Chapter 5 The House Elf
Harry stopped and listened. He pulled out his wand and planned his attack.
He would use a flagration spell. He would burn the snake.
The door was cracked ever so slightly. He couldn't see into the room, but he could kick the door open. His first spell would be the killing blow.
He took a deep breath and listened for the swishing sound. He sprang.
He kicked the door open violently and jumped into the room. There was sudden movement, he aimed his wand. He heard a girl shriek. He stopped.
The girl was sprawled on her back next to a bucket, trembling in terror. She was nearly naked.
"Harry!" she exclaimed, "Oh, you almost scared the pee out of me!"
"Hermione? What are you doing here?" he asked as he lowered his wand.
"I'm cleaning the floor," she said.
"But why are you here, at Hogwarts? Why didn't you tell me you'd be here? Why are you wearing a bikini… made of rags?" he asked.
He looked at her skimpy garments. The only thing that looked substantial was the wand scabbard on her thigh. The rest of it looked like it would blow off in a stiff breeze.
"You're wearing tea towels!" he exclaimed.
"Harry, you're not supposed to see me!" she said as she got to her feet.
"Does this have something to do with House Elves, Hermione?" he deduced. "Why are you dressed in tea towels and scrubbing floors?"
He noticed that her knees had scabs and that a trickle of blood ran down her shin.
She hung her head as if in shame, her face hidden by her bushy brown hair.
"I'm being punished," she said reluctantly.
"What…?"
"It's for the elf hat thing," she explained. "I was so stupid."
Harry just let her continue.
"You see, students can't free House Elves. Only the headmaster has the authority to give clothes to an elf. As a Prefect I should have known better. When a student gives an elf a hat or socks or whatever, the poor elf can't go free. It's just a message to the elf. The elf thinks the student is saying, 'You're doing a lousy job and you should be sacked.' It's a terrible insult."
"You insulted the House Elves?" said Harry.
"I put more effort into insulting the House Elves than any other student ever has in all of Hogwarts' history," she said sadly.
"But you were trying to free them. You were trying to be kind to them," Harry argued.
"I'm not being punished for what I tried to do. I'm being punished for what I did. I hurt their feelings. I hurt their feelings repeatedly. I caused unrest," she sighed. "I'm serving detention for the rest of the summer, because I abused school property. Prefects shouldn't do that."
"Detention for the whole summer! Scrubbing floors! Wearing rags! That's harsh!" Harry raged.
"It was an excuse to force me to agree to being locked up for the whole summer," she said bitterly. "I'm safe here, no burden to anyone. Dumbledore didn't want me at 12 Grimmauld Place. Children get in the way. I had a choice, detention or expulsion."
"So this is the safe place Dumbledore arranged for you?" asked Harry.
"I'm sentenced to work with the House Elves all summer. I thought there could be a positive side to it. I thought it would give me a chance to see what their lives are really like. I thought it would help me to refine S.P.E.W. I want to learn what they really need to make their lives better, that hat thing was so immature," Hermione explained.
"Dumbledore just said I had to work with them, but I choose a total emersion program. I'm living with them. I'm living like them. For the rest of the summer, I'm a House Elf."
Harry couldn't help but smile, Hermione never did anything half way.
"So how's it going?" he asked cheerfully.
"Horribly," she said sadly. "I thought that I would learn all about them, their desires and their dreams. Now I just want to survive until classes start."
She looked absolutely miserable.
"I just hope that by the end of the summer a few of them will forgive me, even if they can't understand me. I just want a few of them to talk to me," she said sadly.
"Hermione, you poor thing, you've been scrubbing floors for two weeks on your hands and knees?" said Harry sympathetically.
"Oh no," she said, "I've been on floors for only one week. The first week was much worse. Newbees always get the nasty jobs."
"Worse than this? What did you have to do?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Hagrid's away. That Grumbly-Plank woman didn't arrive until yesterday. Someone had to take care of his collection of beasts."
"You had to feed Fang and Fluffy?" he surmised?
"Them and a dozen Hippogrifs and the Thestrals. I hate Thestrals." she said shaking.
"You can't see them, can you?" Harry asked.
"No, I kept my eyes shut during the executions. I should have watched. I was so stupid. I don't like capitol punishment," she said mournfully. "Now I can't see them.”
But I can smell them,” she continued. “They're carnivores. Harry, you can't imagine the smell.”
“And I can feel them,” she said emphatically. “I can feel them when they slap me with their tails or lick me. I had to carry big slabs of fresh meat. They were so heavy. It was exhausting. I was covered with blood. They licked me, everywhere. Little bites too.
“And I can hear them. Oh yes, I can hear them when they laugh." She shuddered. It as though she was reliving a nightmare.
"Thestrals laugh?" asked Harry.
"It's so creepy, it makes my skin crawl. It took two days to figure out what they were doing. They have a really crude sense of humor. They all think they're comedians. And the biggest joke around was me," she said shaking.
"Tease the little witch. Make her shriek. Make her jump. Make her angry. Make her cry. It's all a load of laughs to them," she said bitterly.
"The key to getting their stable clean, and remaining sane, is to get them all out. But I can't see them. They hide in the corners, and play tricks on me. Poop in the middle of a stall I just cleaned out. Ha Ha. Fart in her face. Ho Ho. Bite her in the buns, see if she'll jump into that pile of shit. Har Har."
Harry didn't interrupt. She was wound up now for a good monologue and Harry just had to try to not laugh at her.
"On Tuesday we hitch the team to the ice wagon so Filch can take it into town to get meat and milk. There's a hay pile in the harness room. There was a rope in the hay pile, but I didn't know that. They pulled on the rope! I screamed, I thought it was a snake!"
"On Wednesday we hitch the team to an ordinary wagon so Filch can go get groceries and dry goods. One of the harnesses was missing. It was lying on the hay pile, so I picked it up. Then something moved in the hay pile. I thought it was the rope trick so I grabbed it. It was a real snake! They blocked the door! I was trapped with the snake!"
"By Thursday I was so mad I used my wand. I sprayed a mist in the stable so I could see them and I shooed them all out and shut the door. I cleaned the stable unmolested. That was my little victory for the week."
"On Friday they took their revenge. I came out of the stable and bumped into one. I tried to go around it, but they surrounded me and they pressed against me. I couldn't move. I couldn't breath. I screamed! And do you know what they did next?"
"What did they do?" asked Harry trying to keep a straight face, but smiling in spite of himself.
"They nicked my tea towels."
Harry had to cover his mouth.
"Now what was I to do? Chase my bottom into the forbidden forest, towards the Centaurs? Chase my top towards Grawp's clearing? Return to the castle stark naked? Just stand there and listen to them laughing at me like a hundred psychotic hyenas?"
Harry snickered. Hermione gave him a dirty look.
"I gathered a pile of grass and transfigured it into yarn. I enchanted some twigs and knitted a tunic. Then I got dressed and went back to the castle."
"That's very creative," said Harry. He was impressed.
"On Saturday, I was in agony! Old George, he's the Head House Elf, made me strip off my tunic in front of the whole kitchen staff. My skin was all red.
He made me transfigure the yarn back into grass, and he fished through the pile of grass with a fork. Then he pulled out a vine of poison ivy, and he says, ’Thestrals has a wicked sense of humor, Miss Hermione."
"I suppose it was a breakthrough." she concluded. "It was the first time any of them spoke to me, except for work orders."
"So," said Harry. He was trying to not smile at her distress, but it was hard to keep a straight face as he imagined her naked in the forest. "Besides being tormented by invisible creatures and overworked, how's life as a House Elf?"
"Hogwarts' House Elves are treated better than average, but their lives are still hard. We each have our own cupboard in a pantry to sleep in. We get a mattress and a pillow. In the winter they get a blanket, but in July those cupboards are very hot and stuffy. And they are too short, or maybe I'm too tall, but I have to sleep all curled up. I wake up stiff every morning," she complained. "We have pegs to hang our tea towels on at night…"
"Oh Dear Harry," she said smiling, "I got your letter. I read it over and over. I'm so glad you have been able to practice magic. And with all of that hard work and weight lifting you're getting so strong."
"And you're getting thin," he said looking at her appraisingly.
"House Elves work hard and we don't eat much," she said proudly. "I think scrubbing floors has been good for my abs and pecs. What do you think?" She said as she posed for him and turned around.
Harry thought that was very strange behavior for Hermione. Was she flirting?
"Scrubbing floors has been rough on your knees," Harry observed.
"Harry, this is important," she said suddenly turning serious. She put her hands on his shoulders. "You must not tell anyone you saw me here, especially Ron."
"I don't know," said Harry teasingly, "Hermione the House Elf, that's a good story."
"No, please, Harry!" she said with a quiver in her voice. "I'm serving seven weeks of detention for abusing school property. I'm a prefect. It's too embarrassing."
She pressed her body tightly against him. He felt his temperature rising.
"I'm your slave, Harry," she pleaded. "I'll do anything. Please promise me you won't tell." She laid her head on his shoulder.
Harry could smell her sweat and grime, he could feel her heart beating. He pushed her away and stared at her face.
"Anything?" he asked coldly.
She stared back at him. Her eyes were wide open. Her nervousness was replaced with fear.
He saw his reflection in her brown eyes. He was frowning and stern.
It seemed like she couldn't talk. She slowly nodded her head.
"I want you to promise me this," he said firmly, "when I go into combat against Lord Voldemort, you will not follow me. Promise me that you will stay where it's safe."
"When…" she choked.
She backed up a step. Tears filled her eyes. She backed up another step. She wiped her face with her hand and took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"You called my bluff," she said. "You caught me in a lie."
She struggled to maintain her composure.
"I still have some principles after all," she stated. "There are some things I won't do for anything."
"You can talk. Go ahead, embarrass me. Tell them I'm a detention queen. Tell them I'm trying to impress House Elves with hard work. Tell them I'm a dirty smelly slut that tried to seduce you," she cried. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Harry was too shocked to say anything.
"But… if… you…. think," she said haltingly, "for one minute… that I will hide in a corner… and do nothing…. while Voldemort…. and his ARMY!....MURDER YOU! You are mistaken!"
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, his own voice shaking, "I don't want you to get hurt!"
"Harry Potter!" she cried, "Don't you understand? Nothing could possibly ever hurt me as much as loosing you." She took a step towards him and said softly, "I love you."
"Hermione… No…I'm not good for you."
"So!" she retorted, "I know that. I'm not rational. I'm in love."
"But… with me?" he argued, "what about Ron?"
"Ron is a dear friend. And I think he wants more than that, but I have to disappoint him," she said. "I just hope that our friendship can survive."
"What about Victor Krum?" said Harry. He felt like a drowning man clutching at a straw.
"Victor is a nice guy," she said sadly, "and I hurt him. I agreed to go to the Yule Ball with him because I wanted to go with you instead of Ron. I didn't realize that he would really fall for me. He kept asking me to come to Bulgaria, to meet his parents. I made excuses. I finally had to be blunt with him. I told him I loved someone else, just before Christmas."
Harry had run out of arguments. He didn't know what else to say. He walked over to a window and looked out, just to clear his head. He could see the Gryffindor tower across the wide courtyard. All of the windows were open in the July heat.
"I won't talk about this to anyone, Hermione," he finally said, "especially Ron. Your secret is safe. I promise."
"Thank you, Harry," she said softly.
They were both silent for several minutes. Harry stared out the window. Hermione got down on her knees, retrieved her brush, and went back to scrubbing the floor.
Harry watched her work for a minute.
"You're getting blood on the floor," he observed.
"I clean it up as I go," she said.
He looked across the courtyard towards Gryffindor tower and he took out his wand
.
"Accio kneepads," he said.
The kneepads that Harry had used for landscaping wormed their way out of his trunk and flew across the castle courtyard to his hand.
"Nice summoning charm," said Hermione.
"I had a good tutor," said Harry.
"Put these on," he said as he handed them to Hermione.
"Are you trying to give me clothes?" she asked as she gave them back.
"Kneepads aren't clothing," he said as he handed them to her again. "They're a tool. They'll make your work more efficient."
"The Head House Elf didn't issue me kneepads," she stated. "He'll wonder where I got them."
She handed the kneepads back to Harry again.
"Tell him that Harry Potter ordered you to wear them whenever you scrub floors." he said decisively as he handed them to her for the third time. "If he doesn't like it, send him to me."
She quietly put on the kneepads, and went back to work.
Harry moved towards the door. He had to move a room full of things before dinner. Just as he reached the door, she called to him.
"Harry, if Lord Voldemort kidnapped me… and they tortured me… and they touched me… would you come rescue me?" she asked.
"Yes," he said firmly.
"But Harry, it's a trap. They don't care about me. I'm just a worm on a hook. If you come for me, they'll try to kill you." she explained. "You should leave me to my fate until you are strong enough to win."
"I'd come for you, ready or not," he said.
"I know you would," she said gently, "and I promise to be careful."
Harry left the room. He began levitating things down the hall to the room he was packing. He could hear the swishing of her brush on the classroom floor. He didn't see her leave. When he was done moving all of the enchanted items, he peeked into the classroom.
She was gone.
Saturday evening there was another Quidditch practice. Mid-way through practice Katie and Cindy asked Harry if he was too tired from working all day to continue. He admitted that he hadn't worked all that hard. Then they got mad at him and told him he had to pay attention. He had to learn how to be a chaser. He had to learn new techniques, to work with the team and make the right moves for their offensive plays.
He tried to stop thinking about magic mirrors and that new House Elf.