The centre of the Forbidden Forest rang with the thumping of tiny bare feet as one elf after another went tearing through the trees to find friends and family and tell them the extraordinary news: Pat!k had had a vision, and not like the little ones that had come before, but a big vision, an important vision.







Pat!k's gift had been evident since childhood. Everyone in the tribe knew that when you lost something, such as your magic stick, you went to Pat!k and he'd be sure to find it. Couples considering whether to perform the commitment ceremony went to Pat!k to ask: Would it be a good match? Would their children be strong and healthy? Pat!k would know. He was never wrong. So a vision of this magnitude was something everyone took seriously.







It all started early in the afternoon. Tadatada, Pat!k's mate, had been sitting in a glade with a group of other women, talking and sipping yew juice while their children played. Tadatada waved her hand and the floating red globe of juice wafted gently towards her mouth. As she sucked in juice, she watched her daughter. Ch!kch!k waddled up to her grandmother, Antki, stretched out a tiny hand, and let forth a babble of nonsense syllables. Tadatada wondered when Ch!kch!k would start talking; surely it would be very soon. Tadatada thought that she already understood most of what was said to her.







Pat!k came dashing between two tree trunks and burst into the circle of women, causing a couple of yew-juice globes to burst and spray juice over some of the women, the nearby tree-trunks and himself. Shrieking ensued, but Pat!k paid scant attention. He hurried towards his mate. Tadatada, seeing the wildness in his eyes, did not utter a scolding word, but stood up and took his hands in hers. "Pat!k!" she said urgently. "What's wrong?"







"Tadatada... oh... I have seen..." He leaned to one side and almost lost his balance. "Sit down," said Tadatada sharply and tugged him downward. Pat!k let himself be pulled to a seated position on the leafy forest floor. Tadatada retained her grip on his hands and sat facing him. "All right, go on then. You have seen...?"







"I have seen..." He shut his eyes and shook his head. "Terrible things." His quavering whisper carried around the circle. Some of the women gasped in concern, and their ears trembled. Tadatada gripped Pat!k's hands harder.







Pat!k mastered himself and opened his eyes. "Tadatada...." He hesitated. "We must leave the forest. We must go find a human boy... the boy who lived." His brow furrowed as he tried to remember. "Name of Harry Potter. We must find him, and help him. Or every last elf will be enslaved, and... and... it is too terrible to speak of."







Tadatada didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until she released it in a great gust. All around her, she heard the women whispering. "Pat!k has seen. It sounds big. It sounds bad. A human boy? Oh, I must go tell Patoch!k!" One by one they began to run off, picking up their children as they went.







Dazed, Tadatada looked around as the circle scattered. Soon, only she, Pat!k and Ch!kch!k were left in the glade. A slow fear began to unfold inside her chest. She had never been outside the forest, and had never given thought to what lay beyond it. Surely nothing did. She imagined stepping beyond the trees and tumbling into black, empty space.







Pat!k rattled her hands. "Tadatada! Have you heard me? Do you believe me? We must leave!"







"Pat!k, of course I believe you. If we must leave, we must." Her ears shuddered, but Pat!k's face filled with relief. "But," she continued, "first we must have a meeting, and tell everyone. They need to know, and give their permission."







Pat!k looked annoyed at the mention of "permission," but said, "Yes, I suppose that's fair."







They had no great difficulty in gathering the tribe. Most of the job was done for them. The women who had heard Pat!k's announcement were gathering everyone. From streams where the elves went to drink and bathe, from glens where elves liked to be alone to think or just bask in a rare wash of sunshine, and from favourite berry-picking and grub-gathering places, elves were found and told, and they in turn told others. Within half an hour, the whole tribe was waiting at the meeting place.







Pat!k told his story while all listened gravely. He explained that there was a human wizard of tremendous evil, that he was getting stronger with every passing year, and only the boy who lived, Harry Potter, could stop him, but he needed help from three elves.







Tadatada was puzzled by the mention of "three." Pat!k and herself only made two. But perhaps he'd seen another elf involved and had neglected to mention it. Anyway, she had to think of who could look after little Ch!kch!k while they were gone. Perhaps Palil. She had several children of her own, so she was good with children, and the older ones could help look after Ch!kch!k.







Pat!k turned to Tadatada. "My dear," he said, "Ch!kch!k must come with us."







Tadatada just looked at him for a moment. Then she stood up and loudly declared, "She most certainly will NOT!"







"Tadatada. My love. You know I would never put our child in unnecessary danger."







"Exactly. So we'll leave her behind."







"She has to come. I have seen it. She will play an essential part. It will all come to nothing if she's not there."







"Fine. Then we won't go at all."







"We have to. I have told you what will happen if we don't. And if all elves are enslaved, Ch!kch!k will be too."







Tadatada thought. "Are you sure? How much time--"







"Only a few years, Tadatada. I have seen it." He swallowed. "I saw Ch!kch!k, enslaved. It is that which was too terrible to speak of. I didn't want to say... but you must understand what we are up against."







Tadatada sat down again, sank her face into her hands and wept. Ch!kch!k crawled onto her knee, her face full of concern, reached out a hand and touched her mother's tears.







Pat!k put his arm around her and cradled her head in his hand.







Finally, Tadatada looked up, wiped her eyes, and said in a low voice, "Ch!kch!k will come."







Pat!k leaned his head on her shoulders. "Thank you," he breathed. "I will protect her. I will protect you both. I will let nothing bad happen to you. On my life, I swear."







"I know, Pat!k," said Tadatada resignedly.







"Thank you for believing me. I love you."







"Before you go," Mikak, the elder wisewoman, broke in, "I think it would be well if Tadatada brought up the old memories. They may help you prepare for what you will find outside."







Tadatada was keeper of the tribe's ancestral memories. Like Pat!k's gift, it had emerged in childhood, and the old memory-keeper had fed her the memories, piece by piece. Only after he had transferred the last memory to her did he lie down and die.







Tadatada made a noise of assent, and closed her eyes. Every member of the tribe went respectfully silent. Even babies stopped babbling. Tadatada loosened her limbs and slowed her breathing until the memories began to slip to the surface, like bubbles in a brook. Then she began to talk very fast. She explained that in ancient times, there was not one tribe but many, scattered all over the forest rather than hiding in the centre. Then an evil wizard discovered how clever and hardworking elves were, and enslaved one for his own use. Soon, other wizards began to follow suit, until the remaining elves replaced their openness and innocence with suspicion, and retreated to the dead centre of the forest where no wizard could reach them. She spoke of how the wizards made elves cover their nakedness, which wizards found objectionable, with any convenient rag that could be found, but if they freed them, they gave them something called clothes, which were formed to fit the bodies of humans, for the best that wizards could imagine for elves was that they should be small pale imitations of wizards.







Tadatada spoke of Hogwarts, the castle and school next to the forest, and how a headmaster had begun to bond elves to the school, flattering himself that he was "saving" them from a worse fate with cruel masters, when in fact it was very much to the advantage of the school, and there was never any mention of the possibility that those elves could be sent into the forest to rejoin their kin.







Tadatada talked and talked, while the faces of the elves grew angry. When she finally stopped, her throat too sore to continue, one elf could be heard to say to another, "I'd say, leave those wizards to their own ruin. They deserve it, the scum." And the other elf said, "I'd say the same, except that the ruin will reach us too. Pat!k saw it. You heard him."







Mikak said, "Thank you, Tadatada. I believe that gives you a place to start."







"Does it?" asked Pat!k, looking puzzled.







"It was, of course, unpleasant to hear, but we must look past that, to the information that is of worth. Right next to the forest is a place called Hogwarts, a place where human children are kept, and trained to be wizards. Pat!k, you said this Harry Potter was a boy? A young wizard?" Pat!k nodded. "Then he is either there now, or has been recently. You must go there to find him, and as your kin are enslaved there, you will find help. Yes, Hogwarts is certainly the place to begin."







So Pat!k and Tadatada saw yet again why Mikak was the tribe's wisewoman, and they bowed to her.

When a wild elf departs on a journey, there is little need for preparation. They wear no clothes, so there is no need to pack. Their magic sticks were all they needed to bring with them, to aid them in magic. Every elf of age had a magic stick: a living branch chewed from a tree. An elf could carry the same branch for decades, and still the leaves would be present, changing colour and falling off in autumn, then sprouting anew from buds in the spring; for as long as elf-magic flowed through that wood, the branch would live, and only while the branch lived was it of any magical use to an elf.

The only problem was that in the distraught moments after his vision, Pat!k had dropped his stick and run off, and he wasn't sure where he'd left it. But if Pat!k could find lost items for anyone in the tribe, he could certainly find his own stick. He did, in short order, and then the trio was ready to depart.

They Apparated to the edge of the woods, Tadatada holding Ch!kch!k, who was not old enough to Apparate. From there, they peered from the only world they had ever known at an expanse of cropped grass. To their right was a lonely willow, marooned in the sea of grass. To their left was a great grey thing rising into the air, with four extrusions like limbs pointing skywards. It would have been utterly alien to Tadatada had she not just seen it in the ancestral memories. "That's the place for wizard children. Hogwarts," she told him.

"Good! Come." Pat!k stepped onto the cropped grass and started towards the grey hulk. Tadatada followed reluctantly, still holding Ch!kch!k with one arm and her magic stick with the other hand.

They walked for a long time around the stone walls, looking for a way in. They did not meet any children. Finally they found two broad wooden doors set in the stone wall.

Tadatada trailed her magic stick over one of the doors. "They killed trees to make these," she whispered, horrified.

"I know, I know," said Pat!k. "Best not to think about it. Whatever sort of creatures these are, we must still go among them." He waved his stick at the other door, and it swung open. They tiptoed inside.

They were in a great hallway with distant vaulted ceilings. It was quiet. They could hear their footsteps as they walked the hard floor, staring about at the strange, immense area. Spaced along the walls at intervals were thick sticks gusting with flame. A row of white steps ran upward.

"Where are the human children?" asked Tadatada.

"I don't know, and I'm not concerned right now," Pat!k replied. "Where are the elves? That's more my concern at the moment."

"It seems deserted," Tadatada remarked.

Then a bell rang. A moment of silence was followed by a swell of babbling and the pattering of shod feet. Tadatada turned towards the staircase and saw robed legs emerging from its upper reaches. The legs trotted down the stairs and the humans came into view. But these surely could not be children; they were twice her size at least.

Tadatada burst into laughter. She couldn't help it: these creatures looked so absurd with the tufts that sprouted out of their heads and flopped down over their ears. At the sound of her high-pitched laugh bouncing about the Great Hall, the human eyes flicked in her direction. One girl pointed and screamed. Then the group of them began pointing at the trio and chattering excitedly. Some covered their eyes. Tadatada wondered at this strange gesture.

A shout came from behind them. They turned; a figure was bearing down on them. All of Tadatada's doubt that the others were children vanished; this woman was massive. She looked furious too. They backed off a few steps. Ch!kch!k began to whimper. The huge woman let out an angry tirade in their direction. A minute went by before Tadatada realized she didn't understand a word.

The woman bent over and grasped Tadatada's and Pat!k's shoulders firmly and twisted them through a ninety-degree turn. The next thing they knew, they were being hustled down a small flight of stairs with a firm hand at the back of each of their necks.

They came out into a wide underground passageway. Its walls were lined with renderings of fruits and vegetables. The woman steered them to a stop in front of an image of a silver bowl filled with fruit. Her arm shot out above the elves' heads and she wiggled the tip of her index finger against one of the fruits--a green pear. It giggled, squirmed, and became a handle. The woman gripped the handle and pulled. A door opened in the wall. The woman uttered a final burst of angry nonsense syllables, thrust them through the opening, and slammed the door behind them.

They were in another enormous room filled with gleaming pots and pans . Three elves came running up to meet them. "Kin!" cried Tadatada happily. "Hello!" The sight of other elves made her feel comfortable enough with the surroundings to put Ch!kch!k down.

The elves were each wrapped in an identical towel that was tied by two of its corners over one shoulder. "Well met, kin," Pat!k chimed in happily. He turned to Tadatada and said, "That scary woman was trying to help us, after all. She brought us here to see our kin."

"But then, why did she seem so angry?" asked Tadatada.

Pat!k had no answer to this. He turned back to the elves, who were looking at them curiously.

"We need your help," he told them. "We are looking for a boy named Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter," repeated one of the elves, nodding. Another one scurried off somewhere.

"That's right," said Tadatada. "We thought he would be here, since he is a boy."

"And I had a vision," continued Pat!k. "You see..." but he trailed off as he saw the blank looks of the two remaining elves. One of them burst into a flurry of sound in which only the words "Harry Potter" were recognizable.

"Pat!k." Tadatada gripped his arm. "They don't know how to speak." She seemed to be talking through her teeth.

"They can speak," replied Pat!k, "just not so we can understand."

"They cannot speak our language... their own language!" hissed Tadatada. "Look what's been done to them. Look! Every new thing we find out is worse than the last."

The third elf was returning with an armful of towels. With him was a very colourful fourth elf. There was a soft, bumpy thing on his head, something stripy tied around his neck, and different-coloured tubes fitted to his feet. It almost hurt the eyes to look at him.

The elf with the towels picked one off the pile and offered it to Tadatada, who shook her head and backed away. Meanwhile, the colourful elf jabbered away excitedly. The words "Harry Potter" jumped out at them from time to time.

The towel elf seemed puzzled by Tadatada's disinterest in the towel. He proffered it to Pat!k, who held up his hand, palm out in a gesture of refusal.

"Is there no one here who understands us?" cried Tadatada in despair.

The four elves looked at each other, then huddled together for a murmured conference. Then they began to walk across the room, beckoning. Tadatada, Pat!k and Ch!kch!k followed.

At the far end of the room was a nook in the wall with a fire burning in it. An old elf sat in a chair a couple of feet from the fire, his legs resting on a stool, the soles of his feet facing the flames. As they drew near, they heard him snoring softly. The multicoloured elf laid a hand on the sleeping elf's shoulder and gave it a shake, while everyone stood around him in a semicircle and watched.

The old elf twitched and mumbled. The multicoloured elf bent over and spoke softly and excitedly in the old elf's ear. The old elf slowly raised his head and looked up with sleepy eyes, which immediately widened with astonishment when they fell upon the trio.

The multicoloured elf, seeing the old elf awakened, twittered even more excitedly, and bounced on his heels. The words "Harry Potter" could be distinguished a few times. Pat!k and Tadatada waited and watched the old elf intently, hoping.

"Greetings, kin," said the old elf haltingly. "It is... good to see you. I had no idea... any were left." Placing a hand on his knee, he pushed himself to his feet and bent in a shallow bow. "My name is Pokey. Please excuse me... I do not remember... my real name."

Tadatada gave a squeal of happiness and threw her arms about Pokey, who promptly went red in the face. "You have nothing to apologize for... Pokey." She uttered the foolish, undignified name reluctantly, having no other options. "It is so good to meet an elf who remembers how to speak!"

"How to speak our language, she means," added Pat!k hastily, using the inclusive "our" to indicate that it was the language of all the elves, not just the three of them from the forest. Elf language is replete with such fine distinctions that English sadly lacks. Pat!k had spoken out of concern that Tadatada might have offended Pokey with her tacit dismissal of his adopted language. Now he wondered how Pokey would feel about his use of the inclusive "our". Did Pokey, after all his years of slavery, still feel that the ancient language of the forest was his own? Or was he so indoctrinated that he considered the human language his language?

Pokey showed no sign of offence or concern. "This is Dobby," he stated, laying a hand on the multicoloured elf's shoulder. "He thinks you are looking for Harry Potter?"

"That's right," said Pat!k.

"Dobby is very... happy, that you are looking for Harry Potter. He is a... oh my..." Pokey rubbed his head. "He likes Harry Potter."

"He is a friend of Harry Potter's?" Tadatada offered.

Pokey snapped his fingers. "That's it. It's been so long, I'm forgetting words."

"It will come back to you," said Tadatada encouragingly.

"But this is great news!" cried Pat!k. "A friend of Harry Potter's! He can help us find him!"

Pokey turned to the house elves and spoke English to them, presumably translating. Dobby beamed.

Pokey reached out an arm towards the three elves wearing towels. "This is Kootchy, this is Patchy, and this," he gestured towards the elf with the pile of folded towels, "is Brownie." Brownie still held one of the towels between his index finger and thumb, slightly extended, as if unable to believe that his offering would not be accepted. "Perhaps I should explain," Pokey continued. "You see...." He paused in thought. "Among the big creatures..."

"Humans," interjected Tadatada.

"Thank you, dear. Among humans, it is the habit to cover the body. So much so that it is not acceptable to walk around where everyone can see you, with nothing covering you. That is why Brownie is offering you that--" he gestured at the towel. "To cover yourselves."

Pat!k drew himself erect. "We do not wish to offend. But those--" he gestured disdainfully, "great withered leaves are a symbol of enslavement, and we shall not wear them." In this instance, of course, he used the exclusive "we".

Pokey's ears drooped to his shoulders. "Oh well..." He turned to the others and translated. Brownie's arm flopped dispiritedly to his side, the towel dragging on the floor. Dobby, however, looked as pleased and excited as ever. He jabbered a few words, then lifted a foot and yanked the tube off it.

"Pokey turned back. "Dobby would like to offer you... this is called a sock."

"Sock," Pat!k and Tadatada repeated in unison.

"You see, Dobby is a free elf. Enslaved elves cover themselves, but with things that are different from what humans wear. When an elf is freed or dismissed from service, he is given... they are called clothes. Clothes are shaped to fit different parts of the human body. Such as the sock. Dobby, in fact, was freed by a sock, so he likes them very much. He can offer you socks, and things that you wear here--" Pokey planted both palms on his pelvis, "which are called pants, and are very important, because that's the part that you have to keep covered. And Dobby can also offer you hats--" Pokey seized his head in his hands-- "which are things you put on your head."

Dobby interjected with a few happy words. "Ah. And Dobby says that the hats were made by one of Harry Potter's good friends."

Pat!k and Tadatada gazed from Pokey to Dobby and back to Pokey with bewilderment. Pat!k was growing uncomfortable. He did not want to put the horrid things on his body, but he had already refused the towels. If they kept refusing what the well-intentioned elves were offering them, they might get offended. Perhaps they would even refuse to help them. He turned to look at Tadatada, and she looked helplessly back at him. Then he saw in her face that she'd had an idea.

"But we are forgetting our manners!" she cried. "I am Tadatada, and this is my mate, Pat!k. This little girl is Ch!kch!k," she concluded, laying a hand on Ch!kch!k's head.

Pat!k nodded gravely and approvingly. Distraction: always a good gambit. Pokey repeated the introductions to the other elves, and the subject of clothing was forgotten for the moment as the young elves struggled with the clicking sounds. All born into servitude, they knew only the limited array of vowels and consonants found in the English language. Dobby watched them, looked down at the sock in his hand, then at his bare foot, and coming to a decision, slipped the sock back on.

Pat!k broke in. "Pokey, will you ask Dobby if he will show us to Harry Potter now?"

Pokey looked uneasy, but he turned and spoke to Dobby. Dobby shook his head. Pokey translated what Dobby said next: "Harry Potter is not here. He did not come to school this year."

"Oh." Pat!k and Tadatada looked at each other in dismay.

"He is not sure exactly where Harry Potter is right now," Pokey continued. "He thinks he could find him, but it might take time, and he has duties to perform here at Hogwarts."

"Oh, but it's very important that we find him," Pat!k assured Pokey. He explained his vision to Pokey, who listened gravely, then spoke with Dobby. Brownie also made a remark.

"Then Dobby will ask Mistress McGonagall if he may leave his duties. She is... oh, how can I say it? You don't have a word for it. She's the school's mother. That's the closest I can come. He says wait here. He thinks McGonagall will not be pleased if you come to her with no clothes on. Brownie adds that she did not look pleased when she brought you down here."

Pat!k and Tadatada digested this last bit of news as Dobby Disapparated with a pop.

"You know, my dears," said Pokey, "if you would just put some clothes on, you'd be less noticeable, and I think you'd find that people would treat you better."

"We'll think about it," said Pat!k after a pause.

"Good. Dobby has enough clothes for all of you. He's so fond of clothes, he collects as many items of clothing as he can." He added, "Or you might reconsider the towels. They cover everything up, but they're small and easy to carry. Oh, I know they mean you're a slave, but wouldn't that be a good disguise?"

"You have a point," admitted Tadatada, but she saw a dangerous expression on Pat!k's face, and added, "It might be better, though, if we travel light."

"But they really are quite light, and you can see for yourself here that they fold into a nice, neat square..."

"Pokey," interrupted Pat!k somewhat loudly, "It occurs to me that the three of us will very much need a translator on this quest. I hope you can come with us. We'll be lost without you."

Pokey grinned. "Yes, I'll come. I can tell you that right now. I don't work anymore, due to my age, so nobody will miss me."

"Good." Tadatada nodded.

"Ooh, I'm looking forward to it!" Pokey clapped his hands. "It will be the most exciting thing I've done in years."

"Excellent," said Pat!k, pleased. Distraction really did work well, he thought.

"I should mention," Pokey added hastily, "that I need many naps a day."

With a pop, Dobby reappeared, grinning from ear to ear, wearing several hats stacked on his head and holding a stick with a bundle attached to it.

"Mistress McGonagall said yes," Pokey translated. "We're ready to go. I told Dobby I'm going along as translator.

"Where are we going first?" asked Tadatada.

"To the home of the Dursleys, Harry Potter's guardians. He may not be there anymore, but they may know where he is. Dobby has already visited them."

They said goodbye to the other elves, Tadatada picked up Ch!kch!k again, and three cracks sounded in quick succession. The fourth came after a slight delay, as Pokey snatched three towels off Brownie's pile before departing.

A soft pop sounded in the back of number four Privet Drive as Dobby Apparated onto the Dursleys' neatly cropped lawn. Three other pops followed as the other elves appeared.

Dobby pointed upwards. "There is Harry Potter's bedroom window."

"But is he there?" asked Pokey. He peered nervously around the garden as if expecting a human to jump out and attack them.

"I don't know. And if he is not there, does it mean he will come back in the evening, or tomorrow, or months from now?" Dobby stared up at the bedroom window and scratched his pencil-like nose. "If we don't find Harry Potter in his room, we will have to talk to the woman in the house."

Pokey translated this for Pat!k and Tadatada. "They say, let's go talk to her," he said.

Dobby slowly replied, "But the humans in this house are not very nice." He considered for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision. "Let's Apparate right into Harry Potter's bedroom first. If we are lucky, he will be there and we won't have to talk to the woman."

Pokey looked at him strangely, but nodded. He said a few quick words to the two wood elves, then raised his arm in preparation for the turn.

"Wait," said Dobby.

Pokey paused with his arm in midair and looked at him.

"I should tell you... they're Muggles."

Pokey's eyes widened. "You... might have said something before, Dobby."

"I was so excited, you know, going to see Harry Potter and all! I didn't think to."

Pokey sighed. "So five elves in their house might be a wee bit of a shock?"

"Might? Will. Definitely."

Pokey's brow furrowed. "But... you've been here before, you said."

"Yes, but the Muggles didn't see me. They only saw their cake float about and fall on the floor, and they thought Harry Potter did that."

Pokey gaped at Dobby. "You framed Harry Potter? I thought you were his friend!"

Pat!k tapped Pokey on the shoulder.

"I was! I was trying to keep him safe. It's a long story..."

"You must tell me sometime," said Pokey, giving Dobby a piercing look. He turned to the wood elves and translated. From the brevity of his speech, Dobby guessed that he'd left out the part about the cake.

Once in the bedroom, Dobby saw that the trunk and owl cage were missing. In addition, the room was dazzlingly tidy. The floor shone. The bed had hospital corners. It didn't look like a room that Harry Potter lived in. "Oh dear," said Dobby, "I think Harry Potter has moved out."

Pokey repeated this to Pat!k and Tadatada. Tadatada put Ch!kch!k down, walked to the door and gave it a push. It swayed open. She turned back, said a few words and walked through the door with Ch!kch!k trailing behind her. "She says, let's go find somebody and ask where he's gone," Pokey translated. Pat!k glanced at Dobby and Pokey, beckoned to them and followed his mate and child out the door.

Dobby looked unhappily at Pokey. "These are not nice people," he repeated.

"You'd better go before me then, Dobby; I'm old and brittle," Pokey declared cheerfully.

Dobby moved reluctantly to the door. He patted the stack of hats on his head. "I wish I'd worn more hats," he said before summoning his courage and heading through the door.

Tadatada and Pat!k stood still at the top of the stairs, ears extended, listening. Tadatada said, "The only sound of movement I hear is coming from below."

"Agreed," said Pat!k gravely. "Some sort of large animal is moving about down there. Probably a human."

They all clambered down the plush carpeted stairs, backwards, as each step was much too high for an elf. Halfway down, Pokey began grunting with effort. "This is too much hard work for an old elf like me. Why don't I Apparate down?"

"Feel free, Pokey, sir," responded Dobby, "but then you will be ahead of us, not behind us."

"Never mind," said Pokey weakly. Dobby stifled a giggle.

At the bottom of the stairs, the sitting room loomed. A beige sofa by the front door towered over the elves. Their feet sank into an immaculate cream-coloured shag rug. Across the room was a doorway with no door. The sounds came through that doorway. Slowly the elves approached it.

Petunia was in the kitchen, preparing dinner. She mercilessly scrubbed a pile of vegetables and attacked them with a potato peeler, her mouth set in a grim line. Petunia was a housewife who hated housework. She hated every moment of the washing and scraping and slicing, hated the daily drudgery of it and the constant standing that brought about that throbbing in her lower back. Yet every day she did it and did it flawlessly, for to see surfaces gleaming and meals steaming and her husband and son greedily feeding their faces gave her a sense of accomplishment. It eased the gnawing feeling of inadequacy that she'd carried ever since her sister Lily had turned out to be the special one, the one who could do magic. Petunia could feel she was worth something because she could keep a pristine home and have a normal family. This made her feel a bit better for a while, until the next day, when she'd have to do it all over again.

She was arranging carrots, onions and potatoes around a pork roast when she happened to glance up, and saw three little creatures with batlike ears peeping through her kitchen doorway.

Petunia let out a blood-curdling screech. The only response to this was two more little heads appearing above the shoulders of the first three.

She sidled over to a corner of the kitchen and picked up a broom, her eyes never leaving the hideous little abnormalities in her sitting room. She waved the broom at the doorway. "Scat, you vermin!" she cried. "The Potter brat is not here, so--" she froze, broom in midair, as another element of the alien little tableau clicked into place.

The three elves in front were naked, and two of them had all the accoutrements of an adult man and woman brazenly, shamelessly hanging out, right there on the threshold of her spotless kitchen. They were in fact more naked than an adult man and woman would be, for neither had so much as a strand of hair anywhere on their bodies.

Petunia let out a shriek of rage and dashed at them, broom held high. The elves scattered across the sitting room carpet.

"How dare you!" she screamed as the broom thumped down hard on the spot where Pat!k had been seconds before. "Naked, in my house!" Wham went the broom behind Tadatada's heels. "On my lovely clean wall-to-wall carpeting!"

"I told you to wear the towels!" Pokey cried, dashing about waving his arms and in his panic, letting go of the towels so that they fluttered about the sitting room. One draped itself over the sofa back and two others floated to the carpet.

"Have you no decency!" Petunia howled. She raised the broom over the cowering figure of Ch!kch!k, who was trying to crawl backwards under the sofa.

Another, much higher-pitched shriek rent the air, and sky-blue light flashed from Tadatada's magic stick. Petunia froze, her limbs akimbo. Her feet left the floor and she bobbed lightly in mid-air. The broom slipped from her loose fingers and dropped to the carpet.

Tadatada stomped towards Petunia. "You evil creature!" she cried. "Threatening my baby!"

"Oh no," moaned Dobby, wringing his hands. "We are going to be in such trouble..."

"She's a Muggle, Dobby," Pokey reminded him.

"Oh, right." Dobby released his arms to his sides in relief.

"Tadatada, don't!" cried Pat!k as Tadatada raised her stick for what would be, judging by the look on her face, a punishing swipe.

"She tried to harm my child!" cried Tadatada, turning to Pat!k as he ran up to her.

"I don't think she would have done it, Tadatada. She saw it was a child. She paused; you saw her, didn't you?"

"I will make her very sorry she ever dared to raise a stick against my child," declared Tadatada, eyes burning.

"No no no no..." Pat!k pleaded with her as he pulled her magic stick down towards the floor, "You mustn't, she's our only way to find Harry Potter!"

Tadatada sighed heavily. "Remind me again why that's important?"

As Pat!k repeated the vision and all its implications to Tadatada, Pokey approached the floating, bobbing Petunia, at first gingerly, then with more confidence as it became clear she couldn't move at all. He bowed low before her, the front corner of his towel grazing the carpet. "My dear mistress," he said, "please forgive the intrusion. As well, please forgive the behaviour of that naked elf over there. You see, she is only concerned for her child's safety. I am sure that you, as a mother, can understand that."

There was no response. From his bent position, Pokey raised his head. Bent over like that, he could only see Petunia's legs. He straightened up and tilted his head back. Petunia's mouth gaped motionlessly open.

"Oh, pardon me," he said, "I didn't realize you couldn't speak either. Let me fix that..." But however he waved and finger-snapped, his magic seemed unable to penetrate Tadatada's stronger spell.

He turned. "Tadatada, release her mouth, please."

"Only her mouth," replied Tadatada, still glowering at Petunia. "Nothing else."

"Oh no, of course not. If you release anything else, she'll try to hit us again."

"Fine," muttered Tadatada. She aimed her magic stick at Petunia. A little glob of blue light zoomed from its tip and hit Petunia in the mouth. She spluttered and cried, "Get out of my house NOW, you little monsters!"

"Only we need information, please--" began Pokey.

"Think you can just walk right in to MY house, no knocking, no ringing the doorbell, just sneaking in like a bunch of ugly midget thieves--"

"But don't you see, dear lady, we're much too small to reach the doorbell!" cried Pokey, clasping his hands.

"No worries, Dobby is not insulted!" Dobby sang out happily. "Dobby heard much worse things than 'ugly midget thieves' from his old masters every day, oh yes he did."

"Don't hand me that!" yelled Petunia. "Don't tell me you couldn't use magic to ring a doorbell!"

"Mistress makes a good point; Mistress is very clever." Dobby nodded vigorously.

"Be that as it may," said Pokey, "We really need to know where Harry Potter is."

"He's not here!" bellowed Petunia as she continued to bob gently up and down.

"Yes, we realize that, and we were hoping--"

"Pokey, translate!" Tadatada interrupted irritably.

"...We were hoping you could tell us where he is."

"Pokey!"

He turned. "A little patience please, I am trying to negotiate, and you might want to modify your tone." He sniffed, and turned back to Petunia.

"Oh, you were hoping. And why should I do that?"

"Because once we know where we can find Harry Potter, we will leave."

Petunia considered this. "As soon as I tell you, you'll go?"

"That's right."

"And you won't come back?"

"I sincerely hope we will never see each other again," Pokey promised.

"Will I be able to move again after you leave?" asked Petunia.

"Yes, yes, as soon as we're ready to go, we'll undo the spell."

"All right," Petunia said. "He said he was going to live at The Burrow."

"The Burrow," Pokey repeated.

"That's what he said. His friends from school came to get him."

"His friend Ron Wheezy?" Dobby asked.

"Yes, that's right. Now put me down NOW!"

"Thank you very much, dear lady," said Pokey, gesturing wildly at all the other elves. Tadatada took Ch!kch!k's hand and led her to Pokey's side. All the elves stood in a line facing Petunia.

"I'm not interested in your thanks, put me down NOW!" she shrieked, turning red in the face.

"Dobby, do you know where that is?" asked Pokey. "The Burrow?"

"Dobby knows all the estates of the pure-blood wizards--I mean, I know all the estates of the pure-blood wizards," he amended, switching from slave-speak to peer-speak.

"Then we're ready to Apparate. We'll all follow you." He switched into wood-elf. "We're going to follow Dobby. Tadatada, get ready to release the spell. As soon as you do, we'll Apparate." He had a moment of worry that Tadatada would argue, but he saw that she gazed downward, as if ashamed of herself. She nodded.

"What are you waiting for!" the enraged Petunia cried.

"Dobby, as soon as Tadatada breaks the spell, you Apparate. Tadatada, go!"

Another large jet of sky-blue light flew through the air and burst over Petunia. She fell a few inches and staggered for a moment, weak-kneed. Once she regained her footing, she looked around for her broom. She snatched it up and swung it through the air, but the elves were already gone.

Later that evening, Vernon commented on the new dish towels. "I haven't seen these before," he said, fingering one. "Unusual crest."

"Oh, I picked those up at a car boot sale," Petunia casually remarked as she checked the internal temperature of the roast.

They Apparated onto an untidy lawn lined with weed-filled flower beds. A few chickens pecked at the ground. A tipped stack of cauldrons and a pile of Wellingtons lay at the door of a stone structure so irregular, it looked as if it had grown out of the earth.

"Ah! This place is much better," said Pat!k, nodding approvingly.

Tadatada turned to Pokey and said, "I'm sorry for my behaviour back there."

"Don't worry about it, dear," he replied affably, studying the house as he smoothed out his towel. "You were under a lot of strain."

"I was very rude to you."

"It was a difficult situation for all of us."

"Shall we go inside?" Pat!k proposed.

Pokey fidgeted with his towel. "I was thinking perhaps we should knock, or ring the doorbell if there is one."

Dobby tugged on Pokey's towel with an inquiring look. "I was just telling these two that we should knock or ring a doorbell," Pokey explained.

"Do you think it would make a difference?" asked Tadatada curiously.

"Well, it was one of the things Mistress Muggle was shrieking about," Pokey pointed out.

Pat!k snorted. "As if she would have been welcoming otherwise."

"What a nasty big creature," said Tadatada with distaste.

"That and the fact that you two were naked," Pokey added.

"What is that?" cried Tadatada in exasperation, flinging her arms in the air. "Do they hate our bodies that much?"

"Oh no, no," cried Pokey, "It's nothing personal. They're the same way with their own kind."

"Humans get upset when other humans are naked?" asked Tadatada, looking sceptical.

"Well... except in special circumstances."

"So they hate their own bodies as well?"

"Hmm... I suppose so, yes."

Dobby tugged at Pokey's towel again. "I'm just explaining that humans wear clothing and make house-elves cover themselves as well because they hate their bodies and our bodies," Pokey rattled off, a touch impatiently. He was thinking that translation was more trouble than he had considered when he signed up for the job.

"Is that true?" asked Dobby.

"It must be. There's got to be a reason, after all," said Pokey.

"Pokey?" called Tadatada. Pokey turned to her. "I've just been speaking with Pat!k," she explained, gesturing at Pat!k, who was looking quite sullen. "We've agreed that, if it will make the humans more comfortable, we'll wear the towels. After all, we're visiting them, aren't we? So we're the ones who should adapt."

"Oh! That's wonderful," said Pokey. "They're agreeing to wear the towels," he told Dobby happily. "I'll just... oh," he said, looking at his empty hands and then peeking rather unnecessarily under each armpit, "I seem to have left them in the Muggle house, what with all the upset and stick-waving going on."

"That is a shame," said Pat!k with a grin. "I suppose we won't be able to cover ourselves up after all."

Dobby leaned over and whispered in Pokey's ear, "Where are the towels, Pokey?"

"Back at the Muggle house," he whispered back.

"Oh."

"All right, then. Dobby and I will go to the door, and you three will wait over on that side," Pokey stated, pointing.

Pokey and Dobby approached the door. Dobby knocked, and they waited.

After a couple of minutes, Dobby sat down on the front step.

"You know," Pokey said to him, "I don't think anyone's home."

He turned to the waiting wood elves. "Nobody's coming, they must be away," he called.

"Let's just Apparate in, then," suggested Dobby, getting up.

Pokey hesitated, then knocked again.

"Don't worry, Pokey," said Dobby, "It won't be like the other house. These are good people."

"All right," said Pokey, resigned. "We're going to Apparate in," he announced to the wood elves. "Just to the other side of this door."

Pat!k and Tadatada nodded. Four pops sounded in quick succession.

They found themselves under a kitchen table. They emerged from it and looked around the kitchen.

"Let's see if we can find anybody," said Dobby, and started down the hall. The others followed.

The hallway ended at the front door of the house. Just before that, it opened to a sitting room on the right and a flight of stairs, leading upwards, on the left. Dobby stopped at the entrance to the sitting room and peered in. A couple of well-padded, lumpy sofas were placed at right angles to each other and faced a square wooden coffee table. "Nobody here either," he stated and turned towards the stairs. Pat!k also took a glance in the sitting room. "Wait." He said the word softly, but something in his tone made everyone stop in their tracks.

Pat!k padded up to the coffee table and gazed down upon it. The other elves gathered by his side. The table was unfinished and well-used, scored with innumerable cuts and dents. On it sat a golden cup that might have been poised to be filled with wine, but for the large crack running from the brim to the stem. Beside it lay something with two round halves hinged together like a clam shell. It was roughened and blackened as if it had been burned.

In front of the cup was a silver pen ending in a length of ostrich feather. The pen was snapped in half and bled its startlingly deep red ink (if ink it was) onto a folded white handkerchief that lay beneath it.

"I think... I think I know what these are," breathed Pat!k.

Dobby reached out a hand and rotated the cup. The shape of a badger slid into view, embossed on its surface. "A badger. This cup belonged to Mistress Hufflepuff."

Pokey stood frozen, his hands at his sides. "I'm not sure you should touch those things, Dobby," he said tensely.

Dobby ignored him and gingerly picked up the pen by its feather. He took a close look and hissed. "Look. The raven."

"This is very strange," quavered Pokey. "This is... some dark magic."

Dobby laid the pen down. His hand hovered over the burnt locket, then dropped to his side. "No," he said, "I don't want to touch that."

"It's completely black, anyway," noted Pokey. "I don't think you'd be able to see if there was anything on it... like a lion."

"Or a snake," said Dobby.

"I saw these things in my vision, and other things like them," murmured Pat!k.

"What are they? What are they for?" wondered Tadatada.

"They are..." Pat!k fell silent for a few moments. "I can't explain," he finished. "I don't know how to say it. But there's one more that has to be found."

"What did they say?" whispered Dobby to Pokey.

"Pat!k knows what these things are," Pokey whispered back. "He saw them in his vision."

"What are they?" asked Dobby.

"He said he can't explain," Pokey whispered, "but there's one more to be found."

They all fell silent. Ch!kch!k reached out for the burnt clam-shell. Tadatada seized her hand and held it.

They were still standing there, gazing at the three ruins, when the creak of the kitchen door let them know that someone had come home. They all started and looked at each other. "We should go greet them first," Pokey whispered to Dobby, "especially you since you already know Harry Potter." Dobby nodded and dashed towards the kitchen, where voices could now be heard. Pokey turned to the others. "Look, after the reaction we got before, I think Dobby and I should prepare the humans before they see you. Maybe they won't be so shocked that way." Pat!k and Tadatada nodded. "So... I'll come back to get you soon." Pokey hurried towards the kitchen. Tadatada and Pat!k sat down to wait.

Pokey entered the kitchen as Dobby was saying, "Dobby is so happy to see you again, Harry Potter, and your two friends. And Dobby is honoured to meet you, Mistress Wheezy." He bowed.

"It's nice to meet you too, Dobby." Pokey saw Mistress Wheezy's eyes flicker from the bowing Dobby to Pokey. "You can call me Molly, if you'd like--and you brought a friend, did you?"

Pokey stopped and swept into a bow. "Pokey places himself at your service, Mistress," he said to the floor.

"Oh, thank you," said Molly, sounding pleased. "We've never had a house-elf in here before--you can probably tell."

Pokey straightened up to have a look at who else was present, wondering uneasily if Molly was expecting him to do any work around the house. He might have to explain later that he was retired. To the right of Harry Potter, there was a tall red-headed boy and a girl with bushy brown hair. Both were looking at him with mild interest. Pokey bowed to them as well, saying, "Pokey is honoured to meet Harry Potter's friends."

"I'm Hermione, and this is Ron," said the girl. "You're a Hogwarts elf, aren't you? You're wearing their crest on your towel."

"Mistress Hermione is observant," said Pokey. "I am bonded to Hogwarts, but I am retired, due to my age, so I was able to come with Dobby." He was secretly pleased to have found a way to work his retirement status into the conversation.

"Well, I'm glad they let you retire, at least," said Hermione primly. Ron glanced at her and grinned.

"So," Molly broke in, "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"We have come to help Harry Potter fight He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!" Dobby piped up.

A shadow of a smile crossed Harry's face. "Gee, that's nice of you..."

"But, er..." Pokey broke in, feeling he'd better get it over with, "It's not just the two of us."

"You mean, you've brought other house-elves?" asked Hermione, her eyebrows lifting slightly.

"Yes--er, no, not exactly. The thing is, you see, they are elves, but they're not house-elves. Quite." Pokey picked up a piece of his towel and dabbed his forehead.

"There are other kinds of elves?" Ron said, surprised.

"Oh yes, Ron Wheezy," cried Dobby. "These elves are wood elves who live in the Forbidden Forest, but they came out to look for Harry Potter because one of them had a vision and he knew he and his family had to help Harry Potter so that everyone can be saved from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!"

"A vision?" Ron wrinkled his forehead. "A house-elf had a vision?"

"Not a house-elf, Ron," corrected Hermione, "a wood elf."

"Well, whatever," said Ron, "but I never heard of an elf having a vision."

"I don't see why elves shouldn't have seers just as wizards do," countered Hermione. "It makes perfect sense to me."

"Family?" Molly repeated. "How many of these... wood elves, are there?"

"Three, Mistress," replied Pokey.

"Are they waiting outside, then?"

"No, they're waiting in the sitting room," Pokey replied.

"Oh." Molly's laugh had a slight edge to it. "You did make yourselves at home, didn't you?"

"When I first met Dobby, he was sitting on my bed," said Harry with a wry smile.

"Well, let's go meet these elves, then," said Molly. She walked towards the hallway. Pokey darted in front of her.

"The thing is, Mistress Molly," began Pokey, twisting his towel nervously, "These elves don't wear towels, and Pokey tried to get them to wear the Hogwarts towels, and they wouldn't, and Mistress Dursley was very upset with them, so I want you to know before you see them, that, that, these elves don't wear no towels," he concluded, quivering.

"Well!" Molly looked astounded at this outburst. "Why should they wear towels? They can wear whatever they want, as far as I'm concerned."

"But that's just it," whimpered Pokey, "They don't want to wear... anything."

There was a pause at this news. A wide grin slowly spread across Harry's face. "You mean they're naked," he said, clearly amused by this idea.

"Brilliant!" cried Ron, also grinning. "Naked house-elves!"

"They're not house-elves, Ron," cried Hermione impatiently.

"All right, Hermione, all right. I just always wondered what they looked like under those pillowcases and towels and things."

"It looks as though this is your big chance to find out," said Hermione.

"Yes, I suppose so," mused Molly. She looked as if she was not quite sure how she ought to take this news. "I imagine we can find something for them to put on." She started down the hallway, Pokey and Dobby trotting at her heels. Harry, Ron and Hermione followed.

"Wow," Ron murmured to Harry, "There really are wild elves. Running around in the Forbidden Forest naked."

"Then you haven't heard of this before," Harry commented.

"No! I thought all the elves were bonded to a house. 'Cept the odd ones like Dobby," he added. "I wonder if they'll be carrying little spears?"

They entered the sitting room. At first they couldn't see a trace of the elves. For all they could tell, the sitting room was empty. But Pokey scurried up to the coffee table and spoke to it in a strange language that included clicks and pops in and among the usual vowels and consonants.

They saw two pairs of bat-like ears rise above the coffee table. Then two elves emerged. One of them led a tiny elf by the hand. The other one looked at Harry with recognition. "Harry Potter," he said in a high-pitched voice.

"Oh!" Molly gasped, "She's got a baby! Isn't it precious..."

They were, indeed, naked.

"May I introduce Pat!k, Tadatada and little Ch!kch!k," said Pokey, gesturing at each elf in turn. Foreheads wrinkled in consternation.

"Patuck?" said Hermione.

"Pat!k," said Pat!k.

"Well, Tada is easy enough at least," said Molly.

"Your pardon, Mistress, but it is Tadatada, not Tada," explained Pokey.

"That seems a bit repetitive," remarked Molly.

"All right, how about this?" said Hermione. "We're having trouble with the pronunciation, so we'll call them Pa-tuck and Chick-chick. And... Tada for short. How about that?"

Harry didn't say a word. He just grinned as if this was the best thing he'd experienced in a long time. But Ron said, in an oddly strangled voice, "Excuse me," then turned and dashed up the stairs.

"Oh dear, what's gotten into him?" Molly wondered as she gazed up the stairs after her son.

"I'll go find out," said Hermione, and ran up the stairs after Ron.

***

Hermione found Ron in his bedroom. He was clasping his hands and gazing at them, looking horrified.

"Ron," said Hermione. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" he repeated in a choked little voice. "Hermione... they were naked."

"Well, yes." She approached the bed. "We all saw that. We were warned, in fact, and you seemed to quite like the idea."

"Yeah, but that was before I saw them. I mean, all right, I could deal with the man elf having a, you know, a thing--"

"Oh Ron," sighed Hermione.

"But she had... she had..." Ron flapped his hands about in the air, and his voice got strangely high, "Hermione, she had tits!"

Hermione plunked herself onto the bed beside Ron. "She does, doesn't she? I expect it's so she can breastfeed her baby."

"Gaah!" cried Ron, throwing his hands up over his face.

"Honestly, Ron, I don't know why you're making such a big deal about this," said Hermione, shaking her head. "It's not as if you haven't seen breasts before."

"Yeah, but they weren't on a house-elf!" wailed Ron.

"They're not house-elves, Ron," said Hermione for the third time.

"Whatever," said Ron from behind his hands.

"What were you expecting, anyway?" she asked.

"I don't know... not that!"

"I just don't see.... Oh," said Hermione.

Ron peeked at her from between his fingers.

"I think I know what this is about," said Hermione softly.

"What?" said Ron, slowly lowering his hands.

"You're afraid you're going to feel... sexually excited from looking at Tada's breasts."

The hands went flying up again.

"Or maybe you did feel sexually excited when you looked at Tada's breasts, and you don't know how to deal with it."

Ron cried from behind his hands, "I am not some kind of perv who gets turned on by house-elves!"

"Wood elves," Hermione corrected him.

"Whatever."

"Mm-hm." Hermione nodded sagely. "That's it." She looked at Ron, who was leaning over with his head between his hands. "Look Ron, you're making too much of this. I mean, it's not as if you're going to, you know, do anything with the elf."

"Noooo way!"

"Well then?" Hermione waited, then placed a hand on Ron's shoulder. "Ron, I swear I'm not going to be a bit jealous if you look at the elf. I do not feel threatened by the elf."

Ron dropped his hands. "I can't do it, Hermione," he said. "I can't go down there and face, er...."

"Tada and her tits," finished Hermione.

"Yeah."

"So what are you going to do then? Stay in your room all evening?"

"Hey," Ron said slowly, "I've got loads of jumpers; you know my mother's been giving me one for Christmas every year for ages. I could give them a couple of jumpers to wear."

"Oh yes, I suppose that might work," said Hermione thoughtfully.

Ron jumped up and opened a drawer. "They'll be perfect," he enthused. "Those elves are so small, they'll cover everything!"

***

As Hermione dashed up the stairs, Pokey said to the wood elves, "That was Ron who ran up, and the girl following was Hermione." He threw a curious glance up the stairs. "And this human woman is Molly, and this human boy is--"

"Harry Potter," Pat!k said again, stepping forward for a closer look.

Harry was used to being recognized, given his status as the only person to have ever survived a killing curse--and as a baby on top of that--and having a scar that forever reminded everyone of the fact. "They've heard of me even in the Forbidden Forest, have they?"

"Not until today, sir," said Pokey.

"Not until today?" Harry repeated, puzzled.

"Yes sir, when Pat!k had his vision. Right after lunch." Pokey turned to Pat!k and said a few words to him in the click language. Pat!k nodded.

"Really?" said Molly. "A vision?"

"Yes," said Pokey.

"But what did he see exactly?" asked Molly.

Pokey and Dobby looked at each other. No one had, until now, thought to ask this question. In all the excitement, it had apparently been overlooked.

He turned to Pat!k and told him what Molly wanted to know. Pat!k looked reluctant, but hesitantly began to speak. Pokey translated, sentence by sentence.

Pat!k had seen a wizard, and knew that he was evil. He saw him change over time, becoming pale and gaunt, his eyes turning red. Pat!k saw many humans lying dead and knew that this wizard was responsible.

He then saw six little objects. He knew they were evil and must be destroyed, but he didn't know why or how. (Harry interjected at this point and told them that the little objects were called "Horcruxes".) Pat!k saw each Horcrux disintegrate in turn--all but one. He knew that only his daughter could reach that one.

He saw a terrible future with more killings and destruction, and the enslavement of every last wood elf, including his daughter. Then he saw a human boy with a scar on his face, and knew that he was The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, and that the scar was a remnant of the evil wizard's attempt to kill him. He knew that he had to find Harry Potter.

Then the vision dissolved, and he just heard words repeating in his head: "Find Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter." So when he recovered and went to find Tadatada and tell her what had happened, he remembered the name perfectly.

"Oh. Well. That's quite an experience," said Molly.

At that moment, Ron came galloping down the stairs with a smile on his face and a pile of knitted maroon in his arms. Hermione followed at a more sedate pace.

"Here we go!" Ron moved to put the jumpers on the table, but when he saw the ex-Horcruxes, he did a ninety-degree turn and laid them on the sofa nearest the elves. "Clothes for the house-elves."

"Ronnnnnn..." groaned Hermione.

"Clothes for the wild elves, or whatever they call themselves."

Pat!k got a sour look on his face, but Tadatada pulled one of the jumpers off the sofa. She gazed at it for a moment, clearly unsure what to do with it. Then inspiration struck, and she wrapped it around herself sideways and tied the arms over one shoulder, in imitation of Pokey's towel toga.

"Not exactly," said Hermione, stepping forward to help. Ron stopped her with a touch on the arm.

"Close enough," he said. "As long as everything's covered." Pat!k was already arranging his jumper in imitation of his mate.

"I suppose I'd better start preparing supper," Molly commented. "Would any of the elves like to help?"

"Dobby will be honoured to prepare supper for Mistress Wheezy!" cried Dobby, rushing to Molly's side. "Just instruct Dobby, and he will do everything!"

"Oh, this makes a nice change," said Molly, looking pleased as she led Dobby down the hall to the kitchen.

Harry, Hermione and Ron sat on one of the sofas, and Harry brought them up to date on what Pat!k had said while they were upstairs.

"Well," said Hermione, "his vision was sort of accurate. We've found and destroyed five Horcruxes, and there's one more left. But..."

"The last Horcrux is Nagini, right?" Ron interjected.

"That's what Dumbledore said." Harry nodded.

Hermione crouched on the ground and gazed at the baby elf. She was tiny, not a foot long. "Didn't Patuck say that his daughter would be important?"

"I know," said Harry. "It doesn't make sense. What's a baby elf going to do against a giant snake?"

"Excuse me," Pokey politely put in. "Giant snake, did you say?"

"That's right," said Harry, and he explained that Nagini was Voldemort's pet snake, and he had used her as a Horcrux when he missed his chance to make one by murdering Harry.

Pokey turned to the wood elves and started translating. It looked as if he had forgotten how to say 'snake' in wood-elf, as he stopped speaking and made slithering motions with one hand. Pat!k's eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously.

"Pat!k says no," Pokey reported, turning back to the three humans.

"No?" Harry's brow furrowed. "He says no to what?"

"It is not a snake."

"You mean," said Hermione, settling into a cross-legged position on the floor next to the elves, "The last Horcrux is not a snake? It's not Nagini?"

"That's what he says," Pokey affirmed.

There was a moment of silence. The three humans exchanged glances.

"But Dumbledore said it was Nagini," said Harry stubbornly.

Pokey shrugged helplessly.

"Well, how does he know?"

"He's seen all the... what you call them."

"Horcruxes."

"He's seen all the Horcruxes. They are all small, constructed objects, not living things. None of them are snakes. Especially not giant snakes," he added after a pause.

"So if it's not Nagini, what is it?"

Pokey stared at his feet. "You see," he began, "the problem is... er... one moment please." He went into a discussion with Pat!k for a moment, then turned back to Harry. "You see, the wood elves do not build things, as humans do. And they have lived in the forest all their lives, so they have seen almost nothing of human-built things. Pat!k has no words for what he has seen."

"Imagine," said Hermione, gazing into space. "Everything they've seen of, oh, buildings, utensils, all the things we use and take for granted every day... the first time they've seen any of that is... today."

"So?" said Ron.

"So!" Hermione raised her hands in an impatient gesture. "Must be a lot to take in, don't you think?"

Ron looked blank. Harry said, "But can't he describe what it looks like?"

"All he can say is that it's shiny," Pokey replied.

"It's shiny," repeated Harry in a flat voice. "Oh well. That narrows it down. Everything Voldemort used as a Horcrux was shiny!" Ron and Pokey winced at the mention of the name, but Harry paid no attention.

"Well, not everything. The diary wasn't shiny," Hermione pointed out.

Harry sighed heavily. "Yes, you're right, Hermione. The diary wasn't shiny. Thank you for pointing that out." He dropped his head in his hands. Everyone watched him with concern.

"Damn," he said, his voice muffled in his hands. "I was prepared. I had myself all worked up to face Voldemort, because Nagini would be by his side, right?"

"But if Patuck is right, at least it buys you more time," Hermione said.

"I don't want more time!" Harry shouted, thumping his fists on his thighs. "I want to get it over with! Dumbledore's dead, Lupin's dead, Tonks and Moody are in St. Mungo's, and this just goes on and on and on..."

Hermione started to get up, to go over to Harry and make a comforting gesture, but Tadatada beat her to it. She stood up and looked directly into Harry's eyes, which suddenly seemed to her to be ancient, and full of old hurts and hard life far beyond his years.

She walked slowly towards him, gazing into his eyes the whole time. Everyone watched her go.

When she reached him, she took one of his hands in both of hers, and said, "You poor boy."

The room was quite silent then, so silent that they could hear Dobby bustling about in the kitchen, and Molly telling him to be sure not to put too much wine in the gravy; just a dash. Then Harry turned away from Tadatada's tennis-ball-sized eyes full of sympathy and said to Pokey, "What did she say?"

"She said," Pokey searched his mind for a suitably formal and polite way of phrasing Tadatada's outburst, but could think of nothing that would be remotely credible. "She said, 'You poor boy.'"

"Right," said Harry. The trouble was, he thought, that he had to be strong all the time. He couldn't break down; he couldn't cry. Merlin knew when he would ever stop, and there was no time for that. There was too much he had to do. There was that awesome burden that the prophecy had laid on him. Once he'd destroyed the last Horcrux, once he'd sent Voldemort to his long-overdue final rest, then there would be time for tears.

"Yeah, er... thanks," Harry said awkwardly to Tadatada, and attempted a smile that failed almost instantly. Then he slowly but firmly extracted his hand from her grasp.

There followed an awkward silence that was, thankfully, broken by Molly announcing dinner.

"The thing I don't understand," said Harry between exuberant mouthfuls of mashed potato, "is how it can not be Nagini, if it went like Dumbledore said. Voldemort was a Horcrux short, right, because he didn't get to make one with me. So he used Frank Bryce's murder to make another one, and Nagini would have been right there. She would have been the most convenient thing. Whatever Voldemort had been planning to make into a Horcrux, he wouldn't have it anymore. So if he didn't use Nagini, what did he use?"

Pokey, perched on a couple of telephone directories, translated this to Pat!k and Tadatada, who sat on their stacks of dictionaries and gazed with great dubiousness at their plates of boiled broccoli, mashed potatoes and roasted chicken legs with gravy.

"What have they done to the vegetables?" whispered Tadatada to Pat!k with an expression of open disgust.

"I don't know," Pat!k whispered back. "I don't want to know."

"They're all squashy!" Tadatada poked a piece of broccoli and shuddered.

"Maybe he had something else? Perhaps a family heirloom of the Riddles," Molly suggested.

Harry shook his head. "No. Couldn't be. Dumbledore told me that Voldemort only used things that were valuable and meaningful to him, like stuff from the Hogwarts founders. He was ashamed of being part Muggle. He wouldn't put a piece of his soul in some Muggle thing."

Pokey began to translate this, but Pat!k interrupted with the remark, "They made them all waterlogged somehow."

"How can we possibly eat this?" whispered Tadatada with dismay.

"Would you two listen?" hissed Pokey. "This could be important."

"I know," sighed Pat!k, "but this food--"

"If you can call it food," muttered Tadatada.

"I've eaten human food all my adult life, and it hasn't hurt me," Pokey said.

"Are you sure?" asked Pat!k doubtfully.

"Is something wrong?" inquired Molly, her fork in midair.

Pokey turned red. "N-no, Mistress, nothing, everything is so delicious--"

"Why, thank you." Molly smiled.

"It's just that Pat!k and Tadatada are not sure they are worthy to eat in the company of such great wizards...oh save me, I think that's the worst lie I've ever come up with," muttered Pokey in wood-elfish.

Molly looked puzzled.

"You have to eat it," he told Pat!k and Tadatada. "They'll be insulted if you don't."

In her high chair, Ch!kch!k took a bite of broccoli, made a face, and spit it out.

"Even if we manage to choke it down," said Tadatada, "we can't force a child to eat."

"As long as..." Pokey began, but was interrupted as Ch!kch!k opened her mouth and let out a wail.

"Thank you, Ch!kch!k!" cried Tadatada. She stood up on the stack of dictionaries and pulled Ch!kch!k from the high chair. "We'd better take her outside until she calms down. You know... children," Tadatada said happily. Then, with two pops, she and Pat!k Disapparated from the table, and went to gather berries and grubs in the Weasley's garden.

"They had to take her outside, until she calms down," quavered Pokey in English. "You know... children." His head sank down until little more than his ears were visible above the table.

"Right, well," said Ron, "where were we? Oh yeah, the Horcruxes."

"Maybe Wormtail went back to Godric's Hollow, found whatever it was that Voldemort was going to put his soul in, and brought it back to Voldemort," Hermione suggested. "Of course, he'd have to do this after he got away from Sirius and Lupin."

"Yeah," said Ron. "Maybe You-Know-Who ordered Wormtail to go and get it."

"Did he have time?" Harry murmured. "In between kidnapping Bertha Jorkins and all." He gazed at his plate. "I wish I could ask Dumbledore."

In a low voice, Hermione said, "There is the portrait."

Harry shook his head. "No. Not unless I'm absolutely desperate."

Pat!k, Tadatada and Ch!kch!k returned just as Molly was serving the pudding.

"Good," said Pokey impatiently as they climbed back into their chairs. "Now listen." And he went through the discussion about Horcruxes.

"Mm," said Tadatada. "How come the evil wizard was short one... horrr-cr!k?" She stumbled over the unfamiliar word.

"Because he was trying to make one with Harry's murder. But Harry didn't die, and the evil wizard's soul came out of his body, but he didn't die either. And he had no body, so he couldn't make another one for a long time--"

"Yes, yes, I understand that. But how do they know that the evil wizard was making his last horr-cr!k with Harry's murder?"

"Because--" Pokey began. "I don't know." He repeated the question in English.

"Because Voldemort reserved Horcrux-making for significant deaths," Harry replied. and explained about the prophecy. "He knew the first half of the prophecy, about how I could vanquish him. But he didn't know the second half, so he didn't know he'd be marking me as his equal."

Pokey translated this. Tadatada gazed in great concentration at the table. "So... when the evil wizard first heard the prophecy... he had made five horr-cr!ks and he had one more left to make?"

Pokey repeated the question to Harry. "Yes," he said confidently. Hermione's brow furrowed. "Do we know that?"

"Dumbledore said so," said Harry. "Well look, I would have been a significant death, wouldn't I?"

"If he still had a Horcrux left to make," said Hermione, "yes. But what if he already had all six Horcruxes done before he heard the prophecy?"

Harry stared at her, as Pokey translated excitedly in a hissing whisper.

"It could be the explanation we're looking for," said Hermione. "Why wouldn't Voldemort make Nagini a Horcrux? Because he already had the full set."

"Yeah, but," said Harry, "Dumbledore said, by his calculations, Voldemort was a Horcrux short."

Hermione pursed her lips and gazed at her plate. She looked up and said, "And he didn't tell you what those calculations were."

"No."

"If we asked the portrait..."

"No," Harry said again.

"Well, you can't risk facing Voldemort unless you're sure you've gotten rid of every last Horcrux. It would be awful if you missed one--even if you did manage to, you know, blast him out of his body, his last Horcrux would keep him alive and he could come back again."

"That's right," said Ron. "We have to be sure."

"I know that," said Harry.

"Let's revisit this discussion at a later time," said Molly briskly. "Right now, we've got five guests who've come a long way, and they need putting up."

"Lucky they're small," observed Ron.

It was decided to put the wood elves in Percy's old bedroom. As Harry was using Fred and George's old room and Hermione was staying in Ginny's room, Percy's room was the only vacancy. Dobby and Pokey were assigned the sofas in the sitting room.

Molly left the wood elves with a pile of extra blankets, and carefully pulled the door to without letting the latch click, so that the elves could get in and out without using magic to turn the overly-high doorknob.

Molly walked slowly down the steps and back to the kitchen where Hermione, Harry and Ron were helping Dobby clear the table. "You know, I think we need to have a little meeting," she said to Ron in a low voice.

"Does that mean we don't have to finish clearing up?" Ron murmured back.

"Yes."

"First-rate," said Ron. "I'll tell Harry and Hermione."

Molly called, "Dobby, would you mind finishing on your own? I need to borrow the children for a moment."

Heaped with bountiful assurances that Dobby would be honoured, no, thrilled to take entirely upon himself the delightful responsibility of cleaning up after dinner, the four of them left the kitchen.

"Honestly, Mum," said Ron as they climbed the stairs, "Would you stop calling us 'children,' we're all of age now. We've even been inducted into the Or--ow!" he concluded as Molly turned on the landing and gave him a sharp poke. "There's nobody here, is there?"

Molly glared at him before proceeding to the master bedroom. She ushered them in, shut the door and cast an Imperturbable charm on it before turning and saying, "So what do you three intend to do about this?"

"I think it's clear," said Harry slowly, "that we're going to have to at least investigate the elf's claim."

"Definitely," said Hermione. "It's like I said before. We can't risk missing out one Horcrux when we face Voldemort."

"We?" repeated Harry softly. Hermione glanced at him but said nothing.,

"Of course, he could turn out to be a pint-sized Trelawney," Ron said, "but we can't take the chance."

"Right," said Harry.

Molly gazed at all of them. A trace of sadness crossed her faces for a moment. She nodded. "Yes, you're right, I suppose. You'd best check out the elf's story. But you need to consider the possibility... that this is a trick."

There was a pause. "Why don't you all sit down?" Molly gestured at the queen-sized bed behind the trio.

The three of them sat in a row on the edge of the bed. Molly reached for a chair that rested against the wall, heaped with clothes. She tipped it to dump the clothes on the floor, pulled it over to face the bed and sat on it.

"Are you thinking," said Hermione, "that they could be ordinary house-elves, under the Imperius curse?"

"Would they even need to be under the Imperius curse?" rejoined Molly. "The Death Eaters are from old, purebred families. They probably all have their own house-elves, who will obey any order without question."

"They seem pretty convincing," noted Harry, "what with the click language, and the baby elf..."

"And walking around naked," Ron put in.

"They could be faking the language," Molly noted. "Who would know the difference?"

"The Hogwarts elf, Pokey, is translating it," Hermione pointed out. "Or pretending to."

"So... for this plot to work, Pokey would have to be under the Imperius curse," said Harry. "Because he's not owned by a Death Eater."

"Perhaps," said Molly. "It's not impossible."

Ron, Hermione and Harry contemplated the notion.

"I'm not saying this is the case. I'm just pointing out that we need to be careful."

Three heads nodded.

"Which is why we need to have an Order meeting about this."

Ron, Harry and Hermione exchanged glances.

"I'd rather not get the other members involved unless we have to," said Harry.

"Harry," said Molly, leaning forward in her chair, "I know you came of age recently and you want to feel all grown up, but--"

"It's not that, Mrs. Weasley!" Harry interrupted. "Really, it's not that at all."

"What is it then?"

"It's just..." Harry made a fist and gripped it with his other hand. "I'm tired of people putting themselves between me and Voldemort. My mother. Dumbledore. Tonks. Moody. Lupin." He swallowed. "It's got to stop."

"All the more reason to involve the other Order members," asserted Molly. "Wouldn't you rather one of us older folks sacrificed himself or herself, than Ron or Hermione?"

"Did I say Ron and Hermione were coming?" Harry retorted.

Hermione turned to him. "What?"

"Hey mate," said Ron, "we've been through this before."

"Exactly," said Hermione. "I told you before, we've had plenty of time to back out--"

"I'm not going to let everybody keep dying for me!" cried Harry.

"All right you three, fight on your own time." Molly stood, wand raised. "I'm calling a meeting."

"Mrs. Weasley, can't this wait?" asked Harry.

"I don't see why."

"But we haven't even asked the elf if he knows where the Horcrux is!"

Molly hesitated.

"That's true," Hermione chimed in.

"Bit of an oversight, that," noted Molly. "Well, we'll just have to go ask him then. Right after I've called the meeting." She flourished her wand. "Expecto Patronum," she murmured. Her patronus emerged, flapped its silvery wings and flew directly through the bedroom wall.

***

As soon as Tadatada had deposited Ch!kch!k on the bedroom floor, she yanked off her jumper and flung it in the corner. "Thank Tireelah I can finally get this off!" she growled. Pat!k's jumper landed in the corner on top of Tadatada's. He wrapped his arms around himself and scratched himself vigorously in sweeping circles. "So itchy," he muttered. "How do they do it?"

The food... the body-covering... I think saving the world from the evil wizard is going to be the easy part!"

At that moment, the door swung open and Pokey strode in, towel flapping, eyes murderous. Pat!k and Tadatada froze and gazed at him in startled alarm.

For a moment, Pokey just glared at them. Then he said softly, "Shall I just be off then?"

"What?" gasped Tadatada. "Be off where?"

"Back to Hogwarts," said Pokey, more loudly. "I daresay my efforts will be more appreciated there."

"Efforts? But you don't work anymore," Tadatada pointed out.

"What with all the effort involved," continued Pokey, ignoring her, "in trying to make two groups of people understand each other, the tedious repeating of every conversation, the difficulty of rendering a thing said in one language into another very different language that you last spoke eighty years ago--"

"But you're doing very well at it, really," Tadatada broke in nervously.

"...one might expect an occasional show of appreciation, even... dare one dream..." Pokey rose up on his toes in indignation, "a thank you."

"Oh dear," murmured Pat!k.

"Failing that, one would certainly expect to be spared the EMBARRASSMENT," Pokey shouted the word, "and HUMILIATION," he shouted the next one, "of guests who not only insist on flaunting their naked bodies, but refuse to eat the perfectly good food that is put in front of them!"

"It was not perfectly good food!" snapped Tadatada, her temper flaring. "And if you'd grown up in your natural place, and not been snatched away by ruthless kidnapping humans, you would know that."

Ch!kch!k gathered up a handful of bedding and wrapped it halfway around herself, whimpering.

"Pokey," said Pat!k, "I'm sorry if we've caused you embarrassment. It was not intentional. Try to understand what this is like for us. I... we... have never been out of the forest until this day. We knew nothing of the human world, except for what I saw in my vision, and what Tadatada saw in the ancestral memories. And that was little enough. So many things here are so peculiar and shocking."

"Yes, and we see no reason to adore the humans, as you seem to, what with the atrocious things they have done to our fellow elves," Tadatada added.

Pokey studied his feet. "Yes, I suppose it is a bit difficult. Er... I may have overdone it a bit just now."

"That's quite all right," said Tadatada.

"And maybe we have been guilty of taking you for granted," added Pat!k.

"Yes," said Pokey, with another small flash of anger, "You've treated me like a convenience. In point of fact, you've treated me... the way any human treats a bonded house-elf."

"Oh no!" cried Tadatada.

"Surely we haven't been that bad?" Pat!k said in consternation.

"Well..." Pokey rubbed his head, seeming confused. "But they're really not that bad, once you get to know them. Humans. They feed us and care for us--"

"You were stolen from your mother and your tribe!" cried Tadatada.

"Yes, and it was hard, yes, coming to know that I'd never see them again, but... they need us. Humans need us to do their work for them, and it makes us happy to know that we can be helpful in this way."

Pat!k and Tadatada gaped at him. Tadatada cried indignantly, "Because they twisted your mind with a spell!"

"Spell?" Pokey blinked his eyes in befuddlement. "But... everyone wants to feel important, and we know that we house-elves play a vital role in the running of Hogwarts. And if I am important to this mission," he continued indignantly, "then it would be nice to have some sign of that."

"You are important to this mission, Pokey," said Pat!k solemnly. "Not just important--vital."

"We need you, Pokey," Tadatada chimed in. "Please don't go back to Hogwarts."

"Without you, we'll have no way to communicate with the humans," Pat!k pointed out.

"We'd be lost without you," Tadatada concluded.

"Yes," Pokey said. "And the humans would be lost without us, in the same way. They need house-elves."

Tadatada thought that wizards could probably get along fine without house-elves if they had to--in fact, Mrs. Wheezy didn't have one--but she understood that this was something Pokey needed to believe, and bit back a retort with difficulty.

"It wasn't just you two, really," said Pokey. "It was the lack of naps. I warned you before we left that I'm accustomed to several naps a day, and I haven't had one all afternoon!"

"Oh. If it's just a nap you need, you could go take one now," said Tadatada.

Pokey shook his head. "I'm sharing the sitting room with Dobby, and he won't stop talking!" He sighed.

At that moment, the door moved with a small creak, and a large flappy ear and big eye peeked through the gap, some eight inches below the doorknob.

"Pokey," said Dobby. "I was wondering where you'd gone to."

"Oh. Yes," said Pokey. "I was just... explaining to these two why the wizards need house-elves."

"Oh. Right," said Dobby uncertainly.

"Well, don't you think so?"

"Oh... think what?" asked Dobby.

"That the wizards need us."

Dobby thought. "I think they need us at Hogwarts," he said finally. "There's so much to do there, and some things that only house-elves know how to do properly. And Hogwarts is a good, fair place where they even pay wages to a free elf like me. But the families who have house-elves bonded to them... they don't really need elves. No, I don't think so."

Pokey gaped at him.

"And many families who have a house-elf don't deserve to. Some wizard families are evil and abuse their poor house-elves. Like..." He shuddered and his eyes flickered to a lamp sitting on an end table, but he tore them away with an effort, "like the family I had."

"Dobby!" cried Pokey, aghast.

"I used to punish myself every time I said that they were bad, but I've been practicing, and I'm getting better," Dobby announced proudly.

"Pokey?" Tadatada said tentatively. "What's he saying? I mean... would you mind translating, please?"

Pokey swallowed. "He said... that the family that owned him were evil and bad. He spoke ill of his family." Pokey said all of this in a murmur of stunned awe.

There was a knock on the door. Pokey started.

After a moment had passed with no response, Molly's voice floated through the door: "All right if we come in for a moment?"

"Yes of course," Pokey began, but as the door opened he remembered and cried, "But the wood elves aren't wearing anything!"

Molly's head penetrated the crack between the door and the doorway. "I think we're used to that," she said. Her head turned. "What about you three?"

"Makes no difference to me," said Harry's voice.

"Ron, you might want to stay in the hall," said Hermione's voice.

Molly, Harry and Hermione entered the room, while Ron stayed just behind the door. "We'd just like to ask the wood elves a little question," Molly explained. "Well, Patuck, actually."

"Yeah," said Harry. "Does Patuck know where this Hocrux is? Did he see that in his vision?"

Pokey explained to Pat!k what Molly and Harry wanted. Pat!k told Pokey, "I can see the room very clearly. It's a room like this one, only smaller."

"Pat!k says it's in a small bedroom," Pokey reported.

"But does he know whose bedroom it is, and what house it's in?" Harry asked.

"It's the evil wizard's room," Pat!k replied when Pokey translated the question. "He was a child in that room."

"Does he mean," said Hermione in a surprised voice, "that there's a Horcrux in the orphanage?"

"It could be his dorm room at Hogwarts," Ron suggested from behind the door.

"How old was the wizard when he lived in this room?" asked Pokey.

"He was very young," Pat!k replied.

"So it wasn't his room at school?"

"No," said Pat!k. "Though there were still many children living in the same place."

Pokey translated this.

"Definitely the orphanage," said Ron.

"Tell Patuck thank you," said Molly. "We'll get out of your way now." They filed out and the door closed.

Molly pulled the door to and she, Harry, Hermione and Ron walked quietly downstairs and Apparated into an alleyway in London. From there they made their way to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters. They tiptoed through the hall so as not to wake the horrific portrait of Mrs. Black, sleeping in her frame behind the curtain, and entered the double parlour that the Order used as their meeting room.

Kingsley greeted them and said to Molly, "I have a message from Arthur. He's going to be late. It seems someone's created a counterfeit defensive amulet that makes your toenails fall off, so Arthur's trying to round them up."

"Thank you, Kingsley," said Molly. She shook her head and sighed. "He's been home so seldom lately, I'm starting to forget what he looks like."

The bulky form of Hagrid approached. He glowered down at them. "First you drop my Care of Magical Creatures class, then you don't show up at school at all! Very nice!"

They looked uneasily up at him. "Sorry, Hagrid," said Hermione meekly. Ron and Harry echoed her. "Yeah, sorry Hagrid."

Hagrid smiled and wrapped the three of them in a hug that made their joints creak. "It's good to see you all again," he said.

"It's good to see you too, Hagrid." Harry grinned and punched him in the shoulder.

"We've missed you, Hagrid," said Hermione.

"Only we had to skip school this year because--" began Ron.

"I know," said Hagrid. "I'll bet your mum wasn't too thrilled."

"No, she wasn't," said Molly, "and she wasn't all that excited about their induction into the Order either. But what could she do?"

They waited until all the available members had trailed in. Mrs. Figg was absent, being a Squib and unable to Apparate or otherwise make her way magically to headquarters on such short notice. Nymphadora Tonks and Mad-Eye Moody were at St. Mungo's, still too ill to attend. Charlie Weasley, being in Romania, was beyond Apparition range. With Arthur's absence, that left fourteen people seated about the long table that had once belonged to the Blacks.

Professor Minerva McGonagall rapped her knuckles on the table, stilling the conversation, and said, "This meeting will now come to order." Following the death of Albus Dumbledore, the Order had been left bereft of a leader. As the new headmistress at Hogwarts, and given her take-charge, no-nonsense personality, Minerva had been the natural choice to follow in his footsteps.

"We have been called here tonight by Mrs. Molly Weasley. Molly, please explain the reason for this emergency meeting."

Molly told the group about the five elves that had shown up at her door and the story they had told, as well as her misgivings about it.

Minerva smiled. "I believe I've already met these... wild elves." She described their arrival at Hogwarts. Smiles broke out around the table.

"They do seem genuine," said Molly, "even down to their confusion about what is correct behaviour in our society. Still, I felt the Order should discuss this issue before we take any action."

"Quite right," said Minerva. "As you say, these wild elves are unknown to us. Can we trust them? They may have persuaded Dobby and Pokey, two trustworthy elves in the employ of Hogwarts, but does that mean we too should be persuaded?"

"The children and I discussed--" Molly began.

"Mum!" Ron groaned.

Molly sighed again, heavily. "The newest Order members and I discussed the possibility that Dobby and Pokey are under the Imperius curse."

"And the Imperius curse can be difficult to detect," noted Minerva, "especially when the victim lacks the strength to fight it. I am not aware of how elves react to the Imperius curse. They are generally so eager to obey that the issue does not come up. In any case, Molly, I believe what you want to discuss is how the trustworthiness of the elves can be determined?"

"That," agreed Molly, "and if it can't be determined, what shall we do then? Shall we go to Tom Riddle's old orphanage?"

"A question that will obviously have to wait until we have discussed the first: is there a way that we can guarantee the elves' trustworthiness?"

Elphias Doge, a tiny, eldery wizard, wheezed from the depths of his chair, "Obvious, isn't it? Give them Veritaserum."

"Indeed," said Molly. "What a shame that we no longer have a Potions Master working for the Order."

An awkward silence followed. Sturgis Podmore said, "Perhaps, then, there's another way we can procure Veritaserum." He turned to look at the man sitting next to him: Mundungus Fletcher, the Order's resident thief. Mundungus he did not react. His head was on his chin and he seemed to have drifted off.

Sturgis poked him. Mundungus stirred. "Eh? What?" He opened bleary, bloodshot eyes.

Sturgis leaned over and said loudly, "Can you get us Veritaserum?"

"Me? Why... I prob'ly could, for the right price. You can get anything, if you know the right, you know, channels." He nodded proudly.

"So what's being suggested here," noted Molly, looking at Mundungus with ill-concealed distaste, "Is that we use stolen Veritaserum against guests in my house."

"S'what it sounds like to me," Mundungus concurred with a nod of his head.

"Molly, this is a war," said Sturgis severely. "In times of war, unpleasant actions must be taken."

Minerva broke in. "I do believe we're overlooking the obvious here. We don't have a Potions Master in the Order, but a Potions Master is still employed at Hogwarts. While I would not entrust Mr. Slughorn with any sensitive information, if the headmistress of Hogwarts," she laid her hand upon her chest, "approached him and said she needed Veritaserum, for some unspecified purpose, I can't think that he would say no."

"If Veritaserum, stolen or not, could really give us the assurance we are looking for, I'd put aside my misgivings and use it," said Molly. "But as you all know, a powerful wizard can block its effects."

"Powerful wizard?" Bill Weasley chuckled. "Mum, I thought we were talking about house-elves!"

"Excuse me," Hermione said loudly, "but only two of them are house-elves. The other three are free elves."

"Yeah, but--"

"Elves have their own magic, don't forget," Hermione continued.

"Yes, well, cleaning spells, cooking spells, food service..." Sturgis waved a hand dismissively.

"Wizards take elves for granted, don't they?" Hermione ploughed on. "You think of them as a convenience that you can just ignore..."

"Hermione," Ron interrupted, "this is no time to talk about Spew."

"Ron, it's not Spew," Hermione retorted hotly, "it is S.P.E.W., the Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare, and I am not talking about S.P.E.W. My point is that since wizards ignore house-elves and take them for granted, they may not know how magically powerful elves are."

"Hermione's right," said Harry. "Is there anyone here who knows whether elves can block Veritaserum?"

Silence ensued. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Harry said.

"So what we have concluded is that even if we do procure Veritaserum and use it on my guests, we still won't know if the elves are trustworthy or not," Molly pointed out. "After all, this is not a case of trying to get information. We already have the information; we just don't know if it's accurate. And if we give the elves Veritaserum and they stick to their story, we won't know if that's because they're telling the truth or because they've blocked the Veritaserum."

"But if the elves change their story, then we will know they are not trustworthy," Minerva added. "I do think it is a precaution we must take. I don't like it anymore than you do, Molly, but these are the times we live in. That said, if Veritaserum is limited in its effectiveness, are there any other ways that we have of testing the elves' trustworthiness?"

"Hmm... the Ministry of Magic keeps a registry of all house-elves," Kingsley said. "If we could have a look through it, we could see if these alleged free elves are actually bonded to a family. A Death Eater family."

Minerva stroked her chin. "If we found that the elves were bonded to a Death Eater family, that would certainly prove them untrustworthy. But if we didn't find them on the registry, it wouldn't prove that they are trustworthy."

"That's true," conceded Kingsley.

"It's the same thing as the Veritaserum," Molly complained.

"It would be something," said Sturgis.

Ron asked, "How are we going to tell if they're in the registry?"

"There is a photo of every bonded elf--" Kingsley began.

"Yeah but, they all look pretty much alike to me."

"Ron!" cried Hermione.

"Well they do. I can tell the boys from the girls, but that's about it."

"Ron has a point," said Harry.

"Oh, not you too!" cried Hermione.

"I mean," Harry continued, "I can recognize the ones I know well, like Dobby and Winky, but to look through a whole bunch of house-elf pictures... yeah, they do look a lot alike, and I'm not sure I could pick out one that I just met. Honestly, I think I'd have a hard time picking even Dobby out of a queue of house-elves, if he wasn't wearing his socks and hats."

"Perhaps," said Hestia, "What we need is some sort of recognition spell."

"The Hogwarts library is an excellent source of information," noted Dedalus Diggle. "Someone could go there and do some research."

"No," said Harry.

"I beg your pardon?" said Sturgis.

"How long is all that going to take? If the last Horcrux is in that orphanage, I need to get at it as soon as possible."

"I think Harry's right," said Hermione. "Also, how much stalling will the elves put up with? I think that in the end, we're just going to have to trust them."

"I really don't think that's wise," said Sturgis.

"If Dumbledore was here," Hagrid said, gazing into space with a misty look in his eyes, "I bet he would've trusted them."

"Yes, we all know what a trusting soul Dumbledore was," said Sturgis drily, "and look where it got him."

A couple of hissing intakes of breath were heard around the table. "All right," said Minerva, "we need to compromise." She turned towards Molly, Hermione, Harry and Ron, who were seated together. "How much of a delay can you live with? And how much of a delay do you think the elves will tolerate?"

"I don't want to chance more than a day," said Molly.

"One day? Honestly!" said Sturgis irritably.

Harry nodded. "I can live with a day."

Minerva nodded. "This is my suggestion then. I will see if I can procure Veritaserum for you within one day."

"I thought I was going to do that," Mundungus muttered, confused.

"Change of plans, Mundungus. Do try to pay attention. Molly, in this one day, you will also procure a photo of the elves and send it to Kingsley so he can attempt to match it against the registry."

"I don't know what pretext I'll use for that, but I'll try to come up with something," said Molly.

"With no recognition spell," noted Hestia.

"Unless somebody can come up with something by, say, tomorrow noon, I'm afraid Kingsley is going to have to eyeball those pictures," said Minerva.

"How many elves are in that registry?" asked Hestia with a touch of scepticism.

"A couple hundred, perhaps," replied Kingsley. "That's all right, I'll manage."

"And once the elves have passed both tests," said Minerva, "the mission will proceed. That's only reasonable, as we will have done all we can."

"So who's going to go on this mission?" asked Bill Weasley.

"It's going to be me, of course," said Harry stubbornly.

"And me," said Ron.

"And me," said Hermione.

"And they will of course have an older, more experienced member to go with them," added Molly. "Me."

"Right then, we seem to have recruitment taken care of," said Minerva. "Here's the plan. Tomorrow, Molly will photograph the elves and administer Veritaserum to them. She will transmit the photo to Kingsley, who will do the best he can with his present knowledge and house-elf-recognition skills, to determine if the elves are in the registry. If the Veritaserum results in no changes to the elves' story, and if Kingsley cannot find the elves in the registry, Molly and her charges will proceed with the mission at the orphanage. All in favour?"

Twelve people raised their hands.

"All against?"

Sturgis and Hestia raised their hands.

"Twelve to two in favour. Motion carried," Minerva concluded.

Footsteps were heard coming down the hall. The door opened and an orange-haired head poked through. "What did I miss?" asked Arthur Weasley.

"Everything, dear," said Molly with a little laugh. "But I'll explain."

***

After Molly pulled the door to, the four elves glanced awkwardly at each other, then quickly away when their eyes met.

Pokey broke the silence. "I think it's time I went to bed," he said in wood elf, then "Goodnight," in English. With a crack, he Disapparated. Dobby stared, startled, at the place where Pokey had been. He turned to the wood elves and said, "Goodnight then." Realizing they couldn't understand him, he waved. But that, he realized, was a human gesture, and he did not know if wood elves understood it. Finally, he flashed an embarrassed grin and Disapparated himself.

Pokey had drawn the sitting room curtains shut. The only light in the room came from a streetlamp shining through the gaps between the curtains. Dobby could dimly see Pokey bundled up in a blanket on one of the two sofas.

"You're going to sleep then?" he asked.

Pokey rolled slightly and gazed at him with one irate eye. "Dobby, I have been awake steadily since we left Hogwarts. I have been translating almost endlessly the whole time, I have had to run as I haven't run in thirty years to avoid being flattened by a broom... yes I'm going to sleep. I'm exhausted. Do you mind?"

"No but... I don't think I can sleep," Dobby said plaintively. "It's only about half past eight, and I'm so excited. Harry Potter is in this very house right now," he said happily, unaware that Harry was not in the house, but entering Order Headquarters at that very moment. "And we're going to help him fight He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! How can I sleep?"

"Try," Pokey drawled. "For my sake, Dobby. Try."

"Oh... all right." Dobby hopped onto the other sofa, arranged the blankets, and lay still, staring up at the ceiling. He spent the next ten minutes entertaining himself by imagining himself at Harry Potter's side as they faced Death Eaters, he with an elf-sized sword, Harry Potter tall and regal by his side. Harry seemed to glow with an inner fire as he cut down one Death Eater after another with Gryffindor's sword.

After a time, Dobby became uncomfortable from lying still in one position. He shifted his weight and rearranged his blanket as silently as possible. He wanted to avoid disturbing Pokey, who seemed to be in an ill mood. But from the next sofa he heard, softly, "Dobby?"

Pokey's prominent ears were silhouetted against the light filtering through the curtains. "I can't sleep either."

"Oh, good!" Dobby swung himself into a seated position on the sofa. "I mean, now we can talk."

"Yes," said Pokey, pulling himself up and resting his back against the sofa arm. "I guess I do want to... I was thinking." In the dim light, Dobby saw Pokey's eyes flicker towards him, then gaze toward the curtains. "Your former masters... they were very bad, weren't they?"

Dobby squirmed to the end of the sofa that was closest to Pokey and leaned against the sofa arm. He told Pokey about the constant punishments, self-inflicted and otherwise, and about his former master's affiliation to Voldemort.

Pokey nodded. "I thought so. I didn't think you could be so disloyal otherwise. They do sound... quite horrible."

There was a pause, while Dobby contemplated the beatings, the burns, the times he'd shut his ears in the oven door. It seemed as if he were watching the torture of a different elf, a distant Dobby who had once been. "They were," he said simply. "You know," he added, "I never understood why they seemed to take so much satisfaction in... watching pain."

Pokey nodded. "It is a human thing, I think. I don't suppose any elf can understand it."

"And your master?" asked Dobby.

Pokey paused for such a while that Dobby wondered if he hadn't heard, but Pokey spoke just as Dobby was opening his mouth to repeat the question. "Well, he kidnapped me himself, you know. It was the style at the time. The breeding programme hadn't really got underway, and the Ministry of Magic hadn't yet put a stop to poaching in the forest. Well, there you are. He was looking for a young elf; he wanted a servant he could easily mould to his requirements. He took me."

"And? How did he treat you?" Dobby pressed.

"Not like yours did. I seldom had physical punishments. The threat was always there, though."

"And?" Dobby said again. "How did you feel about him?"

Pokey blew out a gust of air. "Oh, you know, how do you ever feel about them? They're there, they're a fact of life. I just... he was... I just..." Pokey stopped, shook his head, and turned to look at Dobby. A shaft of light caught his eyes and made them gleam like headlamps. "I was afraid of him," he said with sudden firmness. "I was terrified. All the time."

"Yes," said Dobby softly, knowingly.

"You know," said Pokey with a nod.

"Yes. Although," added Dobby thoughtfully, "There came a time when I... went beyond fear. It was just... they'd done everything they could. There was nothing left, after a while. Of course, there was always more pain, pain again, but what was that? Every day was already filled with pain." He shrugged. "The threat of pain didn't impress me anymore. I think, if I hadn't lost my fear, I never could have gone to warn Harry Potter of their plans."

"Oh! This is where the floating cake comes in, isn't it?" Pokey slapped the sofa arm. "Do tell!"

Dobby felt his ears burn, and was glad the room was dark. He told Pokey of the lengths he had gone to in his fruitless attempt to keep Harry safely out of Hogwarts."

"Oh, Dobby." Pokey shook his head.

"I was desperate. Desperate to keep Harry Potter safe. There was so little I could do--I couldn't even tell him what to watch out for! I did the only thing I could think of."

Pokey began to chuckle.

"Fine. Laugh. It wasn't funny for me. I knew what my master had planned."

Pokey stopped laughing. "How did you get through it, Dobby? Life with those... people. How did you survive?"

Dobby stared into space. "I don't know. I just did."

"Because you seem to have come through it in better shape than could be expected."

"You only know me now," Dobby pointed out. "I'm just so happy to be free. So happy, I love every minute of my life now. I never expected this. I thought I'd serve my family until I died."

"You know what was the worst part?" Pokey said suddenly. "The loneliness."

"Oh, if you're talking about that... I had imaginary friends," Dobby admitted. "That's one way I survived."

"I did too. How could you not? One elf per house." He shook his head. "I nearly went mad that first year. To go from a tribe of twenty-odd elves to me in a musty old house with one bad-tempered old human..."

"It must have been terrible," murmured Dobby. "At least I never had a tribe. I couldn't miss what I didn't have."

"Oh, don't kid yourself, Dobby, you were worse off," said Pokey. "At least I had been happy for a time. I had that. I had my memories. He never took my memories away."

"No, I don't think he'd have any reason to," mused Dobby. "So how did you get to Hogwarts?"

"My master died and left no heirs. Oh, there was a family looking to buy the house, and I would have come with the house, but they had Muggle relations. You know how much pull the pures still have at the Ministry of Magic. The Ministry decreed that I was to be bonded to Hogwarts. It was good for me. I finally had other elves for company." He yawned.

"Mmm... have the Hogwarts elves accepted you yet?" asked Dobby wryly.

Pokey burst into laughter. "Yes, it's been fifty years, so I think they've come around. Give them time, Dobby. They'll warm to you."

"Even though I'm a free elf?"

Pokey thought about that. "I suppose that could be a sticking point. Still... I think they will. You're a Hogwarts elf now." He yawned again, wider and longer. "Dobby, I'm glad we had this talk, but I've got to get some sleep. I'm so tired."

"Do you think you'll be able to sleep now?" asked Dobby.

"Oh yes. I think I needed that talk. I had to get some things off my chest, hear some things from you. Anyway. Yes, I think I can sleep now."

"Good night then," said Dobby.

"Good night." Pokey hunkered back down into his blanket. A moment later, Dobby softly said, "Pokey?"

"Mmm?"

"The wood elves are right, aren't they? Humans have a lot to answer for."

Pokey hesitated a moment. "Yes," he said. "I suppose they do."

The next morning, Dobby fried up a breakfast of eggs, potatoes, tomatoes and mushrooms for everyone except the wood elves, who went out to the garden to forage.

"What is it that they eat?" Molly asked Pokey.

"I believe it's berries and garden slugs," replied Pokey in between bites of egg on toast.

"Oh my," said Molly. "How... interesting."

"Well no wonder," said Ron. "Who wouldn't turn down a fry-up for a few juicy slugs?" Hermione shot him a plaintive look, but didn't say anything.

"You should know, Ron," cracked Harry. "Better than anybody."

"Hey mate," Ron returned, "in my case, they were going the other way."

They had finished their breakfasts and cleared the table before the elves returned. Pat!k approached Pokey. "We need to go get that horrcr!k," he said. "Have they said anything about that?"

"Er," began Pokey, turning towards Pat!k. He let out a yelp. "Where's your jumper?" he cried in English, then caught himself and repeated the question in wood-elf. Pat!k was naked.

"Oops." Pat!k glanced down at himself. "We left them in the garden." He snapped his fingers. A maroon pile appeared on the floor, studded with small twigs and bits of grass.

"You take them off while you're outside?" cried Pokey.

"Of course we do," Pat!k replied as he tied his jumper back on toga-style. "We're only wearing them for the humans' benefit, and they really get in the way."

"I hope the neighbours can't see," remarked Pokey.

"I don't see what difference it makes," said Tadatada as she tied her sleeves together. "The garden's already full of gnomes and they're as naked as we are."

"Yes, it's hardly fair," said Pat!k.

"The gnomes aren't invited into the house, are they?" Pokey retorted. He approached Molly, who was standing by the sink. She flicked her wand and a sponge jumped into the soapy water, then onto the first dish, where it began scrubbing. "Pat!k wants to know when we're going to find the Horcrux," Pokey told Molly.

"Oh, right," she said. "We'd better discuss that. Hermione, I believe you tracked down Tom's orphanage?"

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley," replied Hermione. "During the summer, I spent a lot of time doing research on Tom Riddle. I found the orphanage, the Riddle house, the Gaunt house..."

"So you know where it is?"

"Yes I do."

"Is it still an orphanage? It hasn't been knocked down or turned into something else after all this time?"

"It's still an orphanage, yes."

"Well, I suppose we'd better go there, then," said Molly. "But not today."

"Not today?" cried Pat!k when Pokey translated this. "Do they understand the importance of this?"

"Look," Molly said, "We'll have to let the Muggles know before we go marching into their orphanage, won't we?"

"Dumbledore had an appointment when he went," Harry noted. "With Mrs. Cole, the lady who ran the orphanage."

"She certainly won't be there anymore," said Molly. "Being a Muggle, she'll have passed on. We'll have to get in touch with whoever is in charge there now."

"Will that mean using a felly-tone?" asked Ron.

"Telephone," corrected Hermione. "I can do that. I can make the arrangements. But what will I say?"

"That's another matter," said Molly. "We'll need to come up with a story."

"Something that will make sense to the Muggles," added Harry. "Like, I dunno, we're Tom's children..."

"Eww..." Hermione made a face.

"Well, we can't just tell them, excuse me, we think this room contains a piece of Tom's soul!" Harry responded.

"Exactly," said Molly. "We'll need to invent a plausible reason, and we'll need to make arrangements. All that takes time. So, we'll plan to go tomorrow, if the new head of the orphanage can see us then."

***

That evening, a group of disgruntled elves sat around the coffee table and gazed at the Horcrux remains.

"Completely wasted day," muttered Pat!k. "Completely."

"I wouldn't say that," Pokey returned cautiously. "They say that they have their story all straight now, and the appointment is ready for tomorrow. So something has been accomplished."

"Something," grunted Tadatada and kicked a table leg, making the Horcrux remains shiver. "But we spent most of the day sitting around, waiting and waiting."

"Or doing useless things," noted Pat!k irritably. "That thing in the afternoon, what was it called? Tee?"

"That's right, tea," said Pokey. "It's a tradition, you see. At a certain time in the afternoon, you have tea."

"A tradition. Like making copies of your guests," mused Tadatada.

"That... er, yes." Pokey looked away awkwardly. He had never heard of that tradition and felt uncomfortably sure that Molly had made it up. She wanted their photographs for some reason of her own, though what it was he did not know.

"I think she was lying," said Pat!k firmly. "That look she had. The shifting eye. Her eyes didn't shift at any other time."

"I noticed that too," Tadatada said. "But it must be a tradition if Pokey says it's a tradition."

Pokey sat silent. A house-elf keeps his family's secrets, he thought. The Wheezys were not his family, but he liked them and he thought Molly was a good woman. He would keep her secret, like a good house-elf, however much it pained him to violate the trust of these two.

Pat!k cast a deeply suspicious look at Pokey. "Yes, I would hardly expect her to lie, when our honesty is so important to her that she would feed us a potion to ensure it." His voice oozed with irony.

Pokey wanted to sink into the floor. He'd thought he'd experienced the ultimate in social awkwardness when Pat!k and Tadatada had refused to eat the human food, but that tea had far exceeded it.

Molly had explained the significance of tea, and they'd all sat at the kitchen table. This surprised Pokey a little, as he thought tea would be served in the sitting room. But then, he supposed, Molly must not have wanted to disturb the ex-Horcruxes on the coffee table.

Molly poured out the tea, and Ron passed the steaming hot cups around. "Careful," said Pokey hastily as Ron set the cups in front of Tadatada and Pat!k. "It's hot. You have to blow on it. Like this." He demonstrated with his own cup.

The wood elves simply stared into their cups doubtfully. "This ceremony hardly looks safe," Pat!k remarked.

"If they don't want to drink it, that's fine," Molly said hastily. "We can get them something else that's more to their taste."

"I think they're worried about burning themselves," Pokey explained.

"Oh, yes, I suppose it would take a bit of getting used to. What about juice?" she asked. "Ask them if they would prefer juice."

"Oh yes!" Tadatada perked up happily when asked. "A globe of yew juice would be lovely."

"Yew... juice?" Molly responded hesitantly when Pokey had reluctantly translated the request. "I'm... afraid we haven't got that on hand. We do have orange juice."

"They don't have yew juice," Pokey reported, "but they have a juice from another fruit. It's orange."

"Orange," repeated Tadatada doubtfully. "Orange juice."

"It's very good," Pokey wheedled.

"Let's give it a try, then," Pat!k said. "It won't be served hot, will it?"

"No, it will be cold. You needn't worry," said Pokey.

Molly placed two glasses of orange juice in front of Pat!k and Tadatada, while Dobby provided a tiny glass for Ch!kch!k.

When the glasses were halfway drained, Molly began asking peculiarly repetitive questions, like, "So you live in the middle of the forest, do you? Next to Hogwarts school of wizardry?"

The wood elves affirmed that they did. Molly asked Pat!k about certain elements of his vision, and Pat!k responded as expected. At that moment, Tadatada abruptly turned to Pokey and said fiercely, "Tell this woman that we have been honest with her from the start, and there was no need to put a truth-forcing potion into our drinks."

Pokey felt the blood drain from his face. "Surely not," he said. Pat!k, too, looked startled.

"I can feel it. I have a great deal of magical sensitivity. Go on, tell her!"

Pokey turned slowly to Molly. He considered saying something completely unrelated--the wood elves would never know the difference--but he found that he, too, wanted to know. "Mistress Wheezy," he said slowly, "Did you by any chance put Veritaserum in the wood elves' orange juice? Purely by accident, I'm sure," he hastily added, unable to stop his politeness reflex.

Molly went pink. "I'm... I'm very sorry," she stammered. "We had to be sure." She leapt to her feet, pulled out her wand and sent glasses of juice and half-full cups of tea soaring to the sink (ignoring Ron's protests of "Hey, I was still drinking that!"). "These are difficult times, you know, as if it's ever not difficult, really, in wizarding society." She was speaking very fast. "Death Eaters, Unforgivable Curses--so difficult to know who to trust." ("Mum!" cried Ron as plates of half-eaten little sandwiches and cakes leapt into the air and followed the cups.) "It's not that we didn't want to trust them, but it would have been foolish to do so without any proof, and I really, really do regret that we had to take such measures. Give Patuck and Tada my sincere apologies. Right, tea's over. Please excuse me." And she dashed out of the kitchen.

"Poor Mrs. Weasley," murmured Hermione sadly.

And that was tea.

"Yes, and it was important, wasn't it?" Pokey responded testily to Pat!k's comment. "She explained exactly why, and it was perfectly understandable. So can we have no further word on that?"

There were a few moments of silence. Tadatada stood up. "I'm going to our room," she said, and walked to the stairs.

A moment later, Pat!k leapt up. He gave Pokey a long look of regret. "Goodnight, Pokey," he said. For a moment, Pokey thought he was going to say something else, but then Pat!k abruptly turned away and followed his mate up the stairs.

Once they were gone, Pokey turned to Dobby and said, "You are uncharacteristically quiet. You didn't even ask me to translate."

Dobby smiled sadly. "What does it matter? I'm just glad this day is over, and I'm sure tomorrow will be much better."

Later that evening, Molly received a brief visit from Kingsley, who informed her that though he'd found Pokey and Dobby in the registry, as expected, he could not find any elves who looked quite like Patuck and Tada. He looked exhausted, his eyes red and squinty from two hours of peering at photos of house-elves.

"Thank you, Kingsley," Molly said, and rubbed her forehead.

"You look tired, Molly," said Kingsley.

Molly laughed. "I look tired? You should see yourself." She sighed. "I have a throbbing headache. I hated having to do that. Oh Kingsley, it was worse than I expected. Thank Merlin it's over. Tomorrow we'll go ahead with the mission."

Molly, Harry, Hermione and Ron, all dressed up in Muggle clothing, got off at Vauxhall underground station. Hermione led the way, gripping a slip of paper and glancing at it frequently as she wound her way through the crowded streets of London. The other three trailed after her, Ron fidgeting frequently and plucking at the straps of a lumpy rucksack he wore on his back. Every now and then, the lumps in the rucksack would shift around and reappear in new places, drawing surprised glances from other pedestrians.

They stopped in front of an old, rambling building surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. Hermione glanced from the address numbers mounted on the gate to the paper in her hand and nodded. "This is it."

They walked up the path. Hermione rang the bell. After a brief wait, a curly-haired woman answered the door. "Hello," she sang out cheerfully. "Can I help you?"

Hermione said, "Hello, I called yesterday--"

"Oh yes," the woman responded, "you're the one who called on behalf of your mother?"

"That would be me," said Molly, reaching out her hand. The two women shook hands. "Good afternoon," said Molly, "I'm Molly Weasley and these are my three children."

"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Sarah Rather. Do come in."

As they filed into the main hallway, Sarah turned to Hermione and said, "Yes, I can see the mother-daughter resemblance."

"You can?" Hermione responded in surprise.

"Oh yes, everybody remarks on it," Molly said airily, "but you know teenagers, it's the last thing she wants to hear."

The two women shared a chuckle and a shake of heads over the ways of teenagers while Ron positioned himself with his back to the wall so that Sarah wouldn't see his rucksack go into a sudden convulsion, which he covered up with another flurry of strap-adjusting. Molly spared a moment for a quick, meaningful look at Hermione, who mouthed, "Sorry," back at her.

"Well then," said Sarah, "I believe you want to see Tom Riddle's old room?"

"That's right," said Molly.

"Any particular reason why?" Sarah asked curiously.

Molly shrugged. "Sentimentality I suppose. I'd like to get some idea of how my father lived, growing up. The children too. We're also hoping he might have left something behind, something personal. Perhaps that's a bit of a foolish hope after all these years, but..."

"I see," said Sarah thoughtfully. "Well, you're in luck, in a sense. Tom's room's been empty ever since he left the orphanage in 1944. You probably have a better chance finding something in that room than in any other."

There was a pause. Ron's rucksack rustled gently. "Since 1944? Really?" murmured Molly.

"Oh yes. Not that we couldn't have used the space. Some of the children have to share bedrooms. But no child could stand to stay in that room. I was sceptical of the stories when I first arrived, and I tried to move children in, but... they were so frightened of it." Her brows knitted. "Especially of the wardrobe. I don't know how many times I showed them it was empty. It didn't matter," Sarah concluded distantly as Molly glanced nervously at Ron's rucksack. "Most peculiar."

"Indeed," said Molly. "May we see the room then?"

"Oh. Yes, of course. This way please." Sarah started down a hall. They followed her up a flight of stairs. "I can give you a tour of the facilities if you'd like," she offered.

"That's very kind of you," Molly responded hurriedly. "Perhaps afterwards."

"Oh. All right then." Sarah opened a door, and they peered in. It was just as Harry remembered from one of his Pensieve dives: the narrow bed, the wardrobe against the wall, the otherwise bareness of the room. Nothing had changed. The back of his neck prickled.

They filed into the room. Molly looked back at Sarah, waiting at the door. "Do you mind if we have some time alone in the room?"

"Alone? I don't see why that's necessary," said Sarah crossly. Ron's rucksack chose that moment to burst into a flurry of agonized activity that made Ron's shoulders quiver. Sarah's eyes moved to him. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"N--No," exclaimed Ron, turning red under his freckles. "It's just... a muscle spasm." Hermione was hunched over near the wall, fiddling with something.

Sarah's eyes narrowed suspiciously. She turned to Molly. "I should have asked before," she said. "I realize you go by your married name, but... I wonder if you have any older identification, showing that you are the daughter of Tom Riddle? I hate to have to ask, but..."

Hermione straightened up and approached Sarah, extending her slip of paper towards Sarah. It had carried an address; now it was perfectly blank. "Here," she said. "This should make everything clear."

Sarah stared at her, took hold of the paper and looked at it. Her shoulders relaxed, her eyelids drooped and a dreamy smile played on her lips. "Oh yes, so it does." She handed the paper back to Hermione. "Thank you, dear. Just come by my office when you're done. It's the door at the far end of the hall." With that, she wandered off.

Hermione closed the door. Immediately, Ron croaked, "Thank Merlin you got rid of her!" and thrashed out of his rucksack like an eel. Molly cast an Imperturbable charm on the door while Ron knelt, undid the buckle on the rucksack and flipped it open. Dobby crawled out.

"Ahhh..." sighed Dobby with relief, stretching out his arms, followed by each leg in turn.

"Bloody hell, Dobby, did you have to kick me so much?" Ron complained.

Dobby looked contrite. "Dobby didn't mean to. Dobby sat still as long as possible but he had to move sometimes to bring feeling back into his legs."

"I'm sure it was very uncomfortable," Hermione said sympathetically. "You can't blame him, Ron."

"Yeah well, if you think it's fun to carry a house-elf around on your back, you should try it," Ron retorted. Dobby, meanwhile, was turning in slow circles, his big round eyes taking in every detail of the stark white room.

"Fortunately, we won't have to do it again," Hermione pointed out. "Dobby, are you ready? Have you seen enough to Apparate back?"

"Dobby is ready," Dobby assured them with a nod. "Dobby will return with the others." He Disapparated with a crack.

Four soft pops heralded the return of Dobby and the arrival of the other elves. Pat!k took a quick look around and headed straight for the wardrobe. He patted the aged, discoloured wood with his small hand. "Behind here. The horrcr!k is behind this."

Upon Pokey's translation, Ron approached the wardrobe, saying, "We'll have to move it then." The wardrobe looked rickety, but when Ron placed his palms on one side of it and pushed, it didn't even rock. Ron strained against the wardrobe until his feet were sliding backward, but it didn't budge.

"I didn't think it would be that easy," Harry commented.

"It felt as if it moved a bit," Ron said. He was slightly pink from the effort.

"No, Ron," said Hermione, restrained laughter in her voice, "your feet slid backwards."

"Oh." Ron turned pinker. He straightened up and looked at the wardrobe, then back at the group. "It didn't move at all?" he cried, distressed.

"You might as well try to push an oak tree," Molly commented. Her eyes didn't move from the wardrobe.

Hermione played with her hair and eyed the wardrobe thoughtfully. "A spell, then," she stated.

"Well, yeah," said Harry, "but which one?"

Hermione looked at Pokey. "Does Patuck have any idea?" she asked.

"Pat!k says no," Pokey replied.

Molly said, "Patuck had that vision. In it, did he see anything of how we would retrieve the Horcrux?"

"Pat!k says no," Pokey said again. "He saw the horrcr!k, ah, the Horcrux, and he had a feeling that his daughter would be needed to retrieve it. But no, he had no vision of the process."

There was a disappointed pause. "Bugger," said Ron.

"What about... what about his daughter? Does he know how she'll be needed?"

Again the answer was no. Molly flashed Pat!k an irritated look.

"Oh well," said Hermione, drawing out her wand, "we may as well experiment."

"Be careful, dear," murmured Molly.

Hermione pointed her wand at the wardrobe. "Wingardium leviosa," she said. The wardrobe didn't stir.

"All right, that's not it," Hermione remarked.

Ron strode in front of the wardrobe and pulled out his wand. "Accio wardrobe."

Nothing.

"I'm glad that didn't work," said Hermione acerbically. "I didn't really want to see you get flattened by a flying wardrobe."

"I can dodge!" responded Ron indignantly.

"Would think you'd have learned your lesson from 'accio brain,'" she muttered.

"I didn't hear that," said Ron.

Several spells and a continually motionless wardrobe later, the four of them sat on Tom Riddle's old bed, thinking. Harry had his head lowered and both hands shoved into his disarrayed hair. Hermione leaned her chin on one hand and tapped her lip with the butt of her wand. Ron leaned back on the footboard with his arms crossed. Molly just stared at the wardrobe fixedly. Ch!kch!k began to fuss.

"We're going about this the wrong way," said Hermione. "We need to think like Tom. What would he use?" The three of them slowly turned their heads toward her.

"You know," said Harry, "I was wondering why Tom would have put a Horcrux here in the first place. It's a Muggle building. I wouldn't have thought he considered it worthy of one of his Horcruxes."

"But he grew up here," Hermione noted.

"Yes, but he wasn't happy here, was he?" Harry retorted. "He was only happy to leave, to go to Hogwarts--" he stopped, staring past Hermione to the white wall behind.

"What?" said Hermione.

"What?" said Ron.

"That was his one happy memory here," said Harry thoughtfully. "When Dumbledore came to tell him he had a place at Hogwarts. And when Tom wanted proof that Dumbledore really was a wizard, Dumbledore cast a spell that set the wardrobe on fire, but without damaging it."

"So," said Molly softly, "perhaps we need the spell that Dumbledore used to create the illusion of fire."

"Yeah!" said Harry, smiling hopefully. His smile faded. "But what was it?"

"Do you remember if Dumbledore said anything when he cast it?" asked Molly.

"I think it was a non-verbal," Harry replied.

"It's not one I'm familiar with," said Molly.

"But would Tom have known either?" mused Hermione.

"Well, not at the time, obviously," Ron broke in, "but he became a very powerful wizard, so I bet he knew by the time he planted the Horcrux."

"Hmm," said Hermione. "But it wasn't dark magic. It wasn't the sort of thing he was interested in, really. Tom liked to do damage. This spell left the wardrobe undamaged."

"He didn't only learn dark magic, Hermione," said Harry. "I mean, he went to Hogwarts, he would have studied everything we studied--"

"We didn't learn how to make a fire that doesn't consume," Hermione pointed out.

"But obviously, he didn't limit himself to the Hogwarts curriculum, he learned all sorts."

"Still," said Hermione, "I wonder if we don't just need a simple Incendio." She stood up.

"Wait just a moment," cried Molly, leaping to her feet. "Let's not burn ourselves up here."

"I can put the fire out again if it gets out of hand," said Hermione calmly.

"Just in case," said Molly, pointing her wand at the wardrobe, "I'm going to be ready to perform the counter-spell."

"Fine," said Hermione, raising her wand. "Incendio."

The wardrobe went up in flames like a torch. Molly let out a little shriek, and almost said the counter-spell, but the flames were not spreading. The wardrobe disintegrated in seconds, leaving nothing behind, not even ashes. Then flames burst out in a new spot, a few feet to the right. They roared almost to the ceiling, then died away, leaving an identical, undamaged wardrobe in their place.

"Oh! That was odd," said Harry. He gazed in disquiet from the brilliantly white rectangle where the wardrobe had been (making the rest of the wall look yellowed and dingy by comparison) to the wardrobe itself, standing a few feet away. "That was really odd," he repeated.

"Why?" asked Hermione. "It worked. It's like you said, he chose something connected to his one happy memory of this room."

"Yeah, but... it was like a phoenix. That wardrobe acted kind of like a phoenix, being reborn." Harry remembered the time he had seen Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix, burst into flames and then be reborn from its ashes. He shook his head.

"Let's not concern ourselves with that now," said Molly, standing up. "Hermione," she patted her on the shoulder, "that was really well done."

Hermione smiled. "Thanks, Mrs. Weasley."

They all turned and looked at the bright white rectangle.

Pat!k looked confused. "It should be there," he said.

Tadatada slowly approached the rectangle. She reached out her right hand. Her fingers brushed the painted surface. "There is something there," she murmured. "I feel it." All watched as she trailed her fingers back and forth across the wall. They drew lower, and the size of her sweeps decreased until she was right in the centre of the rectangle, close to the floor. "Yes. Here." She traced her index finger in a slow, inverted U from the spot where the wall met the floor, to a height of two or three inches, then down to the floor again. When she took her hand away, a thin inverted U of silver gleamed on the wall.

The others edged closer. "That's a very small door," said Harry.

Molly looked at him. "That's a door?"

"I think so. The same sort of thing happened in the cave. Dumbledore made the door appear on the stone, just like Tada just did."

"But what could fit through a door that small?" Molly wondered.

"How about a rat?" said Ron darkly.

"Wormtail," Harry and Hermione said simultaneously.

"All right," said Molly. "How do we open the door?"

"Well, in the cave, Dumbledore used his blood," Harry said softly. "I offered to use mine, but he said mine was too valuable."

"I suppose it will have to be mine," said Molly briskly. She pulled out her wand and, wincing, made a small nick in the side of her index finger. She rubbed her hand on the wall, leaving a small red smear inside the silver line. The wall bounded within the silver line, vanished, leaving a hole.

"Yep," said Ron. "Looks like a rat hole."

Ch!kch!k crawled forward and tried to reach inside the hole, but Tadatada seized her hand and held it back.

"Well, it's open. How do we proceed?" asked Molly.

"May as well try an Accio," said Harry, standing up. "It probably won't work, but... it might show us what the defence is." He raised his wand.

"Accio Horcrux."

Something silvery flashed into view, bounced off an invisible barrier, and rolled back into the darkness.

Ch!kch!k squealed at the sight, and reached out her other arm. Tadatada grabbed it with her free hand, then bundled the child into her arms and backed her away from the rat hole. Ch!kch!k began to whine. Pat!k watched the two of them with an unreadable expression.

"It could be worse," remarked Hermione.

"Why? What did you have in mind?" asked Ron.

"Well... I had this picture in my head of a chopper coming down and cutting off the hand of whoever reached inside," Hermione explained, "but it looks like it's just a magical barrier."

"Like the one around the basin in the cave," Harry said.

"Yes."

Ch!kch!k let out a piercing scream of fury. Everyone in the room winced. Pat!k's eyes moved from the shrieking child to Tadatada. His gaze was penetrating. Tadatada averted her eyes and held Ch!kch!k tighter.

"You'd need a pretty small hand to fit in there, wouldn't you?" said Ron. "Hey! I just had a thought." He stuck a finger in one ear to dampen Ch!kch!k's cries and leaned towards Hermione and Harry.

"What if you have to have a rat to get the Horcrux? I mean, think about it. You-Know-Who must have had Wormtail put it in there in the first place, so maybe he was planning on using Wormtail to get it back out again."

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so," he said. "Voldemort wouldn't want to make himself dependent on Wormtail."

"But how then?" argued Ron. "His own hand wouldn't fit in there."

"House-elves have small hands," noted Hermione.

"You think You-Know-Who was going to bring a house-elf here?" asked Ron.

"Maybe."

"What is wrong with that child?" cried Molly, clasping her hands in distress. Tears rolled down Ch!kch!k's face as her arms flailed in the direction of the rat hole.

"You are going to have to let her go," said Pat!k.

"Are you crazy?" cried Tadatada. "Let my daughter put her hand in a mad wizard's hole?"

"I told you at the beginning that Ch!kch!k would have a vital role to play." Pat!k rose his voice over Ch!kch!k's screams. "That time has come. She knows it. Look at her."

"I thought you cared about my child," Tadatada cried accusingly, "but obviously you do not!"

"Oh dear," said Pokey.

"Of course I do," Pat!k responded angrily. "She's my child too!"

"What are they saying?" asked Ron.

"Pat!k is saying that Tadatada must let Ch!kch!k go, and Tadatada is saying he doesn't care about the child's welfare," Pokey summarized.

"After all," Tadatada continued, "you didn't do anything when that horrible woman was going to hit her with a stick."

"Tireelah's eyes!" Pat!k swore. "Have you been saving that one up all this time?"

"You swore to protect my child, but your vows are nothing but ash in the wind, are they not?"

"That is not true," Pat!k protested. "I read in the woman's eyes that she would not do it. She was just making a show, to scare us off."

"Oh, you read, you read," Tadatada echoed mockingly. "You read nothing!"

"She was a mother too," Pat!k reminded her. "She would never kill another mother's child."

"If you cared about your daughter," declared Tadatada, "you would do this in her place."

"I told you, only she can do it. I cannot..."

"Try!" screamed Tadatada, stamping her foot. "Try!"

Pat!k looked darkly at her, but knelt and aimed his hand at the rat hole. Ch!kch!k stopped crying and watched, her face tear-streaked, her lower lip quivering. All the humans and house-elves likewise fell silent and watched as Pat!k's hand repeatedly bounced off the invisible barrier at the mouth of the rat hole.

"You are not really trying," Tadatada snapped. She stalked up to the hole, holding Ch!kch!k away with the other arm. Her fingers, too, repeatedly bounced away as she tried to thrust her hand into the hole.

"It's not letting me in," she said.

"It will let Ch!kch!k in," said Pat!k.

"I will not let Ch!kch!k in," declared Tadatada, standing up and pulling Ch!kch!k back. The child promptly began to cry again.

"Children!" cried Hermione. "Not rats, not house-elves... children!"

Harry and Ron turned to her. "What?" they said simultaneously.

"I have told you the consequences if we do not fulfil this mission," said Pat!k. "I will not tell you again. You must let her go."

"Well, he's always used children, hasn't he?" said Hermione. "When he was young, he tormented the other children in the orphanage. He used them to feel powerful. Then through the diary, he used Ginny to open the Chamber of Secrets."

"I am her mother. I will not let her go," declared Tadatada loudly."

"So," continued Hermione, "why not use a child to get a Horcrux?"

"Such is motherhood," said Pat!k, his voice trembling. "First it brings forth life, then, it sits on that life until it has smothered it."

"How... DARE you!" cried Tadatada.

Pokey had stopped translating. "What did he say?" asked Molly, hearing the rage in Tadatada's voice.

"He said... nothing flattering," replied Pokey cagily.

"Well, it's an orphanage, after all. He'd have his pick of children," Hermione pointed out.

"But he couldn't know that the orphanage would still be an orphanage fifty years later," said Ron.

"I don't think it would matter," said Harry. "He could just grab some Muggle kid off the street."

"It is true," said Pat!k. "All too true. It is why children need fathers--to free them from the mother's choke-hold."

Anger loosened Tadatada's grip. Ch!kch!k felt this, wrenched her hand free, and darted forward. Tadatada snatched for her and missed. Ch!kch!k's hand slid into the hole.

To Tadatada, time seemed to slow as Ch!kch!k pulled a gleaming object from the dark depths of the hole. As toddlers tend to do, Ch!kch!k opened her mouth and aimed the object towards it. Tadatada reached for her, but Pat!k had been standing nearer to the hole, and he reached her first. He plucked the object from Ch!kch!k's hand and inserted it into his own mouth.

Gasps sounded throughout the room. Silence followed as everyone took in the sight of Pat!k with his mouth covered by a silver disk, which bore the image of a lion.

Ron broke the silence. "Blimey," he breathed. "The last Horcrux is... Gryffindor's pacifier?"

There was a pause as they all stared at Pat!k with the pacifier in his mouth.

"Looks like it," muttered Harry.

Pat!k began to choke. "Oh no," murmured Hermione.

"What do we do now?" asked Ron, as Pat!k doubled over. His hands scrabbled at the pacifier.

It was clear that Pat!k was unable to get the pacifier out of his mouth. "We have to get it out," said Hermione, moving forward. Molly seized her by the arm. "No!" she cried. "Don't touch it!"

Ch!kch!k was starting to cry again. Tadatada took hold of the pacifier ring and pulled. Nothing happened. Then she let go with a scream of pain. Pat!k reeled backward, hit the wall and slid to the floor with his legs in front of him. The ring was now glowing white hot.

"OK, OK," said Harry, yanking his wand out of his pocket. "We need a spell then. Er..." He pointed his wand at the pacifier. The silver circle fell from Pat!k's mouth and hit the floor with a clang. Pat!k slumped back against the wall and let out an audible sigh of relief.

Hermione stared openmouthed at Harry. "That... that was really good," she said. "Which spell did you use? Was it a non-verbal?"

Harry shook his head. "N-No," he said, flustered. "I didn't do anything. I was still trying to think of something."

Dobby walked up to the pacifier and picked it up. "It's cool now," he announced. He turned it over, and they saw that the rubber nipple was gone. All that was left of it was a rubbery ring with tooth marks in it.

Pat!k turned to Pokey and spoke. "He bit it in half and swallowed the part that was in his mouth," Pokey explained. "He said it was the only way he could think of to make the voice stop."

"Does this mean," said Hermione in a hushed voice of mingled horror and awe, "that Patuck now has a piece of Voldemort's soul in his stomach?"

Everyone turned and looked down at Pat!k's belly. Even Pat!k looked down at it.

"How do you feel?" Pokey asked him.

"Much better, thank you," Pat!k replied.

"Maybe Horcruxes can be destroyed by stomach acid?" Ron suggested.

They left the room shortly afterwards. Molly opined that they should leave the room as they had found it (minus the Horcrux of course), so Ron again put his shoulder to the wardrobe, and had no trouble sliding it back in place in front of the rat hole. No trace of magic was detectable now. It was just a bare and shabby room in an orphanage.

The elves Apparated themselves back to the Burrow while the humans went in search of Sarah Rather.

"Did you find what you were looking for then?" asked Sarah as she showed them the door.

"Yes, we did," said Molly.

"Oh?" Sarah looked at her expectantly.

"Thank you very much for your help," said Molly firmly as she walked out the door.

Harry turned back. "Why don't you put somebody in that room?" he asked Sarah.

Sarah's forehead creased. "Yes, why don't we? Some of the children are sharing rooms. I don't know why that one's been left empty." She passed a hand over her forehead.

"It's all right," said Harry. "You won't have a problem with that room anymore."

"No, I don't see why we should. Why should we have a problem?" She looked in puzzlement at Harry. He shrugged and smiled.

"What an odd lot you are," Sarah murmured. "Right then, I'll move Linda there. She'll be so pleased, she and Cindy don't get along... goodbye then." She closed the door.

Harry placed the ruined Gryffindor pacifier on the battered coffee table with its brothers. "I feel as if there should be some sort of ceremony for this," he remarked.

Molly cradled Tadatada's hand in hers and smoothed ointment onto the bright red burn that the Horcrux had left on her palm. "Is she certain she won't go to St. Mungo's?" Molly asked Pokey.

"She's not taking me to one of those human places," snapped Tadatada.

"Tadatada says thank you for the offer, but she will be fine," Pokey creatively translated.

Molly looked hard at him, then smiled. "You've missed your calling I'm afraid, Pokey," she said. "You really should be a diplomat."

"If the Ministry of Magic should offer a paid position, I might be persuaded to come out of retirement," said Pokey gravely. Ron stared at him. Dobby grinned.

"You know what bothers me?" said Harry. "It seems too easy." Ron raised his eyebrows at him. "No, really. What did we have to do there?"

"We didn't do much, because the elves did most of it," Hermione pointed out. "And while we're on the subject--Pokey, please tell Patuck and Tada how grateful we are for their help."

"Yeah, we really are." Harry nodded.

"With pleasure." Pokey beamed, then turned to Pat!k and Tadatada. A conversation began between them as Harry returned to the subject of the Horcrux.

"Hermione, even so," Harry ploughed on over the high-pitched talk, "swallowing the Horcrux--Voldemort didn't see that coming? He takes something that is made for putting in little kid's mouths, and makes it into a Horcrux, and he didn't anticipate that anybody would bite it in half and swallow it?"

"There's something that Voldemort didn't anticipate, I think," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Patuck heard a voice when the Horcrux was in his mouth."

"Yeah..."

"Well... Voldemort is good at seducing people. He seduced two people through his diary. But one thing he didn't foresee, I think, is the possibility that whoever tried to steal his Horcrux wouldn't understand English."

Harry blinked.

"The words wouldn't have any effect on Patuck, you see, because he didn't understand them," Hermione concluded.

"Excuse me," said Pokey.

"I wonder what he said?" Ron mused. "I guess we'll never know..."

"Excuse me!" Pokey repeated more loudly. They all turned to him. He cleared his throat importantly. "The wood elves accept your thanks, and in return for their services in helping to save the world, they request a small favour."

Molly's eyes narrowed.

"They want the Ministry of Magic to abolish slavery."

Ron gasped. Hermione smiled. Molly looked relieved. "That seems entirely reasonable," she responded.

"Reasonable? Reasonable?" Ron's squeak was almost as high-pitched as an elf's. "But we can't... they're house-elves... they don't want to..."

"Oh Ron, honestly." Hermione rolled her eyes. "You don't get it, this is progress, sooner or later the Ministry will have to do it."

"No, you don't get it Hermione, and neither do these freaky nudist elves, because they've lived in the forest their whole lives and they don't know that house-elves want to work--"

"I beg your pardon," said Pokey indignantly. "I don't believe anybody said anything about house-elves not working."

Ron stared at him.

"I said, 'abolish slavery.' House-elves certainly can, and certainly will, continue to work."

"Yes, of course," said Hermione. "They'll simply get wages, and holidays and weekends off, like everyone else." She smiled in a self-satisfied sort of way.

"No they won't!" cried Ron. "Hermione, house-elves don't want to get paid, they're insulted if you pay them! Look at Winky. Mr. Crouch freed her, and she became a lush! And she won't accept wages. She wears clothes because she has to, and she's miserable!"

"Nothing will be forced upon house-elves!" shrieked Pokey. "That is the whole point. House-elves have already had service forced upon them for two hundred and fifty years; they will not have wages, clothes or holidays forced on them now. That is not what the wood elves are asking for!"

"But then... I don't understand," said Hermione weakly.

Pokey sighed, and turned to Tadatada and Pat!k. He gave a quick translation of what he had said as well as Hermione's response, then added stealthily, under the guise of continuing to translate, "We really are the more intelligent species, aren't we?" Tadatada and Pat!k smiled.

Pokey turned back to Hermione. "The wood elves wish the end of slavery. That means lifting all binding spells---that is all. Elves may continue to work for their masters for free if they wish to. And many will. The point is, it will be their choice."

"So then... we'll still have elves at Hogwarts, right? Cooking meals and everything?" Ron asked.

"He knows where his priorities lie," muttered Hermione.

"Yes, yes, the vast majority of Hogwarts elves, if not all of them, will choose to stay at Hogwarts even if the binding spells are lifted. It's their home. And I think most of them wouldn't dream of accepting wages either."

"Oh well, that's not too bad then," said Ron. "I guess that's all right."

"But... elves should want to have wages and holidays and that," Hermione persisted. "They should want equality."

"Elves want what elves want," declared Pokey. "You can't change that. What's important is that it be the elf's choice."

"Nothing will change, but everything will change!" Dobby clapped his hands. "It's a brilliant idea! Brilliant! Tell them thank you from me too, Pokey!"

"Oh well," said Hermione, "as long as it's their choice. And maybe, once they get used to freedom, they'll want wages and holidays."

"No doubt our great grandchildren will be forming unions," Pokey said drily. "Does that please you, Mistress Hermione?"

"Yes, it does," Hermione replied.

"It's all very nice to dream," Molly broke in. "But we must stress that we don't have that much influence with the Ministry."

"All they're asking," said Pokey, "is that you put their request before the Ministry."

"I will," said Harry. "Once I've gotten rid of Voldemort... if I'm still alive afterwards..."

"Of course you'll be," Hermione interrupted uneasily.

"I should think the Ministry will offer me a reward, and I'll say, I had a little help from some elves, and here's what they want..."

"Won't you ask for anything for yourself?" asked Molly.

Harry shook his head. "I'll have what I want," he said. "Voldemort gone. And as for the other things I want..." His eyes took on a haunted look. "The Ministry can't give them to me. Or keep them safe for me." He shook his head. "The Ministry has nothing I want. Well... except maybe a job as an Auror."

"If you get rid of the most powerful evil wizard of our time, they'd have to be imbeciles not to hire you," Molly reassured him.

Harry smiled. "Yeah, well," he said, "it is government, you know."

Molly insisted that the wood elves stay one more night at the Burrow, so she could keep an eye on Pat!k and make sure he suffered no lingering ill effects from swallowing half a Horcrux. Then too, there was Tadatada's burn. Molly wasn't as worried about that, but she did hope to see some improvement by morning.

Neither wood elf put up much of a fight. They were more exhausted than they'd expected to be, and no doubt some of that was emotional. Tadatada and Pat!k avoided each other's eyes, and were extra polite, as they sidestepped what was hanging in the air between them. Ch!kch!k was quite playful and good-humoured, thus demonstrating in the manner of young children that she was very concerned about her parents.

The next morning, Dobby whipped up an especially grand breakfast, conscious of the fact that it was their last day at the Burrow. In addition to their usual eggs, they enjoyed kippers, scones and strawberries with clotted cream, while the wood elves forced the garden slug population down to a lower level than it had been in years.

Then it was time to say goodbye. Dobby hugged Harry around the knees and cried, "Dobby will miss you, Harry Potter! Dobby had a wonderful time!"

Harry patted him on the head. "Thanks Dobby. It was good to see you too. And thanks for bringing those guys." He twitched his head in the direction of the wild elves. "You were all a big help."

Pokey bowed to Molly. "I thank you deeply for your hospitality, dear lady. Surely you are the most gracious hostess in the wizarding world." Molly turned red and stammered a mixture of denial and thanks.

Pokey bowed also to Hermione and Ron. "It was an honour to meet you both," he said.

"Oh! You too," said Hermione, a touch flustered.

"Cheers mate," said Ron.

To Harry, Pokey said simply, "Good luck."

Tadatada and Pat!k observed Pokey bowing to the humans, so they tried a few bows themselves, but Ron took Pat!k's hand in his and shook it, to Pat!k's obvious bewilderment. "It's called a handshake," Pokey told them quietly. "It's a traditional human greeting." He felt a brief flash of guilt as he said this, remembering the 'human tradition' of photographing guests, as well as the 'traditional' tea. But despite these deceits, the wood elves accepted his words without question, and shook hands with each human in turn.

The five elves then Apparated to Hogwarts. Pokey and Dobby accompanied the wild elves to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Dobby was, as usual, jabbering away excitedly, but with a touch of wistfulness.

"Dobby thanks you very much, he had a wonderful, exciting time and he was so happy to help Harry Potter," Pokey translated. He winked at them. "It was a nice bit of adventure for me too. Not that I enjoyed every minute of it, mind, but at my age I didn't expect to be getting up to such things!"

"We were happy to be of help," Pat!k responded in even tones.

"Mmm," Tadatada contributed. They exchanged a melancholy glance. Everyone else was so pleased with how things had turned out. Nobody seemed to notice how Pat!k and Tadatada were feeling.

Pokey, in fact, had noticed, but he didn't know what to say. Indeed, one of the bits of wisdom he'd garnered in his long life was that awkward words of comfort are often better left unsaid. He felt sure that this was something the couple could, and would, work out themselves.

"You come by and see us anytime, my dears," Pokey continued. "Though perhaps it would be better to wait until the war is over."

"After the war." Tadatada nodded.

"Bring some of your kin!" he suggested. Tadatada and Pat!k smiled weakly.

Finally, Dobby and Pokey walked away, turning back once to wave. Pat!k and Tadatada watched them go for a few minutes, then turned and stepped into the woods, with Ch!kch!k trailing behind them. They walked, only dimly registering the pleasantness of having leaves and springy soil underfoot once more. Neither adult had a thought of Apparating. They both knew they had something to settle first.

They walked in silence until they reached a stunted yew tree, struggling towards the broken pieces of light that filtered through the canopy of oak leaves above.

Pat!k broke the silence. "I need to know." Tadatada turned and looked at him.

"I need to know," repeated Pat!k, "if we are going to be all right."

Tadatada propped one hand upon the trunk of the yew tree, covered her eyes with the other hand, and began to sob.

"Oh," Pat!k sighed. He moved closer and grasped her arm. "Oh Tada," he said thickly.

"Don't say my name like a human," she gasped between tears.

"Sorry. I suppose it wore on me." He leaned his head against hers. "If you won't have me back, I won't stay. I couldn't. I will lead a splinter tribe away--"

"Oh, stop it," cried Tadatada, smearing the back of her hand across her face. Pat!k fell silent and waited. Ch!kch!k watched them, her eyes big. She looked as if she might start crying as well.

"You hurt me," said Tadatada in a low voice. A tear ran down her cheek.

"I know," said Pat!k.

"How could you say those things?" she cried. "The mother's chokehold. My child is barely two years old. I should have had years before worrying about letting her go. Several good, smothering, choking years!" She shot him an angry look.

"Normally. Yes." Pat!k was almost whispering. "But it was not given to you to have a normal child." He paused. "Or a normal mate," he added wryly. "Your path is more difficult." He paused, then added, "You hurt me too."

Tadatada sighed. "I know," she admitted weakly.

"Saying I didn't care for my daughter. Saying I could not be trusted." Pat!k's words were speeding up and growing marginally louder. "Saying my promises were ashes in the wind." He shook his head in disbelief. "Ashes," he repeated, pained.

"I was wrong," said Tadatada, a tremor in her voice. "I knew that when you took the evil thing from Ch!kch!k." She looked sidelong at him. "And put it in your mouth. Your own mouth. I knew then that I'd been... very wrong."

"Not until then did you know?" Pat!k asked with difficulty.

Tadatada shook her head.

"You believed those things you said about me?"

Ch!kch!k began to cry, haltingly. Tadatada considered the question. "The outer part of me believed it," she replied.

Pat!k turned away from her.

"And you," said Tadatada. "How much did you believe what you said?"

Pat!k dug a little hole in the forest floor with his big toe.

"The choking and smothering. Or perhaps, you said it to punish me?" her voice peaked and trembled on the word 'punish.'

"What I said had the effect it needed to have," Pat!k told the trout lilies growing among the tree roots.

"Ah. You mean because Ch!kch!k got loose. So that's why you said it? Just to get the task done, and not to punish me?"

"Some of each," said Pat!k. He shot her a sideways glance. Ch!kch!k was still sniffling, but watching them intently.

"Ah. Then. I will not say I deserved it, but, I was wrong. I was wrong." She glanced up at the needles of the yew tree and the bright red fruits nestled among them. "So. I am sorry, and you are sorry. Somewhat. But... maybe we will never be exactly the same."

Pat!k turned. "We don't have to be!" he said fiercely. "Nothing stays the same. Elves change. Relationships change. Children grow. Everything changes."

"Oh Pat!k," choked Tadatada. She flung her arms around him so hard that he staggered back a couple of steps and almost bumped into Ch!kch!k, who let out a piercing shriek. "Don't make a splinter tribe! Don't go!"

Pat!k hugged her tightly. "Thank you," he said into the crook of her neck and shoulder, his voice muffled. There was a pause. "Do you still love me?"

"Of course I do," Tadatada replied.

Pat!k beamed. "I love you too."

"Ama," said Ch!kch!k, repeating the wood-elf word for love. "Ama."

Pat!k and Tadatada dropped their arms and stared at Ch!kch!k in astonishment. Tadatada clapped her hands together and let out a shriek of joy. "Her first word!"

Pat!k lifted Ch!kch!k into the air. "What a clever girl!" he cried, bouncing her in the air and making her giggle. "What a clever girl!"

Tadatada held out her arms for Ch!kch!k. Pat!k passed the toddler to her and watched thoughtfully as Tadatada rocked her and cooed to her. Then he turned and hauled himself up the trunk of the yew tree. Tadatada stopped playing with Ch!kch!k and grew silent and serious, watching him.

Pat!k gazed at each branch until he found the right one: small and light, with sprigs of needles and fruit clinging to it. He gnawed it carefully, almost lovingly, from its parent branch, and scrambled down the trunk with the branch clutched in his teeth. Back on the ground, Pat!k gravely presented Ch!kch!k with her very first magic stick.

Epilogue

Following Voldemort's death, Harry got an audience with Ministry officials and informed them of the wood elves' request. Hermione presented a report on the ill effects of slavery and abuse on house-elves. The Ministry balked at the radical notion of lifting all binding spells. However, they did agree to pass a law rendering house-elf abuse illegal. The spells that induced self-punishment in elves were also made illegal.

Pokey became the first being, human or otherwise, to hold the newly-created Ministry position of House-elf Protective Services Worker. His job involved visiting the homes of old pureblood families, inspecting their house-elves for signs of abuse, and re-educating both elves and masters to understand that violence against house-elves was unacceptable.

In the centre of the Forbidden Forest, life went on as it always had, except for the addition of a new word to the wood-elf language.

Horcrr!k:

1. A dangerous or unpleasant object.


2. A shameful secret.