Ch 12 Harry buys Hermione a house elf
A/N
Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist ex-slave who lived around the time of the US Civil War. There was a song sung by slaves about following the "Drinking Gourd," following the North Star north to freedom. No reference to any contemporary person or song was or is intended.
Harry and Ginny left for San Francisco Saturday, right after Mary Sue and Patrick's wedding. They had to leave the wedding reception early, and they did not exactly get to sleep or wake up when they should have, but by Sunday afternoon they were awake in San Francisco.
Because they were generally in "safe" spaces there was only one Auror couple traveling with them. Besides Dobedo was with them, both to learn and to help protect Harry and Ginny.
Sunday afternoon and early evening there was a meet and greet session, where all the witches and wizards who were going to be taking classes, plus spouses and children, were there. There were 20 couples, and 10 of them were both taking the classes, plus 5 unattached, so there were going to be 35 in the class, a large class. There were 10 from North America, 7 from China and 3 from Japan, 2 from India, and 2 from Pakistan, 3 from Latin America, 4 from Africa, 4 from Europe including Harry and Dobedo. There were 2 witches and 2 wizards there who were going to be teaching the class, plus 4 other people from the school.
Harry almost immediately got into a conversation with several of the other people who were going to be taking the class. Harry's project was the new magic/Muggle drill, and the discussion soon got technical and way over Ginny's head. There was plenty of precedent for a small machine powered by magic instead of electricity or an internal combustion engine, and supported by magic instead of a metal superstructure. There were also lots of issues, and with a drill, with the pressure of the bit and the need to precisely aim it, precisely guide how deep it was going, the problems were multiplied. As soon as someone heard "drill" they though of a small hand drill, easy. When they found out that it was a rock drill and that it was drilling into magic space with the unique drill bits, things got a lot more interesting and complicated.
Ginny soon drifted over to some of the small group of mothers. The group she started talking to was talking about all the things that the school had for small children, the co-op classes, the way that it was easy to bring a small child along when you or your spouse was going to school here. There was also a lot of talk about all the things to do on the American West Coast, all of it because of Magic easy to get to.
Having been there before the San Francisco area was becoming a more comfortable place for Ginny.
There were 2 house elves in the class in addition to Dobedo, one from North America and one from China, and Dobedo went over to talk to them. They were deep in a discussion about free house elves, traditional owned house elves, and another category that had appeared in North America and China, mostly Hong Kong but spreading, 'affiliated' house elves, house elves not totally free but not owned and subservient, really slaves like the traditional house elf.
Dobedo was very satisfied with his status, and he knew Kreacher was as well. As the house elves talked about 'affiliated' house elves it seemed to Dobedo that in some ways the Potter/Weasley house elves were 'affiliated' house elves, sort of. Kreacher had a child, and Dobedo did want to mate and have children. They both wanted something better for their children, but at the same time had immense pride in being Potter/Weasley house elves.
Dobedo wanted more information, so the Chinese house elf got out her laptop computer and brought up what was about 100 pages of information, started to show it to Dobedo, and asked if she could e-mail it to Dobedo. When she realized who Dobedo was with, The Harry Potter, Dobedo promptly asked that they not tell anybody, since Harry was enjoying his anonymity.
"Is Harriet Tubman," said the female elf. "Is you knowing Hermione Grainger?"
Dobedo said, "Hermione Granger Weasley Harry Potter's sister in law." Dobedo then whispered some things in elfish that conveyed the relationship much better than any other language could.
After a little discussion is whispered elfish Harriet said of Hermione, "Is famous as friends of house elves and goblins. Harriet's dream to meet them."
"Just meet them?" asked Dobedo.
"To move to England and Switzerland and work for freedom of house elves! To mate and have children at least affiliated, maybe grandchildren truly free!" said Harriet. "House elves where I live say that would take magic more powerful that there is in the world. Should be happy being able to work for my master and learn."
"Is master here?" asked Dobedo.
Harriet answered, "Over there, young man and woman is grandson and granddaughter-in-law of master. Where is your computer?"
"Harry has one," said Dobedo. "Dobedo need one?"
"Yes, and own e-mail address" said Harriet. "Masters not think house elves need anything! Corner in kitchen and some rags to sleep on."
"Dobedo has own room, bed big enough for 2," said Dobedo. "House elves has own quarters at Harry Potters house, 4 bedrooms, living room, own bath, heated and air conditioned! Mabel, Dobedo's mother's mother, in one room, Dobe in one room, Kreacher and Azalea his mate in another and Harry Potter made another for their baby. Is electricity in all rooms."
"Own room! Own Bed, real bed!" said Harriet. "Needs to meet Harry! Needs to talk to him!" There was much more talk in elfish about the relationships, conveying the respect and love between all the Potter and Weasley family and the house elves. Much of that conversation is impossible to translate, elfish having many more words to convey subtle relationships.
Harry was enjoying his anonymity, so when someone spoke of some big war in England that had just been won a year and a half ago he kept quiet. Finally someone asked him if he knew of the war, and he said he did. They asked if he was involved, and he said he was, as were many of his classmates, including his wife, but they all wanted to put that part of their history behind them and get on with life. He was interested in what they were doing with the WWWW(Wizards World Wide Web). Harry successfully steered the conversation away from the war and his part in it.
Harry knew that the WWWW had server farms in California, Hong Kong, and Switzerland, and that they did handle some Muggle traffic as well as Magical Traffic, enough traffic to make up for the bandwidth they were using on the Muggle WWW. Harry also knew that both in China and in North America they were very concerned about making enough money to pay for the Muggle technology that they were using. They could always steal product without being caught, and up to a point duplicate some of the electronics, but products were getting harder and harder to duplicate as they got smaller and smaller. All of the teachers and many of Harry's classmates commented on how it was getting harder and harder to stay hidden from Muggles.
Ginny had to get up at 4:00 AM California time to eat breakfast and go to the Fitchburg Finches for practice. She was back about 2:30 in the afternoon, so she had time for a nice nap before Harry got back from classes. No one flying for the Fitchburg Finches had gotten the Firebolt Special Edition, and they were amazed by how well it flew. Ginny could out maneuver the seeker and fly faster as well, so head to head she was the superior seeker. As a chaser she was very hard to defend against. Before the end of the first week all the US and Canadian teams had representatives talking to the Firebolt Broom company, and Ginny was going to be featured in some of the companies North American advertising.
The first full week of classes for Harry had to do with computer and data processing technology. The first part of the class was making sure everyone, including Dobedo, had their own laptop computer and e-mail address, and get e-mail addresses for anyone who did not have one. Dobedo got an e-mail address; Harry already had not only a laptop but also an e-mail address. They first talked about amazing things the Muggle computers could do, and all the inventive ways the magicians had found to interface with the computers. What was even more amazing is that more and more of the magic was being developed by Muggles, or being developed by Magical people who developed an amazing way in interacting with and displaying information from a computer, and then with Muggle associates finding a way to duplicate the same magic for Muggles. Magical people had found a way to keep a small laptop in your pocket or bag and with a wand creating a virtual screen and keyboard, but with screens projected out of Muggle glasses and the first keyboards that could be projected by Muggles on a desk and you could type on the display much of the magic was not too far away from being ready for Muggles.
They also talked about medical displays, and here the Wizarding community had learned as much from the Muggles as they from the Wizards. The ability to see and display things in 3 dimensions had originated with wizards, but seeing different things in color, having more than one way to display things, and the readouts on the side of a patient's bed all originated with Muggles. Wizards could usually get by without the wires and tubes that Muggles used, but occasionally they needed IV's to get something into someone, and some of the Muggle medical supplies were better than anything the Magical community had come up with.
Since they were talking about displays Harry brought out his Marauders Maps of Hogwarts. The way it tracked people was amazing but at the edge of what a couple of the teachers could do. When he talked about finding hidden rooms, and how thoroughlysome of them were hidden everyone was amazed. The magic Harry was talking about was before the "how do I show it" technology. The hard magic was the "How do I find it" magic. Harry did get a couple of tips on how to put people on maps, and how to create maps that displayed things differently, skills that would come in handy as he developed his skills in mapping.
Harry wanted to know about indexing the magical stuff stored in Switzerland. No one in the class knew who Harry was (except the house elves) since no last names were used, and this group was very technical and not very political, but many of the Witches and Wizards knew of the vast storehouse of information and artifacts stored in Switzerland. Some of them were absolutely flabbergasted that there was nothing from The International Confederation of Witches and Wizards in Switzerland on the WWWW (Wizards World Wide Web.) Some of the groups with headquarters in Switzerland had a presence on the WWWW, but the governing body did not.
Wednesday after class Dobedo walked over to Harry holding Harriet's hand. "Master Harry is Harriet Tubman, house elf friend. Harriet has permission to eat with me. Harriet and Dobedo want to eat with you and Mrs. Potter."
"Sure, you are staying at the same apartment Ginny and I are staying at, and we would be pleased to have your friend over for dinner too," Harry said, totally unaware of just how radical a move this was. House elves sometimes ate with their masters, although that was rare. But for a house elf to bring a friend to dinner, the social implications of that type of dining of equals was extraordinarily unusual.
"Ginny, I'm back," Harry shouted as he walked in the door of the apartment where they were staying. "Dobedo has invited a friend to dinner with us."
"The Chinese restaurants around here are the best," Ginny said as she got up out of the chair where she had been napping. "We can easily take the floo to the Oriental Magical Buffet."
"Is Harried Tubman," Harriet said going up to Ginny and vigorously shaking her hand.
"Is Ginny Potter," Ginny responded, a little surprised. She had visited enough friends with house elves over her eighteen years, and this was the first house who ever introduced herself and shook Ginny's hand.
The two couples took the floo to the restaurant, Harry and Ginny leading, Dobedo and Harriet following, both couples holding hands.
As they sat eating Harriet shared with Harry her dream to work with him and Hermione on house elf rights. Harriet asked about house elf rights in Britain, in Switzerland, and in Europe in general. Harry shared some of what he had found out, including the distain for house elf rights in some of the mid-east.
As they went back home Ginny said to Harry, "I think Dobedo likes Harriet. Look at them together!"
Dobedo and Harriet were holding hands, quietly but passionately talking to each other.
Harriet and Dobedo spent all of their free time together. On Friday they approached Harry and Dobedo pleaded, "You arraigned for a mate for Kreacher. Could you get Harriet for me? Is bold asking, but Harry Potter such a good master that I dare."
"I'll talk to the couple whose family owns her," Harry said, uncomfortable that house elves were bought and sold like property.
Saturday morning Harry had classes, so Ginny had a chance to relax. She did have a chance to see some of the classes and activities that the college had for pre-school and grade school children, since Saturday classes were common.
Saturday afternoon Harry and Ginny got together with Dobedo and Harriet and the Chinese couple whose family owned Harriet. The couple had contacted their grandparents. Mid-afternoon the Chinese couple came over to the Potter's apartment.
Everyone had been in class together except for Ginny, so Harry started out by introducing the Songs. "Ginny, this is Ted and Tammy Song, Ted, Tammy, this is my wife Ginny.
"Ginny is a professional Quidditch player, and has been practicing with North American teams since it is a little too far to commute back to Great Britain for practice. She plays for the only all-female team in the world, the Holyhead Harpies, and will be a starting chaser in the spring."
Everyone shook hands, including the house elves, which was not normal. House elves normally stood quietly in the background, but not Harriet.
Ted started out, "I understand you have expressed an interest in Harriet."
"She would like to live in England and work with my sister-in-law Hermione Grainger," Harry said.
"She's not exactly free to do whatever she wants," Ted responded.
"What would it take to allow her to do what she wants to do?" Harry inquired.
"Compensation for the classes she has attended. She has talked herself into attending an amazing number of classes, and we will be losing a very well educated house elf," Ted replied.
"I don't think that will be a problem," Harry said.
Ted handed Harry an itemized list, about ten years' worth of classes, a rather substantial bill. After his initial shock at the size of the bill Harry said, "I will pass this on to my financial manager, and he will have the funds to you within the week."
"Harriet has to go back to China with us, and you have to come over and pick her up. She cannot leave from here," Ted said.
After the negotiations were completed the couples made small talk for a small time and parted ways, Harriet leaving with her current owners.
When they were gone Ginny sighed into Harry's chest, "Oh Harry, it's another love story! Dobedo and Harriet! And after Tabitha over Christmas, MMMMMM, I love you!"
Harry enjoyed Ginny's kiss, but the story of Dobedo and Harriet didn't seem quite so simple to him. He called for Fawkes and sent a parchment to Nausicaa Scheria to see if there were any prophesies about this. The answer Fawkes brought back was positive, but vague and a little disturbing. "100, 1000, 10,000 little things, preparing the way. Harriet has no terrible omens attached to her, has positive omens, and will be a challenge. Not easy but good."
Harry thought back to Dumbledore, "Do the right thing not the easy thing." Getting Harriet was going to be the right thing, not the easy one.
Great!?
Harry shared all this with Ginny, who said, "Why do things have to complicate our Happily Ever After ending." To make matters worse, to finalize everything Harry was going to have to travel to China after his class. It was already looking like he was going to have to spend a couple of extra days in North America to work on the drill with Wiski. Harry would be gone an extra week, a week when Ginny was back home.
Sunday was the closest thing to a relaxing day Harry and Ginny had, on their own but for most of the day in a very safe environment, from their hotel room to a restaurant owned by a witch and wizard to the school where they met with some of the other couples and back. At least they had some comfortable couple time, without the looming deadlines that had haunted them the rest of the week.
Monday Ginny's practice started again, 3 days at the Fitchburg Finches followed by 2 days at the Sweetwater All-Stars. She was going to have to go back to Britain Saturday morning.
The 2nd week of classes covered a variety of subjects. There was some on mechanical magic/Muggle devices like the crane Harry had seen used at Hogwarts and the drill they were going to be building, and Harry was going to be learning more about that the next Monday and Tuesday.
One of the strangest experiences was the "non-magical room." There were a lot of theories about where the power to do magic came from. They had used the same strange paper that was used to shield electrical and communication wiring in Harry's house, but in this case they had created a series of rooms inside rooms surrounded by this paper, with you walking through a door, around over 360 degrees, then through a door and up and over and down and around again over 360 degrees, and then through another door and into this room. When you were in the room wand magic, in fact most magic, was difficult or impossible. Harry, who was good at feeling the presence of magic, could feel the further he went into the rooms something he called the absence of magic. Harry said in the room it felt like Vernon Dursley won.
To Harry one very interesting thing was the reaction of the house elves. Harry went into the room with Dobedo and Harriet. They were far more upset than Harry. When asked Dobedo said, "All house elves is connected. When we go into room connection is broken. Very alone. Much worry. No love-no hate-no nothing. Worse than bad, nothing." Harriet and Dobedo absolutely refused to go into the "non-magical room" alone. The only way they would go in was with each other.
When they were out of the "non-magical room" Harry asked Harriet, "I thought that you wanted to be free. Was that too free?"
Harriet looked at Dobedo, at Harry, and finally said, "Want to be free, free enough even to go into non-magical room with Dobedo. Everyone, even free house elf, needs someone. No one must be free from everyone and everything. Just not owned and bought and sold like property."
Harriet then looked at Harry again, saying, "Non-magical room hard lesson for Harriet Tubman. Hard lesson. Too alone, too alone."
Towards the end of the week they got into cell phones, mobiles. Magicians in China had just started to put up cell phone antenna in areas where the only good place to put an antenna was either in a place hidden by magic, only accessible by magic, or the only way to get cables in and out was through some magical short cut. Harry got excited about this, and wanted to know more about it. After all the talk about Magical people needing to help the rest of the world here finally was a way they could. In private conversations after class Harry was given the name of people to contact when he went to China, probably adding another day to his trip.
Saturday morning Harry and Ginny finally had a chance to talk abut the past week. "I had a good week of practice, Harry," Ginny said. "We practice a lot harder at the Harpies, though. I'm in much better shape than most of the wizards and the few witches that play over here! I think the Firebolt Broom Company had also had a very good week."
"Did you recruit the girl from Texas?" asked Harry.
"She plays with the Sweetwater All-Stars but I think she is from, oh somewhere close to Texas but not Texas," Ginny replied. "She is good, real good, and she is going to come over to try out and talk to some people. I'm not sure if she wants to move over to England."
Harry had been trying to keep Ginny informed day by day, but he had to summarize all that had been going on, and let her know what he was going to be doing for the next week. Ginny resigned herself to missing Harry for the next week, and left for home Saturday afternoon so she could be at her parents Sunday morning.
Sunday Harry reviewed all the things he had to do the next week. He also tried to get a little rest; he had a very busy week coming up. Harriet Tubman went back to China to get ready to move. Dobedo stayed with Harry, to protect him and maybe to learn more.
Monday morning Harry met with Herodotus Budziszewski and a couple of people who Harry did not know but who he found out worked for him and were involved in the rock and magic space drilling. Harry found out, somewhat to his surprise, that he was paying for Dudley to fly to the U.S. to work with them. Harry did not have a lot to contribute to the making of the magic/Muggle drill except to point out that some of the spaces they were working on were very small, and the smaller they made it the better. He ended up approving making two different drilling machines; it was beginning to look like his chief contribution was to give Wiski permission to spend more money.
Harry did have a brief meeting with the Apparating Research Team, Isaac & Golda Swartz and their Elf assistants Gregory & Delores Freeelf. After a brief discussion on the progress they were making on apparating Delores remarked, "So you are getting Harriet Tubman!"
"Do you know her?" asked Harry.
"She met us this past week," Delores said, "but I had heard of her before. She is certainly not your normal house elf."
Dobedo was with Harry, and he piped in with, "Not normal at all, very special, very special!"
"May we talk?" asked Delores, and when Harry nodded yes the three elves went off and had a long discussion. Harry would later learn that the discussion was mostly in elfish, since what they were trying to talk about was hard to discuss in any other language.
Harry was beginning to wonder just what he had done in acquiring Harriet Tubman. Harried Tubman was a real strange name for a house elf.
Tuesday afternoon Harry left for Hong Kong, arriving Wednesday. Wednesday late afternoon Harry had a chance to show several people from the Wizards section of Hong Kong Polytechnic his map. One of the people was involved in hiding cell phone antenna, and was very excited. He wanted to know if this magic could help them find hidden antenna when you had forgotten where you had placed it. They were worried that some of the delicate magic that had hidden some of these antenna would make them hard to find later. Harry went to bed exhausted, got up at 8:00 AM Hong Kong time, had a full days worth of meetings that more than anything prepared him and the Chinese for his trip the next month.
Friday Harry traveled into the heart of China to pick up Harriet Tubman. Dobedo was thrilled. Harry got the impression that Harriet's "owners" were not all that sorry that she was moving.
Saturday very late afternoon Harry and the house elves finally got to Grimmauld Place. Harry tried to sleep, but it was hard with the time change. Harry finally took a magical sleeping potion, and got fair night's sleep.
