Stay - Theodore Nott

The Burrow

The Potters told them all about Dobby, the warning he'd given them and the fiasco of the violet pudding. There was a long, shocked silence when they had finished.

"Very fishy," said Fred finally as he nodded his head, keeping his eyes ahead in case a bird came out of nowhere.

"Definitely dodgy," agreed George. "So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?"

"I don't think he could," said Kirra sadly as she thought back to how scared Dobby was of his family and the way that he had been acting.

"I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall." Harry said and saw Fred and George look at each other. "What, you think he was lying to me?" said Harry.

"Well," said Fred, "put it this way — house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?"

"Yes," said Harry and Kirra together, instantly.

"Draco Malfoy," Harry explained.

"Theodore Nott" Kirra muttered out and the twins looked at her, annoyed that Theodore was still bugging her but then decided to find out the case with Harry

"Draco Malfoy?" said George, turning around. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?"

"Must be, it's not a very common name, is it?" said Harry "and hes best friends with Nott"

"Why?" Kirra asked

"I've heard Dad talking about him," said George. "He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who."

"And when You-Know-Who disappeared," said Fred, craning around to look at Harry, "Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung — Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."

"I don't know whether the Malfoys own a house-elf. . . ." said Harry.

"Well, whoever owns him will be an old Wizarding family, and they'll be rich," said Fred.

"Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing," said George. "But all we've got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn't catch one in our house. . . ."

"Theodore has been trying to get me kicked out of Hogwarts from the moment we walked through the doors of the great hall" Kirra muttered out and the car went silent

"I'm glad we came to get you, anyway," said Ron. "I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters Harry, and the twins wouldn't shut up when you weren't responding Kirra, if it was up to them, we would have come out here ages ago, but I said to wait. I thought it was Errol's fault at first —"

"Who's Errol?" Harry asked, though Kirra already knew who Errol was due to the twins

"Our owl. He's ancient. It wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery. So then I tried to borrow Hermes —"

"Who?"

"The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect," said Fred from the front.

"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me," said Ron. "Said he needed him."

"Percy's been acting very oddly this summer," said George, frowning. "And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room. . . . I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge. . . . You're driving too far west, Fred," he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.