Dear Wizarding Britain
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I probably wouldn't be playing around on fanfiction.
A/N: I'm going to try to not get too cliche with the romance, but I suppose it just depends on how well the rest of the story flows for me. Once again, I'm making this up as I go along. All of the vague ideas I had when I started have already been written into the story, so the rest is a bit of a free for all.
A few seconds later, Harry and Hermione apparated back to the island and they briskly walked back into the house, with Harry automatically reverting his appearance back to normal. Harry then immediately called Dobby and Winky, who both popped in simultaneously.
"What can Dobby do for Harry Potter, sir?" Dobby said enthusiastically. And Harry was amused that he would probably never break Dobby of the habit of saying, 'Harry Potter, sir,' but at least he had managed to get Dobby to drop the 'great' that Dobby used to throw in there in front of his name.
While Winky squeaked out, "What can Winky be doings for sir?" She was still finding it difficult to say sir, instead of Master, but she had been successful in remembering her master's order to call him Harry or sir. She felt that, sir, was more respectful than calling her master his name, so she chose to call him, sir.
"Dobby, Winky, we are expecting company who we expect will be staying with us for quite a while," Harry informed the elves quickly, who both appeared excited at the prospect of more work.
"Dobby," Harry said, "Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass, along with a house elf, whose name I do not know yet, should be arriving by portkey any moment. You'll need to do your usual scans before bringing them here to the island."
"Yes, sir, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby replied excitedly.
"Winky, you're in charge of getting rooms prepared for Blaise and Daphne to stay in," Harry informed.
"Winky be doing that, sir," Winky squeaked.
"One more thing — and I know that I have nothing to worry about with the two of you, but I'm counting on you two to help make the new elf feel welcome and not fight over any jobs he or she wants to do in order to feel helpful." Harry added sternly.
Dobby and Winky looked at Harry with wide eyes, nodding earnestly. "We's make the new elf most welcome, and we's promise not to fight," Dobby replied, with Winky reluctantly nodding in agreement.
Harry smiled and said, "Great! Dobby, please help Winky prepare the rooms, until you're notified by the portkey arrival."
"Yes, sir, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby replied. Then the two elves popped out to take care of their assigned tasks.
Next, Harry cast a sonorous charm and called out, "Family meeting in the green lounge in five minutes." Then canceling the charm, turned to Hermione and said, "I'm going to take a quick trip to the loo, I'll see you again in a few."
Hermione just nodded and headed to the downstairs loo to relieve herself, before then heading towards the green lounge.
Five minutes later, the current occupants of the island gathered in what Harry had called the green lounge, which was basically just a less formal sitting room that was also equipped with a bar and a decent selection of liquor.
"What's going on, Harry —"
"Have trouble finding the —"
"Muggle traveling place?" The twins asked with their usual twin speak.
Harry gestured to Hermione and said, "No, Hermione has the brochures there, but we did have an interesting run-in."
"Oooh, do tell," the twins said simultaneously, both leaning forward eagerly and resting their hands on a fist, sporting huge grins.
Harry forced down the blush that he felt trying to escape at the thought of Daphne being here under the same roof, then replied, "We're expecting company any moment. By now, Dobby should be just about through with checking their belongings for tracking spells and such, before bringing them the rest of the way here." He paused for a brief moment and added quietly, "I would greatly appreciate it if you would make them feel welcome and not treat them to any of your usual pranks." That last part, Harry said a bit pleadingly.
"My dear Gred, did Harrikins just ask us not to prank someone?" George asked his twin, while placing a hand across his chest with an exaggerated air.
Fred responded, "My dear Forge, I do believe that is exactly what the Chosen One himself has politely ordered of us."
Harry rolled his eyes at Fred and George's antics and muttered, while rubbing his temples with both hands, "I don't know why I even bothered to try. They'll probably double up on their pranking now."
"Why wouldn't we make them feel welcome, Harry?" Luna questioned curiously.
"I know that you wouldn't do anything to not make them feel welcome, Luna," Harry said with a smile. "It's the Twin Terrors that I'm worried about."
Luna gave a nod and smile of confirmation, while Fred and George just exchanged mischievous grins and were already beginning to plot their mayhem.
"Harry, stop beating around the bush," Hermione scolded, then to the group she said, "We ran into Blaise Zabini," she blushed slightly at saying his name, "and Daphne Greengrass, who were very poorly disguised as muggles. After we ate and spoke with them for a good bit of the afternoon, Harry invited them to stay with us on the island."
"Are you sure it's safe?" George asked, all thoughts of pranking suddenly gone.
"Yeah, they were in Slytherin," Fred said with concern.
"Not that being a Slytherin makes you evil," George added quickly, after he saw Harry's face turning hard.
"Yeah, we're not prejudiced gits like Ickle Ronnikins," Fred said, as he too noticed the change in Harry's demeanor, not to mention the slight chill that seemed to be creeping into the room.
Harry's face started to relax again, and his magic calmed down enough for the warmth to return, then he nodded, "They're safe. Besides, you read the same Prophet article that I did, they've been on the run for a while, it's a miracle they've survived this long without being caught."
"It was fortuitous the way we met, actually," Hermione added thoughtfully.
"Yeah, how's that?" Neville asked, speaking for the first time and giving Harry a sideways glance.
"They were having a — well, not quite an argument, but a heated discussion nonetheless, directly in front of the very same travel agency that we were planning to visit." Hermione responded.
"Now, that's interesting," Neville said in bemusement.
"Tell me about it," Harry said, all previous hints of his temper forgotten. "What was more interesting was the fact that they were able to recognize us, even in our disguises. Then again, in my case, it was probably just my eyes," he said, sharing a glance with Neville and Luna, "considering our dear Luna told me that I should leave green today."
Luna just hummed in response.
"What were they doing out in front of a muggle travel agency?" Neville wondered aloud.
"Surprisingly, the same reason we were there, looking for a vacation spot," Harry replied with a slight shrug.
Before the conversation could go any further, Dobby popped in and said, "Guests be ready to be keyed into the wards, Harry Potter, sir."
"Of course, Dobby," Harry said. After reaching out and grabbing Dobby's hand, he said, "Please take me to them."
Then they both disappeared with a slight crack and reappeared in front of Blaise, Daphne and their house elf.
Harry grinned, and blushed slightly when he met Daphne's eyes and noticed she was blushing a bit, too, which made him feel slightly better. "Hi, long time no see."
Daphne responded with a nervous giggle and Blaise rolled his eyes, but returned the grin and said, "Yeah, thanks for this, Harry, really."
Harry flicked his eyes towards Daphne and back and thought to himself that it wasn't as if he was completely of pure thought in his reasons for inviting them to stay, but then remembering the way he saw Blaise looking at Hermione, he decided wasn't the only one having those kinds of thoughts. Aloud he replied, "Don't mention it. We've all escaped Britain for similar reasons. I'm just surprised you both would still want something to do with me, since I'm the one prophesied to finish off the Dark Idiot and I chose to leave instead."
"If there's anyone that could understand your reasons, it's a Slytherin, which, lucky for you, we both are," Daphne replied firmly, but softly.
Harry gave Daphne a grateful smile and then turned to the house elf and said, "Hello, I'm Harry. Who might you be?"
The house elve's eyes widened in surprise and looked up at Blaise, as if to ask permission to speak and Blaise told her encouragingly, "It's okay if you want to answer."
"I is Lopsy. I is house elf for Master Blazey." Lopsy replied.
Harry smiled and said, "It's nice to meet you, Lopsy."
Then Harry turned his attention back to Daphne and Blaise and said, "Now, I just need to key you into the wards, so we can bring you all the way in," Harry replied.
After a few minutes, Harry said, "All right. You're all three keyed in. Then he produced a new portkey and said, "Everybody take hold," Then he gave the activation code and they all felt the hook pulling them from their navel and they were gone, only to reappear a couple of seconds later outside the entrance of the island home.
Daphne's breath caught at the magnificence of it all. The sun was setting and the color of the horizon was simply breathtaking. "It's beautiful," she breathed softly.
Harry, entranced by the look on Daphne's face, responded, "Yeah, beautiful."
Blaise cleared his throat, bringing both Harry and Daphne back to earth, "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I myself am quite tired and I would love to find a room where I can relax for a bit. Not that the tent we stayed in was uncomfortable, mind you, but being back in an actual room that's not part of an enchanted tent would be nice."
"Sorry," Harry said quickly, turning to lead the way into the house. "Let me just quickly introduce you to everyone, then I'll have Winky show you where your rooms are."
"Thanks, Harry," Blaise said gratefully.
Moments later, Harry was leading Daphne, Blaise and Lopsy into the green lounge to get the official introductions out of the way, though everyone was at least familiar with who everyone was, so it didn't take a great amount of time.
The twins reserved their twin speak for the moment, but did greet them with nods and a mischievous smile.
Neville was his usual polite self, "Welcome to the island," he said with a friendly smile.
Luna bounced up and hugged the three newly arrived magicals in greeting, surprising Lopsy with her exuberance and her willingness to hug a house elf. To Blaise and Daphne, Luna said cheerfully, "I'm glad to see your previous wrackspurt infestation has been cleared up."
Blaise and Daphne exchanged confused looks and Blaise replied, "Thanks, I think."
Early the next morning, Harry came downstairs to the kitchen for a cup of tea to wake up with, which is where he saw the three house elves seeming to be making an attempt at negotiating duties, with Dobby appearing to be trying to play the mediator between two stubborn females. Harry shook his head and thought, Poor Dobby.
Shaking his head, he went unnoticed to the cupboard and started preparing himself a pot of tea, waiting to see how the house elves worked everything out, before he decided to step in. They must be really distracted, since they haven't even noticed that I'm serving myself, Harry thought in amusement.
"Winky does the cooking," Winky said sternly with her arms crossed, spatula in hand.
"It's Lopsy's job to beings taking care of Master Blazy. Lopsy will beings cooking," Lopsy replied stubbornly.
Dobby tried to intervene and said, "Winky, we promised Harry Potter, sir, nos fighting."
"Winky not being fighting. Winky being explaining that Winky being doing the cooking," Winky replied stubbornly.
"And cooking beings falling under Lopsy's job of taking care of Master Blazy," Lopsy responded just as stubbornly.
Harry chuckled at the antics of the elves, as he leaned back against the kitchen counter and took a sip of his tea, startling all three elves in the process.
Dobby, Harry noticed, appeared to be too relieved to see Harry, who he knew could put a stop to Lopsy's and Winky's arguments, to notice that Harry had served himself while the three house elves were fussing.
Winky, Harry noticed, looked appalled to have been too distracted to notice that he had entered her domain without her knowing and had the audacity to serve himself.
Lopsy, it seemed to Harry, was beside herself with worry about bad impressions and equally appalled that the wizard had served himself, rather than ordering the elves to make the tea for him.
"Sir!" Winky exclaimed in a scandalized tone. "You is supposed to be asking Winky to make you tea!"
Lopsy looked at Winky with wide eyes at the fact that Winky had the audacity to speak to her master that way.
Dobby could be seen in the background bouncing excitedly but surprisingly silent, as if waiting for a grand show.
Harry grinned at Winky in amusement and said teasingly, "Well, Winky, you seemed a bit busy when I came in this morning and I didn't want to bother you for something as simple as a cup of tea."
Winky had the grace to blush before responding with, "Winky is never too busy to make sir tea, as sir very well knows."
Harry hummed in response and said, "I don't know, Winky. House elf negotiations relating to the delegations of job duties sounded like it was pretty important to me."
"Lopsy wants to take over Winky's kitchen," Winky said with droopy ears. "Cooking is Winky's job."
"Do you enjoy cooking for your family, Winky?" Harry asked curiously.
"Of course, sir! Winky loves cooking and taking care of her family," Winky responded passionately.
"Don't you think that Lopsy might feel the same way about taking care of her family?" Harry asked Winky gently.
Winky's eyes filled up with tears, as her ears drooped more in despair, "Yes, sir."
Harry set his tea cup down on the counter and walked over to Winky and pulled her into a hug and patted her on the back gently, "It's going to be okay, Winky." Then he pulled back, conjuring a handkerchief and wiping Winky's tears away, much to Lopsy's astonishment, then Harry said, "Now, I know that you two can work it out to where you can both cook for your families at the same time, so that you both can be happy to have helped take care of your families, right?"
Winky threw herself back into Harry's arms with a cry, "Of course we can be doings that, sir!"
"You've made me very proud, Winky," Harry told her softly, before giving her an affectionate kiss on the top of her head.
Which was the scene that Daphne and Blaise walked into, with Blaise jokingly telling Daphne, "I think you might have some competition," causing Daphne to blush and elbow him in the stomach in retaliation.
A/N: Well, I started this chapter at least a week ago, but didn't get around to finishing it until today. I'm off work this week, so hopefully, inspiration for the next chapter will strike while I'm still on vacation and I can get the next chapter posted sooner than has been the norm, but I can't make any guarantees right now.