A House Homecoming for All

And such magical orbs immersed themselves in the heresay of the enchantment, murmured out of context and all common sense and unto to unforeseen night of a medieval apocolypse or as good as, according to Snape. That was all he could truly remember after finally waking in the cave, disoriented and thoroughly grouchy. There was a distinct melancholy around the putrid prison of his own discerning which even he couldn\'t fathom as for once, it didn\'t originate from his own disgruntled psyche.

He could only assume there was some sort of magic about the place, purposefully cast not too soon after him drifting off on some half pertinent spiritual awakening in heracy. He shook his head one more time before heading offthe the general direction of a more unreadable apparation point and attempted to make some sense out of the ostensibly removed and utterly futile memory.

\"Bloody hell!\" ripped from his throat before he could prevent the exclamation as the red tailed hawk he\'d sent out earlier returned and nearly swiped off his head with him upon its landing. With a shove of contempt, Snape grasped the attached note and muttered his thanks to the creature before dismissing it with an inadequately sized owl bit; scarfing it down, the hawk left with a poignant glare to his temporary master only to be ruefully ignored and have a very tense back turn to face it.

Snape read the letter quickly and in a state of anxious disjointment from being alone for so long and without any sustinence. Shaking his head to cease his vision from blurring so resolutley, Snape tried again and this time made out the words.

Dear Severus,

I know that wherever you are, you\'re doing your best in trying to protect my life and in turn, the halfling\'s. However, I believe that Dobby plays a more sinister role than we first imagined and that he may in fact be somehow connected to Tiera\'s meanderings with the Dark Lord. Dobby appeared in a dream of mine and actually said that he was used as an indirect entity to carry the baby not rightfully his - well, he didn\'t exactly say it in that context, but that\'s what I\'ve formulated since I woke up this morning. Also, don\'t think me silly, but I have a strong inclination to believe that Tiera is holding some quixotic notion revolving around her faith and the conversion of the Dark Lord to, well, the muggle Lord. If you have any inkling as to what that might suggest... I don\'t know, it just felt as if you were somehow connected in the premonition. Anyway, get back as soon as you can and I mean it... most likely I\'ll be with you soon enough with more information and hopefully, Dobby.

I love you,
Jessica.

Snape put the note down and pressed his index and thumb upon the bridge of his nose for a good thrity seconds or more; his own experiences were somehow intertwined in a complex system of awakening only beginning to come into focus. Jessica\'s handwriting seemed rushed and lazy, as if she\'d only just woken up and scuttled about for a piece of parchment before becoming too frustrated to take up a quill.

\"Dammit, rock. I don\'t want to die,\" Snape said with a silly conviction as if just realising that Jessica did indeed love him enough to put it in writing, which was enough of a perfect truth for him to swallow. Snape suddenly stopped from his continual pacing since he\'d finished reading and making comprehensive sense from it and stared at the cave\'s innards with stoic defiance.
\"I\'m not going to die for a condemned halfling\'s pernition,\" and with that, Snape swept back to Hogwarts, on the same road he\'d travelled earlier and imagined what scrutiny Lucius must\'ve been under at that particular moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

\"Have you seen Dobby around?\" Flitwick regarded the pestulent frame in his classroom\'s doorway with the mildest of interest before turning aay and retreating into the inner sanctum of his quarters.

\"Why should I tell you exactly, Miss Slytherin, when you have gone out of your way to destroy some semblance of a normal life I could achieve within these humble grounds?\" Jessica was expecting this with his grizzled face ablaze with hypocritical smugness and those agrivating gloating crinkles around the eyes. Jessica wanted to rip his face off, but thankfully, she restrained herself long enough to merely have to wait out an accurate response of Dobby\'s whereabouts. It was typical of the little cremlin to refrain from any characteristic reminiscent of her own hourse, such as petty resentment or spite, which was most likely the reason behind his relatively quick confession.

\"Oh honestly, I suppose he is a free elf now that he has no ties of love or splendour since you pruposefully erased those for a humble, freedom seeking individual. He\'s down in the kitchens or out at Hagrid\'s; he feels himself safe over there,\" and with special emphasis placed upon the last three words, Jessica was off without a murmur of thanks and woon oon reaching the outer limits of the Quidditch Pitch where she caught sight of Hagrid exiting from his hut.

\"Hagrid!\" she called and rushed up from behind only to be greeted by a very sultry warning glare and hand up to the face.

\"Ye won\'t be comin\' in here, me gal\',\" was all he said before he clumped away in the opposite direction from which she\'d come. Thoroughly put out, Jessica disregarded his wishes and casually perused the outskirts of his patch of land as he was obviously on some sort of errand and nearer the greenhouses than anywhere else. Jessica crouched down, nearly on her knees in order to achieve house elf height and found a peephole underneath one of the stone slabs which needed mending in the side of a broomshed; she briefly wondered if Cait had christened Hagrid\'s as well, just to be original - she wouldn\'t put it past her.

After a good quarter of an hour, her ears pricked to a faint shuffling coming from the inside of the cabin and to her rapture, out popped Dobby, checking around the corner of the hut fastidiously enough to rankle any hiding fieldmouse.

\"Dobby!\" Jessica shouted and was close enough to feasably lunge at the twitchy bundle of nerve endings.


A/N: My apologies for such a short chapter - my exams are coming up and every time I write of Dobby, his voice from the movie plays over in my mind enough to drive anyone bonkers.