Harry Potter Hogwarts Caretaker

Chapter 6: Fred

When Harry came back to his office after an uncomfortable breakfast at the staff table the next morning he found Dobby sitting on his desk.

"Harry Potter, Sir!" the little house elf squealed and raced over to hug him. "Dobby is so happy to see Harry Potter Sir again!"

"You want to work with me, Dobby?" Harry asked slightly surprised even though he remembered the house elf's adoration for him.

"It is big honour for Dobby to work for Harry Potter Sir!" the elf confirmed. "Harry Potter Sir saved Dobby. Made Dobby free. Then Dobby get good job from Professor Dumbledore Sir. Dobby likes working at Hogwarts. And now Dobby can even work for Harry Potter Sir. Dobby owes it all to Harry Potter Sir. Harry Potter Sir is so kind to let Dobby work for Harry Potter Sir."

Harry had to smile at that. Good old Dobby. Maybe working at Hogwarts wouldn't be all that bad, if he managed to spend most of his time with pets and house elves. Harry got out a piece of parchment, a quill and some ink.

"Alright, then lets start with the daily schedule. What did Mr. Filch usually do first thing in the morning?"

"First thing in the morning Mr. Filch Sir get out of bed and go into bathroom." answered Dobby obediently.

"Okay, okay. I meant: What did he do after he'd gotten dressed?" Harry tried again.

"Mr. Filch Sir feed Mrs Norris, Harry Potter Sir. Mr. Filch Sir always feed Mrs Norris himself. Never let Dobby do it for him. Never."

"Okay and after that?" Harry sighed. This was going to take a while.

"Mr. Filch Sir go to great hall and have breakfast, Harry Potter Sir."

"And after breakfast?"

"After breakfast Mr. Filch Sir and house elves start work, Harry Potter Sir."

"Right!" said Harry triumphantly. "What did each of you start with?"

"That depend on what day it was Harry Potter Sir."

"Okay." another sigh. "Then tell me what you'd all do on a Monday."

It took Harry several hours just to write down a normal working schedule for Mondays. After that he decided that both he and Dobby deserved a break from the interrogation and went to explore the school. He knew large parts of the castle from his school days, but there were still lots of corridors and disused classrooms that he'd never bothered to explore back then. Now those were part of his duties as well and he felt that it was a good idea to take a first look around. Maybe something had fallen into disrepair over the summer or someplace had been forgotten by the house elves and needed cleaning. The later did seem very unlikely though.

Harry chose a corridor he had never been in and walked from door to door opening every one and inspecting the rooms behind them. All were in perfect order and rather boring. Still Harry walked on checking door after door. Finally he came upon one that was standing slightly ajar. Maybe the lock needed fixing? Harry headed straight for that door. Coming closer he heard someone softly humming behind it. A house elf at work?

Harry walked in to investigate and found to his surprise that the room was obviously still in use. It looked curiously like an ordinary muggle classroom. There were several pictures of muggles at work and others of muggle items like cars and TVs. For a moment Harry stared at the non-moving pictures. What were they doing at a place like Hogwarts? Then it dawned on him. This had to be the classroom for muggle studies!

Having grown up among muggles himself he had never taken the subject and never bothered to find out where the class was held. Now it was important information. Harry quietly congratulated himself on his discovery. Not bad for the first day.

The humming was explained as well. Fred Weasley was sitting at the teacher's desk in the front of the room and looking up at Harry in surprise. He had obviously been humming to himself while grading homework essays.

"Oh, hi Harry! Come in for a cup of tea?" Fred smiled at him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to burst in like that. I'm just checking out the rooms. Need any repairs around here?" Harry offered hoping that Fred wouldn't be angry about the sudden interruption.

"No, everything's in fine working order, but lets go into my office so we can talk more comfortably." he walked into the office without waiting for Harry's answer.

Harry followed him a little self consciously. Fred's office was small, but very nice and Harry soon relaxed a little after Fred had pushed a cup of tea into his hand and made him sit in a comfortable armchair by the fireplace.

"It's been a very long time since I last saw you." Fred remarked casually. "Albus told me you've been travelling a lot, seen almost all of the world."

"Yes, I got around quite a bit. Mostly in the muggle world though. After all that had happened I felt more comfortable among muggles."

"You'll have to come to my class sometime and tell the children about your adventures. I've never really been to the muggle world, as you know, even though I share my Dad's fascination with the subject. I don't really know why Albus didn't give my job to someone from a muggle family. They'd be a lot more qualified." Fred smiled. "But you never can guess what Albus is thinking."

"How did you end up becoming a teacher anyway? What happened to your joke shop?" Harry asked hoping that he didn't touch on any bad memories there.

He didn't want to talk about himself. Especially not now that he knew that Albus had told everybody about his suicide attempt. Fred might try and get him to talk about it and that was really the last thing he wanted to do.

"Well, the joke shop." Fred sighed.

Obviously it was a touchy subject. Harry mentally kicked himself. He should have asked about Fred's family instead. He was curious to find out what had become of Ron and there were a lot of other brothers to talk about as well. Why did he have to inquire about the joke shop?

"It's still there, but I sold most of it to a friend. You remember Lee Jordan?"

Harry nodded. Right, Lee, the Weasley twins' best friend. Lee had always been the commentator for the Quiddich games, while he had still been in school. How could he forget Lee?

"I still own a part of it, but I never go back there. Everything there reminds me of George. Fred said staring into the fire.

"What happened to George? Was he killed in the battle?" Harry asked softly.

He felt that he had to know even though he wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Not quite. George ... we came upon that death eater attack on a muggle village that day. It was pure coincidence. We were just passing through. There were some other wizards with us and only three death eaters that we could see so we stepped in to help those poor muggles. And then we recognised Percy. George ran over to talk to him. I think he thought he could convince him to come back to our side. He never did give up on him completely. I think he almost reached him. Percy hesitated when the other death eaters started to retreat. I held our friends back from attacking him. I really thought he'd surrender. Then suddenly a fourth death eater appeared somewhere behind them and used the killing curse on George. I don't think he ever really noticed. It all went much too fast." Fred said staring intently into the flames and clutching his cup tightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Harry mumbled.

He wanted to kick himself. Why had he asked that question? He'd known that something had to be wrong. He'd had enough warnings. Fred was being nice to him and he was making him relive painful memories.

"So what's the rest of your family doing these days?" he asked hoping for better news to cheer both of them up.

There had to be a lot of little Weasleys running around by now. He just needed a way to get Fred to talk about nieces and nephews.

"Well, Percy ran away that day and ended up in Azkaban in the end. You didn't meet him there?"

"No. They kept us pretty isolated and I never was put with those that were captured after the battle at Hogwarts. They were in maximum security, I think." Now Harry was staring into the fire unable to meet Fred's eyes.

"Dad retired two years ago. He and Mum are still living happily at the burrow. Bill ... Bill fell at Hogwarts. We're real proud of him, though. I don't think you ever saw his children?"

Harry shook his head. He was feeling guilty again. Two Weasleys died heroically in the war. He hated to think about it.

"He and Susan had two kids. Twins." he smiled slightly. "Girls though. They moved into the burrow with Mum and Dad after Bill died. The kids are too young to really remember him, but they're very proud of their Dad the hero. Charlie as you know's teaching care for magical creatures. He just loves all those dangerous beasts and the children love him. I just don't understand why he doesn't want to have a family of his own. ... Well, I guess he just hasn't met the right woman yet."

"What about you?" Harry asked seeing a chance to get to a more comfortable topic. "Do you have a girlfriend or fiancee?"

"I had a girlfriend for a while, but she met some rich muggle and left me for him. But don't worry about me." he said laughing. "I'll find another. The girls just love red hair."

Harry tried to laugh too, but he only managed a weak smile.

"I guess you're single too then, Harry?"

He nodded.

"No problem. We can go out looking together. Bet you'll find someone even faster than I do. You're famous Harry Potter after all."

"Not exactly famous for good things. I doubt that many witches would want anything to do wit me at all."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that. Ginny's still available too, if you're interested. She always did like you a lot. You might have real good chances there."

"I don't know. Not that Ginny isn't pretty and all, but I never could see her as anything, but Ron's little sister. I saw her at the head table but didn't get to talk to her yet. What's she been doing all this time?"

"Oh, she was here during the big battle as well. Wanted desperately to fight, but Dad and Ron wouldn't let her so Dumbledore assigned her to the group that was watching the kids. She helped care for the wounded afterwards. Stayed longer then everybody else after the cleanup. Then Dumbledore offered her the job of charms teacher once things had calmed down and she accepted and has been here ever since."

"Charms? What happened to Flitwick?"

"Fell in the battle. He was one of those that died when the north tower collapsed I think. Couldn't dig him out in time."

They both stared into the fire silently for a few minutes after that. Only the crackling and hissing of the flames could be heard.

Harry tried not to think of the little Professor who had sacrificed his life in the battle against Voldemort. Yet another hero. Everybody seemed to be a hero around here. Most likely even his house elves had taken some part in the great battle. Everybody here seemed to be a hero in some way. Everybody except Harry. He felt like he just didn't fit in.

Finally sounds of voices drifted in from the classroom and broke the silence. Fred glanced at his watch and jumped up.

"Oh my, almost time for my next lesson. I'd better go out there and watch the kids. Some of my muggle items are really hard to replace if anything happens to them. It was nice talking to you, Harry. Come and see me again sometime soon."

Harry walked back out through the classroom and felt the kids' curious stares on him. He really ought to get some robes to wear. Those muggle clothes made him stand out too much here at Hogwarts.

Harry resumed his exploration of the muggle studies corridor and tried not to think too much about what Fred had and hadn't told him. He hadn't mentioned Ron at all. Why not? Deliberately? An oversight? Didn't get around to it? Thought that he knew?

Harry was feeling slightly worried. What had become of his once best friend? Had Ron too fallen in the battle? Or hadn't Fred wanted to tell him that Ron wanted nothing to do with him anymore? But Harry already knew that. Ron had been very clear about it the last time they'd met right after his arrest.

He went on exploring trying to keep his mind off of Ron until lunchtime. Another meal with all his former friends and enemies. At least Lavender hadn't shown up again since the sorting. Maybe he could leave all the work in the divination tower to the house elves? Harry sighed and slipped into the great hall trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

In the next chapter: we get some answers to our most pressing questions, take a walk on the grounds and watch a flying lesson.