Through the Eyes of an Elf

Never in all of my years as a house elf have I heard of anything more insulting- no- degrading as what has happened to the Skelingfur family. Their owners -their masters who were their protectors and who were the ben...beneficiaries of their loyalty and their hard work for generations - had auctioned the family off and only are keeping the neurotic uncle and his very strange immediate family. That's like pouring salt onto an open wound.

They put up a sign 'House elves for sale' in Hogsmeade. It advertised 'Come to the McGumly's cottage for the house elf auction. Bidding starts at noon. Lowest bid at only fifty knuts.' It's abuse, I tell you! It's like that stupid song I heard some Muggleborn students singing years ago about selling their brother for only fifty scents. Why would somebody sell something for fifty scents? It's absolutely ridiculous, but I will not claim to understand the Muggle world at all.

There's only one thing -well maybe more- that house elves will not tolerate humans and being sold off like the filthy livestock that they use and eat so greedily, it's treason.

Oh, this has put the British house elves in an uproar, I tell you. They are out for dirt, I tell you! Possibly even mud, but those wizards will never have another respectable family cross that threshold again. The elves there will not abandon their posts, oh no, but their sons and daughters who will move out when they get married and the house elf in service will die out with the old. Then poof! The wizards will lose their oh-so-important social standing because they will be unable to press their robes and cook for their important dinners. It does not pay to outrage the house elf in society. It takes a lot to do it but when it does happen, there is a lasting revenge. We house elves are certainly thorough with everything we do.

Anyway, there is a bright side to this. Oh yes, it is our approaching locomotive at the end of a very dark and dirty tunnel. I hate it when house elves agree to seek out vengeance against wizards -though the last time I heard it happen was before the founders of this school- it is just too dirty. Oh right, the shining light, our tinfoil lining. The Weasleys now have house elves. That's right, not one but two. They bought twins.

Oh bless them. They bought the little ones and they also arranged with the family who had bought the parents that the twins would stay with them until they are old enough to move out. I give it three to five months. They're at that age you know. The Skelingfur's are very happy about this, even if the Weasleys isn't the most well to do family in England.

Speaking of Weasleys, today is just not a happy day. Dobby just had to go off and tell Mr. Harry Potter about Mr. Draco Malfoy. After all I've done for him. Normally I'm an entirely selfless creature but he just dashed the hopes of dozens of house elves that were all depending on Mr. Potter's obliviousness. But no! He just has to park his scrawny little backside on Mr. Potter's chest and peer down at him with worry.

Just thinking about this makes me want to eat cake. I've never seen so much cake disappear in such a short period of time, though that's what happens when biscuit betting is called off. Now it's either we get plump on cake or plump on plentiful supply of tasty biscuits. Everyone chose to eat cake. You never know when something interesting may pop up. Stupid vengeance plot!

So Mr. Harry Potter is now slightly paranoid. All it took was a simple phrase. Well possible one simple-minded fool but it's all the same in the end. Quite frankly, it probably can all be contributed to his treatment while he worked for the Malfoys, though he should've been used to it by now, or rather then. I'm getting confused.

Anyway that phrase that ruined everything was "Watch your Wheezy, Mr. Potter sir." How dumb can he get? Oh well, one must assume that stupidity comes along with the territory of being an outcast. Oh no, you don't, you little weasel. You will not do this -!

Oh hello sirs and misses. Dobby -me- has stolen Cabit's journal. Dobby is a bad, bad elf but it's his duty! I had to save Mr. Potter's ship with the littlest Wheezy. No! I won't give it back! I won't! I won't! Cabit, stop telling me to go punish myself! No!

Confound that elf! He actually stole my journal and wrote in it. Well it can't be fixed now. Once it is written, it stays written. But that is the last time I use a magical quill. It writes down everything you say. It just...just makes a mess. Right, and so now to Mr. Harry Potter and that idiot Dobby's conversation-

Harry fumbled for his glasses while squinting at the blurry indescribable lump that was perched on his chest. He quickly put his glasses on and sighed with relief at the sight of Dobby. "Jeez Dobby, why don't you go give a wizard a heart attack?" he muttered with irritation.

Dobby shook his head with panic. "Oh no, no, no, not even for you Mr. Harry Potter sir." His big eyes widened further as they started to fill with tears. "I'll punish myself later but I have something very important to say to you. Most important!" he exclaimed. He got up and started to pace across Harry's chest while looking around the enclosed bed with paranoia.

"What is it Dobby?" Harry's tone resigned to the fact that Dobby would not leave until he had gotten whatever it was off his chest, or Harry's rather.

"You must remember to watch your Wheezy!" Dobby whispered, pronouncing each syllable clearly.

"Why? What's wrong with Ron?" Harry asked with growing alarm.

"Not him, the littlest Wheezy. Oh a hungry dragon has her in his sights. Most dangerous!" He shivered as his fists rose to clench his ears in panic.

Harry placed both of his hands upon Dobby's shoulders and pushed him into a sitting position. "Whose watching Ginny?" A crease between his eyebrows formed and an anxious note crept into his tone.

"The silver dragon, he's a snake!" he exclaimed before his hands rushed up and smacked against his mouth painfully. Tears formed in his eyes again as he watched Harry's face. "Oh, Mr. Harry Potter sir! Promise Dobby you'll watch Miss Wheezy. He wants to do more than watch her." And with that, his fingers were stuffed into his mouth and bitten down upon. Hard.

Harry nodded slowly. "Sure, I'll be sure to do that. Stop chewing of your fingers please Dobby, you really haven't done anything wrong."

"Oh but Dobby has sir. Oh I'll try to punish myself quietly because Harry Potter does not like it when I'm noisy. Oh my head will hurt," he cried as he bashed his head against one of the wooden posts of Harry's bed.

"Dobby! No Dobby, stop doing that. You'll wake everybody up," Harry urged in a loud whisper. "Oh fuck," he muttered after he heard a loud thump of something hitting the wall near his bed.

"Shut up Harry! Give a guy some bloody peace will you?" Seamus yelled grumpily.

"Sorry," Harry called back, glaring at Dobby. "Now please just go Dobby. I'll watch Ginny, really I will." The house elf's relief was apparent even through the expression of distress.

"Oh thank you Harry Potter! You're most good. So kind," he mumbled as he disappeared.

Harry shook his head slightly and sighed, "Always waking me up to tell me about a 'Wheezy'."

"He is not, now go back to sleep," Ron grumbled sleepily to his best friend.

The raven-haired boy sank down into his bed and took off his glasses once again fumbling to put them on something stable. Placing them on what he thought was his bedside table he closed his eyes and tried to drift of to sleep. "Dumb thoughts," he muttered, shifting into a new position. His thoughts must not have been very pressing for he soon fell asleep.

Harry draped his arm over his eyes, shielding them from the late morning light. "Oi, Ron, no more opening the drapes before we're all up," he protested loudly.

Ron snorted in response, "Sure, that's why you had that conversation with that Lilliputian last night when we were trying to sleep. Get up you lazy cow, you'll miss breakfast."

The messy haired boy sat up in bed with a start and climbed out of his bed. "Thanks Ron, I can't be late again, Gin would kill me if I made her miss the pancakes." He stopped talking as he remembered his conversation with Dobby and a scowl crossed his face.

"What's wrong with you?" Ron asked curiously.

Harry shook his head as he quickly pulled a shirt over his pale but toned torso. "I just remembered something Dobby warned me about."

"Oh? Is You-Know-Who going to rise up from the dead yet again and make Hermione's worst nightmare come true?" his expression belying his cheerful words.

"No, not this time, you overgrown carrot," he joked good naturedly, "It has something to do with Ginny and her being stalked by Malfoy or something."

Ron clenched his firsts and muttered something that sounded like "pompous git" but it could have been "Puddlemere kit" but that wouldn't have made any sense.

Harry put a soothing hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Relax, it's not like she's in love with him or anything. She likes him about as much as you like spiders."

Ron glared at Harry. "I don't like spiders," he said bluntly.

"Exactly, so you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Besides Gin and I are like cake and ice cream, it just works."

"Isn't that pie and ice cream? Cake goes best alone because the texture is far moister than a piecrust and if you added ice cream, the icing flavor would overpower the subtleties of the ice cream, unless you consider ice cream cake. Now that is a brilliant combination," Ron started to ramble.

Harry looked at Ron with amazement. Ron shrugged as if to ask 'Oops, did I forget to mention that I'm obsessed with finding the perfect dessert?' Harry's eyebrows rose and then he sighed, "whatever you say mate, whatever you say," and then left their dorm laughing.

Hermione and Ginny looked up at the sound of their voices. "Good morning you two, what's tickling your funny bones?" Ginny asked curiously from her position on the couch.

"Ron was just telling me about the delicate combination of cake and ice cream," Harry elaborated. He reached over and ruffled her smooth hair. "Good morning to you too, my little bundle of sunshine," he murmured as he planted a kiss on her scowling face.

Ginny let out an indignant little screech and her hands flew up to straighten her fiery waves. "Harry! You touched my hair! And I'm not your little bundle of sunshine." she cried out.

"Why yes I did, I would worry if you hadn't noticed," Harry replied with amusement, ignoring the second half of her comment.

"Harry, how many times do I have to tell you that unless you're directly related to a girl, you do not mess up her perfectly arranged hair? I thought we went through this," Hermione relied teasingly over her shoulder from the entrance to the hallway.

Harry chuckled and pulled the formerly annoyed but now giggling redhead to her feet. "Forgive me love?" he asked tenderly. "You always look great no matter what condition your hair is in." He ran his callused fingers through her hair before starting after his best friends.

Ginny stiffened and her eyes grew wide. "What did you just call me?" her voice slightly tinged with panic.

"I called you 'love'." Harry looked at her curiously. "Is that a problem?" She shook her head in response but kept distance between herself and Harry all the way to the Great Hall. Harry paused at the doorway in confusion as he watched his girlfriend walk towards her friends taking the last seat in the middle of their little crowd.

"What's the matter Potter? Are you having girl problems?" a cool voice asked curiously from behind him.

Harry spun around angrily and glared at Draco. "Yes and it's all your fault, I'll have you know."

Draco raised one of his eyebrows with amusement. "Why thank you for sharing because I didn't know, nor do I really care. So how am I the cause of all your problems with your widdle relationship with Red over there," he asked curiously while jerking his thumb in Ginny's general direction.

"You're stalking her, that's how!" Harry exclaimed in an intense whisper.

Draco chuckled and walked past Harry lowering his voice so Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't hear him, "Malfoys don't stalk, we observe. You had better watch it Wide-eyed-wonder-boy, I always get what I want."

Harry sputtered with indignation, "Well you can't have her!"

Draco laughed coldly and replied, "Too late Potter, I already have her."

Ginny looked up and watched Harry and Draco ram heads like big horned sheep. "Stupid Harry," she muttered to herself as she watched Draco move swiftly to his spot at the Slytherin table. He looked towards her as if he had felt her gaze upon him and he winked at her. Ginny blushed but she smiled a little to herself.

"Don't pay any attention to that slimy git Gin, he's up to no good and he's only going to cause you trouble." Colin's voice broke through her thoughts.

From the entrance to the Great Hall, Harry watched with clenched fists and a very Malfoy like scowl adorned upon his features.

~

See its all Dobby's fault. If he hadn't warned Mr. Potter, then everything would be so much better. I think I'm going to cry because it's just so frustrating. I think I'm going to go seek some comfort from that cake Jinx is eating. She'll share with a depressed elf. She's like that. I'll try to write more after dinner, dinner always cheers me up.

TBC~>