Rosabella Black | Daughter of Sirius Black | (Book 4)

The Madness of Mr Crouch

Rosabella's Point of View:

My brothers, Hermione, Ron, Harry and I had agreed that we would all send food packages to Dad everyday.

Lucas would send one on Monday, Jason and Jacob would send one on Tuesday, Michael would send one Wednesday, I would do Thursday, Harry Friday, Hermione Saturday and Ron Sunday.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and I went up to the Owlery after breakfast on Sunday to send the letter to Percy asking about Crouch. We then went to the kitchen to give Dobby his present. The house-elves gave us very cheerful welcomes. They are so sweet and I gave them a warm smile. Dobby was ecstatic about his present.
       
"Harry Potter is too good to Dobby!" Dobby squeaked, wiping large tears out of his enormous eyes.
       
"You saved my life with that Gillyweed, Dobby, you really did." Harry said.
      
"No chance of more of those éclairs is there?" Ron said.

The house-elves beamed and ran around the kitchen.
  
"You've just had breakfast!" Hermione said irritably, but a great silver platter of éclairs was already zooming towards us.
       
"We should get some to send to Snuffles." I muttered.
       
"Good idea. You couldn't give us a bit of extra food, could you?" Ron asked the house-elves, who bowed delightedly and hurried off to work.
     
"Dobby, where's Winky?" Hermione said, looking around.
   
"Winky is over there by the fire, miss." Dobby said quitely, his ears drooping slightly.
     
"Oh dear." Hermione said, spotting Winky.

I followed her gaze and saw Winky on the same stool as last time, but she had allowed herself to become very filthy that you couldn't recognise her immediately. Winky clutched a bottle of Buttee Beer in her hand and swayed on the stool. She let out an enormous hiccough.
     
"Winky is getting through six bottles a day now." Dobby whispered to Harry so quietly that I barely heard him.
     
"Well, it's not strong, that stuff." Harry said.
       
"It is for a House-Elf. It's like a first year drinking a whole bottle of fire whisky. Not good." I said.
       
"How'd you know that?" Ron said, while eating some éclairs.
       
"After the Goblin essays we did in History of Magic, I've done extra reading on magical creatures in general. How best to approach them,  what not to do, stuff like that." I replied.
      
"I'll never understand you and Hermione. Voluntarily doing extra work on top of all our other homework." Ron said, genuinely.

I just rolled my eyes, while Hermione shook her head. We heard Winky hiccough again and the other elves gave her disapproving looks.
   
"Winky is pining, Harry Potter. 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." Dobby whispered sadly.

Harry walked over to Winky and dragged me along with him by my hand. Harry kept my hand in his as he bent down to talk to Winky.
   
"Hey, Winky, you don't know what Mr Crouch might be up to, do you? Because he's stopped turning up to judge the Triwizard Tournament." Harry said.

I raised one eyebrow at Harry and then looked back at Winky. Winky's eyes flickered. Her enormous pupils focused on Harry. She swayed slightly again.
     
"M-master is stopped – hic– coming?" Winky squeaked, disoriented.
     
"Yeah, we haven't seen him since the first task. The Daily Prophet's saying he's ill." I said softly.

Winky swayed some more, staring blurrily between Harry and me.
     
"Master–hic– ill?" Winky said.

Her bottom lip began to tremble.
       
"But we're not sure if that's true." Hermione said quickly.
      
"Master is needing his –hic– Winky! Master cannot –hic– manage –hic– all by himself . . ." Winky whimpered.
    
"Other people manage to do the their own housework, you know, Winky." Hermione said severely.
     
"Winky –hic– is not only –hic– doing housework for Mr Crouch! Master is –hic– trusting Winky with –hic– the most important –hic– the most secret–" Winky said as indignantly as possible while she swayed worse then ever on the stool.
       
"What?" Harry said.