Ravenclaw's Sapphire

"Hi," Hermione told Crocker her name quickly when she saw Crocker looking at her, "Miss Granger, that's a nice name."

"Thank you, Mr. Crocker." Hermione suddenly noticed that Crocker was looking at her with wide-eyed eyes. "What, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Miss Granger, I'm just happy," Crocker snapped, saluting her, which Hermione hastened to return.

"You said you want to find a job, then you can really go to Hogwarts, my good friend said that Professor Dumbledore - he is the headmaster of Hogwarts - should be willing to accept more Lots of elves." Hermione rubbed her hands, and when she saw Crocker she got a weird feeling, but it wasn't disgusting.

"My situation is different." Crocker took off his monocle and kept rubbing against his robe, as if this would relieve the tension in his heart, "I don't know the principal you mentioned Will I be willing to accept my request, but every place I have applied for a job before has rejected me because I hope to get paid."

"Reward!" Rosmerta exclaimed before leaving, and looked at Crocker as if she was looking at something strange, "You house elf, not only do not do your job properly, but you actually want to be rewarded, you The previous master would actually be willing to take you in!"

"My master is dead. I don't want to mention it, ma'am." Crocker's tone was very dissatisfied, "and it's not just the reward, I..." It suddenly stopped talking, "In short, I want to find someone who can get Salary and vacation work.”

Rosmerta sneered, "I think it's normal for you to run into walls everywhere, but you're much more weird than you look."

Crocker smiled bitterly: "If it doesn't work here, I'll probably move on to the next place."

"If you get down to earth and don't dream so much, I think you can find a good job right away."

"This is not a fantasy!" Hermione couldn't help shouting, and she said excitedly, "That's right! It should be like this, this is the right way! Remuneration, freedom, dignity, this is what everyone should really fight for! "

Ignoring Rosmerta's gaze, which took her for a madman, she took Crocker's hand, and the poor old elf was taken aback. He had never seen a human so excited about it.

"I implore you to visit Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore is a very tolerant man, and he will certainly be willing to listen to your request. Anyway, it is always good to try." She stammered again He said calmly: "Actually, I have some thoughts in my heart, but they are just outlines. Can I communicate with you? After I roughly sort out my thoughts, I want to chat with you more."

"You actually encountered this kind of thing in the Three Broomsticks!" Zooey sipped the sherbet with a look of surprise on her face.She was listening to Hermione talking about everything that had happened in the pub before, "I've never seen a house-elf like this!"

"And what do you think of it? Do you find it unacceptable that it wants to be paid?" Hermione asked, her voice a little eager.

"I think it's weird, because no elf would do this before, at least I haven't seen it, maybe it's just a freak..." When Hermione felt discouraged by Zoe's answer, Zoe Yi added, "But I don't think it's bad, at least what path it chooses to take. You know, I still don't understand this issue until now."

What a pity, Hermione sighed.What she hopes to hear from Zoe is complete support. She hopes that someone will have the same idea as her. Seeing all kinds of unreasonable and old things in the wizarding world, the world of wizards is undoubtedly very attractive Humans, but they also have many bad habits, old and inappropriate rules.Now that Hermione saw it, no matter how others saw it, she certainly couldn't accept it.

"Zoe, I have an idea." She hesitated for a while, and then said, "I was still confused at first—of course I haven't straightened out my thoughts yet, but I think I can help Crocker, and it What do house-elves who have the same idea or who have not yet awakened, I want to liberate them, elves should not be enslaved by humans, since freedom should be everyone's choice, why can't they be like centaur and goblin as independent?"

"In that case Hogwarts would be crippled by lack of maintenance staff, apart from other places. There would be no good food, hot bath water, and even the fire in the fireplace would not be kept on at all times. "

"We're not trying to keep them out of wizarding society, that's not possible, Zoe. Even Crocker just wants to get paid work, I've talked to him and he hates the freedom to do nothing, thinks it's Very scary." Hermione said, "But we can appeal to people to pay attention to house elves and replace cruel slavery with more reasonable employment... This is just the first step, but I haven't figured out the next step yet. I think I need to find a lot of information, such as the goblin rebellion that occurred in the seventeenth century. I also need to exchange letters with Crocker several times to listen to its opinions..." Although Hermione was very busy talking, her eyes were shining , with the light of joy when she found the goal she should achieve, Zooey was almost a little jealous of her, because she looked really dazzling like this.

"It will be very busy if you do it alone. You still have studies to deal with."

"That's a problem," Hermione smiled wryly, "but someone has to do it."

"You can find someone to look for information with. For example, there is someone who is not so busy here." Zooey ignored Snape's homework, which was messing her up, and pointed to herself.

"My God! Is it really possible?" Hermione asked pleasantly. She originally thought that Zoe had no interest in liberating elves. After all, she is also from a complete wizard family, and Hermione's perspective will eventually be different. Yes, I didn't intend to let her join at this time.

"No problem, I will support you." Zooey patted her chest.She really wasn't interested in the future of the house-elves, and she didn't see any harm in letting house-elves do the housework—the Siegels could have replaced her as the new owners of the house, and They also live well.

But of course she was not hesitant to lend a helping hand to Hermione, except for the little secret thoughts in her heart, she didn't want Hermione to continue to increase the burden.This girl who would do whatever she thought of had been too tired this year, and she wanted to share some of it for Hermione.

"Great! Thank you, Zoe." Hermione rushed up and hugged her (as expected, her heart was pounding like she was about to burst out of her chest), "We can even set up an institution in the future , I can be the president, and you can be the vice president!"

She was very happy. Although she hadn't written a word about this matter yet, there were mountains of preparations to be made, and there were too many things to think about and weigh, but her heart became more determined and full of confidence.

You must know that the girl who will come to help her is as good as she is. As long as the two of them work hard together, what difficulties can't be overcome?

*****

"Where are we going next? I can do it," Hermione was in a good mood, "except the magic equipment shop."

"What's the matter? That store sells a lot of convenient magic props, it's always good to take a look." Zooey asked, she was just going to tell them to go there and take a look.

Hermione scratched her face in embarrassment. She didn't want to explain to Zooey that she had just quarreled with Ron, and that magic item shop was a place where Ron was likely to appear - because they had agreed to give Harry brings presents.But now there is a high probability that there will be some embarrassing scenes in the past.

Hermione didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Zoe, she wanted to always look her best if she could.I also don't want Zooey to feel guilty about the conflict between her and Ron, and think it's her own responsibility; let alone conflict with Ron again because of this matter, they already don't like each other very well.

"Well, it just so happens that I also have a place I'm interested in." Zooey saw Hermione faltering, so she stopped asking in detail.

"Where? According to what you said before, you and Malfoy have traveled a lot."

Zoe pointed to the post office next to Central Avenue, "Do you have anything to send?" Hermione asked curiously: "No, the gift can't be sent until I return to Hogwarts in advance. Speed ​​I only trust Lloyd, not these post office courier owls, they are too slow."

"Gift? Who was it for?" Hermione found herself intrigued by the topic.

"Luna's father. Luna asked me to bring some candy to her father for Halloween." Hermione blinked, and it took half a minute before she said thoughtfully, "Should I send some back too?"

She convinced herself, and the two went to Honeydukes again, paid their bills desperately in the crowd of countless people, and squeezed out of the store again out of the crowd, panting.

"Fortunately, I came here at the very beginning. Did it house the entire third-year students at Hogwarts?" Zoe complained. Her physical condition was relatively weak among her peers, which was due to her lack of exercise. , An unhealthy blush appeared on her pale face, and Zooey looked as if she was about to faint immediately.

Hermione was also in a mess, but she was able to stand still.She brushed back her fallen hair, and the fresh air outside made the two girls who were almost suffocated gradually recover. "There are really too many people! Don't they know how to show up in batches?" Hermione complained.

However, she still bought the candies she wanted. In order not to make Mrs. Granger feel unnecessarily worried about her dental health, she didn't buy too many candies, and she didn't buy the few candies that Zoe strongly suggested (because They are usually quite sweet).

The post office in Hogsmeade is no different from the wizard post offices in other places, except that the layout of the house is very clean, unlike the smelly owl hut in the school. The sender only needs to fill in the form at the front desk, Items can be left behind, and the post office staff will pick the right owl, which is said to be delivered as close as across the street or as far away as another continent.