House-elves on Broomsticks

Chapter Three - The First Meeting

The next day, Harry was jolted awake by a loud whistle. He sat straight up and rubbed his eyes confusedly. When he opened them again, he was shocked to see Hermione standing over him, dressed not in robes, but in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. She also had a whistle hanging around her neck, which had woken Harry.

"Hermione!!" he gasped, pulling his covers up to his chin. He looked around at the other boys, all snoring loudly in their beds. "What are you doing up here?" he hissed at the girl. "This is the BOY'S dorm, and I'm only wearing boxers!!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly, Harry, that's not a big deal. At least you're WEARING boxers." Harry blushed, but Hermione continued on. "Well, anyway, you need to get up, the house-elves are meeting us on the Quidditch pitch in a half hour."

Harry stared stupidly for a minute. He reached for his watch on the night table, but then remembered that it had broken during the second task last year. He looked to Hermione, still under the covers. "What time is it?"

"6:30."

Harry's eyes widened, and he pulled the covers over his head. "No way in Azkaban am I getting up at 6:30. You run the meeting yourself."

Hermione's eyes rolled again. "Harry Potter, you promised me you would help."

"That didn't mean I was willing to get up this early," Harry's muffled voice said from under the covers. "Besides, don't you have a meeting with the mysterious sponsor?"

"That's not until 11. Now get up!" With that, she threw the covers off Harry, who let out a loud yelp, rolled off the bed, and hid underneath it. Hermione looked flabbergasted. "Harry, what on earth are you doing?!?"

"I TOLD you," Harry said, poking his head out. "I'm only wearing boxers!!"

"Well, you didn't have to yelp like that, you're going to wake up everyone in here!"

"ME wake everyone up??" Harry exclaimed."I'M not the one who came bursting into the wrong dorm blowing a whistle at the crack of dawn!"

"Harry, that whistle is charmed so it can only be heard by whoever I want it to be," Hermione said impatiently, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Watch." She took out her wand and tapped the whistle, muttering "Ronald Weasley," and blew long and hard.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Ron yelled, sitting up abruptly. "What the...;" he looked around dazedly and saw Hermione. He yelped something that came out as a squeak, and dove back under the covers.

"Oh, honestly, if you boys are that embarrassed about your bodies I'll leave. But if I don't see the two of you on the Quidditch pitch in 20 minutes...;" her voice trailed off, leaving Harry and Ron to use their imagination on that one. She walked out of the room.

Ron's red ears slowly emerged from under the sheets. "Harry?"

Harry came out from under the bed. "Yeah?"

"Why was Hermione in the boys' dorm?"

Harry sighed. "I don't know, but she's in one of her moods. I say we get dressed."

Ron agreed, and the two of them pulled on their robes.

When they arrived in the Great Hall to grab some breakfast, Hermione was already gone. So the two boys grabbed a muffin each and headed outside. Hermione was on the pitch, waiting for them.

"Oh, good, you're here," she said, ignoring the sleepiness in their eyes. "All right, we only have an hour to get everything set up, so we need to get started."

Ron looked shocked. "An hour? Harry said the elves were going to be here in 10 minutes!"

Hermione smirked. "Well, I had to get you up, didn't I?" She grinned wickedly. "Of course, if I threatened to take pictures of both of you in your boxers I probably would've accomplished the same thing." The boys looked at each other with wide eyes. "Now follow me and I'll show you the schedule I wrote up."

As she walked away, Harry and Ron stayed back. "Hey, Harry," Ron said nervously.
"You don't think she actually saw anything do you?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, but I hope not. I wear Dudley's old boxers at night, and sometimes they slip!"

"All right," Hermione said in an authoritative tone as the boys walked over. "I need you guys to split up. Harry, this is the key to Madame Hooch's storage room." She handed him a small silver key. "I need you to get 28 Cleansweeps. They're a bit big and awkward for elves, but they'll have to do until Creature Sweepers send us our order. Oh, and you'll want to get your Firebolt and a broom for Ron."

"Herm, I thought you said this was just a meeting!"

"Well, it is, but we need to start giving out positions," she said. Harry walked off muttering to himself about how she always managed to make him feel so stupid.

"Now, Ron, I need you to go Gryffindor Tower and get Fred, George, and Angelina."

"Angelina!!" Ron yelled, horrified. "I can't go in the girl's dorm, they'd kill me!"

Hermione sighed. "All right, we can do without her for today. Just get your brothers, tell them I have pictures of them drooling in their sleep."

Ron looked at her, wondering if she was telling the truth. "Why didn't you just wake them up this morning?"

She shrugged. "Well, I needed something for you to do."

Ron scowled. "Well, what are you doing?"

Hermione grinned. "I am getting the elves."

A half hour later, Harry, Ron, and two angry looking Weasley twins were pacing the Quidditch pitch.

"I'm getting worried about this Hermione, guys," Fred said.

"Yeah," George agreed. "What kind of perv is she, sneaking into boys rooms while they're sleeping?"

Ron snorted. "Thank Godric Neville's not helping out." The three others looked at him quizzically. "He sleeps in the nude." All the boys grimaced.

Harry started laughing. "But how do you-"

"It was an accident, long story, don't ask," Ron said grimly.

Just then, Hermione appeared, followed by 28 very enthusiastic looking house-elves.

Fred and George ran up to her. "Now, Hermione, we-"

"Oh, relax, I have no pictures. Anyway." She faced the house-elves, and smiled proudly. "Welcome, all of you, to the very first meeting of the House Elf Quidditch League! You are lucky enough to be the very first members of this historic institution! If this mission is a success, soon there will be a worldwide HEQL, offering enjoyment, recreation, and a feeling of belonging to house-elves everywhere!" Harry gulped. The look on Hermione's face made him not want to be around in the event that HEQL was NOT a success. "So, now, let me introduce to you your coaches, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter!"

The elves cheered. Ron grinned, Harry waved stupidly, and Fred and George hammed it up by doing the Princess Diana wave.

Hermione walked up to the boys. "Well, this is the part where I know nothing," she admitted. "So you guys decide how to run tryouts for positions, and organize them into teams. Try doing a bit of practicing if there's time. I'm going inside to finish some paperwork. Oh, and Ron? You're the recording secretary. After the meeting, write me a full, detailed report, including accurate lists of the four teams complete with positions. Oh, and team names, too. We need accurate records if we're going to spread this throughout England." She grinned. "Have fun!" And with that, she walked into the building, leaving the four boys gaping after her. Ron in particular looked very annoyed.

After a few minutes of silence, Ron looked over at the elves who were looking at them excitedly. "Well...;what should we do? Harry?"

Harry cleared his throat."Well, I guess I'll explain to them how we're going to run this, and then we can each try them out for different positions." He walked over to the little house-elves."All right, today we're going to be giving all of you positions, and you're going to have a team. Now, there are four positions available. First, the three Chasers. They fly around passing the Quaffle to each other and trying to score. The need to be able to handle the ball well. Next, there's the Beaters. The each hold a club and hit the Bludgers at members of the opposite team. The Keeper is the goalkeeper who tries to keep the Chasers from scoring. And lastly, the Seeker hunts for the Snitch. Any questions?" He paused, and didn't see any tiny hands raised. "All right then. If you know that you are good at a specific position and want to play as it, step to the right." To his surprise, 20 of the elves stepped over. "Okay, how many of you want to be Keepers?" Four hands were raised. "Okay, perfect. What about Seekers?" Again, four hands were raised, including a grinning Dobby. "Chasers?" Six hands went up. "Beaters?" Another six. "Okay, I'll split you guys into teams." "Hey, Fred and George? Can you take those eight and figure out which two are better as Beaters than Chasers? And Ron, you help me divide these guys into teams."

In the end, Dobby was the captain of his team, Clunky was the captain of hers, and the other two were named Scabby and Dubbly. Now the only thing left to do was pick names. Scabby was not a very unique elf and called her team the Socks. Dubbly had a sense of humor and called his team the Skrewts. Apparently the story of Hagrid's "pets" had gone through the kitchens. Clunky thought for awhile, and, after some discussion among her teams members, decided to be called the Teacozies, prompting much laughter from Harry and Ron.

Finally, Dobby went up to Harry. "Harry Potter, sir?"

"Yea, Dobby?"

"Dobby's team, we is wondering...;.well, we's very much wanting to be called the Potters."

Harry groaned to himself, thinking of how Malfoy would react if he found out there was a Quidditch team named after him. He could hear the Weasleys snickering already. "Well, Dobby, I'm not so great-"

Dobby's eyes widened. "Oh, Harry Potter must not say that, sir! Harry Potter is a great wizard, he is! We is being very honored to have such a great name! Then we is sure to win!"

Harry sighed. Dobby's eyes were so wide, he couldn't bear to say no. "Well, sure."

Dobby smiled happily. "Oh, Harry Potter is being even greater than Dobby is saying! Harry Potter is-"

"Thank you, Dobby," Harry cut him off. "You guys can all go back to work, I'm sure Hermione will tell you when the first real practice is."

The elves all smiled and waved.

Ron smirked. "You're lucky Lockhart isn't here, Harry. I can just imagine his reaction: 'Well, Harry, I've heard you've got a team named after yourself-"

Harry punched him playfully. "Well, Fred, George, we better go and leave Ron to write up his report for Hermione." And with that, they walked back to the castle, Harry trying to imagine what these game would be like.