Out of Time

Chapter 28

And indeed there will be time

-The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

Snape's home is dreary. Very dreary, and this is coming from someone who grew up in the largest manor in the United Kingdom - one where most rooms are kept closed off from lack of need for only three people, where unused furniture is kept covered and wall sconces unlit. Where the ley lines beneath the manor keep it perpetually cold, and the sum of the package is a dim, chilly, and lonely existence.

Draco can't decide if Snape even notices the general state of his domicile. The cobwebs don't seem to bother him, nor the dust. He has no house elf, of course, and in a moment of selfish(?) brilliance, Draco summons his two elves to himself.

Suz and Jasper both crack into existence at once, and Draco's quite relieved to see no lasting injuries on either. For no particular reason he addresses Jasper first.

"Tell me the truth. How bad has it been at the manor?"

His little elf taps his fingernails together in an anxious tic. He's been asked for honesty that is going to sound a lot like criticism. "It's... is okay, Master Draco. Mistress is keeping us hidden. We is to do our chores in empty rooms. We is to wait for quiet."

"Is it often quiet?" How much time are they really at his home? Is it just a base of operations where they squat and lean long enough to eat his food and drink his whisky? Long enough to sleep before departing again?

"Sometimes, Master Draco. We elves is to take turns cleaning rooms and Mistress's guests' clothes. We is to go out of the kitchens when no one is around."

Nevermind the kitchens, which none of their esteemed guests would venture into anyway. The elves' personal space is entirely hidden. The old manors were built this way on purpose, to keep their family servants out of sight as much as possible. 'The mark of a good house elf is to not know it's there,' Lucius always said to Draco growing up. Now, he's glad they have this secrecy.

He turns to Suz next. Suz is one of their youngest - not to say that she's young. But the elf responsibilities are often divvied out this way, where one or two of the younger elves would be assigned to the family child (or children). As the heir ages, his particular elves would follow him and age alongside him, knowing his likes and dislikes, his specific preferences for everything from food to laundry. When the heir would marry and have children, younger elves would be designated to the child and the cycle would continue.

Draco had enjoyed his elves' company in a manor where there were no children. There were no playmates of any sort and his parents certainly didn't qualify. There were no games played, no father-and-son Quidditch. When his friends were unable to fill this gap, Draco's elves had been his only companions.

One of Lucius's elves from childhood had been Dobby. Draco's father was never kind to his slaves and the Dark Lord had been.... aggrieved to learn that Lucius had been so horrible to an elf that it ran right to Harry Potter. Draco had been young when Dobby had done that, but the lesson once the Dark Lord learned of it after his fourth year had imprinted on his mind extremely well.

Evidently, people like his darling aunt Bellatrix haven't been so adaptable. Or maybe Bellatrix just assumes the Dark Lord wouldn't chastise her for a blunder like that. Draco wouldn't count on it, but his aunt always has had a very high opinion of herself and her presumed value to the room at large.

"Suz, how hurt have you and the others been?"

She gulps and plays with the end of one floppy ear between her little fingers. "Mistress heals us, Master Draco."