chapter 28

They had just gone through the portrait hole and was halfway across the Gryffindor common room when Harry heard Hermione's voice, "Harry! Ron!" She came up behind them, walked around them, and turned around facing them – and stopping them from walking away. "Did you know that Hogwarts have House-elves?!" she questioned them.

"Did you think Flitch did everything?" Fred asked her. Harry agreed with them, what did she thing happened? Apparently, that was not the answer she wanted, and she began to rage about slave labor and how they should be free. Harry, Ron, Fred, and George just stayed silent, watching as everyone around them gave them a wide berth. After raging for a while, she finally left up the stairs to the girl's dorm.

They were halfway up the stairs when they were stopped again. "Fred! George!" Lee Jordon took the last few steps two at the time to reach the landing they had stopped on. "So, what's the plan? By the way, I couldn't find you guys on the train, why didn't you guys come to the usual compartment?"

"Sorry, we sat -"

"-with Ron and Harry," Fred and George answer casually. Lee looked taken aback, probably wondering when sitting with your little brother and his friend became something Fred and George would do. "And what do you mean plan?" George asked.

Lee got back on track, renewing his excitement, "The plan to get into the tournament! You can't say you don't want to participate?!" he nearly shouts.

Fred and George made a show of looking at each other before turning back to Lee, "Not really? Why would we want to risk our lives for that?" Again, Lee looks taken aback, now even more so than before.

"What about the money? The glory?" Lee tried only to get a shrug from Fred and George in return. Harry found Lee's reactions kind of funny, the way he was struggling to comprehend what Fred and George were saying and doing. Fred and George must have found it funny too because their answers were way to theatrical.

"You… you could use it for the joke shop!" Lee was almost pleading.

"We'll get money somehow, no point risking our lives for it," they smiled at Lee, and that seemed to break the last hope Lee had for them trying something.

"Fine…" he pouted, "I'll see you in the dorm." He passed them and continued up the stairs.

"We better go sleep, too," Ron said. They all said good night and went to their dorms, Fred and George following after Lee up the stairs, while Harry and Ron open the door to their dorm – they had been standing on the landing for the fourth year's dorm.

Harry opened his eyes, not knowing what had woken him. it was silent, and even dark still, so what had woken him? suddenly a voice from his right sounded. "Lord! My Lord!" The whisper was squeaky, and Harry turned to see a blurry outline of a House-elf.

Harry blinked, reaching for his glasses. How Harry still needed glasses was beyond him, after the cleansing ritual and having it reviled that he had the genes of five people with only one of them needing glasses, you'd think… but no, the Potter genes were apparently too strong for that. So, Harry was stuck with poor sight… even magic had limits. He did get some new glasses over the summer, though, with different charms cast on them; a light sticking charm – so they won't fall of –, a charm to prevent fog and marks on the glass, and a few charms to just make them better.

He placed the glasses on his nose, now clearly seeing the House-elf sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at him. "Lord! Pismy has come on the behalfs of the Hogwarts and Founders' House-elves tos retrieve the Lord," the House-elf, Pismy, squeaked.

"What?" was Harry's response. He was still groggy from having been sleeping two minutes before.

"Us elves haves been waiting, my Lord," she said, "ever since we felt the lord title being filled, we haves been waiting. Will Lord comes with me to the other elves?" Harry blinked at her. Once, twice, trice.

"Ooh, yeah. I'm a lord," Harry was not making a good first impression on this elf. He sat up, rubbing his eyes to wake up more. "Okay, let's go," he said to Pismy. She immediately grabbed his hand and "pop"-ed them away. Harry did note that she Apparated them almost silently, with only an almost unnoticeable sound.

Harry opened his eyes to a big room, filled with House-elves. It was probably over a hundred elves there, all staring at him. "Hello…" Harry said weakly.

"Our Lord has finally arrived!" Harry heard before the room exploded in excited chatter and noise. It took some time before the chatter died down, but when it did it was Pismy began telling Harry about the House-elves, "Lord, these are alls the House-elves in the castle! Including me theres are 163 elves. 100 from Hogwarts, 20 from Gryffindor, 17 from Ravenclaw, 16 from Slytherin, and 10 from Hufflepuff. I'm a Hufflepuff elf," she said while gesturing around, indicating the different groups.

"There is so many…" Harry said slowly, "How am I supposed to remember everyone…?" his voice was softly shaking.

"Lord, you can make some kind of system?" Pismy proposed. That's an idea! Harry spent some time asking questions and brainstorming. He ended up making a pyramid system. Harry would give "leader-roles" to 17 elves, and each one having a maximum of 9 other elves to "lead". Harry also decided that that "leader" would rotate periodically. The leaders will have direct contact with Harry – so if he "need" something he can call on one of them, or he can give messages to everyone through the leaders. This way, Harry wouldn't be overwhelmed when learning and remembering 163 names.

Another thing Harry did ask for was that they have the same agreement that his grandparents had with the Potter elves; at least 3 clean pillowcases each. And also, that they had their names embroidered on the cases.

Harry probably spent up to an hour just planning the system – with the help of the elves, of course – and choosing the leaders. 10 of the Hogwarts elves became leaders, each having 9 others in their group, the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin elves had two leaders each, and the Hufflepuff elves became one group with Pismy as the first leader.

After doing all that Harry still stayed for another hour, just talking with the newly appointed leaders – the others had to get back to their regular duties. Harry listened to the 17 elves told him about anything and everything. He listened as they talked about how long they've been working, what they did, even the gossip already running through the halls.

After Harry yawned for the third time he said, "Thank you, but I really need to get back to bed. I have to be up for breakfast." After a quick discussion (read: fight) the leader of half of the Gryffindor elves, Foorly, Apparated him back to his dorm room.

Harry quietly made his way to his bed, suddenly dead on his feet. He just managed to tumble into his bed and pull the curtains to cover his bed before he fell asleep.