Apple-wood

Copyright disclaimers are legally ineffective. J K Rowling created some wonderful characters, and I am simply borrowing them for my own amusement.

Thanks to red_day_dawning, il_grifone and teamfireyleader for being lovely betas and to Southern_Witch_69 and ladyinthecloak for explaining the rules about commas, which I missed by going to primary school in the no-grammar era.

The next morning, Hermione woke to a warm room and the scent of burning apple-wood: clearly one or more elves had already been in and lit the fire and the lamps. Well, at least she was not being boycotted. She disentangled her legs from the duvet and from Crookshanks, who always preferred to sleep between her knees, climbed out of bed and headed to the small guest bathroom, where she peered out of the small, uncurtained arched window over the sink. It was still fully dark and snowing heavily – her elf cemetery visit would obviously have to be re-scheduled.

Hermione thought hard as she showered and dressed. Presumably the Headmistress had an Elf Register for the Ministry’s annual census. Perhaps there were family trees, as well, to correlate with any records the elves kept. What records did the elves keep, if any, anyway? And could she read them? The books said that elves had their own languages, and she knew that they could read and write, so probably they kept records in British Elvish. If that was what it was called. Not for the first time, she cursed the wizarding community’s profound lack of interest in anything about house-elves beyond their numbers and ownership.

At breakfast, Hermione sat at the High Table but was unable to interrogate Professor McGonagall because she had been placed at the end, next to Professor Vector. She and Professor Vector had an enjoyable conversation about recent developments in Arithmancy, about which Hermione knew more than, as an Unspeakable, she was technically allowed to say.

‘I see that you have continued to follow my subject, Miss Granger,’ the Arithmancy Professor commented. ‘I take it that your work requires you to maintain an interest in the field?’

The staff must have a good idea of the destinations of those of their brighter pupils who disappeared into unspecified departments of the Ministry – in all likelihood Professor Vector had had to provide a recommendation.

Hermione grinned. ‘It does.’ Professor Vector lifted her coffee-mug in a slight gesture of salute before drinking and then firmly changed the subject to Ron and Harry and their respective marriages.

The Hogwarts students were beginning to leave the Great Hall, and the enchanted ceiling showed that the snow was now falling in daylight. Professor McGonagall moved over to Hermione and said, ‘I am free until the second period, Miss Granger, if you would like to come up to my office when you are ready.’

‘I just need to fetch my bag from my room, and I can be with you in twenty minutes,’ Hermione replied. ‘Is that all right?’

‘It is. You remember the password?’ At Hermione’s nod, Professor McGonagall strode away.

Half an hour later, Hermione was ensconced at the table in the Headmistress’s office with her third cup of coffee, a stack of parchment for note-taking and the Elf Register.

‘You will see that we have one hundred and twenty-seven house-elves at Hogwarts as of this week, Miss Granger, of whom nine are elflings. The Register records their reference numbers, use-names and elf-names, gender, birthdates and birthplaces, the names of their parents, marital status and any changes of abode during their lifetimes. It also shows their specialities and any black marks they may have against them.’

Hermione found it fascinating. She followed one line across the ledger: 33,408; Matty; what was presumably a longer name in elf-script; female; 23/4/1961; Hogwarts; 32,987 Hobby & 33,006 Milly; gardener. From the blank columns, she appeared to be unmarried, never to have changed her abode and to have a blameless record.

‘I’ll leave you to your research, then,’ Professor McGonagall said, and Hermione grunted an acknowledgement as she decided to start by locating the records of the elves with whom she was already acquainted. Dobby, Winky and Kreacher had all spent time as Hogwarts elves, and she could also look up Dilly and Tabby.

The elves were listed in what she thought of as ‘accession order’, like library books. For most, this meant that they were listed by birth date, but four of her targets had moved to Hogwarts as adults which should make them easier to find. She decided to start with the most recent incomer, Kreacher.

After staring at the wall behind the table with furrowed brow for a minute, she decided that Kreacher had moved to Hogwarts with Harry in the spring of 1997. That was on the next-to-last page; the house-elves’ birth-rate was obviously slow, probably because they were such long-lived creatures.

There, in March 1997. 34,201; Kreacher; an elf-name (she really, really needed to learn the language); male; 26/3/1798 (good grief! ); Black family residence 23 Milsom Street, London (Grimmauld Place looks Regency - he must have been born before it was built); parents unknown; widower (she had an unpleasant thought that perhaps Kreacher’s wife had figured among the house-elf gallery at Grimmauld Place); ownership transferred to Harry James Potter 15/6/1996; domestic servant.

Hermione seized her fountain-pen – she had abandoned quills the moment that she had left school – and made careful notes. She then decided to locate a more difficult elf and stood up to approach a painting.

‘Professor Lorin?’

‘Yes, my dear?’

‘I wonder if you could tell me when you arrived at Hogwarts, so I can look up Dilly in the Elf Register?’

‘I left Beauxbatons in 1851. Circumstances were difficult in France: there was a good deal of pressure to get the wizarding world’s support for the Muggle President, and I was never a politician. It was different in Britain, and I never had any contact with the Muggle authorities during my time as Headmistress.’

Hermione thanked the painting and returned to the Register. With Professor Lorin’s information, she was able to find Dilly’s entry quite easily, and she duly noted down the facts.

She next decided to find Winky. After more staring at the wall, she worked out that Winky had been sacked by Barty Crouch after the Quidditch World Cup in the summer after her third year at Hogwarts, 1994. So she turned forwards to late 1994 and located Winky’s entry.

34,087; Winky; elf-name; female; 10/8/1932; Crouch family residence; parents; unmarried; ownership transferred to Hogwarts 12/12/1994; domestic servant; four charges of drunkenness.

There was something written in the small space under the ‘transferred to Hogwarts’ entry that was difficult to read. Hermione cast ‘Lumos’ and held the tip of her wand close to the page.

‘Ownership transferred to Severus Snape 8/7/1996.’

What?