Dobby's Warning (CS)

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Dobby the house elf.

Dobby's Warning is the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Dobby

Harry nearly shouts when he sees the small creature on his bed, with huge bat-like ears and large green eyes. It is Dobby the house-elf, who had been spying on him through the hedge earlier that day (CS1). Dobby bows, and expresses with his high-pitch voice what an honour is it to finally meet the great Harry Potter.

Downstairs, the dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Mason is going as planned: Dudley has offered to take their coats, and Harry hears Aunt Petunia's false laughter.

Hedwig is asleep in her cage, and Harry is visibly uncomfortable having a magical creature in his room at such an inappropirate time. He invites Dobby to sit down but, to his surprise, the house-elf noisily bursts into tears; Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard, like an equal.

"You can't have met many decent wizards," Harry says, and Dobby nods. Suddenly, the elf starts banging his head on the window: "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

Hedwig awakes with a loud screech. Harry panics and tries to stop Dobby from making more noise. He explains that he cannot speak ill of "his family"—the family and house he is bound to serve forever, unless he is set free. He will have to punish himself severely (shutting his ears in the oven door) for coming to visit Harry without their consent. The boy offers to help, only to wish he hadn't: Dobby starts wailing with gratitude and awe at the greatness and goodness of the Boy Who Lived.

The warning

Harry and Dobby, the former trying to keep the other from causing noise. Drawn by Mudblood428.

Dobby mentions Harry's two victories (PS1 and PS17) over He Who Must Not Be Named, praising him for them, and adds that Harry cannot return to Hogwarts that year. The boy is understandably shocked, and stammers that he must; he does not belong in the Muggle world.

Dobby insists that Harry will be in mortal danger; there is a plot in place to make terrible things happen at the school, and Harry is too important to risk exposing himself to it. Harry asks for more details, and Dobby starts banging his head on the wall. He rephrases: has the plot got to do with You Know Who? Dobby replies pointedly, "Not — not He Who Must Not Be Named, sir." "He hasn't got a brother, has he?" Dobby shakes his head, widening his eyes.

Harry mentions Dumbledore; surely nothing too terrible can happen with Dumbledore at the school. Dobby concedes that Albus is the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts has ever seen, "but sir, there are powers Dumbledore doesn't ... powers no decent wizard ..." Dobby abruptly stops talking and beats himself on the head, yelling, with Harry's desk lamp.

The dinner party downstairs goes quiet. Vernon awkwardly suggests that Dudley may have left his TV on. The beefy Muggle goes upstairs to threaten Harry ("You've just ruined the punchline of my Japanese-golfer joke ... one more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy!"), who shoves Dobby in his wardrobe just in time.

The blackmail

Harry attempts to justify his need to return to Hogwarts by bringing up his friends, to which Dobby sneakily replies, "Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?" Harry starts replying to this, and then he realises that there is no way the elf could have known that; Dobby has been stopping his letters all summer, hoping that that would discourage the boy from returning to school.

Dobby then pulls a thick stack of envelopes from the pillowcase he was wearing: Harry makes out Hermione's, Ron's and Hagrid's handwritings. The elf offers him the letters in exchange for the promise that Harry will not go back to Hogwarts.

When Harry refuses, Dobby resolutely sprints down the stairs.

The pudding

Harry follows him downstairs, hearing the Masons' dinner going on ("...tell Petunia that very funny storry about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason, she's been dying to hear ..."), and finds Dobby on top of a cupboard in Aunt Petunia's spotless kitchen, hovering her pudding high near the ceiling. He pleads with Harry to make the promise; when he refuses once more, the elf says, "Then Harry Potter must do it, sir, for Harry Potter's own good."

The pudding falls to the ground with great din. Dobby disappears with a loud crack. Vernon attempts to cover up the incident by blaming his troubled nephew; Aunt Petunia serves ice-cream for dessert instead, and after-dinner mints. The situation seems to be under control for a brief while.

The owl

Suddenly, a huge barn owl enters the dining room. Mrs. Mason, who is scared of birds, screams and runs from the house; Mr. Mason follows her soon afterwards, clearly offended, and Vernon loses all chance of making his deal. He gets some revenge, however, when he reads the letter brought by the owl:

Dear Mr. Potter,

We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine.

As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).

We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity which risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offence, under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy.

Enjoy your holidays!

Yours sincerely,

Mafalda Hopkirk

Improper Use of Magic Office

Ministry of Magic

Vernon now knows that Harry is not allowed to use magic outside school. He decides to lock the boy up and never allow him to return to school. If he attempts to use his wand to escape, he will be expelled: it's a textbook catch 22.

The cage

Vernon has bars installed in the window of Harry's room, and installs a cat-flap on the door so that Petunia could send a little food in three times a day. They let Harry out only to use the bathroom, twice per day.

He spends three days locked up, sharing his meager meals with Hedwig. When the sun sets, he drifts off to sleep, and dreams that he is on display in a zoo with the label Underage Wizard. Dobby reminds him that he is safe; Dudley rattles the bars in his cage.

"Stop it," Harry mutters, trying to ignore the rattling. He opens his eyes, and sees Ron Weasley looking at him from outside the window.

Trivia

• Dobby, like Ron, Hagrid (PS4) and many others, does not say Voldemort's name.