Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Notes: Oh no, people keep telling Harry bad things!
Chapter 21: The House-Elf Liberation Front
That evening there was a huge party just for Harry in the Gryffindor common room. Frederick and George went down to the kitchens and brought back all sorts of delicious party foods especially prepared by the house-elves. Harry was asked to show off the golden egg that he had stolen from the dragon and that was supposed to hold a clue for the second task again and again.
"Hey look!" Lee a classmate of the twins discovered "It can be opened!"
"It's Harry's clue," Hermione reminded him sharply. "Only he has the right to open it. Who knows what might happen to anybody else who tries."
"Yeah," George agreed, plucked the egg out of Lee's hands and handed it back to Harry. "You open it. Go on!"
So Harry did, but the sound it made when it was open was so terrible that he slammed it shut again. For a moment the children just stared in shock and confusion.
Then there was a popping sound an Neville turned into a canary.
"You bastards!" Ron yelled while most Gryffindors howled with laughter and others rushed to Neville's side or looked on in horror. "You did it again! After what happened to Gregory!"
But after a little while there was another popping sound and Neville was himself again - a little startled and surrounded by canary feathers, but unharmed.
"Canary Creams!" Frederick announced. "Turn your friends into birds and watch them flutter and tweet! Our latest product!"
Harry and Ron, too, laughed with relief now, but Hermione shook her head disapprovingly.
"Your friends really are bastards, Harry," she said. "They could have poisoned Neville with their irresponsible experimenting."
"But they didn't," Harry pointed out. "He's fine. Relax, Hermione."
The next morning Hedwig surprised Harry by actually bringing him a letter. Harry opened it right away and regretted it a moment later when everybody wanted to know who it was from. There was no getting around telling them now.
"Auror Black," he admitted. "He wants to congratulate me on passing the first task and ... oh! He tried to get the Ministry to send him here to investigate who put my name in the cauldron. Then he could have been here to watch the task. But Rufus Scrimgour the head of the auror department told him that he and Auror Potter are permanently banned from working at Hogwarts institute, or the nursery or primary institute after the way they behaved last year."
"Well, I suppose they do deserve that," Hermione commented. "They may have had the best of intentions, but their actions were terrible."
"But you were the one who wanted to protect them from punishment," Harry reminded her.
"I didn't want them to be fired," Hermione corrected. "That would have been too harsh."
His secret uncle Sirius also wrote that he personally suspected the Durmstrang headmaster Igor Karkaroff who had apparently been a Death Eater and only been released because he'd turned informant for the Ministry. Harry kept that part to himself, though, and only showed it to Hermione, Ron, Draco, Vincent and Gregory later that day.
"It's a good thing that you held your tongue," Hermione said. "He's not just an adult, but a headmaster even if he isn't ours. To accuse him of something you can't prove would be so disrespectful!"
"I'd show the letter to our headmaster, though," Draco recommended. "Or at least tell him that Auror Black said to watch out for Headmaster Karkaroff because he was a Death Eater. That sounds like a proven fact."
So at lunch Harry went up to the head table and asked Professor Dumbledore whether he could talk with him in private.
"I've been told something," he explained when the headmaster seemed to be reluctant to leave the Great Hall over the matter. "But it's a bad thing about an adult and I don't want anyone else to hear me say something like that. But Draco said if it's true you ought to know it, Sir."
"Draco told you a bad thing about an adult?" Professor Dumbledore asked shooting a meaningful look at Professor Snape.
"Oh no, an adult told me," Harry corrected hastily. "In a letter. I showed it to my friends because I didn't know what to do and Draco said to tell you."
"Very well," the headmaster said. "Come up to my office with me after lunch, but I do hope you realise that if something is too bad to repeat out loud you also shouldn't show it around in writing."
Harry felt very guilty for that, but what else could he have done when he hadn't known what to do?
"I'll be late for Care for Magical Creatures, if we wait until after lunch," was all he said to the headmaster, though. Of course Professor Hagrid was right there and could probably hear them, so most likely he wouldn't be punished for being late, but he still felt he'd better point it out.
"I am Sure Professor Hagrid will excuse that for such an important matter," the headmaster said as well.
"Yes, it is true," Professor Dumbledore confirmed quite unconcernedly to Harry's surprise. "Once, when he was young and foolish, Headmaster Karkaroff was a Death Eater. Why don't you have another lemon drop?"
"But aren't you worried that he is at the institute now?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Oh no, Harry," the Ministry wouldn't have released him from Azkaban if he hadn't been honestly repentant and you mustn't forget that his information enabled the Aurors to arrest many of Voldemort's most high-ranking followers. The last thing Igor Karkaroff would want is to reconnect with them. They would much rather kill him than include him in any of their plans again."
"Oh," said Harry. He hadn't realised that at all. "I'm very sorry to have bothered you with such a bad tale then."
"Nothing of the sort, my dear boy, nothing of the sort," Dumbledore assured him. "It is my place as a teacher to address any concerns that you might have, no matter how ill perceived they might be. You did very right by taking this matter to me rather than worrying about it or spreading it further among your fellows."
Reassured Harry accepted another lemon drop and then went out to Hagrid's hut. He intended to go right up to the Professor and apologise for being late, but he was talking with Rita Skeeter and after reading the article she'd made out of her interview with him Harry preferred to keep his distance from her. So he went over to his friends instead and asked them about their lesson which had apparently been about finding out whether a magical creature hibernates or not. The blast-ended-skrewts, they had discovered, did not.
"Say Harry," Hermione asked him later that day. "Do you know how to get into the kitchens?"
"No," Harry replied. "Are you hungry?"
"Of course not," Hermione snapped. "But I've heard that that's where one goes to find a house-elf, and, well, do you remember Winky? I want to make sure she's really here and being productive and healthy."
To be honest Harry had almost completely forgotten Mr. Crouch's house-elf, but he realised that that wasn't the best thing to tell Hermione.
"We could ask Frederick and George," he suggested instead. "They know."
Hermione frowned at that and sent Harry to ask them alone, but did accept the information despite her disapproval of the twins' 'professional' activities.
The kitchens were quite impressive and full of cheerful house-elves. The only one that wasn't happy there appeared to be Winky. Apparently she still hadn't gotten over the shock of having been fired despite having a new job and the chance to be just as productive as before.
"Master needs his Winky," she wailed. "Oh my poor Master! What will he do?"
"He looked perfectly fine when he was here for the first task," Ron assured her.
"Master was here? You saw my Master?" Winky asked eagerly.
Happy that the elf was finally showing a hint of interest in something other than butterbeer and crying the children told her all about Mr. Crouch and the tournament, but then Winky surprised them by announcing that Mr. Bagman was a very bad wizard.
"Mr. Ludo Bagman?" Harry asked incredulously.
"A very bad wizard, my Master says. Very very bad!"
"He does seem quite irresponsible," Hermione offered as a possible explanation. "Maybe he caused some accident once?"
"Or maybe I'd better go and see the headmaster again," Harry said.