Late one night at the Savoy Hotel in London.
A truly bizarre scene, the likes of which had never been witnessed in the long history of London's most luxurious hotel, was unfolding.
-Hoot! Hooooot!
-Chirp! Chirp!
The sight of countless owls of every imaginable color lingering by the glass windows was certainly unusual.
Not crows, not pigeons, but owls. It was by no means a typical sight in the middle of the city.
It was a spectacle so peculiar that any passing Muggle would have stopped to stare blankly, yet surprisingly, not a single one did.
The reason was simple: a wide-ranging illusion spell had been cast in the airspace near the hotel. No Muggle could see the owls.
The only ones indirectly affected were the staff of the Savoy Hotel, who had been struggling with a recent surge of complaints about bird droppings.
In any case, it was obvious why the owls were flocking to this hotel.
They were all trying to deliver letters to the wizards staying here: me and Harry.
As I opened the window to receive a letter as usual, I sensed that something was amiss.
"Hmm? Why aren't any letters coming today?"
It's not something to brag about, but I tend to receive quite a lot of mail. This includes not only letters from friends at Hogwarts, but also correspondence with various pen pals like Nicolas.
So, a day with no letters at all was rare.
I tilted my head in confusion but let it go. However, when the same thing happened for two days, and then for a whole week, it was a different story entirely.
There had to be a problem with the mail delivery.
Magical owls, as a wizard's most familiar companion, are animals optimized for delivering letters. It's extremely rare for them to fail a delivery.
If they were spotted by Muggles, there was a chance they might be captured, but with the illusion magic in place, that wasn't a concern.
That left only one possible cause I could surmise.
Someone was specifically intercepting my letters.
I immediately took action to catch the fool who had the gall to steal mail intended for me.
Actually, for this kind of problem, I didn't need to do much myself.
Whoever was playing these tricks on me, it was unlikely they were *only* intercepting the letters I received. It was reasonable to assume the letters I was sending were also being stolen.
In that case, all I had to do was create a situation where it was absolutely impossible to snatch a letter from an owl.
"Harry!"
"Yes?"
I called Harry over. "Could I ask Hedwig to deliver a letter for me?"
"Yes, of course!"
*I don't know who you are,* I thought, *but if you can manage to snatch a letter from a dragon disguised as an owl, I'll give you credit where it's due.*
I watched as Hedwig, borrowed from Harry, took flight out the hotel window, her pure white feathers scattering in the wind.
*
And of course, there was no way anyone could snatch a letter from a dragon.
The day after Hedwig left, she returned.
With a reply held in her beak, she swooped into the hotel room and unceremoniously dropped something wrapped in a grayish hide from her talons.
-Grrrrowl!
Somehow managing to produce a dragon's growl despite her owl-like appearance, Hedwig proudly showed off her achievement.
A moment later, Harry, hearing the window open, came out of his room. He saw the scene and exclaimed in surprise, "Goodness, Hedwig! What did you catch? Is there anywhere to hunt around here?"
For reference, when Hedwig was at Hogwarts, she would sometimes go hunt wild boars in the Forbidden Forest for fun. It seemed she quite enjoyed hunting various prey in her owl form rather than her dragon one.
"Yes, yes. Thank you."
I gave Hedwig a few pieces of jerky as a reward and tucked the reply letter into my cloak.
Seeing this, Harry asked, "Master, what's going on?"
"To put it simply, Hedwig caught a mail thief who underestimated our delivery service."
I briefly explained how our letters had been disappearing recently.
Harry nodded, then looked at Hedwig's catch. "Is it just me, or… is that a house-elf?"
"It certainly looks like it, doesn't it?"
When I lifted it with a levitation charm, it was definitely a house-elf. But for what reason would a house-elf be intercepting my mail?
While I was pondering this, the house-elf's eyes shot open.
Blinking for a moment as if trying to understand the situation, its gaze soon fell upon Hedwig.
"Eek! Help me! Dobby is not tasty! Dobby is not a house-elf an owl should be eating!" screamed the elf, who had apparently been tormented enough to beg for its life the moment it woke up.
I poked the house-elf with a wooden stick—I couldn't possibly use the Elder Wand for something like this.
"Hey, house-elf. I don't think she's the one you should be pleading with right now."
Only then did the house-elf, Dobby, tear his gaze from Hedwig and look around, his eyes finally landing on us.
Upon seeing Harry, Dobby gasped. "Goodness, Harry Potter! It is the greatest honor for Dobby to meet Harry Potter!"
Harry asked, bewildered, "Uh… you know me? A house-elf?"
Though he had grown accustomed to his fame, Harry had never imagined he would be famous even among non-humans like house-elves.
"Of course! Harry Potter is very famous among house-elves! And Dobby has heard… Dobby has heard that Harry Potter survived the Dark Lord once again this year…"
Harry nodded and said in a strangely proud tone, "To be precise, I didn't just survive. I defeated him."
Dobby covered his mouth with his hands and jumped up and down. Or rather, he only made the motion of jumping, since he was still under the levitation charm.
"Goodness! Harry Potter is truly a great wizard!"
Watching him, I got the impression that he wasn't particularly harmful, so I released the levitation charm on Dobby.
I crossed my arms and asked, "So, house-elf—Dobby. I understand you have a fondness for Harry, but why were you stealing our letters? Did someone order you to do it?"
Dobby gasped and began banging his head with his fist. "Dobby stole the letters. Without any orders! Dobby is a bad elf!"
Why on earth would a house-elf steal our letters without being ordered to?
As we stood there confused, Dobby spoke.
"Harry Potter, and his family. You must not go to Hogwarts this year…! We cannot lose such a great wizard!"
Harry asked, "What do you mean, Dobby?"
"A terrible plot is brewing at Hogwarts this year…! Harry Potter must stay in a safe place. Harry Potter will be in grave danger at Hogwarts!"
What was this all about now? As the house-elf's peculiar way of speaking started to give me a headache, I called for our own elf.
"Deek, could you come here for a moment?"
"Master, you called?"
Deek appeared with his usual short steps, only to stop in his tracks, horrified by the scene in the living room.
Hedwig's feathers were scattered everywhere, Dobby was lying on the floor banging his head, and Harry and I were standing around him.
Having assessed the situation from his own perspective, Deek let out a scream.
"Master, don't tell me you're a house-elf abuser!"
-Kee-roo-rook!
From her perch on one side of the room, Ardeura let out a mocking laugh, as if to say the whole situation was a complete mess.
*
After things had calmed down, Deek listened to Dobby's story and then reported a summary to us.
"So, Dobby is a house-elf from a nasty wizarding family whose name he can't reveal. He overheard that there's some plot at Hogwarts this year, so he snuck out to warn Harry Potter to save him from the danger, is that right?"
"Yes, Master."
"Then why did he steal all our letters?"
"Dobby told Deek that he believed if he took all the letters from you and Mr. Harry's friends, you wouldn't think about going to Hogwarts."
*And then he never imagined there would be a dragon in an owl's disguise and got himself caught.*
Looking utterly dumbfounded, Harry asked Dobby, "Do you really think something dangerous will happen at Hogwarts? Professor Dumbledore is there, you know."
Dobby trembled but replied, "Dobby knows Albus Dumbledore is a great wizard. Perhaps as great as… as *him* in his prime… But there are powers that such noble wizards cannot use…"
Deek whispered something to Dobby. Dobby gasped, startled, and stared at me.
"Grindelwald? Dark Arts? Ancient Magic?"
The house-elf's face turned pale as he looked at me, his voice trembling.
"D-Dobby seems to have made a mistake. Dobby is no longer worried for Harry Potter's safety. Please, show Dobby mercy."
Harry looked at me and nodded.
His Occlumency training had made it increasingly difficult to read his mind lately, but I could still grasp the general meaning behind his gaze.
*With me around, what is there to worry about?*
I smiled and said to Dobby, "Dobby, if your concerns have been resolved, you may return our letters and go."
"Yes, sir. Dobby will return all the letters he has taken."
A flood of letters poured out from Dobby's clothes. The sheer volume of it was enough to make my smile falter.
"M-My master might notice Dobby is gone. There are only a few other house-elves to manage the large house, so Dobby must go quickly! Dobby will be going now!"
Noticing my expression, Dobby vanished instantly with a pop.
A strange sense of unease washed over me. I took the letter from my cloak and tore it open.
The original purpose wasn't to send a letter but to catch the thief, so I had intended to send something trivial. I remembered our conversation on the train about magical creatures, so I had written to Hermione. This was her reply.
Sure enough.
From the very first sentence, Hermione's fury was palpable.
[Aisen, I hope you know just how many letters I've sent to you and Harry. If you didn't, then I think I have a right to be quite angry that you would suddenly send a letter like this after not replying once.]
Harry stood on his tiptoes to peek at the letter, then chuckled. "Uh-oh, it looks like Hermione's mad."
I replied in a dry voice, "Harry, you're in no position to talk. I'm not the only one who hasn't been replying."
"Ah."
Realizing that half of the letters in that pile were addressed to him, Harry's face stiffened as well.
I nodded.
"It looks like we'll have to spend today writing replies. Let's do our Legilimency practice tomorrow."
"Sounds like a plan…"
Then, a grin spread across my face.
"Harry, come to think of it, this means some kind of incident is definitely going to happen at Hogwarts this year, doesn't it?"
"Uh… I guess so?"
"Excellent. I was wondering how you'd get any practical experience this year without Quirrell around. To think someone would be kind enough to start an incident for us."
Hearing this, Harry's face brightened again.
"Wow! You're right!"
A fun second year at Hogwarts awaited us.
...Of course, we had to get through that pile of letters first.
***
Sorry for not posting yesterday
I was optimizing my workflow for the past 3 days
And my advanced chapters had run out
So, how do you like the new formatting style?
Is it better? It better be, as I had to work till 2 am for the past 3 days
I would appreciate it if you could show me support by giving me some power stones, it would mean a lot to me. and helps me keep going