EBE Chapter 265 Project 1 (6)
Chapter 265 Project 1 (6)
"Harry! Lamia!" she gasped, stopping beside Harry. "You must come, something terrible has happened!"
"What happened?"
"You'll see when we get there—oh, come on, hurry up!"
Harry turned to look at Ron, who was also looking at Harry with a puzzled look on his face.
"What about me? Should I still go?" Ron looked at the three people who had walked away at a loss.
"Of course, come here, Ron!" Harry turned around and waved.
"Okay," Ron said, quickening his pace and walking back down the corridor with them.
"Hey, you don't care about me!" The Fat Lady shouted angrily behind them, "You disturbed me and you didn't even say sorry! Do I have to stay here and wait for you to come back?"
"Yes, thank you!" Ron turned around and shouted.
"Hermione, where are we going?" Harry asked as she led them down six flights of stairs and down the marble staircase into the entrance hall below.
"You'll see it, you'll see it soon!" Hermione said excitedly.
At the bottom of the stairs, she turned left and hurried towards a door.
Harry had seen Cedric Diggory enter this door once, the night the Goblet of Fire had spouted their names, but he had never been here before.
They followed Hermione down a flight of stone steps, not a dark, eerie underground passage like the one that led to Snape's dungeon.
Instead, they found themselves in a broad stone corridor, brightly lit by torches and decorated with cheerful pictures, chiefly of food.
"Oh, wait..." Harry said slowly when he was halfway down the corridor. "Wait a minute, Hermione..."
"What's the matter?" She turned to look at him, expecting him to give an answer.
"I know what's going on," said Harry.
He nudged Ron with his arm and pointed to a picture behind Hermione: a large silver bowl filled with fruit.
"Hermione!" said Ron, catching on. "You're trying to convince us to join in on your vomiting stunt again!"
"No, no, I'm not!" she said anxiously. "And it's not vomiting, Ron -"
"What, a name change?" Ron said, frowning at her. "What is it, then? The House-Elf Liberation Front? I don't want to storm into the kitchens and tell them to stop working. I'd never -"
"I didn't ask you to do that!" said Hermione impatiently. "I've just been here and talked to them, and I found out - oh, come on, Lamia, Harry, I'm going to show you!"
Lamia was already standing by the door, where there was a huge painting. Hermione stretched out her index finger and gently tickled the large green pear.
The pear squirmed, giggling, and suddenly transformed into a large green doorknob. Hermione grabbed it and pulled the door open. "Come in!"
Lamia walked in, and in her first glimpse she saw only a large, high-ceilinged room, as large as the great hall above, with gleaming copper pots and basins stacked against the surrounding stone walls.
At the other end of the room was a large brick fireplace, and before they could get a better look a small creature came scurrying towards him from the centre of the room, screaming, "Harry Potter, sir! Harry Potter!"
Lamia covered her ears, the voice was clearly Dobby's.
Sure enough, the screaming elf slammed into his midsection, squeezing Harry so hard he felt his ribs were breaking and the air was being driven out of his lungs.
"Dobby?" panted Harry.
"It's Dobby, sir, it's Dobby!" the voice screamed from near his navel. "Dobby has been looking forward to seeing Harry Potter, sir, and Harry Potter himself has come to see him, sir!"
Dobby loosened his grip, stepped back a few steps, and looked up at Harry with a smile on his face, tears of joy in his big green eyes that were like ping-pong balls.
Dobby looked exactly as Harry remembered him, with his pencil-thin nose, bat-like ears, and long fingers and feet. Nothing had changed, except his clothes.
Dobby had worn the same filthy old pillowcase year-round when he worked for the Malfoys, and now his attire was the strangest combination Harry had ever seen; he looked worse dressed than any of the wizards at the World Cup.
He wore a teapot warmer on his head with a bunch of colorful badges pinned to it, a horseshoe-patterned tie on his bare chest, and what looked like children's football shorts on his lower body, with two mismatched socks on his feet.
"Puch-"
Lamia turned around and saw Ron snickering. It seemed that he was also shocked by Dobby's outfit.
"Dobby, what are you doing here?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Dobby has come to work at Hogwarts, sir!" Dobby screamed excitedly. "Professor Dumbledore has given Dobby and Winky jobs. Sir!"
"Winky?" Harry said, "She's here too?"
"Yes, sir, yes!" said Dobby, and he seized Harry's hand and led him across the four long wooden tables into the kitchen.
Harry noticed that these tables were arranged in exactly the same position as the tables of the four houses in the Great Hall above. Dinner was over now, and there was no food on the tables, but he guessed that an hour ago they must have been piled high with delicious food, and then sent through the ceiling to the corresponding tables above.
There were at least a hundred elves standing in the kitchen, all grinning, bowing, and curtsying as Dobby led Harry past them.
They all wore the same uniform: a tea towel with the Hogwarts crest on it, which they wrapped around themselves like robes, just as Winky had done before.
Dobby stopped in front of the brick fireplace and pointed it out to Harry.
"Look, Winky, sir!" he said.
Winky sat on a stool by the fire. Unlike Dobby, she didn't look like she had just picked up some random piece of clothing.
She was wearing a neat little skirt and blouse, and a matching blue hat with two holes cut in it to show her large ears.
However, Dobby's strange combination of clothes was kept spotlessly clean and looked like brand new, while Winky obviously didn't care about her clothes at all. Her short top was stained with soup and there was a burnt spot on her skirt.
"Hello, Winky," said Harry.
Twinkle's lip trembled, and then she burst into tears, tears rolling from her big brown eyes and spilling onto her chest, just like at the Quidditch World Cup.