Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione went up to the Owlery after breakfast on Sunday to send a letter to Percy, asking, as Sirius had suggested, whether he had seen Mr. Crouch lately. They used Hedwig, as she had recently returned from delivering a letter to Y/n's grandmother. When they had watched her fly out of sight through the Owlery window, they proceeded down to the kitchen to give Dobby his new socks.
The house elves gave them a very cheery welcome, bowing and curtsying and bustling around making tea again. Dobby was ecstatic about his present.
"Harry Potter is too good to Dobby!" he squeaked, wiping large tears out of his enormous eyes.
"You saved my life with that gillyweed, Dobby, you really did." said Harry.
"No chance of more of those eclairs, is there?" said Ron, who was looking around at the beaming and bowing house elves.
"You've just had breakfast!" said Hermione irritably, but a great silver platter of eclairs was already zooming toward them, supported by four elves.
"Actually, we could use this as an opportunity to send some food to Snuffles." Y/n said to Harry remembering Sirius.
"That's a Good idea." said Ron. "Gives Pig something to do. You couldn't give us a bit of extra food, could you?" he said to the surrounding elves, and they bowed delightedly and hurried off to get some more.
"Dobby, where's Winky?" said Hermione, who was looking around.
"Winky is over there by the fire, miss." said Dobby quietly, his ears drooping slightly.
"Oh dear." said Hermione as she spotted Winky.
Y/n looked over at the fireplace too. Winky was sitting on the same stool as last time, but she had allowed herself to become so filthy that she was not immediately distinguishable from the smoke-blackened brick behind her. Her clothes were ragged and unwashed. She was clutching a bottle of butterbeer and swaying slightly on her stool, staring into the fire. As they watched her, she gave an enormous hiccup.
"She is inebriated the poor thing." Y/n commented.
"Winky is getting through six bottles a day now." Dobby whispered to them.
"Well, it's not strong, that stuff." Harry said.
But Dobby shook his head. "'Tis strong for a house-elf, sir." he said.
Winky hiccuped again. The elves who had brought the eclairs gave her disapproving looks as they returned to work.
"Winky is pining, Harry Potter." Dobby whispered sadly. "Winky wants to go home. Winky still thinks Mr. Crouch is her master, sir, and nothing Dobby says will persuade her that Professor Dumbledore is her master now."
"Hey, Winky." said Harry, struck by a sudden inspiration, walking over to her, and bending down. "You don't know what Mr. Crouch might be up to, do you? Because he's stopped turning up to judge the Triwizard Tournament."
Winky's eyes flickered. Her enormous pupils focused on Harry. She swayed slightly again and then said. "M...Master is stopped..." hic "coming?"
"No one has seen him since the first task Winky." Y/n told her now. "The Daily Prophet is reporting that he is ill."
Winky swayed some more, staring blurrily up at Y/n. "Master..." hic "ill?" Her bottom lip began to tremble.
"But we're not sure if that's true." said Hermione quickly.
"Master is needing his..." hic "Winky!" whimpered the elf. "Master cannot..." hic "manage..." hic - "all by himself..."
"Other people manage to do their own housework, you know, Winky." Hermione said severely.
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Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)
FanfictionY/n Grindelwald is boy born into a powerful but feared wizarding family. At the age of 11 he has received his invitation to learn magic at the famous Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. What awaits this boy in his seven school years? Uncerem...
