This is the story of how Winky becomes emancipated and accepts her status as a free elf. However, it is a long process, longer than even Len Longear's ears…
Desperate after losing the Crouches, Winky sets her big brown eyes on a new master, and chooses the only teacher at Hogwarts who is "bad boy" enough to be a substitute for her beloved Barty jnr: Professor Severus Snape! I hear a collective gasp, but be assured, dear readers, this is NOT a love story between an elf and a man. Winky is obsessed with wanting to be Snape's elf, because she wants to redeem herself by being the perfect house-elf of a hard taskmaster. Of course, Professor Snape does not want a house-elf at all, and when Winky is too persistent, he turns NASTY…
After reading "Winky's Obsession", you will never look at a house-elf's ears again with the same innocence…
1.) A World's Collapsing
24 June 1995: The evening of the third task of the Triwizard Tournement
The Hogwarts kitchen was busier than usual this evening, since there was a feast to mark the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournement. Now the dinner was finished, and the house-elves could hear the noise of chairs scraping the floor and moving feet leaving the Great Hall above them. They were very busy cleaning the pots, pans, plates, goblets and cutlery.
Dobby, carrying a tray of freshly cleaned plates to one of the cupboards to stack them, felt a sense of foreboding. Something was just not right. He was afraid that something would happen to Harry Potter. The sheer thought of it made his ears quiver. But he would be there, at the ready, to safe him! Dobby looked around the kitchen. He saw Len Longear running his hands in cleaning charm position over the biggest saucepan of the kitchen, one long ear hanging in it, whistling as usual. Dobby's eyes went over to the group of female polishing elves, "Sparkly's polishing girls," as they called themselves. Some of the girl's eyes rested dreamily on Len's beautiful long ears, and Dobby shook his head, grinning. They polished the cutlery by running their ears slowly over the silver, but not touching it. Knives, forks and spoons were shining under their care, and many an elf had a satisfied look over her face. Winky was sitting amongst them, polishing desert spoons, and Dobby noticed that her clothes had even got filthier since yesterday. He slowly approached her, and she looked up. "Oh dear," he thought, "she's already had too many butterbeers. This does not look good…."
She looked at him, glassy eyed, and her concentrated look changed into a sad expression, then her eyes turned back to the task in front of her, her long ears drooping. Dobby walked behind her and whispered into one of her drooping ears.
"I is going up now, oh Winky, I is really worried!"
Winky's tear-stained face looked disapproving. "You is a bad elf, Dobby! You is going where you has no business! If master sees you…no elf has any business at the Tournament!"
"Ah Winky," muttered Dobby, his ears flapping. "there is bad business going on, and the great Harry Potter might needs saving!"
"Like the last time…" replied Winky curtly. "He wills really like it, sure! You has no right to meddle with wizard business. You ends up in front of the Department of Magical Creatures the way you carries on. You shoulds be ashamed of yourself!"
Suddenly her big brown eyes filled with tears. "But if you must go, sees if Master Crouch is there, and tells me how master is. Harry Potter says that he is ill—oh, he needs his Winky!" She dissolved into big sobbing tears, which would have splashed onto the clean cutlery, if Sparkly beside her had not quickly snatched it from under her dripping nose.
"What is you doing, Winky?" asked the leader of the polishing brigade. "There is work to be done and masters to be served. No time for tears!" Despite her reprimand, Sparkly looked rather gently at Winky, feeling very protective of this new "girl" in the team. Winky stood up, swayed, staggered past Dobby, who tried to pat her arm, grabbed a wooden stool, and sat in front of the fire. And stared, and stared.
When a concerned Dobby tried to approach her, she squealed. "Leave me alone! You does not understand!" He stood beside her, with a puzzled look on his face, not knowing what to do. He liked Winky, but wished she would get over her dismissal and enjoyed her new work. He was really happy here, not only because he got paid, but especially because his hero, the famous Harry Potter, was at the school.
The other elves looked over, and some shook their heads in disapproval. Len pointed his long finger to his forehead, which made Shiny, Sparkly's deputy, giggle. Dobby, lifting another tray of plates, whispered to Sparkly.
"Try and keep her off the butterbeer, will you?" She shrug her shoulders. "'tis not easy, Dobby. I just don't know where she hides her supplies!" Dobby stacked the plates in the cupboard, and then with a quick glance around, sneaked out of the kitchen.
Work in the kitchen continued to run like clockwork, apart from one little elf sitting on a wooden stool, staring into the fire, tears splashing on her dirty skirt. After a while, Winky, looked around, and seeing herself unobserved, ran one of her long fingers along the left side of the fireplace in a peculiar fashion. A number of bricks sprang aside, revealing a very small door. Her long hand opened it quickly, pulled out a bottle of butterbeer, closed the door, and moved the bricks back into position. Before any of the other elves could have even said "housework", Winky had opened the bottle with her teeth, and poured the contents into her mouth. It was only the enormous hiccough that gave away her secret.
"Oh no!" thought Sparkly, "here we go again!" She whispered to the other polishing elves: "get ready for the teatowel, girls!" Brighty, youngest elf in the team, suppressed a snigger and quickly glanced at the forks in front of her. Sure enough, soon afterwards Winky began to sway on her stool, and, after a combination of sobs and hiccoughs, she fell into the fireplace. Sparkly and her girls, the teatowel at the ready, ran over and covered the now snoring elf, their heads shaking in disapproval, their long ears seriously flapping.
The next part of Chapter 1 will have Winky sitting alone in a deserted kitchen, musing about her family and life with the Crouches. Her reminiscences are interrupted firstly by Dobby, who tells tales of horror from the Tournament, and then by a wizard in a black cloak whose severe and authoritative manner has a comforting and sobering effect on her…
© Winkyteatowel