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Chapter 600: House-Elves in Need of Wages

At the busiest time of Hogwarts Magic, Evan had asked Dobby to help Fred and George take charge of the print job.

When Professor Lupin took over, Dobby was idle again, mainly responsible for taking care of Evan’s life and living.

This amount of work was really nothing to a house-elf. He needed more work.

Evan could only let him help in the kitchen and live with his companions, which was the best arrangement for him.

“Master Evan, do you need any food here?” Dobby squealed excitedly. “You don’t need to come down in person. You just need to summon Dobby. Dobby can send it to you at any time. You know how to summon Dobby…”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the house-elves around Evan and Hermione began to get busy.

They took out all kinds of ingredients at once, ready to give them something to eat.

“Don’t prepare anything, we don’t need to eat!” Evan hurriedly said, looking at the house-elves with a headache. “Dobby, Hermione and I just came to see how you’re doing here.”

“Oh, Master Evan is so kind!” Dobby’s big green eyes were wet with tears. He looked at Evan and Hermione with tearful eyes. “Young Master Evan has actually led his friend to visit Dobby … Dobby and Winky…”

“What, Winky is here too?!” said Hermione in surprise.

After the World Cup, they had never seen Winky again.

Evan learned from Sirius that, after investigation, the Ministry of Magic found Winky innocent and released her. But she could no longer return to Crouch’s house. After leaving the Ministry of Magic, she did not know where to go.

“Yes, miss, yes, Winky is working here too!” said Dobby, seizing Evan and Hermione’s hands.

He pulled them both off into the kitchen between the four long wooden tables that stood there.

Each of these tables was positioned exactly beneath the four House tables above in the Great Hall.

At the moment, they were clear of food, dinner having finished, but not long ago they had been laden with dishes that were then sent up through the ceiling to their counterparts above.

At this time, at least a hundred little elves were standing around the kitchen, beaming, bowing and curtsying as Dobby led Evan and Hermione past them.

They were all wearing the same uniform: a tea towel stamped with the Hogwarts crest, and tied, as they had been before, like a toga.

A few minutes later, Dobby stopped in front of the brick fireplace and pointed.

“Winky, look, Miss, Master Evan!” he said.

Winky was sitting on a stool by the fire. Unlike Dobby, she had obviously not foraged for clothes. She was wearing a neat little skirt and blouse with a matching blue hat, which had holes in it for her large ears

However, while every one of Dobby’s strange collection of garments was so clean and well cared for that it looked brand-new; Winky was plainly not taking care of her clothes at all. There were soup stains all down her blouse and a burn in her skirt.

“Winky!” said Hermione.

At their sight, she raised her head and shivered slightly. Her lips also quivered. Then she burst into tears, which spilled out of her great brown eyes and splashed down her front, just as they had done at the Quidditch World Cup.

“Oh dear,” said Hermione sadly, “Winky, don’t cry, please don’t…”

But Winky cried harder than ever. Dobby, on the other hand, beamed at Evan.

“Would Master Evan like a cup of tea?” he squeaked loudly, over Winky’s sobs.

“Oh… okay,” said Evan.

He looked around the layout of the kitchen and compared it to the castle plan he had found.

But no, everything was totally different, and everything had changed too much.

When they heard the conversation between Evan and Dobby, about six house-elves came, instantly, trotting up behind him, bearing a large silver tray laden with a teapot, cups for Evan and Hermione, a milk jug, and a large plate of biscuits.

“Thank you, this looks good!” said Evan.

The elves were very happy to hear him; they bowed very low and retreated.

“How long has Winky been here, Dobby?” Hermione asked.

“More than a month or so. No one wanted to take her in. You see, it is very difficult for a house-elf who has been dismissed to get a new position, very difficult indeed… ”

At this, Winky howled even harder, her squashed-tomato of a nose dribbling all down her front, though she made no effort to stem the flow.

“Dobby was going to ask Master Evan for help, and let him hire Dobby and pay her as he hired Dobby,” Dobby squeaked, “But Dobby isn’t sure if he should bother the great Master Evan because of this. Dobby knows that he is already so busy; he should not be distracted by this trifle. And he has hired Dobby. He doesn’t have that many jobs and can’t pay another house-elf for nothing…”

The house-elves all around the kitchen, who had been listening and watching with interest, all looked away at these words, as though Dobby had said something rude and embarrassing. In their view, asking for remuneration was a very shameful act, which was simply an insult to the house-elves.

Evan persuaded Dobby not to have to worry about it. Although he didn’t have so many jobs, he was willing to hire Winky and pay her.

However, Dobby kept shaking his head. He believed it was shameful to take wages without working. It was totally unacceptable and did not allow Evan to hire Winky.

Hermione highly appreciated Dobby’s demand for remuneration for work. She even took out the quill and began to record it, and she was ready to put it on the newspaper as a new incident to point out the qualities of House-elves making them worthy of remuneration.

A free house-elf demanding wages was a model she and the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare needed.

She needed to let the wizarding world know that not all house-elves were willing to be exploited and enslaved, and she wanted the wizards to know what they thought.

This was the original intention of the establishment of the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, to help the house-elves to make their voices heard.

Hermione was very excited. She was going to interview other elves for a while and listen to their opinions.

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