Courage

-56-

Book: Courage
Chapter 56
Word Count: 6409

Harry, Layla, Ron, and Hermione went up to the Owlery after breakfast on Sunday to send a letter to Percy, asking, as Sirius had suggested, whether he had seen Mr Crouch lately. They used Hedwig, because it had been so long since she'd had a job. When they had watched her fly out of sight through the Owlery window, they headed down to the kitchen and greeted Dobby. Of course, all Ron cared about was food.

"No chance of more of those eclairs, is there?" said Ron, who was looking around at the beaming and bowing house-elves.

"You've just had breakfast!" said Hermione irritably, but a great silver platter of eclairs was already zooming toward them, supported by four elves. "Dobby, where's Winky?" she said.

"Winky is over there by the fire, miss," said Dobby quietly, his ears drooping slightly.

"Oh dear," said Hermione as she spotted Winky.

Layla looked over at the fireplace too. Winky was sitting on the same stool as last time, but she had allowed herself to become so filthy that she was not immediately distinguishable from the smoke-blackened brick behind her. Her clothes were ragged and unwashed. She was clutching a bottle of butterbeer and swaying slightly on her stool, staring into the fire. As they watched her, she gave an enormous hiccup.

"Winky is getting through six bottles a day now," Dobby whispered to Harry.

"Well, it's not strong, that stuff," Harry said.

But Dobby shook his head.

"'Tis strong for a house-elf, sir," he said.

Winky hiccuped again. The elves who had brought the eclairs gave her disapproving looks as they returned to work.

"Winky is pining, Harry Potter," Dobby whispered sadly. "Winky wants to go home. Winky still thinks Mr Crouch is her master, sir, and nothing Dobby says will persuade her that Professor Dumbledore is her master now."

"Hey, Winky," said Harry, walking over to her and bending down, "you don't know what Mr Crouch might be up to, do you? Because he's stopped turning up to judge the Triwizard Tournament."

Winky's eyes flickered. Her enormous pupils focused on Harry. She swayed slightly again and then said, "M-Master is stopped — hic — coming?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "we haven't seen him since the first task. The Daily Prophet's saying he's ill."

Winky swayed some more, staring blurrily at Harry.

"Master — hic — ill?"

Her bottom lip began to tremble.

"But we're not sure if that's true," said Layla quickly.

"Master is needing his — hic — Winky!" whimpered the elf. "Master cannot — hic — manage — hic — all by himself."

"Other people manage to do their own housework, you know, Winky," Hermione said severely.

"Winky — hic — is not only — hic — doing housework for Mr Crouch!" Winky squeaked indignantly, swaying worse than ever and slopping butterbeer down her already heavily stained blouse. "Master is — hic — trusting Winky with — hic — the most important — hic — the most secret..."

"What?" said Layla.

But Winky shook her head very hard, spilling more butterbeer down herself.

"Winky keeps — hic — her master's secrets," she said mutinously, swaying very heavily now, frowning up at Layla with her eyes crossed. "You is — hic — nosing, you is."