FINDING HOME
Chapter 3. A strange house elf
"Draco, come here. There is something I'd like you to have a look at."
Lucius Malfoy beckoned his son to enter his cabinet. It was half past eight, and the dinner at Malfoys' just ended. Draco stood from the table and eagerly followed his father. He was rarely invited to the cabinet, and would never miss an opportunity to visit Lucius' private room where nobody aside from very important guests was normally allowed. Lucius did not even permit their house elves to clean the place.
The room was separated from the rest of the Manor with intricate web of moving stairs leading up and down, constantly changing directions dark corridors with viciously whispering portraits hanging on the walls, and considerable number of closed doors charmed to open only for certain people. All this ensured an uninvited guest to be led astray in a matter of minutes.
Draco was fairly sure that a certain amount of skeletons of those unfortunates would be found in unused and abandoned rooms whether anyone ever bothered to search. Of course, no one did. None of their ancestors were exactly worried if their unwanted guests disappeared mysteriously. And the Manor always acted in the best interests of its owners, not letting those who were needed for conducting business in future to disappear. Draco himself witnessed several times how the Manor chose shorter or longer routes for the visitors obviously depending on their status. It could take a guest from fifteen to fifty minutes to get from his bedroom to the dining hall (any Malfoy would cover the same distance in five).
But Malfoy blood or not, the Manor was still relatively unpredictable sometimes when not dealing with its one and only master Lucius Malfoy, and Draco was trying to keep up with father's pace. He really did not want to spend several hours roaming empty corridors, and he knew this could easily happen if he lost sight of Lucius. That's why he sighed with relief when they finally reached the destined place.
Father laid his right hand on the doorknob in the form of a gargoyle. That was another thing that only the master of the Manor could venture. Draco distinctly remember how the nasty creature almost bit his finger off when he tried to grasp it on his first visit here. On Lucius' touch it didn't even move, appearing absolutely immobile.
Lucius went inside, and Draco followed him, cautiously distancing himself from the door.
The premise they entered had a deserted look, just a large windowless room, with an oval table and a few chairs in the middle covered with a thick layer of dust. Lucius Malfoy took out his wand and quickly drew an undistinguishable figure in the air with it. The scenery momentarily changed, the ceiling began to glow revealing a spacious cabinet decorated in dark wood, rows of shelves along the walls occupied with books, intricately ornamented boxes and crystal vials, and a violet and silver tapestry with Malfoy crest. Lucius headed straight to the oval table in the middle of the room, thick crème carpet on the floor absorbing the sound of his steps. Draco who preferred to avoid unnecessary moves in this place sat in one of the chocolate-coloured armchairs that occupied the corners.
His father approached the table and picked a parchment that was previously disguised by the concealment charm along with other papers now covering the table surface. He handed the parchment to Draco with a nod encouraging him to read.
A quick glance proved to Draco that it was definitely not a type of a paper that one would like to be found in his house. It was one of those strange reports his father seemed to receive out of nowhere that promptly informed him of all recent events in the Wizarding world including strictly confidential memos that coursed through the Ministry of Magic.
This one was a copy of a report of Derrick Donnelly, the Senior Auror who inspected Potter's house.
"Well Draco, what is your opinion of this?" - Lucius inquired.
Draco shrugged, not quite sure what reaction was expected from him.
"Don't you find this coincidence a little strange? Voldemort is discovered dead in the house where Potter was living, with the evidence of elvian magic being used, a day later an estranged house elf appears in my property…," - commented Lucius. "Did you notice anything strange about Spotty?"
"Spotty?". The name seemed unfamiliar to Draco.
"The new house elf. Really Draco, I know there's no need to remember all of those creatures' names, but this one is a newcomer. You should pay more attention to things that happen in our house," - Lucius remarked reproachfully.
"Oh, that one. Well... he watches me a lot, and elves generally don't do that. And sometimes he acts as if he doesn't know a thing about housekeeping."
"How so?"
"I noticed him once wiping the dinner table with a rag instead of blowing the dust off as they normally do, until another elf stopped him. Then I saw how he broke a plate and didn't repair it immediately. He gathered the pieces and ran off."
"How… interesting," - Lucius' eyes narrowed. "Did you know that when I let him in he asked me where he was going to sleep?"
"But house elves don't need sleep!" - Draco sounded astonished.
"My point exactly."
Now Draco was worried. "Father, do you think that he works for the Ministry? Maybe he is not an elf at all, he is a spy, and this is a plan to expose you!"
"No, I doubt that the Ministry would use a house elf for such a task. They are dumb, but not total idiots. A house elf would be too faithful to his master. I also guessed at first that this is a human disguised as a house elf, but I've never heard of a spell or potion powerful enough to achieve such an effect. Besides, we shouldn't forget that use of elvian magic was indeed reported from the scene of Voldemort's death."
"So Spotty is really a house elf?"
Lucius smiled. "That we will find out very soon."
