It all clicked for Harry in the summer before 5th year.
But really, it started earlier. Before the second task of the tri-wizard-tournament, researching all things aquatic, dobby procuring the gillyweed to breathe when submerged, but most of all the tranquillity of the underwater.
After witnessing the death of Cedric, then being summarily abandoned at the Dursleys, Harry had reflected quite a bit.
And while the magical world could be wonderous, it had improved little for Harry in particular.
When he was younger, harry had lived in a cupboard under the stairs, getting little food and doing most of the housework in the Dursley household.
Now, he was ‘fed’ through a cat flap, still did most of the housework and was prohibited the use of magic. During the schoolyear he was either revered or ostracized by his schoolmates, learned little of what actually mattered, and was in mortal peril at least once every year.
Then the dementors come, Harry is blamed, his aunt slaps him, his uncle beats him, they throw him into his old cupboard and lock the door.
If any owls arrive with a summons, Harry’s not conscious to receive them.
Harry wakes around 2 in the morning, it’s been 3 weeks since the end of term and he’s done nothing but dream up escape plans, all of them more elaborate than the last, but none of them more appealing than the one he decides to enact now.
He calls for Dobby.
Dobby arrives witha soft pop, standing on Harry’s ribs. Harry lets out a low groan and is unable to breathe until Dobby scrambles to the side and Harry curls up into a foetal position.
Dobby starts to apologise loudly and profusely and Harry is afraid the Dursleys will wake and his plan will have died in its infancy.
But they don’t wake, and he is able to cut the elf of with a hissed out “DOBBY!”
He asks Dobby what magic he can and can’t do without the ministry’s knowledge, after all, only the hovering charm had been detected last time, not Dobby’s dissaparition. Dobby is afraid to reveal that house elf magic is not usually detected, but that he had wanted Harry Potter to be in trouble the last time he was here in order for Harry to stay away from Hogwarts, but in the end Harry manages to coax it out.
He asks Dobby to open the cupboard and crawls out into the hallway. The streetlight coming in through the small window above the front door is all that illuminates the hall. He struggles to get his large trunk through the small cupboard door and is out of breath and shaking when he finally succeeds. Looking up the stairs he realises he won’t be able to go up himself to get the rest of his meagre possessions and asks Dobby to get them without waking his relatives.
When Dobby is back and everything is packed away, he thanks the elf and is only mildly surprised when the elf asks if “Harry Potter is finally being Dobby’s master now?”
Harry kindly but firmly told Dobby that he did not want to be his master, but that Dobby was welcome to be Harry’s friend and that Dobby could be Harry’s companion only if Dobby really and truly wished it.
Dobby promptly swore to be Harry Potter’s truest and most faithful companion.
When Harry then told Dobby of his escape plan, and that he needed to go to Gringots next, to get money from his vault, it took Dobby only seconds to aparate them both to the steps of Gringots Wizarding Bank.
After a short delay to verify his identity, seven drops of blood did the trick, Harry and Dobby were led to a small office to meet with an old goblin going by the human name Strongnose.
He was handed a new key to his vault with the assurance that the old one was destroyed, wherever it had been. That he could indeed have Dobby authorised to withdraw money from the vault in future, if he was his bonded elf, to which Dobby sheepishly admitted that he had bonded himself to Harry when he was allowed to vow to be Harry’s faithful companion.
Harry was also handed a stack of papers for his (il(-begotten))legal emancipation, after all, he had been entered into a tournament for of-age wizards and witches and both the ministry and his (il)legal magical guardian had forced him to participate, ergo, he was seen as of age and could therefore be legally emancipated.
Harry signed the emancipation
They loaded harry’s mokeskin with a boatload of gold, thanked Strongnose for his assistance and were on their way to the next step of harry’s plan.
“Stowe & Packers Magical Bags” was a traditionally fronted store thad sold all kinds of luggage for the discerning customer. the owner, Wendell Peregrine refused his patronage as he “would not do business with a lying, snotnosed dark-lord”. This alerted Harry to the negative mutterings of the crowd around him and that maybe he should have come disguised.
A quiet consultation with Dobby had them both popped to a deserted alley in muggle London where Dobby proceeded to apply a glamour over Harry’s hair and glasses.
Returning to Diagon Alley, they decided not to return to Stowe & Packers, Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment also had a small traveling section and Harry thought that the Traveling Agent Globus Mundi might have some merchandise as well, but in the end they chose to explore a bit first, after all, they weren’t in any hurry now.
“Peregrine’s Space Expansions”
Was a ‘stall’ the size (and shape) of an ornately carved doorframe, near the edge of Carkitt Market, and both Harry and Dobby nearly walked past before they noticed the smaller lettering that proclaimed it to be a “Tents & Trunks” or “Trunks & Tents” shop depending on how you looked at the door. Harry hesitated a moment at the name but then quickly decided he would venture in and see.
The door opened up to a barn like structure filled with tents and trunks and bags and suitcases. Everything was neatly stacked and the place felt licht and airy, unlike most of the stores in Diagon Alley. The person manning the store introduced himself as the owner, Walker Peregrine, and indeed resembled the owner of Stowe & Packers quite a lot in appearance.
Dissimilar to the owner of Stowe & Packers, Walker Peregrine seemed a genial man who reminded Harry of Mr Ollivander in his eagerness to explain the wonders of his craft, but in a more jovial way.
He explained both the pros and cons of tent versus trunk or suitcase living when harry asked and explained the many optional features that could be added to either choice.