Authors Note. This chapter, for what it's worth, will complete Saturday; at this rate 'War and Peace' will have nothing on the length of this story.
Harry Potter and the New Neighbours.Chapter 9. Saturday Evening.
There was a bump and Ginny was sitting on the floor with her knickers on her head, when she opened her eyes she was looking into Harry's sparkling emerald pools, she had obviously bumped into him because he was also sat on the floor.
With a wicked smile he said, "Hello Ginny, why have you got your knickers on your head?"
Ginny had embarrassment cubed and she stuttered, "I was with Hermione and she…Oh shit!" Ginny leapt up pulled her knickers off her head and sprinted to her room slamming the door behind herself. Then she started laughing, uncontrollably.
Harry shook his head and went into his room to get himself ready, he would ask Hermione what she and Ginny had been doing to have the firebrand wearing knickers for a hat.
Hermione had just decided which T-shirt to wear with her jeans when Mimi arrived and informed her that she would be wearing one of her new party robes and before Hermione could even start to object added that it wasn't open to negotiation. Mimi quickly sorted through Hermione's party robes taking out three for her to choose from and when she looked at them she realised that they were all very smart but casual. She quickly picked one that was pale tangerine, when she put it on and Mimi had done her hair she matched the house, 'casual understated elegance', but she was still a bit peeved.
At ten to seven there was a knock on Hermione's door and she called, "Come in."
Harry opened the door and just stood there with his mouth open, "What's the matter?" Hermione said.
His gob smacked expression was replaced by a smile and he whispered, "You are so very beautiful and I love you so much that I was speechless for a minute, every bit the lady of the house."
All traces of her snit vanished in an instant and she gave him a wonderful smile, Mimi was right of course she had chosen her position in the wizard world and she had to live with it. She wanted Harry and what went with Harry was all of this, it wasn't his fault and she had to learn to live with it, at worst she would learn to ignore it. When she was little she used to dream of being the Lady in a big house, well now she was, her dream was coming true all she had to do was learn to live with it.
What she said was, "I love you too darling and you're not looking too bad yourself. Do you think that we should go down now? Where will they arrive?"
Still smiling he answered, "They should arrive in the same entrance hall we first arrived in, so let's make our way towards there, shall we?"
As they were going down the main staircase he asked, "I literally bumped into Ginny as I was going back to my room to change, we both finished up sitting on the floor, she said that she had been with you but why did she have a pair of knickers on her head?"
Hermione burst out laughing and told him, "The last I saw of her she had just left my room and was skipping across the hall, twirling them above her head on her finger, they must of landed on her head when she bumped into you."
Looking nervous Harry said, "Should I even ask why Ginny was leaving your room twirling her knickers over her head?"
"I think that I had better tell you," Hermione told him with a sheepish smile, "the truth is a lot less exciting than anything your male mind might dream up. Mimi bought all of the girls' mini knickers and when Ginny put hers on she had a lot of hair sticking out the sides, so she asked what she should do about it, so I trimmed it off for her. She was going to magically remove all of it but I told her what you had said to me about that and she decided to do the same as me and trim it back, so I trimmed it back for her, see it's not very exciting at all really."
Harry burst out laughing, "That's why her face lit up like a brake light when I asked her why she had her knickers on her head then she started to tell me, swore and charged off."
As Hermione said, "Poor girl, she must be terribly embarrassed."
There were twenty-three pops and that many bedraggled house elves appeared, Jemma was there and spoke first to the visitors, "We are very glad that you have come." Then turning, "Hermione, Harry, these are elves who have, over the years escaped and gone into hiding in the wild, what may I do with them?"
Hermione went immediately into mother mode, "One of you take them upstairs, to help them change their clothes so that they are ready for the party and later we will all talk to them about what they would like to do."
When they had gone upstairs with Jiffs, Jemma said, "Normally they would have fled if a human had said something like that but they have heard of Hermione and they can see that you are both elf friends, so they know that you will not endanger them. There are more than another fifty of them who did not come at first but they will all be upstairs within a few minutes and they will all trust your judgement and do what you suggest."
Their conversation finished at this point because the Weasleys arrived, Ron and Luna had come with Molly and Arthur, immediately Luna said, "I want eyes like yours Hermione."
But Molly interrupted whatever was going to be said, by saying, "Where's Ginny, I would have thought that she'd be here to meet us?"
Hermione answered, "I think that we should go and get her Mrs Weasley, she did a pretty good job of embarrassing herself earlier on, would you like to come as well Luna?"
As the three of them disappeared up the main staircase talking rapidly Matt, Jane, Tonks and Remus arrived from the direction of the library so Arthur and Ron were introduced to Hermione's parents, also Kingsley had just arrived and was introduced as well.
At the same time as Hermione had been going back up the stairs house elves started to arrive in droves and they had been moving into the large party room which was on the right as you came from the library. Harry was worried about how his elves would cope with the hundreds of guests but he needn't of worried, being house elves they were all extremely helpful, even to each other.
Ginny was coming down stairs with the trio who had gone up to find her when Amelia arrived with Daphne and Susan, Ron was ogling Daphne but she didn't see him, she was too busy smiling at Harry.
For his part Harry had simply said 'hi' to the two girls and was now talking quietly to Amelia whilst Luna gave Ron a swipe on his shoulder and said, "Stop staring Carrot. If you don't shut your mouth the ferrets will start making nests in it."
Sheepishly Ron said, "But she's…"
Luna interrupted him, "Yes she is gorgeous, but your girlfriend doesn't need you to tell her that, anyway look at whom she is salivating over."
True enough thought Ron, she hasn't taken her eyes off Harry and she didn't look like she was going to do so any time soon, he said to Luna, "What do you think Hermione will do about it?"
She answered quietly, "Look at Hermione, she is just talking to Susan and she has absolute confidence in him, Daphne had better be careful or she will find herself in the same boat as quite a few others."
Ron, not being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, asked innocently, "What boat's that love?"
Ginny had been listening and said, "It's called the good ship, 'I'm in love with Harry Potter and he only loves Hermione, boat,' oh brother of mine."
Ron was looking bemused and said, "I don't see how that is such a good ship to be on, him being in love with someone else and all that."
"Come on Ronald," Luna said sounding like she didn't want to get drawn into any more long tedious explanations, "let's go to find some Butterbeer and we can talk about Quidditch."
Luna and Ron went off so Ginny went over to Daphne and said, "Hi Daphne, I have been doing that for the last five years, it doesn't help very much. I have found that the best thing to do is to be his friend then at least you can be close by him all of the time and I have heard a rumour that those of us close to him in the not too distant future may be in for a treat."
Daphne looked at Ginny nervously and said, "Hi, you're Ginny aren't you, but you look a bit different, is it the eyes? I don't remember ever speaking to you before what with you being a year down and in a different house." Then she said even more nervously, "How will they be about that, me being in Slytherin and all?"
Ginny giggled and answered, "Well I think that I counted five questions in there so yes I am Ginny and it is the eyes, they have been changed to green on account of me being made an elf friend and I can never remember ever speaking to you before either. Don't worry about the Slytherin thing, they will judge you on who, what and how you are as a person, just be yourself because both Hermione and Harry are very astute, be honest because you won't fool them. Let's go and find some Butterbeer there must be some around here somewhere."
The pair arrived in the party room, which by this time was almost full of house elves, this was quite an achievement, the room was seventy-five feet by fifty, Daphne said to Ginny forlornly, "How are we going to find a Butterbeer in here?"
"Watch," Ginny said as she crouched down and pulled Daphne down with her then she spoke to one of the elves, "Hello what's your name?"
The elf was very excited, "Me is Mosty, Missy elf friend Ginny what can I do for you?"
"Hello Mosty," Ginny said with a smile, "can you show us where we can find some Butterbeer please?"
There was a little pushing and shoving and then four bottles of Butterbeer appeared from different directions, the girls were careful to thank the elves that gave them the drink and they also thanked Mosty for her help.
As they stood up Harry and all of the others came in, so the girls joined them as they made their way up onto the small stage, which was at one end of the room. The main purpose of the party was to speak to a lot of the house elves so Harry and Jemma went to the front of the stage and the room went quiet.
First Harry said, "Good evening our friends, Jemma and I have some things to tell you and she will explain them to you much better than I can, so will you please listen to her, what she has to say is very important to you all."
Whilst Jemma was telling the whole story Harry went and sat on one of the chairs that Hermione had conjured for them, all of the visitors were listening intently, they had not heard the story before and they were shocked.
The elves however were talking amongst themselves and Harry stood up as one of their number asked, "How do we know that you can do as you say?"
Harry beckoned to two of the party who had come onto the stage with him, so the pair stood up and removed their light tan cloaks the hoods of which had been hiding their faces, revealed they were Memo and Mimi.
There was pandemonium.
It wasn't only the elves who were all talking at once but when Amelia stood all of the elves knew who she was and they became silent and she said, "I see two elves who the house elves obviously know but how do I know that these were ever house elves."
Looking at her face Harry could see that she wanted the proof as much for the house elves as for her self, so he said loudly, "Jemma, who were your leaders before the accursed one cast his enchantment? Are they here and who do they work for?"
With a smile Jemma answered, "They were called Moro and Mina of course they are here because they work for you at Godric's Hollow, you have never been there so you have never met them."
Two elves were making their way up onto the stage and Harry said, "With their permission I will change them back to their rightful selves."
A short conversation ensued between the concerned parties, then Harry cast the spell first on Moro and then on Mina, stood before them they beheld an elven lord and lady in all of their glory.
There was a gasp around the hall and the house elves became extremely excited.
Amelia announced, "I will call a meeting within two weeks where we will arrange for all of the elves to be set free."
Harry added, "If nothing has been decided to move the date forward then all of the elves will be freed three weeks from today."
Next Moro came to the fore and asked, "Harry elf friend, I request that the elves who had been living in the wild be allowed to live at Godric's hollow."
Smiling Hermione said mainly to Harry, "There is no reason that they should not be elves again now and make a home at Godric's Hollow, obviously there is room otherwise Moro wouldn't have suggested it."
The leader of the free elves came forward and he said, "There are seventy nine of us and we are honoured that you would treat us so, but I believe that the majority of us should remain as we are. You require four more elves for this house and two temporally for Godric's Hollow, so you should change another ten as an Honour Guard if they are needed. We will still be sixty five to do what needs to be done to make a home for the elves in Godric's Hollow."
Although it was not particularly late the visiting house elves were first thanking all on the stage and then leaving, Jemma assured them that it was to spread the word of what had transpired. Soon Moro, Mina and Hermione were sat on the edge of the stage, they were helping Jemma decide which of the elves would be doing what, Hermione had first asked for volunteers, but that didn't help because all of the elves had volunteered. Eventually one male and one female were chosen for Godric's hollow and then one male with three females were picked for the Potters Place.
Faro who was the leader of the free elves helped Moro and Mina choose the ten elves for the Honour Guard, to all of the humans surprise eight were female and only two were male.
Mina smiled and said, "Never underestimate Elven females, or their elf friend counterparts," and with the last she cuddled Ginny and Hermione who were both smiling as well.
When the ten were converted Molly with a big smile said, "I have a small complaint, all of these elven women are much too beautiful, I don't want people comparing me to them, I will keep loosing."
Moro went over to Molly and Arthur, he took their hands and said, "You heard the story of why the Malfoys took all of your families money, for this I declare you both to be elf friends," Molly and Arthur had to sit down but he continued, "your money will be returned to you the Malfoy blood is ours, Draco we will take when Hermione and Ginny have finished with him, but we know not of Mephisto."
Hermione conjured a mirror in front of Molly and when she saw her reflection she was somewhat placated, in addition to her green eyes she also appeared to have lost a fair few pounds.
Amelia was looking at the elven warriors who were laughing and giggling with her two charges, Ginny and Hermione and she said to Harry, "I hope that this isn't a private army?"
He laughed, "You have seen Hermione and I in action Minister, we are our own private army. But I do believe that it is a sign that the elves are prepared to defend what they perceive as theirs and probably their freedom as well, we are prepared to help them with the latter if they should need it."
The minister thought for a second, smiled and said, "Fair enough Harry, I can't honestly say that I blame them."
Moro came and said to Harry, "We have a slight problem Harry, now that we are elves we can not re-enter Godric's Hollow without your permission."
Harry said, "Don't worry I will take you, if you all link up then you do what you would normally do to get there, I will carry you."
Moro called all those who were to go to Godric's Hollow together and with Harry holding Mina's hand they all disappeared from the Potters Place, thirty seconds later he was back and said, "I had to escape quickly those elven women are nearly as bad as human ones."
He was immediately cornered by eight of the human variety females and with an evil smile Tonks said, "You had better have a very good explanation of what you just said or we might just be forced to snog you too death."
"Well," he said, "I think that you said it all Tonks, is the universal panacea kiss Harry?"
"Yes," they all said at once and they moved in and started kissing him.
He vanished from their midst and reappeared with Hermione about five yards away and she said, "Do you think that you can get away from me that easily, Potter?"
Harry gave her 'the smile', "I had no wish to get away from you, Darling."
So she did the only thing that she could think of, she kissed him.
Jane said to Amelia, "I thought that I brought my daughter up better than to do things like that in public."
"I can't honestly say that I blame her though," Tonks said dreamily.
Amelia smiled, "Very perceptive Tonks, given the circumstances."
When the couple finished Harry turned to them and said, "Who is staying and who is going home?"
The only ones to go home were Amelia and her charges, because she was Minister she had to be virtually always available and that wasn't the case whilst she was at the Potters Place, needless to say Susan and Daphne were not amused.
As they were leaving Susan was heard to say to Daphne, "Why doesn't she just give the stupid job up," they all hoped that Amelia hadn't heard her.
It did not take very long to find rooms for their additional visitors even though Molly insisted that Ron and Luna were kept as far away from each other as possible. But Hermione had spoken to Jemma and Harry was fairly certain that Luna would have a similar portal in her mirror as Hermione had in hers, it would be up to Luna what use, if any, she made of it.
As Harry came out from cleaning his teeth he met his love coming out of his dressing room, they were both quite tired but they spent a very comfortable relaxed night first talking and then sleeping in each other's arms.
x-x
Sunday morning Harry and his love were awakened by Mimi who had come to do Hermione's hair, but first she assured the couple that neither Memo nor herself wanted to leave the house, they would remain as friends. Mimi asked if she could become Hermione's Ladies Maid, which Hermione readily agreed to. She also told them that Memo wanted to learn a lot more about Muggle electricity and electronics, he also wondered if he could spend some time with them especially when they were going to Muggle shops this was also agreed to.
Harry and his love were very happy about this, but because it was seven thirty Hermione went back to her own room to get herself ready for the day.
Consequently they arrived at breakfast within three minutes of each other, Tonks and Remus were already there and all of the others arrived within five minutes of each other, the only one complaining was Ron.
He had been told by one of the new house elves that if he wanted to sleep his life away he was at liberty to spend the whole day in bed if he so desired, but if he wanted to eat he had better get up. A little later he realised that this was exactly what his mother had instructed Luna to say to him in the mornings, he was therefore fairly certain that the house elf in question was simply following orders, who's was fairly irrelevant. Anyway breakfast was excellent and that would have made up for a whole lot more than just getting up a little earlier than he would have liked.
When the meal was finishing Harry told them that Hermione and himself would be going to Godric's Hollow for a short while then he said, "There is a games room, the library, the reading room, but he hadn't looked in the garden where amongst other things there was supposed to be a swimming pool and a Quidditch pitch. I hope that you will all find something to amuse yourselves until we get back."
Ron had just been contemplating a fourth helping of breakfast but at the mention of a Quidditch pitch his concentration on food had been broken and he suggested to Luna that perhaps they should have a look around the garden.
Hermione and Harry arrived outside a fairly small cottage that was covered with climbing roses, it had a small-enclosed entrance porch. Upon entering they found that it had two small windows and several hooks to hang topcoats, the only other furnishing was a seat along one side with a boot rack under it.
Going inside they started looking around, Mina had not been lying when she had told Hermione yesterday evening that they wouldn't need to be shown around the inside. There were two reasonable sized bedrooms with built in wardrobes they had a toilet- shower room between them, the only other rooms were a bathroom and the living room.
Everything was spotless including the fairly large country kitchen where they found Mina she took them outside to find all of the other elves.
Moro was waiting for them after they had gone through another porch and out of the back door, he led them to the right and they walked slowly around the cottage admiring both it and the scenery. It did not take them long to realise that Godric's Hollow was in fact a small steep sided oval dingle with ancient broadleaf trees covering the steep sides of the valley.
When they had nearly completed their circuit Moro led them over to a stable with its doors open, inside were several grey Welsh Mountain Ponies and the two house elves who had been assigned the task of looking after the cottage. Having greeted the two elves the trio followed the sound of sawing and banging that was coming from somewhere inside the woods and they soon came to a small, fairly level clearing in which a lot of house elves were working, franticly.
As Faro came towards them Hermione thought, 'Why do house elves always appear to work franticly?' but the arrival of Faro interrupted her pondering by him saying, "Welcome to you both, it would be very difficult to offer you anything much in the way of hospitality at the moment, however if you come again in a week we will be a in much better state of organisation."
A short time later the couple were back in the entrance hall of the Potters Place from where they went to find the others.
Half way across the inner hall they were greeted by an extremely happy, much younger looking Molly, she told them that most of the others were in the reading room. However Ron had found some brooms and he had dragged Luna outside supposedly to explore the garden, but they all knew he had gone looking for the Quidditch pitch.
It was not unusual for Hermione's brain to be working overtime and it had been ever since her conversation with Harry in bed last night, they might have been too tired to make love but they were not to tired to talk.
Hermione had been hedging around the question of him impregnating some other witches as sort of secondary wives, even she didn't like the sound of that, just to produce some of the little Potters Elfin and some of the others seemed to want. It wasn't any surprise to her, but really he didn't want to know about it, he had told her that he definitely did not want her to go with other boys and so he would not go with other witches, it was only fair.
In one way she was absolutely delighted, it was just what she had always dreamed of when she was a little girl, but it wasn't what the powers that be thought was best for the world. I am going to live for a long time so I wonder how long I will be able to have babies for? Surely the world doesn't need ten new Potters in the next five years, maybe I should talk to Elfin about everything and if necessary she will have to talk to Harry about it all. Whatever she didn't want Harry to make any other girl pregnant until she was at least four months gone and she knew that he would support her totally, she wanted his first child.
What Hermione didn't know was that Harry had spent all of the morning so far considering the self same problem that was concerning her. He was absolutely certain that she loved only him and she loved him as much as he loved her, which made her even considering the matter in his eyes, very serious. Well they could say what they liked he was not making any other witch pregnant until she had given birth to a healthy baby, his baby. As soon as he could he would have a talk with Elfin.
Authors Note. If you like it and you want some more PLEASE REVIEW.
Important:
I am having great difficulty keeping up with writing the nine thousand words it takes to keep up with the two stories I am currently writing. The best thing I can think of is to give myself five days to write each chapter which means that each story will be updated every ten days instead of seven. But as I have said before your reviews make the writing easier, so I thank you all for your comments to me, however short.