"Wonderful," Granger replied. "I've read so many interesting things. It turns out wizards don't even realise how much they don't know about house-elves. I found everything in the library that had ever been written about them, but there was very little genuinely useful information. Richie, did you know that a house-elf has to be bound to you with special charms performed with the help of a second wizard?"
Richard nodded.
Harry immediately perked up and asked,
"Hermione, did any of those books say anything about homicidal house-elves?"
"Yes." Granger assumed an air of importance and continued in a lecturing tone. "There are occasionally rebels among house-elves who reject the social norms of their own kind."
"Er..." Harry drawled uncertainly. "Could you put that more simply?"
"More simply..." Granger pursed her lips in displeasure. "Very well. House-elves are extremely long-lived. Because of that, they regard humans—horrifying as it may sound—with pity! Rather like animal lovers regard cats. There are stray cats you feel sorry for, but you can't help all of them. And then there are kittens you take home."
"What do you mean?" Potter's mouth fell open in astonishment. "We're the kittens?"
"Something like that." Granger gave Harry an annoyed look. "Are you going to keep interrupting me?"
"No, no," Potter hastily assured her.
Hermione continued,
"Basically, from a house-elf's point of view, the wizards they live with are something like their pets. Foolish, short-lived, extremely selfish pets who happen to believe they're the masters. Humans are like children—they don't even live long enough to reach 'adulthood'. They age quickly and die before they would even come of age by elven standards. What can you expect from them? It's like a cat to its owner. It breaks a vase—well, it's only an animal. It makes a mess on the carpet, scratches an armchair, knocks over a flowerpot—you clean up after your pet. And, generally speaking, a beloved pet needs to be watched over and cared for."
Richard was no less stunned than Harry.
"Good grief!" he exclaimed in amazement. "Hermione, you're an absolute treasure. I didn't know any of those details. You deserve the best award in the world."
Granger's cheeks turned faintly pink. She liked receiving praise from her friend—and, truth be told, she loved being praised in general.
"Ahem..." She hid her embarrassment behind a cough. "Thank you."
"So what about the homicidal ones?" Potter asked.
"Harry, you have to understand that elves are intelligent beings," Granger replied in a didactic tone. "Just as there are people who abuse animals, there are occasionally mad house-elves who hate their 'wizard pets'. But even that's not the worst of it. There's another category of house-elf that's far more dangerous."
"How could it possibly get worse?" Harry frowned.
"Well, look at it this way," Hermione continued. "With an 'animal abuser', you know what to expect. Lying isn't customary among elves; they generally try to tell the truth."
"What, they can't lie at all?" Potter asked sceptically.
Hermione shook her head.
"No, of course they can. It's simply frowned upon among them. So aggressive elves can usually be identified without much difficulty and dealt with immediately. But then there are house-elves whose reasoning is... distorted. For example, a house-elf might genuinely believe that what it's doing is for its 'pet's' own good. Suppose a cat is perfectly happy lying in an armchair. It doesn't need the loo, it doesn't want food, it doesn't want to go outside—the only thing it wants is to sleep.
"But then its owner decides that the cat has slept long enough and needs to go to the loo. So he says, 'Tiddles, go outside.' Tiddles keeps sleeping. The owner then grabs Tiddles by the scruff and throws him outside, hoping he'll relieve himself there. And the cat just sits by the door in complete bewilderment, with no idea what's going on. He'd been lying there peacefully, asleep, bothering no one, not scratching the furniture or climbing onto the table—and suddenly he's grabbed by the scruff and thrown outside."
Understanding began to dawn on Harry's face. Richard, too, realised where Granger was going with this.
"Wait, Hermione," Harry exclaimed. "So Dobby's decided he's something like my owner, and I'm supposed to be his pet?! And... Dobby thinks I'm doing something wrong? So he'll do absolutely anything to make me behave the way he thinks I should?"
Hermione declared triumphantly,
"I think that's exactly it, Harry. And there's something else... Very disobedient pets can be 'put to sleep'," she added pointedly.
Potter went pale.
The gears in Grosvenor's mind began turning twice as fast. He realised that the danger was far greater than they had initially thought. Which meant they needed to accelerate the development of both a self-defence weapon and a means of detecting invisible house-elves before they could attack.
"But how..." Potter muttered. "Why don't house-elves go after other wizards, then?"
"I can answer that," Richard said, drawing their attention. "As Hermione already said, house-elves are bound by special charms. Once that's done, they become safe for the wizards they serve. Wizards order their house-elves not to harm other wizards, and because of the binding charms, they can't disobey a direct order. But Dobby is a special case. You're not his 'pet', Harry. There's no guarantee his master ever gave him an order along the lines of, 'Do not harm other wizards in any way.' You're a stray cat. He can do whatever he likes to you, as long as his 'pet'—that is, Dobby's master—doesn't find out about it."
"Blyat!" Potter exclaimed emotionally, mangling the Russian curse. "That bastard's got it into his head that I don't belong at Hogwarts. So what does that mean? If I don't go along with Dobby's plan—if I don't leave Hogwarts—he'll keep stalking me and hurting me, and eventually he might actually kill me?!"
Richard and Hermione looked at Harry sympathetically. Hermione lowered her gaze and began studying the cracks in the stone floor.
"Bloody Dobby, damn him! And Black on top of everything else..." Potter groaned. "Why does this always happen to me?"
"What about Black?" Granger asked curiously.
"Well, I..." Potter began uncertainly. "After Sirius broke into Hogwarts twice, I started wondering how to let him know he's already been pardonedHow to stop him from doing anything stupid."
"Pf!" Richard snorted. "Is that all?"
"Richie, do you know how to help him?" Potter looked at his friend with desperate hope.
"Easy! I've got an idea..."