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.
Harry Potter and the Wild Elves by VivianU
Chapter Notes: This story came out of a discussion on the Harry Potter Network forum, about the possibility that there might be non-enslaved elves in the Potterverse. It was touchstone who suggested I write a fanfic about the "wild elves." This story exists thanks to her.
A note about wild elf language: the elves of the Forbidden Forest have their own language, which features clicking sounds. The clicks are represented by exclamation points.
The story begins in springtime, about one year after the end of HBP.