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Chapter 608: Busy Time
🕑 Added 2019-09-27 15:16:23 +0000 UTC
When Evan and Dobby returned to the kitchen, Hermione was frowning and sitting there, Winky still beside her.
She buried her face in her hands, tears streaming down the gaps between her fingers.
Things hadn't changed much from what they had been before Evan left, or worse. Winky looked even sadder!
Hermione seems to have given up trying to persuade her, and she painfully looked at the house-elves in the distance.
More than a hundred house-elves were hiding far from the wall, as if they were scared, but did not dare to leave.
They stared at Hermione in panic with wide eyes, in which only fear, humbleness, and obedience could be seen.
Evan sighed. These house-elves now were quite different from their ancestors he had seen below. Centuries of slavery had completely distorted their hearts and they fundamentally abandoned the idea of independence and freedom.
Although their appearance had not changed, these house-elves and their ancestors were completely different species.
They were the slaves of the wizards, the willing slaves, nothing more.
“I interviewed them and got to know their opinions. I just asked a few key questions. They all ran away!” Hermione sighed and turned and asked, “By the way, what were you two doing just now?"
"Dobby showed me around and I made a lot of interesting discoveries."
Seeing Evan’s expression, Hermione did not continue to ask. She knew why Evan was here. Since it was an interesting discovery, it was not suitable to talk about it here.
Her eyebrows stretched out and her attention turned back to the house-elves, annoyed at their performance.
A few minutes later, when Evan and Hermione were preparing to leave, the house-elves who had been trembling by the wall came back. They pressed in upon them, offering snacks to take back upstairs.
Hermione refused, with a pained look at the way the elves kept bowing and curtsying, but Evan loaded his pockets with cream cakes and pies. Climbing on the ice ladder just now had consumed a lot of his energy.
"Goodbye, Master Evan!" Dobby waved and said, "Goodbye, Miss Granger!"
"Good night, Dobby!" said Evan, "Remember to go up and take the clothes I gave you."
When he heard him, Dobby beamed.
Hermione also waved at Dobby and glanced at other humble house-elves.
"I’ve just thought about it carefully. I think the best thing to happen to those house-elves is for them to observe Dobby more," said Hermione, leading the way back up the marble staircase. "I mean, the other elves will see how happy he is, being free, and slowly it will dawn on them that they want that too!"
"That's a good idea. If you want to help the house-elves fight for their rights and interests, the first thing you need to change is their own abnormal idea of being enslaved," said Evan, filling his mouth with pie. "Dobby might be able to play a leading role. It's unlikely, but it's better than you acting rashly. Let's hope they don't look down too much at Winky.”
"She’ll cheer up too," said Hermione, though she sounded a bit doubtful. "Once the shock is worn off, and she’s got used to Hogwarts, she’ll see how much better off she is without that Crouch man!"
"I hope so!" Evan nodded. If she had stayed in Crouch’s house she might have been killed. From this perspective, Winky should indeed be happy.
For the next few days, Evan was thinking about the house-elf demon under the kitchen. He read a lot of information in the library, but did not find any clues.
Relying on the information at hand, it was almost impossible to investigate a Dark wizard who lived in Hogwarts hundreds of years ago, not to mention the more mysterious demon altar. Evan could not find relevant information.
In the end, he could only focus his attention on deciphering the ancient magic text he had brought back.
Compared to the information of the ancient warlock era found in the swamp ruins, the cracking of these magical texts was not so difficult.
Evan went under the kitchen alone to observe several times to make sure there were no omissions.
Although these magical writings were hundreds of years old, most of the magic civilizations at that time were in line with today's concept of magic.
It was only a matter of time before he could crack this magic script.
Also worried about the house-elves was Hermione, who didn't report Dobby’s story in the end.
She accepted Evan’s suggestion and was ready to focus on changing the mindset of the house-elves as the next step.
In the midst of a busy schedule, time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye it was December.
The start of December brought wind and sleet to Hogwarts. Drafty though the castle always was in winter, everyone was glad of its fires and thick walls every time they passed the Durmstrang ship on the lake, which was pitching in the high winds, its black sails billowing against the dark skies.
Many people thought Durmstrang’s mobile home must be cold enough.
No wonder Krum ran to the school library when he had nothing to do, while the other students from Durmstrang were used to spending time in Slytherin's Common Room. They got along well.
Compared with Durmstrang’s students, the students from Beauxbatons were more accustomed to staying in their carriage.
Only Gabrielle was an exception, she was very popular in the Gryffindor Common Room, second only to Fred and George.
Fleur never came, and she seemed to be very confident entrusting her sister to Evan.
The school was calm, everyone seemed to have recovered from the shock brought by the dragon, and began to look forward to the next task.
Evan noticed that Hagrid was keeping Madame Maxime’s horses well provided with their preferred drink of single-malt whiskey. The fumes wafting from the trough in the corner of their paddock was enough to make the entire Care of Magical Creatures class light-headed.
This was unhelpful, as they were still tending the horrible skrewts and needed their wits about them.
"I’m not sure whether they hibernate or not,” Hagrid told the shivering class in the windy pumpkin patch next lesson. “I thought we’d just try and see if they fancied a kip … we’ll just settle them down in these boxes…”
There were only ten skrewts left. Apparently their desire to kill one another had not been exercised out of them.
