Harry Potter and the Year of Surprises by erinpotter

A Rather Eventful Morning

The next morning, as Ginny and Ron prepared for their classes, Harry and Hermione prepared for a day full of work.

Their first task was to get the house elves to decorate the whole castle in the way they wanted it. Harry didn’t think this would be a problem. They worshipped him, after all.

At a quarter to nine, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny left the great hall. Harry and Hermione then made their way to the kitchens and Ginny and Ron headed off to their first class of the day.

Harry had ever been in the kitchens legally and Hermione had never been in them either so they had a bit of trouble finding the entrance.

Dumbledore had told them that to get into them, you had to poke the portrait of a familiar face in the eye. Harry had repeatedly asked who the portrait was of but Dumbledore thought it would be entirely humorous to let them find it for themselves, but so far, neither Harry nor Hermione had seen anyone they knew. They walked down the corridor lots of times but couldn’t see anyone. Hermione started to inspect all the portraits then she jabbed one which was of an incredibly ugly witch. But she didn’t poke the witch; she poked someone hiding behind her. It was Dumbledore. The Dumbledore in the picture gasped and then laughed. Then a large space in the wall beside him opened up for them to go in. Hermione went in, closely followed by Harry. When the elves saw that they had visitors, they all turned towards them and bowed down very low; their noses were almost touching the ground! Hermione got flustered and rushed around them all, trying to pull them up.

‘There’s no need to bow! Come on now, up you get!’

Harry laughed at her. ‘They won’t get up Hermione. Stop it. They love their jobs! Now, let’s do our job.’

‘Yes okay. You tell them what to do. You’re like their bloody king!’

Harry laughed again. He stood up and called for Dobby who appeared at his side right away.

‘You called, Harry Potter, friend.’

‘Yeah, Dobby. Could you get this lot to listen to me? It's about the Christmas decorating.’

‘Of course, Harry Potter friend.’ Dobby beamed and then turned around to his fellow elves and whistled loudly. They all looked up and Dobby told Harry to proceed.

‘Hi, er. You might know that Hermione and I are head girl and boy and we’re here to arrange the Christmas decorations with you.’

‘They all nodded ferociously and smiled at Harry who looked to Hermione. She stepped forward with the plans and used her wand to enlarge it so all the elves could see it. After they had all examined it and looked at Hermione again. She tried to explain what she wanted and the elves just continued smiling at her. She supposed this meant they were all happy with what they were hearing. Them she added, just in case, ‘if you have any problems ask Dobby who will come and either me or Harry. Okay?’

The elves nodded again. Hermione was getting freaked out. She wanted to get out of there. ‘So, are you all able to get what you need?’ she rushed.

They all nodded again and Hermione muttered a quick goodbye and rushed out.

‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘I just can't stand the way they look at us, as if we are their masters. It freaks me out. Do they always have to smile?’

‘I'm sure they’d stop if I asked them…’ Harry joked.

‘Don’t joke about those things. I'm totally giving up on S.P.E.W.! Those things freak me out so much!’

Harry laughed again. ‘We don’t have to be in the great hall until twelve and it's only ten so shall we go to Gryffindor tower to see how the elves are doing?’