Chapter 433
Dobby's Journey of Search
Chapter 433 Dobby's Journey of Search
There was still one day left before school started, but Michael had already packed his suitcase for school, looking forward to returning to Hogwarts as soon as possible to see the headmaster and ask about the progress of rescuing Wade.
He wrote several letters every day these days, but never got the reply he wanted. The tired owl pecked the back of his hand several times.
At the Weasley house, they knew almost no news. Mr. Weasley went out early and came back late, and they rarely met. When Mrs. Weasley asked about it, she always said, "You are all children" and "This is not something you should be involved in."
Even the flowing mirror in the living room was cast a spell by Mrs. Weasley, not allowing anyone to open it. If Harry didn't have a small piece in his hand that could at least see some news from the outside world, Michael felt that he was going crazy.
To be honest, Mrs. Weasley was very warm and considerate, and she took care of the two guests as much as she could, treating them better than her own children. But Michael couldn't stand her way of treating everyone like babies.
Harry thought this was his mother's way, always behaving well in response to Mrs. Weasley's instructions. Of course, he would also secretly break the rules behind her back.
Michael's parents were very loving and had always let their son do whatever he wanted. He was used to taking care of himself and didn't want to be controlled by others.
After dinner, Harry and the Weasley children quickly helped clear the table and went to the bedroom under the pretext of doing homework, but in fact they were just hiding there watching the mirror.
They want to know as much as possible about what is going on out there.
But Michael, for the first time, did not participate. He said, "You guys go ahead. I want to just walk around the neighborhood."
Harry was a little surprised, but thinking that Michael had been in a bad mood recently, he felt that he really needed to relax, so he didn't force it.
Several of them went upstairs in a lively manner. Percy looked at them in confusion, not understanding why his younger brothers suddenly became so fond of studying.
But he had to write a letter to Penelope today, so he didn't think much about it and returned to his room quickly.
Ever since Ron moved back to his own bedroom to rest, Percy felt that he could breathe more easily, and the bedroom that he used to feel cramped became precious.
As long as those troublemakers don't bother him, he doesn't care what they are doing.
Sigh... I just hope Ginny won't be led astray...
……
Michael put on his cloak and was about to go out when he was pulled back by Mrs. Weasley.
A few minutes later, he was let out, wrapped in a thick scarf, wearing gloves, with a bottle of fire in his pocket for warmth, and his boots cast with waterproof and moisture-proof charms.
Michael held the bottle of magic fire and walked out of the house on the snow. He was the only moving object on the hillside, but smoke was coming out of the village at the foot of the hill, and a few people could be vaguely seen walking on the road.
Michael walked slowly along the woods.
He didn't want to watch the streaming video today, because it only occasionally showed short videos of the activities of the Wizarding Party, which repeatedly emphasized how hateful Muggles were, and that the Wizarding Party did not attack randomly but was trying to protect the wizarding world, etc., but there was no trace of Wade at all.
The Ministry of Magic did send people to search the places that had been attacked, but they were basically just there to clean up the mess for the Witch Party and couldn't find the whereabouts of those guys at all.
The boy was very upset, but he didn't know what else he could do. He walked aimlessly for a while, and when he walked around a big tree, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
Michael suddenly turned his head and saw a house-elf dressed very strangely standing under a tree not far away. The deer hat on its head seemed out of place with its shabby appearance.
Michael almost cried out, but as he retreated in panic, the house-elf bowed deeply, and this action made Michael temporarily give up running away.
"Whose house-elf are you?" Michael asked cautiously, holding his wand. "What are you doing here?"
"Dobby, sir, I am Dobby the free house-elf." Dobby grabbed his hat with both hands and said courageously.
"Dobby?" Michael relaxed a little and said, "I heard that you... after leaving the Malfoy family, didn't you find a new master?"
He noted that "free" was a word rarely used for house-elves.
"No, no one wants to hire a house elf who wants to be paid."
Dobby said, "But this is not important now. Dobby finally found Mr. Corner because he knew that Mr. Corner was Mr. Gray's best friend. Dobby wants to ask, where can I find Mr. Gray?"
"Good question." Michael smiled bitterly, "I want to know the answer to this question too."
The house elf tilted his head, not surprisingly, and sighed, "Dobby understands. Dobby will go ask the others."
As he was about to Apparate, Michael suddenly said, "Wait!"
Dobby stopped and looked up at him.
Michael thought he had thought of something in an instant. He walked back and forth on the ground, almost flattening the snow around him. Suddenly, he turned to look at Dobby, his eyes shining slightly.
"Although I don't know where Vader is, I can tell you a few directions to look for him."
Michael said as he quickly gathered his thoughts.
"It must be Grindelwald who kidnapped Vader. They need Vader's help to intercept the FMC's signal and broadcast the video they shot to wizards all over the world."
"But it's hard for the Wizarding Party to trust a student that Dumbledore values. In order to force Wade to cooperate or even join the Wizarding Party, they might resort to some very despicable methods - such as holding his parents hostage and forcing Wade to agree."
"So first, you can go to Wade's parents' house and see if there are any strange people around who are secretly monitoring them!"
Michael held up a finger, then a second.
"Second, the base of the Wukh Party is likely to be in a very cold and sparsely populated area."
"Have you seen the video they shot? Although their faces were not shown, those wizards were always wearing thick clothes. They were tall and had slender frames, which means they were probably from cold regions. There wouldn't be too many Muggles in a place that could accommodate hundreds of wizards."
"Third, there are at least two to three hundred wizards in the video. What do so many people do when they are not attacking Muggles? They need to eat and drink, rest, and have someone help them wash their clothes and clean their rooms."
Michael looked at Dobby and asked, "So you understand? The place where they gather must need a lot of house-elves, maybe more than Hogwarts!"
"And you, Dobby, you are a house-elf who needs to find a job. You can go and ask where a large number of house-elves have gathered recently. This is much more convenient than wizards!"
The more he talked, the more Michael's ideas came to him. He said, "Also, there are quite a few injured wizards in the video, so they must need a lot of healing potions!"
"Even if I can make the potion myself, what about the raw materials?"
"The healing potion requires unicorn tail hair, wormwood, and dittany, and the blood tonic requires unicorn horn and mandrake."
"The distilled water must be within one year, and there is no way to store large quantities of mandrake... Tracking who has recently purchased a large amount of these potion ingredients may help us discover their whereabouts!"
"Ah... chase, track?" Dobby's eyes almost had whirlpools. He shook his head and clenched his fist to encourage himself: "Dobby... Dobby will definitely try his best to find out the news!"
Michael smiled at this. "No... you probably can't do that. I'll write to Professor Dumbledore... Of course, they may have thought of it, but what if?"
"Dobby, you just need to find a way to investigate from the three directions ahead!"
Dobby secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said excitedly: "I understand!"
He had been searching aimlessly since leaving Hogwarts, not knowing whether his efforts would have any effect. This was the first time he knew clearly what he should do.
Michael couldn't wait to go back and write a letter, so he left the Gray's address with Dobby and hurried to the Weasley's house.
There was a crisp "pop" on the hillside, and Dobby disappeared.
……
There were still some Christmas decorations hanging in the town, but the weather was getting colder and colder, and there were few people on the streets as soon as it got dark.
Dobby took the note, stuck it to the corner of the wall, and searched along the way.
"Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen... This is it, right?"
He looked inside through the gap between the fences and saw someone walking by the window through the light. Before he could see clearly, a thin figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
Before Dobby could react, he was suddenly grabbed by the neck and pressed against the wall with a thump.
He opened his eyes wide in horror and saw a house-elf that was almost old and fossilized standing in front of him, with its long, thin fingers like dead branches pinching his neck.
"Hmph, look what Kreacher caught? A nasty little brat, spying on the master here!"
The old house-elf muttered in a low voice: "What evil plan is he up to? Kreacher will bring him to the master, the prodigal master will hollow out his brain and dig out all his evil thoughts..."
"wait wait wait……"
Dobby tried hard to pry his palm open, but there was no way. In desperation, he suddenly grabbed his hat, flipped up the brim, took out a small greeting card from it and showed it to the other party.
To Dear Dobby:
Merry Christmas!
Your friend: Vid Grey]
Kreacher took a look, and the familiar font made his fingers loosen slightly, and his fierce eyes changed.
"...This weird wild kid is a friend of Weed Grey?"
he asked softly.
"Dobby... Dobby is Mr. Grey's friend." Dobby coughed and said, "Dobby wants to find the missing Weed Grey, so he came here to see if there is anyone with strange whereabouts."
Kreacher let him go, but said, "You are the strangest one here!"
Dobby looked at the powerful house-elf with some fear, and asked timidly: "Dobby doesn't know who you are..."
"Kreacher, the house-elf of the Black family, has served the great and pure Black for generations! The master ordered Kreacher to protect Weed Grey's parents here!"
Kreacher said in a proud tone, glancing disdainfully at Dobby's tattered clothes.
——She doesn’t even have a pillowcase with a coat of arms. It’s obvious that she was kicked out of the house.
In fact, Kreacher once had only a dirty rag, but now, he was wearing a decent little suit with the Black family emblem on his chest.
While house-elves cannot receive clothing from their masters, there is nothing wrong with accepting a set of clothing as a gift from someone else.
This suit was a gift from Wade, and the family crest was found by Kreacher himself in the attic. Sirius actually didn't like the family crest hanging around in front of him all day, but he acquiesced to Kreacher's permission to keep it on.
Hearing this, Dobby looked at Kreacher with some envy and sympathy, and nervously grasped his tattered clothes. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly heard the sound of the door opening.
The two house-elves shut up at the same time and quickly hid themselves.
Through the fence and snow-covered bushes, Dobby saw a middle-aged Muggle man in pajamas and a coat walking out of the door. He was holding a very bright lantern in his hand, illuminating most of the yard.
"What's wrong, Ferdie?" a woman's voice came from the house.
"I just heard some noise..." the Muggle man turned around and said, "Maybe squirrels came to look for food."
"I see... I'm going back to my room now, don't work too late. Sigh... I don't know if Vader will come home before school starts."
The light in the bedroom upstairs flickered on and off, and the Muggle man at the door had red cheeks from the cold, but he hadn't gone back yet.
He walked around the yard twice with the lamp in hand, and even went out of his way to look at the roof and wall, and bent down to check under the bushes. After searching around, he reluctantly prepared to go back.
Dobby, who was huddled beside the bushes outside the wall, breathed a sigh of relief. At this moment, a sparrow came hopping over from among the dead branches and leaves. It seemed to mistake Dobby's finger next to it for food and suddenly pecked at it.
Dobby flinched in pain. The bushes around him rustled and shook off some snow.
The Muggle man turned around quickly, took two quick steps, and called out, "Vade? Is that you?"
The lantern illuminated a pair of eyes as big as tennis balls in the bushes. Ferdinand gasped and almost fainted.
He took two steps back, pressed his chest hard, and resisted the urge to turn around and run or scream. Ferdinand trembled as he held the lantern forward and asked, "You...what are you?"
Unlike most house-elves, Dobby did not hide away all day, even at the Malfoy household.
Seeing that he had been discovered, Dobby thought about the etiquette that humans should follow when visiting a friend's family. He mustered up his courage and walked out in Kreacher's astonished eyes.
"Good evening, sir." Dobby took off his fawn hat and placed it on his chest. "Dobby is a house-elf, a friend of Weed Grey, and he is here to find Weed Grey."
To prove his words, he took out the small greeting card again.
Looking at this strange-looking little monster, Ferdinand was stunned.
Then he noticed that Dobby's terrible eyes were actually clear and sincere, and that he was dressed in rags except for his hat, and was even barefoot.
Ferdinand was silent for a moment before he said, "Weid isn't home. But... since you're his friend, please come in!"
(End of this chapter)