Chapter 11 - Chamber of Secrets

        It was almost the end of summer, and Harry and I were sitting in our shared bedroom together. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had given us Dudley's second bedroom to share with one bed. Both of us paged through the photo album that Hagrid had given us at the end of the last school year before stopping on a moving photo of the two of us with Ron, Eric and Hermione. I missed our friends, as I'm sure Harry did as well, seeing as we hadn't from them in months. Then, I suddenly heard a squawk and jumped. Harry and I turned to see Hedwig pecking at the lock slung through her cage door before she glowered at us. I sent our owl an apologetic look,

"We can't let you out, Hedwig. We're not allowed to use magic outside of school. Besides, if Uncle Vernon-"

At that, Uncle Vernon's irritating shout could be heard from downstairs,

"Harry and Ella Potter!"

"Now you've done it," Harry frowned, and then both of us got up to go downstairs. My twin and I walked into the kitchen to see Aunt Petunia putting the finishing touches on her pudding of whipped cream and sugared violets. At the sight of us, Aunt Petunia nodded her head in the direction of her husband,

"He's in there. Vernon."

Harry and I found our uncle in the living room, following our aunt's instruction, struggling with Dudley's bow tie. Our uncle glared at the two of us when he noticed our presence before speaking sternly,

"I'm warning you. If you can't control that bloody bird, it'll have to go."

"But she's bored," Harry explained, "If we could just let her out for an hour or two-"

"And have you two sending secret messages to your freaky little friends? No, sir."

I sulked,

"But we haven't had any messages."

"From any of our friends," Harry added, sulking with me, "Not one."

"All summer."

Once his tie was done and he started walking over, Dudley scoffed,

"Who'd want to be friends with you two?"

As our daft cousin passed, he shouldered past Harry over to Aunt Petunia. Harry and I turned our heads to send Dudley a scowl until Uncle Vernon spoke again, causing us to look back at him,

"I should think you'd be a little more grateful. We've raised you since you were both babies, given you the food off our table, even let you have Dudley's second bedroom... purely out of the goodness of our hearts."

"I thought they got the second bedroom because Mum was afraid they'd turn us into dung beetles if you put them back in the cupboard under the stairs."

Harry and I turned our heads to see Aunt Petunia exchanging a dark look with Uncle Vernon until she noticed Dudley about to scoop a bit of pudding with his finger.

"Not yet, Popkin. That's for when the Masons arrive," Aunt Petunia scolded her son.

"Which should be any minute," Uncle Vernon started, urging everyone over to the living room. "Now. Let's run through our schedule once again, shall we? Petunia, when the Masons get here, you will be-"

"In the lounge, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home."

"Good. And Dudley?"

"I'll be waiting to open the door," Dudley replied in a fake deep voice.

"Excellent."

Our uncle, aunt and cousin all turned to glare at Harry and me before Uncle Vernon questioned us, "And you?"

"We'll be in our bedroom," Harry started while I added,

"Making no noise,"

"And pretending that we don't exist," Harry finished with me as we spoke simultaneously.

Uncle Vernon softened his glare only slightly,

"Too right you will. With any luck, this could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career, and you will not mess it up."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Uncle Vernon started shoving Harry and me out of the kitchen and into the hallway, "Upstairs! Hurry!"

Harry and I quickly ran up the stairs and pushed the door to our bedroom open to walk in. But before we entered, we both stopped dead in our tracks at the sight of a strange creature with bat-like ears and bulging green eyes jumping on our bed as though it were a trampoline.

"Harry and Ella Potter!" the creature spoke when it spotted us, halting its jumping. "Such an honour it is!"

"What..." I spoke, completely confused, as Harry softly shut the door and walked around me to ask the creature,

"Who are you?"

"Dobby, sir," the creature answered shyly, "Dobby, the house elf."

"I see..." I kindly tried to smile, but my brother was not as willing as I was to welcome this elf right now,

"Not to be rude or anything, but this isn't a great time for us to have a house elf in our bedroom."

"Oh, yes, sir, Dobby understands," Dobby nodded sheepishly. "It's just that Dobby has come to tell you... it is difficult, sir... Dobby wonders where to begin."

I stepped up directly beside Harry and took his hand as I gestured to the desk stool,

"Why don't you sit down?"

"S-s-sit down?"

I furrowed my brows until Dobby suddenly burst into tears. Loud tears. I glanced at Harry to see that we shared the same panicked expression before turning back to Dobby,

"Shhhh! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything-"

"Offend Dobby? Dobby has heard of your greatness, miss, but never has he been asked to sit down by a witch or wizard... like an equal..."

"You can't have met many decent wizards then," my twin sheepishly chuckled. Dobby shook his head with a small smile,

"No, I haven't."

As soon as he said that, Dobby's smile fell. "That was an awful thing to say."

Without warning, Dobby walked over to our chest of drawers and started to bang his head furiously on it, repeating, "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

With the same panic as before, Harry and I both begged Dobby to stop,

"Stop! Dobby! Dobby, shush. Dobby, please, stop! Stop! Stop, Dobby!"

After a moment, Dobby finally stopped, and Harry and I shared a breath of relief until I turned my head back to the house elf. Dobby wobbled as he turned to face us, his eyes spinning dizzily. Concerned and very wary, I gently asked,

"Are you... all right?"

Dobby nodded,

"Dobby had to punish himself, miss. Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, miss." Dobby moved the desk stool closer to the bed against the wall and kneeled on it while Harry and I sat on our bed before Harry asked,

"Your... family?"

"The wizard family Dobby serves, sir. Dobby is bound to serve one family forever. If they ever knew Dobby was here..." Dobby shuddered in fear then looked up, speaking urgently, "But Dobby had to come. Dobby has to protect Harry and Ella Potter. To warn them." Dobby fiercely whispered as he moved closer to my brother and me, "Harry and Ella Potter must not go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year."

I shared a confused glance with Harry as Dobby continued, "There is a plot. A plot to make most terrible things happen. If Harry and Ella Potter go back to school, they will be in great danger."

I questioned,

"What terrible things?"

"Who's plotting them?" Harry added. Dobby didn't answer. Instead, he started making a funny choking and gagging noise as he let out,

"He. Can't. Say." Dobby put his hands on his face, still making that strange noise, causing Harry to grow worried.

"Okay! We understand. You can't say-" Harry said gently, but it made no difference as Dobby stood on our desk and grabbed the bedside lamp before beating himself on the head and yelping loudly. "Dobby!"

"Dobby," I whispered, "Put the lamp down!"

When Dobby didn't make a move to stop, Harry quickly stood and started trying to wrestle the map away from the house elf.

"Give me the lamp!" Harry lowly ordered until he and I heard thundering footsteps on the landing on the stairs. Swiftly, Harry tried once more, "Dobby, stop!"

Once Dobby finally let go of the lamp, Harry immediately gave me the lamp to put back as he grabbed Dobby by his shirt and pitched him into the wardrobe right as the door flung open.

"What the devil are you two doing up here?!" Uncle Vernon quietly yelled. I quickly walked over to stand beside Harry and tried to explain,

"We were just-" But I didn't finish as Harry and I noticed the wardrobe door slowly opening. Harry softly pushed it closed as Uncle Vernon complained,

"You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke."

"Sorry," Harry and I apologized as he pushed the wardrobe door closed once again.

"One more sound, and you'll both wish you'd never been born! And fix that door!"

"Yes, sir." My brother and I nodded before Uncle Vernon stomped from our room, slamming the door behind him. Harry finally let Dobby out of the wardrobe, and at the sight of the small creature, I frustratedly spoke,

"See why we've got to go back? We don't belong here."

"We belong in your world, at Hogwarts," Harry added, "It's the only place we've got friends."

"Friends who don't even write to Harry and Ella Potter?" Dobby challenged.

"Well, we expect they've been..." I started until I stopped and realized. Noticing as well, Harry questioned Dobby,

"Hang on, how do you know our friends haven't been writing to us?"

Guiltily, Dobby took a few steps back as he spoke,

"Harry and Ella Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby hoped if Harry and Ella Potter thought their friends had forgotten them..." Dobby slowly took out a stack of letters that I could only assume belonged to us. "Harry and Ella Potter might not want to go back to school, sir and miss..."

"Give us those. Now."

"No!" Dobby frowned, shoving the letters away and running away from us and out the door. Desperately, Harry flew after Dobby with me right on his tail. Dobby bounced like a ping-pong ball down the stairs and toward the kitchen, and as Harry and I raced after him, we found the house elf eyeing Aunt Petunia's pudding. Dobby turned to look at us, and Harry whispered sternly,

"Dobby, get back here!"

With a smile, Dobby shook his head before turning back to the pudding. With a snap of his fingers, the pudding suddenly rose from the plate. My voice was shaky as I didn't take my eyes off the floating pudding,

"Dobby... Please... No..."

"Harry and Ella Potter must say they're not going back to school," Dobby countered. Harry urged,

"We can't. Hogwarts is our home."

Glancing at Dobby, I saw he now had a tragic expression on his face,

"Then Dobby must do it, sir and miss. For Harry and Ella Potter's own good."

Dobby snapped his fingers once again, causing the pudding to start floating over to the living room. Panicking, Harry and I rushed past Dobby to try and reach the pudding that was making its way over to the Masons sitting on the couch. Holding our hands out to try and grab the pudding and stop it, Harry and I stepped slowly after it, causing Uncle Vernon to stop talking as he, Aunt Petunia and Dudley watched us. I was sure we were going to get it in time... until I heard another snap, and the pudding plummeted straight onto Mrs Masons' head. The lady was now covered head to foot with whipped cream and sugared violets. My face fell as hopelessness crossed my features. Uncle Vernon quickly tried to save the situation, but I knew Harry and I were done for,

"I'm sorry. It's my niece and nephew. Very disturbed. Meeting strangers upsets them, so we kept them upstairs..."

Turning around, Harry and I watched as Dobby shook his head at us before snapping his fingers for the fourth time, causing him to disappear. The Masons, very displeased, raced out of the house, the Dursleys desperately following after them. However, I was certain my twin and I were doomed by the sound of a car driving away. After a minute or two, Uncle Vernon came running back into the living room before extending a letter to Harry and me. Confused, Harry and I both furrowed our brows until our uncle angrily urged,

"Go on. Read it."

Cautiously, Harry opened the letter and started to read it aloud,

"'Dear Mr and Miss Potter. We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence at twelve minutes past seven this evening. As you know, underage witches and wizards...'"

"'... are not permitted to perform spells outside school.'" Uncle Vernon snatched the letter back, glaring, "You didn't tell us you weren't allowed to use magic at home. Slipped your minds, didn't it? Well, I've got news for you, twins. I'm locking you up! And if you try to magic yourself out, they'll expel you!"

Without a second of hesitation, Uncle Vernon sent Harry and me straight up to bed.

The next morning, Uncle Vernon drilled a metal flap to the base of our bedroom door before fitting a fat, grey lock on the door itself. He then fit iron bars to the outside of our bedroom window as he boasted,

"You're never going back to that school! You're never going to see those freaky friends of yours again! Never!"

We were trapped, all thanks to Dobby, the house elf...

A week later, it was night, and Harry and I were gloomily looking out the window when we suddenly heard the metal flap on the door rattle. I turned to see Dudley's hand slide a bowl of what looked like tinned soup onto the floor before he cruelly grinned through the opening,

"I know what day it is."

"Well done, Dudley. Finally learned the days of the week, have you?" Harry retorted, not having any patience for our cousin's stupidity today.

"Today's your birthday. And nobody cares." Dudley snapped shut the flap, leaving Harry and me to sigh before taking the soup and a bit of stale bread and going to Hedwig.

"It's no good turning your beak up," I frowned at our owl, "It's all we've got." I shared the piece of bread with Hedwig as Harry and I shared the bowl of soup. It wasn't long before the two of us fell asleep, having no hope of going back to Hogwarts this year.

In what I assumed to be the middle of the night, I was woken up by the sound of tapping on our window. Harry must have heard it, too, as I saw him sit up and grab his glasses before passing me my pair. Getting up to look out the window, Harry and I were stunned to see a flying car and Ron with Fred and George!

"Ron?" I spoke, shocked, causing the ginger to smile,

"Hiya, Ella and Harry."

Harry seemed as shocked as I was as he questioned,

"Fred? George?"

"What're you doing here?" I asked with a smile.

"Rescuing you, of course," Ron explained, "Come on! Get your trunks!"

Without another word, Harry and I quickly changed out of our pyjamas and then stuffed our trunks with clothes, spellbooks and other essentials before snapping them shut and dragging them to the windowsill. Ron then attached a hook to the iron bars on our window before looking up at us,

"You better stand back."

Taking my hand in his, Harry pulled us both to step back and away from the window while Ron nodded to Fred, who sat in the driver's seat, "Let's go."

Fred steered the car around to pull the bars off with a loud noise as bricks and bars rained down onto the lawn below. Fred then backed the car up to the window, allowing me and Harry to push our trunks over the sill and into the boot.

"Potters!" we heard Uncle Vernon's voice from the hall, urging us all to move faster. as quickly as we could, Harry went to grab Hedwig's cage while Ron helped me into the car. Harry had just passed Hedwig to Ron when our bedroom door suddenly burst open. Fred, George, Ron and I urged Harry,

"Come on!"

"Come on, Harry!"

"Come on, Harry! Hurry up!"

Quickly, Harry started climbing over to the windowsill, trying to get in the car as Uncle Vernon raced toward the window shouting,

"Petunia! They're escaping!"

Just as Harry was almost in the car, Uncle Vernon snatched his ankle with both hands and pulled. Ron and I both grabbed my brother as Harry struggled to kick our uncle off of him,

"Let go of me!"

"Oh, no, twins! You two and that bloody pigeon aren't going anywhere!"

"Get off!"

"Drive!" Ron yelled at Fred, causing the older Weasley to step on the gas pedal and start moving the car away, causing Uncle Vernon to lose his balance. The man fell over the sill, letting go of Harry's ankle, and landing down on the lawn. Now free, Harry fully got in the car, and we all took our seats as Fred continued to drive us away. As the car flew through the air, Ron smiled at Harry and me, "By the way, Ella and Harry. Happy Birthday."

"Thanks, Ron!" Harry and I smiled as I gave him a hug.

Ron had told Harry and me about where he lived with his family, the burrow, and I was excited to see it and see the rest of the Weasleys again. It was early in the morning when we arrived, and Fred landed the car with a bit of a thump but mostly successfully. As the five of us quickly spilt out of the car, Fred urged with a whisper,

"Hurry! Let's nip inside before Mum wakes up!"

Quietly, George led the way, whispering,

"Ok, come on."

We all snuck into the house before Fred gently closed the door. My eyes wandered everywhere as I spotted so many magical things. The dishes were being washed by magic at the sink. There was a clock that had seven spoons on it. Each spoon had the face of a Weasley child, and I watched with awe as Fred, George and Ron's all moved from lost to home. Harry and I moved over to see the sweater being knitted by magic.

"It's not much," Ron spoke up from behind Harry and me, "But it's home."

"I think it's..." Harry started as I finished,

"Brilliant!"

All of a sudden, someone came rushing down the stairs before the voice of Mrs Weasley shouted,

"WHERE... HAVE... YOU... BEEN?!"

The five of us nearly jumped out of our skin at the surprise, turning our heads to face the worried mother with wide eyes. Mrs Weasley looked furious until she sweetly smiled at Harry and me, "Harry! Ella! How wonderful to see you both."

Harry and I politely smiled in return. Now standing in front of all of us, Mrs Weasley turned to her sons again with an angry expression, "Beds empty! No note! Car gone! You could've died! You could've been seen!" Mrs Weasley turned to Harry and me again, "Of course, I don't blame you, dears."

"They were starving them, Mum!" Ron explained as Harry and I nodded in agreement. "There were bars on their window!"

"Well, you best hope I don't put bars on your window, Ronald Weasley!" Softening again, Mrs Weasley smiled at my brother and me once more, "Come on, Harry and Ella, time for a spot of breakfast."

"Oh..." I stuttered, still feeling a bit drowsy and overwhelmed by everything that had happened, but Harry smiled for us both,

"Please."