In Which Denizens of the Deep are Addressed and Work is Delegated Tomorrow
Far underground, in a dank, pitch-black room, a match flared. The light, barely bright enough to illuminate the features of its creator, flickered and swayed in a small draft. The light was lowered by a black, humanoid outline, and briefly seemed to disappear, before lighting a lantern in the center of an intricate pentagram drawn on the cold flagstones in the center of the floor. The lantern light, while faint, illuminated more of the room than the match had; it reflected dully off stone walls, and glittered sharply on five pairs of large, black eyes.
"In the name of the bloodwinds and the denizens of old, under the twilit sky and the master's watchful eye, we gather. In the bowels of this ancient keep, home to the grimdark and the doombuilt, home to the-"
"Tinkywinky," Floopsy interrupted, "Tonight is my shift for cleaning the Hufflepuff common room, and I need to be there in eight minutes. I'm happy to help you out with whatever you're doing, but if you're just going to spout Lovecraft at me then I'd rather come back at a slightly more convenient time."
"Fine," Tinkywinky replied mulishly. "Then I hereby call the first meeting of HEREC to order. First, attendance. Floopsy?"
"Here."
"Moopsy?"
"Here."
"Spoopsy?"
"Here."
"Cottontail?
"Present!"
Everyone glared at Cottontail for a moment, before Tinkywinky began to speak again. "Our first job is to obtain the affirmative reply of one Harry Potter, in regard to his Hogwarts acceptance letter. I have received intelligence that Professor McGonagall has already sent two letters to Harry Potter, and neither have received a reply. I will now open the floor to suggestions as to how to deliver the acceptance letter to Harry (who will now be known as Target H)."
Silence reigned for approximately four seconds before chaos staged a rebellion with Floopsy, Moopsy and Spoopsy all talking at once. After Tinkywinky had banged his gavel several times, blown a deafening whistle, stomped his feet and eventually just tackled the other four elves, silence wearily climbed back onto its throne, replaced its now dented crown and ruled once again.
Cottontail tentatively raised her hand and murmured, "I have an idea. What if we just had one of the teachers, sir, go to Target H's house and hand deliver the letter?"
Everyone glared at Cottontail for a moment, before Moopsy suddenly shrieked, "OH! Wait, what if we just, um, send, a bunch of letters? 'Cause um, if we send him, two or three letters at a time, and, um, if one of them misses his house, it'll all be okay because, um, two others will get there anyway?"
The four other house elves thought about the plan for a moment, and then three of them began to cheer at the sheer brilliance. After some pointed glaring, Cottontail began to cheer too.
Tinkywinky looked around the group proudly and said, "So it's a plan, then? Brilliant! Let's all meet here at the same time tomorrow, and then we'll delegate responsibilities and things. And may the fallen seraphim of yore-"
"Oh, shut up Tinkywinky, you melodramatic git."
