"Practice!" squealed Winky furiously. "You is ought to be ashamed of yourself, Dobby, talking that way about your masters!"
"They isn't my masters anymore, Winky!" said Dobby defiantly. "Dobby doesn't care what they think anymore!"
"Oh you is a bad elf, Dobby!" moaned Winky, tears leaking down her face once more. "My poor Mr. Crouch, what is he doing without Winky? He is needing me, he is needing my help! I is looking after the Crouches all my life, and my mother is doing it before me, and my grandmother is doing it before her . . . oh what is they saying if they knew Winky was freed? Oh the shame, the shame!" She buried her face in her skirt again and bawled.
"Winky," said Hermione firmly, "I'm quite sure Mr. Crouch is getting along perfectly well without you. We've seen him, you know —"
"You is seeing my master?" said Winky breathlessly, raising her tearstained face out of her skirt once more and goggling at Hermione. "You is seeing him here at Hogwarts?"
"Yes," said Hermione, "he and Mr. Bagman are judges in the Triwizard Tournament"
"Mr. Bagman is a bad wizard! A very bad wizard! My master isn't liking him, oh no, not at all!"
"You know about the bad things Ludo has done?" I said
"Yes, master is telling Winky some things! But Winky is not saying . . . Winky — Winky keeps her master's secrets. . . ."
"You can talk about it if you want" Hermione said, "we all know that he scams people, we've seen it ourselves"
"Is he scamming any of yous?"
"Yeah, my twin brothers!" said Ron "he's royally fucked them, stole all their life savings!"
Winky jumped at Ron's swearing
"Ron!" said Hermione "don't use that language in front of house elves!"
"Oh as if they all aren't used to it already!"
"Clearly Winky isn't, and I'm sure Dumbledore doesn't-" Hermione said, but Harry interrupted
"Jesus Christ, I hear enough arguments from you two, you're not doing it here!" he snapped, and they fell silent instantly
"Poor master, poor master, no Winky to help him no more..." Winky said
We couldn't get another sensible word out of Winky. We left her to her crying and finished our tea, while Dobby chatted happily about his life as a free elf and his plans for his wages.
"Dobby is going to buy a sweater next, Harry Potter!" he said happily, pointing at his bare chest.
"Tell you what, Dobby," said Ron, who seemed to have taken a great liking to the elf, "I'll give you the one my mum knits me this Christmas, I always get one from her. You don't mind maroon, do you?" Dobby was delighted. "We might have to shrink it a bit to fit you," Ron told him, "but it'll go well with your tea cozy."
As we prepared to take our leave, many of the surrounding elves pressed in upon us, offering snacks to take back upstairs. Hermione refused, with a pained look at the way the elves kept bowing and curtsying, but Harry, Ron, Demelza and I loaded our pockets.
"Thanks a lot!" Harry said to the elves, who had all clustered around the door to say good night.
"See you, Dobby!" "Harry Potter . . . can Dobby come and see you sometimes, sir?" Dobby asked tentatively. "
'Course you can," said Harry, and Dobby beamed.
"You know what?" said Ron, once we had left the kitchens behind and were climbing the steps into the entrance hall again. "All these years I've been really impressed with Fred and George, nicking food from the kitchens — well, it's not exactly difficult, is it? They can't wait to give it away!"
"We'll definitely be doing so more often!" I said, and Demelza nodded
"I think this is the best thing that could have happened to those elves, you know," said Hermione, leading the way back up the marble staircase. "Dobby coming to work here, I mean. The other elves will see how happy he is, being free, and slowly it'll dawn on them that they want that too!"
"Let's hope they don't look too closely at Winky," said Harry.
"Oh she'll cheer up," said Hermione, though she sounded a bit doubtful. "Once the shock's worn off, and she's got used to Hogwarts, she'll see how much better off she is without that Crouch man."
"She seems to love him," said Ron thickly (he had just started on a cream cake).
"I'm glad she's not keen on Ludo though after what he did to Fred and George" said Demelza
"Honestly, despite that, I'd still rather work for him than Crouch" said Ron "much more interesting and fun person. At least he's got a sense of humour"
"Don't let Percy hear you saying that," Hermione said, smiling slightly.
"Yeah, well, Percy wouldn't want to work for anyone with a sense of humour, would he?" said Ron, now starting on a chocolate eclair. "Percy wouldn't recognize a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing Dobby's tea cozy."
The next day, full details for the Yule Ball were announced, which caused much excitement, especially among us girls. Demelza took great pleasure in showing me her utterly stunning forest green dress, which I was slightly jealous of.
"Stefan's gonna pass out when he sees you in that" I said
"Aww, you flatter me Ginny, we both know that you've always had the edge when it comes to looks" she replied. Demelza's modesty reminded me of the time she'd denied Stefan's "perfect goddess" comment about her from the previous year.
"We're both pretty damn attractive let's put it that way, we should acknowledge it and be proud of ourselves. You managed to start dating someone 2 years older than us, even I couldn't do that"
"You only ever had eyes for Harry though, you'd have turned someone like that down anyway"
Demelza and I were very glad that our relationships had been established common knowledge for ages now, because we both knew, without trying to sound arrogant, that we'd be asked to the ball by a shit ton of boys otherwise. I was sure Amy was in the same position, though obviously I didn't discuss this with her. Neville, Dean, Seamus, 3 third year boys and 4 fifth year boys all separately admitted that they'd have asked me had I been single, Neville was especially frustrated at this after being turned down by Hermione.
I was slightly surprised when the older boys revealed this, though I was obviously glad, having literally only just discussed it with Demelza. That was just Gryffindor alone, god knows how many fancied me in other houses, though I did overhear Avery mocking Blaise Zabini when he didn't outright deny liking me. Demelza told me that she'd had the same admission from five different boys herself, one of whom was a Hufflepuff 6th year!
Harry and I sat together in the common room that night. I was curled up on his lap, and couldn't help noticing that he looked rather uncomfortable.
"What's up?" I asked
"Well, it's about the Yule Ball. Professor McGonagall said that it's traditional for the champions to open the dance proceedings"
I was confused. "Surely that's no problem. We're going together after all"
"I know" he said "but, well, I can't dance. I don't want to look like a prat in front of the whole school"
"Harry, don't worry, you'll be with me. I can dance, I can take the lead, you'll just need to stay in sync with my movements. I heard a rumour that the Weird Sisters have been booked, and trust me, if that's true, I'll have no problems staying active all night! I'm a huge fan!"
Harry relaxed after these words, and at that moment, Ron and Hermione joined us.
"You two found partners yet?" Harry asked. They both looked pretty defeated.
"No" Ron said
"Me neither" said Hermione "I turned down Neville, but I wish I hadn't, because no one else has asked me. I'm guessing most people don't fancy a night with an ugly, insufferable know it all"
"Hey, Hermione, don't insult yourself, I'm sure there's at least one person that will take you" I said
"Yeah, I would, if you were a girl-" said Ron, then he paused and looked Hermione up and down, as if noticing her for the first time. "My god, you are a girl!" he exclaimed in shock!"
We decided to overlook the ridiculous fact that Ron had taken this long to notice.
"Well there's your answer then isn't it" Harry said
"Go on, do it" I added.
Ron turned to Hermione and said "Hermione, will you go to the ball with me?"
Hermione beamed
"Of course I will!" and they hugged.
