Oh God Not Again!

Chapter Thirty Six

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: Wow. A guy doesn't want Percy making them tea and all of a sudden they are a violent, insane Death Eater. :p Could happen. Also, every time I try to type 'Daily Prophet' I keep accidentally typing 'Daily Planet'. One of these days that slip is going to get through…

Harry – who had spent the night before his return to Hogwarts at the Burrow so he could go with the Weasleys, Hermione, and Neville – woke up to the familiar sounds of Ron and Hermione bickering. Seriously, why had it taken him so long to realize that those two had unresolved sexual tension up to their ears? Ah, right, the same reason it had taken him six years to realize Ginny liked him: he was oblivious as hell back then.

"If you ask me, Mr. Crouch is very lucky no one at the Daily Prophet knows how mean he is to elves!" Hermione was saying angrily.

"What are you talking about?" Ron replied, sounding exasperated. "He was very nice to her! He let her stay in his tent during the Match because she was scared of heights and everything!"

"He doesn't PAY Winky," Hermione snapped. "Therefore she's his slave."

"No one pays House Elves, Hermione," Ron retorted. "That's the point of having a House Elf!"

"Harry does," Hermione pointed to him as he came into the room.

"Leave me out of this," Harry requested but went unheeded.

"Yeah, well Harry's not exactly a shining example of normality, is he?" Ron pointed out. "Besides, from what I can tell Dobby's pretty off, too."

"As much as I hate to get involved in your little lover's spat – and believe me, I DO hate to get involved – Ron has a point," Neville said, presumably drawn to the kitchen by the sound of shouting. "Most House Elves get offended if you try to pay them. They don't want to be free."

"So you're saying it's alright to enslave an entire race of magical creatures?" Hermione demanded angrily, turning on him.

"I'm not saying anything of the sort," Neville held up his hands in a placating gesture. "But that's House Elf mentality. If you gave them all clothes today and forced them to take payment for their work, less people would want them and they would be very unhappy. You want change, you need to change people's mentality first."

"Hmph."

"Besides, since House Elves are always enslaved and Mr. Crouch didn't seem to be very abusive when you guys met Winky, I don't anyone – least of all the Daily Prophet – really cares," Harry pointed out.

"Harry, Mum wanted me to give this to you," Ginny came up behind him and dumped a parcel into Harry's hand.

"Oh, um…thanks, I guess," Harry said, a little confused. "What is it?"

"Mum figured that since you were running around with Sirius all summer you wouldn't have had time to do your school shopping so she got some gold out of your vault and did it for you," Ginny explained.

"Why does your mother have access to my Gringott's vault?" Harry asked immediately.

Ginny shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Seriously, I need to see a list of who's authorized because really, the only one who should be able to access it is me and, because of my minor status, my godfather," Harry decided.

Ginny sighed loudly. "Why do you always make everything so difficult? Can't you just be thankful that she got your school supplies for you?"

"I would," Harry admitted. "Except that I already paid Dobby to do it for me."