"Who's there?" Harry demanded in a low voice. A row of candles on the wall quietly lit up.
The candles, torches, and such at Hogwarts were magic rather than actual flames, so they lit up whenever there was sound or movement.
The Muggle world had sound-activated lights too, but they were nowhere near this intelligent.
By the candlelight, Harry saw a House-elf standing beside the window where he lay.
Harry initially thought it was one of the school's House-elves looking after him, but he soon realized that was not the case.
The House-elves at Hogwarts had no proper clothes either-House-elves could not wear clothes; receiving clothes meant being cast out by their masters.
But despite having no clothes, the House-elves at Hogwarts all kept themselves very clean.
The one beside his bed, however, was filthy and unkempt. It was Dobby.
"Dobby! Why are you here?" Harry exclaimed.
Two tears spilled from the disproportionately large eyes on Dobby's equally disproportionately large head and landed on his nose.
"Harry Potter, sir, came back to Hogwarts after all." Dobby's tone sounded deeply sorrowful:
"Dobby reminded Harry Potter, sir, over and over again, but sir, why wouldn't you listen to Dobby's warnings? When Harry Potter, sir, missed the train, why didn't you go home?"
Harry picked up his glasses from beside him with his left hand and put them on.
He forced himself upright in bed and stared intently at Dobby. The Mind-Manipulation Spell silently went to work. "Dobby, were you the one who sealed the barrier to the platform so we couldn't get through?"
Harry, Ron, and the others had already suspected as much at the time.
But Dobby had not appeared again afterward, so there had been no way to confirm it.
He had never expected Dobby to enter Hogwarts and turn