Chapter 3
All three of them settled back down on Harry's, now magically cushioned, mattress. Winky had popped back to Hogwarts for food, making sure no one saw her, and Dobby had unearthed Harry's trunk from the cupboard under the stairs and put the elves' version of a Muggle repelling charm on his room.
Harry let out a slow breath after they'd all eaten and drunk their fill. He rubbed his face and gathered his courage around himself. "I know that Voldemort-"
"Harry Potter mustn't say his name!" Winky interrupted him while Dobby was back to murdering his t-shirt.
"Uhm, ok," Harry stammered, taken aback. "Why?"
"The bad wizard put a Taboo on his name the last time and managed to find many families when they used his name, wherever they were. Even under the strongest wards! Many families died." Winky's -and Dobby's- ears trembled with emotion.
Harry stared blankly at his friends for a long time, horror washing over him. First at the ingenuity of the Taboo -and all the people that paid the price- and later on at the implications of Dumbledore's admonishments.
"The headmaster always tells me that not using his name gave him power -and I didn't want him to have any power over me," he said numbly.
Winky looked outraged, but Dobby looked murderous. It probably was only Winky's restraining hand that kept him from popping away. "Then the headmaster has been trying to kill the great Harry Potter, sir! Dobby will deal with him! Dobby knows a great volcano that would love to host the esteemed headmaster! Dobby can introduce them!"
Harry snorted and couldn't stop his grin. "Not yet, my friend. First, you promised to listen, didn't you?" He raised a chiding eyebrow at the vibrating house elf until he deflated with a grumble.
"Dobby did."
"I called you here because I need advice." He shoved a hand through his hair with some desperation. "This is just one more demonstration of why."
He couldn't see any good reason why Dumbledore would tell him to use Voldemort's -no, Tom's- name. Especially as he'd parroted it at his friends and the DA. Merlin, Dumbledore had been trying to kill him, and hadn't cared that he put other children in danger that way. Including the children of his most loyal followers!
But then, that wasn't anything new. Not really.
He tugged his hair one last time. "I didn't know how I could convince you, but apparently I won't have to." He looked at the two little elves and the conviction in the set of their shoulders and the tilt of their chin. "I'm more scared of the headmaster than I am of V- Tom," he confessed.
The other two nodded solemnly at him and a profound relief coursed through his veins. He knew no other Wix would have believed him, aside from the smartest of Tom's followers -and the dark lord himself.
He finally spoke out loud the thing he'd realised at the end of his fourth year. "Dumbledore will do whatever it takes to have his plans unfold the way he wants them to." Up to and including having a death eater capture and impersonate one of his best -and most loyal- friends, just so that Voldemort could be resurrected.
And the old man had wanted that resurrection to happen. Harry had seen the triumph in his eyes that night.
It didn't matter if Dumbledore supposedly cared about you. It didn't matter what pain and terror -and injury- the children in his care experienced.
People were pawns and Dumbledore would play them as he wished.
"V- Tom will kill me. He might indulge in a spot of torture, though I don't think he will risk it anymore, and then he will kill me swiftly. The headmaster..." Harry swallowed. "The headmaster will do whatever it takes to make sure I follow his plan. Even if he has to use magic. Even if he has to... Change me."
Everything he learned over the years -and that barely scratched the surface of all the knowledge Dumbledore must have- told him that that was possible. Memory charms, compulsions, love potions. He didn't know what more was out there, and he didn't want to find out firsthand.
Give him death any day over being 'adjusted'.
Harry clapped his hands. "So, I need knowledge, skills, resources and allies. And I need to gain all that in a way that won't arouse the headmaster's attention. And given how many people worship him, and how many are eager to give him tidbits of information, nobody can know." He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know how to do that. But I do know how sneaky Dobby can be. And both of you know much more about the wizarding world than I do. Help?"
The two house elves nodded at each other. "Dobby will be Harry Potter's contact with the wizarding world, if necessary, like Gringots. Headmaster Dumbles already knows that Dobby bonded Harry."
Harry couldn't say he was surprised by that. Neither by Dobby somehow sneakily bonding to him after he'd freed him, nor by Dumbledore knowing about it and keeping quiet.
Winky picked up the thread of conversation. "Winky will be your secret elf. Winky will stay at one of Harry Potter's properties unless Harry Potter has work for her."
Harry leaned in closer. "We have to prepare for war, though, not just for another attack by Tom. The order seems useless, in all honesty. They've had more than a year to prepare, and most of what they did was guarding that stupid prophecy and collecting information. And then sit on it, apparently? They might be training, maybe they are making battle plans. I'm not sure what they could be doing, but I'm also not an adult with experience in war. Still, we can't count on them and not just because they follow the headmaster like sheep."
Frankly, he was kind of let down by their performance at the Ministry. It had all been chaotic so he might be wrong, but there hadn't seemed to be much coordination and the spells they used were easy to shield against and undo. Stunners, really?
He bit his lip. "I need to prepare to go on the run at any moment, because the ministry will fall. I have to learn how to apparate and make portkeys. I have to learn how to be untraceable. And I have to have a base nobody knows about." His eyes lit up. "I could buy a magical tent and stock it and always have a home with me."
He'd intended to buy one as soon as he knew of their existence. The very idea was intoxicating. He deflated, though. "I'm pretty sure Dumbledore is keeping an eye on my finances, and I don't even know if I can withdraw that much money at once. Or if I can even afford it."
Dobby perked up. "The Potter's family vaults will be locked until Harry Potter is seventeen, but-" The elf held up a finger and gave them a cheeky look. "Dobby knows that Harry Potter is the Black heir because old master Lucius wailed and wailed when Lord Arcturus Black died and little master Draco didn't inherit. See, Sirius Black was Lord Black's heir, and everyone knows that Harry Potter is Sirius Black's heir."
"Uh, that's interesting?" Harry had a feeling he was missing something.
Winky tutted, and Dobby fell on his side with his own wail. Harry briefly wondered about the symbiosis between Wix and elf.
"Black family is noble family, and noble families have laws that keep orphans out of greedy hands. No guardian can look at inheritance unless they are the steward, and the steward carries a special ring. Dumbledore doesn't have the ring. And at thirteen, an heir can take up lordship and is considered an adult," Winky added.
Harry felt numb. "And the Black family has money?"
"Lots of money and lots of property," Dobby agreed.
Harry ignored the sudden buzzing in his ears. "Ok, so we can have a magical tent. Or maybe a trunk like Moody has. Or both. Stock them to keep us going for a year with food, medicine, care products, clothes. You both probably know better than me what is needed."
The elves nodded.
"Dobby can go to Gringots and look around the Black vaults. And ask about the will. And maybe the Lord ring? It would protect you."
"Protect, how?"
"Poisons and potions and mind magics. We can have the Dverger update them. Dobby needs a letter with your magical signature."
Harry frowned in confusion. "Who are the Dverger?"
"Wizards call them goblins, but it's a bad word," Winky answered.
Harry cursed and Winky pursed her lips in disapproval. She looked remarkably like professor McGonagall. He held his hands up in surrender. "I know, I know, but it deserves some heavy swearing. It's not okay. I was tricked into mistreating other beings and that's disgusting." He lifted his chin stubbornly until Winky -finally- conceded.
He didn't think she would concede often, though.
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