Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Stolen letters

Dobby leaned toward Harry, his eyes wide as headlights. "Dobby heard tell," he said hoarsely, "that Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time, just weeks ago . . . that Harry Potter escaped yet again."

Dobby then glanced at the girl before looking back at Harry "Dobby also heard that he stopped his sister from going, though Harry Potter is not the only one trying to protect the youngest Potter. Someone, who has ordered me not to be named, has also helped me come to warn you, he helped me buy time to come here"

Kirra gave her brother an angry look while Harry nodded and Dobby's eyes suddenly shone with tears. "Ah, sir," he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. "Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already and protected his sister! But Dobby has come to protect Kirra and Harry Potter, to warn them, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later. . . . Kirra and Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."

There was a silence broken only by the clink of knives and forks from downstairs and the distant rumble of Uncle Vernon's voice. Kirra's mouth went wide but she couldn't say anything

"W-what?" Harry stammered. "But I've got to go back — term starts on September first. It's all that's keeping me going. You don't know what it's like here. I don't belong here. I belong in your world — at Hogwarts."

"No, no, no," squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. "Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. And it is so very lucky that Harry stopped his sister from going last year, because she is in far more danger than you are sir. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in danger but if Kirra Potter goes back to Hogwarts, she will be in mortal danger."

"Why?" said Harry and Kirra in surprise.

"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby has known it for months, sir. Kirra and Harry Potter must not put themselves in peril. They are too important, sir!"

"What terrible things?" said Kirra and Harry at once. "Who's plotting them?"

Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his head frantically against the wall. "All right!" cried Harry, grabbing the elf's arm to stop him. "You can't tell us. I understand. But why are you warning us?"

A sudden, unpleasant thought struck him. "Hang on — this hasn't got anything to do with Vol- — sorry — with You-Know-Who, has it? You could just shake or nod," he added hastily as Dobby's head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.

Slowly, Dobby shook his head. "Not — not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir —" But Dobby's eyes were wide and he seemed like he had been begging for the girl to say something, it was as if he expected her to know something about what was going on, but she didn't, she was completely lost.

"He hasn't got a brother, has he?" she asked, trying to figure out what it was that she should know that her brother didnt.

Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever. "Well then, I can't think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts," said Harry and Kirra at the same time.

"I mean, there's Dumbledore, for one thing — you know who Dumbledore is, don't you?" Dobby bowed his head.

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, sir" — Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper — "there are powers Dumbledore doesn't . . . powers no decent wizard . . ."

Dobby looked towards the girl "untold, rare magic that people still haven't grown to understand, curses..." And before Harry or Kirra could stop him, Dobby bounded off the bed, seized Harry's desk lamp, and started beating himself around the head with earsplitting yelps.

A sudden silence fell downstairs. Two seconds later the twins, hearts thudding madly, heard Uncle Vernon coming into the hall, calling, "Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!"

"Quick! In the closet!" hissed Harry, stuffing Dobby in, shutting the door, and the two twins quickly flung themselves on their beds just as the door handle turned.

"What — the — devil — are — you — doing?" said Uncle Vernon through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry's.

"You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke. . . . One more sound from either of you and you'll wish you'd never been born!" He stomped flat-footed from the room. Shaking, Kirra let Dobby out of the closet.

"See what it's like here?" they asked, they had to go back to Hogwarts.

"See why we have got to go back to Hogwarts? It's the only place we've got — well, I think I've got friends." Harry started

"Friends who don't even write to Harry and Kirra Potter?" said Dobby slyly.

"I expect they've just been — wait a minute," said Harry, frowning and Kirra was now looking up at the elf with a glare on her face, she quickly pieced it all together.

"How do you know my friends haven't been writing to me?" Kirra asked him angrily Dobby shuffled his feet.

"Kirra and Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best —"

"Have you been stopping my letters?" The twins both growl