บท 369: Chapter 368 Dobby's Three Tasks (2 in 1)
Jon looked at Dobby with an odd expression.
"Observe? Is it an open observation or a sneaky one?"
Dobby finally showed his face completely from behind the foliage, his face brimming with pride.
"Master Malfoy had told Dobby to observe Mr Green secretly, but of course, Dobby wouldn't do that, Dobby knew that Dumbledore and Green are both great wizards, but there was no way Dobby could disobey the task that Master had given Dobby, but Dobby could inform Mr Green about it by mistakenly getting caught!"
After saying this, Dobby's face, which had been full of pride, suddenly began to turn into a grimace as he began to bang his head against the trunk of the tree beside him in a self-harming manner, all the while screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Bad elf! Dobby is a bad elf!"
It wasn't that he didn't seem to be able to restrain this self-harming behaviour, it was just that the instinctive slave mentality that had been built into him made him subconsciously incapable of accepting any act of betrayal against his master.
Jon looked at Dobby, who, after banging his forehead a few times, had stopped with both arms hugging the trunk of the tree and gasping for breath, and couldn't help but think of his deeds in the original story.
This house elf from the Malfoy family was a complete anomaly among elves.
While he too had the most basic notion of master and slave between an elf and a wizard, this notion was beneath his own notion of good and evil.
In other words, he serves the Malfoys but disagrees with what they do, and the Malfoys' treatment towards their elves can be described as harsh, which makes this anomaly among the elves, unable to like, or even hate, his master.
It's just that in the original, Dobby worshipped Harry Potter because he knew that it was Harry Potter who defeated the Dark Lord and saw him as a hero.
And now in this time when there is no longer a Harry Potter, Dobby naturally has no one to worship, though he still maintains the respect he has for Dumbledore and also has a favourable view of Jon.
So his claim that he had exploited a loophole in Malfoy's orders to spill the beans on his observations had a lot of credibility.
This was something that Jon would have viewed with a great deal of wariness in his heart if another house elf had come over, and certainly, no one in their right mind would believe a house elf could perform such an action.
"Can you come down, let's talk?"
Jon extended an invitation to him.
It was beginning to get dark by now, not long before the Castle began its curfew, and with no more Hogwarts Castle students on this side of the Black Lake, only Jon was left all alone in that empty place.
Dobby accepted this gladly as he climbed down from the trunk of the tree and then came over to Jon.
"How long have you been watching me from that tree?"
"First day today, Mr Green!" Dobby said, "Master Malfoy had only yesterday called Dobby at home and had assigned Dobby tasks to do from this morning."
"Which means that you have already at the Black Lake where you were before I arrived this afternoon?"
"Yes!"
Hearing his answer, Jon understood why Lucius had felt comfortable letting Dobby spy on him.
House elves are a special magical race, even without wands they can use magic with their own fingers that is very different from that of a wizard, and if Dobby wanted to be hidden then it would indeed be very difficult for Jon to spot him, unless he came out of the tree by himself like this one now, trying to get Jon to find out.
It seemed to occur to Dobby at this point that Jon might be offended that he had been spying on him all afternoon and scrambled to wave his hand.
"But Dobby didn't mean to observe Mr Green in the tree all the time and not come out, there were many of Draco Malfoy's classmates from the castle by the lake and Dobby couldn't appear in front of them or Draco Malfoy would surely have known about it."
"I'm certainly not trying to blame you for that Dobby, and no need to call me Mr. Green, just call me Jon."
Jon said casually and then sat down on the grass.
And Dobby stared at him in blank disbelief, as if he had heard something shocking.
"Mr. Green. Sir, let Dobby call his name!"
Hearing him subconsciously raise his volume, Jon couldn't help but say.
"Don't get too excited, will you Dobby, it's just calling a name, and maybe that does come as a shock with bad wizards like your master, but you know, I'm a good wizard who knows how to treat people with respect, with courtesy and decency, and that's why you're willing to help me isn't it? So don't be too surprised."
Dobby was clearly listening to what Jon was saying, he did his best to calm his breathing and did seem to have calmed down quite a bit, except for those big eyes that still met Jon's with an excited glint on them.
"Okay, okay, Jo-Jo, Jon!"
"Yes, that's it, just call me Jon, and since you're willing to help me, even going against your master's orders, that makes us friends, doesn't it? So I will call you Dobby, and you can certainly call me Jon. Sit down Dobby, may I ask you some questions about your master?"
It was like a great effort for Dobby to finally sit down across from Jon, only he looked as constrained as ever, even sitting on the grass.
"There are things I cannot say about my master, there is no way for an elf to betray his master unless he is abandoned."
Jon pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said.
"But it makes sense for an elf to hide the truth for the sake of his master, doesn't it? Then we can do this, I'll ask you something that only requires a yes or no answer and of course, you'll have to lie to me to protect your master's secret, right?"
Dobby's face showed a confused look for a few seconds at first as if he hadn't understood what Jon had said, but soon his quite bright brain responded, and he instantly nodded his head vigorously.
"Yes! Dobby is trying to hide the secret of his master and cannot tell the truth to Jon!"
After establishing the next mode of communication with Dobby, Jon quickly asked the first thing that he wanted to know.
"Dobby your master sent you to Hogwarts to observe me; does your master's master is aware of this too, Dobby?"
The next moment, Dobby was shaking his head like a rattle, and that action came off very naturally, without a hint of guilt.
"No! Dobby's master's master doesn't know about it!"
Then that means he knows.
Jon's heart was now at ease, there are also a large number of house elves in Hogwarts Castle, the elves here were originally supposed to be loyal to this Castle, but after Voldemort became the Headmaster, he was not the real master of this castle, then he would certainly have made all the elves here loyal to him using his own means, but he needs to make sure that all the elves here truly loyal to him first before giving them other important tasks, otherwise it would definitely be a hidden danger.
And now that Dobby had suddenly appeared in the Castle, there was no way that Voldemort wouldn't know about it, or rather Lucius wouldn't have had the guts not to report it to Voldemort.
In other words, it wasn't actually Malfoy and his son who had intended to observe and spy on him after the first task, but Voldemort?
"Then you have no other task other than to observe me upon your arrival at Hogwarts, do you?"
Dobby nodded with a happy look on his face.
"Yes, no more, Dobby's only task is to observe Jon!"
Jon tapped his chin with his finger in thought and continued to ask.
"The person who gives you other tasks is your master's master, right?"
"Yes!"
At that answer, Jon's brow furrowed in confusion.
Not Voldemort?
Then it was only Lucius, what else could he have asked Dobby to do?
Thinking to himself, Jon then asked tentatively.
"Does your other task is to protect your young master, Dobby?"
"No!"
"Are these the only two tasks that have been given to you, Dobby?"
"Yes!"
'There are other tasks too?' Jon couldn't guess a bit at this point.
Dobby is Malfoy's house elf, the task of getting him to observe himself would have been initiated by Lucius and agreed to by Voldemort in passing, and secretly protecting Draco must have been ordered by Lucius himself to Dobby privately.
So what else would they have asked Dobby to do?
Voldemort shouldn't have given any more instructions, how could he, with his arrogant personality, who even despises the muggle-born, trust something important to a house elf?
Besides, even if he did need an elf to do something for him, there are so many candidates in Hogwarts Castle that there is no need to borrow the Malfoys' any more than necessary.
That meant that Lucius had other things in mind and had sent Dobby for them.
As Jon thought, he looked up and met Dobby's big, glowing eyes, and he could feel that Dobby was looking at him expectantly.
Suddenly Jon's mind wandered and he spoke up and asked.
"Is your other task still related to me, and was it ordered by your master?"
"No!"
Dobby said with conviction.
That made Jon even more sure of something.
"Did your master tell you to look for opportunities for him to meet me in private without the other's knowledge, but didn't give you permission to meet me or tell you why you needed to do so, did he?"
"No!"
Dobby replied louder and more excited and thrilled.
By this time Jon had sort of completely figured out what kind of task was on Dobby's shoulders.
Having done so, he could not help but show a cold smile in his mind, but instead of expressing it on his face, he expressed his gratitude to Dobby from the bottom of his heart.
"Thank you very much for telling me that, Dobby."
"You're welcome, Dobby didn't do anything, Dobby just lied to Jon." Dobby said the words out without a hint of heartfelt guilt in his tone, for it was only now that he spoke the truth, he had indeed been lying to Jon before.
A deception that one man and one elf knew all too well.
Having learned from Dobby about the nasty things in Lucius's mind, Jon rose back to his feet from the grass.
"It's getting late, I'm going back to the wagon, Dobby, don't hide what happened today, if your master asks, then tell him everything I did this afternoon, but keep the conversation we just had hidden."
"Understood! Dobby would not disobey his master's orders, but Dobby can tell him some things later for his master's own good!"
"Yes, that's right, that's it."
Jon said with praise, Dobby was indeed different from all those house elves he had seen before.
"See you later, Jon, Dobby has to get back too."
Dobby said and disappeared into thin air right in front of Jon's face.
The house elves were of course free to use their Apparition within the school grounds, but the Anti-Apparition Charm here also placed restrictions on their magic as well, leaving them free to teleport on their own but with no way to take others with them.
The fact that all the elves in the castle were now loyal to Voldemort himself eliminated the possibility that Dumbledore and the others would use the house elves as a loophole to exploit the situation, but he still placed other restrictions.
In fact, Jon felt that the reason Voldemort was so wary of house elf magic was due to a betrayal he had experienced.
A young man from a pureblood Black Family, whom he trusted, had used the magic of the house elf to set a trap for him in an extremely crucial matter.
And now that Voldemort had regained the split soul in the Horcrux, naturally, he must have discovered the trap, and then he could basically guess who had done this and how he had done it.
Having already made a slip-up on something once, then a man as smart as him would surely not go for it a second time.
After Dobby had left, Jon did not continue to linger at the Black Lake either.
He went straight back to the wagon which remained parked at the edge of the forbidden forest and entered the wagon before heading straight towards Dumbledore's office.
Knocking on the door and walking in, he then turned to Dumbledore with a somewhat ironic smile on his face.
"Professor, we haven't even had a complete victory yet and already some people are being impatient."
In Hermione's dormitory, Lady Grey who had kept her word after making a deal with Hermione at the beginning, never leaving the wagon's compartment once, came to meet her.
As for Hermione, she didn't hide from her that she had searched the castle, she just didn't explicitly state exactly what she was looking for.
"Which means you haven't found anything at all? Well, I really don't think I should suspect you, Miss Granger! But there are something I have to ask, in case anyone takes me for a fool!"
Lady Grey looked exasperated as if she was upset at Hermione's mouthful of nothing.
"Did you get nothing, or did you just make a perfunctory promise in the first place and didn't actually try to help me get to that diadem at all!"
Hermione's expression did not change in the face of her questioning, she said calmly.
"I rarely make promises to people, Lady Grey, and since I promised you in the first place, I will do my best to do so, you don't have to doubt that. It is also true that I did not lie, and it is true that I did not find what you asked me to find in the castle during the time I entered it."
"But I heard some clues from another person who said that he had seen a diadem in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts Castle."
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Crazy_DarkSide_Cat Thanks for all your love and support.
Read advance chapters on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!
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