The Houses Competition

House: Hufflepuff

Class: Potions

Category: Standard

Prompts: (genre) Drama, and (sound) The sound of ocean waves

Word Count: 1,341

Warnings: Canon character death, and a slight bit out of character because Victoire never actually met Dobby before he died.

I hope you all enjoy Advising Mistress Victoire.

The waves crashing on the beach had always been a constant comfort to Victoire during her childhood. Whenever she was upset, all she had to do was open her window, and the sound would soothe her.

But that wasn't helping much this time. The soft whisper of the waves softly caressing the beach wasn't doing what it usually did for her. But she knew something else that would help. She quickly exited her bed and slipped her feet into a pair of slippers.

She knew where she had to go. The one place she could always find comfort. The place she'd been going for years when the soft sound of ocean waves didn't soothe her soul. To the only person who wouldn't speak back against her naive notions. To him.

The soft sand slipped into her slippers and felt like a warm, welcoming hug. That was one of the reasons she loved coming home to Shell Cottage. The beach's warm, comforting sand lay outside their back door. The other was the person she'd come to speak with.

She approached the small gravestone slowly because she knew she wasn't the only one to come to the venerable being for comfort or a visit. But upon seeing that no one currently knelt at the graveside, she quickened her pace while pulling the offering out of her bathrobe pocket.

This had been a tradition since her tenth birthday when Albus had thrown a sucked-on lollipop, which landed in Victoire's hair. She had run away from the party in tears. The lollipop bounced wildly from her ponytail, where it had stuck firmly. She knew Albus hadn't meant to do what he'd done. Not to her anyway. He'd been aiming at James at the moment, and James just happened to duck out of the way, leaving the way open for Victoire to get candied instead. But her child self had come to the beach to seek solace and try and get the candy out of her hair.

"Hello, Dobby, sir," she said, sitting in front of the shell grave marker that Uncle Harry had made before she was born. "I'm sorry that I haven't been to visit you in a while."

And as she's always done since she was a little girl, she conjured up the voice she made for him, not having met the elf before his death.

"Mistress Victoire has nothing to be sorry for," Dobby's voice in her head answered cheerily. "Mistress Victoire has been very busy since her return from Hogwarts."

"But that still doesn't excuse anything."

She had been meaning to visit him for weeks now. But with all the planning for the upcoming—

"Mister Dobby," Victoire said, offering cherry lollipops in front of the grave marker, "I'm sorry I couldn't find the grape lollies you're used to. But I promise that these ones are just as good as those."

"Dobby doesn't mind a grape lolly," the voice chimed up, causing her to smile.

She could imagine the elf as her father and uncles and aunts described him to her, but this time with lollipop sugar smeared on his face, which made her giggle hysterically.

"I couldn't sleep, Mister Dobby," she told him, seeing his wide, concerned green eyes widen at her confession.

"And here Dobby thought that Mistress Victoire was visiting out of the kindness of her heart," the elf's make-believe voice chided.

When had she made Dobby so sarcastic? It must have been during her teenage years, not that she wasn't still a teenager. She was only eighteen, but things were changing so fast for her that she felt herself reverting back to things she'd done as a younger teenager. Sarcasm was definitely one of those things. A self-protection device she thought she'd gotten rid of when she and Teddy started dating. Only to find out that it had only been covered until it could be brought back out again, kind of hurt.

"Dobby, you know I enjoy our visits," she said, running a hand through her tousled silver-blonde hair, which was more and more like her mother's every single day. "It's just… I kind of need your help."

She let the words hang in the air along with the soft sound of the waves crashing gently against the beach, like a mother cradling a child. She'd always thought of the waves like that. The waves were the mother, and the soft sand was the child.

"What can Dobby do to help, Mistress Victoire?"

Victoire bit her lip as she looked around her at the beach surrounding them. Her gaze fell upon the new construction that was going up a little bit up the beach from where she sat. She'd been very angry at her father when he'd told her about the construction. But he'd insisted that it would go on, and nothing she did would persuade him otherwise.

"I—you see, I might not get a chance to see you for a while," she said, fiddling with the ring on her ring finger. The one that Teddy had given to her when he proposed at graduation. "Teddy proposed to me, and when we get married, I'll have to move away from here." She took a deep breath as the tears prickled her eyes. She blinked them back. "I love Teddy. I truly do, but I don't want to leave here."

Saying the words felt like a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders. She knew coming to see Dobby would be very helpful. But the conversation wasn't over, yet. She could hear the mischievous giggle of the elf in her mind.

"Dobby? What do you know?"

"Dobby doesn't know anything," the elf's voice replied, tinged with laughter. "Dobby is quite dead and has been so for some time now."

"Dobby?"

"Okay. Maybe Dobby does know a thing."

The sounds of the waves clashed with the sounds of her beating heart. She could hear them both but wished the sounds of the waves would win out over the beating of her heart.

"Dobby?"

"Mistress Victoire must promise not to tell that Dobby told her," the elf's voice sing-songed through her mind.

"Alright, What do you know?"

"Dobby overheard a conversation between Master Bill and Master Teddy."

"A conversation about what?"

She can see the batlike ear flop as the elf's head turns towards the hated construction. The building was a half-done eyesore.

"What about the construction project?"

Silence flooded the area again. The waves were the only thing that made the sound. Victoire broke the silence by opening one of the lollipops after asking and receiving permission to take one.

"Dobby isn't sure he should tell Mistress Victoire."

"Dobby, please," she pleaded, feeling the tears prickle her eyes once more.

"Alright. But Mistress Victoire did not hear this from Dobby."

"Of course not," she said, not adding that anyone who she told would think her quite crazy for talking to a dead house elf.

"Dobby knows that that is going to be Mistress Victoire and Master Teddy's future home," the house elf said, pointing in the direction of the construction. "Mistress Victoire's father is having it built in order to give it to Master Teddy and Mistress Victoire as an early wedding present."

"Meaning?"

"Mistress Victoire doesn't have to worry about leaving Dobby or her family behind her," the house elf's voice said soothingly.

"Oh, Dobby," Victoire said, tears spilling from her eyes as she placed her arms around the grave marker for the tiny house elf. "Thank you very much."

"You weren't supposed to say anything about that, Dobby," the familiar voice of the one she loved said. Teddy sat down in the sand beside Victoire and pulled her into his arms. "But now that you know, are you happy with your surprise?"

Victoire nodded. She truly was happy. She was more happy than she'd ever been in her entire life. The soft song of the waves sang her and Teddy to sleep as they snuggled in the sand next to Dobby's grave. All was right in the world.

I hope you all enjoyed Advising Mistress Victoire as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would like to take this time to thank everyone who beta-read this story for me. It truly means a lot that you'd take the time to help me like that. So, thank you all so very much!