Harry Potter The Final Straw

Chapter 38: Battles Within and Without



The second task was fast approaching and Harry still hadn't figured out what to do about his egg. Cedric had given him the advice to take a bath with the egg earlier that morning and he had told Hermione about it.

She had dashed off to the library with a quick, "I've got an idea.", and she was gone before he could get in a word edge wise.

Harry was more concerned with something else right now anyway. He had been quietly watching the comings and goings of certain individuals into meal times for the past week. It was time to exact a little payback for all of the pain that they caused Hermione with their spiteful remarks. He didn't really mind what they said about him anymore. It had stopped bothering him ages ago, something that he really did have Dumbledore to thank for teaching him.

There was a flash of a green trimmed cloak entering the Great Hall and Harry turned his gaze to see who it was. According to his calculations, it should have been Malfoy and his little entourage.

A small, satisfied, smirk graced Harry's face as he watched the group sit down at the Slytherin table for lunch. He flicked his eyes to the rafters where he knew that Dobby was watching and nodded once.

Dobby was watching his master, waiting for the signal. When it came, he almost fell off the rafter because he was so happy. A gift that was so enormous that he could not even describe it. The great Harry Potter was offering him a chance at revenge for years of mistreatment at the hands of the Malfoy heir.

With a faint pop, Dobby reappeared in the kitchens. He had enlisted the help of the kitchen elves for the first stage of the plan.

If anyone would have come into the kitchen at that moment, they would have been frightened silly. The sight of a house elf cackling madly and rubbing his hands together was very disturbing.

Dobby had learned a lot about the non-magical world from the Grangers. The best thing that they introduced him to was something that they called television. While watching something called an infomercial, he discovered something that would be a great help to his master in his plans to avenge the mistreatment of Mistress Mione.

The rest of the elves were busy mixing in an odorless, tasteless, product into all of the beverages for select individuals that were currently in the Great Hall for lunch. It had been surprising easy for Dobby and Winky to coerce the rest of the Hogwarts elves to help them in their endeavor. All that they had to do was tell them that what they were doing would help Harry Potter and the rest of the elves readily agreed to the plan.

It turned out that the majority of the people on the list were not very nice to the house elves of Hogwarts. So in a way they were getting a bit of revenge too.

The polyethylene glycol solution was easily obtainable in the non-magical world. When Dobby told Mr. Granger what the solution was for his only response was "How much do you need?" The look on Mr. Granger's face was simply terrifying and Dobby was glad that his ire was not focused upon him.

Dobby had procured enough solution, with Mr. Granger's help, for complete bowel irrigations for over thirty people. He wanted to have a little extra in case a repeat lesson was necessary.

The housekeeping elves were busy making sure that there were no bog rolls in any of the student loos in the castle. The staff areas had a full stock so that no teacher would be aware of the student body's dilemma.

They laundry elves were thrilled at the prospect of getting more work in the near future. They just weren't busy enough during the day and this would definitely keep them busy.

Hermione was in the library when Winky popped in and said "Hello Miss. This is for your bag today." she said while putting a brand new bog roll into her bag.

She had given up trying to figure out why their elves did some of the things that they did because there was always a good reason for their actions. Their uncanny ability to anticipate the needs of their family was simply amazing. Pushing the thought from her mind, she said to Winky "Thank you Winky. Have a pleasant afternoon."

Winky curtsied and vanished with a small pop. She reappeared next to Dobby in the kitchens and told him that she had completed her task. She had also delivered similar rolls to the tiniest Weasley and the Longbottom boy on her master's instruction.

Preparations complete, all the elves had to do now was to wait for the extra work to start rolling in. They were so happy that they were going to be busy later that day.

Harry finished his meal in silence and made his way up towards the library. When he sat down next to Hermione, she unconsciously reached over and patted Harry's thigh. He successfully fought down his urge to flinch but he noticed that it was getting better.

He was really trying hard to get over that aspect of his childhood. The Dursleys' never touched him in anything but anger so his reactions to being touched were very abnormal. Hermione's parents had sent along a few books with Winky with instructions for the two teens to read them.

Harry had been a bit embarrassed when he saw the books about child abuse and its effects on people. He was desperately trying to overcome the obstacles of his upbringing and he was truly thankful for their assistance. Remus and Sirius had not been much help on that front. The Wizarding world just did not have the resources dedicated to that branch of medicine.

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