Natsu Dragneel and the Goblet of Fire

The Madness of Mr. Zero

Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Sting, and Rogue went up to the Owlery after breakfast on Sunday to send a letter to Ultear, asking, as Weiss had suggested, whether he had seen Mr. Zero lately. They used Happy, because it had been so long since he'd had a job. When they had watched him fly out of sight through the Owlery window, they proceeded down to the kitchen to give Dobby his new socks. The house-elves gave them a very cheery welcome, bowing and curtsying and bustling around making tea again. Dobby was ecstatic about his present.

"Natsu Dragneel is too good to Dobby!" he squeaked, wiping large tears out of his enormous eyes.

"You saved my life with that gillyweed, Dobby, you really did," said Natsu.

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

"You've just had breakfast!" said Rogue irritably, but a great silver platter of eclairs was already zooming toward them, supported by four elves.

"We should get some stuff to send up to Snuffles," Natsu muttered.

"Good idea," said Gray. "Give Pig something to do. You couldn't give us a bit of extra food, could you?" he said to the surrounding elves, and they bowed delightedly and hurried off to get some more.

"Dobby, where's Winky?" said Lucy, who was looking around.

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

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

Natsu 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 Natsu.

"Well, it's not strong, that stuff," Natsu 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, Natsu Dragneel," 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 Master Makarov is her master now."

"Hey, Winky," said Natsu, struck by a sudden inspiration, walking over to her, and bending down, "you don't know what Mr. Zero 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 Natsu. She swayed slightly again and then said, "M - Master is stopped - hic - coming?"

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

Winky swayed some more, staring blurrily at Natsu.

"Master- hic- ill?"

Her bottom lip began to tremble.

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

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

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

"Winky - hic - is not only - hic - doing housework for Mr. Zero!" 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..."