Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
Harry McGonagall - Chapter 8 - Elves and Dragons
The rest of Easter break went by quickly, and soon it was Monday morning. Everyone was at breakfast preparing for their classes to resume. Hermione was sitting next to Harry at the Ravenclaw table when an owl flew that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet to her.
"Anything interesting in the news?" asked Harry.
"Give me a minute," replied Hermione as she flipped through it, scanning the article titles. "Oh, Mrs. Brocklehurst wrote one of her C.A.R.E. articles!" She then started smiling brightly as her eyes scanned the article. "Here, Harry! You'll want to take a look at this!"
He took the paper from her.
"House Elf Abuse Deterrent Law Passes Wizengamot!
By Wendy Brocklehurst
Following an article in January about the Hogwarts student organization known as C.A.R.E. (Community Advancing the Rights of Elves), the movement to prevent the overt abuse of house elves has grown by leaps and bounds. This brought attention to this often-overlooked issue, and has had several positive results. One is community awareness. Another is that several Hogwarts graduates joined the group, making it no longer just a Hogwarts club. Another direct result has just passed the Wizengamot.
Moved by photos of an elf being beaten by his master in the middle of Diagon Alley, and knowing that similar situations occur every day all across magical Europe, the head of Ministry Law Enforcement, Madam Amelia Bones, drafted and presented a bill to make house elf abuse illegal. It is called the House Elf Abuse Deterrent law (H.E.A.D.).
This was a very controversial bill among the members of old wizarding families, and had to be edited in its recommended punishments before being passed. Originally someone found guilty of abusing a house elf would have all of their elves taken away, lost the right to ever own another, and served six months in Azkaban. Some members of the Wizengamot thought that too harsh of a punishment, so a compromise was reached.
On the first offense, the offender is fined 1,000 Galleons. For the second offense, the victimized elf is confiscated by the Ministry, to be given or sold to another family. On the third offense, all of the offender's elves are confiscated. Finally, on the fourth offense, the abuser loses his/her right to own house elves. This is the most severe penalty that an offender will face.
In the final draft of this bill, house elf abuse is defined as 'Performing any harm to a house elf that is still evident twelve hours later. It also added that performing unforgivable curses, such as the cruciatus, or any dark spells, on an elf will automatically count as the fourth offence.'
Even in its current form, this groundbreaking law barely passed through the Wizengamot. Madam Longbottom, a member of both the Wizengamot and C.A.R.E., who voted for the law, stated, 'Although this law isn't as tough as I would like it to be on the cowardly wizards who beat their elves, it is a step in the right direction.'
Albus Dumbledore, the head of the Wizengamot (not to mention several other prestigious titles), also voted for this law, saying that, 'The strong have been preying on the weak for far too long. It is time that we as a society stood up and said that we will no longer stand for it.'
Only time will tell what the results of this new law will be. For more information on C.A.R.E., including how to join, owl Hermione Granger (Ravenclaw) at Hogwarts."
"That's great news!" said Harry excitedly.
"It's the first law ever passed to protect the rights of elves," agreed Hermione. "I'm sure that in time it will lead to others with more severe penalties."
"That is awesome!" said Padma, who was sitting next to them. She'd just read the article in her own newspaper.
About that time, Draco Malfoy showed up at their table standing behind Hermione. Naturally, he was flanked by his bodyguards, 'Dumb and Dumber.' With his usual sneer, Draco said, "I guess you feel really important with your mudblood name dirtying the paper."
Harry whispered to summon his old wand from its holster while Hermione and Padma got theirs ready to be drawn in a moment. Hermione looked at Harry. "Would you please pass the jam?"
Realizing that his best friend was completely ignoring Malfoy, he replied, "Sure, Hermione." Once he'd given her the jam, he whispered a few incantations with his wand pointed at Draco. Knowing Malfoy wouldn't draw his wand in plain sight, not to mention how slowly he drew his wand anyway, Harry put his wand back in his left holster. Harry then placed both his hands on the table in plain view.
"Don't pretend you didn't hear me, you filthy mudblood!" Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.
Hermione simply spread jam on her toast and looked at her other companion. "Padma, would you please pass the pumpkin juice?"
Grinning, she complied. "Of course, Hermione."
As the bushy-haired Ravenclaw was pouring her juice, Malfoy's face turned red. "You can ignore me all you want, but it doesn't changed the fact that you're a filthy, attention-seeking bookworm, you mudblood!" His stooges were now laughing loudly.
"This pumpkin juice is rather good today, isn't it, Harry?"
While Draco's face was turning purple, Harry said, "I do believe you're right. We should ask the house elves if they did something special today. They are rather clever."
"Yes. Especially the new one that recently started here. A rather delightful one that was freed from a particularly horrid family. I believe his name is Dobby."
At this point the self-important Slytherin lost his temper. He'd never been so completely ignored before. He shouted, "NO ONE IGNORES ME, YOU FILTY MUDBLOOD! THAT GOES FOR YOU, TOO! YOU HALF-BLOOD SON OF A SQUIB!"
"Mr. Malfoy!" said Professor McGonagall, who'd started approaching the moment she noticed Malfoy at the Ravenclaw table. "Twenty points from Slytherin for that outburst! Get back to your table where you belong!"
"Yes, Professor!" he hissed as he took a step away. Before that step was completed, he fell to the floor. The whole table started laughing at him. He glared at Harry's laughing face. "You made me fall, McGonagall! I felt a spell on my right shoe!"
"I've had my hands on the table since before Professor McGonagall walked up here."
"That is true, Mr. Malfoy. You mustn't blame other students for your own clumsiness." Minerva looked very upset at Draco.
"Of course you'd take his side! He's your nephew!" shouted Draco just as Snape walked up.
"Professor McGonagall, I believe if the accused student were a member of Slytherin house, you would at least check the wand for the last spell cast. You wouldn't want to behave in a biased manner, would you?" He sneered at her.
She looked at her nephew. "You can check my wand," he said, and then whispered the password to get his newer wand from his right holster. "Here it is." He happily passed it to his aunt, who took it and performed the proper spell.
"Are you satisfied, Professor Snape," she said coldly, when the results showed that his last spell performed had been a spell from a Transfiguration assignment.
"Perhaps one of his friends did it," suggested Snape.
"I suppose next you'll have me check every wand from this table," she said angrily. "Mr. Malfoy accused Mr. McGonagall, and it was proven that his wand did not perform any spell that could have caused him to trip. The truth of the matter is that he didn't have any business at this table anyway, unless of course he was once more begging Miss Granger to date him."
Everyone who heard that (aside from Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle) laughed. Harry even thought Snape's expression lightened momentarily. They all knew Professor McGonagall was referring to Hermione's explanation of the pictures of the three Slytherins kneeling before her on the Hogwarts Express.
"I was not!" spat Draco as he took another step and fell on his face. "Harry McGonagall!" he accused.
"You may notice, Mr. Malfoy," said Professor McGonagall impatiently, "that I still have his wand in my hands." Without a word, Draco got up and carefully made his way back to the Slytherin table while the Ravenclaws laughed hysterically.
Hermione whispered in Harry's ear, "Did you do that with your other wand?"
He smiled and nodded.
"You did do it!" whispered Padma upon seeing Harry nod. "How?"
"Later!" he whispered.
-
"So, let me get this straight. The wand that you got in America wasn't a perfect match, but works fine. That's what you used on Draco's shoes today."
"Right," answered Harry. It was later that day, and the trio was in a quiet corner of Ravenclaw Tower.
"But you decided to keep the extra wand a secret. That way if someone disarmed you, you could surprise them."
"Exactly," affirmed Hermione.
"And Professor McGonagall and Hermione are the only ones here at Hogwarts that know about it."
"And I only know because I was at his birthday party when his dad gave him the two wand holsters."
"And you quickly caught on that he wasn't telling anybody else about the second wand."
"Exactly."
Padma turned to Harry. "Do you think your aunt suspects you?"
Harry's cheeks turned pink as a smile crossed his face. "I'm sure she does, but she won't tell for two reasons. One is that she wants me to have that extra protection and wouldn't ruin that over a small prank of making that idiot's shoes slippery. The second is that she knows Malfoy deserves it. She only wishes he'd give her excuses to have him in detention more often than she already does."
The girls giggled. "I guess that makes sense," said Padma.
-
It was a few weeks after that when Harry decided he wanted to find out what Hagrid was doing about the dragon. He'd had a nightmare about a huge dragon getting loose and going after him, so he wanted reassurance that the dragon was still under control.
"I will NOT go to Hagrid's hut while there's a dragon there, whether the egg is hatched or not!" Padma made her feelings on the subject very clear when Harry brought up the idea. "I don't blame you for having a nightmare about it, but I think the solution is to get as far away from dragons as possible!"
"I'll go with you, Harry," volunteered Hermione. "I'd like to make sure he's getting rid of it."
-
Fifteen minutes later found Harry knocking on Hagrid's door with Hermione standing beside him. The windows were still covered with blankets.
"Maybe he's not home. Perhaps we should've owled first," said Hermione.
Before Harry could reply, Hagrid's voice came from inside. "Who is it?"
"It's Harry McGonagall and Hermione Granger," Harry answered.
A moment later the door opened and Fang attacked Harry with his tongue. Once Hagrid's dog had calmed down, he looked around to see Hagrid, two redheads, and a big box. "Hi, Ron," he said, recognizing the smaller redhead. The other one appeared to be about eighteen.
"Hi, Harry, Hermione," said the Gryffindor. "Hagrid mentioned that you knew about Norbert. This is my brother, Charlie, by the way."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Hermione politely.
"Good to meet you, too."
Suddenly the box started shaking a bit. "Is, is your dragon in there, Hagrid?" asked Harry.
"Yeah. See, I had Ron write Charlie about Norbert, that's what 'is name is, an' so we're takin' 'im to Romania. I'm goin' with Charlie, but first we're sneakin' Norbert up ter the Astronomy Tower where some friends of his will meet us. Charlie feels that I might bring attention ter them if I traveled with them, so he came all the way here ter help. We'll be flyin' there tomorrow an' I'll get ter work with dragons." Hagrid smiled dumbly as though he had just fallen in love.
Hermione looked at Hagrid with her brow furrowed. "Er, how are you flying? I know that flying carpets are illegal, and, er, aren't you, er, a bit too big for brooms?"
Hagrid chuckled. "Yer right on both counts. I bin too big ter ride a broom since I was twelve. I'll be ridin' a enchanted motorcycle that can fly, and become invisible."
Harry's eyes went wide. "You have a flying motorcycle! That's incredible! I once dreamed…er, that I owned one." He was going to say he'd dreamed of riding one, but then he remembered that according to Aunt Minnie, Hagrid had carried him on a flying motorcycle to his relatives' house, and so this was probably the very bike.
"My dad enchanted a car to fly," commented Ron. "My mum would have a fit if she knew."
"Really?" said Hermione with a worried expression. "You know, that's illegal."
"Don't worry. Our dad wrote that law, and made sure he had a way around it," said Charlie proudly.
"But…" said Hermione until Harry changed the subject.
"So, how long have you had the motorcycle?"
"Oh, almost eleven years. Ever since…since." The half-giant looked like he wanted to cry. "Ne'er mind. This is a happy day. Can I offer you some tea and rock cakes?"
After a quick signal from Ron, Harry said, "Just tea. I'm full."
"Me, too," said Hermione.
"Yer don' know what yer missin.'"
Not wanting a conversation about the merits of eating rock cakes, Charlie asked, "You never told me much about the guy you won Norbert from. If he's stealing eggs, we have to keep an eye out for him. What did he look like?"
"Er, well, it's hard ter say. Yeh see, he wouldn' take his cloak off." He saw the three kids look stunned and raised his eyebrows. "It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head. I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."
"So, what did you talk about?" asked Hermione.
"Mostly me job here at Hogwarts. He wanted ter make sure I could take care of the dragon…So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy…"
Harry and Hermione's eyebrows raised at that news. They exchanged frightened looks for a moment, and then Harry cleared his throat. "Did he - did he seem interested in Fluffy?"
"Well- yeah - how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep." Hagrid suddenly looked horrified. "I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out.
"You shouldn't have told a stranger in a pub that either," blurted Harry.
"Er, I suppose so, but what's the harm? He's not tryin' ter get the…thing Fluffy's guardin' er, yer don't think." He suddenly looked much more worried.
"I don't know, Hagrid," said Hermione.
-
The rest of the visit went by in a blur for Harry. Ron and Charlie questioned Hagrid about Fluffy and what he was guarding, and they said their goodbyes to Hagrid. He did talk about how much he'd miss Hogwarts. As soon as they got back to their common room, Padma questioned them about their visit.
"Norbert's leaving tonight, along with Hagrid," answered Hermione.
"And Voldemort probably knows how to get past Fluffy. That blabbermouth told him."
"What?"
After they explained, Padma agreed that it probably was Voldemort or one of his servants. "So why hasn't he gone after the stone, yet?" she asked.
"I don't know," said Harry with his head down.
"Dumbledore," answered Hermione.
"What?" asked the other two together.
"Honestly," sighed Hermione. "He may not be a good headmaster - I mean who would keep Voldemort bait in a school full of children - but he is a powerful wizard. According to all the books I've read, he's the only one Voldemort ever feared."
"He's obviously paying a lot more attention to the stone than his job," agreed Harry.
"So, you're saying the stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's here," concluded Padma.
-
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