Title: And All the King's Horses
Genre: Mystery, Angst
Pairings: Ron/Hermione, Draco/Hermione
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters belong to JKR. This work is for fun, not profit.
Summary: After Voldermort's fall, the world seemed full of hope and promise, and no one's star seemed brighter than Hermione Granger's. Twenty years later, her son tries to put back the pieces of a broken woman. The Marriage Law has gone terribly wrong.
Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait. I was originally going to have another chapter, but I couldn't get the character to be believable. Also, it's been a sucky few weeks. On the plus side, I got to watch a real-live Quidditch match today. (Or technically, I guess right now it was yesterday...)
Chapter Fourteen
In which a house elf sweeps away some shards of broken glass.
It's a well guarded secret, because it's illegal. He's read the law. He's not quite sure why wizards bothered to make it illegal, since most house elves really wouldn't care to learn to read. Reading is worse than wearing clothes. Reading is worse than earning wages. He can only think of one thing worse than reading, and that's having a wand. But wands are conspicuous, and not very useful. If for instance the old Master Malfoy—no, ex-Master Malfoy, even after all these years he still has to remind himself from time to time—saw him carrying a wand around (and those silly sticks really aren't worth the trouble goblins seem to thing they are), he would soon miss his head.
But on the other hand, if old ex-Master Malfoy catches him glancing at the Daily Prophet, well then, there's no harm in that. After all, house elves can't read. House elves don't want to read. House elves are too stupid to read.
Maybe most house elves are too stupid to learn to read. And maybe most muggleborns are worthless, and maybe most half-bloods are abominations, and maybe most pureblood wizards are entitled to lord over everyone else in the world. Maybe. Maybe there are a few exceptions to the rules.
Maybe it's just him who learned to read and use the first person pronoun to think of himself. Maybe it's just him who learned to conjugate verbs.
Maybe it's just Hermione Granger who was kind enough and brilliant enough to teach him. Maybe it's just Hermione Granger who was brave enough and strong enough to teach him behind Lucius Malfoy's back. Maybe it's just Hermione Granger who was powerful enough to scare Lucius Malfoy so badly that he'd be willing to give her his name and make her the mother of his heirs just to keep her under his thumb.
Maybe it's just Lily Evans who was kind enough and brilliant enough and brave enough and strong enough and powerful enough to defeat Voldemort.
Maybe it's just Harry Potter who was the fate of the wizarding world.
Maybe it's just Rose Malfoy who's worth anything to anyone.
And maybe it's just Bellatrix Lestrange and Tom Riddle and Lucius Malfoy who fought for the Darkness and lost.
But he thinks, that if everyone he knows is the exception to the rule, then maybe the rules aren't very good. Ockham's Razor. See? He's a house elf and he knows what Ockham's Razor is. He very seriously doubts that ex-Master Malfoy has ever heard of it. It is after all, a muggle construct. Miss Hermione taught him about it once.
So much the better for him. Ex-Master Malfoy doesn't know anything anymore. He doesn't realize it, but he's losing his touch. He doesn't realize that his old house elf is free of mind, body and soul. He doesn't realize that his old house elf has learned to read. He doesn't realize that his daughter-in-law taught a house elf to read. He doesn't realize that there's a reason why Hermione has only given the world two Malfoy heirs. He doesn't realize that there will be no more Malfoys after Rose and Scorpius, and he doesn't realize that if the name Malfoy can continue at all, it will be through the half-blood Gryffindor he holds in such low esteem.
But perhaps, worst of all, is the fact that he doesn't realize that he cares. He doesn't realize that his young ex-Master Malfoy spends his days with the decanter. Dobby realizes it. It is after all his job to refill the decanter. It could be done magically, but why bother, when there are stupid house elves around?
So Dobby sees how the decanter full in the morning is empty at night. Dobby hears the sound of shattering glass. It's Dobby's job to pick up the shards. Young ex-Master Malfoy used to do it. It only takes a word with a wand. But he stopped, and if Dobby didn't pick the shattered glass, young ex-Master Malfoy would walk all over it.
He's not sure why he cares.
That's not true. He's a clever elf. He learned to read and to keep quiet. He's smart enough to know better than to lie to himself. That's how one becomes like old ex-Master Malfoy. So, because he has to tell himself the truth, he does.
He hates young ex-Master Malfoy, no less than he hates old ex-Master Malfoy, no more than he hates young Miss Malfoy. Young ex-Master Malfoy hurt Hermione Granger, hurt Ron Weasley, hurt Harry Potter. But still he picks up the shards of glass from the carpet so that young ex-Master Malfoy won't walk all over them, because he knows that look in his eyes. He's seen it before, remembers it; it haunts his nights and days. He knows it's what leads young ex-Master Malfoy to the decanter every day, and he knows that the burning liquid in the decanter can only make things worse. He knows he can't save the young ex-Master. He couldn't save her, after all, and he loved her. But he can pick the glass up, that he can do. And he can wait. It's only a matter of time now, he knows.
He knows. He, stupid, senseless Dobby knows, and the Great Lucius Malfoy doesn't even begin to dream of it and it's going to come crashing down on him.
Will Dobby pull the glass out from under the naked feet of Lucius Malfoy? Not even Dobby knows. The question keeps him up at night. It's fine though. That keeps her broken eyes away. He picks up a book and begins to read.
Author's Notes: Dobby is like super omega Oh-Cee-Cee times ten to the n. I could not bring myself to write in House Elf Speak. I don't have any excuse, other than the fact that this Dobby is 20-some years older than Cannon!Dobby. This chapter could also be called "The quiet rebellion of Miss Hermione Granger."
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