BACKSTAIRS AT HOGWARTS
Chapter 12 - House Elves and Dark Wizards (Again)



The elves flew for several hours, still chuckling occasionally about the Death Eaters they had managed to get the better of. Both of them were enjoying the freedom of flight and the feel of the air rushing past their ears, but the clouds ahead looked threatening. After just a few miles more, they found themselves in a heavy and very cold rain storm.

Dobby began to scan the terrain for a place to land and take shelter. He seemed to recognize something, then jerked the broom into a hard right turn. In a few minutes they spotted a large house surrounded by a thick forest, and Dobby guided the broom in for a landing in the back garden.

"Who lives here?" Winky asked.

"Dobby's friend Tippy," he answered.

"No, what FAMILY?" Winky asked.

"MacNair."

"What did Dobby just say?"

"The MacNair family is living here," Dobby said. "They is friends with the Malfoys, and Dobby knows Tippy, their house elf."

"The MacNairs is bad wizards," Winky squeaked. "Winky's old master is not liking them at all!"

"Dobby knows they is bad wizards, but right now we has no other choice! If we's careful, the MacNairs will not even know we's here," he squeaked back.

Cautiously, he approached the back door and knocked softly. Several minutes passed with no response, and he knocked again. This time there was a faint shuffling sound inside. The door opened a crack, and a very weak voice asked "who is there?"

"'Tis Dobby," he squeaked softly. "Is that you, Tippy?"

The door swung open and Tippy practically collapsed into Dobby's arms. Winky rushed up to help, and they were both horrified to see the back of the flour sack Tippy was wearing soaked with blood. Supporting him carefully, they helped Tippy back inside, guiding him toward a small stool. However, the second they eased him down into a sitting position, he jumped to his feet with a yelp.

Looking quickly around, Dobby spotted a ragged pallet in a corner of the kitchen. Signaling Winky with his eyes, they now guided Tippy towards the pallet and helped him lie down on his stomach. Tippy's face was bruised, and one of his big gray eyes was nearly swollen shut as he lay sobbing on his pallet.

"What is happened to you, Tippy?" Dobby asked.

Between sobs, Tippy answered "Tippy is been sick, and is very tired from all the work he is had to do. He fell asleep today, letting Master's lunch burn. Master beat him with a curtain rod and kicked him down the stairs. Tippy must get up to cook dinner now, because Master is telling him important guests is expected tonight, and he will punish Tippy even worse if dinner is not good!"

One shoulder seemed to be the only part of Tippy's body that wasn't bloody or bruised, and Dobby put one hand on it, holding him down. "What is you making for dinner?" he squeaked.

"Onion soup, salad, pork chops with new potatoes, asparagus au gratin, and trifle for dessert," Tippy answered.

Looking around the kitchen, Dobby and Winky could see many of the ingredients for dinner already on the kitchen table and counters. Winky dashed outside, returning with the Cleansweep Four and the saddle bags. Reaching into one of the bags, she pulled out a first aid kit that magically grew to about four times it original size.

"I will start cooking dinner," Dobby said. "Tippy must rest and let Winky take care of his hurts."

Dobby busied himself with the cooking while Winky looked to Tippy's injuries. Very carefully. she peeled off the bloody flour sack as Tippy tried to stifle his squeals of pain. Even more carefully, she began to clean the cuts, bruises, and lacerations on his back. Even so, Tippy couldn't help flinching or squeaking softly as she worked. Finally, she applied ointment to fight infection and relieve pain, then bandages. Tippy relaxed noticeably as he felt the ointment's effects.

Winky stepped over to the table where Dobby was working. "Dobby must finish helping Tippy with this other ointment," she whispered into one of his large bat ears.

"Why cannot Winky do it?" Dobby asked.

"Because Tippy's bum is got a big bruise on it, and Winky is not wanting to embarrass him any more. That is why he cannot sit down."

As Winky took his place at the kitchen table, Dobby did as Winky requested. "Does you have anything else to wear?" he asked Tippy.

"There is a clean flour sack hanging next to the fireplace," Tippy said.

Covering Tippy with the ragged blanket he found on the pallet, Dobby took the bloody flour sack to the scullery, where he noticed huge piles of laundry waiting to be washed. He set the flour sack to soak in a bucket of cold water and returned to the kitchen, where he grabbed the clean sack Tippy told him about.

Dobby helped Tippy into it, then fetched a chunk of ice from the icebox for the bruises on his face.

Winky now had a big pot of onion soup simmering over the fire, which proved to be quite fortunate.

"ELF!" the angry voice of Walden MacNair shouted down the stairs. "Are you working on tonight's dinner like I told you?"

"Oh yes, Master, sir!" Tippy squealed loudly as Winky waved the pot lid to send the aroma of the simmering onion soup towards the stairs.

There was a pause, then the same voice barked "then make sure you don't burn anything this time, or you'll wish you were never born!" This was followed by the sound of a door banging shut. Walden MacNair was the Executioner for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, and none of the elves doubted that he would make good on his threats.

Dobby and Winky, who had been holding their breath, breathed again as they began to work even harder on their cooking. Before long, delicious smells were wafting from the kitchen, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that dinner was indeed being prepared.

"Tippy must get up and help," he said.

"No, Tippy must keep resting until it is time to serve dinner," Winky squeaked. "You isn't ought to move around much, else you might start bleeding again."

About an hour later the sound of footsteps upstairs indicated the arrival of the MacNair's guests, and Winky had to let Tippy go up to finish setting the dining room table.

Tippy left the kitchen door open, and Dobby and Winky momentarily froze at the voices they heard.

"What on earth happened to you, Malfoy?" MacNair's voice boomed.

The two elves swiveled their ears around so that they could hear better.

Lucius Malfoy's voice answered "I think perhaps Arthur Weasley isn't as much of a fool as I'd always thought. We of course cleared out of Barty Crouch's house long before the Ministry officials got there, but we never thought they'd figure out how to open that room."

"They got it open?" MacNair asked.

"Yes, and they hauled everything away. We had some of the rarest potion ingredients stored there, along with bottles of the most powerful dark potions we know of. They got the lot."

"But how did you end up looking like this?" MacNair persisted. "You look like you tumbled down the stairs."

"That's exactly what happened, Walden."

"How?"

"I really don't know how it was done, but they must have put some kind of curse on the cellar stairs there. It not only knocked us down the stairs, it actually pulled us back up. Then it took us hours to open the door because it had a charm-resistant lock on it."

Dobby and Winky looked at each other, torn between terror and the comical memory of what they had done to Malfoy.

MacNair asked "did they get the documents too?"

"Yes, they did. I think it best that we lie as low as possible for the time being," Malfoy replied.

At that moment, Tippy came back into the kitchen after carefully closing the kitchen door. He and the other two elves spoke only in whispers from this point onward.

A short time later, a bell on the wall tinkled. The label under it read "Dining Room."

"They will be wanting the first course," Tippy said as he picked up a large tureen of onion soup and headed upstairs with it.

For the next two hours Tippy was kept busy carrying food upstairs and dirty dishes downstairs. When he finally returned with the empty dishes and coffee cups, he was starting to look haggard. The work had tired him greatly, and two of the cuts on his back were starting to bleed again. Very carefully he sat down as he and the other elves made a meal of the sparse leftovers.

It was only at this point that he had a chance to ask Dobby and Winky where they had come from. Quickly Dobby recounted the now-familiar story of how he and Winky had come to be free and now working at Hogwarts under Professor Dumbledore.

"Tippy wishes he had a master like Professor Dumbledore," Tippy said just before an expression of horror appeared on his face, and he jumped up to bang his already-bruised head on the edge of the table, squealing "Bad Tippy! Bad, bad Tippy!"

This time it was Winky who moved first, and she pulled him away from the table. "You is been punished enough already," she squeaked indignantly.

"Thank you, Winky," he said wearily. He looked towards the scullery and continued "Tippy must finish the dishes and laundry before he can go to bed tonight."

"No, Tippy must lie down and rest," Winky squeaked. "Dobby and Winky will do the laundry and washing up!"

Before Tippy could protest, Winky pushed him back towards his pallet where she checked and replaced some of the bandages she had put on him earlier. Dobby stoked the wash-boiler fire, and shortly Winky was helping him with the huge piles of laundry.

As he put a sheet through the laundry wringer, Dobby paused. "Dobby wonders... Dobby wonders if it might work," he said softly.

"Dobby wonders what?" Winky asked.

Instead of answering her, Dobby finished wringing out the sheet he was working on and hung it up. Then he trotted across the kitchen to where Tippy lay on his pallet.

"Tippy, does you take morning tea up to your master's room?" Dobby asked.

"Yes, Tippy does," the other elf squeaked. "Why does Dobby ask?"

"Yes, why DOES Dobby ask?" echoed Winky, who had followed him out of the scullery.

Dobby began to talk rapidly in his squeaky voice. At one point, Winky was heard to say "Dobby, we isn't ought to interfere in other people's private business."

Dobby's huge green eyes glared at her. "Does Winky want to see Tippy keep being beaten, though he is a good elf and works hard even when he is sick?"

Winky was silent a moment, then said "no... no Winky is not wanting that."

It was at least two hours more before the laundry was done, and everyone settled down for the night. Dobby and Winky tucked Tippy in on his pallet, then made themselves as comfortable as possible in a corner of the scullery. As an added precaution they slept under Winky's invisibility cloak.

All three elves were up very early the next morning, checking and rechecking their plan. Dobby was possibly the most nervous of all; it was his idea, and if it worked all would be well. If it didn't, Tippy might be punished more severely than ever before. With grim determination, Dobby picked up the bucket he had brought from the scullery. It contained two shirts and several socks, all soaking in very cold water.

Eventually, a small bell on the wall jangled. The label under it read "Master."

"That is Master wanting his morning tea," Tippy said.

He made no move to prepare tea or go anywhere, though he looked terrified in the knowledge that he was disobeying a direct order from his master. He rocked back and forth on his feet, nervously twisting the hem of his four sack.

About five minutes later the bell rang much harder. Still Tippy made no move, and even his bad eye was wide open now. In another five minutes the bell rang so hard that it was in danger of flying off the wall.

Shortly after that, the elves could hear heavy footsteps and the sound of the kitchen door crashing open.

"ELF!" Walden MacNair bellowed. "Where is my tea, you worthless vermin!"

MacNair came storming down the stairs. At the bottom step he spotted Tippy trembling in terror, but before he could do or say anything more, he was drenched with icy water and found his face completely covered with something soggy and heavy. Enraged, he grabbed at whatever it was and threw it off.

The next thing he saw was Tippy holding a wet shirt, his gray eyes now wide open in wonder.

"Master is given a shirt," he said. "Master threw it, Tippy caught it, and now Tippy is free!"

MacNair made as to draw his wand from his dressing-gown pocket, but Tippy was already pointing his long finger. There was a loud BANG, and MacNair was slammed up against a wall with dishes and other pieces of crockery crashing down on him from a shelf above.

Dobby and Winky, who had been hovering on the Cleansweep Four near the ceiling and under the protection of the invisibility cloak, now swooped down and grabbed Tippy. There was another loud bang as the kitchen window swung open, and MacNair only got a very confusing glimpse of Tippy's legs and nothing else as they flew out the window.

Dobby struggled hard to keep the broom under control with its lopsided load, and he flew only a mile before landing in a thick clump of trees.

Tippy was half-laughing and half crying tears of joy as he hugged Dobby, then Winky repeatedly. He did not notice that his back had started to bleed again, and Winky had to calm him down so she could administer more first aid. That done, all three elves re-mounted the broom. With the load properly distributed, the broom was much easier to control, though it would of course not fly as fast with additional weight on it.

This time Dobby stuck to the most direct route to Hogwarts, and they only stopped twice to rest and have a quick bite to eat. The sun was just setting when they spotted the towers and turrets of the Hogwarts castle.

They went directly to the hospital wing, where Madame Pomfrey immediately admitted Tippy, muttering about how anyone could be so cruel to inflict so much pain on any creature.

The next morning Dobby and Winky were again in Dumbledore's office. Arthur Weasley's report of how helpful the elves had been was already on his desk, and he listened quietly as they recounted their further adventures.

He was silent for a moment, his face expressionless, but with just a trace of a twinkle in his eyes. "You have both shown great resourcefulness," he said, "but I must ask you in future to try to keep from putting yourselves in danger."

The two elves nodded silently, then Dobby spoke. "Professor... professor..."

"Yes?"

"What is to become of Tippy now?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled again as he spoke. "He's a free elf, Dobby, so he can go wherever he wants now."

Dobby's expression fell.

Dumbledore continued "but I have sent word to him to come see me once he's released from the hospital wing. If he wishes, he may remain at Hogwarts as a free, paid elf."

"Master Dumbledore is very kind!" Dobby squeaked, his green tennis-ball sized eyes shining with happiness.

"Thank you Dobby," Dumbledore said, "that reminds me of something else. As of today, I am raising both of your wages to two galleons a week."

"We is not wanting any more paying," squealed Winky.

"Winky, I must insist you both accept it," Dumbledore said kindly but firmly, "unless you would prefer to seek employment elsewhere."

"Oh, no sir!" both elves squealed.

"Then you may return to your work. Thank you again," Dumbledore said.

A short time later the two elves were in the elf passage near the hospital wing. Dobby took a deep breath, and before he knew what was happening, pulled Winky into his arms and kissed her tenderly. She did not push him away.

They just held each other tightly for several minutes, then Dobby finally said "Dobby must return to the kitchens. He will be missed."

Winky squeezed his hand, and a second later they both had disappeared in opposite directions.

A few days later, Hermione Granger sat reading the Daily Prophet at breakfast in the Great Hall. "Here's something interesting," she said.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Ron asked.

Hermione answered "it says here that Walden MacNair has been sacked from his job as executioner for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures."

"Hooray for that," Harry said. "Buckbeak will be really happy to hear it!

"Here's something else," Hermione continued "it says that St. Mungo's Hospital has just declined a sizable contribution offered by Lucius Malfoy."