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THEY HAD ARRIVED AT THE TOP BOX. The first row was already filled with the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and Lyra. There was also a tiny little elf sitting in the box, who Harry had mistaken for Lyra's old house elf Dobby. "Did Sir just call me Dobby?" squeaked the elf. Its voice sounded higher making Lyra assume it is a girl.
"Sorry," Harry told the elf, "I just thought that you were someone I knew."
"My name is Winky, sir — and you, sir-" Her eyes widened. "You surely are Harry Potter!" he confirmed this and the two got in a conversation about Dobby. "He is wanting paying for his work, sir," Winky whispered.
"Paying," said Harry blankly, "Well — why shouldn't he be paid?" Winky looked horrified at the idea and closed her fingers slightly so her face was half-hidden again.
"House-elves don't get payed, Harry." Lyra told him, "They serve a family for the rest of their lives, Dobby got born in it."
"Lyra Malfoy is right," said Winky. Now Lyra recognised her, it had been years since she had seen Crouch his little elf. "No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and next thing I hear you's up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin."
"Well, it's about time he had a bit of fun," said Harry.
"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter," Winky spoke firmly. Hermione was listening, shocked of the poor treatment of the elf.
"Wait, where's Crouch?" asked Lyra.
"Master wants me to save him a seat, he is very busy."
"Winky is wishing she is back in master's tent, Lyra Malfoy, but Winky does what she is told. Winky is a good house-elf." She gave the edge of the box another frightened look and hid her eyes completely again. Lyra turned back to the others.
"So that's a house-elf?" Ron muttered.
"Weird things, aren't they?" Harry commented on how Dobby looked weirder.
"C'mon, he wasn't. If you grew up with him being around you wouldn't think that." The box gradually filled around them over the next half hour. When Cornelius Fudge arrived, Percy bowed so low his glasses fell off and shattered. Highly embarrassed, he repaired them with his wand and remained in his seat. He threw jealous looks at Harry, whom Fudge greeted like an old friend.
