Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Harry was lying on the decrepit mattress the Dursleys had provided for him again, though this time he was utterly comfortable.
Winky had not been impressed with the reasoning behind his refusal to learn wandless cushioning charms. She had set up her own survivors repertoire he had to learn and -sweet as she was- she was an utter taskmaster. He could now provide himself with shelter, food, warmth, some security and even comfort out in all the habitats the trunk provided. All wandless.
Casting aguamenti without a wand in a hot desert environment was an... experience. He had only very briefly entertained protesting training in such conditions. Winky would not have been impressed, and he had himself been entertaining where exactly they could deposit captured death eaters.
Dobby was all for using a volcano, but Muggles studied those nowadays. It would be difficult to explain away the sudden appearance of a weirdly dressed human in the middle of a volcano crater. Harry had been leaning towards the Marianna Trench until he realised that submarines existed and -knowing the inventiveness of Muggles- soon they might be able to explore that part of the ocean. It would definitely be difficult to explain away the dead bodies with clothes from the Victorian age. The pressure of all that water would crush them, but he didn't think that would really affect their outfits.
Fun as the thought exercise had been, it was best not to break the statue of secrecy, even if he wouldn't be around to experience the discovery. Finding a suitable volcano was on Dobby's to do list.
It was only later on that day that he realised their fun thought experiment was actually quite ruthless. Chances were high they would make use of it, eventually. He might be more damaged than he'd believed by what happened with Quirrelmort. It was only now that he recognised the thin veil of innocence that had been ripped away so brutally when he was forced to kill his teacher.
Harry curled up on his other side and cast his thoughts over the rest of the summer. He'd learned so much the past few months. He'd reviewed his Hogwarts education so far and had already gone through most material for sixth year. His goal was to be ready for national NEWTs by the end of this school year at the latest. He would keep on working towards his international NEWTs after sixth year, but he wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts once he was seventeen and nobody could legally tell him what to do.
He'd worked on his dueling with and without the house elves at his side. Starting with a single auror-grade mannequin as his opponent, he was now up to three. Not that he was great at it, not even one on one. Sure, he had talent, but competency in battle required muscle memory and trained responses. The only way you got that was with plenty of elbow grease.
He'd mainly practiced stamina, speed, dodging, and sharpening his reflexes, with a focus on silent casting. He'd tried to ingrain his responses until they became automatic. He was still a long way off from that.
He had built his spell repertoire -nothing too distinctive- and experimented with how to efficiently chain his spells together. It had been fun to look up and try out obscure magic and obscure uses of everyday magic that people wouldn't think to defend against. At least, until he discovered that the water wicking charm he'd learned to provide himself with a dry shelter and clothes had interesting effects on an animal's body.
He'd seen its value, after he'd finished throwing up.
At least it had been quick.
Harry rolled over and rubbed his cheek against the cushioning charm with a blissful sigh. He'd asked Winky to cast the charm and Dobby to put a temperature-control spell on his blanket. This way he could feel their magic close and not feel as alone in this desolate room. Lupin would arrive in a few days, but things could change quickly. Best not to have to swap him from his bed. His friends had protested that they could do it swiftly, but they deserved their rest.
He looked out the window at the foggy night and grimaced at the reminder that the dementors were loose and apparently breeding. That couldn't be good, but the ministry was about as useful as the order of the phoenix. Harry sat up with a thoughtful hum.
"Dobby."
"Is Harry Potter ready to return to his cottage?" The little elf asked hopefully.
Harry shook his head with a smile. "Could I send a letter to someone without having their name. Something like 'To whom it may concern' and have it be delivered to the right person?"
Dobby stared at him with raised eyebrows.
Harry gestured at his window. "Someone should do something about the dementors and it definitely won't be anyone in Britain."
"Dobby thinks Hedwig could," his friend replied. "We should disguise her!"
Harry's mouth dropped open. That was a great idea and he couldn't believe he hadn't already done it. Especially after what happened last school year. "We should disguise her. And maybe we could put protections on her? Is there something like that that you could have ostensibly bought during school shopping?"
"Oh noes! Dobby forgot!" The elf started mangling his pajama top immediately in contrition, and Harry put a soft hand on his.
"Hey, I didn't think of it either. We will forget things. We will make mistakes. If we fail, we'll try again. That's what you taught me, right?"
"Harry Potter is right," Dobby grumbled. Harry's lips twitched. His friend was about as gracious about failure as Harry was. "But Dobby will buy it first thing in the morning! Youse can write letter and then wese disguise Hedwig!"
"Deal," Harry smiled, "Thank you for responding so swiftly, Dobby. I think I can go to sleep now. Sweet dreams."
"Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite!" With a pop and a giggle Dobby disappeared.
---
Harry was drifting on a floatie across the pond situated in the hot and humid habitat. A foot trailed through the cool water and he was sipping some juice using a straw. Not far from him, Dobby was doing the same. Harry grinned quietly to himself. He'd seen pictures of beautiful people using floaties like this in light blue pools amongst exotic plants in the vacation brochures aunt Petunia had collected over the years. He'd secretly dreamed of doing the same thing ever since. So, once he had finished a general survey of the trunk -and Winky had thoroughly educated him on the benefits of rest and relaxation- he'd shyly proposed using the pond as their personal pool.
They had all tried it out and it was now a favourite pastime amongst them. The scenery was beautiful, the water was cool, and Dobby had a blast creating the most outlandish floaties he could imagine.
His imagination was a sight to behold.
Winky liked the pond well enough -as long as Harry and Dobby behaved themselves- but she loved her hammock more. They had created several of different sizes and shapes (and colours) and hung them all over the trees lining the banks of the pond. Winky's favourite was perfect for curling up while keeping a bird's-eye view of their surroundings. Dobby might've made sure that her tree was big enough to provide clear sightlines in all directions.
They each had their own scars.
Harry lazily splashed some water over himself. Shortly afterwards bubbly magic washed over his skin. He sighed happily at the feeling and smiled briefly at his friend in thanks. He didn't have his wand on him in the water, and -either way- Dobby had a better sense of time, so he was the one in charge of smothering Harry under vampire-grade sunblocking spells.
After all, he's supposedly been spending this oddly cold summer locked up in his bedroom. Suddenly sporting a tan would have been a tad suspicious.
Harry slurped his juice loudly and eyed his friend. Dobby was already looking back with the same spark of mischief glinting in his smile.
Yeah, he'd had enough rest. Time for some relaxation. Harry smirked. Dobby cackled. Winky dunked them both into the pond.
---
It was five o'clock on the morning of departure and all three of them were seated in the kitchen at various levels of alertness.
Winky was deeply unhappy she couldn't provide Harry with lunch. He wondered for the umpteenth time why a train that carried children towards school over the course of a whole day didn't have any lunch food on offer. He liked cauldron cakes but there were only so many he was willing to eat, and they were the only thing close to filling that the cart lady sold.
Harry was not looking forward to the school year. Going to Hogwarts felt like useless busywork when there was a war raging outside its walls and Harry was the main target. It also seemed incredibly stupid to plonk Tom's 'most wanted' in the middle of hundreds of mostly helpless children and then -apparently- hope for the best.
Harry could not understand the staff's reasoning. At all.
The three of them had contingencies in place, either way. Whether the school was attacked and fleeing would draw fire away from the students, or whether Dumbledore had gotten suspicious and decided to meddle, they had plans for every eventuality. Up to and including having Harry memory charmed -by keeping copies of his memories safe at the cottage.
There had been a bit of trunk-tent Tetris going on in preparation. Dobby had collected a smallish tent from the Black vaults that could be set up inside Dudley's second bedroom. This way, Harry was able to put the trunk in the tent and perform the Fidelius charm even though that required the use of a wand, as the tent was a pocket dimension, and the ministry couldn't detect any magic in those. He'd also performed the Fidelius charm on a dimensional store that would hold a newly bought -but less ostentatious- broom, his cottage trunk and the Black family wands that worked for him.
He had several of the latter, including a rather old ebony-thestral tail hair combination that had bonded with him just as much -if not better- then his first wand.
The ministry might expel him and snap his wand; he would never be helpless again.
Dobby was the secret keeper for the trunk; Winky held the secret for the dimensional store in her soul. The look of awe on their faces when he'd asked them had tugged on his heartstrings and they'd all had to blink away some tears.
Actually, Dobby had had quite the breakdown, but that was alright. Everyone had their quirks.
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