"Harry Potter?"
A nervous voice from Harry's right made him turn around. It was a tiny house elf, smaller than average, with a head like a potato. Harry had never seen a hunchbacked elf, but here was one right in front of him, a rounded back and almost no neck, with the head set at an awkward angle, almost as if the elf were in the middle of shrugging and looking up at the sky at the same time. His eyes were as blue as the sky in autumn, and Harry found himself wondering if he really spent most of his time with his eyes to the heavens to have absorbed its colour so well.
"Yes." Harry answered even as he watched the autumn-sky eyes turn dark with an unexpected rain shower.
"Excuse the disturbance, sir, but there is one among us that'd like a word with the Boy Who Lives, sir, if you don't mind it, sir." The elf seemed to be quaking in his boots at the fear of being turned away, but his face had the look of someone determined to do what must be done.
"Of course. What's your name? What can I do to help?"
The elf seemed shocked at his question, but collected himself swiftly and made a clumsy bow.
"Rumby, sir."
"Yes, Rumby?"
The elf moved a little to the side and two more of his comrades shuffled closer to Harry, bearing a stretcher between them. On it, among folds of tea towels rusty with blood, peeked a familiar face with a tomato nose.
"Winky!" Harry gasped.
Winky's eyes fluttered open at the sound of her name. She looked at Harry unseeingly, without focus, as if looking at the world from the depths of an ocean.
"Winky?" Harry repeated cautiously, leaning towards her. This time Winky's golden orbs turned slowly to look at his face, slowly focusing as if she were waking from a dream.
"Harry Potter?" Winky whispered. "Why is Winky alone, Harry Potter?" She seemed to be having difficulty in finding her words, but she went straight to the point, like someone who didn't feel like she'd able to talk too much for too long.
"Alone, Winky? Everyone's here." Even as he said these words, Harry felt a pang of pain. He remembered the faces of Tonks and Lupin, Fred, even Firenze, and Dumbledore, and realized that not all of them were here. From the Great Hall came the sounds of celebration, but mingled with the rejoicing was a deep loss, a void that couldn't be filled. The cheers and the laughter sounded hollow. Harry tried to brush the melancholy thoughts away like cobwebs, trying to keep in mind that the Deatheaters were defeated and Voldemort was dead, that it was the beginning of times happier than they had been for half a century. But like cobwebs, the horrors of the war hung in the air, refusing to budge, until the dead were buried and a true closure was reached.
"Harry Potter? Where is Dobby? Why has Dobby not come to fight beside Winky?" Winky said once more, her voice a little louder this time.
For a moment, Harry wasn't sure what to say. He was tempted to lie, to say Dobby was fine, but he couldn't bring himself to say so to the earnest golden eyes staring beseechingly at him.
"Dobby is gone, Winky. Dead." He answered shortly. To his surprise, a faint smile lit up Winky's face.
"How?" She seemed to say, her lips puckering, but no sound came out.
"He was trying to save us. Me. It was Bellatrix. Got him with a dagger. He disapparated. With us. But it was too late. He died. In my arms." Harry tried to explain as best as he could through the sudden wave of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. He almost choked at the last words, and for a moment he couldn't say another word. Harry regretted having to be the bearer of bad news, and the pain of his own loss was mixed with the pain of causing further pain to the elf suffering in front of him who had already gone through so much. To his surprise, Winky's smile widened.
"Dobby was a real friend, Harry Potter. Even when Winky hated him, Dobby never left her side." Winky took a deep breath. "Dobby used to say that one day Harry Potter will kill He Who Must Not Be Named. And Winky hated him for it because Winky's master Crouch was with He Who Must Not Be Named. But Dobby made Winky promise to fight against the Dark Lord when the fight broke out, and Winky promised." Winky paused for breath again. "Dobby Promised to fight beside Winky, Harry Potter, but he has broken his promise."
"I'm sorry Winky."
Winky smiled again.
"It's alright Harry Potter. Winky is going to meet Dobby again. Winky is going to meet Dobby right now. And she is going to forgive Dobby."
Winky closed her eyes.