"This is amazing!" Harry says, staring in awe at the room around him. "Hogwarts really just made this for you?"
Harry had, for a moment, thought that Tom had actually lost it as he'd paced back and forth in front of a wall, muttering that he needed a place to stay. But to his amazement, on the third pass a door had materialized and had opened up to reveal a room that looks to be like a mix between a dorm room and a miniature common room.
Tom yawns as he nods, gathering up a couple blankets and pillows from the couch and bringing them towards the unmade bed in the corner of the room. "Figured it out in second year," he says sleepily.
Merlin's tongue flicks the air, and she says, "smells like Elf magic- remember that room I told you they'd been talking about? This must be it."
Harry nods in response to Merlin, then turns to Tom and asks, "can it make food or water?"
Tom shakes his head. "I'll sneak to the kitchens later and grab something. For now, I need to sleep. I haven't slept in what feels like fifty years." He laughs a little at his own joke,then flops face-first heavily onto the bed.
"You really do need to sleep," Harry mutters, then in a louder voice says, "okay! I'll, uh, see if I can find you some food, then leave it for you? Sounds good?"
Tom waves his hand in a gesture Harry interprets as "yes. Now go away."
Harry does so, closing the door softly behind him. The door vanishes again, and Harry tries not to worry about him having accidentally locked Tom in.
In a stroke of good luck, the bell for dinner rings just as Harry starts to head down to the Great Hall.
"Over here Harry!" Hermione yells, waving him over to the Slytherin table.
Harry takes a big breath and steels himself. On the walk up to the room, he'd promised Tom he wouldn't say anything about the older boy to his friends until Tom had felt ready.
Harry hates not being able to tell his friends that the Chamber of Secrets issue has been solved, but needs to respect Tom's wishes- Harry doesn't think the antidote to fifty years of solitary confinement is immediately being confronted by a big group of curious twelve- and thirteen-year olds.
Somehow Harry makes it through dinner without spilling any major secrets. He also slips a couple rolls and apples into his pockets. His friends don't comment- they all know that sometimes Harry can't help himself but to squirrel away food for later.
Later, after Harry is sure that Neville is sleeping, he slips out of bed and wraps the cloak around him. It might be more efficient to lend Tom the cloak, but Harry is loath to lend it out: it's a Potter family heirloom, and makes him feel close to his dad. Plus, well. Tom seems like a decent fellow who's just had a fifty plus year long run of bad luck, but Harry knows better than to trust the guy with one of his most prized possessions right off the bat.
Harry walks quietly through the corridors. It's freezing cold, so he's wearing two sweaters. Merlin, despite the cold, is trying her best to stay awake. She's mostly in her warmed satchel, but is poking her head out. Harry arrives at where he remembers the door being, and begins walking back and forth.
"I need a place to sleep, I need a place to sleep," Harry mutters over and over, like he'd seen Tom do. Just as it had before, a door manifests on his third pass and Harry quietly cracks it open, looking inside.
As he'd hoped, Tom is still in there, just asleep on the bed. Harry smiles in satisfaction and leaves behind the little bundle of food he'd made, plus a little glass of pumpkin juice that he'd been saving "just in case".
Harry looks down at the pile and nods before slipping away again, heading back to his dorm. He has one close call with the patrolling professor for the evening: it's just a bleary-eyed Lockhart, so Harry isn't really worried, but he holds his breath as Lockhart passes by anyway, just in case.
Classes move slow as molasses the next day, and the second they let out Harry slips away from his friends as subtly as possible to go check on Tom. He finds the older boy in the room surrounded by books and newspapers, and chewing absently on a quill. As Harry walks in, Tom's head shoots up and he tenses all over, only to relax as he sees it's just Harry.
"Did you drop off food last night?" Tom asks in lieu of a greeting.
"Yeah, sorry it wasn't much."
"It was a godsend," Tom says seriously.
Harry goes to sit on the armchair opposite of the couch. "I'm glad it helped. How's researching? Anything interesting?"
"Yes," Tom says as he scribbles something down.
Harry waits, but Tom seems to have been sucked back into the research. Since most of Harry's friends are the academic type, Harry recognizes that the only thing to do is wait it out. So, Harry pulls out the essay he's been working on and gets to it.
After twenty minutes, Tom looks up. "Oh," he says. "Sorry. I got distracted. There's so much information."
"Where'd you get the books?" Harry asks, curious.
"The Room," Tom says. "I just popped outside, asked for some reading material as I paced, and it gave me a couple relevant books. I think the Elves treat it as a lost-and-found, so all sorts of things end up here, just ready to be summoned by whoever needs it."
"How'd you even find this place?" Harry asks. He still hasn't gotten over how cool the whole thing is.
"Asking around and a healthy dose of exploration," Tom says. "The Elves and the ghosts especially are useful resources."
"Hmm," Harry hums. "Hey, you said earlier that you were going to pop down to the kitchens for food, right?"
Tom nods slowly.
"Where is that? I've never seen the kitchens. Merlin hasn't taken me."
Merlin flicks her tongue out. "You never asked," she hisses petulantly.
Tom looks at Harry for a moment, before snapping his book closed. "I'll show you," he says. "Come with me."
Harry grins and hops up, pulling his invisibility cloak out of his satchel.
The two slip through the halls in silence. There are still plenty of students milling about in the halls, so the progress is slow-going. After what feels like an hour of walking, Tom finally stops.
"Over here," Tom says, guiding Harry over to an inconspicuous painting of a fruit-bowl. In retrospect, it's a fairly suspicious painting: because there's nothing weird or magical about it, it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.
Tom slips a hand out of the cloak and inexplicably wiggles a finger over the pear. After a moment of this, the pear lets out a giggle and then transforms into a doorknob. Tom goes to open the painting-door, then pauses.
"Hang on," he says. "Have you met a House Elf yet?"
Harry grimaces. "Yes," he says. "I'm not sure I like them, they kind of scare me."
Tom withdraws his hand from the door, turning to face Harry. He looks confused.
"They scare you? Why? They're- well. They aren't exactly harmless, but if you're polite to them, they'll respond in kind."
"I- um. One of them tried to kill me."
Tom blinks. Then blinks again. "One of them did what?"
"Well, not really kill. He got my arm broken, though."
"Were they-" Tom takes a deep breath in. "I have so many questions. Were they a Hogwarts Elf? Did you, did you offend them somehow?"
Harry shakes his head. "I think he's the Malfoy house elf. He came to me to warn me about this school year during the summer." Harry pauses, thinking. "Huh. Now that I think about it, it's kinda weird that he somehow knew about the Chamber."
"Um, yeah. That's really weird, Harry. They usually mind their own business- Elves don't just love dealing with the affairs of wixen kind. The fact that he came to you is… bizarre."
Harry sighs. Just another thing he'll have to try and figure out later. "Weird things really like happening to me," he says.
Tom lets out a laugh. "No kidding."
"Trust me when I say that you don't know the half of it," Harry says seriously. "Come on, let's go in already. I'm ready to meet a normal house elf."
Tom looks a bit hesitant, but goes to open the door anyway and the two plus Merlin slip into the kitchens.
Harry looks in amazement around the room- it's huge, as big as the Great Hall. Bigger, even. It has a similar layout to the room as well, with set tables matching the tables of the hall. It's nearly dinner, and these tables are about seventy-five percent filled with food.
Assorted objects are flying through the air: dirty dishes, half-made food, even pots of boiling water. At one edge of the room is a line of massive sinks, filled with soapy water. Dishes are washing themselves, and Harry abruptly remembers his life-long dream of doing the dishes exactly like that. At another edge is a line of roaring fires, stoves, and ovens. They cast the room in a cheery orange glow. The furthest wall is lined in cupboards- likely, Harry thinks, holding food and clean dishes.
Merlin is hiss-laughing in Harry's ear.
"You should see your face," Merlin says.
"Why have you never brought me here?" Harry asks. "This is amazing!"
Merlin stops laughing. "Well," she says. "House Elves- they're, uh. I wasn't going to say anything, but Dobby is actually pretty par for the course, as far as Elves go. I didn't know if you would enjoy meeting them."
Tom watches this exchange with an amused expression on his face.
Suddenly, a house elf appears directly in front of Tom, Harry, and Merlin. Harry manages not to jump, but only just.
She looks very similar to Dobby- with a round head balanced on a too-long neck, huge eyes, long ears, and razor sharp teeth. She's even wearing a similar outfit- although, her tunic is a pale blue instead of off-white. In fact, Harry isn't sure how he knows she is a she. He just… does.
"Mister Gaunt," the house elf greets, eyes glittering as she looks over Tom. If Harry had to guess, he'd say she was smiling.
Well. Harry hopes that's a smile. It doesn't reach her eyes, in any case.
"Reesy," Tom says, inclining his head. "It's been a while."
Reesy nods in return, then turns to face Harry. She's not looking at him, though.
"Snake," Reesy greets. Merlin flicks her tongue out.
"Hello, Reesy," she hisses.
Finally, Reesy turns her unblinking gaze on Harry, who fights the urge to fidget. He is reminded distinctly of Luna.
"Another Gaunt," Reesy says. Her teeth look sharper, mouth wider. "What shall we call this one, we wonder."
"Er, Harry?" Harry suggests.
He doesn't know why everyone insists on calling him that Gaunt name, but it seems like Tom has to deal with it too. Maybe a distant relative of theirs?
Reesy turns her head towards Tom so smoothly that it looks like it's on a swivel. "Presumptuous," she sighs. Tom's eyes are glinting with humor, but his face is serious as he nods. "To assume that we are interested in the boy's true name."
"Er," Harry says again.
"Groggy will decide," Reesy says abruptly, then disappears.
"What-" Harry starts, but then another house elf appears.
This one is a little bigger than the others, and his ears are a little more rounded. He's wearing a reddish-brown tunic- Harry doesn't want to know how the elf got it to be that color.
"Gaunts," the elf says, laughing and shaking his head. The sound of the laugh sends a chill down Harry's spine- his laugh is entirely too childlike for Harry's comfort. "We thought the Gaunts had all gone."
"Hello Groggy," Tom says, smiling. "It's nice to see you again." Groggy laughs again and Harry represses a shudder. "Sorry it's been so long- I was indisposed for a while. Did Reesy ask you to name Harry?"
"Reesy did," Groggy agrees. His face is frozen in a smile- and it is definitely a smile this time, but it looks like it's carved directly into his face.
"Groggy will decide."
Groggy turns his attention to Harry. Harry reflexively smiles back, and Groggy cocks his head to the side- just a little further than Harry had thought it was going to be able to go.
"This one," Groggy says finally, "will be Riddle."
Harry can't tell, but he thinks Groggy's frozen smile has an air of mischief to it. Harry decides then and there that, as off-putting as he is, Groggy is his favorite elf he's met so far.
"A fine name," Tom agrees. Harry thinks it's nice that Tom has such a good sense of humor about the whole thing. "Where are the others?"
Groggy's eyes light up, and his teeth shine brightly in the orange glow of the fire. "Groggy will call for them."
Tom smiles again, and Groggy disappears.
Harry doesn't bother trying to say anything, anticipating the arrival of the elves this time.
Sure enough, two more house elves appear mere seconds after Groggy had vanished. One of the elves is in a pale yellow tunic, and the other in green.
The one in yellow is smiling warmly at everyone and is the only house elf Harry has met that has instantly put him at ease. It helps that her teeth aren't nearly so sharp- in fact, they look almost human-like.
On the other hand, the green-clad one is facing to the left- their head bowed and hands clasped.
"Slippy!" Tom greets, grinning at the green-clad elf. Then his gaze darts to the other- his smile goes a bit wooden. "And Hatcher, hello."
Hatcher curtsies, and Slippy doesn't do anything at all- just keeps watching the ground, still as a statue.
"Hello," Hatcher says. "It's nice to see you again, Tom."
Tom stiffens almost imperceptibly.
Merlin hisses warningly, long and low. Harry feels a trickle of sweat roll down his back. He doesn't know what's going on, but Hatcher's warm smile doesn't seem so warm any more.
Hatcher's smile grows wider. She has far more teeth than Harry thinks should be able to fit in her mouth. "I meant no offense," she says. "Forgive me. I was just making a point."
"Point taken," Tom says after a moment.
Harry is well and truly lost now. Hatcher curtsies again, and then disappears. The other elf continues to stand, and stare. Harry realizes, as he watches, that the elf is constantly shifting- ensuring that their right side is always facing away from whoever they are talking to.
"It's nice to see you again, Slippy," Tom says after a moment of tense silence.
The elf nods once. Then, they vanish and a grimace flashes across Tom's face.
Harry doesn't bother to wonder what that's about. Instead, he's thinking about how Merlin had been right- apparently, Dobby is normal. Compared to other elves, anyway.
"What was that?" Harry asks Tom as they leave the kitchens behind under the cloak. "With Hatcher, I mean."
Tom sighs. "Yeah, sorry about that. I forgot that she's like that when meeting new people."
"But what was she doing?" Harry presses.
"Hatcher was- well, like she said: she was making a point. House Elves are incredibly powerful, and can occasionally be dangerous when wronged. That was Hatcher's way of reminding us to watch our step around them- sometimes a student will antagonize the wrong Elf and there's nothing anyone can do to keep the Elf from getting revenge."
Harry's eyes widen as a spike of alarm shoots through him and Tom hurriedly adds, "nothing fatal- it never gets further than a light maiming."
Harry winces, arm twinging as he recalls the feeling of the bludger smashing into it.
"Anyways," Tom says. "If you think about it, it's actually very thoughtful of her to warn students like that. A lot of students, especially half-bloods and muggleborns have no way of knowing how to treat an Elf."
"I guess," Harry says.
"I like them," Merlin reminds Harry. "And they like me. I won't let them hurt you- not ever."
Harry smiles at her. "Thanks," he hisses. "That does make me feel better."
"You're welcome," Merlin says. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to bed."
With that, she slithers into her satchel.