The Last Riddle

10. Dobby the bad elf

The summer was crawling by at an awfully slow pace and I was thankful I had Hogwarts to look forward to. Dudley has been insufferable teasing me and trying to provoke me into using my magic, uncle Vernon has been screaming at me non stop because he is so terrified of what I could potentially do. Aunt Petunia avoids me at all costs and instead spends her time doting after my enormous cousin. As for Harry, well I've barely spent time with him at all. He is sulking constantly complaining how none of his friends had sent him a single letter even though they had promised to.

I don't feel like telling him that I also haven't received any letters, not even from Poppy nor Blaise. I know he will only snap at me and I don't want to make things any more awkward between the two of us.

One sunny Saturday afternoon Harry and I were laying on the small patch of grass that we were allowed to sit on in the back garden. The only reason we were allowed to sit in this particular section was because the large shed protected it from the judging eyes of the neighbours, in this small patch (that couldn't be bigger than a metre long or wide) Harry and I were free to test each other with our Hogwarts books.

"Where can you find a Bezoar?" Harry asked with his potions book resting on his face whilst he laid on his back basking in the sunlight.

I sit upright and scrunch my eyebrows together trying to remember "oh that's a hard one, give me a second." I close my eyes and try to remember Snape lecturing us about how knowing the antidotes to poisons is just as important as knowing the actual potions.

Harry lifts the book off his face and looks at me "tick tock Ang you're running out of time".

I throw a pencil at him and offer him a smirk "fine you asked for it Harry." I cough and adjust myself making sure to sit with my back upright to make myself look more professional.

"If I remember rightly a bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons" I quote the potions textbook word for word and stick my tongue out at my brother laughing at his annoyed expression "give me a really hard one this time!"

He rolls his eyes and places the book back on his face. I chuckle to myself and carry on reading the charms book in my lap. Soon enough the relaxing silence around us is broken by our Aunt Petunia shouting our names from inside the house. Harry sits upright suddenly and his book goes flying, we look at each other with panicked expressions and start to gather our books and stationary as quickly as we can. We run into the house with our arms full looking around for our aunt, we stand awkwardly by the back door trying not to drop anything as Aunt Petunia enters the kitchen with her hands full of shopping bags.

"There you two are what were you even doing outside?" she says without looking at us once. Harry opens his mouth to reply but I elbow him and shake my head, I know my aunt well enough to know she doesn't want nor expect us to reply and if we did she would only shout at us.

Our aunt carries on not noticing Harry and I having a silent conversation "listen I'm going to warn you before your uncle comes home with Dudley from the park, we have some extremely important dinner guests tonight. Mr and Mrs Mason are coming over so your uncle can grease the wheels with Mr Mason a little bit and eventually ask him about investing in his drill company."

She finally looks at the two of us and walks over with a wooden spoon in her hand waving it at us both "this is the important part okay? You will not be present during the dinner, you will both stay upstairs with your disgusting animals. You will not make any noise, you will not even leave the room to go to the bathroom is that clear?"

Harry and I both nod silently at our aunt. She grunts "good. Now go put all that rubbish in your arms upstairs and come back to cook the dinner. I need to start getting ready for tonight."