“Dobby?”
The elf practically lit up.
“Harry Potter, sir!” Dobby squeaked excitedly.
“Harry Potter called for Dobby!”
For a brief moment, Harry almost smiled.
Seeing Dobby felt strangely reassuring after the disaster that had been the last few hours.
“It’s been a few days, Dobby, how have you be—”
Harry stopped himself immediately.
Dobby’s enormous eyes were already growing suspiciously watery.
Right.
Bad idea.
Harry could practically see the incoming emotional breakdown forming in real time.
One more sentence and the elf would probably burst into tears thanking Harry for his unmatched kindness and generosity.
“No time for small talk,” Harry said quickly.
“Dobby, I need a favor.”
Dobby straightened instantly, expression turning intensely serious despite the excitement radiating from him.
“Anything for Harry Potter, sir Harry Potter!”
Harry glanced nervously toward the darkened window.
“I need to get out of this house.”
“Where does Harry Potter wish to go, sir?” Dobby asked eagerly.
“London.”
The answer came immediately, mostly because Harry heard the unmistakable sound of Vernon’s car pulling into the driveway outside and because Harry had not thought far enough ahead for anything more specific.
Harry’s stomach dropped.
“Can you teleport us there?” he asked rapidly.
“With my trunk and Hedwig too.”
“Yes, sir Harry Potter si—”
The slam of a car door echoed outside, followed by heavy footsteps and the rattle of keys.
“NOW!” Harry snapped.
Dobby’s eyes widened, and a split second later, the front door of Number Four Privet Drive burst open just as the world twisted violently around Harry.
There was a loud crack, the sensation of being compressed through something impossibly narrow, like being forced through a straw made of ice and static electricity.
Harry stumbled slightly as his feet hit solid ground again.
He looked around and saw an alleyway.
Blimey, does magic teleportation always have to be this uncomfortable?
Dark brick walls rose around them on either side, illuminated only by distant streetlights and the occasional flickering neon sign from the nearby road.
The alley smelled faintly of rain, smoke, and overflowing bins.
Dobby looked around once and gasped in horror.
“Oh no!” the elf cried, clutching his face dramatically.
“Dobby has taken Harry Potter to a horrible ugly filthy alleyway!
Dobby disgraces himself before Harry Potter!
Bad Dobby!
Terrible Dobby!”
Before Harry could react, the elf smacked himself hard across the face.
“Dobby!” Harry hissed.
“Stop doing that!”
“But Harry Potter deserves magnificent places!
Important places!
Places with gold and carpets and—”
“It’s fine,” Harry interrupted quickly.
“Seriously.
This is good.
We needed somewhere hidden.”
Dobby looked unconvinced.
Harry spent the next several minutes stopping the elf from punishing himself for crimes that included poor alleyway selection, insufficient lighting, and “failing the glorious Harry Potter.”
Eventually, Dobby calmed down enough to stop attempting to hurt himself every thirty seconds.
Harry leaned against the wall and finally allowed himself to breathe.
He had actually done it.
He had escaped.
No more Vernon, Petunia or Dudley.
The realization felt oddly unreal.
Then practical concerns returned immediately.
“Dobby,” Harry asked, “do you know if Gringotts is still open?”
Quest Available!
[Inherited Gold]
Description:
You possess a vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank but possess dangerously little knowledge regarding your own finances.
The foreign memories integrated into your soul contain conflicting information regarding inheritance rituals, family vaults, bloodline politics, lordships, and manipulative goblins.
Accuracy of these memories remains unverified.
Ignorance regarding personal assets is strategically unwise.
Objectives:
Visit Gringotts Wizarding Bank
Confirm vault access
Evaluate current finances
Verify existence of additional inheritances, trusts, properties, or legal protections
Rewards:
+250 EXP
Financial Information Unlocked
Possible New Quest Chain
Failure Penalty:
Continued financial ignorance
Increased chance of manipulation
Harry stared at the notification thoughtfully.
The system had a point.
For all Harry knew, he was insanely rich.
Or secretly owned three cursed castles and a dragon reserve somewhere in Scotland.
The memories he inherited had been full of absurd fanfiction nonsense about ancient lordships, inheritance tests, bloodline rituals, magical marriages, and goblins revealing seventeen hidden Potter vaults after one drop of blood fell onto a parchment.
Harry strongly suspected most of that was complete rubbish.
Still, checking costs nothing and understanding his own legal and financial situation felt very important if he genuinely intended to separate himself from the Dursleys and eventually challenge Dumbledore’s control over his life.
“Gringotts is closed at this hour, sir.” Dobby’s ears drooped slightly.
He already suspected the answer.
The city around them looked half-asleep, understandable since it was close to midnight.
The elf looked guilty about that too.
“Dobby is sorry!
Dobby failed Harry Potter again!
Bad Dobby—”
“Dobby!”
The elf froze mid self-punishment.
“It’s not your fault.”
Harry meant it.
Honestly, the fact that Dobby had appeared instantly and rescued him from the Dursleys without hesitation was already more help than most adults in Harry’s life had ever provided.
Looking at the elf now, Harry felt something twist in his chest.
His own childhood had been horrible.
But Dobby…
Dobby had been an actual slave.
Not “treated badly.” Literally a slave.
He was owned like a scarf or a ring, but while belongings were cared for, slaves, on the other hand…
Dobby’s constant instinct to punish himself, to hurt himself, was the result of a lifetime of torture and humiliation.
Harry’s expression darkened.
The Malfoys had done that to him.
Lucius Malfoy.
Narcissa Malfoy.
Probably Draco Malfoy as well.
Pure-blood families like the Malfoys likely taught their children to hurt others from a young age.
Cruelty could be learned just as easily as it could come naturally to some people.
The future memories complicated things somewhat.
Harry vaguely remembered an eventual uneasy alliance with Narcissa and a less hostile relationship with Draco years later but current Harry did not care.
Right now, all he could think about was Dobby smashing his head into walls because years of abuse had convinced him he deserved pain.
Disgust rose sharply in Harry’s stomach.
Torturing any living creature was monstrous.
Torturing one capable of thought, love, loyalty, and fear?
That went beyond cruelty.
Harry’s jaw tightened.
Lucius Malfoy had nearly gotten Ginny killed, too.
The diary.
The basilisk.
The Chamber.
And despite all, the man was still walking around free, rich, and respected.
No.
Harry decided then, and there, that one day he would settle that score properly.
For Dobby.
For Ginny.
For everyone hurt by that family.
A notification for a quest appeared.
Quest Available!
[Debt of the Malfoys]
Description:
Lucius Malfoy endangered Ginny Weasley through possession of a cursed Dark artifact.
Lucius Malfoy enslaved and abused Dobby for years.
The Malfoy family has directly and indirectly caused suffering to numerous innocent people while remaining protected by wealth, influence, and political connections.
You have acknowledged them as enemies.
Objectives:
Discover evidence of Malfoy crimes
Weaken Malfoy influence
Protect future victims
Make the Malfoys pay
Rewards:
+1,500 EXP???
???
Failure Penalty:
Innocents continue suffering
Enemy influence increases
Harry read the quest twice and closed the notification.
To distract himself from the anger bubbling inside him, Harry changed the subject.
“So…
what have you been doing these past few days?”
Dobby brightened immediately.
“Oh!” he squeaked happily.
“Professor Dumbledore has given Dobby work at Hogwarts!”
Harry blinked.
“You work there now?”
“Yes, Harry Potter, sir!” Dobby said proudly.
“Dobby is a free elf now, and Headmaster Dumbledore offered Dobby payment!
Real payment!”
“How much?”
“Forty Galleons a month!”
Dobby looked ecstatic, utterly ecstatic.
Harry, meanwhile, did very rough mental conversions in his head.
That was…
A bit over two hundred pounds monthly, maybe slightly more depending on exchange estimates.
For the amount of labor house-elves performed daily, it was absurdly little.
And yet Dobby looked like he had been handed a royal fortune.
Compared to slavery, it probably did feel like one.
They spent the rest of the night in the alleyway.
It was a bit odd.
Harry Potter, savior of Hogwarts, sitting atop an old crate in a dingy London alley beside an owl and an overly emotional house-elf while chatting at nearly midnight.
And yet Harry felt more at peace there than he ever had at Privet Drive.
Dobby talked a lot once he relaxed.
Mostly about Hogwarts.
About the kitchens and the other house-elves.
About how wonderful freedom was.
Harry learned more about magical households and house-elf customs in one night than he had learned about wizarding society in two years at Hogwarts.
At some point, Harry’s stomach growled loudly enough to interrupt the conversation.
Dobby gasped in horror.
“Harry Potter is hungry!”
Before Harry could answer, the elf vanished with a crack.
He returned less than a minute later, balancing an enormous plate piled high with food: roast chicken, potatoes, fresh bread, vegetables, slices of pie—
“Dobby nicked this from Hogwarts’ kitchens,” the elf admitted proudly.
Harry blinked.
“You can just…
do that?”
“The kitchens loves Harry Potter too, sir!”
That answered absolutely nothing.
“There’s too much food.”
“It is for Harry Potter, sir!”
“We’re sharing.”
Dobby froze.
Harry narrowed his eyes slightly.
“When was the last time you ate properly?”
The elf immediately became evasive, which answered the question better than words ever could.
Harry sighed.
“We’re sharing.”
Dobby’s eyes grew suspiciously watery again.
Honestly, Harry was beginning to think emotional instability might simply be a species trait.
They ended up eating together beside the alley wall while Hedwig perched nearby, looking deeply judgmental until Harry fed her bits of chicken.
It felt peaceful, just some good food and quiet conversation beneath the distant glow of London lights.
And yet in the future lingered at the edge of his thoughts.
Harry glanced toward Dobby.
He was a loyal friend, one of the few people who had ever helped him simply because they cared.
And according to the memories he inherited…
Dobby died for him one day.
The thought made Harry’s chest tighten painfully.
His gaze shifted toward Hedwig.
She died too—a curse meant for Harry.
The memory hit him harder than expected.
His owl and friend should not die protecting him.
A wave of anxiety crashed over him so sharply that Harry instinctively reached out.
He pulled Hedwig against his chest with one arm and grabbed Dobby with the other.
“I won’t let that happen,” he whispered without realizing he spoke out loud.
Magic surged from Harry.
Warmth flooded from deep inside his core, pouring outward instinctively.
His mana wrapped around Hedwig and Dobby alike like an invisible cocoon.
The alleyway air shimmered faintly blue.
Protect them.
The thought echoed instinctively through his entire being.
The air trembled.
Hedwig let out a sharp cry as white light flashed around her body.
Dobby gasped.
Harry’s vision blurred violently as a pounding headache exploded through his skull and everything went black.