Harry Potter 05 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

kept reminding them, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under threat was very different from producing it when confronted by something like a Dementor.
    ‘Oh, don’t be such a killjoy,’ said Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement during their last lesson before Easter. ‘They’re so pretty!’
    ‘They’re not supposed to be pretty, they’re supposed to protect you,’ said Harry patiently. ‘What we really need is a Boggart or something; that’s how I learned, I had to conjure a Patronus while the Boggart was pretending to be a Dementor –’
    ‘But that would be really scary!’ said Lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapour out of the end of her wand. ‘And I still – can’t – do it!’ she added angrily.
    Neville was having trouble, too. His face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand-tip.
    ‘You’ve got to think of something happy,’ Harry reminded him.
    ‘I’m trying,’ said Neville miserably, who was trying so hard his round face was actually shining with sweat.
    ‘Harry, I think I’m doing it!’ yelled Seamus, who had been brought along to his first ever DA meeting by Dean. ‘Look – ah – it’s gone … but it was definitely something hairy, Harry!’
    Hermione’s Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gambolling around her.
    ‘They are sort of nice, aren’t they?’ she said, looking at it fondly.
    The door of the Room of Requirement opened, and closed. Harry looked round to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. It was a few moments before he realised that the people close to the door had fallen silent. Next thing he knew, something was tugging at his robes somewhere near the knee. He looked down and saw, to his very great astonishment, Dobby the house-elf peering up at him from beneath his usual eight woolly hats.
    ‘Hi, Dobby!’ he said. ‘What are you – What’s wrong?’
    The elf’s eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the DA closest to Harry had fallen silent; everybody in the room was watching Dobby. The few Patronuses people had managed to conjure faded away into silver mist, leaving the room looking much darker than before.
    ‘Harry Potter, sir …’ squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot, ‘Harry Potter, sir … Dobby has come to warn you … but the house-elves have been warned not to tell …’
    He ran head-first at the wall. Harry, who had some experience of Dobby’s habits of self-punishment, made to seize him, but Dobby merely bounced off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats. Hermione and a few of the other girls let out squeaks of fear and sympathy.
    ‘What’s happened, Dobby?’ Harry asked, grabbing the elf’s tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.
    ‘Harry Potter … she … she …’
    Dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist. Harry seized that, too.
    ‘Who’s “she”, Dobby?’
    But he thought he knew; surely only one ‘she’ could induce such fear in Dobby? The elf looked up at him, slightly cross-eyed, and mouthed wordlessly.
    ‘Umbridge?’ asked Harry, horrified.
    Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head on Harry’s knees. Harry held him at arm’s length.
    ‘What about her? Dobby – she hasn’t found out about this – about us – about the DA?’
    He read the answer in the elf’s stricken face. His hands held fast by Harry, Dobby tried to kick himself and sank to his knees.
    ‘Is she coming?’ Harry asked quietly.
    Dobby let out a howl.
    ‘Yes, Harry Potter, yes!’
    Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf.
    ‘WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?’ Harry bellowed. ‘RUN!’
    They all pelted towards the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through. Harry could hear them sprinting along the corridors and hoped they had the sense not to try and make it all the way to their dormitories. It was only ten to nine; if they just took refuge in the library or the Owlery, which were both nearer –
    ‘Harry, come on!’ shrieked Hermione from the centre of the knot of people now fighting to get out.
    He scooped up Dobby, who was still attempting to do himself serious injury, and ran with the elf in his arms to join the back of the queue.
    ‘Dobby – this is an order –