Dobby had been to Hogwarts before.

In fact, he had sneaked into the Slytherin dormitory just last night.

However, entering the school through the main entrance of the castle was a first for Dobby.

Under Dumbledore's guidance, Dobby finally had the leisure to carefully observe the surroundings of the castle, instead of being constantly vigilant as he had been, making sure not to be discovered by other house-elves or students—especially not caught red-handed by Hogwarts.

"This is Hogwarts Castle, the magical castle with the largest number of house-elves in England."

Dumbledore walked quickly through the empty corridor, gently introducing the school to Dobby behind him.

"Normally, they don't leave the Hogwarts kitchen during the day. They mostly come out at night to clean, look after the stoves, and collect the students' dirty clothes to iron... What I mean is, unlike magical families, students at Hogwarts rarely come into contact with house-elves. You won't be serving students here."

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore, I understand."

Dobby said in a cautious, squeaky voice, looking at the old wizard with reverence.

"Mistress used to say that a good house-elf is one whose existence you don't even notice, but Dobby has always been a bit clumsy and often fails to meet his master's requirements, always needing the master to give explicit commands."

Dumbledore was silent for a moment, then suddenly said softly.

"Hogwarts is different, Dobby, is that your name," he said, "In this castle, you don't need to guess what others are thinking. If there are no explicit instructions, you must not act on your own initiative. Especially, do not misinterpret or speculate on ambiguous words. There are thousands of students at Hogwarts, and you can't please everyone."

"Then if the young masters, I mean the students..."

Dobby looked up in confusion, his big eyes filled with bewilderment.

"Conflicts will happen among the students. While helping one side, you may hurt the other. In today's Hogwarts, being neutral and a little slower is actually a more important quality than being quick."

Dumbledore smiled gently and said unhurriedly.

"Don't worry, you can learn these things slowly... In short, be careful with the requests made by the students."

The Hogwarts school rules were already many times more complicated than the original version.

After a year of trials and adjustments, Dumbledore finally came to a conclusion.

Limited school rules and limited energy cannot cope with the unbridled witch. 'Anything not forbidden is allowed' absolutely cannot be applied to Hermione; it only applies to ordinary students, not to the Fairy Queen, the third generation Dark Lord.

Hermione Granger should be seen as an independent and powerful public authority.

And for powerful and unrestricted public authority, another rule applies: 'Anything not authorized is forbidden.'

As he spoke, Dumbledore stopped in front of a painting of a bowl of fruit.

"Behind this painting is the Hogwarts kitchen. In the past, students only needed to tickle this pear, and it would giggle and turn into a doorknob. But due to some special circumstances, it's slightly different now... Of course, you can Apparate directly later; Hogwarts doesn't restrict house-elves' magic."

Dumbledore looked at Dobby meaningfully, drew his wand, tapped lightly on the edge of the frame, and said clearly.

"Albus Dumbledore—"

A faint light flashed around the frame, silently rotating inward.

Is this... the top magical kitchen in England, the sanctuary for house-elves?

Dobby tried hard to suppress the excitement in his heart, walked in quickly, and looked around curiously.

This was a large room with a high ceiling, possibly as large as several of the Malfoy Manor's living rooms combined. Along the stone walls were stacks of shiny copper pots and pans, and at the other end of the room was a large brick fireplace. Near the entrance of the kitchen were four long wooden tables, corresponding to the four house tables in the Great Hall above.

Before Dobby had time to see the surroundings clearly, dozens of house-elves suddenly appeared from all around.

Unlike Dobby's dirty old pillowcase worn as "clothing", the Hogwarts house-elves were the most spirited and clean house-elves Dobby had ever seen in his life.

They all smiled, bowed, and curtsied. They were all wearing the same uniform: a tea towel printed with the Hogwarts crest, which seemed to have been simply processed, like a blanket wrapped around their bodies.

Three house-elves hurried over from the other end of the kitchen, carrying a large silver tray. Compared to the shiny silver tray, the food and drinks on it looked much more humble—only a glass of warm water and a stick of French bread that didn't look very tasty.

"Sorry, Professor... the head chef specifically instructed that no milk, snacks, or other food should be provided before bed."

The leading house-elf looked up at Dumbledore and said respectfully in a squeaky voice.

After pausing for a few seconds, this house-elf looked at the old man behind him and added softly.

"If you didn't eat enough for dinner and are a little hungry, we can offer you an extra meal—the head chef didn't give any extra instructions on this type of dish. Professor Apocalypse used to occasionally..."

"Thank you, Burly... but not today—"

Dumbledore rubbed his nose helplessly, trying to maintain his image.

As a one-hundred-and-ten-year-old wizard, he wouldn't be as gluttonous as some one-hundred-and-eight-year-olds. At least on this occasion of welcoming a new employee, Dumbledore still wanted to maintain the dignity of the Hogwarts headmaster as much as possible.

Besides, that white fur ball was quite vindictive. Who knew if this was a trap.

Dumbledore still clearly remembered the pitiful scene of Grindelwald accidentally drinking a few glasses of spiked red wine, which resulted in his whole body being paralyzed (Petrification Potion), allowing him to be manipulated and injected.

"This is Dobby, the Malfoy family's house-elf."

Dumbledore turned to the side and pointed to the house-elf next to him, who was curiously looking around.

"In the next period of time, at least for a year, he will join Hogwarts and work with you as a Hogwarts house-elf, learning from Hogwarts' excellent experience... Burly, I'll leave it to you and everyone—if the effect is good, there may be more house-elves coming to Hogwarts for further study."

"Fu-further study?! Ex-excellent—"

House-elf Burly was stunned, and looked up at Dumbledore in disbelief. His tennis ball-sized green eyes were full of shock, and he couldn't spit out a word for a long time as if he had been Stunned.

"That's right, further study! Hogwarts' house-elves are the best, and the wizarding world clearly recognizes this."

Dumbledore smiled and nodded gently, speaking kindly to the house-elf.

"And now, the Ministry of Magic and various pure-blood families hope to spread the Hogwarts experience more widely, so they have promoted this 'House-Elf Further Study Program'. Dobby is the first trainee... Mr. Burly, can you handle it? Can you show the style of Hogwarts and guide Dobby's future work with care, kindness, and enthusiasm?"

"Of-of course! Professor Dumbledore, of course! What an honor!"

House-elf Burly said in a squeaky voice, trying to straighten his back, his big eyes sparkling with excited tears.

"Burly will do his best to show the style that Hogwarts should have! Professor! Thank you so much, too, oh, your praise is too embarrassing for us. There are still many things we haven't done well... Woo... Don't worry!"

Along with Dumbledore's voice, there was a commotion among the surrounding elves.

Almost all the house-elves looked at Dumbledore with tears in their eyes, looking extremely excited. For them, who had been serving students and cleaning castles in the shadows for many years, this affirmation could almost be considered the highest honor of their lives.

The best house-elves in the wizarding world!

So good that other magical families would send their own house-elves here to learn.

What a high honor this was. Even Burly, the leader of the Hogwarts house-elves, couldn't control himself at first, let alone the other house-elves present.

"Well, I believe in everyone's abilities, so I'll leave it to you..."

Dumbledore said gently, thought for a moment, and added.

"Oh, right, the head chef won't be coming to the kitchen to supervise and guide recently. She hopes that everyone can consolidate and organize what they have learned during this time, and try to sort out a Hogwarts House-Elf Code."

The old wizard's blue eyes stared at Burly, and the little guy, who was originally a little uneasy, gradually calmed down.

His heart suddenly became much calmer, and he was filled with renewed drive and courage.

"Don't worry, Professor, the Hogwarts house-elves will never let you or the head chef down!"

"Very good, then... perhaps this welcome is a little late..."

Dumbledore nodded with satisfaction and turned to look at the thin, scarred house-elf behind him.

"In short, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Dobby."

…………

If Dobby thought that once he joined Hogwarts, he could quickly adapt to the school's rhythm or clean and work as he did at Malfoy Manor, he would find out the next day that he was obviously very wrong.

After Halloween, Hogwarts resumed classes.

And this also meant that the house-elves' work began to become busy.

First of all, in terms of the kitchen, in addition to the unified banquets for festivals, in the daily life of the Hogwarts campus, according to the crop selection and harvest of each house's "House Personality Farm", the dishes on each house table would also be constantly adjusted. The Hogwarts kitchen even specifically divided several different groups to share the work.

However, Dobby was different from other house-elves. In Burly's view, further study meant mastering all the dishes.

House-elves had many talents in cooking. As the Malfoy family's "chief chef", Dobby originally had some confidence in this area, but after he came into contact with the Hogwarts kitchen, he realized how ignorant he had been.

A very basic pan-fried scallop was enough to prove everything.

Obviously, the Hogwarts kitchen's standards were vastly different from those of the Malfoy family.

Under the request of that mysterious head chef, any scallops that were fried too old or too raw could not be sent to the dining tables in the front hall and transmitted to the students above—Burly and several appraisers would be there, using their rich experience to determine the fate of a dish. In the first few days, Dobby had been frying scallops.

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"Dobby, too old... this batch is fried too old! The texture is like rubber!"

"Oh, damn it! What are you doing?! Are you hoping someone gets diarrhea?!"

"Speed, speed up! Are you a troll?! Magic, magic!"

In the hellish roars, Dobby grew up at an incredible speed. He finally understood why Draco preferred to order the school's cold takeout rather than eat his food after returning home last summer.

Compared to the Hogwarts house-elves, their previous work attitude was no different from perfunctory.

Dobby did not forget his mission to Hogwarts.

In fact, besides the Hogwarts kitchen, Dobby had also been going with other house-elves to clean the student dormitories, collect dirty clothes, and iron them... Unfortunately, he had not been to Slytherin yet.

The "Dark Lord's Chamber of Secrets Diary" stolen by Draco Malfoy was still missing.

On the other hand, Dobby had always longed to see Harry Potter and hoped to pass on the warning of the possible opening of the Chamber of Secrets to the "Boy Who Lived", but in most cases, finding Harry meant seeing Draco at the same time.

In Dobby's eyes, Draco's danger was no less than that of Lucius.

Perhaps in terms of ruthlessness, the young master was not as good as the master for the time being, but they were definitely father and son—whether it was Draco or Lucius, these two wizards were definitely very, very bad dark wizards.

As a house-elf serving the Malfoy family, Dobby had long heard that terrible and evil plan from Lucius Malfoy—he attempted to awaken the one whose name must not be mentioned at Hogwarts and create a terrible disaster.

But what Dobby never expected was that Draco had taken the lead and stolen the magic book that could open the Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets from the master and secretly brought it to Hogwarts Castle.

And what was even worse was that the dangerous thing was now in someone else's hands.

Lucius' mission was to protect Draco, and Dobby's mission to himself was—find out where that thing was, and then tell Professor Dumbledore or Harry Potter to destroy that dangerous thing!

This could also be considered... successfully protecting Draco...

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Hooray!