Spells in Silence

Chapter 38: Friends and Foes

Hazel frowned as she was pulled from her sleep by a quiet popping sound. She felt as if she had barely gotten any rest at all after spending most of the night in the library, and now what little sleep she was going to get was being interrupted? For once she regretted the fact that her sleeping was so light that even a sound coming from down a hall or even on another floor was enough to rouse her—

Something touched her cheek, and her eyes flew open as she pushed herself half upright and half backwards. Anything to get her away from whatever had just touched her!

A scrawny creature with gigantic eyes and floppy ears yelped at her explosive movement and tumbled backwards out of sight behind a large box.

Hazel took several gasps of air to slow her racing heart as Morgan, woken with her sudden actively, took wing and shrieked his displeasure.

"Oh, Tinky's head…" The creature, one that now she was awake she recognized as a house-elf similar to the one she had met her first night in the castle, pulled itself up and glanced over the box at her. "What bes miss doing in the storing room? Miss should bes in her house."

'I would if I could,' she replied before standing up and stretching all the kinks out of her back. That it also gave her something to do besides pay attention to her lingering scraps of panic was a nice bonus. 'But I can't get into the Hufflepuff dorm on my own. The barrels only respond if someone talks to them, and I can't.'

The house-elf frowned at her. "Tinky not knows wizard letters. Why not miss just talks?"

Well. That was… inconvenient. There was no way she could pantomime everything she had just said. About the only thing she could get across in that manner was the answer to Tinky's question, and in response she pointed to her mouth and her throat before shaking her head. It was as good as she was going to manage right now.

"Tinky still not understands. Come, miss," the elf told her, patting dust off itself – himself? She thought the first one she had met was a girl elf, and this one's voice was a little lower in pitch even if it was still incredibly squeaky – and waving for her to follow. "Miss bes Hufflypuffly, and Mipsy knows wizard letters. She can helps."

Well, if nothing else that confirmed her first guess at house-elf genders.

She followed Tinky out of the storage room and down the corridor, ultimately stopping at a large painting she had passed several times on her way back and forth to the Hufflepuff's common room, one that was a still-life of a bowl of fruit. Tinky reached up to stroke the large pear in the lower left corner, and she had to blink as the pear seemed to bulge out of the painting before solidifying into a doorknob big enough that Tinky had to reach up and grab it with both hands in order to turn it.

When he managed it, however, Hazel was astonished by the room that was revealed. It was cavernous, at least as large as the Great Hall but possibly – likely, even – bigger still. Along the far wall where she could see from her perspective was a row of ovens, some with doors that could be opened and closed and others just holes in the brickwork from which loaves of bread were being pulled out. To the left were rows of counters with pots and pans and wooden utensils hanging from the ceiling. To the right, five long tables that looked like they would match the size of the tables in the Great Hall proper.

And running around this room, this massive kitchen, was a veritable army of house-elves.

Several of the elves had glanced over when the door opened, but only one rushed forwards with a stern expression on her face. A house-elf who looked oddly familiar. "Tinky! What bes you doing with miss Hazel Potter? Oh, that boy! I not has the time to deal with him right now, but what bes he thinking? Mipsy knows your mama tells you not bothers the students!"