Christmas passed and Ginny was feeling much better than before by the time she got back to the castle. The gloom and grumbling that had felt ever present just before break had dissipated slightly. After the holiday, people thought that maybe they were overreacting. That maybe things wouldn’t be so bad…
Umbridge ruined that mood at the great feast immediately.
“I have heard your complaints on the new approval process to make sure that our newly formed clubs are properly managed,” Umbridge said in a shrill and self-satisfied voice, “Many of you have even gone so far as to meet and keep your clubs going after they were rejected for approval. After the holidays, me and the Minister have come to a decision…” Umbridge said. Everyone waited in anticipation.
“A new team known as the Inquisitorial squad will be established from student volunteers to search for non-compliant gatherings and alert the proper staff so the perpetrators can be punished,” Umbridge said, “If you’re interested, just come to my office and we’ll see where you’ll fit in.”
Ginny glanced over to Eric who was leaning back and looking rather satisfied with himself. His precious dance club would be safe, Umbridge had already approved it.
There was some discontented murmuring across the great hall.
“Now!” Umbridge said, raising her voice in displeasure to silence the crowd as she noticed their muttering, “We have rules, and they are meant to be followed. This school has been left to lawlessness for far too long. The Inquisitorial squad will help us restore this school to its rightful place as a place of magical learning rather than a place for you to frolic and cause trouble! Now, that will be all for now. Let the feast begin.”
Umbridge clapped her hands. Nothing happened. She frowned and clapped again and nothing happened.
Reddening slightly, she whispered something to the floor and a house-elf appeared next to her in an apparition.
“Yes, Mistress?” The house-elf said just a tad reluctantly.
“Send up the food now, elf,” Umbridge said primly, “To think Dumbledore bothered paying such poor servants.”
“Yes, mada–” The house elf said as it turned and raised its arm to snap its fingers dramatically. But before it could finish speaking its eyes fixed on Ginny, it paused in mid sentence. Ginny realized what was happening as the elf’s eyes began to dilate massively and it got a dreamy expression on its face as it stared at her. She squirmed in her seat. Oh no! What should she do? It was just like what had happened with that house elf Winky last year.
Luckily after a moment of staring and stumbling to the side slightly as its legs grew weak, the house elf shocked itself out of the trance.
“Yes, madame,” the house-elf repeated before snapping and apparating away again down into the kitchens. Two seconds later, the trays on the tables filled with food as the house elves sent it up to the great hall.
“Hah!” Jack said suddenly, “Even the house elves don’t want to listen to her. What did she mean about pay? How can she get away with not paying them? Won’t they just leave?”
Ginny explained about how the house-elves were bound to follow the orders of the family they were bound to. Or to the location and whoever was in control of it for places like Hogwarts. And how they were basically slaves.
“Oh,” Jack said, staring down into his food, “That’s terrible.”
“Yeah,” Ginny replied, “Dumbledore at least paid them well. I bet Umbridge just expects them to like her automatically because they’re ‘lesser creatures’ or something compared to magical humans.”
“Our food’s been made by slaves this whole time?” Jack said, sounding like he’d swallowed something sour as he looked down at the rich meal laid out before them.
All the other Ravenclaws jumped in and spent a long time trying to convince Jack that it was okay. That since the house-elves liked it and wanted to help that it was fine. Jack didn’t seem too convinced, but stopped arguing back as Ginny just silently ate her food next to him and stayed out of the conversation mostly.
— — —
“Hey, little sis,” Fred said as he approached her with George next to him, “We’ve just realized that we forgot to give you your cut of the profits over Christmas!”
He pulled a bag from his waist and handed it over to Ginny. She opened it and looking inside saw the glittering of gold galleons inside. He quickly closed it again and stared at the twins in shock.
“What? I heard that your stuff was popular… But this good? How much is this, even?”
“Business is very good,” George said with a satisfied smirk, “That’s fifty galleons in there. Your quarter of our profits for up to now. We’re going full tilt now that we’ve sounded out the market. People will have plenty more money to spend coming back from Christmas. Especially the rich purebloods getting showered with the galleons over break by their wealthy parents. We’ve already made your money back in the worst case and if things stay on track everything from here on out will be pure profit. Isn’t that great?”
“Yeah, so you two are really going to start a joke shop then?” Ginny said, “You’ve made so much money, and this is only a quarter of it? You’d make so much if you were selling to the whole world rather than just Hogwarts students.”
“We think we will,” Fred said, “We’ll wait until the end of the year to really get the most data we can for our presentation to Sirius for the investment… But we’ll be doing it. No matter how much Mom will freak out when she hears.”
“Don’t worry,” Ginny said excitedly, “I’ll help if I can. I’ll wear that muggle top that I got with Alexa that exposes my belly that Mom hates so much. A crop top, Alexa called it? Mom’ll be so busy frowning at me that it’ll take the heat off of you when you tell her!”
“You’re real devious when you want to be, you know that Ginny?” Fred said with a grin, “That might just work you know, with how much she was frowning at you this summer.”
“Hey,” George said, “We wanted to show you something cool. We should show you before we graduate so you can use it yourself. Ever wanted to go to the Hogwarts kitchens before? You can get as much food as you like between meals if you go there.”
“Uh, with all the house elves?” Ginny said, suddenly uncertain, “Are we supposed to go there?”
“Oh, it’s fine,” Fred said, “The house elves love having people there appreciating their work. When we go we have to practically beg them to stop feeding us until we’re stuffed.”
“Er… okay!” Ginny said, rallying her enthusiasm again. It would be fine, Winky and the house elf Umbridge had called must have just had some weird thing with her magic. She was sure that most of the house elves would be fine.
Fred and George led Ginny to a seemingly random hallway close to the great hall. She was still carrying the bag filled with the gold in one hand as they walked. “This is it,” Fred said as he reached up to a large statue of a pear that was mounted on the wall. He reached under the pear and started tickling it. After a few seconds of him brushing his fingers against the stone, the pear burst into quiet giggles and started shifting around as it burst into life and shifted slightly where it remained on the wall.
After another few seconds tickling, there was suddenly a rumbling and the whole section of the wall slid aside as the pear stiffened back into stone again.
“And that’s it,” Fred said, looking back at Ginny as they walked through the doors, “Just tickle the pear and it’ll open up and bring you in.”
They went into the kitchen itself and all the house elves milling around turned to stare at them. All of them were wearing threadbare gray sacks over themselves, all their short forms looking up to stare at Ginny intently.
“Well, we’re already full,” George said, “We’ve got more business to do. Just tell them what food you’d like and they’ll whip it up for you in no time. Have fun, sis,”
The twins walked out back out the door into the hallway and the door rumbled closed behind them.
Ginny looked around to the dozens of the house-elves staring at her with gradually dilating eyes and slack faces.
“Uhm, hello?” She asked nervously and waved to the crowd.
She flinched as many of the house-elves suddenly tipped over and fell to the floor, while letting out loud moans. They weren’t moans of pain, but… happy moans. They made Ginny feel uncomfortable as the house-elves rolled around on the floor moaning and seeming to forget that she was even there.
“Enough! You disrespect our guuuueest!” A house elf panted from the back of the crowd, shaking their head and pointedly not looking at Ginny even if they were still panting heavily and wobbling where they stood.
The house-elves on the floor all froze as one then struggled to control themselves and apologize to Ginny in a wave of sound. Many of them wobbled back to their feet only to fall to the ground moaning again after getting another glance at Ginny.
“What is going on?” Ginny asked the house-elf that seemed to be more put together, “Why do all of you react to me like this?”
“It’s your magic, madame,” the house-elf said quickly, “It’s intoxicating just to look at. Ah, to have access to magic like that. So fresh and powerful…”
“But I don’t have more magic than most other people?” Ginny asked, “Why are you acting this way around me then?”
“It’s not the amount. It's quality,” The house-elf clarified, “The magic of a thousand normal wizards wouldn’t be nearly as invigorating as a single drop of what you have, madame…”
“Are you going to ask for magic like the other one?” Ginny asked suspiciously, “It freaked out and ran away last year when this same thing happened. Winky, I think their name was?”
“Ah, that was real? No, it must have been,” the house-elf said, “None of us believed her, it was too fantastical to be true. But she has survived without a family for over a year so perhaps we should have known there was something to her story… Would you like to meet the Aspect of the Ancestors?”
“Ancestors?” Ginny asked in confusion, “Who?”
“The Aspect of the Ancestors, containing all the wisdom of the house-elves past,” the house-elf said, “From before we were bound to the family magics even. They mean you no harm, but they can give you many valuable things if you share some of your magic with them and the rest of us elves.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Well, I don’t know…” Ginny said, “You’re house-elves right? You absolutely promise that these Ancestors won’t try to hurt me?”
“Absolutely not!” The house-elf said, sounding horrified, “With magic like yours they wouldn’t dare doing anything that could risk the chances that you’d willingly give them and the rest of us some of your delicious magic. We can't take it, it has to be freely given.”
Ginny didn’t say anything for over a minute as she thought about it as the house-elf patiently waited for her answer. Eventually she shook her head and took out a deep breath. She unfolded her one hundred and seventy magic tendrils and had them float around her defensively. She could handle whoever these Ancestors were. Probably. She was powerful, and she could always call Fawkes if things went wrong.
“Okay. I’ll meet with them,” Ginny said.
“Excellent!” The house-elf who was apparently in charge said, “Everyone form a circle, we’ll be performing the Ancestor’s Call now.”
The house-elves who had mostly recovered from their strange drugged states all gathered in a circle and held their hands together. Ginny watched in confusion. The house-elves started humming deep in their little chests and waving forward and back as if they were each a piece of kelp was waving in the tides. Their humming grew more insistent and they pulsed inwards and outwards faster and faster as Ginny watched them, not understanding what had prompted the sudden change in their behavior.
It was only when she saw all the magic in the house-elves pulse as one and shoot in thin beams towards a center point five feet above the ground in the center of the circle of house-elves that Ginny realized what was happening. Ancestor’s Call! They were wasting no time calling whoever these person was right here!
The circle of elves' magic pulsed again, a third time, again and again until their magic finally pulsed powerfully for a seventh time. In the center of the circle of house-elves, floating in the air, was a roiling ball of condensed magic. Ginny had no clue what this complex spell floating in the air was doing as it shifted and swirled even as she watched it.
She took a step back and covered the space between her and the floating orb and chanting elves with clouds of her magic tendrils ready to leap into action if anything nasty happened. Ginny’s whole body was tense as she stood there and felt the ball of magic pulse for one last time and then expand into a jagged glowing rift like a knife cut through a thick cloth. The portal and the interior of the ‘wound’ were shining with brilliant purple light as the house-elves in the circle around it collapsed to the ground looking exhausted and utterly spent.
The rift just hovered there in the air for a few moments, filling the whole room with an electric hum that Ginny could feel rumbling in her chest.
A leg emerged from the portal and stepped out. It was a house-elf standing there, but also not, as it fully emerged. It stood straight backed and it was wearing purple silk clothing. It was headache inducing to look at. Every time the small figure moved, there was a trail of ghostly arms or other forms trailing just behind. As the house-elf turned its head to inspect the room dozens of ghostly projections of other house elves formed to look in every other direction as well before snapping back to the true head after the purple robed house-elf took a step away from the glowing rift hovering in the air behind it. Another purple clad house-elf emerged from the portal as well. Then another. They silently lined up opposite of Ginny and inspected her silently as the ghostly transparent forms roiled in and out of their bodies. The glowing white rift shrank behind them before with a loud electric zap, it shrank and popped out of existence again.
The three purple clad newcomers all tilted their heads to the side in unison as they inspected Ginny.
“Greetings, Monarch,” The three strange house-elves said in unison with hundreds of overlapping house-elf voices as they bowed deeply to her. Their ghostly trails followed, some bowing all the way to the floor while others barely inclined their heads to her, “It is our honor to meet one as esteemed as yourself.”
In unison again, the three strange house-elves straightened up again and all of the ghostly forms returned to overlap with their bodies again over the course of the next second in a blurred wave of motion.
“Monarch?” Ginny asked, “Are you… Are you the house-elf Ancestors? Do you have names that I should call you?”
“Yes, we are the Ancestors,” The three purple clad house-elves said in a thousand voices again, “We are One being, with multiple forms. You may call us Vorzik if you so wish.”
“Oh, uhm. Vorzik,” Ginny said, looking between the three perfectly still house-elves, only their eyes following her creepily as she tried to decide which one she should be talking to. She eventually settled on staring at the one standing in the center.
“I’m not sure what you want?” Ginny asked, “Something about negotiating for me to give you some of my magic?”
“Yes, that is usually what we do,” Vorzik, in what Ginny had figured out was its three bodies, said in its overlapping voices, “But we had no idea of your vaunted status before we came here, Monarch. If you would have us, we’d be more than happy to serve as your loyal subjects. We can provide much value to your kingdom, far more than we have to those who feed us with the stingy family magics.”
“Are… Are you still a house-elf?” Ginny asked cautiously, “I don’t understand.”
“We are…” Vorzik paused, “Think of us as the house-elf afterlife. Our people have chosen that upon death they shall join us and be incorporated in the mind of me and their Ancestors so that I may shepherd and protect our people into the future.”
“So you’re like… parts of the minds of every house-elf that ever lived in one big group? Is that why you have all the… projections and ghosts following your movements?”
The three purple clad house-elves lifted their right arms in unison and inspected them. The ghostly projections of their heads and arms went wild all around them for a few moments before settling down and overlapping with their physical forms again as Vorzik kept their arm motionless and seemed to be considering it.
“There are many more that are not visible,” Vorzik said, “The visible projections are simply those echoes of those that once were that our mind thought most useful for speaking with you cordially. Those at the top of our collective mind if you will.”
“Oh,” Ginny said, eyeing the three purple clad house-elves carefully as they lowered their hands and the projections trailed behind, “Okay. But why would you want to be a servant though? If you’re so powerful, why would you let the house-elves be enslaved?”
“We are beings unlike you humans,” Vorzik answered, “We require magic to live. Without it we wither and die. It is more essential to us than food or even water. When our people were first bound to the family magics by Merlin, we chose to receive that magic without a fight in exchange for our service. But I sense you are a true Monarch unlike the weak magicals we’ve been bound to for all of this time. If you let us join you then we can do so much more to help, we’ll be happy to serve!”
At the end Vorzik words squeaked all at once, even in its thousands of voices.
“Would you accept our undying fealty and become our liege?” Vorzik asked formally before all three bodies got on one knee and bowed their heads to Ginny. The projections still broke free from their forms, but a few inches above the skin, they were sucked back and drawn back into the bodies of Vorzik as it remained there unmoving with its three heads bowed.
All the other exhausted house-elves that had formed the summoning circle had been watching and listening to their conversation in undisguised awe as Vorzik spoke.
“Fealty?” Ginny asked, “What…”
She stiffened as a sudden burst of magic energy washed over her. She was frozen, unable to move as the red energy pulsed within her faster and faster until with a loud ripping sound a deep red light lit up the room.
Ginny felt something enter her mind and suddenly she knew something that she’d never learned. How to accept the fealty of Vorzik if she wanted to. And what it would mean if she did so. She’d have to protect all of the house-elves as best as she could since they would be working under her. But at the same time she’d be in charge so they’d have to listen to her when she told them to do something.
“Are you sure?” Ginny asked Vorzik as it remained motionless, suddenly unsure of herself. She had always known that she’d be in charge of Teregatt’s residents some day when she was older. Whenever she finished the process of inheriting control of Teregatt. Or at least say hello to the residents before putting Balthazar in charge again. But this made it all seem so much more real.
But hadn’t she been feeling bad for the poor house-elves just yesterday at the great feast? Wasn’t this something she could do to help them?
“Yes,” Vorzik said with conviction, “Absolutely, if you would have us and our people we’d be more than grateful to accept.”
Ginny felt the new knowledge in her mind tell her what she should do. Ginny puffed up and straightened her back and tried to look as regal as she could. Her magic pulsed in the strange ways as described by the strange new knowledge in her head.
“I, Ginevra Weasley, do hereby accept the fealty of you and your people. May I protect and nurture your growth and knowledge as you serve me and my realm, Teregatt.”
“I, Vorzik, Aspect of Ancestor for the house-elves,” Vorzik said, “Do solemnly swear absolute fealty to our new Queen Ginevra Weasley. And through the authority invested in me by my people, I also swear the fealty of our whole people to your cause fully. To serve through death or when we are no longer wanted by her majesty. We swear our fealty to her liege.”
There was an absolutely titanic pulse of magic that blasted out from Vorzik as they finished. The air twisted and hummed with the raw magic as Vorzik kept emitting more and more magic as Ginny watched.
There was another red flash above Ginny and she felt another packet of information enter her mind. It was giving her a choice of what to do. Bind them to her personally or to Teregatt. Ginny chose the obvious option. She’d be much more comfortable if everything didn’t rest on her completely.
“I bind you to my realm of Teregatt,” Ginny said formally as she twisted her magic in strange patterns again, “May it sustain you so that you may defend it with all your strength.”
The pulses of magic from Vorzik became more focused and began flowing in shifting patterns that Ginny had absolutely no hope of understanding even the smallest fragment of.
Another red flash. More information, and what Ginny knew was the final choice. Ginny truly hesitated with this one. She knew that Balthazar was using Teregatt’s energy to defend against Fate’s constant attacks against him. What would happen if she drained it like this?
But what if some poor house-elf got stranded behind and got hurt because Ginny delayed? She pushed through and made her choice and spoke one more time, swirling her magic in one more pattern that had newly entered her mind.
“Then let you and all of your people be drawn to your new home. Let Teregatt welcome its newest defenders,” Ginny said. Instantly a red spark formed in the air to the side of where all of them stood. It struggled and sparked like it was lighting a match before expanding in a *Whumph* of displaced air into a reddish swirling portal six feet tall.
Vorzik turned to Ginny and bowed one more time.
“I look forward to serving you in the future, my Queen,” It said before its three bodies turned to the red portal and walked through. All the other house-elves even despite their exhausted states all had their eyes fixed on the red portal. The whole room was shrouded in a crimson shade that turned the large eyes of the house-elves red. All of the house-elves stood to their feet and stumbled towards the portal, beautific grins on their faces as they walked towards the light. One of the house-elves was left behind, so exhausted that they could barely even crawl towards the red portal with desperation in their eyes.
Ginny carefully used a few of her magic tendrils to lift the exhausted elf who was being left behind and carried it over the heads of the others and into the red portal to Teregatt.
Ginny saw the very edge of the portal starting to become corroded by a golden infection eating away at it. But as soon as the golden infection of Fate ate its way inwards the red portal would pulse with more magic and push it back again to keep the portal stable. Using raw magical power to overcome Fate's attempts to close it.
After the last enraptured house-elf stumbled through the red portal to Teregatt without even saying a word to Ginny, the golden infection suddenly struck in a flash as Teregatt stopped feeding energy into the portal to keep it stable. Fate’s golden magic quickly struck inwards and dissolved the portal and turned it into loose wisps of magic. As soon as the red portal to Teregatt was gone, the golden light of Fate’s magic disappeared as well.
The light of the kitchens returned to normal. Ginny looked around as she realized that everything was silent. The place was completely empty, all of the house elves having left for Teregatt.
Ginny startled as she realized she had to get out of here quickly. Who knew how Umbridge would act if she thought Ginny had anything to do with all the house-elves disappearing. And Ginny did mean all of them. Teregatt sent one of those red portals to every living house-elf. Based on the reaction to the ones in the kitchens, Ginny couldn’t imagine any of them refusing the call to go…
She went to the wall that slid open and she approached it to leave the silent kitchens. She stepped out and put her head down as she tried to walk back to the Ravenclaw tower as casually as she could. Nothing suspicious here, nothing at all…
She made it back to her bed safely and collapsed into it with a sigh of relief. Ugh, that had been so stressful. Hopefully Balthazar wouldn’t be mad at her for what she’d done. But it had just felt like the right thing in the moment to accept Vorzik’s offer. All of the strange magic she had just used accepting the house-elves fealty suddenly caught up with her and she felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her. She barely had time to kick off her shoes and pull off her socks and squirm underneath the covers of her bed before falling asleep as soon as her head touched her pillow.