Unfortunate Consequences of S.P.E.W.

Unfortunate Consequences of S.P.E.W.

---

March 2000: at home

Harry and Ron Apparated just outside the back door, and Ron turned the door handle. The charm on it recognised him, and opened to let them in, and they entered the kitchen. Dobby was in there, preparing some food, and cheerfully greeted them.

'I bet Hermione and Luna are in the study,' said Ron, leading the way there. 'What are we going to tell them?'

'The truth,' said Harry with a shrug. 'You don't think they're going to feel guilty about the Malfoys, do you?'

'It's not what Hermione expected when she started S.P.E.W., is it?' Ron asked, opening the study door. 'Hi. We're back, and there's ba-, well, there's news.'

*

1994 - 2000: history of the situation

Once it had seemed so simple, even if only Hermione had mustered any enthusiasm for it. Her Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare had been inspired by her discovery of how badly house-elves were treated, and given more impetus by the fact that Hogwarts had over a hundred house-elves. She had managed to persuade some of her fellow pupils to buy badges, but nobody else had really been interested. That was, until one day in the sixth year when she, Ron and Harry had been strolling near the lake, and had found Luna Lovegood talking to a house-elf. As soon as he had seen people approaching, the house-elf had vanished, and Luna had been annoyed that the trio had scared him off.

Hermione, much to her surprise, had found a friend in Luna, if not quite a kindred soul, and a willing participant in S.P.E.W. Luna's own rather unique view of the world had even helped in persuading the house-elves that they did want their freedom. Harry hadn't been quite clear how she'd done it, but from Hermione's mood after some of their meetings, he'd got the impression that Luna had probably been telling the elves about Fudge's secret army of Heliopaths, and the goblin pies he'd been enjoying for years. It had seemed plausible that she had been trying to use their indignation at the mistreatment of other non-humans to open their eyes to the extent of their own mistreatment by wizards.

Whatever Luna had managed to contribute to the cause, she and Hermione together had managed to start a real movement among the school's house-elves for their freedom, the Elfish Love of Freedom (E.L.F.), and Dumbledore had been happy to pay them and offer them time off, to both girls' delight.

The elves of Hogwarts had started using their new free time to visit the elves they knew outside Hogwarts, trying to spread the word of E.L.F.; for most of these house-elves, the story had been very different. Scared by the mere thought of losing their unpaid slaves, many wizarding families had actually started to treat their house-elves worse than before. Some families, though, had started to treat their elves better, even offering pay and time off in order to keep their indispensable services. (Many of these elves had felt so happy about their improved treatment that they had declined the money.) There were some families who'd always treated their elves well anyway, and whose elves had already been quite happy.

The Ministry of Magic had taken the attitude embodied in the statues in the fountain that had once been in their Atrium -- that house-elves worshipped wizards and were lucky to be given the chance to serve them. While some Ministry employees had tried to stop the situation worsening, the official attitude had remained unchanged.

They had, however, taken action against the Dementors. A little more than a year after they had freed the Death Eaters from Azkaban in the trio's fifth year at Hogwarts, the Dementors themselves had all been captured and locked away in a sealed building. The Ministry hoped to be able to regain control over them later. In the meantime, Azkaban had been reopened with security trolls as guards.

By the time the trio had left Hogwarts, many house-elves had joined the freedom movement just to escape their abusive masters. They were thought to be living wild in the few remaining remote places in the country, using their magic to prepare food from whatever they could find or scavenge. Hermione had explained to Harry that Dobby and other free elves had realised that they could trick the masters just as Harry had once tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing Dobby. Harry had suspected that elves were also hiding somewhere near Hogwarts, where the movement had started, although it seemed unlikely that they'd be betraying Dumbledore's trust in them by acting against wizards. He'd also wondered if any were using something similar to the Imperius Curse to force other elves' masters to free them.

Harry and Ron had joined the Ministry to train as Aurors, and Hermione had started a business as a private developer of Experimental Charms. When Luna had left Hogwarts, she'd joined Hermione as a partner, and they'd worked well together.

Following their marriage, Ron and Hermione had used the income from her business to buy a house of their own. Since they'd chosen a house large enough to cope if they ever had children, they had invited Harry and Luna, who had started dating, to live in two of the spare rooms. Dobby had joined them, pleased to be working for Harry, who he idolised for tricking his old master into freeing him, and the two women who'd helped start E.L.F.. Nobody in the house had quite been sure if they wanted a house-elf servant, but Harry didn't mind paying him, and nobody had wanted to tell him to leave. Besides, as Ron said when Dobby had arrived, it meant nobody had to put up with Ron's attempts to cook.

*

March 2000: the study

Hermione and Luna both looked up as the men entered. 'What news?' Hermione asked.

'Hello, Harry,' said Luna. 'Why isn't the news bad?'

'The Malfoys' house-elf has turned on them. They're all dead, and the house is wrecked. Two of the Aurors are checking the wreckage, but it looks as though the house-elf escaped,' said Harry. This was the first instance of any of the house-elves actually killing their masters.

'Oh, good,' said Luna, turning her attention back to the pile of parchments in front of her.

'Oh, no. I don't want this sort of thing to happen. Not even to the Malfoys,' said Hermione, frowning. 'How can we stop this going any further? And how did Dobby react?'

'We told you first,' said Ron, kissing her.

'I'll tell Dobby. You know, if Lucius Malfoy hadn't bribed his way out of Azkaban, he'd still be alive,' said Harry, going back out to the kitchen.

Dobby took the news well. 'Dobby is not sorry. They were bad evil wizards. Dobby is happy here, and free, and paid. Maybe masters will be nicer to other elves now.'

Harry smiled at him, as he also felt happy there. When he'd first accepted his friends' offer to move in, he'd wondered if it would feel awkward, but living in the house felt almost like a continuation of their friendship at Hogwarts. Although they wouldn't be earning full salaries until their training ended in August 2001, both men were receiving some pay, and the money still in his vault meant that he could easily pay rent on his part of the house; even Ron couldn't consider rent to be charity, after all.

Later in the evening, Ron came into the lounge, where Harry and Luna were sitting side by side. 'Tonks just called us with more bad news. It looks as if E.L.F. planned a series of attacks to happen today.'

Following him in, Hermione nodded. 'It wasn't just the Malfoys who were attacked. Crabbe and Goyle's families just avoided being killed.'

Ron asked, 'How bad do you think this is going to get?'

'I'm not heartbroken yet, after the number of times Malfoy tried to curse me since the tournament,' said Harry. 'I wonder what else will happen -- and will they go after Voldemort as well as Death Eaters? Dobby once told me things were worse for them when he was active last time. What about you two? You didn't expect dead Death Eaters when you started working for house-elf rights.'

'It's all wrong,' said Hermione, shaking her head. 'We have to find a way to stop this, and fast!'

'Repression leads to rebellion and new repressions,' said Luna. 'I hope the elves don't suffer for this.'

Harry smiled. As usual, Luna had come up with a different viewpoint on the whole situation.

*

2000: developments

Luna had been right. News of the deaths -- Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy had all been killed -- caused some wizard families to force their house-elves to accept freedom, in many cases against their will. The families were too scared about what might happen to want to keep their former servants in their houses. These elves formed a countermovement to the existing freedom movement, known as Return Our Previous Existence (R.O.P.E.). They chose the name to symbolise the bonds of duty, although Hermione witheringly described it as the bonds of slavery when she heard about them from Winky telling Dobby. R.O.P.E. members held protest meetings demanding that they be allowed to return to work for their families, but, in deference to the tradition that elves were never seen by wizards, they hid whenever they might be seen, rendering their protests ineffective. If it hadn't been for E.L.F. members trying to discredit R.O.P.E., wizards wouldn't even have known R.O.P.E. existed.

Luna managed to arrange a meeting with E.L.F. to try to persuade them to go more slowly, but found that she'd been too successful earlier in persuading them to try to change their lives. Only a few elves in E.L.F. were convinced to stop the more aggressive approach.

E.L.F. members extended their attacks on oppressive families, and managed to paralyse, but not kill, Voldemort. It seemed that Dobby wasn't the only elf who remembered Voldemort's previous reign of terror, and how house-elves then were treated like vermin by their masters.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters had been carrying out hit-and-run attacks against easy targets, and the Aurors had been struggling to gain any sort of edge in the battle against him. It was generally believed that Voldemort's paralysis was a peace-offering on the part of the E.L.F. members, though dissenting voices suggested it was merely a personal revenge on their part. Thanks to Sybill Trelawney's prophecy that it would be Harry who killed him, the Ministry ordered Harry to execute the captive in cold blood.

Harry hated the idea of having to kill even Voldemort in cold blood, and could only bring himself to do it by thinking of his parents and all the other members of the old Order of the Phoenix who'd died fighting Voldemort. Besides, he told himself, this one death would prevent many future deaths of innocents.

*

July 2000: the lounge

Harry threw the Daily Prophet down onto the coffee table so hard that it slid right across and onto the floor, startling Crookshanks. 'That's disgusting! "Hero Potter vanquishes He Who Must Not Be Named", indeed! All I had to do was pour poison into that wound.' Luna hugged him.

'It's that prophecy about you being the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord,' said Ron sympathetically. 'Everyone just assumes nobody else could deal the death blow -- heck, you did better at fifteen months old than anyone else ever managed.'

'Did anyone else try?' Luna asked Harry. He just nodded.

'Kingsley and a lot of others who've been after him for years tried,' said Ron. 'Three guesses how well it worked.'

'This isn't a joke!' Harry snapped. 'All right, so he's not going to kill anyone else ever again ...'

'That sounds to me a good enough reason to do what you had to,' said Hermione. 'Everyone thought he was dead before, but he came back. Everyone knew Pettigrew was dead -- but he wasn't. Sirius was the only innocent person to escape from Azkaban, but enough Death Eaters have escaped that it's not safe to just imprison Voldemort. Nobody even knew Barty Crouch had escaped.'

'I know why he had to die,' Harry said, more calmly. 'But you accept it as something necessary, not something heroic. Did you see the Prophet saying I should get the Order of Merlin just for finishing him off? The elves caught him, and that hardly got a mention.'

'No, I know why you're upset. All right, we agree anyway, so I've said my piece.'

*

2000: career changes

Harry resigned from the Ministry and hardly ever went out in public except when he used a modified Polyjuice potion which made him look like a combination of Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville. Hermione and Luna gave him the responsibility for talking to their customers in layman's terms about the charms they had asked to have created.

After a while, Luna taught Harry some basic runes, enough that he could also help them by finding their files, and could read enough of the notes to put the right folder with the requirement reports in the in-tray.

Ron qualified as a probationary Auror, a new status brought in to cope with the emergency, and joined the rest of the department in capturing the remaining Death Eaters, although E.L.F. members also succeeded in killing more of Voldemort's former minions. Although the names of some of the killers among the E.L.F. members were known, the Aurors found it very difficult to track them down, with the magic abilities that the elves possessed.

Since they still had Death Eaters to track down, the Ministry decided to offer wizarding households Clabberts which were charmed to be invisible to Muggles. The International Confederation of Wizards was uneasy about this, but agreed to suspend fines during the emergency, as some sort of warning system was clearly needed. There was also increased demand for Kneazle licences.

*

October 2000: the study

Harry was watching Luna writing runes on a piece of parchment, relating to a charm she was trying to develop, while Hermione worked on a different project. Once again, he wished he'd taken Ancient Runes instead of Divination, and could do more than just the basics after getting the requirement reports to help the two women. He did help them when it came to testing the finished charms.

Ron returned and entered the study. 'H'lo everyone. Good news -- we caught Mulciber today. That's the last of them, as far as anyone can tell. We promised to throw him into Azkaban, far away from any house-elves, and he couldn't wait to tell us everything he knew. Not a single new name came up.'

'That's wonderful!' cried Hermione, embracing him. 'You'll be a lot safer now, and I won't be worrying as much.'

'You said you weren't!'

'I didn't want to upset you,' she admitted. 'I couldn't help worrying though.'

'Yeah. It's not the end of the house-elves' attacks, though. We're going to have to start dealing with them full-time now, and they're still going to be hard to track.'

'Do you mean just persuading them to stop, or something more violent?'

'I think it's too late for persuasion. I don't know if you heard, but the Patil twins died yesterday with the rest of their family.'

Hermione shook her head, staring at him in surprise. 'Parvati?'

'Yes -- they're killing families who were cruel to elves in the past, and pure-bloods like Parvati and Padma are included.'

'But your family will be OK, won't they?' asked Harry, worried. 'And you and your dad, Luna? You never had any house-elves, did you?'

'We didn't, no,' said Ron. 'I'm just hoping the elves know that. At least there won't be any reason for them to think of us. We should be safe enough here; it sounds as though Dobby told every other house-elf he knows about you freeing him, and Hermione and Luna are famous among the elves. Just as well they're not as famous among wizards for what they did.'

'Dad interviewed some house-elves once, about what You-Know-Who had been like,' said Luna abstractedly, as she continued to write runes in three columns. 'I don't think he'll be in trouble after that, and you won't, Harry, because Dobby will tell them you're all right.'

'Hogwarts is safe too, since E.L.F. started there, and Dumbledore supports them,' said Hermione.

'Cornelius Fudge has resigned, freed his house-elf, and sealed his house up as well as he can, apparently,' said Ron. 'He's so paranoid, he's made himself his own Secret Keeper. Now nobody can remember where he lives, and if he's killed, we might not know about it either, unless the elves who do it come and tell us. Though I suppose owls will still get to him.'

'Who's going to be the new Minister, then?' Harry asked.

'No idea. It won't be Dad, though. I don't think it'll be Percy, either. If he gets made the Minister, I'll join you in resigning, Harry.'

Luna started drawing lines between the columns of runes. Harry watched, wondering if she was doodling or working. It was often hard to tell the difference, as many of the more complicated runes looked like doodles anyway. She commented, 'They ought to make a goblin the Minister. House-elves don't hate goblins.'

'It's not very likely, though, is it?' Hermione asked her. 'Can you really imagine lots of prejudiced wizards wanting a goblin to be the new Minister?'

'It'd make up for all those pies, anyway,' replied Luna. She was now writing numbers along the lines she'd drawn.

'Fudge did not bake goblins into pies!' snapped Ron.

'Well, of course not. Not personally, he was the Minister. He got his house-elf to do it for him, with some people to help catch them. Do you think I'm stupid?'

Harry tried to hide his smile as he glanced at Ron to see what he'd say. Ron made do with a muttered, 'Goblin pies -- ridiculous.'

*

2000 - 2001: the situation worsens

A few months after Fudge's resignation, members of E.L.F. had heard about the imprisoned Dementors from a wizard, who was desperate to divert their attention from him. This wizard, one of those who'd put the charms on the building to keep the Dementors locked up, had told the elves that the Dementors had been oppressed and then imprisoned for rebelling. One elf had stayed with him, threatening him with serious injury if he'd lied to them, but offering to keep him alive if the information was useful. The others had freed the horrifying creatures, uniting their magic to tear open the doors. Only two E.L.F. members had died during the Dementors' escape, but now the hideous creatures roamed the country, hungry for victims and out of all control. The elves had returned to the wizard and inflicted near-fatal injuries before being scared away by an Auror who happened to be looking for the wizard. The wizard later told the Aurors, as he was recovering in St Mungo's, that he'd hoped the elves would suffer the same feelings of terror that the Dementors had once caused in him, but it seemed the elves suffered less from the effects.

Hammut Cross, the new Minister, set the Aurors the job of capturing, or preferably destroying, all of the Dementors. The Aurors now had the option of using a new charm, which was based on the Patronus Charm. Unlike that older charm, the Mentelatus Charm destroyed the Dementors it was used against. It hadn't existed when the Dementors were imprisoned. Many of the Dementors were hiding in Muggle areas, where nobody could see them, and Aurors had to be cautious. Ron was promoted after successfully tracking down and destroying three Dementors single-handedly.

The members of R.O.P.E., assuming that the release of the Dementors was part of a deliberate policy to attack wizards, finally rebelled openly against E.L.F., and the two groups started to fight, instead of merely arguing. Hundreds of house-elves on both sides were injured or even killed.

*

May 2001: the lounge

'I can't believe it,' said Hermione numbly. 'I just wanted to make things better for them, and now they're killing each other. It wasn't supposed to be like this.'

'And poor Neville,' said Luna, sitting beside her and staring off into space. Harry didn't think her expression was connected to recent events, as she'd looked like that in happier times.

'I didn't even know the Longbottoms had a house-elf,' said Ron. 'His Gran ... it was horrible. Really, really horrible.' His team of Aurors had been sent to investigate what had happened there, and Ron had seen the bodies. 'I'm glad we got Neville to St Mungo's in time, though. I've told Ginny, but I don't think they'll let her see him for a while.' Neville was Ginny's current boyfriend.

Harry nodded and looked at the Daily Prophet. The Longbottoms were a popular family, and the deaths of Neville's grandmother and uncle took up all of the front page, and some of the interior pages too. Even the news that Cross's owls had returned without delivering letters to Fudge had been pushed to page eight. It was now virtually certain that Fudge had been killed too.

'This is worse than when Voldemort was active,' said Harry, folding the paper and putting it on the coffee table. 'I don't see how this can end in anything but a disaster. The wizards won't accept the elves back after this, and R.O.P.E. won't settle for anything less. E.L.F. might stop fighting soon, but I don't think R.O.P.E. will.'

'We heard today that both movements have reached Egypt,' said Ron. 'Europe's already been covered by them, and it's not stopping. Seamus' family are OK, but a lot of their neighbours died before the elves took ships and went to North America. Fleur's lost her whole family -- Bill told me. Even that little one who was her hostage in the Tournament.' Bill and Fleur had married just after the trio had left Hogwarts.

'So the fighting will spread to America next,' said Hermione, still sounding numb. 'I just wanted them to get treated decently. If it had worked better, they wouldn't have had to revolt like this, they wouldn't have had to use violence.'

Ron hugged her. 'I know you did. You couldn't have known what would happen.'

*

2001 - 2002: the worst point of the Elf War

Even at that late stage, it was impossible to guess how much worse events would get.

By now, the E.L.F. and R.O.P.E. movements had spread to every part of the world where there were wizards, which meant everywhere except Antarctica.

Lots of people were selling supposed anti-elf amulets and charms, none of which worked. Centuries of taking elves for granted had led to the contempt of familiarity, and various international government departments were having trouble learning enough about the elves to keep them from entering buildings. Hammut Cross was shocked to discover that nobody even had any idea how many elves there were in the country. There'd always been enough, somehow, to meet wizards' needs, and nobody had ever questioned where they came from. Now there were fears that they might have a high birth-rate, or that they could even create new elves rapidly somehow. Nobody knew.

Some elves were trapped by Aurors during a fight between E.L.F. and R.O.P.E. members, and the prisoners were placed under Imperius and controlled so that they wouldn't escape, but could be used to test new ideas to protect buildings against elves entering. Progress was slow. The elves were asked about their birth-rate, but seemed either unwilling or unable to give the answers. The Aurors couldn't risk asking them anything which would allow them to shake off their control and escape, so Veritaserum was used instead. This killed the elf it was first tried on -- nobody knew what the correct dose should have been. A dose at half the strength killed a second elf, and the experiment was abandoned while they still had captives left.

At this point, Feargal Harper, a wizard who'd spent much of his ninety years being mocked for his life work investigating the history, culture and lives of elves, suddenly found his work in great demand. He had never investigated the correct dose of Veritaserum to use on elves. However, his work brought bad news, as it revealed there were more elves than anyone but Feargal had ever imagined.

House-elves from a fringe group of R.O.P.E., driven half-mad by their enforced freedom, attacked the dragon reservation in Rumania where Charlie worked. They hoped to direct the dragons in flight by riding on them and stinging them to make them turn, dive or speed up, and use them to attack wizarding households who refused to take them back. However, the dragons were harder to control than the elves had expected, and the attack only meant that the keepers were unable to keep the dragons under control. Several keepers had died, and the dragons were now free.

This development, with elves simply striking out without considering the consequences, spelt an end to hopes of a reasonable solution. There were now so many dragons flying openly during the day that it was impossible to even keep track of how many Muggles had seen them, let alone put Memory Charms on them all. Some wizards tried putting concealment charms on dragons, but they were as resistant to those as to Stunning spells. The reservation had been in Eastern Europe, and the freed dragons spread out across much of that continent. By now, the conflict was no longer being referred to as a revolt, but as the Elf War.

Worse, for the quartet, was the news that Charlie had been killed in the attack. Mrs Weasley had been dreading the deaths of her children since the Order of the Phoenix had been restarted, but Charlie, well away from Voldemort on the dragon reservation, had seemed to be the safest of all of them. Now her worst fear had come true, and Ginny was spending much of her time comforting her. Ron and her other sons visited the Burrow as often as possible, as did Harry, Hermione and Luna. The twins left their shop in Lee and Angelina's hands for the time being, and spent all day with their mother.

Dementors continued to run riot in Muggle areas, using the Dementor's Kiss to leave many Muggles soulless, and Hermione insisted that her parents move into the house with them, where she could protect them. Mr and Mrs Granger were unable to see the Dementors, being Muggles, making it impossible for them to defend themselves.

Oliver Wood and Katie Bell, who had set up house together, died in an E.L.F. attack seeking revenge for mistreatment by a great-grandfather of Oliver's. (The family's elf had helped Oliver move out of his house, and knew where they lived.)

Susan Bones died with the rest of her family, a particularly cruel twist for a family that had been almost destroyed by Death Eaters over twenty years earlier, and who'd thought they were now safe after Voldemort's death and the arrest of the last of the Death Eaters.

*

June 2002: the lounge

Hermione and Luna had started talking to each other in an ancient language Harry didn't even know the name of. They were still working on developing new charms, but they wouldn't tell either him or Ron what they were for.

'I asked her again last night,' said Ron, as he and Harry sat in the lounge, having been asked, fairly politely, to leave the study. 'She just said it's important, they've been struggling with it for ages and it's not a commission by anyone, and please could she get some sleep so she could concentrate today.'

'Luna just answered me in whatever language they're using,' said Harry. 'So you did better than me, anyway.' He and Luna still had separate bedrooms, but Luna usually slept in his bed now, for their mutual reassurance. Ron had said nothing about it, and Hermione, if she'd noticed, had said nothing to Harry about it -- or, at least, nothing in English. Harry wondered if she'd talked to Luna, though.

'I suppose Luna does remember how to speak English, still,' said Ron. 'With her, you have to wonder.'

'I'm sure she does. Though it must be a week since I heard her say anything in English.'

'Was it anything helpful?' Ron asked.

'Not really. She just said it's easier to think about creating new charms in a language that wasn't developed by Muggles, and the project they're working on wasn't getting anywhere when they kept talking in English. You know, when Hermione picked Ancient Runes years ago, I never thought it was actually useful.'

'I suppose that would explain why they're both using it. I like it better than the idea they don't even trust us any more.'

Harry shrugged. 'Whether she trusts me or not, Luna still seems to care for me.'

'Yeah. It's not that I really doubt Hermione, but ... the way things are going, sometimes I wonder who you can trust.'

'Still worrying about Percy?'

Percy had resigned from the Ministry, shocking the rest of his family, and announced he was setting up a human annex of E.L.F., the People For Elvish Rights (P.F.E.R.). So far it didn't have many members; as Ginny said, it might have helped if he'd picked a group of initials that people could easily pronounce, as both groups of elves had managed to do. Percy didn't know about S.P.E.W. -- those who did know about it were keeping very quiet now that the elves were no longer passive. Remus Lupin and Firenze the centaur had joined P.F.E.R., which gave it a wider appeal to non-humans than Percy had originally intended. Percy wasn't going to turn down anyone who actually wanted to join, though, and promised that P.F.E.R. would deal with prejudice against other non-humans once the Elf War was over. Apparently to help remind himself of this promise, he changed it to the Non-Elves For Non-human Rights (N.E.F.N.R.) which Ginny said wasn't much of an improvement.

'He's wanted to work for the Ministry since before I started at Hogwarts. OK, so I know he made a complete hash of his first year, and was one of those calling you a liar and violent in his second year there, but it's still a shock. I'm just wondering ... was it really his own idea? Suppose the elves have learnt the Imperius Curse?'

'I hope you're wrong,' said Harry. 'I'd prefer to think it's his conscience acting, plus the fact that he's been stuck in a dead-end job for six years now.'

Mr Granger was sitting reading the Daily Quibble. After a nasty article by Rita Skeeter about the elves, the elves had attacked the Prophet's offices, killing her among others. Another attack had destroyed its printing works. The remaining members of its staff had wanted to be able to continue the paper, and Luna's father had come to an agreement to print a daily paper. This led to a strange combination of articles, as some of the items in there were certainly not from any of the Prophet's usual reporters. He looked up. 'It's not true about the elves fighting on the moon, is it?'

'I doubt it,' said Ron. 'There's nothing up there to fight for. Nobody can Apparate or fly that far.'

'I wish Hermione would talk to us. I know she's worried about our safety, but she's made us come here, where we can't even see our friends, and we haven't even see much of her this week. Even with this emergency, people still need dental work done, and we're going to need the money from the practice.'

'And there's this stupid business about not having a phone,' said Mrs Granger irritably. 'I don't see why wizards can't have phones in their houses.' She leant forward, trying to avoid disturbing Crookshanks in her lap, to take a mug of coffee, which Dobby had just brought in. 'I'm surprised that Dobby is still here.'

'He loves Harry,' said Ron, taking a mug too. 'Well, and Hermione, who was about the first person to encourage him in wanting freedom for other elves. Anyway, it means we're safe from the elves, since he was pretty much the start of all this -- he seems to be some sort of elf hero.' He didn't mention the R.O.P.E. elves, as they weren't likely to share that view, but as long as they knew there was a house-elf there, and E.L.F. members kept his role in the conflict quiet, R.O.P.E. were unlikely to trouble them. At least, he hoped so.

'I can't believe that something Hermione did has caused so much trouble.'

'She meant well,' said Harry quietly. 'Nobody could have guessed it would turn out like this.'

'But what is she doing in there with Luna?' asked Mrs Granger. 'Don't either of you have any idea?'

'None at all,' said Harry. 'Creating new charms, I suppose, but I've no idea what they'll do.'

'Not me,' said Ron. 'I didn't even understand all the classes I did at school -- without her help, I'd never have passed so many exams.'

'None of what those two are doing was even covered in the classes either of us took,' added Harry, sipping at his coffee. 'All I can read on those parchments are the numbers Luna keeps writing on them, and I don't know if they're doodles or work.'

'Doodles,' guessed Ron. 'Hermione doesn't join things up like that.'

'OK, so all I can recognise are Luna's doodles. Some help I am. How about you, Ron? You haven't said much recently about your work.'

Ron shrugged. 'Nothing pleasant. We found Fudge's house, and the bodies of him and his family.'

'How did you manage that, with the Fidelius Charm?'

Ron grimaced. 'Someone reported a bad smell. It seems the charm wore off when he died.'

The other three shuddered in sympathy. Ron added, 'I wish now I'd tried professional Quidditch instead of being an Auror.'

The study door opened, and Hermione and Luna came out to join them, each holding a long thin strip of parchment.

'Getting hungry?' asked Ron hopefully. 'Or are you going to talk to us?'

Luna answered him in the same language she'd been using. Harry groaned. It was just more of the same.

'Or, "We've done it; at least, we hope so" in English,' Hermione translated. 'Luna, we can talk in English again.'

'Can we? Oh.'

'So what's this?' Ron asked Hermione. 'An experimental charm to make us immune to the war?'

'Not exactly. Luna and I have been feeling really guilty about all this ...'

'All you wanted was better lives for the house-elves, you didn't want all this,' said Harry.

'Yes, I know, but it's not about what I wanted, it's what we actually caused. So many people are dead -- and I'm counting the elves as people.'

'You would,' said Ron under his breath.

'We can't bring them back to life,' said Hermione as if she hadn't heard him, 'but maybe we can stop it now. Harry, do you feel like a long journey on your Firebolt?'

'I suppose so. Have I got to take those parchments to someone? Why not use Floo powder, or Apparate?'

Hermione looked nervous. 'We just want to tie them onto your broom. They're self-casting charms -- we were inspired by prayer flags, so they'll cast themselves if they flutter in the breeze, so we just need you to fly across an area, and the area will be covered by them.'

'OK, that sounds easy enough. Where do you want me to fly?'

'Over Greater London,' said Luna. 'Zigzag across, about a mile further each time. We want to make sure this works there first -- and if it does, the Ministry can send people with more copies of the parchments to other parts of the world.'

'What will they do?' asked her mother.

'They'll work on the elves' minds, on their consciences,' Hermione said, looking down at the floor. 'Elves who've killed anyone, or elves who are planning anything aggressive, won't be able to use their magic, except in very limited ways. At least, that's the plan. We had to base them on the Imperius Curse. This one stimulates elves' consciences, and the one Luna's got adds the control.'

'So this war will have to end?' her father asked, cheering up.

'Maybe. It won't stop the dragons and Dementors, they'll still be out of control. It won't stop wizards hurting elves, either. It's the best we can do, though.'

'If we don't have to worry about the elves, I'm sure the department can cope with the Dementors and dragons -- they can't hide as easily. We can make sure everyone knows they're safe from the elves, too,' said Ron. 'That's great! This is what you two have been working on all this time?'

'We seem to have started it,' said Luna. 'We have to finish it.'

'Nobody's going to trust the elves again,' said Harry cautiously. 'What about that?'

'I know. They'll have to be free, whether they want to be or not. This wasn't how I wanted that to happen,' Hermione said, wiping away a tear. 'They'll have to be protected somewhere too, so that angry wizards don't attack them.'

'That's not going to be easy,' warned Ron. Then he laughed. 'Hey, maybe we've just found a use for Percy! It's about time!'

'Maybe he could help. Yes, that's a good idea.'

Harry stood. 'I'll get my broom. You'll need to know as soon as possible if it does work, though I'm sure it will.'

*

2002: the end

His confidence was well-founded. Elves throughout the test area found it impossible to continue to fight. As Hermione and Luna had intended, any elves who had killed, whether their victims had been human or elf, were wracked with guilt caused by the conscience-amplifying effects of the charms, and unable to fully use their magic. Several committed suicide, adding to Hermione and Luna's own feelings of guilt; they hadn't intended the elves' guilt feelings to be so strong.

The Ministry sent experienced long-distance flyers out with copies of the parchments, and the rest of the world gradually calmed down.

N.E.F.N.R. did indeed prove to be useful in preventing wizards from taking revenge on the elves. They set up elf reservations in remote areas all over the world, which were protected from wizards. Percy was optimistic that the elves could use their magic for peaceful ends, making things that could be sold to raise money for N.E.F.N.R. to maintain the reservations and improve the elves' living standards.

The Aurors, as Ron had predicted, were able to deal quickly with the dragons and Dementors. With the danger past, Mr and Mrs Granger returned to their dental practice, once Hermione had magically repaired the damage done to the building by a dragon.

One problem caused by the war was that a lot of Muggles had seen dragons or the effects of magic. The International Confederation of Wizards discussed whether it would be safe to allow them to keep this knowledge, but voted to reimpose the secrecy first introduced in the seventeenth century. Teams of Obliviators were sent out to cover each country area by area, and gradually it appeared that any Muggles who had found out about wizards during the Elf War had been found and given Memory Charms.

The names of Hermione's parents, like those of many others who had already known about wizards, were put on a list of Muggles who did not need Memory Charms. Ron, Hermione and Luna tried to convince Harry that the Dursleys' names should also be put on the list, but he was adamant that they'd probably be happier if they forgot all about him. He was quite certain that it would make him happier, too. His friends stopped trying to persuade him, and agreed that they wouldn't add the Dursleys either.

*

January 2003: the lounge

'Percy's feeling more important than ever,' said Ron.

'Oh, let him,' said Ginny, taking her hand off Hermione's stomach. 'Are you going to be my nephew or niece?' she asked the stomach. Ron and Hermione, no longer worried about bringing children into a war-torn world, had decided to start a family.

'Whichever I have, I hope you'll start talking to me again,' said Hermione waspishly. The increased weight and her swollen ankles were much more of an annoyance than she'd expected, and pregnancy wasn't doing her temper any good.

'What do you think?' Ginny asked the bump again. 'Should I talk to your mummy, or only if she calms back down?'

'You'd better talk to her, or she won't go to your wedding,' said Harry.

Ginny smiled, and looked again at Neville's engagement ring on her finger, then sighed. 'It's nice to pretend everything's normal again. But it's not normal, not without Charlie at the wedding, or any of Neville's family. At least Mum's better now that the rest of us aren't in danger.'

'We got off lightly, when you look at Neville and others,' said Ron. 'I wish Charlie could have been an uncle, though.' Ginny nodded quietly.

'Hagrid's letting us borrow thestrals to ride to our wedding,' said Luna proudly. 'That'll be fun.'

'I think it'll be really odd!' said Ginny. 'All we'll see is you two sitting on nothing, up in the air, and moving downwards. At least you two will see that you're riding on something.'

'I think a lot of our guests will be able to see them,' said Harry sadly. 'Neville already could. I'm sure Ron can now, after being an Auror. You and Hermione are lucky not to be able to see them.'

Ron put his arm around Hermione. 'Yes. Even though Charlie's gone, we're a lot luckier than most. Little one, you're going to have two very lucky parents, who survived You-Know-Who, despite everything, and the Elf War.'

Hermione leant against him, snuggling up. 'I hope this is all behind us now. I'd really like our baby to grow up in a peaceful world.'

Ginny grinned impishly. 'Ron did tell you he thinks seven is a nice size for a family, didn't he?'

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