"So you're telling me you're all Goblins, and the servants of the previous groundsman?" Cuff asked the three little green goblins, who were all sitting on a couch in front of him. He himself was sitting on a chair facing them, twirling his wand around periodically as he spoke.

"Yes, yes," the three of them rasped together, nodding their heads over and over.

"And you do, more or less, all of the housekeeping here?" Cuff asked, which was answered by more nodding. He sighed. He didn't really feel like he needed a bunch of housekeepers, but the thought of sending them off made him feel terrible, and they seemed to enjoy it here? At least everytime they told him they were the servants for this place they seemed cheery and happy.

"I cook!" One of them had exclaimed when he asked.

"I clean!" Another chimed in.

"Yes!" The last one joined in. This one was clearly a lot more confused by everything, seemingly just doing whatever it's friends told it to.

He sighed again, deciding for now to just accept it. On the bright side he would have some little helpers for home, it could be a lot worse.

"In that case, you can carry on the same way you did for the previous groundsman. However I have one rule, you can't go into my bedroom, touch anything in it or tamper with anything in there in any way. Okay?" Cuff sat straight, wondering if they would take it seriously.

The three goblins glanced up at him and then began nodding.

"Yes," they said, nodding more and more, "yes, yes, yes, off course, mastah," they said. Cuff had to stop himself from laughing at the mistake; they were such cute little things, really.

Standing up Cuff wandered over to his piano, tapping occasionally on the upper range, lost in thought.

The three goblins muttered between each other and then hopped off the couch together, wandering over to Cuff. They looked at each other, and then the tallest one - tallest by the slightest amount - tugged on Cuff's cuff, who snapped out of his thinking and glanced down.

"I cook!" The goblin exclaimed.

"Yes, I know you're the cook!" Cuff smiled back at it.

"No, I do cook!" The goblin exclaimed, miming frying something on an invisible pan. "You eat!" It exclaimed, jabbing at Cuff's stomach.

"Ahh," Cuff nodded, understanding now. He patted his belly, and realised he was actually quite hungry. It's almost like the goblin knew, or maybe it did? "Ok," Cuff nodded, it should be fine if they used to cook for the last groundsman.

"Yeeeeee," the goblin jumped, turning around to the other two and yelping at them. The three of them ran in circles yelping before making toward the kitchen.

"Wait," Cuff turns to the three, "what are your names?"

"Me One!" The tallest exclaims.

"Me Two!" The not dopey one follows.

"Me Three!" The dopey one adds.

Cuff stared at them, shocked.

"One, Two, and Three?" He looked at them, flabbergasted.

"Yes," two of them exclaimed. "Yes!" The silly one followed after. Cuff shook his head, half snorting.

"Who named you all?" Cuff asked in disbelief.

"Old mastah!" They all chortled. Cuff looked at the three little green goblins. He could barely believe the old groundsman was this lazy. Well, Cuff was definitely a lazy namer, but this was extreme.

"Would you all like proper names?" Cuff asked, after some thought.

"Yes! Name, names!" The three chortled together. While they were screaming Cuff began to think about potential names. It felt like naming a piece of music almost, it wasn't something that could be rushed, and it had to fit. This would take time.

"I need to think about the perfect name for each of you," Cuff said, raising his hands, "so I'll give your name as soon as I think of it, okay?" Cuff asked.

"Yes, yes, yes. Very good. Name!" The goblins exclaimed and then ran into the kitchen shouting name and cook repeatedly. Cuff shook his head, smiling. As soon as the door to the kitchen shut there was silence.

The pitter patter of rain could just barely be heard breaking the silence, from the small windows on either side of the fire place. Not much light came in through the windows, the world outside a wash of gloomy greys. Cuff stood alone again; alone with his thoughts. He could feel his thoughts slinking back to the depressive, and shook his head.

"Now to find that task list," he mutters to himself, wandering around the room. After looking around the entire room he eventually spotted the edge of it tucked under the opened lid of the piano. Rolling his eyes he picked it up.

Groundsman's tasklist:

Find library (map on backside)

And that was all. Cuff snorted, this was hardly for real. Find the library. The old man had been too lazy to even write in 'the'. Flipping the paper over to the other side he found his map, if it could even be described as a map. The words West and East were written on either side of the paper. There was a circle beneath West, with "You're here" written in the circle. There was a straight line into another circle, which was unmarked. Cuff figured it was safe to presume this was the main hall. Continuing straight on was the word East with another circle, with "Library" inside. Hardly a map, although if those really were the directions then that was fair enough, Cuff figured.

Cuff tapped the fingers of his right hand, his wand tucked under his thumb, his chin resting on his left palm. He was humming, wondering what to do in the meantime. There wasn't really anything else to do though, was there? His rumbling stomach told him there was eating, but that was a given. The faintest whiff of something delicious was seeping out of the kitchen, and Cuff realised he was becoming increasingly hungry by the second. He was just glad that the three goblins seemed to be good cooks, he wouldn't have had the heart to fire any of them but he couldn't subject himself to eating disgusting food either.

Cuff's musings were broken by the opening of the kitchen door and two of the goblins coming out with plates and a glass of water. Behind them there was the sound of a lot of crashing around, and definitely something breaking. One of the two goblins snuck back to the door and closed it, shutting out the cacophony of sounds. They placed the plates of food on the table by the fire, and one of them lit the fire after. Cuff was guessing that one was Two, One was standing by the table waiting for him. What to name them he wondered, as he walked to the table. The plates had on them, what he guessed to be, a roast turkey and ham, covered in gravy. On the other plate was a pile of mashed potato and vegetables. It looked and smelled mouthwateringly good. Cuff's stomach rumbled loudly at the food as he sat down at the table, the two goblins smiling at him repeatedly.

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"Aren't you guys going to join me?" Cuff asked them. It was only fair, they had cooked the food after all.

The goblins looked at each other, horrified.

"We eat that?" One said, looking disgusted and afraid. Cuff was taken aback. Was it horrendously disgusting? It smelled so good though.

"Yes?" He replied, unsure. To which the goblins answered with a variety of noises. Fake-spitting and blowing disgusted rasberries at Cuff.

"Goblins," he said, pointing at himself and his friend, "eat magic," he smiled. "Not," he stopped and made retching noises, "that," he finished, pointing at Cuff's food.

Cuff chuckled, although he was also mildly disgusted at their very enthusiastic acting. His belly rumbled again and he shrugged, picking up his cutlery. No harm in at least trying it.

And so two pairs of eyes found themselves trained on Cuff's fork, a small cut of ham and turkey on it, although he couldn't see his fork once it went too close to his mouth.

The two goblins stared eagerly, wondering if their new master would enjoy their cooking too.

As Cuff's mouth closed around the fork one of the goblins leaned a little too far over in anticipation, falling flat on his face, just as Cuff's eyes lit up.

"This is amazing. Wow," he almost shouted at the goblins, Two eagerly picking himself off the floor as his master praised him. Cuff began shoveling food into himself with gusto, murmering with each bite how good the food was. The goblins started waving their arms around in excitement, dancing together. The two huge plates of food are almost entirely gone, when Cuff decides to pile the remaining mash and veg onto the other plate. He takes a huge chunk of food, and partway into eating it starts to cough, holding his throat. He grabs at the water and downs the whole thing in one.

Sighing deeply he exclaims, "whew, a bit got stuck there. Even the water is so delicious, this is amazing," and then faceplants into the remaining of his food, unmoving. The goblins continue their hectic dance while Cuff lays there, unmoving.

Not long after the kitchen door opens, and the final goblin comes in, covered in flour. It trudges over to the other two goblins, who stop their dancing for a moment. The three look at each other and then begin their dance again with their new member, arms flailing madly in the air.

Cuff sat up with a start. Looking around he spotted his three new friends asleep on the couch by the fire, which was smouldering embers. Bits of food flopped off his face onto the plate as he looked around, disoriented.

"What," he drawled. He moved to stand up, his legs gave out under him, and flopped onto the ground instead. The noise startled the goblins, who perked their heads up.

"Mastah!" They shouted, jumping off the couch and running over to Cuff. They pulled and prodded him into a sitting position, looking at him. The glaze from his eyes faded bit by bit as he looked at the three of them. It was a strange experience being eye level with the three of them.

"What happened?" Cuff asked, looking at the three lazily.

"You sleep," the tallest pointed at him.

"Yes," Cuff rolled his eyes, "but how, I mean why was I asleep," he frowned at them.

"Sleep drink!" The three exclaimed together, out of sync.

Cuff pinched his nose, taking deep breaths. He wiped a piece of mash off his cheek and sighed.

"From now on, ask me once before you go to do anything like that, if I say it's okay to do that one time then it's okay to do from now on. The rule of not going near my bedroom still stands, and you can clean up but everything else ask once the first time you do it, okay?" Cuff looked at the three of them carefully. They all nodded their heads, making various noises. Cuff sighed again and looked around, frowning.

"And where do I wash myself?" He asked them. The three merely pointed towards his bedroom in response and then jumped up and began cleaning the plates and fireplace.

Cuff got up and picked up his wand off the floor, where it had evidently slid from his hand when he fell asleep. After checking his key was still in his pocket he went into his room. He noticed another door almost immediately, directly in front of him. It was painted almost the exact same colour as the rest of the room, interestingly enough. The handle was a circular knob the same colour as the rest of the door. Opening it he found a walk-in shower, toilet, and sink with a mirror above it. He checked the mirror first, and was deeply surprised. He looked a lot healthier than he had in a while, despite the fact that by his counting he had only had one meal in the last two or three days? How long had he been here again? He shook his head and decided to keep himself busy. He didn't want to fall back into bad thoughts.

After showering he picked up his satchel from his room, pocketed his key, and picked up his wand. Walking into the sitting room he spotted his task list on the piano and grabbed it. None of the goblins were anywhere to be seen, and the kitchen door was open, so he figured it was safe to assume they had gone off to do their own thing. He tentatively opened his main door, half expecting someone to be there, but there was nobody. After locking the door securely he started the long walk to the main hall. The halls were as always, dead quiet and completely empty. Assuming he'd been out for the night it must be nine days until school begins. He was rather looking forward to that beginning, because he felt like he was somewhat in limbo as it were.

After arriving at the main hall he continued straight on, exactly as the map detailed. A cursory glance showed nobody was about, which was somewhat disappointing. The emptiness was really getting to Cuff. It was so empty and left far too much time for him to ponder about himself and what he felt was his pointless life. Although it was easy enough to get distracted in the school. After passing through the door from the main hall, and entering what he though of as the east wing of the school, everything turned to marble. Interesting really, the west wing was wooden and the east was marble. The hall would branch off left and right periodically, swirling off to somewhere unknown. There were signs up at every turn off; Potions I, Potions II, Potions III, History I, History II, History III, and many more subjects, each with three different rooms.

After passing five or six subjects worth of rooms Cuff arrived at the entrance to the library. The hall opened up much wider for a few metres, until it ended with two massive, hulking, wooden doors.

Above the doors, on a black plaque in ornate writing simply reads:

"Library"