Here's the promised chapter. In truth, I had finished it before I posted Chapter 9 just so I could update it early. Ain't I clever! I think we've got three more chapters to go after this! So sad! No worries though. I know you'll enjoy them! So enjoy this while you can! Especially as this chapter tells us what happened to Draco when he found out who Toby was! He he!
Chapter Ten: Locust legs
All day Toby had been shown the grounds. His last stop was the kitchens, as the House Elves had just finished preparing the nights meal and would be free from any chore beside cleaning. Hermione, Harry and Ron, who couldn't pass up free food, slipped quietly through the portrait hole with Toby behind them under a spell of invisibility to see how the servants react to his friends.
"Hello." Harry greeted a nearby group of Elves. They stopped and looked up at Harry with, almost scarily, eager smiles.
"Sirs, miss! What can we do for you's?" They piped as they ran up to the group.
Toby had given his friends specific orders to order stuff definitely not found in the Hogwarts kitchen, telling them that they wouldn't have to eat any of it, so they began to order whatever came into their heads. "Do you have any Ducks tongues in a creamy red wine sauce?" Hermione asked as the House elves rushed to obey.
"I'll have a small plate of fried Ants with a sprinkle of melted butter." Harry said.
Ron racked his brain for something exotic sounding. "And I'll… er… I'll have… some dried Camel meat in rice with… chillies, diced, and chopped tomato's and onions."
"Could I have a side order or fogs legs, fried in butter and garlic?" Hermione asked a passing elf, remembering her trip to France.
"Well. If your having that, Hermione, I guess I'll have a side order of cooked locusts, fried in vegetable oil on a plate of summer salad. Hold the croutons though. I don't like them." Ron said as he tried to top Hermione, who gave him a playful smile.
"And for desert," Harry supplied, with a wink to his friends. "can we have three Cornish ice cream sundaes with hot chocolate fudge sauce and with bits of chocolate flakes on top?" The House elves who had not gone disappeared in a frenzy to complete the unusual orders.
Ron mouthed a "What?" to Harry and cocked his head, Hermione grinned at his antics.
Harry grinned and whispered. "I fancy one right about now."
Toby almost gave the game away with a titter at Harry's idea, as he watched his servant's progress through a conjured crystal ball.
"Here, sirs and miss." A House Elf puffed, 25 minutes later, as he led them to a small table. "Your foods." Plates were put on the table as the trio sat down to their peculiar meal. Sure enough, the food they ordered was placed on the table all steaming hot, except for the salads, and waiting while the Sundaes slowly melted at the right corner of each plate, across the starters. The gang sat down and looked at the row of nervous House Elves standing by, waiting for disapproval.
Everyone watched Hermione pick up a frog leg daintily with her special fork, and popped it in her mouth. "Mmmm. That's actually quite good." Ron pulled a face as she gave him a smug look.
The Elves all beamed and chorused. "Thank you, Miss."
Agreeing to her silent challenge, Ron picked up some fried Locusts with his fingers, wrapped them in a lettuce leaf and bit the whole lot in half. Harry laughed at the face Hermione pulled back as she gave him a silent look of defeat. Ron smiled in victory, letting a Locust leg fall from his lip.
Toby clapped to congratulate the small Elves as he let his invisibility spell fall away, revealing himself. The Elves gasped and fell to the ground in worship, making Hermione frown. "Well done! Well done!" Toby's voice boomed across the now silent hall. "You passed with flying colours."
"Majesty?" One bold House Elf asked nervously as his voice was blocked by the ground.
"Yes." Toby laughed, grinning at his friends. "I gave you all a test in resourcefulness and speed. I have not seen a meal set so fast." The House Elves all beamed with pride, at the floor. "Even though you had almost none of the available ingredients, you still managed to pull off a fine meal in record time." The Elves were now stealing proud sideway glances at each other. "So I dub this kitchen one of the finest Aboveground." The servants were so overcome by joy they all suddenly rushed at Toby, causing him to fall on his butt, hugging him and thanking him while they wiped their eyes, and noses, on their pillow sheet toga's. Harry, Ron and Hermione all laughed at Toby's misfortune and started their sundaes. "Ron?" Hermione asked him as he was stuffing his face. "Why did you eat the Locust instead of the Camel meat?"
After swallowing his food he gave her a embarrassed grin. "Well… when we went to Egypt Fred and George both bet me a bag of Honeydukes best chocolate if I ate ten fried Locusts in under 5 seconds. They still owe me that chocolate."
"Then you should ask for interest. It's not like they can't afford it." Harry said, waving an empty spoon at Ron.
"Yeah, but if I did that, what's to stop them from jinxing it?"
In the end, Toby was true to his word and, after digging him out of the pile of grateful House Elves, he got rid of the food. By this time they had all finished their sundaes and were happy to drag a slightly bruised Toby away from the kitchens and the House Elves.
As they walked back down the corridor, on their way to Gryffendor tower to occupy themselves for the hour before dinner they met Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, speed talking as they came from the opposite direction. Toby hid behind Ron's robe, praying he wasn't seen. He had been warned about those two that morning and experienced their unique brand of torture first hand. It was almost as bad as when he had visited his elderly aunts at new years! His cheeks itched at the memory and he had had to invent an entire new spell to correct his hair and clothes after their inspection and coos of 'How sweet!' and 'Cute!'. He could still remember how one of his ears had began to ring when one of them had squealed too close.
"Did you hear?" Parvati giggled to Hermione as they came closer, seemingly have forgotten about Toby for the moment. "Malfoy fainted at the feast yesterday!"
"What! Why!" Hermione asked as Ron began to crack up and Harry only smiled.
"Dunno." Lavender said with a shrug. "Someone said something about something that happened on the train…" Lavender was interrupted by a peal of laughter from Ron and Harry's sniggering. Toby hid his smile behind his hand and prayed that he wouldn't make a noise that would give him away.
Hermione looked slightly amused as she excused her friends. "We were practicing our Cheering Charms for revision and they've not quite worn off yet. I bet your sister would love to hear about Malfoy." Parvati and her friend both bought it and left, still chatting away.
"Whew. That was close." Toby wiped his sleeve over his forehead as he helped Hermione and Harry get Ron off the floor.
(This chapters a little short, isnt it? Dont worry! I'll make it up to you!The next chapter deals with Proffesor Drake ans well as an overload of JxS fluff, as I couldn'tput any in this chapter.But for now, here's the shout outs!)
BOWIEgirl: I have my own cult? Cool! Mwahahahaha! Yes! Bow before me pitifull mortals! Free Jareth plushies for everyone! His clothes are detachable! Whooohoo!
Sheng.Long 2005: CHOCOLATE! I will beed them in my Weasley swamp, made of fudge! With brownie bits in it! Yum...! Drools. Your right, I don't intend on editing this, anyway its nice as it is. And I'm too lazy.
Jumping-jo: Hey! I resmble that. No, wait... I ment resent! Resent! Dr. Seuss was insane. His books were all extracts from his diary while he was in a loony bin. His son, another Dr, published the extracts as childrens stories. And you think I'm insane?
Kaichia: Drakes in the next chapter! Don't fret.
Solea: Save them? With what I have planned, I don't think they'll want to be saved! He he! Perverted grin.
Ladyofthedragons1: You want to give me More Cookies! Shrugs. Okay... but it's your funeral... AF: No its not! It's mine!
Moonjava: Hello!