Chosen & Hated (HP) {Book 2 of the Wild & Free Series}

27. Mad Mr. Crouch

Harry, Ron, Hermione and I went to the Hogwarts kitchen to give Dobby his socks. We gave them to him and Dobby showed us Winky, who looked rather drunk. I noticed six empty bottles of butterbeer lying around her as she still clutched the seventh in her hand. It was half-empty.

We talked to Winky for a while and she told us she had a secret to keep for Mr. Crouch, but she didn't want to tell us what it was.

Eventually, Hermione began to talk to the other house-elves about getting paid and receiving free days, but the house-elves looked at us as if she was mad and quickly asked us to leave, giving some food with us.

"You couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you, Hermione?" said Ron angrily as the kitchen door slammed shut behind us. "They won't want us visiting them now! We could've tried to get more stuff out of Winky about Crouch!"

"Oh as if you care about that!" scoffed Hermione. "You only like coming down here for the food!"

It was an irritable sort of day after that. Harry and I got so tired of Ron and Hermione sniping at each other over our homework in the common room that we took Sirius's food up to the Owlery that evening on our own.

Pigwidgeon was much too small to carry an entire ham up to the mountain by himself, so Harry and I enlisted the help of two school screech owls as well. When they had set off into the dusk, looking extremely odd carrying the large package between them, Harry and I leaned on the windowsill, looking out at the grounds, at the dark, rustling treetops of the Forbidden Forest, and the rippling sails of the Durmstrang ship. An eagle owl flew through the coil of smoke rising from Hagrid's chimney; it soared toward the castle, around the Owlery, and out of sight. Looking down, I saw Hagrid digging energetically in front of his cabin. I wondered what he was doing; it looked as though he were making a new vegetable patch. As I watched, Madame Maxime emerged from the Beauxbatons carriage and walked over to Hagrid. She appeared to be trying to engage him in conversation. Hagrid leaned upon his spade, but did not seem keen to prolong their talk, because Madame Maxime returned to the carriage shortly afterward.

"Are you happy with George?" Harry asked suddenly, taking me by surprise. I opened my mouth and stared at him for a while.

"O-o-of course I'm happy with him," I told him. "I wouldn't have kissed him, otherwise."

Harry sighed.

"Do you think Cho will ever like me?" He asked.

"If she gets over her crush on Cedric, I think she will, yeah," I told him. "But don't worry, brother; there are plenty of girls to choose from."

We both laughed.

Unwilling to go back to Gryffindor Tower and listen to Ron and Hermione snarling at each other, Harry and I watched Hagrid digging until the darkness swallowed him and the owls around us began to awake, swooshing past us into the night.

By breakfast the next day Ron's and Hermione's bad moods had burnt out, and to Harry's and my relief, Ron's dark predictions that the house-elves would send substandard food up to the Gryffindor table because Hermione had insulted them proved false; the bacon, eggs, and kippers were quite as good as usual.

When the post owls arrived, Hermione looked up eagerly; she seemed to be expecting something.

"Percy won't've had time to answer yet," said Ron. "We only sent Hedwig yesterday."