Harry Potter 02 & The Chamber Of Secrets (Illustrated) Read Free Page A

Named.’
    ‘Voldemort?’ said Harry.
    Dobby clapped his hands over his bat ears and moaned, ‘Ah, speak not the name, sir! Speak not the name!’
    ‘Sorry,’ said Harry quickly. ‘I know lots of people don’t like it - my friend Ron …’
    He stopped again. Thinking about Ron was painful, too.
    Dobby leaned towards Harry, his eyes wide as headlamps.
    ‘Dobby heard tell,’ he said hoarsely, ‘that Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time, just weeks ago … that Harry Potter escaped yet again. ’
    Harry nodded and Dobby’s eyes suddenly shone with tears.
    ‘Ah, sir,’ he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. ‘Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later … Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts. ’
    There was a silence broken only by the chink of knives and forks from downstairs and the distant rumble of Uncle Vernon’s voice.
    ‘W-what?’ Harry stammered. ‘But I’ve got to go back - term starts on September the first. It’s all that’s keeping me going. You don’t know what it’s like here. I don’t belong here. I belong in your world - at Hogwarts.’
    ‘No, no, no,’ squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. ‘Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger.’
    ‘Why?’ said Harry in surprise.
    ‘There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year,’ whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. ‘Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!’
    ‘What terrible things?’ said Harry at once. ‘Who’s plotting them?’
    Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his head madly against the wall.
    ‘All right!’ cried Harry, grabbing the elf’s arm to stop him. ‘You can’t say, I understand. But why are you warning me ?’ A sudden, unpleasant thought struck him. ‘Hang on - this hasn’t got anything to do with Vol - sorry - with You Know Who, has it? You could just shake or nod,’ he added hastily, as Dobby’s head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.
    Slowly, Dobby shook his head.
    ‘Not - not He Who Must Not Be Named, sir.’
    But Dobby’s eyes were wide and he seemed to be trying to give Harry a hint. Harry, however, was completely at sea.
    ‘He hasn’t got a brother, has he?’
    Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever.
    ‘Well then, I can’t think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts,’ said Harry. ‘I mean, there’s Dumbledore, for one thing - you know who Dumbledore is, don’t you?’
    Dobby bowed his head.
    ‘Albus Dumbledore is the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore’s powers rival those of He Who Must Not Be Named at the height of his strength. But sir,’ Dobby’s voice dropped to an urgent whisper, ‘there are powers Dumbledore doesn’t … powers no decent wizard …’
    And before Harry could stop him, Dobby bounded off the bed, seized Harry’s desk lamp and started beating himself around the head with ear-splitting yelps.
    A sudden silence fell downstairs. Two seconds later Harry, heart thudding madly, heard Uncle Vernon coming into the hall, calling, ‘Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!’
    ‘Quick! In the wardrobe!’ hissed Harry, stuffing Dobby in, shutting the door and flinging himself onto the bed just as the door handle turned.
    ‘What - the - devil - are - you - doing?’ said Uncle Vernon through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry’s. ‘You’ve just ruined the punchline of my Japanese-golfer joke … one more sound and you’ll wish