Chapter 32 – House Elves and Muppets

Submitted: Monday 5 September 2011

A/N: My goal is to have the story finished by end of October. I shall then begin on the sequel which will cover the three years following. I have said that the final product will be consistent with the Epilogue in DH. This will happen. Thank you to those who reviewed and added Coward's Folly as a Favourite Story. Not only does this make me feel good but it gives the story more coverage for people to see it.

There were many theories about what had happened in November. The Castle had been torn apart looking for "the Fugitive" as Professor Duncan called him. The Professor had ramped up his teaching of spells to detect if someone was hiding in a room or if magic had recently been used in an area. The only good that had come from their use, though, was that Terry Boot had finally found out who had been nicking his chocolate frogs from his chest.

Hufflepuff lost handily to Ravenclaw the third week of November by a score of 410-10. Not only did Cho return as Seeker for the Ravenclaws but Evan Davies, little brother to Roger, showed amazing skill at passing the quaffle. He was not the scorer that his brother was but those that watched both matches swore that he was the best passing Chaser out of all four clubs. Inglebee was getting stellar reviews as a Beater as well. Story had it she knocked out two of her older brother's teeth during the Holiday when he was showing her how to properly bat a bludger.

So, the consensus was that while the Gryffindor club featured the Golden Trio of Harry, Ginny and Ron, the Ravenclaw Club had more talent from the top of the roster to the bottom. And it was not lost on anyone that Harry had always been uncomfortable facing Cho. Rumour was that Harry had always had a thing for Cho and that she had dumped him after a trip to Hogsmeade their Fifth Year. A few Seventh Years believed he probably secretly still had a thing for her. This of course caused Ginny one day to demand who was spreading such rumours and to threaten to dismember any witch or wizard who made a claim that Harry was still interested in Cho. Either way, Gryffindor was now second to Ravenclaw in points and would need to play well versus Hufflepuff in March to keep pace.

George returned the Marauder's Map before Harry had the opportunity to ask for it – in fact he found Harry the day after his little brother had been assaulted. He whispered to Harry conspiratorially, "You-Know-Who told me what happened to Ron. He says he'll have every ghost on the grounds looking out for anything unusual. You find the Bugger that did it, will yah?" George asked as he handed the map to Harry.

Harry nodded and asked off topic, "I've noticed you are a lot happier of late. You finally fessing up to seeing Angelina or does your partner in crime have a problem with this?"

"A problem?" George cheeked, "Nay, actually it's been encouraged. He says if I don't he will." George chuckled, "Don't quite see how. I don't think he'd have it in him."

"How you handling, you know, Fred's death?" asked Harry.

"Oh, we've both gotten past that. It's not easy. We do the best we can. Once we get past April 1st I think you'll see a new beginning." The seriousness left George's face, "Be prepared for April, Harry. A whole new set of possibilities have opened up to us. The possibilities are endless." George made as if to leave, "April 1st will make us rich Harry. Well, make me rich. You are already rich beyond my wildest dreams. But after April 1st I shall be on my way..." and George was gone.

Harry would spend his free time searching the map for any name that didn't look familiar. He would lie awake at night skimming over every inch of the parchment. What worried him most was that his extra wand – Draco's old hawthorn wand - and his cloak had been missing since the night of Ron's attack. He didn't say anything to anyone about the missing objects because Ron had enough problems with people giving him the piss for "letting the bad guy go." He had a sneaking suspicion that Ron took both objects while under the Imperious Curse. He suspected that the cloak was used to get into the castle when the wizard went into hiding. Harry wasn't too worried – he was convinced eventually the map would render the cloak useless.

By the beginning of December it was bone cold. No snow had fallen but the wind was furious. Hagrid had predicted in October that it'd be a cold winter and so far he didn't disappoint. The students were allowed back into Hogsmeade for the first time this weekend as the school had decided to finally let down it's guard some. Nothing had happened since the morning of the Catastrophe as Professor Ewan Duncan had taken to calling it. As an Auror he felt he had completely botched the entire search and he'd been very hard on himself since. The fiery Scotsman took it out on his students by forcing them to revise extra hard and while they loved his practical approach to learning he had nearly worn them out.

Harry was sitting in one of Duncan's lessons trying to place the alarm spell in such a way that it'd be nearly impregnable. Ollivander was right when he said the hazel wand would only make certain aspects of casting spells easier. The magic came easy but the application of a spell properly was still entirely on the wizard. Harry was beginning to miss those first few days of Auror training when Ron and Zach were throwing him into walls with disarming charms. By now he'd regained his edge and he'd dare anyone in the room aside from Duncan himself to try to disarm him. "Give me one or two more years revision" he promised himself "and I'll have Duncan's wand in a duel as well." Once again, he muffed the spell.

"Harry," Duncan reminded him calmly, "You are still not concentrating."

Dean twisted his face up and made his voice all gravelly, "Concentrate, you must, young Skywalker and, through you, flow, the force will."

Seamus looked up from his work, "Mate, I've known you nearly eight years and I still don't know where you get that ruddy Skywalker rubbish from. You say it all the damned time. What is it?"

Hermione answered, "You do realise Dean that, at best, maybe one other person gets that joke besides me and you?" She explained to everyone else in her best Hermione-the-Know-It-All voice, "He's trying to quote from this old Muggle film – a Yank Muggle film at that. Some chap named Yoda - but he's not a person. He's different. Like a space wizard. Anyway, he sounds nothing like the old bloke. Yoda sounds more like -" She twisted her face up and tried to do the same voice as Dean but only more gravelly, "Yoda, I am. Jedi, I am. Muppet, I am."

"Hermione," Harry smiled, "You are a Muppet." The room erupted in laughter. Before he could stop her he found ink spread all over him.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" shouted Professor Duncan. "I may not be a fully tenured Professor but I know enough to know you aren't supposed to be tossing ink at one another. Ten points from Gryffindor for the both of you. Now both of you get back to work. I don't know what a Muppet is but by the sound of it I'd say the whole lot of you are Muppets."

Dean and Harry and Hermione laughed. The remainder of the classroom took to calling each other Muppets completely oblivious to the meaning – the word itself just sounded funny. Harry used a charm to clean off his robes and he got back to work. He imagined the lesson would have been handled completely differently if Snape had been teaching it.

DADA lessons were always Harry's favourite but they'd become Ron's favourite as well. His speech as to why DADA lessons were his favourite was probably as well known to Gryffindor Seventh Years as Oliver Wood's Quidditch speech had become to those on the '91

Squad. "It is the best of lessons because it is the last of lessons. I now have sixty hours of uninterrupted bliss before my next lesson..." Hermione reminded him as she always did at this point of his speech, "Don't forget we are revising this evening and most of tomorrow for Charms." Ron considered to himself and gave the same response that he gave every Friday afternoon, "Make that one hour of uninterrupted bliss and 59 hours of humourless nagging..." Hermione would always go crimson, "Without revision you won't keep up and won't get your Os and if you don't get your Os you won't get your 'Ohs'..."

Nearly everyone would either avert their eyes uncomfortably or snigger devilishly as Ron would backtrack, "As I was saying, revision is an important part of the weekend. I highly recommend it. And if it weren't for Hermione here I wouldn't get the marks I need to stay on top of..." Ron stammered, "...my study partner."

Harry and Neville would share a look of disgust. The witches at the table would blush. Dean would make the same lewd gesture. Seamus would let out the same laugh that was much too loud for the Great Hall. Hermione would then punch Ron on the arm and ask, "Do you always have to make the same demeaning joke at my expense?" His answer was always, "If your going to set me up for it, then...yeah."

'Some routines become so irritating,' Harry thought to himself.

After dinner Harry headed up to the Headmistress's Tower for what had become a weekly meeting with the Portrait of Dumbledore. This evening he saw the strangest thing on the way up to the chambers. A dingy house elf sat near the steps pondering the gargoyles in front of him as if trying to solve a puzzle. He stared at the Gargoyles as if they held some great secret that he couldn't fathom. Harry smiled at the elf and the elf frowned and bowed. As Harry gave the password and entered, the elf began looking for things to clean.

The former Headmaster had been tutoring Harry – mainly duelling spells and ways to draw an advantage from the hazel wand. Often the Headmaster would ask him to stand nearby and Harry could feel the power flow through him. Tonight Harry looked over his shoulder and saw the Headmaster look greedily at the wand as if he wished to draw his hand out of the portrait and grab it. Instinctively Harry stepped away to the other side of the chambers and the wand's power seemed to wane.

"What are you making at?" he asked the man in the portrait.

Dumbledore looked at him sadly, "I apologise, Harry. As I have said, such power can draw on any man's desires. You will one day know what I am speaking of."

Later that night Harry was revising with Ginny in the Commons. The two were pouring over Potions notes and were making a serious attempt at the last three inches of an essay they were writing about Polyjuice and why it was considered a controlled substance. Ginny's stomach made a horrible lurching noise and Harry's smirk earned him a swat on the arm, "I was late to dinner and I didn't get my fill."

Harry looked up and found little Madeline Mason standing with a sheepish look on her face, "I noticed you were revising Potions and I was wondering if you could help me. We were offered extra credit...and I could really use it. Normally I do well in Potions but a few weeks back I ruined my cauldron...it was a simple draught, really. But I was paying attention to..." the young girl began shuffling her feet.

"A boy?" Ginny asked incredulously, "You're already into boys?" The young girl shook her head quickly. Ginny asked Madeline to follow her to the stairs and the young girl whispered something in her ear. Harry's girlfriend let out a quiet laugh and both girls blushed. Harry shrugged and looked at the girls in askance.

"Harry," Ginny asked, "Why don't we take a walk to the kitchens with Madeline and you can tell her the story of the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry still looked confused and she explained, "the extra credit is received by providing an example of a substance that will break most magical protections and describing an instance at Hogwarts when such a substance was used." When Harry didn't budge Ginny placed her hands on her hips, "And I'm famished.

Madeline's curfew was not far off so they walked quickly to the kitchens. While they walked Ginny told most of the story of the Chamber and how it had been opened. Most wizards and witches had heard the story in some fashion or another by now as a story about a twelve year old boy facing a sixty foot basilisk with only his nerve and his loyalty to Dumbledore was now legend. Madeline had even been told the story when she was put to bed from age seven onward. The part that had always been left out of the public version was the fact that a book had held part of Tom Riddle's soul – until this year.

Harry was forced by Ginny to finish the story as they reached the kitchen, "I took the basilisk fang and used it to destroy the diary. Each time I stabbed the book it bled more. Finally the book was destroyed and Tom was gone. Fortunately, Fawkes carried me and Ginny out of the Chamber and we were taken to safety. We were both injured badly but we made it."

Madeline was wide-eyed as they reached the kitchen entrance, "You just tell the story as if it were a match of Quidditch. Weren't you scared? You just picked up a fang and started stabbing a diary? How could you be so calm?"

Harry pushed open the door to the kitchens as he answered, "i wasn't calm. I was scared to death and I was angry. I got lucky. I had been poisoned and I was dying. Ginny was dying feet away and if I didn't do something she'd be dead. I didn't think – I just got so angry and it somehow came to me."

Ginny could see Harry was becoming uncomfortable and Madeline was full of questions, "We'll talk later but for now you have your example. I suspect the reason Slughorn asked that question was to see if any of you would have the gall to ask Harry about it. All the same, there's more than one instance of a basilisk fang and it's venom being used to destroy a magic object here at Hogwarts. And there is another object that has been used to destroy magic protections on the grounds as well."

Before Ginny could explain more a house elf appeared before them. She had large ocean blue eyes the size of small saucers and she was dressed in a perfectly pressed tunic that looked much like a pillow case, "What may Tinkles do? May she bring cakes or sandwiches for Master Harry Potter and his friends?" Her voice sang like a wind chime when she spoke and her smile was infectious.

From the time the name Harry Potter was uttered, he and his friends were surrounded by house elves. All wore immaculate tunics much like that of Tinkles and were full of smiles. Harry wondered why it had taken him so much time to return to the kitchens and with a wave of sadness it came to him. There was no Dobby.

Ginny had taken charge and the elves nearly fought over who would have the honour of serving the sandwiches. Though Harry was lost in his thoughts over Dobby he was quickly pushed into a chair by a young house elf and was brought plates by another. All manner of sandwiches were placed before them and soon Ginny's grumbling tummy was no more. Madeline feasted on pastries that were brought out as quickly as she could imagine them. Harry ate nothing. He continued to replay the burial of Dobby in his head until he looked down and found a young elf cuddled in his lap and hugging him sadly. Ginny, Madeline and the elves noticed as well – many of the elves stood watching Winky disapprovingly. Harry didn't care. He hugged her tight.

Winky looked better and worse than the last time that he saw her. She still wore the clothes that had been thrust on her by Dobby before. Gone was the smell and signs of alcohol that were the result of her shame from being a "Free Elf." Now, the only thing that separated her from the other elves was a look of sadness and the look that she didn't take as good of care of herself as she could.

Winky finally spoke, "Winky misses Dobby. Dobby was a good elf."

Harry's eyes fiercely fought back the tears. He could feel them well up in his eyes but he refused to let them go. "Winky, I'm so sorry. He died saving me."

"Winky knows. Dobby loved Master Harry. Master Harry saved Dobby and made him a Free Elf. Dobby loved being a Free Elf. Winky saw Dobby's grave." She smiled for the first time, "Master Harry did well." Winky's big blue eyes began to gather courage, "Would Master Harry take Winky with him when he leaves Hogwarts? She is a Free Elf. She can cook. And clean. And take care of babies. Winky loves babies. And Winky is young. Winky might serve Harry's whole life..."

"I don't know," was all Harry could say. "I don't how that works. As it is, Kreacher sits lonely at Grimmauld Place with little to do and all by himself. You have to be happier here than that, aren't you?"

The elf was now more sure of herself, "Master Harry won't always be at Hogwarts. Kreacher will be busy. And Kreacher will need help. Kreacher is an old elf. And Winky is a Free Elf."

"I don't know Winky. I don't know if it would be right for me to take you as a servant if you are already free," explained Harry.

"How can Winky be a Free Elf if she's not allowed to choose to serve? How can a House Elf be free if a House Elf can't choose. Winky doesn't understand." Even Ginny seemed impressed with the House Elf's logic.

"I'm not sure if I understand either," admitted Harry. "Can I think about it?"

Winky beamed, "Master Harry can think about it. Master Harry thinking about it would make Winky very happy."