Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 380 'Household' Elf!

Dobby is even weirder than he was a while ago.

On her head she wears an oversized red sock that she uses as a hat.

Like other elves, he wears a teapot warmer with the Hogwarts badge on his body, a bow tie at the neckline, a gray plaid kilt on his lower body, and two weird red and green socks on his feet, not to mention two socks with glittering gold and silver stars on his ears.

McGuffin guessed that Snape's potion might have affected her brain to some extent.

Anyway, from the fact that the other house-elves avoided Dobby as soon as they saw him approaching, it seems that they could not agree with this aesthetic orientation.

"Sir! . . . Mr. Harry Potter, no, isn't he here?"

After looking at the kitchen door for a long time, Dobby said disappointedly when he found no one came in again.

"Well, no!" McGuffin cleared his throat. "It's just me!"

"Oh!" Dobby lowered his eyes in disappointment, and the two socks that were standing upright and shimmering with golden light also folded in half and fell down, his voice became weak for a moment.

But she went to the back kitchen and brought McGuffin a large silver tray with a box of sugar cubes, a pot of coffee, a glass of milk, and some peach shortbread biscuits.

When Dobby bowed and stepped back, McGuffin called to her.

"Dobby, you should be very familiar with this place!"

"Yes, sir! Professor Dumbledore gave Dobby this job... Dobby has been here since Hogwarts. It's a dream job for many house-elves... Dobby never dreamed that he would be able to stay here with Mr. Harry Potter. Thank you sir and Mr. Harry Potter for saving the little master, otherwise the old master Malfoy would not have let Dobby go so easily."

Speaking of this, Dobby became excited, grabbed the edge of the table, stretched his head out from below, and said to McGuffin while fanning the socks on the two big ears.

"Um, Dobby... I have something I want to ask you for help!" McGuffin had to wave his hand, interrupting Dobby's continuous expression of his gratitude to Dumbledore and his love for Hogwarts.

"Mr. McGuffin, please, we are all happy to help every little Hogwarts wizard... anything!"

Suddenly, a 'happy' smile appeared on Dobby's face, which was exaggerated.

It's unnatural, like it slipped into some kind of over-the-top melodrama for a split second, with the corners of the mouth stretched, having to laugh, having to say yes to the McGuffin's request.

The elves around looked at them with interest and listened to their words, but after hearing the request from McGuffin, they had the same weird and exaggerated smiles as Dobby, as if... as if they were controlled by the Imperius Curse... No, no, it should be like being injected with some kind of neurological hormone, or cast a high-intensity [Happy Curse].

It seems that fulfilling the request of the MacGuffin can make these little elves, happy,——extremely cool.

In the early hours of the night, McGuffin was alone in the midst of dozens of house elves, and this strange and exaggerated 'sincere' smile appeared on their faces for an instant,
It is conceivable how frightened he is now.

Fortunately, the situation that appeared on Dobby and the little elves was only a short moment, almost disappearing within a millisecond.

It's like the computer program got stuck and was repaired again.

Afterwards, they turned into happy-faced, 'helping' house-elves again.

MacGuffin almost thought he was seeing wrongly because of the dim light, or was hallucinating.

But through [Occlumency] to replay the memory just now, he knew that he was right.

"Mr. McGuffin, what's the matter?" Dobby seemed to have forgotten his weird expression just now, but happily asked McGuffin's question again.

——What the hell are they hiding under their joyous slavishness.

Chills surged in McGuffin's heart.

Not even the desire to catch Wormtail could stop him from wanting to get out of here immediately.

"Uh……"

"Forehead!"

After a long time, McGuffin remembered what he was going to do, and he hurriedly asked the elves, "Who of you saw a gray mouse, it is someone's pet in our dormitory, I heard that someone has seen it here!"

"Oh! The mouse?"

said Dobby cheerfully, with a very broad smile on his face.

"Dobby is very happy to help Mr. McGuffin Albert. Dobby has seen him. He often steals food from the kitchen. He will come over in a while."

"Well, Bibi has seen it too!"

"..."

The elves chattered and gathered around to tell the McGuffin about the whereabouts of Pettigrew Peter.

Seeing the normal scene in front of him, McGuffin temporarily recovered from the weird encounter just now.

But he was still on guard, clutching his wand tightly.

— Hurry up and catch Banban and leave here.

Not to mention that no house-elf was ever heard of harming a wizard, especially the twins who broke into the kitchen many times, and nothing happened to them.

Although McGuffin thought so, he still secretly remembered this matter, and decided to check it out if he had time—what is going on?

Is it just me who finds this problem?
Or?
In fact, it is indeed very strange to think about the race of elves.

In the history of the wizarding world, there has never been a clear record of the detailed and clear origin of this race. We only know that house elves have existed in wizarding families on a large scale and have served as slaves for hundreds of years... They work hard without complaint, and take pride in their work. Their three views and preferences are simply... simply, they are the perfect 997 in the hands of capitalists, and they will never resist in the hands of slaves...

and many more!

A terrible possibility crossed McGuffin's mind.

Is it—

Those ancient wizards—

At this moment, Dobby's scream woke him up, "Mr. McGuffin, look! That mouse you want!"

McGuffin looked up in the direction of Dobby's finger.

A fat grey, shiny mouse was walking along the shadow between the wall and the ground under the flickering light of the fireplace lamp, wagging its buttocks and wagging its tail.

(It seems that Wormtail's life of "stealing oil" here is very nourishing, and he has fattened himself up again after not seeing him for a long time)
If it weren't for Dobby's reminder, McGuffin really wouldn't have noticed.

He looked down at the parchment map,—well, it looked right, the name of Wormtail was indeed written on it, and the figure was a big fat rat running wildly.

McGuffin quickly put the map back into his pocket.

Although Animagus cannot hold a wand after being transformed, and Wormtail did not show the possibility of casting spells without a weapon in the original book, he still didn't want to take the risk.

If possible, try not to let Wormtail find out that he already knows the secret that he is an Animagus, don't tear each other up, keep this illusion of peace, and spend this semester peacefully according to the plot, and then let Sirius Seablack force him to find Voldemort.

Perhaps it was the discovery of the MacGuffin watching him with the other house-elves.

Wormtail (Scattered) froze, stood on the spot, then spun wildly, and kept running towards the mouse hole he got out of.

"Come here! You are here! (Chinese)"

McGuffin couldn't help being amused, muttered something, and waved directly.

Scabbers (Wormtail) was floating in the air, its four legs scurrying wildly and futilely, and then the whole little mouse backed up and fell onto the long table in front of McGuffin with a snap.

McGuffin shouted deliberately with a surprised expression, "Babber, why are you here? Ron had a big fight with Hermione because of you, and he thought you...he's fine this time, he's probably overjoyed."

Wormtail's movements of frantically struggling in the air began to calm down after hearing this sentence.

After completing the original mission objective this time, McGuffin was about to leave.

"Then, thanks, Dobby! I should leave. If the professor finds out, it will be very troublesome."

"Next time, next time I come to see you, I'll bring Harry and the others along."

McGuffin recalled the elf's performance just now, so he just mentioned this sentence.

——If my guess is true, I will definitely come down again to test that possibility and see if the effect can be applied to Wormtail. If so, then Nagia will not be able to escape from his palm.

After McGuffin said that he was going to leave, many elves gathered around, bowing and curtseying.

Especially when Dobby heard that McGuffin wanted to bring Harry over, the little guy suddenly smiled and insisted on pulling him directly to the back of the kitchen.

Said to give him something.

McGuffin couldn't refuse, and the elves pushed him from behind, pulling and pushing him inside.

After walking past the always burning and surprisingly large stove in the back kitchen, McGuffin entered a low tunnel passage.

Not long, just two or three meters.

At a glance, you can see the fire light at the end, and the occasional figures of house elves passing by in the room over there.

Otherwise, based on what happened just now, McGuffin wouldn't dare to come here alone.

After walking through the stone corridor passage, McGuffin's eyes suddenly opened up.

This is where the Hogwarts kitchens store their food and where hundreds of house-elves rest.

It is unusually wide, like the library on the second floor.

Hundreds of old shelves are placed here, but the ones on them are not ancient parchment scrolls, bronze-covered magic books, etc., but some neatly stacked, golden plates, goblets, forks, spoons and other tableware.

Row after row, to the back... McGuffin can only rub against the burning torches and candles on the stone wall, and can vaguely see that there are dozens of thick and fat pork hams hanging in the air.

A large bag, a large bag of sacks were piled up like a hill, with several open sacks standing upright at the bottom and in front, reflecting white light inside, full of flour.

Potatoes of different sizes, purple potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, and carrots are stacked in baskets woven from branches.

The baskets are either placed on racks or floated, floating in the spaces between the hams.

The fruits of various colors have also been cast some kind of magic spell, glowing with a strange magic light, and are kept very fresh on the middle shelf at the back.

In addition, on the stone walls on both sides, there are many round holes with a size of one meter, which are densely packed, covering the entire stone wall of the room like wild swallows' nests.

The house-elves rest there.

After every few openings, a bunch of burning torches stood in the middle of the stone wall to provide light and illumination.

By the light of the fire, McGuffin looked curiously at the 'room' where the elves slept.

Some were empty, some were crowded with two or three house-elves, but most were just a blanket on the bottom and a blanket over the body, resting and sleeping like that.

There are few personal items in the elf's room, only a few towels, and teacups, teapots, or some shiny emblems hanging on the walls inside the caves.

Dobby led the McGuffin to his room.

Then tell him to wait a while.

While waiting, MacGuffin could not restrain his curiosity, and probed into Dobby's room.

Her 'home' is on the left stone wall, the third row from the ground, and the fifth from the beginning to the end. She belongs to the few house elves who have 'family property'.

There are socks of different colors, sizes, and types hanging on the walls of the 'room', and there are even two balls of purple-red ball yarn and two long metal knitting needles near the 'bedside'. I don't know if Dobby wants to knit himself a sweater or a scarf or something like that.

It didn't take long for Dobby to rush over with a big bag of magic candies, pie cakes, chocolate buttercream, and peach crisp biscuits.

The other house elves who came over also surrounded them more or less with food.

"Mr. Albert! Can you take these to your friend, to Mr. Harry Potter?"

"I heard little wizards can't go to Hogsmeade anymore, they should need these! There are still plenty of elves here! Sir!"

Dobby said happily.

"Yeah yeah!"

"Sir! You're welcome!" the other house-elves followed suit.

McGuffin had to put a handful of pie cakes and peach shortbread in his pocket, float Scabbers in the air, and leave the room where the elves were resting.

"Goodbye Dobby! I'll definitely bring Harry over to see you!"

"It's really useless! Thank you."

McGuffin turned around and looked at the elves who were crowding around the door, looking at him with wide-eyed eyes full of anticipation and joy, feeling a sense of incompatibility welling up in his heart.

Shining, or fear, perhaps mourning for them?

The weird and distorted smile just now kept appearing in front of his eyes.

Is everything they see really their own thoughts and feelings?
Has this always been the case with the house-elves?
—Domestic?
These two words are full of blood!
Is it true that as I guessed, the entire group of elves were distorted by those ancient wizards with spells?
Is it true that the ancient human wizards used magic to wash those extremely malicious thoughts into the consciousness of their entire group...and let them serve every wizard as slaves from generation to generation.

So that they cannot escape, cannot realize this sad situation, and even take pleasure in it...

— like domestic animals.

McGuffin thought of DeLS Malfoy's spell that almost changed his fate, plus the scene he saw just now, all of this plus the abnormal twisted way of existence of the house-elf that is almost attached to the entire human wizard family,

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his thoughts were inseparable.

— An ancient wizard?

McGuffin's heart felt cold for a while, and his scalp felt more and more numb about the hidden side of these 'predecessors' and the entire wizarding world.

(End of this chapter)