year. Some of the information was helpful to him during the tournament. He was planning to look at the rest of the books as soon as he could this summer. There were quite a few to go through, though he had not counted them yet he had estimated that there were around at least 40 to 50 books.
His first priority though was to go through the rest of the items in the trunk. Harry unshrunk the trunk and once again heard his mother's voice. "Harry I love you. This trunk is for you. Only you can hear my voice. This is a 5 compartment trunk. Kiss this trunk then place it somewhere on the floor. We love you Harry." A bit teary eyed Harry took a small break to gain his composure back. He then followed his mother's instructions and placed the trunk at the foot of his bed. He kissed the trunk and finally was able to open the first compartment, and found a note on top that let him know that as long as it was sitting normally when he closed the lid it would shrink enough to put in his pocket, but if it wad standing on its side it wouldn't shrink. Harry was not Shure why someone would stand it up on its side, bit nevertheless he would try to remember that bit of information just in case he was missing something. The information was from his parents after all, so it could be important.
There were many items in the trunk and he had barely got through the first compartment last night. He found a lot of small items in there including some jewelry, a nice gold pocket watch, and some pictures of his parents which he thoroughly enjoyed. There were some pictures with Sirius in them as well and a few with Remus too. He added the pictures to the leather photo album Hagrid had given him at the end of his first year. He found a couple of pictures that included Peter but he quickly put them to the side. Just about everything was interesting for him not to take his time. He hoped to make a good dent in the items today starting with the second compartment.
Harry toweled off and put on some clean but baggy clothes. He was still wearing Dudley's hand me downs that were way to big for him. When he was ready Harry kissed the trunk that was on the floor, and opened up the lid to the second compartment. The first thing he saw looked like a diary. It had his mom's name on it so he figured it had to be hers. Not wanting to wait he sat back on his bed and began reading his mom's diary. It began with her first year at Hogwarts. There was a note written on the inside cover that congratulated Lily for being accepted into Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that they hoped this would be useful for Lily to capture important memories, and it was signed "Love: Mom and Dad." Harry sighed. Here was another set of grandparents Harry had never met and his Aunt Petunia refused to talk about them as well. Harry just wished that for once someone would be willing to tell him about his family. He often wondered about his parents and grandparents. He thought it would have been nice to get to know them all.
He started reading at the front and quickly found that although his mom sounded really intelligent most of the time, there were a few pages that were just to girly for Harry. He did not think of his mom like that. When he came across some pages that talked about when she had her first period, and then went on to discuss when someone of her other friends had their first periods Harry decided that skipping ahead was in his best interest this time. He was not sure when, if ever, he would be comfortable with that subject. Harry was more interested in her older self anyway, especially after she started dating his dad.
Harry was fascinated with the diary. It was almost like she was talking to him with every word he read. He found a few spells written in the margins and some with whole pages devoted to a spell or two. He would definitely have to come back to those. Harry kept reading and was looking at some pages his mom wrote after he was a few months old. He found something very shocking. His mom wrote that Harry at a very young age was showing remarkable magical powers for just a baby. She was certain that Harry not only experienced accidental magic already, but would swear that Harry not only experienced accidental magic but would swear that he even exhibited some control at times such as summoning one of his toys. She had decided to discuss with James and they would monitor the little powerful wizard for a few days. For each day the diary contained a history of magic little Harry was performing with some getting bigger, especially the accidental magic when Harry was either hungry, sleepy, or stressed out.
When Harry flipped the page he saw what had shocked him. After his mom and dad talked about it and looked at the evidence over several of weeks they decided to bind Harry's magic to prevent possible harm to himself or others. They would not bind it completely but make it so it was safe. When he gets older, and no later than the age of 10, they would remove the bind so he could learn to control the extra power before going to Hogwarts the next year. His mom cast the spell since it was a charm, his dad had preferred that should should be the one to do it.
Harry sat there for a while. He wondered if anyone else knew that his parents had bound his magic. He also wondered if it was still bound. After all his mom and dad were killed when he was just 1 year old. It was not likely they removed the bind before that point. At school he was often told that he was a powerful wizard and definitely one of the most powerful students there. His magic did seem a bit stronger than the others. Had the binding already been removed? Somehow he must find out if his magic was still bound or not. There had to be a spell that would check it. Soon he would have to make a list of questions and thoughts to investigate later on.
Putting the diary aside for the moment, Harry returned to the trunk and began to look for more stuff. He found several more books and wondered why they were not on a shelf with the other books in the vault. After checking them out closely he saw that they were very advanced books on different subjects. Transfiguration, Charms, Defense, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Alchemy, and even Magical Creatures.
There were 2 small books he had found interesting. One was specifically about the subject of Human Transfiguration while the other addressed the one topic of Animagus Transfiguration. All of the books were definitely past N.E.W.T level. He planned to read them as soon as possible. He hoped that he would be able to follow along and that they were not to over his head. If they were he would simply work his way up using Hogwarts textbooks. He should have a better grasp after completing the 7th year books.
Of course he could always just ask Hermione to help him. She will want to read them for herself anyways. He would not be surprised if Hermione already read and memorized the 7th year textbooks. Harry was about to dig further down in the trunk to see if there was anything else down there other than books when he heard the front door down stairs open. He quickly put the diary and other objects back into the trunk and shut the lid.
"BOY, YOU BETTER HAVE ALL OF THOSE CHORES DONE OR THERE WILL BE NO MEALS FOR A WEEK!" bellowed Uncle Vernon. Harry walked down the stairs calmly. " Hey guys did you have a good dinner?" Aunt Petunia and Dudley looked at him like he had an extra head. Vernon blinked and shook his head to clear it. "Boy stay right there while I go check to see what you didn't get finished because you will not get fed for a week if all of those chores are not finished."
Harry shrugged his shoulders and said "alright." Vernon walked out the back door. A few moments later he came back through the house mumbling as he went to the garage. A couple minutes later he came back in sputtering and stammering. "B...b...boy there isn't any way you could get all of that done without using your m...m... mag... Freakishness!" Calmly Harry stated "Uncle Vernon I did not use any magic to do my chores. You know as well as I do that the Ministry does not allow underage wizards and witches to use their magic outside of school unless it's an emergency. Even then you may still get into trouble. Had I used magic the Ministry would have notified me of the incident and I would be in trouble right now. There have been no owls from the Ministry today because I have not used any magic since I left Hogwarts."
"But...But... How? It's not possible!" Vernon glared at him. Harry just got a marvelous idea. "Ok Uncle Vernon... Magic was used but not by me. I accidentally..." "You had one of your freaky friends over while we were out! HOW DARE YOU! You know that I don't allow any of that freakishness in my house!" Vernon was moving towards Harry as he was saying all of this. "Uncle Vernon?" Harry said quickly." I'm going to take your offer." Vernon stopped and looked confused. "You said if I don't complete all of the chores that you give me to do you will not fees me for a week. Well I'm not doing any more chores so I will not be expecting any food from you guys for the next week. You can have Dudley do the chores for you. He comes use the exercise."
"WHY YOU LITTLE FREAK!! Yelled Vernon as he approached Harry. "Dobby?" Pop! Dobby appeared in front of Harry. "Dobby is here Master Harry Potter Sir. Dobby is always pleased to help the Great Harry Potter." Petunia screamed while Dudley was trying to hide his fat self behind one of the chairs in the living room. Vernon staggered a few steps backwards in shock. "W...what is that thing? T...that Creature? Boy you better get that freaky thing out of my house this instant or I will...." Cried Vernon while raising his hand as if to strike Harry.
Instantly Vernon found himself stuck to the ceiling where he could not move and a very angry Dobby had one hand pointed at Vernon, holding him on the ceiling with magic. Vernon blinked a few times. The strange creature seemed to be yelling telling him something. "... Will not be hurting the Great Harry Potter. Dobby will not allow it! The big fat oaf will be keeping his hands off the Great Harry Potter or Dobby will make sure he never touches anything again!" "Dobby?" "Yes Master Harry Potter Sir?" "Dobby, I have just made a deal with my uncle. If I refuse to do anymore of his chores then he has promised not to provide me with food for a week." Vernon nearly soiled himself when the creature slowly turned his head back up toward Vernon and gave him the meanest glare Vernon had ever experienced. "I accepted my Uncle's offer because I was hoping you could provide me with my meals for the summer? Do you think that would be alright with you Dobby?"
"Dobby will be happy to feed the Great Harry Potter for as long as the Great Harry Potter needs him to." "Great, Dobby!" said Harry. "You can bring my food straight to my room. That way you do not have to see my relatives again."
"I told you boy that your freakish friends are not allowed in my house." Dobby turned back to Vernon again and glared up at him as he was still on the ceiling. Vernon's body was pressing harder into the ceiling and a few cracks were forming. Vernon looked intently into the creature's eyes and changed his mind, "Well, I g-guess it would be o-okay if this f-friend brings you food." "Thank you, Uncle Vernon. Dobby you can put Uncle Vernon down now." "Are you sure Master Harry Potter, sir? He looks like he could stay up there and miss a few meals himself." "I'm sure, Dobby. Let him down. It will be okay now." Dobby shrugged his shoulders and said "okay." Vernon promptly fell to the floor in a big crash. All the air was knocked out of him for several seconds.
As Vernon was struggling to get back on his feet and gain control of his breathing again, Harry began the introductions. "Guys, my friend here is called Dobby and he is a house elf in the magical world. I helped Dobby a couple of years ago out of a bad situation. Ever since then Dobby has been willing to help me. He will not be in the way. The neighbors will never know when he is here. There is special house elf magic that allows him to do whatever he needs to do unnoticed. Here is the deal. You stay out of my way this summer and I will stay out of yours. With Dobby providing my meals we should have minimal interaction in this house. That suits me just fine." After Harry looked all three of them in the eyes once to make sure they each understood, he turned to go back upstairs. "Dobby and I will be going to my room now."
Dobby waved his hand at the ceiling and the cracks were removed leaving the ceiling looking like new. The Dursleys just stared at Dobby with their mouths gaping. Either it was due to their first time seeing a house elf, seeing what he did to Vernon, or perhaps it was just due to the fact that Dobby wore very colorful mismatched socks and 4 hats. No one knows for sure. Harry, with Dobby following, walked back up the stairs to his room. Harry closed the door. "Dobby, can you make it so no one can hear what goes on in my room but I can hear what goes on outside of it?" "Yes, Master Harry Potter, sir." Dobby waved his hand and the silencing charm was in place. "Thank you, Dobby."
Dobby looked around the room and thought for just a minute. This is where the Great Harry Potter will be spending his summer? The bedroom was tiny. Harry's bed was too small and lumpy. His desk, if you could call it that, was broken and wobbly along with its chair. There were a lot of broken toys and equipment in one corner of the room. This will just not do thought Dobby, not at all.
In a flurry of motion and magic the room changed. The bedroom was magically expanded to twice its size. The old broken desk was replaced with a very nice large mahogany desk with plenty of room for Harry to work. A very nice leather office chair replaced the old wobbly one. Harry's bed was transfigured to resemble his nice comfortable bed at Hogwarts. The corner was cleaned up of all the broken toys and equipment. Even the closet was expanded. The room looked completely different. "Dobby, this is great but what if someone else sees this?" asked Harry. "Dobby made it so that your mean family, and any other muggle, will only see what was here before. If a magical being sees it then they will see what you see" explained Dobby.
"Incredible," declared Harry. "Dobby, you are one special friend and can do some amazing magic! I am starting to think I should have called you sooner. You are right handy to have around." Dobby stared down at the floor, shuffled his feet nervously, and looked as embarrassed as he felt.
Harry smirked and walked over to his school trunk and pulled out two pairs of different looking socks that used to be his Uncle Vernon's. Harry mismatched the pairs and walked back over to Dobby, kneeling down in front of the little elf. Harry placed his hands on Dobby's shoulders.
"Dobby, I'm sorry to embarrass you but I meant every word. I know that you are not used to being complimented, especially after spending so much time in service to that horrible Malfoy family. But Dobby, listen, you are my friend and I compliment my friends when they do something good. Believe me, this is not just good" Harry said, looking around the room, "it's great!" Dobby raised his head to look at Harry Potter.
"Dobby, since you will not accept payment from me for your services, I have decided to give you a special gift because of the special gift you just gave me today." Harry held up the two mismatched pairs of socks to Dobby. Harry explained, "These socks are special. You can use them in a pair like this or you can match up the identical ones to form different pairs." "Thank you Master Harry Potter, sir! These are great! Socks are my favorite gift. I do not think I will be matching them up though. That is just not right." Harry laughed and said, "Somehow I knew you were going to say that." "Master Harry Potter, sir. Dobby will be back at 6:30pm with your dinner. What would the Great Harry Potter like to eat?" "Surprise me, Dobby. I will eat whatever you bring me. Thanks again Dobby." Pop!
YOU ARE READING
The Legends of The Potters
FanfictionHarry Potter is abused, betrayed, and confused.
