Chapter 29 - House-elves and Weasleys

As much as Asha loved Hogwarts Castle, it was a welcome relief to escape into the limbo of the Forbidden Forest, where time seemed to stop and the usual worries of life suddenly appeared insignificant. She took a seat on the boulder and propped an arm on her knee. Taking out her wand, she twirled it absentmindedly between her fingers, listening to the rustling of small nocturnal creatures and the gentle bubbling of the nearby stream.

After a while, she glanced up at Snape. He was leaning against a tree, arms folded, gazing off in the direction of the lake. Asha experienced a strong desire to stay in this moment forever; sitting in the peaceful darkness... not quite alone.

As if the man had read her mind, Snape muttered, "You should go to bed."

"I slept all day," stated Asha, as if that settled the matter. Snape raised an eyebrow at her.

"I thought you said you spent all weekend completing overdue assignments."

"I didn't say that," Asha pointed out, "I said I caught up on all the schoolwork I missed." She slipped her wand back into her coat. "I finished at eight o'clock this morning - well, yesterday morning technically."

The Potions Master returned his gaze to the tree line, looking thoroughly indifferent.

"It was actually the best sleep I've had in years," Asha admitted.

"I'm not surprised," Severus replied icily. Bloody Dumbledore and that disgusting magic of his. After a few more moments of silence, he ventured to ask, "How are you feeling?"

Upon hearing his words, Asha immediately shot Snape a sceptical look but the man continued to look nothing but serious. All she offered him was a shrug, hoping he would respect her clear indication that she was not interested in discussing the topic.

"You haven't attended a meal in days," Severus droned. He was irked by her lack of response, as if refusing to open up was a stance reserved only for himself.

"Keeping track are you?" Asha replied darkly. "Food hasn't exactly been at the top of my priority list lately."

"In that case, it might be prudent for you to learn that food is, in fact, necessary for survival."

Asha ignored him.

Snape sighed in frustration.

"Come with me," he ordered in a resigned voice, straightening up and walking back towards the exposed lakeshore. She reluctantly followed him. His pace was slower than usual, allowing her to catch up and walk comfortably beside him.

Severus led the way back into the castle. When he took a left turn down the stairs that led to the basement, Asha came to an abrupt halt.

"Oh, hell no!" she objected, "you are not just going to drop me off at the common room like last time. There's no way I'm letting that happen again."

"That's not where we're going," Severus drawled irritably, not breaking his pace. He heard the whisper of Asha's footsteps resume behind him, but now at a calculated distance.

Asha watched as Snape stopped in front of the large painting of a fruit bowl that hung near the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. This instantly sparked her interest - a secret passage?

Severus glanced at Asha to check she was watching. She was surveying him with a keen glint in her eye - a sight that almost made him roll his eyes - of course now she was interested.

Asha was caught totally off guard by the bizarre sight of Snape raising his hand and tickling the painted pear. She didn't bother to stop the wide smile that was spreading across her face. The pear giggled and transformed into a green door handle. Snape took told of it a pulled the painting open. He made to beckon Asha inside but when he was met with her mocking amusement and raised eyebrows he shot her a withering look. She had the courtesy to at least close her mouth, but she didn't attempt to wipe the smug look off her face as she stepped past him into the passage.

To her surprise, it wasn't a passage, but an enormous, high ceilinged room. In the distance lay four long tables, headed with a fifth, all matching the layout of the Great Hall.

"Not that I am in any way encouraging you to skip meals with the other students," said Snape from behind her, "but just so you don't accidentally starve yourself..."

Asha finally registered the stoves and countertops lining the walls, piled with pots and pans. Continuing around a corner, two-story-high shelving was packed with fruit, bread, strings of sausages, pastries ready to be put in the oven: all the food one could possibly imagine. This was the Hogwarts Kitchens...

"Well," Asha grinned in amazement, "this is utterly outrageous. To think I've been living right next door to this gold mine for all these years!" Snape stepped past her and was intercepted by a three-foot-tall, spindly-armed creature which Asha recognised as a house-elf. She had read of them but never encountered one in the flesh.

"Good evening Professor Snape, sir, how may we serve you?" squeaked the elf, bowing low to the floor.

"This is Miss Winters," said Snape brusquely, "She needs dinner."

Asha stared at the stained tea towel that the creature wore as a toga.

"Welcome to the kitchens, Miss Winters. I am Guppy. What can I get you?"

"Er... a sandwich? ...please," Asha replied uncomfortably.

"Would miss like any particular fillings?"

"Um, just whatever's easiest... thanks, Guppy," she mumbled. The house-elf scurried away around the corner.

"I don't like this," Asha told Snape bluntly, her initial awe having quickly dissolved. He gave her a shrewd look.

"Albus pays them as much as they ask for," he stated. Asha pursed her lips, still not convinced.

At that moment, from around the corner came the sound of a glass bottle bouncing across the tiled floor, followed by an indecipherable wailing. Severus stilled, listening intently for a few seconds.

"Stay here," he ordered, before marching swiftly towards the commotion. Asha began to follow him, interested to see what was going on, but Snape whipped around and pointed fiercely at her to stay put. Asha sensed that he meant business and did as she was told. His eyes had been flashing the way they did when he was both very serious and very interested.

A moment after his billowing cloak had swept around the corner, Asha heard a second voice squeak: "Winky, no! Bad Winky!" but a blast of cold air captured her attention as the painting swung open behind her. Asha spun around, only to come face to face with the Weasley twins.

"Asha Winters!" they chimed in unison.

"Before long, you're gonna know as many Hogwarts secrets as we do," beamed Fred (Asha had finally learnt to tell them apart from the subtle differences in the way they held themselves). She quickly pressed a finger to her lips before glancing back over her shoulder.

"I've got to say, you're looking much better than when we last saw you," said George, completely ignoring Asha's instruction to hush.

"Was it your little weekday trip to Hogsmeade that helped?" grinned Fred.

"Be quiet!" Asha hissed.

"Don't be silly, the kitchens are soundproof," said George, waving a hand dismissively.

"And the house-elves don't snitch," said Fred.

"Bless their souls," added George, looking around whimsically.

"Besides, we want our product review!" said Fred. Both the twins looked at Asha expectantly. Until this point, they'd been talking back and forth so quickly she hadn't had a chance to get a word in.

"Guys, get out," she whispered urgently, herding them towards the exit, "Snape is-"

"Weasleys!"

Asha gave the twins an 'I tried to warn you' shrug, before stepping aside to watch the show. She crossed her arms and leant a shoulder against the wall.

A switch had been flicked and suddenly Severus Snape had become Professor Snape. The man swept towards the boys and somehow loomed over them despite their similar heights. Snape had just taken a menacing inhale and was about to unleash his wrath when a group of house-elves swarmed in front of the twins.

A chorus of "Welcome, Mr Wheezyses!" and "How may we help you?" ensued. Snape's face was priceless. The twins were gaping at the elves with looks of betrayal, though Asha couldn't knock the feeling that deep down the Weasley's were finding the entire situation very amusing.

Snape pushed his way past the house-elves, grabbed the boys by their collars and dragged them out of the kitchen, berating them all the way.

"Just when I thought you two had-"

The painting swung mercifully shut and, to the twin's credit, the kitchen was, in fact, soundproof. Asha was grateful for this feature. It had been a while since she'd been so close to the firing line of Professor Snape. It wasn't a pretty sight.

The house-elves were crestfallen that their favourite visitors had departed so soon. They scuttled past Asha and back around the corner. After a moment's hesitation, she followed them. The wailing had stopped but she only had to follow the sound of loud, frequent hiccoughs to find the source of trouble.

Crumpled in a heap by the fireplace was a silently sobbing house-elf. Asha crouched down next to it and tentatively placed a hand on its bony shoulder.

"You cannot help her, miss."

Asha swivelled around to see yet another elf. But unlike the others in the kitchen, this one was clad in an impressively strange assortment of clothing, including a tie that was so long it nearly brushed the floor, and a garish tea-cosy for a hat.

"What's wrong with her?" Asha asked in a low voice.

"Winky is sad because she was freed by her master, miss," squeaked the elf, "Winky is feeling disgraced and is not adjusting well to working at Hogwarts, miss."

"But isn't it a good thing?" asked Asha, "to be freed?"

"Winky does not think so, miss," said the elf sadly.

Asha racked her brains for why Snape might've acted the way he did when he heard Winky wailing. The brightly dressed elf turned to leave but Asha wasn't done asking him questions. The problem was, she didn't yet know what those questions were.

"I like your socks," she blurted out in an attempt to make him stay. To her surprise, the elf positively beamed.

"Socks is Dobby's favourite, miss!"

"Good for you, Dobby," Asha smiled. She liked this elf. "So you like being free then?"

"Oh yes, Dobby is proud to be a free elf, miss!" he said, standing a little taller, "he is asking to be paid and he is having one day off every month, miss!"

"But... don't all the house-elves here get paid?" Asha frowned.

"Oh no, miss!" exclaimed Dobby, as if this were common knowledge. Then, lowering his voice he continued, "They is not wanting to be paid, miss. They is thinking it is shameful. They is thinking it is a house-elf's duty to serve, miss."

From the opposite side of the kitchen, the other elves were casting Dobby, Winky and Asha disapproving looks. Asha clenched her jaw at the deeply rooted injustice of it all. However, as sickening as this information was, it gave her an idea.

"So why did Winky get freed?" she asked Dobby in a hushed voice. The elf glanced around nervously, then shuffled closer to Asha.

"Winky's master thinks Winky is responsible for casting - casting..." Dobby leaned closer, "... the Dark Mark."

Asha's eye's widened.

"At the Quidditch World Cup?"

Dobby nodded furiously, then hesitated.

"What is it?" Asha coaxed.

"Dobby... Dobby is not thinking that it is Winky who is casting it, miss."

"No," said Asha, "neither do I". She had read about house-elves and even more extensively about the Dark Mark. An elf wasn't capable of that kind of magic. "Who was Winky's master?"

Dobby's orb-like eyes glanced cautiously in the direction of Winky, checking she wasn't at risk of overhearing her old master's name. Luckily, the tiny elf seemed to have finally cried (or drank) herself to sleep.

"Winky's master was Mr Crouch," whispered Dobby.

"As in Barty Crouch?" Asha exclaimed, her voice louder than intended due to her surprise. "He's been in and out of Hogwarts for the Tournament. But why would he think Winky cast-" she stopped talking, noticing Dobby's eyes had wandered nervously to something over her shoulder.

Turning around, Asha registered Snape standing several meters away. He had his arms folded and was looking exactly as one would expect him to look after a serious telling-off. His angry glare caused her stomach to lurch, and she suddenly experienced the guilty feeling of being caught red-handed, even though all she had done was talk to some house-elves.

Asha stood up from her crouched position, grumbling, "How are you so quiet?"

With a wave of his hand, Snape sent a paper-wrapped sandwich flying at Asha from a nearby counter. It thumped into her chest as she caught it. Guppy had obviously been unwilling to come any closer to the disgraced Winky.

"Eat," Snape barked.

Asha refused to quail under his dominance.

"You said Dumbledore was paying the house-elves," she said coldly.

"I didn't say that," replied Snape, mimicking Asha's use of words from earlier in the night, "I said he was paying them as much as they asked for."

Asha shot him a dirty look.

"That is misleading," she told him reproachfully, before taking an aggressive bite of her sandwich. She moved to the edge of the kitchen and took a seat in one of two chairs that looked overly large and out of place in the elf-designed kitchen. She had a sneaking suspicion they were here specifically for the use of Fred and George.

"You just gonna watch me eat?" Asha inquired between mouthfuls. Snape's piercing gaze was still on her.

"What were the Weasley's talking about when they said you were in Hogsmeade?" he demanded.

"Nothing slips your notice does it?" said Asha mildly, tearing away a layer of paper wrapping from her sandwich.

"And what did they mean by their product review? Why are you even talking to the Weasleys! Those childish idiots are nothing but trouble."

Asha smiled mischievously before taking another bite. Snape sighed testily. "Winters!"

"Try all you like," said Asha, making a show of inspecting her nails, "my loyalties lie with the twins."

She was enjoying her sliver of power over this man far too much. Snape seemed to sense this and decided he had had enough. He made for the exit.

"Obviously don't tell anyone about the kitchens, and make sure to get at least some sleep," he said tiredly. "I expect you to resume full participation in my class starting tomorrow - including homework."

"What!" Asha objected through a mouthful of sandwich.

"You may be a more advanced spell caster than your fellow students, but your talent certainly doesn't extend to potion-making," snapped Snape. "Adult or not, you still need O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts to be employable. Don't think that just because of your special circumstances you're excused from partaking in the education system along with everyone else."

And with that, he rounded the corner and Asha heard the swoosh of the painting swinging open and closed.

*

A/N: wow. nearly 30 chapters into this 'romantic' fanfiction and we're still not on first-name basis... this is getting ridiculous 😂By the time I finish this story covid might be eradicated (aka in a VERY long time (sad face))

Question: What is your house and why? But you have to combine two houses (because this is my story and I make the rules! 😋) For example, I think I'm Gryffinclaw (GryffindorXRavenclaw) because I like Bungy Jumping and really value being brave but also occasionally spend time contemplating multiverse quantum theory and the meaning of life 🙈 also the Ravenclaw common room is clearly the best one. But my life ambition is to slowly morph into a Hufflepuff cause they're the best... Your turn!

Bonus Question: Do Slytherpuffs exist? And if so, what are they like?