House Elf Appreciation Day 1
Written for @jilymicrofics
Prompt: Liberation
Word Count: 426
The Hogwarts house-elves were not accustomed to visitors in the kitchens.
Occasionally, a professor would wander in for a late-night snack, or a student would accidentally stumble through while searching for a bathroom or a secret passage. Those visits were brief and infrequent.
What the elves were not prepared for was the steady invasion of two particular students who, entirely independently of one another, had decided that the kitchens were the perfect place to hide, mope, and wallow in their feelings.
"Now, Tipsy," said Giggy, scrubbing a cauldron with far more force than necessary, "Giggy is not one for talkings of liberation, but if Miss Evans and Mr. Potter is coming down here for one more evening of sighing and staring into space, Giggy shall knit himself a sweater and be leaving."
"Don't be saying such awful things!" Tipsy squeaked, swatting him with a drying cloth. "Tipsy does not like hearing about elves leaving!"
Wipple looked up from the sink where he was polishing goblets.
"Perhaps," he said thoughtfully, "it is not the elves who is needing liberation."
"Then who is?" asked Tipsy.
"Mr. Potter and Miss Evans, of course," said Wipple. "They is trapping themselves in a terrible prison of feelings."
"A prison of feelings?" Giggy repeated.
"Mr. Potter sits at that table and sighs."
"He does sigh very loudly," another elf agreed.
"And Miss Evans comes down two hours later and sighs at the very same table."
"Sometimes at the same spot," whispered Tipsy.
"Exactly," said Wipple. "They is both believing their love is unreturned, when any elf with eyes can see different."
A murmur of agreement spread through the kitchen.
"It is making the soup taste sad," one elf complained.
"And the bread," another added.
"The whole kitchen is suffering," said Giggy solemnly.
"So Wipple thinks we should help them."
"Help them see what every elf in Hogwarts already knows," Wipple said. "Then they can be courting each other somewhere that is not the kitchens."
"Oh!" Tipsy clasped her hands together. "That would be a wonderful service."
"It would be a great service," Giggy agreed. "House-elves serves Hogwarts, and Hogwarts would be much happier if those two stopped moping near the pastry shelves."
"Hear, hear!" cried several elves.
Wipple straightened proudly.
"Then it is decided. Operation Liberate Mr. Potter and Miss Evans shall begin at once."
"And when they is finally together," Giggy declared, raising a wooden spoon like a sword, "the kitchens shall know peace again."
The assembled elves cheered.
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