Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [119]
“But sir,” said a new elf, “of course you is greater than… he. He is a terrible man! He has done-”
“But was has he done to you that is worse than what we currently do?” yelled Harry. “We force you to work every day of your lives, for no pay, and no breaks! And if you screw up, most of your masters punish you… severely! How is that any better than what he would have you do?”
The elves stayed quiet after this statement. Hermione was beaming at Harry, thankful that he had taken an initiative. Then, it looked as though one of the elves was going to respond to what Harry said, when suddenly, an elf came bouncing down the hallway, and crashed right into Harry.
“Oh! I is so sorry sir!” it said. Harry recovered from the surprise, and looked at the elf. It was wearing giant socks that did not match at all: one was orange with purple dots, and the other was rainbow colored. It was green short shorts on, and a long red and yellow tie. Harry did not even have to look at its round face to see who it was.
“Hello, Dobby,” said Harry, brushing himself off.
“Oh! Mr. Harry Potter! I is so sorry and if-”
“You see,” said Harry, grabbing hold of Dobby’s shoulders, and wheeling him around so that he stood right in front of him. “This is what you all should be like! Express yourselves like him! Be like him! See how happy he is, with vacations and pay?” The other elves looked at Dobby as if he were a freak, or a disease. Something with which none of them wanted to associate themselves with.
“But, Dobby is… different….” squeaked some of the elves.
“And that’s what you all should be,” said Harry. “If there’s one thing that makes wizards so great is that each and every one of them is different than every other. If we were all the same, no progress would be made, and Voldemort would have taken over long ago! You elves need to be different from each other, not the same, not working every second of every day, you need to… do stuff… and time to do it!
“So, I tell you all now, tomorrow, when you are given the opportunity to get payment and vacation time, I urge… now, I am telling… ordering you all to take it! Do it, if not for your own good, then for your species’ good, and all the wizard’s of the world’s good!”
Ron and Hermione burst into applause, and Dobby gave a little clap. The rest of the elves looked as though they had seen a horror movie, and immediately ran away from Harry, giving whimpers and screams.
“Well, I don’t know if your speech did any good, Harry,” said Hermione, “but thanks for showing that you care.”
“How did you think of all that stuff to say?” asked Ron.
“I just suddenly thought that we were treating the elves just how Voldemort would, and I don’t want anything in common with him,” said Harry. But then, he looked at himself. He shared a lot with Voldemort: his scar gave him Voldemort’s power of Parseltongue, and his wand had a feather in it from Fawkes, just like Voldemort’s, and Harry even looked like Voldemort used to: black hair, and skinny. He and Voldemort were practically related.
“Come on Harry, “ said Ron and Hermione, “we have to get ready for the dance.” They bid Dobby good bye, and set off for their dormitories. It was really only Hermione who needed time to get ready, she wanted to fix her hair, and change into something really nice, which would take a while. All Harry and Ron had to do was slip on their robes, and maybe run a comb through their hair.
In their room, Harry and Ron met Dean and Seamus, their fellow fifth years. They were sitting on their beds, passing the time, while their dates got ready. Harry knew that Seamus was going with Parvati, but he didn’t know who Dean was going with. Harry asked him, and he said he was going with Parvati’s best friend: Lavender Brown.
Just then, Neville popped into the room. Harry wondered if he had a date for the dance.
“So, Neville… did you ask anyone to the Yule Ball?” asked Harry.
“Are you going with Ginny again?” asked Ron. At the Yule Ball last year, Neville had gone with Ginny.