Master of Puppets 2
The end of the year couldn't come soon enough for Harry, which was a rather strange thing for him to think. It wasn't like he was eager to see the Dursleys again, because he seriously wasn't. Truly, Harry would not be bothered if he never saw them again in his life, and he had no intention of sending them invitations to any personal or family events in the future, like a wedding or something.
No, the reason he couldn't wait for the year to be over was because of how awkward things were for him at present. The petrified victims hadn't woken up yet, though that was only a matter of time now, and without Hermione around, well, Harry only really had Ron as a friend.
Don't get him wrong, he had nothing against Ron, but Hermione kind of balanced the boy out a bit. With no Hermione around, Ron was encouraging Harry more and more to just slack off and mess around. Now, Harry actually enjoyed the occasional game of chess he lost to Ron – a chess game with Ron was never 'played', Harry never stood a chance at that – it was just that Ashlotte was around as well.
Now, most of the students were wary of her. Granted, she did look a bit weird, and automatons hadn't been seen in the wizarding world for centuries, but there were rumours going around – Harry believing Draco Malfoy to be the source of them – that she had attacked someone unprovoked, and though no one ever mentioned names, it was no secret that the influential Lucius Malfoy left Hogwarts on the same day she turned up, sporting a few bruises and a broken wand.
Given the fact that Ashlotte was always with Harry, and boy hadn't that been 'fun' when she'd followed him into the boy's dormitory, people were keeping their distance from him, remaining wary. Given that Harry had also, according to rumour, slain a basilisk with nothing but a sword, and that added an extra bit of awe slash fear that simply made things worse.
The ones who weren't shying away from Harry were, if anything, even worse. These were the ones who wouldn't stop asking questions about Ashlotte, and there were even a few asking if they could take her apart to see how she worked! Harry denied all of them, though it wasn't like he could answer their questions anyway, as he didn't know much more than they did.
"Are you alright, master?" Ashlotte asked from behind and slightly to the side of him when he sighed.
"I'm fine." Harry waved her off. "And what will it take for you to just call me Harry?"
"Master Harry?" Ashlotte tried it out.
"No, just Harry." Harry replied. "I feel really weird being called 'master', so could you please drop it?"
Ashlotte paused and thought for a moment. "Very well, I have now designated you the title 'Harry', is that sufficient?"
"Yes, thank you." Harry told her, wondering why she was only now listening to that specific instruction, despite it not being the first time he'd asked her to drop it.
"Are you alright, Harry?" She repeated her question, substituting his name for 'master' this time.
"I just said I was fine, didn't I?" Harry asked.
"You did, but your tone and body language lead me to believe that answer was given as an automatic response instead of truth. The fact you followed that up with a question to change the subject supports this." Ashlotte told him.
"I-" Harry began, but stopped, actually thinking about how he was going to reply. "I'm just frustrated Ashlotte. All that people will talk about is the Chamber of Secrets, the Heir of Slytherin, and... you. It's just getting to me a bit. I hated everyone being scared of me and running away when they thought I was the heir, now I think I'd actually prefer it to how they are now."
"I understand." Ashlotte nodded her head.
"You do?" Harry wondered.
"You wish for some privacy and find the attention of others invasive and annoying, correct?" She replied.
"I... I guess." Harry hesitantly shrugged. "I just know that as soon as I go to dinner, they're just going to start all over again, and I really don't want that." He leaned against the wall and wondered if he could just skip the meal or something.
"There's always the kitchens if you want to eat in peace, lad." A voice from near Harry's ear made him jump in surprise and look around for who had spoken.
"Here, lad, the painting!" Looking where the voice was coming from, Harry saw that it was indeed a painting that had spoken to him.
"Ah, I see you've finally noticed me." The man in the painting grinned. "Now, I heard your complaining, and thought I'd point you in the direction of the kitchens, you can get a meal in peace there. It's just down the stairs up ahead, take your first left, and part way down that corridor is a painting of a fruit bowl. Tickle the pear to get in."
"Thank you." Harry smiled gratefully at the man, who just nodded back.
"No thanks necessary, lad, I know full well what the students of this old castle are like. It may have been centuries since I was hung on this wall, but no matter how much time passes, people stay the same. Now hurry along, you look like you could do with a good meal in you." The painting gestured towards the stairs.
xxxxx
When Harry first entered the kitchens, followed by Ashlotte, he froze in place. House elves, there were house elves everywhere. There must have been hundreds of them. Imagine that, an entire horde of... Dobbies!
"Young master coming down to the kitchen for something?" The closest elf asked.
"I was hoping to get a quiet meal, it's just that I wanted to be alone for a while..." Harry trailed off, not entirely sure what he should say to a sight that, honestly, terrified the hell out of him.
"We understand, young sir, we can have something made for you." The elf nodded... his head? Yes, the elf seemed to be male. "What can we get for you?"
"Just something simple, really." Harry replied. "No need to go too far out of your way for me."
"We hear you, young master, now just take a seat and we'll get you something good." The elf had Harry sitting down soon enough, before disappearing into the mass of elves.
"You can sit down too, you know." Harry said, looking at Ashlotte.
"Very well, Harry. I cannot consume food however, so offering me some would be pointless." She told him, taking a seat.
Harry was about to reply, but already the elves were bringing him things to eat. It looked like more than enough to feed all of the Dursleys for a week though, and Harry knew he wouldn't be able to eat even half of it.
"Thank you." Harry told the elves politely, getting smiles in return. "But it's a little much, I don't think I can eat it all."
"That's alright, young sir, just eat what you want." An elf, a female one Harry thought, responded.
Harry gave his thanks again, before digging in. The food was good, like Hogwarts food always was, and his eyes drifted across all of the elves there. He began to wonder what else they did around the castle. They probably cleaned, as Filch could never do it all himself, especially without magic as he was a squib.
That made Harry pause. What really was Filch's job then? If the house elves took care of the cooking and cleaning, like he was sure they did, what did Filch do? He was always complaining about something or other, but why? If an elf could do it, then why would Filch complain?
"Is there something else we can help the young master with?" An elf piped up.
Harry blinked rapidly for a moment, having drifted off for a moment. "Nothing really." He replied when he came back to himself, before casting around for something to talk about. "I suppose that you all clean this castle, right?"
He got several nods and verbal agreements, making him wonder even more about what Filch actually did in Hogwarts.
"I suppose that means you know all about the secret rooms and passageways too then?" He continued, thinking about the Chamber of Secrets.
"Oh, yes, like the Come and Go room!" One elf piped up. "We heard that young master found a new place though."
"Yes, the Chamber of Secrets." Harry replied absently, before catching what the elf had said. "Wait, the Come and Go room, what's that?"
"It's what you want it to be." The elf answered him. "It's also called the 'room of requirement', and it's able to turn into a room of the chooser's desire."
Harry's curiosity was roused at that. "How do you get there?" He queried.
"It's simple! One only needs to walk three times in front of the wall thinking about what you need and the door will appear. It's on the seventh floor, across from the tapestry of the barmy wizard." Harry realised that the elf was talking about Barnabas the Barmy, a wizard who had tried to teach trolls ballet. That was a tapestry that really stuck in his head because of how ridiculous it looked.
"Do you wish to go there, Harry?" Ashlotte asked him.
Harry thought about for a minute. It would at least keep him away from the Gryffindor common room for a while, and it did sound pretty interesting. "Yeah, let me just finish eating though."
"Very well, master." Ashlotte acquiesced.
xxxxx
Harry wasn't sure what to ask the room of requirement for when he got there, but he really didn't want to go back to the common room right now. Everyone there would just stare at him or ask questions, with the only other option being to lose at chess against Ron, and he wasn't going to go to the Library or anywhere right now.
'Give me somewhere interesting please' He thought as he walked backwards and forwards. He added the 'please' because, even if it was a room and not a person, it couldn't hurt to be polite. Hey, magic made weird things possible, and Harry really didn't know what it could or couldn't do.
After the third pass, Harry turned and saw a door that hadn't been there before.
Hesitantly, because he really didn't know what was going to be on the other side, he pushed it open and stepped inside. Ashlotte followed just a step behind him, her weapon held ready as a precaution. After all, there could be literally anything in there, and she wouldn't allow anything dangerous to harm her master.
What was actually inside the room of requirement were... shelves.
There were shelves and shelves in a fairly normal looking room. However, all of the shelves were full of random things. In fact, the things on them seemed to have been arranged somehow. The closest set of shelves Harry could see had a few books, some pictures, and other paraphernalia around a brown carry case with a ring on top of it.
Harry stepped up to this ring, seemingly drawn to it. Worried about that feeling he spoke aloud. "Is there anyway to tell if this is cursed?"
A book seemed to appear next to the collection, and picking it up, Harry found it was full of detection spells. He was surprised, as it seemed the room was able to change even when someone was already inside it, and it was willing to give him some help.
Flicking quickly through the book, Harry found a charm to detect 'hostile' magic. It wasn't defined just what it meant by 'hostile', but Harry took it to mean anything that would harm him. Deciding to give it a go, he cast the spell at the ring.
Nothing happened, it seemed he hadn't cast the spell successfully. So, Harry tried again.
It was on the fourth attempt that he got a result, and the ring began to glow a pale lavender colour. That meant, according to the book, that it wasn't immediately harmful. If it had been, the glow would have been orange instead. Why those two colours, Harry didn't know, but that's what colours the book had said to expect.
Seeing no harm in it, Harry slipped the ring onto his left hand. He felt a slight jolt from it, and so it resize itself to fit his finger, and then felt something else happen. It felt... actually, it felt much like when Ashlotte had first woken up, though he hadn't really paid attention to the sensation of something sucking on his magic like that back then.
Now having a slight inkling as to what had just happened, Harry looked again at the brown case and pulled it off the shelf, setting it on the floor. He opened it, revealing what appeared to be a doll, a porcelain one like those he'd heard Aunt Petunia talk about, what with that 'creepy pale girl down the road having a collection of them' back at Privet Drive.
This doll looked to be around two and a half feet tall or there about, if stood up. It was female, with a dark blue headband on its head, dressed in a gothic style dress, and dark blue boots. Her eyes were closed, and there was a key next to her hand.
Harry picked up the key and looked for where to put it. He found such a place on the doll's back, and deciding that since he'd already gotten this far, he might as well finish things, he began to wind it up. Once he'd done so, he took the key out and took a step back, waiting for the doll to wake up, or at least he thought it would.
Her eyes shot open, revealing slitted pink eyes which darted around for a moment, before landing on Harry and Ashlotte. She growled when she caught sight of the ring on his finger, glaring hatefully at him.
"What have you done, human?!" She snarled at him, then saw that there were no windows wherever she was. "Where am I?"
Harry, not quite expecting such aggression took a moment to answer, well aware that Ashlotte would attack the doll if it threatened him. "I found you here by accident and woke you up." He told her. "This is the room of requirement at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry."
The doll's eyes narrowed at him. "Witchcraft and wizardry?" She asked, less aggressively, but her tone was still sharp. Then it seemed that something occurred to her. "Do you know of a man named Rozen, was he a wizard?"
"I- I don't know." Harry replied honestly. "I'm just a second year and I don't know too much, but I can find out." Harry mentally asked the room to provide him with anything it had regarding this 'Rozen' the doll was talking about, and a newspaper appeared next to his hand, a very old one by the looks of it.
The headline really stood out though, PROMINENT FAMILY DENOUNCED FOR NECROMANCY!
The doll had noticed the suddenly appearing newspaper and grabbed it, her eyes quickly roving over it and the article underneath. It took her a few minutes, but by the end, the paper was shaking in her hands, her expression absolutely furious, and another growl building in her throat.
"Is that all we were, father?" She near-spat that last word. "We were just an attempt to being your dead daughter back to you? Were we not good enough as we were, even a failure like me?" Harry was sure that if the doll could cry, it would be now.
The silver-haired doll froze as it felt a hand on its shoulder, patting it, comforting it. Such a foreign sensation made her look up sharply at the one trying to, of all the strange possibilities, comfort her. She saw the raven-haired boy that had awoken her, and over his shoulder was the human-sized doll who was giving her a wary look and holding her weapon ready to smash her if she proved to be a threat.
"Boy, stop that." She snapped at Harry. "I am not some pitifully, fragile thing that will shatter so easily."
Despite her words though, she did look fragile, lost. She had just found out that her purpose was not to gain her 'father's' love, but to be a vessel for his dead daughter's soul. She, the first Rozen maiden, the incomplete one, the failure, had never truly mattered to her creator.
"You... you just look like you needed a friend." The boy mumbled, looking slightly sad, like a puppy that you've just kicked when all it wanted was a bit of love.
"Boy, I have never had a friend, I have never needed one, and I never will." She told him.
"I have a name, you know, it's Harry." The boy, Harry, muttered.
"And mine is Suigintou." The doll said. "Now, bo- Harry, tell me more about this 'witchcraft and wizardry'"