Freaks: Year Two

One Small Change

Jasper was found that morning right outside the kitchens, passed out.

"Mr Odair?" a voice asked as Jasper started to stir. "What are you doing out here?"

Jasper's back was against the portrait of the fruit basket. After saying goodbye to the house elves he had sat against the wall and lit the cupcake, blowing it out, saying how it was for the better and that he hoped his brother, Sky, was all well and good up there, and he must have fallen asleep soon after as he had never made it back to the common room.

He slowly opened his eyes, a crook in his neck from leaning against the wall and he let out a small groan. "Oh, hell..." He looked up and blinked slowly and once his eyes adjusted he realised it was Professor Virindi, the head of Hufflepuff house. "Oh...Professor!" Jasper exclaimed, slight panic in his eyes as he realised where he was. "Hi!"

Professor Virindi raised an eyebrow. "Hello, Mr Odair."

"How...how are you doing?"

"I'm doing quite well, thank you for asking, but I do have a question about why you are out of the common room, for what I presume was the whole night," she said and she looked over to the almost eaten cupcake on the floor. "Eating a cupcake."

"Cupcakes...are a wonderful...morning snack?" Jasper tried with a shrug.

Professor Virindi did not look impressed. "What were you doing Mr Odair?"

Jasper slowly got up. He looked down the corridors, wondering why he had not just gone up to his dorm after leaving the kitchens, then he would not be in this predicament. "Well, I am going to be completely honest, I went to the kitchens last night for a midnight snack. I know I shouldn't have, but I did and then I talked to the house elves for a good amount of the night and made the cupcakes, and...professor? Why are house elves treated the way they are? The things they say...it is like they don't even know the abuse they go through is wrong. Why do wizards treat them like...like...well their own little personal slaves?"

Professor Virindi was silent for a moment, processing the question as she had not been expecting it. After about half a minute, she said, "Well..."

Jasper stared at her waiting for her to continue, but it seemed she was still trying to form an answer. "You don't have an answer for me, do you?"

She sighed. "Mr Odair, how house elves have been treated is the way they have been treated since the beginning of time. My mother never agreed with it and taught me how it was wrong and I appreciate her dearly for that, but a lot of wizards today still think the way we treat house elves is right. That it is their only place. That is why I have such respect for the Headmaster as he ensures they are safe and being cared for."

"But they still work."

"Pardon?"

"But house elves still work," Jasper repeated, trying to reiterate the point. "They still work at Hogwarts. They still clean and cook and do a whole lot of other stuff. They aren't students here. They can't play games with us. They work here. They are still just workers, they just aren't being hit or anything like that. Yeah, it is a bit better, but the Headmaster still makes them work. Why can't they have pay?" Jasper suddenly remembered asking a house elf if they got paid last year around winter. They never said they did. "Why can't they have a snowball fight with the students, why can't they have class? Why can't they have fun?"

It was just unfair. It was not fair that the only option the house elves had to get away from abuse was to continue to be workers at Hogwarts. They deserved to have a normal life. A life filled with learning and fun. Hogwarts was Jasper's escape, why couldn't it be theirs? What about Yippy? She was quite young. Did they really have a little girl elf working 24/7?