Fear of a Name

Chapter Forty-Five: The Kitchens

I walked up to the common room, lost in thought. Talking about the Death Eater who'd tried to help me had brought painful memories to the surface, memories I'd tried my best to forget. It was just two or three years ago that I'd seen her die, and it seemed to be worse than any of the other deaths I'd been forced to watch, because I'd known her. She'd been my friend. And it was my fault that she had been killed... all my fault...

By now I'd reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan had been sacked after Sirius' last break in, and the Fat Lady had agreed to take her job back as long as she got extra security. Because of this, a bunch of security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

"Password?"
I quickly snapped out of my thoughts.
"Sorry?"
"Password?" the Fat Lady repeated, sounding a little impatient.
I thought for a second before replying, "Flibbertigibbet."
The portrait swung open on its hinges, and I climbed into the common room.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in armchairs by the fire. They all three looked worried, and Hermione looked like she'd been crying. I walked over to them quickly and collapsed into an armchair, anxious to see what was wrong.
"Hey guys, what's wrong?"

Hermione took a shaky breath, then said, "Hagrid lost his case."
"Lost what case?" I asked, confused.
"About Buckbeak," Hermione said, and now it was her turn to be confused. "You don't remember?"
"About Buckbeak?" I repeated, thoroughly bewildered now.
What in Merlin's name has been going on without me knowing?!

"He told us about it in the Christmas holidays..." Ron said, his voice trailing off as he realised where I'd been then.
I sighed.
"And nobody told me about this before because...?"
They just looked at each other and didn't say anything.
"What happens now, anyway?" I asked, a little worried.

"Buckbeak's going to be executed," Hermione said simply, wiping her eyes. "Of course, there's always the appeal, but other than the fact Harry and Ron are going to help with the research this time, I don't see how anything will have changed."
I raised an eyebrow.
"First off, I'm helping too," I said, "and second, we've got my library now. I'm sure there's some good books in there."

Hermione's mouth formed a perfect o.
"Of course, I forgot," she muttered.
"Come on then," I said, standing up again. "Let's find somewhere to put the purse."
The trio stood up too, and we went up to the boys' dorm. Neville was there, poring over a Herbology book. Professor McGonagall had found out about Sirius having the list of passwords, and had banned Neville from all future Hogsmeade visits as a result.

"No good," I muttered, so we turned around and went back down to the common room.
"What about the library?" Hermione asked.
I shook my head. "Too likely we'll be seen going into the purse. We need somewhere nobody will find us.
"Forbidden Forest?" Harry asked.
"Not bloody likely," Ron said, and I grinned.

"Where do you suggest we go then, Ron?"
"Dunno," he said, shrugging. "But I'm kinda hungry, so somewhere with food would be nice."
I rolled my eyes. "You're always hungr—" I stopped suddenly as an idea came into my mind. "I know where we can go!"
"Where?" Harry asked, but I just shook my head and left through the portrait hole.
"Ivory, where are we going?" Harry asked again as they all quickly scrambled through the portrait hole and hurried after me.
"You'll see."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We eventually arrived at the painting of the fruit bowl.
"Ivory — what — are — we — doing — here?" Ron panted, leaning against the wall to try and catch his breath.
"Watch this," I said, smiling a little.
I started to tickle the pear, which giggled, before finally rolling out of the way to reveal an emerald green doorknob.
"Welcome to the kitchens," I said, pushing the door open and walking in.

We were quickly swarmed by house elves. I'd become a frequent visitor down here, so I recognised most of them.
"Does mistress Ivory want anything?" one of them asked in a squeaky voice.
"Four cold Butterbeers and some chocolate biscuits please," I said with a smile.

Almost immediately, a couple of house elves brought the things I'd asked for on a silver tray. I passed a Butterbeer and some biscuits to the others, then took the rest for myself.
"Thank you," I said, smiling again.
"Does mistress Ivory want anything else?"
I looked at the others.
"Jelly and ice cream please," Ron said, already stuffing his biscuits into his mouth.

A couple of seconds passed, and then four bowls of jelly and ice cream were brought to us.
"Brilliant service," Ron said, taking a bowl. All the house elves looked extremely pleased at this.
I took the other three bowls, passed one to Harry and one to Hermione, then placed my purse in the corner of the room.

"If anyone asks, I need you to say that you haven't seen any of us, if that's ok," I said, opening the purse with a snap.
The house elves all nodded in perfect sync.
"Thank you."
We all climbed into the purse, being careful not to drop our food or drinks, and I closed it behind us.

As we got into the library, I noticed Hermione was looking a little agitated.
"What's wrong, Hermione?"
"Do they get paid?" she asked.
"I don't believe so," I said, a little confused. "They'd find it very insulting if anyone tried to pay them."
"Do they get holidays? Days off?"
I shook my head. "Again, they'd find that very insulting."

Hermione looked outraged.
"But that's slavery!"
I sighed.
"Hermione, they're not the same as us. They enjoy it. To them, the work is its own reward."
"But that's not right!"
I took a sip of my Butterbeer.
"That's just how it is. Come on, we need to look for stuff to help with the appeal."

"But—"
"Leave it, Hermione, or the next thing you know you'll be making a society or something," I said with a smile. "The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."
Harry grinned, and Ron muttered, "I wouldn't put it past her."

After a few more seconds we all went to different shelves and pulled a few books off them, then sat down in the armchairs and started to read. I yawned. Until now, I hadn't realised how tired I was.
"Ivory, you should get some sleep," Hermione said without looking up. "You haven't been sleeping at all lately."

This was quite true. I'd been on edge ever since the Christmas holidays, and so I was only managing to get about a couple hours of sleep at the absolute maximum, but more recently I was lucky if I slept at all.
"I don't want you three to do all the work," I said, suppressing another yawn.
"It's fine," Harry said, looking through one of the books that was normally in the restricted section of the school library. "You need to sleep."

I sighed quietly, which turned into a half yawn.
"Well, if you're sure..."
"We're sure," Ron said, opening books at random.
"You wouldn't be able to focus on what you're reading anyway," Hermione pointed out. She seemed to be the only one of the three who was actually looking at the contents pages of the books she'd got.
"Wake me up if you find anything," I said, resting my head on my arms.
"We will."
Yawning again, I finally allowed myself to succumb to the exhaustion and fell asleep.