Author's Note: Nothing quite drives procrastination quite like work.
Moody dropped his sacks at his feet and turned to Harry. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out."
"Ah," Harry broke in suddenly before Moody could say more, "does House-Elf – whatever they do – count as Apparation? You know, since their magic works in Hogwarts but Apparation doesn't…"
Moody looked dumbfounded by the question. He gave questioning looks to the other Order members, who seemed equally baffled.
"I… don't… think so," Hermione ventured at last. "Wizards don't write much about Elf magic, Harry, but it's obviously different – it must be, to function so well without a wand – and I've seen the occasional source warning of spells meant to record or block unauthorized Apparation failing to detect Elf intrusion…"
Harry had heard all he needed to hear. "Say, is Gr–"
"Don't say the name!" all the Order members screamed, almost as one.
Harry paused, mouth hanging open, and said after a few moments, "Uh… the… place we usually use, I mean. Is it still safe?"
Moody nodded, squinting at Harry with his good eye. "What do you mean to do, b–"
"Kreacher!" Harry shouted, and with a crack, the hateful old Elf appeared. "To You-Know-Where, and my prior orders still stand!" Before leaving Hogwarts, he'd given Kreacher a rather comprehensive set of commands forcing him to give aid and assistance to Order members, withhold any sort of assistance to Death Eaters and known associates and sympathizers, and remove words such as "Mudblood", "filth", and "blood-traitor" from his vocabulary. Given his past sabotage and Snape's betrayal, Harry regarded it as the price of the vicious old Elf being allowed to stay on at all.
His expression showing for all to see that he hated Harry with every fiber of his being, Kreacher gave a stiff nod and obeyed.
Five minutes later, when Kreacher had ferried everyone to Grimmauld and gone off to sulk in a corner, Moody shook his head. "Well, that's that plan down the drain." A surprising number of Order members were aiming murderous glances at Fletcher; Harry understood the implication, but was having a difficult time imagining any situation in which sane people trusted the shifty sneak-thief as a strategic mastermind.
"All's well that ends well," Harry said, attempting to lighten the mood of the room. "So your preparations for your plan of escape went to waste – how bad could that be?"
Moody's magical eye swiveled to stare steadily at him, and then his real eye followed. "As long as you're being smart, boy," he growled, "do you have any ideas for an entire cauldron's worth of Polyjuice Potion?"
Author's Note: Since no one detected Dobby's intrusion into Privet Drive, including the Ministry (or else they'd have harassed Harry for "underage Apparation" too), House-Elf transport must not register as Apparation.
House-Elves are absurdly overpowered. It doesn't matter that, up until Kreacher's Tale, Kreacher hates Harry and Harry hates him. He's forced to obey all orders, and careful enough wording should be able to pin him whether he likes it or not.
I seriously doubt even Hermione would see preventing a known enemy agent from passing information and sabotaging operations as abuse of authority. (I suppose it depends on how high the "Strawman Youth Activist" dial is turned up on her characterization at any given time.)
