The following Saturday was the first ever Quidditch match of the year, Slytherins vs. Gryffindors. Hari woke up before the sun even rose, thinking about his first ever match he would be playing for the Gryffindors. There was a lot of pressure on him to succeed after the previous year’s disastrous performance and after all the whispers against him in the last few weeks, Hari was desperate for something positive. Sure, he was becoming slightly friendlier with a few of the Slytherins, but Hari needed to beat them or else he wouldn’t be able to look any of his teammates in the eye for ages.

Hari opened his eyes shortly after, wet and muddy from the rain and his arm in agony. He blinked up into a pair of bright blue eyes and didn’t bother stifling a groan.

“Ugh, anyone but you,” he whined as Lockhart kneeled beside him and the other Gryffindors surrounded them.

“Clearly just delirious. Doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Lockhart as Harry sat up, grunting with pain and clutching his arm to his chest. The pain was almost blinding. “Stay down, Hari. I can fix your arm,” Lockhart said as he pulled out his wand.

“No, thank you. I’d like to wait until I see Madam Pomfrey, please,” Hari said through gritted teeth. There was a flashing light suddenly in his face and Harry whined again. “Colin, not now, please!”

Lockhart pushed Hari gently back onto the ground and said, “Just be careful, Hari. I’ll deal with it.”

“Professor, perhaps we should wait for Madam Pom—?” began Wood, appearing through the crowd and squatting down beside Harry. He froze when Lockhart pointed his wand at Hari’s arm and with a bright flash, Hari felt the strangest sensation in his arm.

In fact, Hari felt as though his arm had disappeared. From his elbow down to his fingertips, his arm went completely slack and lifeless. There was a collective gasp and more flashing from Colin’s camera. Hari’s arm looked as if it was made out of fleshy rubber. He vaguely heard Lockhart talking about how that was a common occurrence.

Hari wasn’t an expert at magically mending bones, but he was absolutely certain that removing bones was not usually involved.

“Step aside, please. Move, please,” came the strict voice of Minerva through the whispers of the small crowd of people circling Harry. They stepped aside to allow her to pass and then Minerva was bending over them. “Good heavens! What the devil did you do to his arm, Professor?” she yelped, unable to keep the alarm out of her voice. She turned on Lockhart who could only splutter pathetically in response.

Remus, Kingsley and Hagrid appeared with Ron, Draco and Hermione with them, all of their eyes bulging comically. Carefully, at Minerva’s assertion, Ron, Draco and Hermione lifted Hari, escorting him through the crowd of shocked onlookers as his arm flopped limply at his side.

Madam Pomfrey was not amused when they arrived at the hospital wing.

“Who allowed someone to do this instead of coming right to me?” she shouted, poking at Hari’s rubbery arm with her wand. “Mending broken arms is easy if you’re competent, but regrowing them will be much harder.”

“You can do it though, right?” asked Hari weakly, still staring at the strange sight of his boneless arm. “It’s not permanent?”

Madam Pomfrey sighed. “No, it’s not permanent. I can fix it. But it will be painful to regrow all the bones in your arm,” she replied, “You’ll have to sleep here.”

Hermione stepped outside the curtain to let Draco and Ron help Hari change into his pyjamas with his limp arm and then Madam Pomfrey, rather begrudgingly, let the Gryffindor team come in to say hello.

Fred poked Hari’s arm with his finger and then jerked it back, laughing. “Oh, that is so fucking weird!” he exclaimed, “It doesn’t still hurt does it?”

Hari snorted. “No, but it doesn’t really do anything either,” he replied, getting into bed.

“‘He’ll be fine’, said Wood. ‘Don’t worry!’” teased George, making Wood flush and duck his head. “Honestly, Oliver. You’d think you cared more about winning than Hari!” The rest of the Gryffindors laughed, but Wood continued to scowl, muttering about how it wasn’t true.

“D’you still think dearest Gilderoy is so perfect and wonderful, Hermione?” cooed Ron scathingly.

Fred gasped jokingly, slapping his hand to his heart. “You haven’t got a bone to pick with our famed Professor, have you?” he said in mocked astonishment as the boys laughed.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” she said stubbornly, tilting her chin up, “And it doesn’t hurt anymore, so no harm done.”

“‘No harm done’? Hermione, I haven’t got any bones in my arm!”

“It was an impressive, er, catch at least,” piped up Wood, clearing his throat, “I’ve never seen anyone use that tactic before.”

“Yeah, I wouldn't recommend you try swallowing it again, mate,” said Angelina.

A few minutes later, Madam Pomfrey herded the rest of the team out again, claiming that Hari needed rest. They listened to her sadly, promising to see Hari again once his bones had grown back, leaving Hari, Draco, Ron and Hermione alone in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey brought Hari a bottle of Skele-Gro to drink.

He gagged as he swallowed it down, coughing and choking at the burning sensation down his throat. Draco patted Hari’s back as he choked down the liquid and Madam Pomfrey muttered about incompetent staff and sporting procedures before heading back to her office.

Hermione sat down at Hari’s feet, sighing. “What I want to know is who or how that Bludger got fixed,” she said seriously.

“Yeah, I’ll bet it was someone on the Slytherin team trying to get back at Hari,” said Ron, “Probably Flint or Nott.”

“You can add that to the list of questions for Pansy and Millicent,” suggested Draco, sitting next to Hari on his bed. He scooted over to give him more room, arm flapping comedically.

The door burst open again and Madam Pomfrey returned. “That’s enough excitement, I should say. Hari needs to rest and regrow over thirty bones!” She shooed them out of the room and headed back to her office, leaving Hari alone in the hospital wing as his arm arched from the potion regrowing his bones.

¤¤¤

Several hours later, Hari jolted awake at a small weight on top of his chest. He opened his eyes to find a pair of blurry and very large eyes staring into his. His arm ached as he fumbled around on the table by his bed to grab his glasses, his whole arm feeling as if it was full of thousands of tiny splinters that moved as he reached out.

“Dobby?” He gasped, “What the hell?”

“I told you not to come back to school, Hari Potter!” cried the elf tearfully, “You must leave, now! Why did you still come even after the barrier would not let you get on the train?”

Hari shifted on his pillows, moving Dobby off his chest. The elf scrambled off his lap and onto the floor, still staring up at him from the floor. “Wait, did you make the barrier keep me from getting on the platform?! Are you kidding me?”

Dobby looked at the floor, fumbling with his dirty pillowcase and sniffling miserably. Hari saw a large tear drop onto the floor. “I had to, sir! You must not stay here at Hogwarts!” he cried, “I thought you would not return if I kept you from getting through the barrier. But it did not work and you came anyway! I thought you would be safe!”

“Dobby, I already told you, Hogwarts is my home. I don’t have anywhere else to go if it isn’t Hogwarts.”

Dobby was sobbing on the floor now, his dirty pillowcase getting soaked with his tears as he blew his nose into it.

“I was so shocked that you made it to school that I burned my master’s dinner. Such punishment I have never had before that, sir…” He blew his nose again on his pillowcase and Hari winced at how dirty it looked. Dobby looked up at him again, his bulging green eyes bloodshot in the darkness. “You must not stay at Hogwarts, sir. It is not safe! I hoped that my Bludger would—”

“Your Bludger? That was you that made that Bludger almost kill me? Are you insane?” said Hari, sitting up, anger boiling his blood.

Dobby shook his head. “I never meant to kill you, Hari! I only hoped to hurt you enough to go away from Hogwarts where you would be safer!” he insisted, still shaking his head as he rocked back and forth on the floor.

“Oh, brilliant. If that’s all, then it’s fine!” snapped Hari. “And why exactly have you been so desperate to keep me out of Hogwarts so that you nearly killed me by fixing a Bludger on me? I’m safest here, Dobby.”

“I cannot tell you!” cried Dobby. “If only you knew what you meant to lesser creatures such as myself. Under He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, those of us who were enslaved and looked down on were treated far worse than we are under his rule. But after you defeated the Dark Lord, it was much better for us! Of course, my master still treats me like that, but it is much better for all of us, now!” He sniffled and hiccoughed, wiping snot off the back of his pillowcase again. “I only want to keep you safe, Hari Potter!”

Hari looked around and saw a box of tissues on the table next to another bed. He carefully reached across and pulled it towards him, offering Dobby a tissue. “Here, Dobby. Don’t mess up your pillowcase even more,” he said as Dobby took the tissue in shaking hands. “But Dobby, what is it you want to keep me safe from?”

Dobby blew his nose into the tissue. “Terrible things are to happen this year. Many horrible things will happen and I cannot let you be killed because the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again—” Dobby’s eyes widened and he burst into tears again. He grabbed a water jug from Hari’s bedside and banged it over his head, knocking himself to the floor where he lay in a heap, sobbing. “I should not have said that…”

Hari bent over and lifted Dobby to his feet using his good hand, passing him another tissue. “So, is the Chamber of Secrets really real, Dobby?” Dobby shut his eyes and shook his head, unable to speak. “Who did it last time? Who’s doing it now?”

There were footsteps coming from outside and they both froze, looking towards the door. “I must leave! You must save yourself and your friends! You are all in danger!” With a loud crack, Dobby disappeared.

A moment later, the door flew open and Hari only just managed to lie down and put his bedside when a group of people came shuffling in and knocked on Madam Pomfrey’s. She came outside a second later and Hari heard her gasp.

Staying as still as possible, Hari squinted in the darkness at Minerva and Dumbledore carrying someone over to a bed as Madam Pomfrey followed. “Has there been another attack?” she asked.

Hari held his breath. “Yes, Poppy. Minerva came across him on the stairs with a bunch of grapes,” explained Dumbledore.

Minerva added, “We think he was coming to visit Harry…”

Hari inhaled sharply, heart stopping. He turned his head to get a better look and froze, going cold all over. Lying frozen and stiff, holding a camera up to his face, was Colin Creevey. Petrified.

“You don’t think he got a photo of his attacker, do you?” suggested Madam Pomfrey.

Dumbledore opened the back of the camera silently. A puff of smoke burst out, making all four of the non-petrified people in the room jump in surprise.

“What does this mean, Albus? Has the Chamber of Secrets really been opened again?” asked Minerva, horrified. Hari did not see Dumbledore nod, but he heard both women gasp. “But who?”

“The question that matters here is not who, but how.”

By the look on Minerva’s face, Hari could tell he wasn’t the only one confused by Dumbledore’s cryptic answer. Then, she turned her gaze to Hari and he snapped his eyes shut, holding his breath.

“How is Hari, Poppy?”

He heard Madam Pomfrey sigh. “He will be fine by morning,” she said. A pause. “Better, unfortunately, than we can say of Mr. Creevey here.”