Harry Potter, Sovereign - Chapter 26

The group arrived at the crossroad leading to the Potter estate, and walked all the way to the property. Along the way, they talked with Dobby, explaining most of what had happened since the 3rd task of the tournament. When they reached the tent, Hedwig and Dobby were presented to the rest of the women.

Dobby and Semimaris stared at each other in silence. Dobby was clearly focusing on her ears.

“You be an elf?” Dobby asked in fascination.

Semimaris’ eye twitched. The rest of the group nearly burst out. Even Camille, who usually kept an expressionless face, couldn’t hold back a smile. VI was snickering in silence, turning her back to them. Caitlyn, Scathach and Xuanzang watched with clear amus.e.m.e.nt on their faces. Harry was torn between horror and hysterical laughter. He looked aghast, but his lips were trembling, trying to spread into a smile.

With the time he spent in her company, Harry learned that Semimaris appreciated beauty and elegance, both in people and material items. She was beautiful and she knew it. And now, she was compared to a creature with a less than acceptable appearance, especially according to her standards. All of that because of the ear she inherited from her mother, someone Harry guessed she didn’t appreciate. For a second, Harry got really worried about Dobby’s future.

“… No, I am not” she answered blandly. “I am not related to a house-elf in any way.”

“Oh. Dobby be sorry, Dobby was surprised to see you.”

“Now that everyone has been introduced” Harry started, eager to change the subject, “I’d like to take a look at the letter Dumbledore sent with Hedwig.”

That caught everyone’s attention. He opened the enveloppe and started to read.

First, he expressed his disappointment in Harry to not trust him and not follow the instructions sent to him . He said he knew what was best for him and should believe in his wisdom. He finally said that they had a safe place secured for Sirius in Britain, and that it had always been his intention to have him spend the rest of the summer holidays with him. His departure from the Dursley’s house delayed that. He was urged to send a response so he could send some trusted people to bring him to his godfather, who was anxious to see him again.

“Bastard” he said, giving the letter to the girls to read.

“Trying to use your godfather to make you behave, is he?” said Camille, having finished reading first.

“Not a single apology as well” Xuanzang grumbled.

“I wonder who would be those people he intend to send as your escort?” Scathach asked.

“And how many” Caitlyn added. “After all, he knows that Harry has at least 3 people with him. He probably expect Harry to come with them, and he will send enough people to possibly counter us.”

“7 people” said Semimaris. “Any more and it would look like an attempt to intimidate him, which would make them seem threatening. I doubt he would want Harry in an even less favorable disposition toward him, especially if a fight breaks out because they got forceful. That would also attract the attention of the ministry.”

“… We can expect professor Lupin to be among them.”

“The one from your 3rd year? The werewolf?” Vi asked.

“Yeah. With his link to my parents and Sirius, he is an obvious choice to gain my trust.” His expression softened. “And I really want to see Sirius anyway. At least I’ll be able to make sure he truly is safe.”

“Let’s leave that talk for later” Xuanzang nearly shouted. “Let’s celebrate our success with today’s hearing!”

“Yeah” replied Harry. “You heard the ladies Dobby? Make the best meal you can think of with what’s available” he said, knowing that Dobby would be happy to have a task.

“Yes, master Harry Potter!” And he disappeared into the kitchen.

The rest of the evening passed with a happy mood all around. Dobby proved to be an excellent cook, surpassing Harry. The next day, after breakfast, they had a meeting to discuss their next course of action.

Harry was obviously going to visit his godfather. He decided he would go with Xuanzang and Vi. They were the best at close-range combat, and Vi was really good at closing the gap in the blink of an eye, something he painfully experienced during their sparring sessions. In a building, they could easily force any witches or wizards into a close-range battle they would easily lose. Harry doubted Remus could whistand a serious punch from Vi despite being a werewolf. He liked the brash and friendly woman, but she was scary in battle.

Scathach would accompany them under Harry’s invisibility cloak, and stay hidden the whole time. She was also the only one with the temperament to stay quiet and careful the whole time. She would have one of Semimaris familiar with her as well. In case of an emergency, those 2 could react fast enough. It was also better because Harry didn’t have regular command seals. He couldn’t use them to summon the others if needed.

With that decided, Harry wrote a short letter. He just said that he would be at King Cross Station at 11am 2 days later to go where Snuffle resided. The way he worded it, it seemed that it was Dumbledore that had secured the safe place, thus he had no intention to stay there. He told Hedwig not to wait for a response, not wanting them to send back instructions.

Then, they questionned Dobby about what house-elves could do in civil engineering. In other words for him, building construction.

It turned out that, with proper plans and directives, house-elves could construct any kind of buildings. Their magic mostly took the form of what non-magicals would call telekinesis (manipulating things at distance such as levitation, summoning, banishement, animation), alongside their teleportation and invisibility. They only had some minor transfiguration and charm skills. They couldn’t cast some of the charms and enchantments used by witches and wizards, so the final touches would have to be handled by one.