Two days of no progress on finding anything out about House-Elves greatly frustrated Hermione. It was like the information just didn't exist, but without checking the Restricted Section, she would never know for sure. Jake had got fed up and decided that Thursday night, he was borrowing Harry's Invisibility Cloak and taking a look through the Restricted Section.
She was in the Library that morning with Jake, who was busy seeing if he could just get Madam Pince to get any book on House-Elves in the Restricted Section out for him, but she wasn't having it and they were arguing back and forth quietly.
Hermione couldn't help but laugh quietly at the thought of him arguing with a frail old woman, who argued back just as viciously. He had come back a little later, letting out an exasperated sigh as he sat down, "That miserable old bat isn't budging, I wonder if she even knows for sure if there are any books or not on the subject... tonight after Dinner I plan to go into the Restricted Section, I feel like we are just wasting time..."
"I know, we aren't making any headway with this, and it bothers me," Hermione answered him, letting out her own sigh. "The only reason this information would either not exist, or be incredibly difficult to find would be if-"
"-Someone wanted it left unfound... I just can't imagine who nowadays would continue that trend of leaving it hidden... House-Elves, assuming they are treated with respect, don't complain about the work they do... but that would take centuries or millennia to be absorbed into their mindset... something like that just doesn't happen overnight, or even over a year, generations of House Elf families would have to be taught that..." Jake was trying to rack his brain around, "I know someone who might be helpful..." he said, unsure if he wanted Hermione to know Merlin was still alive in the sense he was inside a Portrait back at the Tower.
"Who?" She asked, practically jumping at the chance to speed this along.
"Well... the problem is, I don't know how to ask him, he's all the way back at the Tower..."
"A-Are you... are you talking about..." Hermione was already talking in a whisper, but she lowered her voice even more, barely making an audible noise, "Merlin?"
"Yeah... he lives in a Portrait, but I don't know how to ask him for his help..." Jake lamented. Their dilemma was problematic at best, and unsolvable at worst.
"He lived over a Millennium and a half ago, if you can find a way to ask him for his help, that would be marvelous, Jake," Hermione was smiling at him.
"If I do, I'll let you know," he smiled back and they continued their aimless reading for the time being.
After his third morning running laps around the school, he was starting to get adjusted to it, but still felt exhausted until he got a nice hot shower to relax his muscles and wash away the grime. He'd get used to it soon, though, and he'd stop feeling tired at the end. It was one thing to hike for a couple of hours and climb a hill to get to the top, while carrying Hermione; it was another thing entirely to run the circle lap he was currently running each morning on the cold, and sometimes wet and muddy, grounds. He wondered if he should run in the snow when it would eventually fall, and he came to the obvious conclusion of yes, he would be running in the snow, it wasn't going to stop him, he'd just brew some Warming Potions to prepare for when that did happen.
After a short Lunch that day, they had gone to the Library, but instead of looking through books, they just worked on Homework that wasn't due until the following week. They both managed to get a fair bit done, which would free up their weekend to get Defense Homework done, and whatever was assigned tomorrow.
Just as the bell for Lunch Period ended, Hermione and Jake both hurried towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, not wanting to miss a second of Moody's class. Hermione was excited, but just to see how he taught, not really the class itself. She saw that Jake was really excited, even if he didn't show it much. With Alastor Moody being an Ex-Auror, and one of the best Auror's the Ministry ever had, she knew that Jake was excited to see what a man like Moody could show them.
They ended up being the last two to arrive, "Sorry, been in the-"
"Library," Harry finished Hermione's sentence for her, "Come on, quick, or we won't get decent seats."
They hurried to four seats near the front of the classroom, Hermione sitting on Jake's right side, and they took out their books for class, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection . They all waited patiently, unusually quiet, but Hermione saw Jake with his elbows on his desk, his eye was closed. He was leaned forward on the desk and he looked peaceful. She also noticed he hadn't taken his book out.
Hermione was about to talk to him about that when they heard the familiar clunking of a Wooden leg coming down the corridor. Pretty soon, Moody entered the room, looking strange and frightening as ever. "You can put those away," he said and Hermione looked at Jake, wondering how he knew Professor Moody wouldn't want their books out. Moody sat down at the teacher's desk, "Those books, you won't need them."
Everyone put their books away and Hermione noticed it was a similar thing to last year. Hermione saw that Ron looked extra excited.
Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names. His normal eye went down the list as expected, but his large blue eye went to each student as they answered their name. He stopped ever so briefly on both Jake and Harry, Hermione noticed, and when he was done with the register, he got right to it, "Right then, I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough understanding in tackling Dark Creatures - you've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Kappas, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, and Werewolves, is that right?"
A general murmur of agreement was heard. Jake stayed quiet, though.
"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses," Moody said, "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what Wizards can do to each other. I've got One Year to teach you how to deal with Dark-"
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.
Moody's magical eye spun around to glare at Ron, who was looking extremely apprehensive, from what Hermione could tell. After a moment, Moody gave a wry smile. It was the first Hermione had seen him smile since he arrived, and it looked out of place on his scarred Visage. "You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, yeah?" Moody asked him, and Ron nodded, "Your father helped me in a right spot of trouble a little while back... yeah, I'm staying just the one year. A special favor to Dumbledore. One Year, and then it's back to my quiet retirement."
He gave a harsh, gravelly laugh and clapped his hands together, looking ready to get started.
"So - straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you Counter-Curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like if you're not in Sixth Year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it until then, but Professor Dumbledore has got a higher opinion of your nerves. He reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen?" Moody's voice was getting louder and more gruff, "A Witch or Wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to explain what it's going to do to you. He or She's not going to be polite and in your face about it. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, while I'm talking!"
Lavender had jumped and had reddened cheeks from being caught. From what Hermione could tell, she was showing Parvati a horoscope or something, but she couldn't tell from how far away Lavender was.
"Mr. Kidd, are you listening, or sleeping?" Moody asked Jake, as his eye was still closed.
"Hanging on every word, Professor Moody," he said, opening his eye finally to look at the man himself.
"Dumbledore said you were American, but I didn't believe it myself until just now," Moody gave a wry, crooked smile, "So, do any of you know which Curses are most heavily punishable by Wizarding Law?"
Jake's hand shot up, as did Hermione's and Ron's, and she glanced over and saw that his sleeve fell down, revealing the scars on his arm, 'He must not care if people see his scars...' She thought to herself.
Moody ended up pointing at Ron, "Er," he said, as though he didn't expect to be called on, "my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," Moody said appreciatively, "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." Jake knew immediately he was talking about the last time Voldemort was terrorizing the British Isles.
Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Jake caught movement out of his eye and he saw Ron recoil at the sight of the spiders - he did hate them after all.
Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the Spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it clearly. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, " Imperio !"
The spider suddenly leapt from Moody's scarred hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a backflip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk. It then began to cartwheel in circles, then Moody jerked his wand and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Everyone was laughing at the spider - everyone except for Moody, and Jake. That did not go unnoticed by Hermione, who stopped laughing immediately.
"Think it's funny, do you?" He growled his question towards them, "you'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"
The rest of the laughter died away almost instantly.
"Total control," Moody said quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over around the table, "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..." Ron gave an involuntary shudder at that, Hermione saw out of her peripheral, "Years back, there were a lot of Witches and Wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," Mood said gruffly, "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will.
"The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better to avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He suddenly barked, causing everyone but Jake to jump. He picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Jake saw Hermione's hand shoot up again. He didn't bother raising his hand that time, he saw no reason to.
"Yes?" He heard Moody say, but it was not Hermione that Moody had called on.
"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse..." Jake heard Neville say from behind him, his voice was small but distinct.
Moody seemed to be looking very intently at Neville with both of his eyes, "Your name's Longbottom?" He asked, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again. Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desk, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move, "The Cruciatus Curse..." Moody said, looking at the spider, "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said quietly, pointing his wand at the spider, " Engorgio !"
The Spider swelled to a size that was considerably larger than a Tarantula, but just barely smaller than a Chihuahua. Jake suddenly heard the skidding of a chair, and he looked and saw Ron had scooted his chair back away from Moody's desk as much as he possibly could.
Moody pointed his wand at the now massive spider and muttered, " Crucio !"
Jake watched as the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. He couldn't hear anything, obviously, but if he could, he'd imagine the most agonizing, head-splitting, heartbreaking scream possible would be heard right then. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently as the pain no doubt got to be more and more unbearable.
"Stop it!" Hermione suddenly said in a shrilly voice right beside him.
He glanced at her, and he saw that she was looking at Neville. He too looked at the round-faced boy and saw that his hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.
Moody lifted his wand and the spider relaxed immediately, occasional spasm from the post-Curse use, " Reducio ," Moody said and the spider shrank back to the normal size, before being thrown back into the jar, "Pain," he said softly, "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular at one time too." Moody then placed both eyes upon Hermione, "So, Miss Granger, perhaps you'd like to tell me the last Unforgivable Curse?"
Hermione shook her head, a few tears having rolled down her eyes. Just before Moody could goad her into saying it, Jake said it for them both, " Avada Kedavra ," his voice was clear for the whole classroom to hear. Moody looked at him with both eyes, "The Killing Curse," he said and looked at Moody with his singular eye.
"The last... and worst..." he returned to the spiders and took the last one out. It had tried to make itself as small as possible, seemingly knowing what was about to happen. When it was on the desk, it began scuttling away frantically across the wooden surface. Moody aimed his wand and spoke the very words Jake had seconds ago, " Avada Kedavra !" He roared, and Jake's arm flinched reactively. The last time he'd heard the Curse from someone else, he had stopped it with his hand and was knocked out for several hours at least. He didn't have a problem saying it himself, he didn't know why Moody saying it bothered him.
Hermione looked away just as the green spell had hit the spider, but Jake flinching beside her did not go unnoticed. She was doing everything she could to keep herself from breaking; she couldn't believe how barbaric Moody was.
Moody swept the now dead spider off the table and onto the floor, "Not nice," he said calmly in his gruff voice, "Not pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it."
'Not quite...' Jake thought to himself.
"Only one person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me," Moody's eyes were looking, obviously, at Harry. Hermione saw his face redden slightly, and his eyes were looking past Moody at the blackboard. " Avada Kedavra is a Curse that needs a powerful bit of Magic behind it - you could all get your wands out right now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed," he paused and walked up to Jake, "well, except for maybe one of you," Hermione saw Jake look up to their Professor, "the blood of Merlin... the most powerful Bloodline to ever exist..." Moody walked back to the desk.
Hermione kept her eyes on Jake and saw him exhale, 'He was holding his breath?'
"Now, if there's no counter-curse then why am I telling you about this? Why am I showing it to you? Because you've got to know. You've got to know the words and be able to recognize them if and when they get used against you. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He roared again, startling all of them but Jake, again. "Now those three curses, Avada Kedavra, Crucio, and Imperio, they are the Unforgivable Curses. To use them on a fellow human-being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against, Witches and Wizards who aren't afraid of that punishment. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance... get out your quills and copy this down..."
They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on the Unforgivable Curses. Everyone had seemed afraid to speak until the bell rang, letting them go for the day. When they had exited class, a torrent of talk burst through the students. Most of them talked about the curses in awe, like they were the most amazing thing ever. It made Hermione sick to her stomach.
"Hurry up!" She said tensely to Harry and Ron. Jake was keeping his eye forward.
"Not the ruddy library again?" Ron asked, annoyance in his voice.
"No," Hermione responded curtly, and pointed up a side passage, "Neville."
The round-faced boy was standing alone, about halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall across from him with the same horrified, wide-eyed expression he had when Moody had used the Cruciatus Curse on that spider.
"Neville?" Hermione asked carefully as they got closer.
He looked over at them, "Oh, hello," he said, his voice much higher than usual, "Interesting lesson wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm - I'm starving, aren't you?"
"Neville, are - are you alright?" Hermione's voice was quiet and gentle.
"Oh, yes, I'm fine," Neville said, but Jake could tell he was not fine, far from it, "Very interesting dinner - I mean lesson - what's for eating?"
"Neville, what-" Hermione was about to speak again when a dull clunking sound was heard coming their way.
Alastor Moody was approaching them, looking as menacing as ever. When Moody spoke, his voice was much lower and gentle with the growl, "It's alright, sonny," Moody then motioned the direction he came from, "Why don't you come to my office... I'll make you a cup of tea."
Neville looked down right frightened at the prospect of having Tea with Moody. He didn't speak or move, and Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry.
"You all right, are you, Potter?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry answered quickly.
"You've got to know," Moody said quietly, "it seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know . No point pretending... well... come on, Longbottom, I've got some books you might enjoy as well."
Neville looked pleadingly at the four of them, but they said nothing as he walked with Professor Moody, one of his gnarled hands on his shoulder.
"What was that about?" Ron asked, watching Neville and Moody walk away from them.
"I don't know," Hermione said, looking quite pensive.
"Some lesson though, wasn't it?" Ron asked them, "Fred and George were right. He really knows his stuff, Moody does," Hermione glanced at his face as they began walking again, and he looked giddy. "So... would either of you use one of them? If it were a dire situation?"
"No," Hermione said at once.
"Definitely not," Harry said, looking disturbed still from the Killing Curse being used on that spider.
"Yes," Jake said, surprising all three of them.
"What?" Hermione asked, her mouth agape as she looked at him. He kept walking, so she grabbed his shoulder and turned him to look at her, "Why did you say yes?"
His look was fierce as he gazed at her with his eye, "If you were ever being held captive, Hermione, and I needed to know where you were, I'd use the Cruciatus Curse until the person's nerve endings were permanently damaged if it meant finding you. You are my best friend, Hermione, there's almost nothing I wouldn't do for you."
Hermione could practically feel the conviction in his voice. She couldn't disagree with his reasoning, and not just because he would do it for her, "Okay."
Harry and Ron were almost floored, "Wh-What?" Ron stuttered his question.
They ignored him and continued to the Great Hall. When they were far enough away, Hermione spoke up, "You still want to go into the Library tonight and search through the Restricted Section?"
"Yeah, no reason to speed eat at Dinner this evening," he smiled at her.
"Not this time," Hermione laughed a little as they entered the Hall. They sat down at the Gryffindor Table and Harry and Ron eventually showed up, talking about Firenze's Homework assignment for Divination and how they'd have to get it done tonight.
"No quick eating this time?" Ron asked.
"No, not this evening," was all Hermione answered with.
"Have you given up then on whatever it is you're doing?" Harry asked.
"Oh, don't be silly, Harry, of course not," she laughed and continued eating.
They both didn't talk to her or Jake the rest of Dinner, both being too busy muttering to themselves. Once dinner ended, they made it back to Gryffindor Tower, spoke the password to the Fat Lady, and walked into the warm, cozy common room. Harry and Ron had sat down on one of the sofas to get to work, while Hermione and Jake sat across from them, Hermione sitting slightly closer than usual. They didn't have a lot left to get through, and they didn't know what Friday would bring them in terms of Homework, but they never complained about having any.
"Quick question for the both of you," Hermione got the attention of the two boys across from her. When they looked up, she asked, "Does the way Firenze teach it make you actually learn something, or is it the same as with Trelawney and you're both just going to guess at it all?"
"Somehow... it's not easier than Trelawney, but we've got a bit better understanding of how it works. And the way Centaur's read the planet's and stars, it's so different from Trelawney," Harry answered her.
"Why, did you want to take up Divination again?" Ron asked in a teasing tone.
"Of course not!" Hermione answered quickly and loudly, " Honestly ."
For the next twenty minutes, only Hermione and Jake could be seen putting Quill to Parchment. Hermione looked up and saw that Harry and Ron had made zero progress on their Divination Predictions. "You know..." Ron got Harry's attention, and incidentally, Jake's too, "I think it's back to the Old Divination Standby."
"What - make it up?" Harry had asked him.
"I guess it doesn't matter who teaches it or how it's taught, you two just won't grasp it," Jake was fighting a smile from appearing on his face. For the next hour, the both of them voiced their predictions that would happen to both of them, and Jake and Hermione both found it to be more amusing with each prediction they thought up. They didn't dare interrupt them, because they both honestly didn't care about the class, so if they weren't going to put in a lot of effort, the both of them weren't going to on their behalf.
The Common Room slowly emptied of people and Crookshanks appeared not long after, "Hello, Crookshanks," Hermione acknowledged him as he leapt up onto the space next to her. He was staring at Harry for some reason.
In the otherwise quiet room, the four of them heard George speaking, "No - that sounds like we're accusing him. Got to be careful..." None of them made any indication to ask what the Twins were talking about, but they both soon said goodnight and went up the stairs.
Jake set down his quill, as did Hermione who then picked up Crookshanks onto her Lap. He massaged his now cramped hand as he concluded that he was done with his work, "I'm gonna turn in," he said suddenly. It was getting late, and Hermione looked at him carefully. She knew he was going to get Harry's Invisibility Cloak and go raid the Library for information.
"Alright then. Have a good night, Jake," Hermione said with a smile as he packed up his stuff.
"Yeah, have a good night as well, Hermione. Night Harry, Ron," he took his stuff up the stairs and wasn't surprised to see Neville, Seamus, and Dean all already asleep. Chloe was in her cage, sleeping as well. The cage was open, as was a window just enough for her to get in and out of. He smiled at her and drew his curtains on his bed and then pilfered through Harry's Trunk, finding the Cloak no problem. He threw it around himself and quietly crept back down the stairs.
Hermione was looking at Crookshanks, whose attention was drawn to the stairs for the Boys Dormitory. Jake was standing there, Crookshanks could see through the Cloak. She watched Crookshanks and his head followed Jake as he walked.
Before either of the boys across from her could acknowledge Crookshanks' behavior, they were distracted by a soft tapping on the window, "Hedwig!"
Jake glanced over and saw Hedwig was in fact at the window. He'd have to ask Hermione what Sirius said when he saw her in the morning. He used the arrival of Harry's Owl to make his way stealthily out of Gryffindor Tower, and made his way down to the Library.
He hadn't been in the Restricted Section since First Year, and it was the same as it was then; Restricted.
He pulled the Cloak down and held it together with his hand in front of his collarbone, his other hand holding his wand, " Lumos Minima ," he whispered and a small light appeared at the tip of his wand. He had read up on this variation of the spell in one of the books at Merlin's Tower. He hadn't seen a reason for its existence, until right then in the Library.
The spell variation gave off a dimmer light, with a smaller radius, and it was a bit more directional than the regular Lumos .
He spent an hour searching and scouring the Library, and eventually found a book he felt like it would contain the answers he sought. He set the Cloak on the table and opened the book, finding immediately that this was the book he and Hermione had been in need of.
He did a brief search to see if there were any more books like this one, but after having no luck on the matter, he grabbed the book, threw the cloak back over himself, and made his way back to Gryffindor Tower, speaking the password to the Fat Lady when he did. He wasn't surprised to see that no one was in the room, not even Hermione. He placed the book down on a table and went to take Harry's cloak back up to his trunk. Everyone's curtains were drawn, so he didn't hesitate to return the Cloak to the trunk.
Jake went back down the stairs to the Common Room and opened the book, deciding to go ahead and get to reading. When he felt his eyes eventually starting to get heavy, he pulled a Sleeping Draught out of his robes and downed it. He continued reading until he eventually just fell asleep.
*******
Hermione got up at her usual time the following morning and got ready for the day ahead. When she finished, she walked down the stairs to see Jake asleep at the table, his cheek resting on an open page of a book. She walked over to him and shook his shoulder, "Jake?"
"Nnnn... Hunh?" He groaned as he lifted his face off the page and stretched, his fingers interlocked as he raised them and his arms above his head, while pushing his shoulders backwards.
Hermione felt her face burn a little as she watched him. She had to mentally slap herself to come back to her senses when he finished stretching. "What did you find in the Restricted Section?"
"Exactly," he paused to yawn, "exactly the book we were looking for. Convenient, right?" He asked, fully facing her.
That was when Hermione noticed that he had his eye-patch off, "Seems like it, but I won't complain if it's exactly what we were looking for," she smiled as she sat down beside him, "So what does the book say about House-Elves?"
"Well... not a lot, since it's only one book, but it details the enslavement of Elf-kind. It was roughly back in 200 AD when they were enslaved in a war that the Wizards waged on the Elves, lasting only five hours," he pushed the book over to her, "before that, they were free. Elves were subjugated by Witches and Wizards, and over Eighteen Hundred years they are how they are now because they were beaten daily. Even if they weren't misbehaving and doing everything their Masters asked them to do. It was all so they could get future generations of Elves to understand that good House-Elves didn't disobey. It was about 748 or 749 AD when the Elves tried to rebel, but the Witches and Wizards greatly outnumbered them. After the rebellion was put down, a Wizard by the name of Finch Evergreen created a spell that entirely broke the Spirit of any House Elf that still had thoughts of rebellion, and they had sudden urges to hurt themselves brutally for disobeying their Masters," he sighed, still trying to wake up from his previous sleep state. He rubbed his eyes as Hermione had tears in hers, "The first House-Elf was released in about 1065 AD when it's Master gave it a beanie to wear. The House-Elf said it didn't feel free, so the Master, after three years, making it 1068 when the House-Elf was officially freed, when the charm was cast to free the Elf. It was then changed in Wizarding Law, where the effect would apply to any House-Elf that was given clothes, not counting the raggedy table-cloth things they wear now."
Hermione had her hands over her mouth and nose as tears flowed freely from her eyes, "That's terrible..." her voice was muffled by her hands, and she lowered them to speak again, "Jake... w-we've got to help them!"
"Don't worry, Hermione, we will. But that's Eighteen Hundred years of them living like the way they do, and that can't easily be erased. I know you probably don't want to admit this, but it will be a slow and arduous process, Hermione," he said, telling her the fact of the matter, "Since I got all the information, I'll let you come up with the name, and how we should run the Organization, but being Co-Founder, I feel that you should run our Short-Term and Long-Term goals by me before we make it public," he said, suddenly finding himself embraced in a tight Hermione hug. He felt his face burn, but that was mostly because Hermione's knee was pushing into his groin, and she didn't realize it.
"Jake, you have no idea how much this means to me, finding out all of this information on House-Elves, you probably saved me days more worth of searching!" She said excitedly, letting go and stepping back. She noticed he shifted a little awkwardly on the seat, but didn't understand why.
"I'm mainly just glad I was able to help you, Hermione. I saw how much this meant to you, and decided that it was a cause worth fighting for. House-Elves, not all, but a lot of them, are mistreated horribly, like Dobby was. I saw how Lucius Malfoy treated him at the end of Second Year... and then Harry freed him somehow, but he never told me how he tricked Lucius," he stood up and towered over Hermione.
She swore he had gotten taller already just in the time since she first saw him over the Summer Holiday. She craned her neck to look at him, "I'll use the weekend to devise all of the things we will need for our Club. I hate to use your status as Merlin's Descendant, but maybe if they see that you are associating with the Club, other people will be inspired to do so too?"
"Maybe so. At least it will be used for something good," he smiled and went to the room to get his stuff since it was Friday. When he returned they both walked to the Great Hall, passing Harry, who both of them didn't even know was out of the Tower, and sat down at Gryffindor's Table when they got there. "So, what did Sirius' letter say when Hedwig came back last night?"
"He said he was flying North, and that if Harry's scar hurt again to go straight to Dumbledore, that the Headmaster is reading the signs, and for Harry to keep his eyes open," she explained as they grabbed some breakfast.
"Sirius has a right to be worried. I wonder... Do you think Harry was out of Gryffindor Tower this morning to send a reply to him?" He asked her.
"Possibly. Knowing Harry, he will have told Sirius to not worry, that it's not something to worry about," Hermione said.
It wasn't until later when he and Ron showed up that she found she was half right.
"That was a lie , Harry," she had said when Harry explained that he sent Sirius a letter saying his scar hadn't hurt at all, and that he must have imagined it hurting. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting and you know it."
"So what?" Harry asked bruskly, "He's not going back to Azkaban because of me."
"Drop it, you two," Jake said quickly and sharply. Hermione had just opened her mouth to argue again, but Jake had put a stop to it. Hermione only stopped because Jake had been the one to say it.
It wasn't until Sunday morning when Hermione had finished getting everything ready for their new Club, but was glad that both Harry and Ron were there for her to show what she'd come up with. They had just finished a game of Wizard's Chess while Jake had been writing something down, but she couldn't see a book in sight.
"What's in the box?" Harry asked as she approached them.
Jake's attention was immediately brought to Hermione upon Harry's words. He knew it was Hermione without looking, and she was in fact holding a box, with some light rattling inside as she walked up to them.
"Glad you asked," Hermione was all smiles. She took off the lid to the box and revealed its contents to be about fifty badges, all of different colors, but all bearing the same letters: S.P.E.W.
"S.P.E.W. Nice," Jake said, having already figured out what it meant.
"Spew?" Harry asked, picking up a badge and looking at it, "What's this about?"
"Not spew ," Hermione said, teetering on a belligerent tone, "It's S-P-E-W. Stands for-"
"-the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, doesn't it?" Jake asked her.
"Exactly! How did you figure that out?" She asked, dumbfounded for a moment.
"I mean, it wasn't too difficult, mainly just quick process and elimination as to what sounded good for the Acronym," he explained, completely losing Harry and Ron.
"Never heard of it," Ron said, pushing past that.
"Well, of course you haven't," Hermione said with a lightness to her voice, "We've only just started it."
"We?" Ron asked.
"Jake and I."
"Yeah? How many members have you got?" Ron asked, his tone with a hint of mocking in it.
"Well - if you two join - four," she said, smiling.
"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew,' do you?" Ron's tone was still one of mocking.
"S-P-E-W!" Hermione said hotly, "I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status - but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our Manifesto."
"SOAOFMCCCTLS... yeah, doesn't have the same ring to it," Jake said, failing horribly to pronounce the acronym as a word.
Hermione brandished the sheaf of parchment at Harry and Ron, "Jake and I have been researching it thoroughly, being really only one book that talked about it, and Elf enslavement goes back Eighteen Hundred years! When Jake told me, I couldn't believe no one had done anything about it before now."
"Hermione - open your ears," Ron said loudly, "They. Like. It. They like being enslaved!"
"Our Short-Term aims," Hermione said, speaking more loudly than Ron, and pretending like she hadn't heard him. Jake couldn't wait to see what she came up with for their Short-term and Long-term goals, "are to secure House-Elves fair wages and working conditions." That wasn't what he wanted to hear, honestly, "Our Long-term aims include changing the Law about Non-Wand use, and trying to get an Elf in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they're shockingly underrepresented-"
"Hermione!" Jake said quickly, interrupting her.
"What?" She asked in a daze.
"I thought we agreed to run them by me first?" He asked her.
"What? You - you don't agree with them?" Her voice was about to break, and he felt his heart about to break because of it.
"I agree with them all being Long-term goals... but remember, this is Eighteen Hundred years of enslavement that we have to change. House-Elf culture won't accept these changes so soon if they are Short-Term. I hate to admit this, but Ron is right about one thing, they currently do like their situation, most of them, because it's how they've been bred over a dozen and a half centuries. They won't accept payment for their work if they aren't brought to see their situation how we see it. They probably don't even realize House-Elves used to be free at one point. What we need to do first is bring attention to the abuse that House-Elves receive. If we show them that some people do care about the abuse they take, it'll hopefully get the ones who aren't treated badly to be more open to our view point," Jake stopped talking.
Hermione didn't look the least bit happy about this, but she huffed, "Fine... we'll focus on bringing attention to it first."
"One question," Harry said, "How do we do all this? Is Jake going to fund it?"
"Of course not. We start by recruiting members by charging two Sickles to join - that buys a badge - and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign," she stopped talking when she saw the looks on Harry's and Ron's faces, "You both are going to join... right?"
They looked between each other, but before they could speak, Jake did, "Even if they don't Hermione, like you said the other day, if people see Merlin's Descendant wearing a badge, it might sway them to join up at least, considering... well..." he trailed off. Honestly, a lot of girls at Hogwarts might wear one just because they are infatuated with him, he just couldn't bring himself to actually say as much.
Hermione beamed at him, but then Harry spoke up, "Alright... I'll join."
Hermione beamed even brighter, "Thank you, Harry! You can be Secretary, so you might want to write down everything we just discussed as a record of our first meeting. I can go over it again, with Jake's edits, if you can't remember it all."
Ron sighed, "I guess if Harry is, then I will too." He looked like he really didn't want to, though.
Hermione looked like she might fall over, but elated all the same, "Good, you'll be our Treasurer, Ron - I've got you a collecting tin upstairs in my nightstand."
Harry and Ron both immediately looked like they regretted joining, but they wouldn't dare back out now.
Jake stood there, having stepped back a couple of steps away from Hermione, looking at her excitedly explain some more things about their new club to Harry and Ron. He smiled at the sight of her exuberance radiating throughout the room. It put his mind at ease.