Chapter 128. House Elves in Hogwarts Part 2.

As Lucas led Hermione through the forbidden forest, she continued to scowl at him, wondering what he may show to try and change her mind over the societal injustice of slavery used in this age. Just as she opened her mouth to debase anything he may say, Lucas stopped, waving his free hand in the air for a moment before feeling his fingertips and sighing. “Alright… this is it.” He muttered, glancing back towards Hermione, stowing his glowing wand to his side.

Hermione glanced around, the dim light of Lucas’ wand only showcasing about ten feet of bright light around them, but only dirt, trees and bushes were all to be found. “What are you supposed to be showing me? Because you still seem just as hypocritical to my eyes.” She said with a humph, still mad of Lucas using the term ‘trivial’ to describe slavery. She watched Lucas’ frown deepen a bit at her, before stifling a groan, muttering his response through his hand. “Perhaps I am hypocritical, but things aren’t as simple as I wish them to be.”

Hermione scoffed in disbelief at Lucas, seeing his strained expression of indecisiveness. “What could be more simple than knowing slavery is wrong? That elves are being taken advantage of and forced to work without any pay?” With each word she encroached into Lucas’ personal space, standing on a root of a nearby tree to gain some height to stop him from looking down on her. With Lucas’ entire face taking up Hermione’s vision, for a moment she almost forgot was still upset with him.

Her face beginning to warm up despite the cold air of dusk, Hermione forced her frown deeper while focusing on the injustice of the wizarding society. “Just show me whatever it is that you think makes this sort of thing okay, so I can disprove it!” She yelled in a raised voice, snapping her attention away from Lucas to focus better. Not able to look at him, she could only hear him wince, a twig snapping under his foot.

***

I stood in silence, unable to say a word against Hermione without her understanding. This topic always brought up guilt within me, even more so now. ‘It shouldn’t be long before we see them…’ I thought, looking into the dark forest, watching for any glint that reflected the light from my wand. “AH! Lucas!? Lucas!!” A sudden scream followed by my name snapped my head back from where we came from.

The familiar voice caused my stomach to sink at the idea of her being injured. “Pansy!?” I yelled back, grasping at Hermione’s wrist and dragging her behind me as I ran through the underbrush of thickets, holding my glowing wand out to illuminate our path. As I ran, fear grew in the back of my mind while I almost tripped over a growth of ivy along the ground. “Pansy!?” I yelled again while she screamed my name from nearby. “Lucas!”

Turning a corner around a tree, I could barely see Pansy before she latched into my sternum, pointing behind her with her wand while whining in reprehension. “Oh my god…” Hermione muttered while gripping onto my robed sleeve, seeing what I had already guessed. A small group of five Acromantulas warily stalking just outside the source of light from my wand. Pansy already had a phobia of spiders, this must have been a nightmare for her, she was still shivering in my embrace, her gaze intently staring for any danger.

“It’s okay, it’s okay… They can’t hurt you now…” I whispered to Pansy, trying to calm her frantic breathing down. Almost as if to refute me, an Acromantula skittered into the light, followed by another. “Arania Exumai!” “Stupefy!” Both Hermione and I sent a spell at either one, the one Hermione threw back into the darkness disappeared while the one I stunned landed at the end of our light. “What about the others!?” Pansy shrieked, holding me tighter for safety, if I didn’t already come here knowing what we’d see I may have had time to enjoy seeing her this meager.

***

“You don’t have to worry about that…” Lucas muttered with a hint of repulsion. Hermione widened her eyes and her mouth hung open at the harrowing sight now unfolding before her. The spider on the ground that Lucas merely stunned on its back, was now being slowly devoured by another one, another joining along to feast on the now carcass before them. “That’s what I needed to show you…” Lucas muttered, Hermione turning to glance at him, holding Pansy close to his chest with his free arm while squinting down at the grisly image before them.

“Despite these spiders being literal brothers and sisters to each other they see no issue in eating one another.” Hermione, unable to bear the image any longer, turned towards Lucas, her gaze lingering around for any other Acromantulas that may be in these woods. “Why would you want to show me this!?” Hermione yelled, her stomach knotting at the sounds of the spider’s loud crunching and munching. What startled her was Lucas’ glare he suddenly shot towards her. “Because I needed you to understand a creature’s instincts.” He huffed, keeping his voice in check, before looking down at Pansy still shivering in his embrace.

However, even when his eyes left Hermione, she could still see the same glare of anger burning within his eyes. With a sigh, he continued to rub at Pansy’s shoulders to comfort her. “Let’s get out of here.” He offered in a lighter tone of voice, Pansy quickly nodding while her head never left the safety of Lucas’ chest, completely unaware of the gaze he looked down at her with.

After a few paces away, still on their way to leave the forest, Pansy leaned deep into Lucas to walk, or at least that’s how it seemed; Hermione could never be sure when Pansy was acting, not that she could tell Lucas. “What were you doing out here?” Lucas asked, the anger filled glint in his eyes now replaced with confusion, worry, and relief. The same look Hermione had seen directed at her, the image still fresh in her mind, but now it was only for Pansy. ‘I was scared of the Acromantulas too…’

With one last shiver of the creepy-crawlies, Pansy shook her head while still having it planted firmly into Lucas’ sternum. “I- I heard Hermione yell when I was coming to see you, a-and I- I wondered what you wanted to show her-!?” She suddenly and violently brushed her hands all throughout her hair, being rid of anything that may have been crawling about within her scalp. “Can you just please explain how this is related to House elves, I need anything to remind me of home!” Hermione held back her tongue, instead only scowling at the shivering Pansy for a moment before focusing back towards Lucas.

“Alright…” He nodded reluctantly, holding Pansy closer to himself once again to comfort her while his squinting eyes refocused back into anger. He took a deep breath, before glancing towards Hermione to check she was listening. After affirming that, he looked upwards as he opened his mouth to speak. The many branches above blocking out most of the sky, the gibbous moon looked almost like a constellation of stars overhead. “Hermione… You don’t understand instinct…” He then snapped his slitted gaze to her for a moment, halting her open mouth from speaking with his own. “And I’m not referring to your instinct to stand up for what’s right.”

His words pierced her chest, begrudgingly admitting happiness in his view of her. She turned her head away, unable to look at Lucas without her conflicting feelings of him to throw off her concentration. Taking that as a sign to continue, Lucas did so. “I mean instinct born from nature… A primal urge that goes beyond anything rational… A desperate yearning that one finds harder and harder to control… Like something from the back of their mind that claws closer and closer… seeping into every incoherent thought that sprouts into their mind before it is all that remains; tainting everything until… Nothing is left...”

It was then, as they paused walking after entering a clearing, that Hermione understood Lucas’ scowling towards the moon. He was speaking hatefully of himself, and his own instincts that steered him towards Luna while being together with Pansy. Once his gaze moved towards her, she held back a gasp while inadvertently snapping her choker once again, his piercing jade eyes glowing brighter in the night.

While Hermione stood frozen, her hand tracing her neck slowly, she gulped as he slowly leaned ever so slightly closer towards her. His green glowing eyes widened, before he winced, throwing away whatever thoughts he had, and continued walking while holding Pansy tight in his arms. “So!” He almost yelled as Hermione hurriedly caught up to him once again, his eyes avoiding seeing her so much in his peripheral vision. “You have no clue, what the House elves feel.”

Hermione shook her head, the small moment before was now instantly overshadowed by Lucas’ absurd accusation. “What!? I have empathy! I can see them being taken advantage of, and want to make their lives better! They may think they are happy now, but that is only indoctrination!” Lucas took a small breath, glancing at Hermione with a much softer gaze, proving that the moment had well and truly passed, leaving only two arguing friends left. “No. You see their need to care for wizards as generations of brainwashing done by wizards to ease their day to day lives, but that is not the truth.”

Hermione squinted at Lucas as he stepped over a larger root, and illuminated it better for Pansy and Hermione to get across, Pansy still pleasantly silent. Although it still bugged Hermione to see her latched onto Lucas being so cavalier with him, as well as his lack of embarrassment, proving how close they were together. However, after hearing Lucas, Hermione squinted at him, replaying his words again to make sure she heard him correctly.

He focused back on leading the way after making sure Hermione had passed the tripping hazard, continuing on. “The truth is, many creatures do even the most reprehensible acts by following their instincts. Just as you’ve seen before…” He muttered, taking special care to rub Pansy’s back while tip-toeing around what exactly they saw just minutes before. “House elves' instincts are to serve stronger creatures.” He finished, his voice reluctant with the words he almost forced out. “What?” “What!?” For perhaps the first time, Pansy and Hermione were on the same page, confused.

Lucas nodded understandably, his mood brightening now that Pansy was looking at him, interested to learn. “There are house elves out there right now, serving and caring for other magical creatures all across the world. They praise and pamper the strong creature as best they can to gain the creature's protection and food.” Hermione blinked absentmindedly while Lucas’ words sunk in.

“That doesn’t mean they have to live like that now! The ones under wizard’s thumbs can be free if they want! I’m sure you know of Malfoy’s House elf, Dobby!” Her argument was met with a scoff from Lucas, nodding along with her logic before he asked a question. “Sure… But what then? When one house elf is freed what do they do next? For a creature that is instinctualized to serve, so much so that they are willing to duel one another to satisfy their master’s in betting arenas… what do they do now that their one motive to survive is gone?”

Hermione’s mouth opened in disbelief and disgust, things were much worse than she thought. “So your solution is to turn a blind eye to it all!? How could you sit there and watch them fight for the pleasure of others!? It’s sickening to even imagine!” Hermione yelled, disgusted at the society Lucas was a part of. “Then try having to watch it with your mouth bound shut!” A sudden scream shook her and Lucas as they both looked down to Pansy scowling at her.

Pansy didn’t stop either, she pointed her finger, stabbing her nail into Hermione’s clavicle as she continued. “How can you have such good grades, yet be so naïve!? Do you think he could have solved anything by kicking up a fuss at another’s party!? There was nothing he could have done with watchful eyes looking for any weakness in any other family! You didn’t even care about Dobby after he became ‘free’; the idea of how he might sustain himself never crossed your mind. Where do you think he went? Because nobody is hiring an elf when they can get another for free.” Pansy responded snidely, making Hermione pause.

“I… I had a lot else to focus on last year…” Hermione muttered her excuse, not even convincing herself with her words. While it was true, most of her third year was packed with other things to worry about, between school work and everything with werewolves, buckbeak, and Dementors. Hermione still felt guilty for letting Dobby slip her mind. “It’s fine. I took care of it.” Lucas suddenly answered, pulling Pansy closer, and patting her gently to ease her anger, wishing to mediate the two.

Both girls snapped their heads to Lucas, frowning as he explained. “Before he was free, he had spoken a lot to Nalby, my own house elf, and I suppose Nalby must have been.. forthcoming with his words. Dobby later appeared to ask me for a job not long after he was freed. I couldn’t give him one, so I offered him advice to work at Hogwarts.” He shook his head slightly, placing his hand up in surrender to Hermione’s oncoming berating, wanting her to hold off for a moment. He looked Hermione in the eyes, poignant with his words. “It’s a complicated matter, Hermione. Are their elves being abused? Yes. I have seen it myself first hand, sickeningly so. There was nothing I could do, and still nothing I could see myself doing to help them. But please don’t confuse Hogwarts for being in league with the things I have seen. House elves only want three meals, a bed, and peace to work alone. If you wish to aid them, then I don’t think it would be good to remove the one place they are most happy in, Hermione.”