The Keep

12. Ponderhead Place

The injured postal-owl has left for Hogsmeade Post Office with a letter and a pocket sum of apology by Christmas day. The bird suffered two broken bones on his right wing along with some cuts and bruises, nothing that Winnie couldn't mend in a day. 

Meanwhile, Professor McNully's letter was still safely tucked within Hazel's drawer. It remained unanswered for three days since it was received. 

Hazel, too, was still safely tucked under her blankets. Haunted by the letter, she has been burrowing in her bed since the holiday started. But that day, another haunted Hazel's already haunted mind. 

Christmas means family dinner. It means drama, thriller, or melancholy, and sometimes all of the above, all at once.

Just as Hazel was shaking her head to the imagery, Wendy Apparated in a soft pop on Hazel's bedside, with her properly ironed gown-like pillowcase.

As far as house-elves go, the Gillivrays' were not short in adornments. Those who lived and served at the Keep were given linen pillow cases of their own choosing, as the beddings in the Keep were mostly linen. They were also advised to pick another when the pillow case they wear has shown its age.

Yes, to give garments to house-elves was meant to free them. This generational family habit was meant to give the Gillivrays' house-elves not only one, but several chances to leave their servitudes. 

The Gillivrays' house-elves were actually one big family of house-elves descended from the first pair of house-elves ever bound to Brotherick Gillivray. Letting go of the young who didn't want to stay within the family was a way to thin the herd through degrees of loyalty, to better benefit the family. 

The Gillivrays were highly depended on their house-elves, especially for taking care of the sick and the dying. To the family, the house-elves' loyalty was higher in value than quantity and quality of their works.

This habit has worked tremendously in building the house-elves' unwavering generational loyalty. It has also eased the house-elves' stress when they were given salary, as per Minister Granger's SPEW Guidelines of Elfish Welfare.

While Winnie, Whimpy, Waldo, Weary, and Worn had their simple linen pillow cases in various colors, their cousins at Ponderhead Place had their own choosing of the house's pillow cases. And Ponderhead Place's collections of beddings were consisted of personally embroidered satin.

Wendy, for example, was wearing an elegant cream-colored satin pillowcase. On Wendy's proud chest was an elaborately embroidered 'TKG', as if it was pinned there as a medal of service.

The house-elves who served in houses with personally embroidered pillowcases had the bonus to be able to show off their affection and boast their loyalty by their choice of clothing, evidently. Wendy, for one, was always the proud house-elf-in-waiting of Tatiana Kosintseva Gillivray.

"Wendy wishes you a good evening, Mistress Hazel," Wendy bowed as she greeted Hazel with her solemnly proud high-pitched voice.

"Wendy," Hazel answered in a sigh, admitting her defeat to the inevitability of the Gillivray's family dinner.

"Mistress Gillivray is inviting you to join her at the family dinner, Mistress," the house-elf said. Wendy has always come to make sure that none of her mistress' guests was forgetting their invitations.

"Yes, of course, Wendy, thank you," Hazel said as she dragged herself out of the warmth and comfort of her blankets.

"Very well, Mistress, we are expecting you. If you would excuse me," she said.