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"Speak, Mr. Thief. What is your purpose?"
Dudley looked at the house-elf and said softly, "If you explain honestly, you will suffer less."
As soon as he finished, he heard the house-elf let out a shrill scream.
"Dobby is not a thief! Dobby only wanted to take away that dangerous thing!"
"Your name is Dobby."
Dudley straightened and looked down at him.
"Then what do you want to take away?"
"Dobby cannot say!"
"Harry Potter is in danger!"
"The Dursleys are good people. They took in Harry Potter, the great savior. Dobby cannot harm them!"
After saying this, Dobby smashed his head hard against the floor, producing a dull thud.
"Bad Dobby, bad Dobby!"
Although his word order was somewhat jumbled, Dudley could still barely understand.
"You are trying to protect Harry?"
"Harry Potter is very great! He defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir!"
Voldemort's reputation was a forbidden existence even among house-elves.
After all, he had been a madman.
During his most powerful period, the killing had never stopped.
"Someone wants to harm Harry Potter."
"Hogwarts is very dangerous."
"Bad Dobby, bad Dobby."
After saying only a few sentences, Dobby began using his head to hit the floor again.
Dudley suddenly thought of the unlucky incidents Harry had recently encountered during his "dates."
"Don't tell me you helped Harry using your own methods?"
"Hogwarts is very dangerous. Harry Potter cannot continue staying here."
Dobby did not admit it.
But what he said was as good as admitting it.
Confirmed.
It really had been this fellow.
Let us observe one second of silence for Harry.
His bad luck had been man-made.
"Then the next question. Was protecting Harry your personal action, or was it your master's intention?"
Dudley looked at him and asked.
House-elves were fiercely loyal creatures.
They carried out the orders given by their masters to the end.
Of course, this one before him might be an exception.
"Old master hates Harry Potter. Young master does not know. Dobby cannot watch Harry Potter get hurt. Bad Dobby, bad Dobby."
"So it was your personal action?"
As Dudley spoke, his tone suddenly changed.
"You were also the one who rummaged through my bedroom before, weren't you?"
"Did you not know that casually touching a wizard's belongings is a very dangerous thing?"
Thud, thud, thud.
Dobby no longer answered.
He simply kept striking his head against the floor.
Fortunately, house-elves had relatively hard skulls.
Otherwise, he would have given himself a concussion.
"Enough."
Dudley became somewhat irritated by Dobby's self-harming behavior and knowingly asked, "Final question. Who is your master?"
"Dobby cannot say."
Snap.
Dobby snapped his fingers again.
Only this time, the magic did not fail.
Instead, the transmutation circle beneath his feet was gradually disappearing.
"Dobby must go. Goodbye, Mr. Dursley."
An ordinary house-elf could never break Dudley's circle.
Dudley had tested this with house-elves before.
There were, after all, more than one hundred in the castle.
The data Dudley had studied had also come from the kitchen.
Originally, Dudley had believed that an adult wizard who was not good at combat would be unable to defeat a house-elf alone.
But according to the research he had done, this conclusion was wrong.
The magical system of house-elves was indeed different from that of wizards, but their strength did not surpass wizards by too much.
Forget an adult wizard holding a wand.
It was possible that even older students possessed the ability to defeat them alone.
Were house-elves powerful?
To be honest, if one excluded their magic, which was different from the wizarding system, their strength was rather ordinary.
If they were specifically targeted, then in terms of threat, they were far below wizards' old rivals, the goblins.
Their ability to Apparate inside Hogwarts was the only thing with some value.
This had been reflected in the final battle of Hogwarts in the original work.
When they joined the battle, they were not much different from kitchen staff.
They took pots, bowls, ladles, pans, knives, and forks as weapons, and a group of house-elves had to rush forward together to subdue a single Death Eater.
But...
This Dobby before him was an exception.
Dudley became interested.
If it had been any house-elf in the castle, it absolutely would not have been able to escape from the trap Dudley had created.
Dobby should belong among the outstanding house-elves.
Or perhaps an elite-level house-elf?
It seemed that each house-elf's individual stats were not the same.
"In that case..."
"Pixie."
The Cornish pixie appeared before him.
Along with Dobby's snap, Pixie also snapped his fingers in the same way.
Blue powder traced across the tips of his fingers.
Something beyond Dobby's expectations occurred.
He used magic.
But it did not take effect.
"I am afraid leaving is not possible. Here, you cannot use Apparition."
If house-elf magic was specifically targeted, their combat power would greatly decrease.
Unfortunately, Dudley had specifically studied it.
"Pixie's magic is not inferior to yours."
Dudley stated a fact.
As time passed, Pixie, who had evolved once, had also displayed astonishing talent.
Under the effect of Magical Creature Taming, Pixie's growth speed had reached an astonishing level as well.
Unfortunately, among so many of them, there was only this one.
The rest were still a group of little troublemakers.
Hm.
Enhanced troublemakers.
Or perhaps a whole troop of Peeveses?
"Let me guess. Your name is Dobby, and you are a house-elf. There are two masters in your household, one old and one young."
"In that case... you come from the Malfoy family."
After discovering that his magic had failed, Dobby looked somewhat at a loss.
When he heard Dudley's words, his eyes widened even further.
If a family possessed a house-elf, then it was definitely pure-blood.
There were only so many pure-blood families to go around.
Even if Dudley knew nothing, it would not take much time to guess.
"Dobby said nothing."
"Bad Dobby, bad Dobby!"
This time, Dobby used his head to strike the cabinet.
Every house-elf had a contractual connection with the master to whom they belonged.
Before that contract was actively broken, their actions were restrained by it.
"Then let me guess again. The dangerous thing you mentioned would not happen to be this, would it?"
Along with Dudley's words, a platform slowly rose from the floor.
A mass of unidentified black, gel-like substance lay quietly on it.
Those were the remains of the diary.
Dobby screamed with surprise and delight.
"Mr. Dursley destroyed old master's plot!"
"Harry Potter is safe!"
"Harry has always been safe."
Dudley spoke with another meaning hidden in his words.
"Only recently, because of certain people, he became unsafe."
Harry's first love had also died before it began because of someone's interference.
Poor Harry.
Let us observe one second of silence.
Pfft.
It was truly too miserable.
"It was all old master's plot."
Dobby did not hear the hidden meaning in Dudley's words at all.
"Dobby cannot speak badly of master. Bad Dobby, bad Dobby."
As he spoke, he tried to hit his head against the wall again.
Only this time, Dudley blocked him with his palm.
"Dobby, I can see that you are not an ordinary house-elf. You have a very strong will of your own. Then, do you want freedom?"
"I think we can make a deal."
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