Chapter 2: Hermione
The next morning, Harry woke first. He took in the unusual surroundings and first worried that his ex-friend Ronald Weasley had gained some measure of competence and been able to break through the wards around his bed. However, he then felt the warm weight on top of him and remembered the events of the previous night.
Luna woke up to the sound of Harry calling her name gently to wake her up. At first, she was surprised at the lack of itching from the itching powder the other Ravenclaws liked to use on her bedsheets, and that she felt warm, as opposed to the near-hypothermia she usually had from the freezing charms her roommates liked to cast on her.
At first she remembered waking up in a cold, dark cupboard and began to panic, but she then remembered being rescued by Harry Potter, and relaxed.
Harry and Luna walked down to breakfast together, and sat at the Gryffindor table with Hermione.
Harry could not decide how he felt about Hermione. On the night his name came out of the Goblet, she was the only one to believe him, and was in the library with Harry until curfew, but the next morning she had no interest in the tournament and had instead decided that she needed to go a crusade to free the house elves, despite even Dobby trying to talk her out of it.
As far as he could tell, she still believed him, but had decided that the fate of the house elves (despite their objections to her plans) were far more important than him surviving the tournament.
Hermione appeared to not even notice Luna and instead went straight into ranting about house elf slavery. "I can't believe I ate food produced using slave labour. I'm not going to eat anything the house elves make until they're paid a proper wage."
Luna, not being familiar with the recent obsession Hermione had developed, made the mistake of asking a question "Have you asked the house elves if they want to be free?"
"It doesn't matter if they want to be free or not, slavery is always wrong, and I don't care about the reasons for it."
"Have you asked them why they don't want to be paid?"
"Slavery is wrong, and I won't eat anything until the Hogwarts house elves are paid a proper wage."
"Isn't your academic work going to suffer when you're hungry? Not to mention that even when you're magical, there's only so long you can go without food."
"Slavery is wrong, and I would rather die than eat food prepared by an enslaved elf."
"What about the fruit? There's not much preparation involved in that."
"Slavery is wrong, and I won't support it."
Harry had begun to look more upset as the exchange between Hermione and Luna went on, which Luna noticed. "Harry, could you come help me with my homework for Defence against the Dark Arts?"
"Sure, I'd be happy to. Hermione, I'll leave you to continue starving yourself in an attempt to fundamentally change the nature of an entire race without their consent."
"I'll be knitting hat to free house elves, since some of us object to slavery."
Harry followed Luna to an abandoned classroom and asked him "Harry, your friend Hermione is obviously insane, but could you tell me why you looked so upset?"
Harry was reluctant to answer, but Luna simply pulled him into a hug, and waited, and he soon broke down gave his answer.
"She's gone on a fucking hunger strike for the Hogwarts house elves, who don't want her so-called help, but when I ask it's 'He's the headmaster Harry, he must know best.'"
"The house elves here at Hogwarts don't have their fingers broken for burning bacon. They're not whipped for missing a speck of dust. They're not... They're not..."
Harry began crying again at this point and Luna pulled him into a tighter hug and said "It's OK Harry, I'm here for you. We have a plan and I promise you, you will never have to back there." Even if I have to kill the bastards myself she added silently. Luna was not by nature a hateful person. She could not bring herself to hate the bullies who locked her in a cold dark cupboard, with no care as to whether she lived or died, but she hated Harry's family, and she hated the man who had enabled their abuse year after year.
"Harry, your friend Hermione had the biggest wrackspurt infestation I've ever seen. Has she been acting particularly oddly recently?"
"The night my name came out of the Goblet of Fire, she was in the library looking for a way to get me out of it. The next morning, the only thing she can talk about is the plight of the house elves."
"Harry, I think someone might have been influencing her mind."
Harry paused for a moment to think about this. He knew from his experiences in second year that there were spells that could affect the mind in an extremely dramatic fashion, but the possibility hadn't even occurred to him until Luna had suggested it.
"Luna, I think Hermione might not be the only one who had her mind messed with. What can we do about it?"
Luna smiled, because Harry had included her and asked her for advice, but then a look of disappointment appeared on her face.
"I'm sorry Harry, I don't know how to counter mental spells. My family has always been naturally resistant to them."
"Miss Luna is being right, old longbeard be making She-Who-Knits do this. Miss Luna and the great Harry Potter Sir could be using the come and go room. It is being a most wondrous room, and Hokey is telling Dobby that James Potter once used it remove a compulsion charm from Lily Evans. Dobby is thinking that the great Harry Potter sir could use it in the same way."
"That sounds great Dobby, how do we get to it?"
"The great Harry Potter sir should be walking past the wall opposite the tapestry of Baranabas the Barmy on the seventh floor three times while thinking of what room the great Harry Potter sir wants."
"Luna, let's go and have a look at this room."
Harry and Luna both got up to start walking to the seventh floor, but Dobby said "Dobby be taking you there now" and snapped his fingers, and a moment later, they were in the seventh floor corridor.
"Luna? Could you try making the room? I think it might be more effective if it's created by someone with a natural resistance to mental manipulations, not to mention any problems that could be caused by any charms still on me."
"I'd be happy to" Luna skipped – not walked past the wall three times and a door appeared in the wall. Luna pulled open the door and walked in, and Harry followed. However, as soon as he had fully crossed into the room, he collapsed. Fortunately, Dobby had not left, and was able to conjure a mattress to cushion Harry's fall.
Luna looked panicked at this turn of events, but was relieved when seconds later, Harry woke up, and began swearing. "The old goatfucker and his pet slimeball are going to die. Dobby, I need you to get Hermione and bring her here."
"Dobby can be doing that." Dobby had learnt from seeing Harry collapse, and conjured another mattress before bringing Hermione to the room. Like Harry, Hermione collapsed, and like Harry she woke up in seconds, and the stated. "The old goatfucker and his pet slimeball are going to die"
Luna giggled, and Harry and Hermione both turned to look at her "That's exactly what Harry said when he woke up." Harry and Hermione both blushed slightly, but were interrupted by Hermione's stomach growling.
"I guess this room made that silencing charm fail. We should make plans to exterminate the vermin, but I don't think I'll be much use at the moment, as I've not eaten for three days thanks to the headbastard."
"Dobby?"
Dobby snapped his fingers and a plate of hot buttered toast appeared in front of Hermione. "Dobby will be asking Hokey to prepare yous a proper meal, whilst you be asking Dobby questions about House elves."
Dobby popped to the kitchens, and popped back less than a minute later and noticed that Hermione had already devoured the plate of toast, and the three sudents were now sitting around a table that the room had produced.
"Dobby is being pleased that miss Hermione is eating. Dobby is thinking the great Harry Potter Sir was getting worried. Dobby is thinking miss Hermione should bes asking her questions now."
"Dobby? Can you tell me why you only wanted to be paid a knut a year?"
"House elves are agreeing that room and board and magic being fair payment for work. House elves magic be coming from wizards they are being bonded with. Dobby only wanting to be paid a knut a year as symbolic gesture. Being paid means Dobby cannot be being trapped by another bad master. When house elves is getting paid, house elves are having received magic reduced, and house elves must compensate, and this bes causing us pain. Knut a year less than a faint itch, Dobby's current pay being more like the pain wizards be experiencing from what muggles be calling second degree burns."
Harry winced at this, being all too familiar with the pain Dobby was describing.
Hokey popped in with the lunch he had prepared, and added to what Dobby said "House elves is needing to work like wizards are needing to eat."
The trio dug into their lunch of steak and chips, with Hermione unable to concentrate on anything but devouring the food on the plate in front of her. Despite this, she still retained her table manners, and Harry and Luna were not in fear of losing their fingers to her ravenous appetite, as they would have been if Ronald were in her place.
Once Hermione had finished her lunch, she noticed something that both Harry and Luna had overlooked.
"Luna, why haven't you got any house colours on your robes?"
Author's Note
I was overwhelmed with the number of reviews to the first chapter, all of which are very much appreciated. Apologies to those I've not responded to individually, I've been very busy. As a general note for this story, remember that not everything is as it seems.