19 Dobby

July 1994

Peverell Manor

After taking control of the wards, Harry took a quick tour of the manor. The manor was huge, extravagant and magnificent to say the least. It was a three storeyed building.

The ground floor housed two large halls, one large kitchen attached to a large dining area and eleven rooms.

The first floor housed one central hall, which was smaller than halls on the ground floor and 13 rooms.

The third floor housed only three separate units. The first being the lord's room which was enormous in size. It was adorned with a massive bed and luxurious furniture.

Attached to the room was a large balcony. Standing on the balcony, Harry could see stretched plain grassland as far as he could see. As a matter of fact, Harry now owned massive amount of these plain grasslands surrounding the Peverell manor.

The second part of the third floor was a library and Harry was confident that the library was as massive as that of Hogwarts. Astounding amounts of books were lined in shelfs placed in the library. The whole of the library was lined by many certain kinds of runes and these were nothing less than a librarian. The runes protected the books from any kind of damage and also organised them in proper order. The runes also stopped any other person taking books out of the library without the explicit permission of the Peverell Lord. Though for now Harry could not see any other person even visiting the manor. And although Harry was not sure exactly how valuables these books were, one thing was certain that even the appearance of a single one of them would cause people to go mad. Books so old and so rare were scarce and only few old families held certain amounts of them and those families treated these books as nothing less than family heirloom.

Though for now Harry did not indulged himself in the books, he did still notice the titles of few of the books. Basic Rituals by Antioch Peverell; Potions and ingredients by Salazar Slytherin; Human Body & Basic Healing by Helga Hufflepuff; Army, Battle and Strategies by Godric Gryffindor and Arthur Pendragon to name a few of them.

Seeing the thousands and thousands of books lining the walls, Harry could not stop himself from wondering Hermione's reaction if she ever had the chance to visit the library.

The third and final part of the third floor housed the Lord's study. It was a large sized room. At the one end of the study was placed by a large wooden table with a wooden chair placed behind it. At the wall which, was directly opposite the table, was a floor to ceiling window.

The two other walls, one along the entrance and the wall opposite it were lined with wooden shelfs in which placed were number of books and diaries. 

After his quick and short tour of the manor Harry took his seat in the Lord's study on the wooden chair.

He muttered, "Dobby."

With a pop the excited and big eyed house elf immediately arrived in the room. Dobby's eyes started to wander around the room taking note of the new place he was called.

Harry chuckled seeing Dobby's reaction, "Dobby, later you can look around this place in comfort." 

Dobby turned towards Harry and asked, "How can Dobby bes helping the great Harry Potter Sir?"

Harry smiled, "Dobby I know that although I freed you from your servitude and a life of misery from the Malfoy but I basically sentenced you to death."

During his two weeks of intense studying, Harry learned many things and one such thing was house elf. House elves were a powerful breed of magical creatures and they lived on a symbiotic relationship with humans. House elves themselves had no magical core or any method of drawing magic from surrounding. For their usage of magic, they were completely dependent on humans. Meanwhile in lieu of their magic, humans used the elves as an assistant for their day to day life.

From the memories of the Peverell brothers Harry learned that in the beginning of the magical era, the house elves were not in such a precarious condition. They acted as powerful assistants for the humans. In their memories Harry also found out about a few cases where the humans used the elves as powerful warriors. But over the period of time, the arrogance of humans increased and the house elves were basically turned into slaves. With such weak bonds and low magic, the elves started to get weaker and weaker and were reduced to such condition now.

In the beginning, Harry assumed that he had done good for Dooby, unaware that he basically sentenced Dobby to death. If not for Dobby finding work at Hogwarts with such ample magic he would have died not long. But even so at Hogwarts, Dobby was losing his life and did not had more than few months of life.

Hearing Harry's statement, Dobby panicked, "How can the great Harry Potter sir do any wrong? Even with the low amount of magic Dobby bes very happy. Dobby do not want to go to the bad masters."

Harry laughed, "Dobby I am not sending you back to Malfoys. I have a different offer for you." 

Taking a dramatic pause, he continued, "I wonder if you would be willing to work for me?"

Although Harry was certain about what Dobby's answer would be; he could not help himself and feel happy when Dobby bounced in excitement and nodded his head vigorously.

Harry summoned his elder wand, "I Harry James Potter swear on my magic and life to form the symbiotic bond with house elf Dobby."

Harry took the correct oath as per Peverell brothers' memories and not the present one which bound the elves in servitude and slavery.

Though Dobby did not understand the oath entirely he did as magic guided him and muttered, "I Dobby the house elf accept the symbiotic bond."

There was two flashes of light and with this Harry and Dobby were bound in their new symbiotic relationship.

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