10
The tenth of December was going to be remembered for a long time. It was the day Hermione Granger got a house elf.
Everything started harmless enough. Snape went up to the Great Hall for breakfast. He had ham and eggs with toast and a handful of cocktail tomatoes on the side. He had four cups of coffee while he chatted with his fellow teachers amicably.
Sprout had a new batch of mandrakes and asked whether he wanted to cut up any of the younger ones for she knew there were a couple of medical potions which required pickled prepubescent mandrakes. Snape thanked her for the offer and promised to come to the greenhouse next weekend to choose the best specimen for his purposes.
Flitwick's mail order of red wines had arrived and he invited the potions master, Sprout and McGonagall to join him in the evening to discuss house matters over a glass of Merlot. Snape accepted the invitation gracefully. Flitwick's wine tastings were legend after all. He made a mental note to bring a bottle the elf made wine he had acquired a couple of summers ago.
McGonagall had started organising more workshops for the younger years for next weekend and needed help. Snape offered a workshop on how to make hair changing potions grudgingly. He wanted to spend his weekend without students! It could not be helped though. It was either offer a workshop or end up supervising the kitchen again.
Dumbledore had spent the evening chatting with the Dark Lord and informed his heads of house that the dark wizard and his companions were going to make an appearance at dinner since it was their last day of quarantine.
"We need to change our sitting arrangements," Dumbledore sighed. "I hate to ask you that…"
"…but the Dark Lord will want a seat of honour," continued Snape. "I have no problem taking a seat further down the table for a couple of days."
"Me neither," agreed McGonagall. "I'll join Severus at the end of the table for the duration of their stay."
Flitwick and Sprout were quick to agree, too.
"I need only three seats near the middle," Dumbledore pointed out.
"But if we all go," McGonagall pointed out, "we can discuss house business over breakfast."
"Why don't you ask Sybil to fill the last chair?" asked Snape. "The Dark Lord is rather fond of prophecies. I bet he'd love to meet a real seer."
When it was time to open the advent calendar, it happened.
Snape was just watching his Slytherins try out a mirror which showed the ideal hair style for those who looked into it – the girls were thrilled – when there was the tell-tale flash of light of strong magic.
The hall fell quiet as one.
"What can Flippy do for her new mistress?" asked a small voice.
"New mistress?" screamed Hermione Granger who was the person the small voice had addressed. "This is barbaric! Who stuffed a house elf into the advent calendar? But don't fear, good elf, I can give you..."
"Miss Granger!" thundered Dumbledore. "You'd better not finish this sentence!"
"But headmaster," the Granger girl protested, "this elf deserves to be free!"
"Can't you see how much you scare the poor thing?" the old wizard asked.
And really, the tiny house elf – a young female clad in a yellow pillow case – as shaking and her ears were hanging.
"Flippy didn't mean to anger Mistress," the elf croaked fearfully.
"You did nothing wrong," Hermione Granger said in a softer, friendlier voice. "I am not angry at you. I am angry at the person who thought they could use you as a gift. You are a sentient being not a present."
"But Flippy is supposed to serve! Flippy needs a new master or mistress. Flippy was glad when she became a present!"
"Miss Granger," said Dumbledore, "I suggest you give Flippy her first order. Why don't you ask her to clean your dormitory and then wait for you there?"
The girl did as the headmaster asked but hurried to make it clear that she had no intention of keeping the elf as soon as the small creature had disappeared.
"We shall discuss this in a more private setting," the headmaster informed the girl but she would not have that.
"Slavery is an issue that needs to be discussed publicly!" she insisted. "As long as one of our fellow creatures is enslaved, we are all slaves!"
"I am not a slave," Ronald Weasley protested. "And I don't see what's wrong with being pampered by somebody who loves to do it."
"Ronald Weasley!" shouted the girl. "I am disgusted with you! You are a member of S.P.E.W.! You should be the first to protest not condone this atrocity!"
"Your passion for the wellbeing of others sets a brilliant example for your fellow students, Miss Granger, but it is misplaced in this case. House elves are unhappy if they have nobody to serve. It's their instinct to work for us. Their whole life is dedicated to following orders. It's like cutting a bird's wings if you free a house elf. They prosper in servitude. The example the wizarding community needs from you is not to free that elf but to demonstrate how to treat it properly."
The Granger girl sat down and worried her lip, like she always did in potions class when she was thinking hard.
"I can do that," she then stated. "Nevertheless, stuffing it inside an advent calendar is not the proper way to treat a house elf. I want to know who was the barbarian who did it."
The headmaster asked Snape to take the girl up the Dark Lord's tower. It must be, he reasoned, one of their three guests who had given the elf. The teachers knew not to give such a present and the students were not allowed to bring house elves to the school.
"Lucius!" cried the Dark Lord when the girl had informed him why she was there. "A student is here to thank you for your present!"
The blond swaggered into view. "Yes?" he asked the girl who stood in front of their visitor's window.
"Did you put a living creature into an advent calendar bag and make it go through a magical random replacement charm?" Granger asked.
"Of course! The elf is an offspring of the Malfoy kitchen elves. There was not enough work for her at the manor and rather than make the whole lot unhappy, I gave her to a new master; like is the proper way to deal with house elves." Lucius had no idea why the girl was glaring at him like he had killed her grandmother.
"You, Sir, are a barbarian!" raged the girl. "You are a slaver and an abuser of magical creatures. I am disgusted!" She pointed an accusing finger at the Malfoy patriarch.
"And you must be a mudblood since you have no understanding of the proper treatment of house elves," Lucius pointed his finger back at the girl.
"I will not stand here and be badmouthed! You snob!" cried Granger.
"What I would like to know," Snape decided it was best to stop the two or they would spend the morning hurling insults at each other, "is how you brought the elf to Hogwarts and where it was these past ten days. Was it in quarantine with you the whole time?"
"Of course," Lucius glared at the potions master. "I am not stupid. The elf quarantined with us the whole time. That's why I gave it away today. We do not need it any more, now that we can leave these rooms and make use of the regular Hogwarts house elves."
"The headmaster will be relieved to hear that. Miss Granger, you have made your displeasure known, I think you should proceed to your lessons now. And give that house elf something to do when you go to your dormitory. If you don't have any tasks for it to perform, send it to the kitchens to help."
The girl harrumphed but obeyed.
Snape remembered only during his lunch break that he had stuffed his own calendar present into his pocket and not opened it.
He got one of those baubles McGonagall had taught the younger years to make. Snape's was green with silver stars. The stars were rather clumsily made but that happened often with beginners at Transfiguration. It was a branch of magic which required a lot of practice.
Snape was happy with his gift. It was appropriately coloured for the head of Slytherin and it was going to look nice on his mantle. So far his living room was barely decorated since he had not really a hand for decoration and left the task happily to his apprentice when she was there. This year she wasn't and taking over her job felt like acknowledging that she was not going to be back before Christmas. Snape just couldn't bring himself to doing it.
At dinner, the Dark Lord. Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange were introduced to the student body at large. They were greeted with a polite round of applause.
For a moment, Snape feared a fiasco when Harry Potter berated the headmaster for bringing his arch enemy to the school but the Dark Lord himself averted disaster by pointing out that they had managed to coexist quite peacefully during the Christmas season for almost a decade and that he had taken an oath not to hurt anybody.
Potter sat back down, seemingly put at ease.
When the food was served, Flippy made an appearance and brought Granger's favourite dish. "Flippy has made bouillabaisse for Mistress," she informed the girl.
"You know French cuisine?" Granger asked.
"Flippy found a book in the library," the elf admitted. "She had to read up on what her new mistress likes."
"You know how to read?" squealed the girl with delight.
"Flippy learned from her mother," the elf said proudly.
Granger beamed at the small creature. "In this case," she ordered, "I want you to go to the library and learn something new whenever you are not busy with a different task!"
The elf beamed back. "Flippy loves reading! Thank you, Mistress!" She disappeared with a crack.
Beside Snape, McGonagall chuckled. "Now those two are a match made in heaven!"
Snape agreed.