Dobby's voice grew hushed. "Quilly was seeing them arrive in the Slytherin common room Floo, Master Harry! And Master Malfoy can use the Floo to be sending food! Oooh, these past weeks he is asking for lots of food! Whole platters he doesn't touch, he Floos back to us!"
And the Floo in Snape's quarters had a direct connection to the common room in his House, so he could reach his Slytherins quickly if there should be an emergency...
Harry slumped, but still struggled to find holes in the story. "But when Quilly saw the fairy cakes come through the Floo, she wouldn't know that wasn't Lucius' handwriting. She'd think they were from Lucius. And Lucius is a school governor and a Slytherin himself, so why wouldn't she just put the treats out on a table for the students to enjoy?"
Dobby began eyeing him strangely, his ears standing straight up. "Because the headmaster, he is being very strict about the food-testing rules, Harry Potter. Quilly would be having to pull out her teeth if she disobeyed!"
"What food-testing rules?"
"Aaaah." Dobby nodded sagely, his ears relaxing. "Harry Potter does not know."
"Know what?"
"Dobby must be telling Harry Potter if Harry Potter wants to know--" Dobby said as though talking to himself.
"Harry Potter wants to know!"
A single, definite nod, and then Dobby was disclosing, "All food is being food-tested, Harry Potter. It all goes through elf-hands before any wizards is ever seeing it. Because the headmaster is not wanting to lose his Potions Master, he is saying, and we is knowing that he means it, after the last time!"
"What last time?"
"The last time Harry Potter's father was poisoned," Dobby said in a whisper.
Snape had been poisoned? Well he'd always had enemies, hadn't he... "When was this?"
"On his birthday!" Dobby began shaking his head to and fro. "Oh, it was awful, Harry Potter!"
"His last birthday?"
Dobby nodded.
Early January, Snape had said, which meant... "Snape got poisoned this year, almost right after he adopted me?" And he never even mentioned it?
Dobby nodded again.
Well, at least that explained why the man had been skipping meals. Being poisoned wouldn't exactly make you want to eat, would it? "Who poisoned him? And how?"
"We is not knowing who, Harry Potter! We is only knowing how! Somebody was putting poison in the Potion Master's chocolate cauldron!"
"Chocolate cauldron?"
"Oh, yes, Harry Potter!" Dobby began bouncing on the balls of his feet again; Harry felt his queasiness surge as the bed jiggled under him. "Every year the headmaster, he is giving Harry Potter's father a chocolate cauldron at breakfast on his birthday! The Potions Master, he scowls, like this..." Dobby made an absolutely hideous face. "...and he waits for the headmaster to be teasing him about it, but then he eats it, every year. But this year it was poisoned and Harry Potter's father was spending the day in the hospital wing!"
"I never heard about any of this!"
Dobby shrugged. "Maybe Harry Potter's father is not wanting to worry him?"
Maybe, but Harry was still pretty upset and angry that such a thing could have happened. And even more angry, perhaps, that Severus had never mentioned it, not once. Not even when Harry had asked him why he was so reluctant to eat!
"Well how much was there to worry about? How bad off was Severus on his birthday?"
Dobby shuddered. "Oh, it was awful, Harry Potter. Dobby was hearing the whole story from the hospital-elves. The Potion Master's throat began to bleed and he began coughing up blood. And the headmaster, he was telling him before breakfast was even over to be seeing Madame Pomfrey. And Harry Potter's father, he was arguing, but then he went. And the hospital-elves saw blood streaming from his eyes and nose and Madame Pomfrey had to get some Blood Replenisher in him but his throat was scarring itself faster than she could be healing it and he could not swallow! And then Harry Potter's father fainted," the elf added in a hushed whisper. "And Madame Pomfrey did some spells that was not working, but then he woke up on his own and she was laughing and hugging him and saying he was a good Potions Master!"
Harry thought back to early January. Hadn't there been a night or two when Severus had had a bit of a scratchy throat and had seemed awfully tired and withdrawn? It would have been about the time Ron was doing his lines. Hmm, Ron must not have known about the poisoning attempt. Even as angry as he'd been, he'd surely have mentioned it.
"This was all kept from the students, I guess?" Harry asked, wondering if that was why it had been kept from him as well. But he wasn't just a student; he was the man's son!
Dobby nodded.
Harry glanced at the fairy cakes and tried to get his mind back onto their more immediate problem. Draco. "Who knows about these cakes being poisoned? Just you and Quilly?"
"Oh, no, Harry Potter--"
Harry wanted to hang his head in his hands and groan, because if the story was already out then Draco was as good as headed for Azkaban, wasn't he? Nobody would give him the benefit of the doubt, not after the whole wizarding world basically assumed he'd already got away with murder once.
Not that Draco deserves any benefit of the doubt, Harry thought darkly.
"Just Dobby is knowing," continued the elf. "Dobby is the only one."
Harry heard that through such a haze of fear, worry, and anger that it took a minute to sink in. "Wait. Just you? But Quilly saw the treats arrive! Oh, you mean she still thinks they were from Lucius?"
Dobby flushed, his skin going greener than usual. "Quilly gave the cakes to Dobby to food-test. And Dobby was knowing that they were from Master Malfoy junior, and Dobby is knowing he is Harry Potter's brother. And Dobby is remembering that Harry Potter was saying that his brother is being loyal to him. So Dobby is not wanting to break Harry Potter's heart, but Dobby must be knowing if the cakes are safe, so Dobby is going off alone to test them. And after Dobby is done being sick, Dobby comes straight to Harry Potter to ask, what should Dobby do?"
By the end, the elf was looking at him plaintively, his big eyes beseeching.
"I think you should come with me to tell my father, and we'll let him handle it," Harry said, quickly casting Tempus. "But he's still in class... well, I guess it's not an emergency at this point, so we can wait until he finishes. You're sure Quilly doesn't know any of this?"
Dobby's ears swayed as he shook his head. "Treats is coming all the time and Dobby is food-tasting them, Harry Potter."
"Well, I'm sure stuff comes by owl, but through the Floo? Quilly has to know it's warded, right? Not anybody can use that Floo..."
"Quilly knows that Master Malfoy senior is a school governor." Dobby shrugged. "Quilly will not be thinking twice about the Floo."
"All right..." Harry drew his eyebrows together and stared at Dobby. "You just said that treats come all the time and you food-test them. Is that why Quilly called you when she saw the food arrive?"
"Oh, yes." Dobby beamed Harry a wide smile. "Dobby is the only house-elf who is doing the food-testing." He threw his head back so proudly that one of his hats fell off. "The other elves is always calling Dobby for it."
Harry was glad Dobby seemed so happy about the matter. Maybe when it came to elf-duties, that one was some sort of honour? Though that was hard to imagine. "How'd you get assigned a job like that?"
Dobby leapt off the bed and spun around once in his obvious glee. "Dobby volunteered!"
Harry swallowed. "You volunteered? But Dobby..."
"Oh, do not worry, Harry Potter," said Dobby, smiling widely. "Dobby has only been poisoned three times counting today. And wizard poisons, they is not very harmful to elves. Dobby sicks up and then he is right as rain--"