Madge crouched, hidden, where the rafters met in the corner of the attic. From here, she could peer down along the wall between the upper floor and the wall, watching and listening to the Carmody family, safely in the shadows where she couldn't be seen in the case someone climbed the stairs.
Aleida Carmody stood at the stove, cooking dinner. With her wand raised, she charmed various kettles to stir themselves or adjust the heat as needed. Occasionally she would turn to the cradle a few feet away where baby Sean gurgled happily, enchanting it to continue a steady rocking motion. Four year old Kendra toddled around, putting various bits of food into a small pot and saying, "See! I make a potion!"
"Very nice, dear. Show it to our father when he gets home," her mother told her, flicking her wand again causing a spoon to start whizzing faster around in a tall kettle.
After a few minutes, quiet except for the clank of a kettle or creek of the cradle, with a few giggles from Kendra, the door banged open as Godwin Carmody entered. He wiped his boots, hung up his cloak, and pecked his wife on the nose as he stuck a finger in one of the bubbling pots.
As he licked it, Aleida asked, "Have a good day at work, dear?"
Godwin worked as a healer, specializing in healing of magically-inflicted injuries, so he saw a wide range of bizarre cases, mostly from spells gone wrong.
"Good, yes I suppose," he told his wife, "good while there were no serious cases today, only few odd burn victims, and a splinching. This poor old wizard left a toe behind. Quite hard to locate but minimal blood loss. Good, yes," he said again, "but a little dull for me."
As soon as he was done talking, Kendra ran around her father's legs, "See! See here!" she chattered excitedly, "See what I made!" She lifted the pot as high as her little arms could reach, standing directly in front of her father.
"Very lovely, Sprigs," Godwin told her, calling Kendra by her pet name, "What do you call it?"
Kendra thought for a moment, "Umm…cure for 'spinching'!" she replied proudly, trying to repeat the word her father said a few minutes earlier.
Godwin ruffled her hair and laughed, "That would be splinching, Sprigs. Cure for splinching." Then he bent down to the cradle and picked up Sean, who immediately reached to pull at his father's mess of curly hair.
"Oh no you don't," Godwin laughed as he gently lowered his son's hand.
"All right, you two," Aleida said to her daughter and husband as she waved the kettles onto the table, "Dinner is ready. Kendra, put that pot down and clean your hands, they're filthy!"
Godwin put Sean in a highchair and then set the table with a few waves of his wand. Plates and silverware chinked gently as they settled onto the wood. Kendra carefully set her pot in a corner and obediently washed her hands before climbing onto a chair. As soon as all the dishes settled in their places, her parents took their seats.
As Aleida began dishing up potatoes, Madge quietly crept out through an attic window, leaving the family to eat unobserved.
Climbing down the roof and jumping softly to the ground, she walked a short ways away to make sure no one heard her before disappearing with a loud crack.
A few miles down the road, she reappeared, the farmhouse she was heading towards still a ways off. The sky was clear, the first hints of stars visible and the moon was beginning to rise, and a warm breeze blew through the trees. Madge didn't mind giving herself a bit of a walk, and actually preferred it.
Presently Madge heard whistling coming down the road behind her, getting louder. At times like this, she appreciated standing just over two feet tall. It made hiding really easy.
The whistling drew up behind her, and Madge ducked off the road and behind a bush. A man strolled past, and as his whistling faded back into the night, Madge crept out and continued to the farmhouse.
She stopped short of the house itself, keeping to the shadows alongside the barn. She snapped her long spindly fingers and a bird appeared. It called, "tweet-twe-twe-tweet-tweet tweet."
Madge waited.
After a few minutes, Madge's husband appeared, darting through the shadows between the house and barn. He was only slightly taller than Madge, his fingers equally as bony, ears equally as large, eyes equally as wide and round and glowing.
He picked up one of Madge's hands and held it between his own, "Hokus thins Madge is pretty tonight," he said in a high pitched voice, looking into her brown eyes with his green ones.
Madge giggled in an even higher voice, "Hokus really thinks so?" She smiled as she brushed a hand down the front of her clean blue dress, smoothing the skirt. She giggled some more and added, "And Hokus is very handsome."
He did indeed look quite smart, with brown trousers, an ivory shirt, and green plaid vest.
Hokus lifted one long finger and stroked one of Madge's large ears affectionately.
"Madge thinks we should see the children," she said softly.
Hokus entwined his fingers with hers and they scrambled through the shadows and slipped through the barn doors. The only visible inhabitants were a couple of aging horses and a sleepy cow. The cow looked up briefly and stared at the elves before lowering her head down into the hay.
They climbed the ladder to the loft, Hokus behind Madge. The loft held nothing, save for hay, among which were nestled three young elves. Pookey slept in the middle with one arm around each of her younger brothers, Kampel on the right and baby Rudder on the left. Underneath some of the hay, the children resembled a cluster of heads, their tiny bodies mostly obscured.
"Pookey is a good sister," Madge observed, whispering which made her voice sound even higher.
"Hokus is sorry they are already asleep, sorry they could not see you tonight," Hokus replied as he put a skinny arm around Madge, "but they had a busy day. Pookey is teaching Kampel easy magic. He is not a good student but Pookey is patient. And Rudder likes making mischief for everyone."
"We will let them sleep. Madge can come back tomorrow." She smiled up at Hokus.
The climbed down the ladder and exited the barn, first carefully checking to see that no one would see them. Hokus asked, "Does Madge want to see the North family?" indicating the people in the farmhouse.
Approaching the house, Hokus led Madge around to the side, to keep them out of view as much as possible. He snapped his fingers as quietly as he could and they slowly began to rise, floating toward an attic window. When they landed on the sloped roof, Hokus silently lifted the window. Madge slipped inside and he followed. They crept halfway across the attic floor, weaving around baskets of vegetables, to a spot in the middle, between the vegetable on one side and two beds at the other, where they laid down and pressed their eyes to a crack in the floorboards.
The elves watched the North family below, going about their after-dinner activities. Harriet North stood over a tub of water, dishes piled high in it. With one hand she picked up a dish, and with her wand raised in the other, said "Aguamenti". A stream of water squirted out, rinsing off bits of food. At the rough wooden table, her husband Albert sat, working on repairing farm tools by hand. Although he was a wizard, Albert preferred the muggle way, by hand. To him, the real magic was being able to make something different and new, now that was magic.
At the other end of the room, sitting on the floor, the children played with their most prized possession- a toy quiddich set, two complete teams that could hover around. The seven year old Louise gave one of her chaser's brooms a tap with a finger and it moved forward, preparing to score. Her nine year old brother, Freddie, quickly tapped one of his beaters, which flew forward and into the chaser. Louise squealed and Freddie shouted, "Ha!"
Their father looked up from his work, as though the noise jolted him back to reality, "Son, play nicely," he said gruffly but quietly.
"Yessir," Freddie looked up briefly then lowered his eyes under his father's gaze.
Madge and Hokus watched the children play for a little while longer. Louise had become visibly upset at Freddie's aggressiveness in the game and her playing showed it. She made mistakes, and her frustration grew even when Freddie didn't do anything overly forceful.
"Children, to bed soon," Harriet told them.
"But Mum," Louise started to complain, "I want to try to win!"
Her mother gave her a look and sternly said, "Bed."
Louise frantically tried in vain to redeem herself. Madge and Hokus looked at each other and smiled. Hokus pointed a finger ever so slightly through the crack and in the direction of the game. Slowly Louise's players began to perform successful moves. As the game ended, she didn't quite win but her loss wasn't catastrophic. The children gathered up the pieces and placed them in a box. Right before they climbed to the attic, Madge and Hokus stealthily slipped out the way they entered, down the house and darting back through the shadows to the barn.
"Madge will have a nice day tomorrow, yes?" Hokus asked and hugged Madge.
Madge giggled, "Madge will. And so will Hokus?"
Hokus nodded. When they dropped their embrace, Hokus ducked into the barn and Madge darted a short ways down the road before snapping her fingers and returning to the Carmody house. She snuck back inside.
The family was still below, but not for long. Madge overheard Godwin telling Kendra, "Leave the pot down here. It doesn't need to go in your bed. By morning maybe it will have brewed, yes?"
Kendra accepted this answer, allowing herself to be brought upstairs and Aleida helped her get ready for bed. Just in time Madge scrambled up into the shadowy rafters to hide. She waited until the family settled into bed and fell asleep. Then she climbed down from the rafters and down the ladder out of the attic. Going over to Kendra's pot, which had been left on a stool in a corner, she pointed a finger at it and slowly the mixture began to bubble a tiny bit. Satisfied after a few minutes, Madge lowered the finger and the bubbling ceased. The mixture appeared to have cooked. Madge smiled to herself. Come morning, Kendra would be happy.