Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Winky furiously. ‘You is ought to be ashamed of yourself, Dobby, talking that way about your masters!’
    ‘They isn’t my masters any more, Winky!’ said Dobby defiantly. ‘Dobby doesn’t care what they think any more!’
    ‘Oh, you is a bad elf, Dobby!’ moaned Winky, tears leaking down her face once more. ‘My poor Mr Crouch, what is he doing without Winky? He is needing me, he is needing my help! I is looking after the Crouches all my life, and my mother is doing it before me, and my grandmother is doing it before her … oh, what is they saying if they knew Winky was freed? Oh, the shame, the shame!’ She buried her face in her skirt again and bawled.
    ‘Winky,’ said Hermione, firmly, ‘I’m quite sure Mr Crouch is getting along perfectly well without you. We’ve seen him, you know –’
    ‘You is seeing my master?’ said Winky breathlessly, raising her tear-stained face out of her skirt once more, and goggling at Hermione. ‘You is seeing him here at Hogwarts?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Hermione. ‘He and Mr Bagman are judges in the Triwizard Tournament.’
    ‘Mr Bagman comes, too?’ squeaked Winky, and to Harry’s great surprise (and Ron and Hermione’s, too, by the looks on their faces), she looked angry again. ‘Mr Bagman is a bad wizard! A very bad wizard! My master isn’t liking him, oh no, not at all!’
    ‘Bagman – bad?’ said Harry.
    ‘Oh yes,’ Winky said, nodding her head furiously. ‘My master is telling Winky some things! But Winky is not saying … Winky – Winky keeps her master’s secrets …’
    She dissolved yet again in tears; they could hear her sobbing into her skirt, ‘Poor master, poor master, no Winky to help him no more!’
    They couldn’t get another sensible word out of Winky. They left her to her crying, and finished their tea, while Dobby chatted happily about his life as a free elf, and his plans for his wages.
    ‘Dobby is going to buy a jumper next, Harry Potter!’ he said happily, pointing at his bare chest.
    ‘Tell you what, Dobby,’ said Ron, who seemed to have taken a great liking to the elf, ‘I’ll give you the one my mum knits me this Christmas, I always get one from her. You don’t mind maroon, do you?’
    Dobby was delighted.
    ‘We might have to shrink it a bit to fit you,’ Ron told him, ‘but it’ll go well with your tea-cosy.’
    As they prepared to take their leave, many of the surrounding elves pressed in upon them, offering snacks to take back upstairs. Hermione refused, with a pained look at the way the elves kept bowing and curtseying, but Harry and Ron loaded their pockets with cream cakes and pies.
    ‘Thanks a lot!’ Harry said to the elves, who had all clustered around the door to say goodnight. ‘See you, Dobby!’
    ‘Harry Potter … can Dobby come and see you sometimes, sir?’ Dobby asked tentatively.
    ‘’Course you can,’ said Harry, and Dobby beamed.
    ‘You know what?’ said Ron, once he, Hermione and Harry had left the kitchens behind, and were climbing the steps into the Entrance Hall again. ‘All these years I’ve been really impressed with Fred and George, nicking food from the kitchens – well, it’s not exactly difficult, is it? They can’t wait to give it away!’
    ‘I think this is the best thing that could have happened to those elves, you know,’ said Hermione, leading the way back up the marble staircase. ‘Dobby coming to work here, I mean. The other elves will see how happy he is, being free, and slowly it’ll dawn on them that they want that, too!’
    ‘Let’s hope they don’t look too closely at Winky,’ said Harry.
    ‘Oh, she’ll cheer up,’ said Hermione, though she sounded a bit doubtful. ‘Once the shock’s worn off, and she’s got used to Hogwarts, she’ll see how much better off she is without that Crouch man.’
    ‘She seems to love him,’ said Ron thickly (he had just started on a cream cake).
    ‘Doesn’t think much of Bagman, though, does she?’ said Harry. ‘Wonder what Crouch says at home about him?’
    ‘Probably says he’s not a very good Head of Department,’ said Hermione, ‘and let’s face it … he’s got a point, hasn’t he?’
    ‘I’d still rather work for him than old Crouch,’ said Ron. ‘At least Bagman’s got a sense of humour.’
    ‘Don’t let Percy hear you saying that,’ Hermione said, smiling slightly.
    ‘Yeah, well, Percy wouldn’t want to work for anyone with a sense of humour, would he?’ said Ron, now starting on a