Alteration (Book 3 of The Corruption Sequence)

Chapter 5. About Friends

It was nearly midnight by the time Harry decided that sleep was not going to come. He needed to talk. He had calmed down enough to be very ashamed of his behaviour, and it weighed on his mind as well as everything else.

"Dobby," he said clearly, climbing out of bed and lifting the level of the lights with a flick of his wand.

The house elf popped into being almost instantly.

"Good evening," Dobby greeted cheerfully, "is Harry Potter feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you, Dobby," Harry replied apologetically, "I'm sorry I shouted at you when you came to clear away the dinner things. I find it difficult to control myself sometimes."

"Dobby is understanding," the elf replied graciously, "Headmaster Dumbledore is explaining everything to Dobby when he is volunteering for this job."

Harry smiled at the small creature gratefully. He only hoped he was not about to annoy more people.

"I was wondering, Dobby," he said quickly, "do you know if Professor Dumbledore will still be up?"

"Dobby will check for Harry Potter," the elf said instantly and disappeared before Harry could do anything about it.

With a resigned sigh, he walked over to the desk and waited for Dobby to return. Taking a quill, he scribbled a quick note to Dumbledore apologising for his behaviour and asking the headmaster if he would mind visiting, hoping all the while that Dobby would not wake Dumbledore to ask him if he was still up. Sometimes house elves could be very peculiar in their reasoning. A few moments after he finished the message Dobby reappeared.

"Headmaster Dumbledore is still being in his study," the elf said, very pleased with himself.

"Thank you, Dobby," Harry said politely, "I was wondering if you would mind delivering this to him for me."

And with that he handed the house elf the note.

"Not at all, Harry Potter," Dobby replied brightly, taking the scrap of parchment. "Would there be anything else once Dobby is delivering the message?"

Shaking his head, Harry sat down on the desk chair.

"No thank you," he said, rubbing his eyes and trying to clear his head, "that's all."

Dobby disappeared a second time and Harry was left to hope that Dumbledore would be available. He had never timed how long it took to walk from the headmaster's study to the Room of Requirement, and he stood up again after only a minute or so and began pacing. It felt like an age but could only have been about fifteen minutes when a sleepy Jeremy appeared in his second frame.

"Please let him in," Harry said without even waiting for the portrait to speak.

Jeremy just nodded and disappeared again.

"Good evening, Harry," Dumbledore said pleasantly as he walked in, "how may I be of assistance?"

"How did they take it?" Harry asked, having worked himself into quite a panic.

With a benevolent smile the headmaster conjured two chairs and indicated that Harry should sit down.

"Perhaps some tea," Dumbledore suggested and summoned his usual pot and cups and saucers from thin air.

Harry really didn't want tea, he wanted to know what had happened when the headmaster explained what had occurred to Hermione and Ron, but he sat down and accepted the cup anyway. Remaining calm was his biggest aim, losing it a second time would not be productive.

"I believe Miss Granger intended to go straight to Professor Snape and offer her assistance with his work," Dumbledore said as he poured the tea, "Mr Weasley wished to know when he could visit you and Mr Longbottom offered to research rare plants and their use in treating such conditions as lycanthropy."