Amie and The Return (Harry Potter fan-fic) Book 4 COMPLETED

Pain

The next day after breakfast, Amie and the others went to the owlery to send a letter to Percy, asking him if he'd seen his boss lately, just as Sirius wanted. After they'd watched Hedwig disappear from their sight, they headed down to the kitchens to give Dobby his socks. The elves were cheery and welcoming as usual, bowing to them and starting making tea before they'd asked for it. Dobby was overjoyed.

"Harry Potter is too good to Dobby!" he said in his high-pitched voice, wiping away some tears.

"You saved my life with that Gillyweed, Dobby, you really did," Harry answered humbled.

"No chance of more of those éclairs, is there?" said Ron, beaming around at the house-elves.

"You've just had breakfast!" Hermione argued irritably, but the elves were already hurrying their way with a large platter of éclairs.

"Let him be, Hermione, there's always room for sweets," Amie said, accepting an éclair from an elf.

"We should get some stuff to send up to Snuffles," Harry muttered.

"Good idea," said Ron. "Give pig something to do -"

"Don't forget Lucy, she's way to lazy," Amie piped in.

"And Lucy," Ron nodded. "You couldn't give us a bit of extra food, could you?" he said to the surrounding elves, who bowed and hurried off to get the food.

"Dobby, where's Winky?" asked Hermione, who was looking around the kitchens.

"Winky is over there by the fire, miss," said Dobby sadly, his ears dropping.

"Oh dear," said Hermione when she spotted Winky.

Winky was sitting on the same stool as the last time they saw her, and she was now so filthy that at first Amie couldn't distinguish her from the blackened brick behind her. Her clothes were dirty, she was holding a bottle of butterbeer, and she was swaying, staring into the fire. She hiccoughed loudly.

"Winky is getting through six bottles a day now," Amie heard Dobby whisper to Harry.

"Well, it's not strong, that stuff," Harry answered. Dobby shook his head.

"'Tis strong for a house-elf, sir," he said.

Winky hiccoughed again, and the other house-elves gave her disapproving looks.

"Winky is pining, Harry Potter," Dobby whispered. "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," Harry said suddenly walking over to the small elf and bending down to her level. Amie and the others followed. "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 swayed and focused her eyes on Harry.

"M-master is stopped - hic - coming?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "we haven't seen him since the First Task. The Daily Prophet's saying he's ill,"

Winky swayed even more, struggling to keep Harry in her focus.

"Master - hic - ill?" Winky's bottomlip began to tremble.

"But we're not sure if that's true," Hermione said quickly, trying to save the situation.

"Master is needing his - hic - Winky!" the elf whined. "Master cannot - hic - manage - hic - all by himself..."

"Other people manage to do their own housework, you know, Winky," said Hermione.

"Winky - hic - is not only - hic - doing housework for Mr. Crouch!" Winky squeaked, swaying and slopping butterbeer on her stained blouse. "Master is - hic - trusting Winky with - hic - the most important - hic - the most secret -"