Melody Riddle and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 4: Back to Hogwarts

Becky and I went with Draco to his house afterwards for dinner. I took a chance while Becky and Draco fought about some odd thing to go find Dobby.

I walked around to see if I could find him, and when I finally did he cowered before me.

I put my hands up to show him I wasn't trying to hurt him with anything. "Why did I see Harry Potter at Diagon Alley today?"

"Dobby tried, he really did. He stopped the mail from getting to Harry Potter so he thought his friends forgot about him. When that seemed to make him still want to go to the school, Dobby went to talk to him, to reason with him. He wouldn't listen! But he's such a wonderful person... Dobby never knew –"

"It's okay, it's okay," I said, trying to keep the house elf from going into hysteria. "There's more you can do."

"Like what, miss? Like what?"

"Keep him from getting on the train somehow. I don't know of any other way to get to school, so neither will he." I said.

"Good plan! Dobby will do it."

"Great," I whispered to him, "You can just come to me if you run in to any problems. That okay with you?"

He nodded vigorously. "Anything to keep Harry Potter safe!"

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Later in the night before Becky and I went home, Mr. Malfoy started talking about Draco's grades again. "You need to try harder this year to get better grades. Otherwise you can forget about Christmas presents."

Draco made as many protests as he could against this.

"What if Becky and I help him, Mr. Malfoy?" I asked, surprising him.

"Well, I suppose... how were your grades?"

"I got some really good marks." Becky said, with her chest puffed up in pride.

"I got full marks on everything." I said.

Mr. Malfoy's eyes widened considerably.

"She's an overachiever." Becky added.

I glanced at her, "Thanks a lot."

Becky and Draco laughed.

"You got full marks? Then yes, I would like for you to tutor him." Mr. Malfoy said. "Apologies, Becky, but you wouldn't help him very much if your constant arguments prove anything."

"Agreed. That will give me a lot of free time then." Becky said cheekily.

"Shut up," Draco said to her.

"I'm not the one that could've failed my first year." Becky said sing-songy.

Draco glared at her.

"I'm in the student tutor program at school, I could ask Professor Snape if I can start this year and request Draco as one of my students." I offered.

"Really? That would be wonderful," Mr. Malfoy said with a smile, "Here, I'll write to him about it."

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For the rest of the summer I stayed at home reading all my school books. The standard book of spells was much the same format as last year. But, I had learned some of the spells in there from Professor Snape already. The previous year he'd taught me, for the tutor program, a variety of spells varying from second year learning skills to seventh year learning skills.