Chapter 11

Work was much harder for Holly and the other elves in the kitchen now that school had started. They had cooked all day for the enormous welcoming feast and then had to clean up the dishes late into the night. Now they were up again early preparing breakfast.

A recent new arrival, an elf named Kreacher, had made life more interesting. He was completely devoted to the dark side, but for Holly the important thing was that he creatively interpreted commands from masters he hated. He had contributed to the death of his former master, Sirius Black, by taking literally the command to 'get lost'. The other house elves thought this was horrible, but Holly thought it showed great initiative.

"Kreacher's new master Harry Potter was very late to school," Kreacher had gloated to her this morning. "Got hexed on Hogwarts Express and found by Auror Nymphadora Tonks hours later when train nearly back to London. Harry Potter missed all the feast and speeches, only got back early this morning. Kreacher happy."

Suddenly there was a hush. Holly turned around and saw a student had entered the kitchen. He was blond and sneering, and she saw the other elves shrink back from him.

"Who is that?" she asked Dobby.

"Draco Malfoy. Dobby knows Draco Malfoy well," said Dobby, "Used to hurt Dobby when Dobby worked for Malfoy house."

"Malfoy pointed at Holly. "You, come over here and polish my shoes," he demanded in a haughty voice.

"Holly should watch out for kicks," Dobby warned.

Holly was holding a rag with scouring powder she had been using to polish a pot. She decided to try a creative interpretation of her own. Polishing was polishing, right? She rushed up to the student and began briskly "polishing" the shine off his shoes.

She got a sudden shock as the boy whispered, "Holly, I'm Artemis Fowl in disguise. I'm here to help."

"Frond I'm glad you're here!" said Holly. "I'm going crazy in this place."

"It would be fruitless for me to give you clothing myself, since I'm not really a student. But I'll find someone else to do it."

"Hermione Granger," said Holly. "She leads an activist group for freeing the elves. She tried giving clothes to them a couple of years ago, but got no takers."

"She's on Draco's enemy list, but I'll talk to her," said Artemis. "We had best break off this conversation. I'll drop a coin as I leave. It's one of a pair I found in Draco's pocket; messages written on one appear on the other."

"Better pretend to kick me as you leave. Sorry about the shoes," said Holly.

Artemis kicked her without much force, and Holly made it look worse than it was. "You stupid elf! Look what you did to my shoes!"

He dropped the coin he had promised, and Holly palmed it.

Dobby came over. "Holly polished the shoes of Draco Malfoy with that? Holly is very funny. Dobby hopes Holly not in big trouble."

"Holly will have to punish herself, but worth it," Holly said, inwardly glowing with hope.

---

A little later Holly got a message on the coin. "Come up to the dining hall, quickly."

Artemis was arguing with a young woman. Holly realized she must be Hermione Granger.

"You just gave up?" Artemis said with a sneer in his voice. "A real do-gooder would have tried harder than that. Why didn't you test whether they wanted freedom or not? I dare you to throw this glove to the next house-elf that comes along."

"Don't listen to him, Hermione," said a red-headed boy beside her. "He's trying to get you in trouble."

"I'll do it. Just watch me," said Hermione.

Holly knew what she had to do. She walked close by, heading toward a table as if to wipe up a spill. Hermione threw the glove, and she caught it.

"You're free!" Hermione told her.

"Let's test that," said Artemis. "Stand on your head, elf."

To her great disappointment, Holly found that she still was compelled to obey.

"It didn't work," said Hermione sadly. "I'm sorry, I guess that students can't free elves."

Artemis jeered in his character of Draco. "You spent all that time on your SPEW nonsense and didn't even check to make sure it would work? You stupid mud-..."

"Silencio!" said Hermione, jabbing her wand at him. "I'm not taking that racist slur from you any more, Malfoy."

Hermione walked off with her friend, telling him, "I do feel stupid. I should have known last year. Dobby took clothes from me, but he still had to punish himself when he warned the D.A. about Umbridge."

Artemis couldn't speak, but he shook his head sadly at Holly. They would have to try something else.