I don't own Harry Potter
Sorry for the delay, however, here is the next chapter. Hope you like it.
Hildy
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Rather than leading him back to the door to the corridor, the other elf motioned Harry to go through a door next to the one to Bossy's office. Again, the door was much lower than normal and Harry supposed this meant that no wizards ever came to this part of the castle. The torch-lit passage behind the door wasn't much higher either. On both sides of it, more doors branched off.
"These be doors to all parts of castle, so that cleaning elves don't use Master corridors too much. Elves not to be seen!"
"Uhm, how do I know which door will lead me to which part of the castle?" Harry inquired. There were dozens of doors, all looking exactly alike.
"You learn really fast, Harry, no worry, all elves do." Wimpy assured him.
And while Harry doubted that he would ever find his way around in such a huge castle, he decided to remain silent for now. It wouldn't do for the other elves thinking that Harry was too dumb to work at such a magnificent place.
Finally, they arrived at what seemed to be the end of the hallway. "These be elves quarters, Harry," Wimpy said, opening a door that led into a large circular room. A large table, which was lower than the ones in the kitchen or the great hall, was positioned in the middle of it, and Harry assumed that this was the 'feeding room' Bossy had mentioned.
Wimpy confirmed this when he told Harry that meals were served three times a day – at 6am, 3pm and 10pm. That meant that Harry would only get two meals each day, as he had to work during the night and would be asleep at 3pm. That didn't bother him, however, two meals each day were plenty and it wasn't as if he had gotten much more back at the Dursleys either.
Harry was pulled out of his thoughts when Wimpy opened one of the doors that opened off the circular room.
"This room for elf laundry," he told Harry, "you get new towel when old be dirty. You mustn't keep wearing dirty towel, Master Professor Dumbledore be very strict about this. Old towel be put in laundry basket, laundry elves take care of it. Since you so big-" here, Wimpy hesitated for a few seconds, eyeing Harry with an almost suspicious gaze, "you might need bigger towel than most. Big towels on the right, smalls on the left. If big towel not big enough, you need speak with laundry elves."
Briefly, Harry thought about his trunk with all his nice new black robes. However, a house elf employed at Hogwarts could hardly wear clothes made for wizards. Only elves without a proper job wore clothes. No, Harry would wear a towel like everyone else did, and he would wear it proudly!
"Uhm, where do I sleep, Wimpy?" Harry asked the elf.
"Yes, that's next," Wimpy declared. He closed the door and went to another one on the opposite side of the room but didn't open it. "This quarters for cleaning elves. They just got to sleep, though, you need be quiet."
Harry nodded.
"Wimpy need go back to work now. If Harry has questions, just ask any elf."
Wimpy was about to turn around when Harry remembered that with all those doors, it might not be easy to find his way back to the corridor with the cupboard where he had left his trunk. "Uhm, Wimpy, is there a door that leads me back to the same corridor where I have come from?"
"Harry mustn't wander the halls, elves be not to be seen!" Wimpy admonished him.
"I know, and I won't wander through the castle, it's just that I need to fetch my trunk. I left it in a cupboard before I started searching for you, and I don't know whether I will find my way back if I just go through any of the doors you have showed me earlier."
"Harry has possessions?" Wimpy asked, his voice sounding awed.
"Only a few... I'm sorry if I'm not meant to have them. I think there was some kind of misunderstanding, I don't mind if I can't have them, it's just..." he was interrupted by the other elf.
"Of course Harry can have possessions, but not many elves have some. Harry's family must have be really good if they allowed him to have possessions though."
"Yeah, I think they were all right," Harry confirmed. He didn't actually like the Dursleys, but if his book about house elves was anything to go by he had been really lucky not to end up with a family that thwacked and kicked him around or forced him to punish himself for every single infraction, no matter how insignificant.
"So can you tell me which door I need to take in order to get back to the corridor where I have come from?" he repeated his request when the other elf continued to stare at him.
"Wimpy not know which door lead to which part of school, Wimpy be kitchen elf only. But Harry can go back to kitchen and go back through door in cupboard."
A short while later, Harry was once more standing next to the statue of Emmy the Eviscerated Elf. Deep in thoughts, he made his way back to the bathroom with the talking mirror and then up the staircase next to it.
When he and Wimpy had returned to the kitchen, the other elves had immediately fallen silent. Harry knew that most elves hardly ever left the house (or in this case, castle) they were working at, and if they didn't read the books wizards had written about them it was no real surprise that the Hogwarts-elves weren't used to elves like Harry, being surrounded only by elves that looked almost exactly as they did. However, Harry really hoped that they wouldn't pick on him for looking different. He really hoped that he could finally make some friends...
When he arrived at his cupboard, he was relieved that the tingling sensation he felt when touching the door was still in place and didn't feel any different. Harry had no idea why, but his gut instincts told him that it would have felt different if someone else had been in his cupboard while he was away.
He dragged his trunk out of the closet and made his way back towards the staircase, trying to be as quiet as possible. He had no idea what time it was, but he supposed that most students must be in class. However, he didn't want to take any chances, Wimpy's words about elves being practically forbidden to be caught in corridors used by wizards were still fresh in his mind. And with that enormous trunk, it wouldn't be easy to hide.
Luckily, Harry didn't encounter a single person (or any other being, for that matter) and it was only when he was already back at the weird stature and about to climb into the cupboard again that he became aware of a slight problem. The trunk was simply too big to fit through the petite door that led into the kitchen.
He remembered the mirror talking about another entrance, one that was used by teachers and students, but Harry doubted the other elves would react kindly if he asked them whether they could open this one for him.
They would only become more suspicious and they might even decided to tell Bossy about how strange Harry was and then the head-elf might decide to send him back to the Dursleys and – no, Harry wouldn't risk it.
It wasn't as if he needed the trunk, was it? And it was halfway empty anyway (Harry sincerely doubted that anyone – even a wizard – could own enough stuff to fill such a huge suitcase completely), so it wouldn't be a problem to just carry everything he needed to his new room and then leave the trunk in one of the many cupboards outside the kitchen.
He found another cupboard not much further down the corridor. Honestly, what were all the empty closets for?
When Harry unpacked his trunk, he realized that it was a good thing it hadn't fit through the door, as otherwise the other elves might have seen that Harry owned several things no respectable elf should have in his possession.
Sure, it wasn't Harry's fault that the giant had made a mistake and given Harry a letter that was clearly aimed at students of this school rather than house elves, but he doubted that this would have prevented the other elves from staring at him even more intensely than they already did.
First of all, the stick – wand, the weird man in the shop had called it, Harry remembered – needed to go.
He felt a bit bad about hiding what probably was a really cool and sought-after wand (he hadn't forgotten the shop-owner's excitement when he had given it to Harry) away in the dungeons, where it would be of no real use to anyone, but he couldn't help it.
And wasn't someone who made and sold wands supposed to recognize a creature that wasn't allowed to own a wand and refuse to sell it one? But the old man had insisted that Harry should have one and hadn't even been deterred by all the destruction Harry had caused while waving around what must have been hundreds of sticks!
So it really was the man's fault that one of his wands would be hidden away and never be used to perform any magic, not Harry's - wasn't it?
Having put the wand into the now-empty trunk, Harry turned to the pile of clothes. The robes he would take, he decided. They were really useful, as they could fulfil several different purposes. They would keep him warm in case a towel alone wouldn't be enough. He could use them as blankets and of course, they would hide him much better than a (white) towel if he should end up having to sneak through the castle again when the wizards were awake.
Dudley's old jumpers and trousers, however, ended up in the trunk without so much as a second glance, as did the coat and the shoes. None of the elves Harry had seen in the kitchen had worn shoes so Harry supposed that he shouldn't wear any either. He was a bit worried about the cold and hard stone floor, but if the other elves could cope with this, Harry would too!
The underwear was a different matter though. Pants were clothes, sure, but they weren't wizard-clothes. And he really, really wasn't comfortable with the thought of only wearing a towel with nothing underneath it. And it wasn't as if any of the other elves (or his employer, should he ever encounter him) would see it when Harry wore his pants, was it?
Well, unless they made him strip down completely, of course, but somehow Harry doubted that this would be the case. They might be elves with far less rights than people, yes, but from what he had gathered when he still had lived with the Dursleys, even the lowest of the lowest of employees had certain rights (much to his uncle's chagrin).
Having sorted out his clothes, Harry turned to the remainder of his stuff. He didn't think he would need a cauldron or quills or any of the other items he had purchased that day in London. He did, however, take his books.
Once he had put all the things he wouldn't take back to the elves' quarters into the trunk, Harry stored it into the corner of the cupboard so that even if someone should open the closet it was unlikely that he would notice it. Then, he wrapped his pants and the books into one of his robes in order not to alarm the other elves and made his way back to the door to the kitchen.
This time, Harry didn't knock but just opened the door. He was now a Hogwarts-elf just like the others so he had the same right to use the elf-doors as them, hadn't he. Once his colleagues became aware that Harry had returned, they fell silent again.
He hadn't really expected anything else, but it was still annoying. Briefly, he thought about telling them that it was rude to stare but then he decided against it, due to the fact that just now, a particularly tiny but very fierce and determined-looking elf was approaching him.
"Harry need come with Hildy!" the elf squeaked and scowled at Harry as if the latter had mortally offended her.
Harry hoped he hadn't.
He gulped, nodded and followed the tiny creature to the back of the kitchen where the doors to Bossy's office and to the elves' quarters were located.
He sighed with relief when Hildy led him through the doors to the elves' quarters. Seemed as if he wasn't sacked, then. Well, at least not yet.
Once the door had closed behind the two elves, Hildy turned around and pointed an accusing finger at Harry. "Harry bad elf! Harry mustn't wear trousers and jumpers!"
Harry looked down his body and his eyes widened.
How could he have overlooked something like this?! His first day as a proper, at a wizarding dwelling employed elf and promptly he had violated the third most important rule: Never behave as a master would. How could he have forgotten that he was still wearing clothes?
Later, Harry would think that it hadn't been so strange after all. He had worn clothes his entire life and never really thought about it. Sure, he had known that house elves weren't supposed to wear them ever since reading the first few pages of the book, but it hadn't really sunken in that this meant he needed to strip as soon as getting accepted as a Hogwarts-elf.
Even when he had left all of his (or rather Dudley's) clothes in his trunk outside the kitchen just moments ago he hadn't thought about the fact that he was just now wearing a particularly ugly looking pair of trousers and a shirt with too many holes to count.
He doubted that most wizards or normal people would regard them as anything else than rags, much less clothes, but the house elf that was currently standing and front of him, glaring in a rather threatening manner, seemed to have a different opinion.
"I'm sorry! I forgot!" Harry blurted out.
"Obviously!" the elf retorted, "Now strip!"
Harry wondered how such a tiny elf could look this scary. Weren't house elves supposed to be downtrodden, subservient and unfailingly polite creatures? Seemed as if he wasn't the only untypical elf in the castle, after all...
"Here? In front of you?!" Harry asked incredulously. The mere thought to strip in front of a quite obviously female elf made him blush.
Hildy looked at him oddly before moving towards the door that led to the room where the towels were kept, intending to fetch something appropriately to dress for the strange new elf. All the while, she was muttering to herself.
"That no normal elf, no no. They keep saying Hildy not normal, but Hildy be very much more normal than Harry. Bad elf, wearing clothes. But Hildy help, oh yes, Hildy be helping Harry to become good elf."
Harry stared at Hildy, not sure whether he should obey her.
Oh, he knew that he needed to change into a more appropriate attire, but the other elf was apparently crazy, at least this was what Harry suspected as he couldn't imagine any other explanation as to why Hildy was talking to herself.
His old family had been very knowledgeable about these sort of things and Harry had learnt at a very early age that people who either talked to themselves or to trees, rubbish bins and similar items needed to be locked away because they were dangerous. And Harry wasn't so sure that it was a good idea to strip in front of a madman – or, in this case, a madelf, he supposed.
It was only when the elf in question turned around, clutching a towel, and gave him a rather threatening glare before hissing once more "Strip!" that Harry decided that, if he wanted to survive this encounter, he'd better obey. However, Hildy was still a girl...
"Then you turn around! I won't strip in front of a girl!" he demanded.
"Hildy not supposed to listen to commands from other elves, oh no." she declared. However, she turned her back to Harry anyway and this time, Harry could actually understand her mutterings. "But Hildy do so anyway, Hildy do not want to look at strange elf Harry's skin, oh no. Not normal skin and not normal form either, Hildy better not look or Hildy might be sick."
Harry opened and closed his mouth but no sound came out. Had this elf just said that Harry was ugly?
Well, it wasn't as if nobody had ever said this before – Aunt Petunia was rather fond of pointing out how disgusting Harry looked and that his look alone was enough to convince everyone of Harry's freakishness. But hearing it from a creature that looked even worse than Harry – a creature that Aunt Petunia would never even have allowed into her house – that was rude!
"I'm not ugly!" Harry said fiercely once he had found his voice again, "You're the one who looks hideous!"
"Hildy not hideous! Hildy be normal elf with normal skin! But Harry has strange white and floppy and squishy skin, that's not nice, no, that make Hildy sick!"
Harry clenched his fists. He mustn't do anything stupid! He had only been officially hired for about an hour, if he would get into a fight with a colleague on his very first day surely they would sack him again, no matter whether it had been the other elf who had started with the insults. "Give me the towel then!" he said through gritted teeth.
Without turning around again, Hildy held out her hand with the white towel that was embroidered with a large symbol which Harry assumed must be the crest of Hogwarts.
Quickly, he started to undress. Without his clothes, the dungeons were rather cold and Harry started to shiver. He just hoped the towel would keep him somewhat warm.
When the scrawny boy-become-house-elf had stripped of everything except his pants, he eyed the towel thoughtfully. Then, he looked at Hildy. How, for heaven's sake, was he supposed to fold and knot together his new wear?
Harry scowled when he came to the conclusion that he could only do one thing. "Ehm, maybe you could turn around for a few moments?" he asked Hildy. "You can keep your eyes closed," he huffed, rolling his eyes when the elf shook her head frantically.
"Hildy really mustn't look, no no. Hildy will never be able to keep food down if Hildy see too much of weird skin." the elf murmured while slowly turning around, her hands firmly pressed over her eyes.
Harry tried not to pay attention to the annoying elf's mutterings but concentrated on the way her towel was wrapped around her body.
He only needed to place this corner on his right shoulder and then the other corner on his hips and then he needed to wrap the rest of the towel first around his body and then stuff the first corner through the loop made of the upper part of the towel and a third corner before taking the second corner and pull it through the gap in front of his belly and – Harry stumbled, lost his balance and a moment later, he was sitting on the cold stone floor, blinking at one of the corners of the towel still in his hand.
Perhaps he shouldn't have tried to pull this corner through the loop? Thinking about it, there shouldn't be any loop around his legs at all, should there?
Harry groaned when he climbed onto his feet again. That had hurt! Rubbing his arse, he considered his options.
He needed to learn how to dress in a towel, that much was clear. So he could either try for himself until he had found a way to make this stupid piece of cloth stick around his body or he could ask one of the other elves to help him.
He really preferred getting it done without having to ask for help, but he doubted that he would achieve his goal within a reasonable time.
Additionally, there was a high chance that another elf would see Harry's feeble attempts and either report his failure to get even the most basic tasks done to Bossy (who might fire him) or would catch a glimpse on Harry's pants and force him to dispose of them as well – something that made Harry alternatively blush and turn white with fear. He wouldn't give up on his pants!
But the only other possibility was to ask one of the elves to show him how to do it – and to hope that they wouldn't notice that Harry was still wearing his pants. And since he couldn't very well march into the kitchen and announce his failure to dress to just anyone, the only option was...
"Hildy?"
"Harry-elf dressed?" Hildy, still covering her eyes with her hands, asked suspiciously.
"Uhm, no, but-" Harry started to explain, but was quickly interrupted.
"Then Hildy won't look, oh no. Harry dress, then Hildy look again, but no sooner!"
"But I don't know how to knot together that stupid towel!" Harry exclaimed frustratedly. He really hated to admit this, but there was no other way. "I think I might perhaps need your help..."
This was enough to make Hildy drop her hands. She squawked loudly when her eyes fell on an almost naked Harry and if Harry wasn't very much mistaken, she even got a little green.
"Stupid Hildy! Now Hildy has looked at icky skin of Harry-elf, this not good, oh no, Hildy think she might have to puke..." the elf rambled on, apparently unable to look away, now that she had laid eyes on Harry.
"Look, I know you don't like me or how I look and I don't care – well, I do care, but it doesn't matter now – but I need help to fix this towel and I don't really know who else to ask. My last family never taught me how to dress in a towel, they just gave me hand-me-downs from their son and they were much easier to fix than a towel – you just need a few strings or a belt fasten them."
When Hildy's eyes got bigger and bigger, Harry hurried to explain. "They weren't wizards, just normal people, so they didn't bother about the no-clothes-for-elves rule, and they couldn't sack me by giving me clothes either since they didn't own any wizarding clothes. Anyway, I don't know how to make the towel stick to my body, so I thought that maybe you would help me?" Harry finished hopefully.
For a few seconds, Hildy just stared at Harry as if she couldn't believe what he had just told her. Then, she asked in a faint voice, "Harry worked for muggles?"
"Well, I suppose this is how they are called by wizards, but they aren't really muggers, just normal, non-freakish people."
"But house elves do never, never work for muggles!" Hildy wailed, "This be disgraceful for elves, muggles cannot own elves!"
"I have worked for them forever since I was really little. They were my family and they have taught me many useful things. I know that you aren't supposed to speak bad of your family, but I'm really glad that I'm allowed to work here now. The castle is much neater than their house, and I have never met other elves before, I never had any friends – though I doubt that anyone of you will want to be my friend." Harry added dejectedly.
Hildy eyed Harry speculatively. "But they never showed Harry how to tie a towel, that make them really bad family, oh yes! Tying towels being most important for elves." she nodded forcefully.
Seeing the despondent look on her fellow elf's face, she continued. "Hildy help Harry, yes, Hildy do this. Hildy knows muggles and how funny they can be. Hildy has met an almost-muggle girl many years ago who was very, very funny even though she wasn't a real muggle, so real muggles must be even funnier, Hildy suppose. Almost-muggle master got really angry when she first met house elves, screamed a lot, oh yes. Hildy thinks she be very stupid, thinking that laundry can do itself and that food is magicked up and doesn't need to be cooked. Every elf knows that this not be possible, oh no, Umbrelly first proved it – she was elf of famous Gamp-family. Umbrelly's Law be very important for house elves' work, it's one of the first things little elves ever learn. Even wizards teach their children the Law, though they call it Gamp's Law."
Harry looked at the little elf, his mouth hanging open. He had stopped trying to understand what Hildy way talking about quite some time ago. He just hoped that she would finish some time soon as he felt really uncomfortable standing almost naked in front of a female elf in a room other elves could enter at any time.
Apparently, Hildy noticed Harry's increasing discomfort (or perhaps she had just seen Harry's blank expression and decided that he was too dumb to understand Umbrelly's Law), as her ramblings suddenly broke off.
"Uhm, so you have worked for muggles, too?" Harry asked in an attempt to break the uncomfortable silence and hopefully stop Hildy from continuing staring at him in such a disturbing manner.
He really wished it had been a different elf that had informed him about his still clothes-clad state. But then, if the other elves were anything like Wimpy and mistook him for a wizard, it was no real surprise that nobody had spoken up.
"Hildy proper elf, Hildy would never work for muggles!" The insulted elf interrupted Harry's musings. "No elf should obey no muggle, oh no! But almost-muggle master are a different matter, they being magical enough so that elves have to obey them, but still are almost muggles and behave just like muggles. There are many almost-muggles at school so Hildy knows very well how funny muggles be about clothes and elves in general, oh yes. Hildy remembers screaming muggle girl very well, almost-muggle master Lily tried to give Hildy clothes! Hildy has never been insulted like this before, but almost-muggle Lily insisted that Hildy being slavy and said that being slavy was not being all right. Hildy does not know what slavy means but if it is something muggles do Hildy is quite sure that it cannot be good. Nothing muggles do is good, Hildy knows this. Muggles are filthy, oh yes! But Hildy isn't slavy, Hildy is very good house elf."
To Harry's alarm, Hildy's voice had gotten louder and louder the longer she talked about muggers. He nodded frantically which would hopefully appease the agitated elf. Harry could only wonder about the apparent stupidity of this Lily-master. In Harry's opinion, arguing with an elf like Hildy in such a fashion was something close to suicide.
"Ehm, did you – I mean, you told her that she was wrong, did you?" Harry asked. Somehow, he didn't dare to outright ask whether the girl that had obviously incurred Hildy's wrath had survived.
"Oh yes, Hildy told her. Almost-muggle master Lily didn't believe Hildy, though, so Hildy stopped doing her laundry. Stupid girl was very annoyed, oh yes. Hildy had hoped that once she began to stink she would start to appreciate Hildy's work and stop calling her a slavy, but then funny wizard-master James offered to do her laundry and then Hildy got in trouble with Bossy and wasn't allowed to be laundry-elf any more. Hildy has worked as kitchen elf ever since, but Hildy really don't like cooking very much, oh no." Hildy finished despondently.
Harry's head was reeling. While he thought that the tale about that strange master Lily was rather interesting, Hildy's poor grasp on the English grammar made it hard to follow her train of thought. It didn't help that he had started to shiver in the cold air of the dungeons and that he was really, really hungry by now. He didn't have had breakfast and surely it had to be noon by now.
"So, ehm, perhaps you could show me how to make this towel stick around my body now?"
"Oh yes, Hildy do so, and then Hildy really needs to go back to work. Hildy cannot get second warning within 15 years, oh no, Hildy can't! But Hildy won't touch Harry-elf's icky skin!"
"You don't need to touch me," Harry reassured the other elf, "you just need to show me how to do it."
Five minutes later, Harry proudly tied the last knot on the side of his towel. The toga-like dress he was now wearing was slightly short, but it still covered most of his body so he assumed it was all right. And although he still felt rather cold, the towel was warmer than it had first looked. It would take a few days to get used to, but then he would be fine, Harry supposed.
And with time, he hoped, the coldness might even lead to his skin become more like that of the other elves – there had to be a reason why all the other elves had such a strange kind of skin, hadn't there?
Next Chapter: moving in with the other elves and Harry's first meal