As soon as she got to the school, Hermione practically ran to the Kitchens to see the House Elves. The House Elves were in the midst of a celebration themselves, and they cheered when she came in. Most of them were clad in sky blue, but a few had too-big faded black robes on. No one was wearing their Hogwarts uniform.

"Missy Hermione!" One of the elves ran over to her, beaming. "We is doing it! We is winning!"

"You 'won'? Won what?" Hermione asked, laughing. "Dumbledore conceded to your demands? Tell me everything!"

Hermione was pushed into a chair, given a bowl of berries and cream, and the elves crowded around her, chattering.

"—none of his business where we is going—"

"—is having family likes anyone else is—"

"—is telling him to go fart somewhere else—"

"—so many of us is growing moss, and we is helping—"

"Settle down, settle down!"

There was a loud clap, and the elves fell back as Tolly and Neemey approached, both of them grinning. Hermione laughed, smiling at them widely.

"I take it your strike was successful?" she asked, eyes sparkling. Tolly laughed.

"Oh, the Headmaster is having no idea what to do!" Tolly crowed. She snickered. "I is telling you everything."

The other elves all took seats nearby, listening raptly, even though they had lived through the story themselves.

"It is starting on Ostara," Tolly said, nodding. "We is visiting family, helping do a healing ritual for them, and the Headmaster is not liking it."

"What healing ritual?" Hermione asked, curious.

"We is fixing the goblinses' eyes," Tolly said. "They is supposed to be able to be seeing in the dark, but they is not for some reason. So we is helping fix it."

Hermione had no idea goblins were supposed to be able to see in the dark. When had that changed?

"Dumbledore is not being happy to discover we is doing things without telling him," Tolly went on. "He was being mad that we put out celebration foods for Ostara. Even though we is not giving him Ostara foods," Tolly said slyly, "he was being very mad. He is not liking that we elves is recognizing Ostara."

"Asking magical beings to not recognize magical holidays," Neemey said, scoffing. "Honestly."

"So Dumbledore is coming down to be angry," Tolly said, "but this time, when he is arriving to be telling us what to do, I is informing him he is having no authority over the House Elves!"

A cheer went up from the House Elves, and Hermione grinned along with them.

"The Headmaster was being very puzzled, and very annoyed," Tolly said. "I is having to explain our bond is being with Hogwarts itself many times. The Headmaster is saying many times 'you cannot leave' and I is saying back 'so long as we is keeping our side of the contract with the castle, we is coming and going as we please'. The Headmaster was then trying to ban House Elf travel," Tolly stressed, "as a way of making sure we is not able to go anywhere."

There was booing all around at this statement.

"Ban House Elf travel?" Hermione asked, astonished. "But you pop with the ley lines. How could he—?"

"He is not coulding," Tolly said, certain. "He is instead putting down an anti-apparition ward that is targeting only House Elves. He is thinking we is going to be needing to walk around the school to clean instead of popping. But he is silly – we elves is not subject to wizard magic."

"Is that when you started sending up weird foods?" Hermione asked, and Tolly nodded.

"If he was going limit us, we were going limit him," Neemey said, eyes glowing. "We thought making the students cook their own breakfasts on the table and eat hard tack would get the point across."

"It is only making Dumbledore more mad," Tolly said. "Finally, Dumbledore is coming down and demanding we behave and serve the school properly. I is explaining we is always serving the school, we is only demonstrating against him for being mean and saying we is not to visit family and come and go as we is pleasing." Tolly folded her arms. "Then Dumbledore is saying because it is his school, it is his castle, with his rules, and I was saying then it can be being his castle, and he can be doing all the cooking and cleaning hisself."

There was a cheer from the House Elves at this, and Tolly looked pleased.

"Tolly was quaking in her bones," Tolly admitted, "but I was being a representative, so I is holding firm. I is telling the other House Elves, we is going on strike, and we elves is all going to the goblins for sanctuary while we is striking against the Headmaster. Dumbledore is not knowing we could go somewhere else, I is thinking – I is thinking we caught him off his toes."

"We was in the goblin cave!" one of the House Elves exclaimed. "We is helping them!"

"And they was being grateful," another chimed in. "They was being happy for very very small things, like getting water or cleaning up dust!"

"They is needing our help very badly," one said, nose wrinkling. "I is not knowing how often they is doing their laundry, but it is not being nearly enough."

"The House Elves were all staying with the goblinses while we were being on strike," Tolly told Hermione. "I is going back and forth to bargain, but everyelf else was having a nice vacation, I is thinking."

There was a cheer at 'vacation', and Tolly quickly added, "but we is back to work, now!" The elves cheered at this too, though, and hopped to their feet, going about the kitchen and starting to prepare food as if they had only been waiting for an official reminder that they were allowed to start their usual duties once more.

"So what did you agree on?" Hermione asked.

"We is making a paper agreement," Tolly said, pulling a paper from her sky-blue pillowcase. "Neemey is helping. But I is being pleased."

The parchment was labeled HOUSE ELF & HEADMASTER AGREEMENT written on in big, bold letters across the top, and Hermione pulled it closer, curious.

.

HOUSE ELF & HEADMASTER AGREEMENT

Headmaster agrees to:

· Let House Elves determine necessary labor levels and allocate staff themselves as needed

· Let House Elves determine what foods to feed the school on whichever days

· Provide new uniforms for half the number of elves each year

· Not ask nosy questions about House Elves visiting family or leaving the school

House Elves agree to:

· Uphold their bond and contract with Hogwarts,
cooking and cleaning and maintaining the school in exchange for room and board

· Wear a uniform while performing their duties

· Not celebrate magical holidays with rituals at the school where the students can see

· Not all suddenly leave the school without just cause or warning

· Help protect the school from malicious intruders

· Serve Magic as best they can

.

Hermione looked up at Tolly once she had finished reading.

"Did you have to concede anything?" she asked, impressed. "It seems like you got everything you wanted, and he got nothing you wouldn't do anyway."

"Why would we give him anything?" Neemey asked cynically. "We held all the power. Once we showed we had no need for Hogwarts, he was desperate to get the elves back before we forged a bond somewhere else."

"I is thinking he is being more distraught over us suddenly up and leaving than he is being upset over not knowing when we is going to visit family," Tolly confided. She grinned a wide, toothy smile. "He is looking very silly amongst wizards, methinks, for his school to suddenly be being falling apart when it is supposed to be being under his control."

"His pride must have taken a hit," Hermione said, nodding. "So he was more concerned with you not going on strike again than the original reason you had to go on strike?"

"I is thinking so," Tolly nodded. She shrugged. "We is not liking to not be working. It is not in our nature, for us elves. So it is easy enough to be conceding to not be striking again."

"We made sure to make that agreement conditional," Neemey said, grinning nastily. "What we consider 'just cause' may not be what the Headmaster considers just cause."

"Oh?" Hermione said, amused. "Like what?"

She meant it to be teasing, but Tolly sobered rapidly.

"Like striking to be being in solidarity with our goblin family," she said seriously. "Is you knowing the goblinses is not being able to live in their homes for over a century?"

"I know their homes have been broken for a long time," Hermione said. "I helped fix some of them too," she added, but Tolly waved away her words.

"Their houses is not being their homes," Tolly stressed. "They is not living in their homes for over a hundred years."

Hermione faltered. "—wait, what?"

Neemey's eyes were hard.

"The goblins' hold – that was previously their city, their center of commerce," Neemey said, voice flinty. "It was a place of prosperity. The goblins lived in burrows, in a network of caves in the ground. It was only when their burrows were poisoned that they were forced to flee and make homes in the hold itself."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "What?"

Her mind was racing. She might have heard of this before, she thought – Lockhart had taught them about a Minister ordering the ground water poisoned near the goblin burrows. At the time, she hadn't really thought through the implications – that goblins naturally lived in burrows, not in normal human-esque homes.

"It affected their fertility and genetics as well," Neemey added, scowling. "I've no idea how to restore the goblins' full abilities to them, but over the centuries, wizards have ground them down to a mimicry of what they once were."

Hermione was horrified.

"I had no idea," she breathed. "And their burrows are still poisoned? That's why they live in the hold?"

"We is all weeping when we is learning," Tolly said, her big eyes tearing up. "We is helping all we is able to be fixing their houses, but until the wizards is unpoisoning their burrows, their homes is always being out of reach."

"Where are these burrows?" Hermione wanted to know, her mind spinning. "Like, geographically? If I had a map, could you show me?"

Tolly looked at Neemey uncertainly. Neemey nodded slowly.

"I could," Neemey said. "Or at the least, I can find out."

"I'd have to get wizards to think of it in a different way," Hermione said, already brainstorming to herself. "They're not going to want to help the goblins in any way. But if I can get some people to think that their livelihood is at risk from the continued pollution of magical flora and fauna…"

"You should be doing that, but maybe be doing it elsewhere, Missy Hermione?" Tolly told her, nodding vigorously. She glanced around the messy kitchens, making a face. "We is having a lot to do to be catching up here."