Pack!

Chapter Five

               The elves marched back to Harry and Remus, handing Remus a piece of paper that had a binding oath written on it. Dobby said, "We is asking Professor Loopy to be reading the oath and making suggestions."

               "May I use your intent and place it in magical terms? My word that I will in no way change the desires of the elves, and will in no way include things that were not in your copy," Remus asked the elves. He was startled at how cleverly they'd put it together, he just needed to put the magical polish on it so the bond would take. The elves agreed, and in a few moments he handed them back:

               I (elf’s name) bind myself to (bonded's name) to provide service, if my assistance would be helpful and not harmful. In return, I ask that those who ask for my service treat me with respect and courtesy. Together, we can build a relationship of trust and mutual support that benefits us all. Should anyone involved in the bond wish to sever ties, and provide in writing that it be so, the bond will be voided without penalty.

               The elves chattered back and forth, with six elves presenting themselves to Remus, and two to Harry, which, of course, included Dobby, and four holding back. “We is from farming families, Harry Potter sir. We is thinking we is best suited to bonding to Harry Potter’s Neville when we has the chance.”

               "We is asking Professor Loopy to be bonding to Linmy, Deesy, Moppy, Somley, Tadpy, and Vabry. Each elf stepped forward as they were named.

               Harry smiled at Remus' shock. "I would be honored to serve as bonder for you. He read out the bond, pausing to let each elf name themselves, and again for Remus to name himself. As he completed the final sentence, a glowing line briefly showed, tethering the elves to Remus, and he to them.

               Remus repeated the procedure, allowing Dobby and Taddy to bond with Harry. All the bonded elves heaved a sigh in relief, equilibrium returning to their cores. They’d been having to spend significant amounts of time meditating to keep their magic stable. An unbonded elf could easily have it’s magic acting out with often funny results and occasionally scary ones.

               Harry spent a few moments pushing energy down the bonds, thankful that elves could produce large amounts of elven magic in exchange for siphoning small amounts of wizarding magic. From the look of concentration on Remus' face, he was doing the same.

               Remus asked, "We'd like it if you nominated an elf to stay with us and provide input and advice for house elf needs as we work through plans. Would the rest of you have any objection to working as messengers and retrieval experts?"

               A quick huddle, and Taddy spoke up. "Taddy is being the oldest elf here, and cannot pop very far any more. Taddy will stay. The other elves are being young and strong, with Dobby and Moppy being very strong. They is able to be messengers, but long pops will require boosting. Elves is not being able to take people on pops unless several elves is working together, but elves can be carrying lots of shrinked things."

"That sounds great, Taddy, thank you for volunteering. I think," Remus said, looking at Harry, "that we might have a fair bit of back and forth to Diagon Alley, will that be a problem?" Harry nodded that yes, London was going to be a hotspot for communication. "The floos in Gringotts are open, will that help?"

               The elves agreed that getting to London was a long pop, but using the floo would save significant time and effort.

               "Alright. Let's clear up a few things from earlier tasking. Remus, could you write a note to Eltiebs at Gringotts outlining our suspicion of what may happen to non-humans? Let her know we're forming a splinter group and will not be accompanying the main group of refugees, which is now headed by Dumbledore. You know best how to take it from there and get us a representative to help with planning if the goblins, or any part of their nation would like to accompany the splinter group.”

               Harry looked over at the boards, wondering where to slot in a Goblin representative if one volunteered. Is finance under infrastructure, he wondered? He decided not, and added a #12 Finance. Behind him, Remus dispatched Linmy to Diagon with the letter.

               Harry was trying to remember what all he and Remus had thrown at Percy and Doxie without much luck. "Dobby, could you please quietly check with Doxie to see if any of our earlier requests still require completion or what their status is? Only ask if she is able to respond without notice, and if there's no chance of causing trouble for her."

               Remus absently asked, "Why did Neville say your gold bought the plant companies?"

               "Crap," Harry responded. He realized that Remus had been involved with his own instructions and tasking when they were sorting things out downstairs, and probably didn’t catch everything Harry had been doing. "Roopy, please let Doxie know that unless money is going to Dean Thomas, she's to no longer use the gold in my trunks. If she could transfer any requests from Dean for funds to you, we'll take it from there." Roopy popped away on his errand. He turned to Remus and continued, " I had my trunks opened up to allow the gold from my vault to fund the initial tasking. I sent Neville out on a magical plant hunt, and said if he found any companies that weren’t evacuating, he should buy the business. We also still have Dean raiding building supply stores and using the Hogwarts Express to transport the goods. I taught him the pack spell, so other than transit time, and the fact that I'm probably hemorrhaging money in his direction," he paused as Roopy popped back into the room.

               Doxie says to tell Harry Potter that she is stopping funds from Harry Potter’s trunks, and will be sending future requests from Mister Dean Thomas to Mister Harry Potter. She also be's saying that she needs to recall the math elf, all Hogwartsy elves is being ordered to report to the Headmaster. "

               "Well that's just peachy. Do we have an elf here who is very good at quickly adding numbers and is able to make a long pop with a boost?" Somley stepped forward. "Patronus message to Dean Thomas: Dean, we need to swap out your math elf, he's a Hogwarts elf, and Dumbledore is recalling them shortly. Please advise location with coordinates if you're stopped, or at your next stopping point. Evacuation effort now being headed up by Dumbledore, send requests directly to me if additional funding is needed. We’re sending you Somley to be your new math elf, he can pop back and forth from us to you, but you'll need to give him a magical boost." He dispatched the Patronus, and asked Remus to ensure Somley got a boost for travel when Dean replied. At Remus's expectant look, he finished his earlier statement, "Dean's leaving the gold value equivalent at the store office, which means magic will consider the items bought as "his", so he can whiz through the store, stick a magical tag on what he wants, pay for it, pack it up, and be in and out in hopefully a couple hours or so. He's with the Express, running up from its summer home at Exeter to Hogwarts, hitting up what he can on the way. Since it was my idea and nobody’s yet interfered with that tasking, I feel responsible to fund that one, even if it’s not to “Clueless’s” benefit,” he finished with a smile.

               Dobby came back holding a short piece of parchment, that looked to have been ripped off one of the never out clipboards. The notes were in surprisingly well formatted sentences, but Harry supposed that would be a requirement for accurate written communication. He knew plenty of people who spoke quite differently than they wrote.

               incomplete:

• - Bing retasked to castle oversight. No list of supplies or water status available.
• - Wizard Darrin has returned, stasis containers purchased were turned over to Professor Dumbledore. Stowe & Packers to send owl within 24 hours with additional trunks and instructions. (Doxie will direct owl to Harry Potter)

               ** - Doxie wishes Mister Harry Potter to know that the Unspeakables have found the ritual they wish to use. They plan to open the portal at 1 PM tomorrow, and will keep it open for up to 24 more. They will start sending groups through once portal is confirmed stable.

               Harry gathered that Doxie wasn't enthused about helping the current leadership, and was sending him what information and aid she could without violating her bond. He absently wondered if they bonded to the Headmaster directly or to the school itself?

               Remus went back to Board #1, #3, "Who". "Okay, so we're opening it up to goblins. What about the centaurs? Do any of the elves know where to find the centaurs, and do you think they'd talk to you?"

               "Deesy knows, Deesy will ask." the young elf said, stepping forward.

               "Thank you, Deesy. One moment and I'll draft a message for you to take." Remus asked if Ginsey could pop to one of the classrooms and get him a stack of parchment and a quill, quickly jotting a two paragraph message, when Ginsey returned. He folded it, handing it off and asking Deesy to please wait for a reply.

               Remus and Harry were each lost in thought. Harry finally spoke. "In addition to the goblins and centaurs, I can think of merpeople, vampires, gnomes and ghosts. You?"

               Remus nodded at Harry's list. "And the giants, if we're going by sapience. We'll need to approach the merpeople, I'm not sure if Dumbledore has told them. We'll have to see what they say. They're extraordinarily territorial and I haven't the foggiest how we'd manage transportation, but that's a later problem. Vampires aren't an issue, they're not a magical species, and definitely don't play well with others. I don't think we'd be hurting anyone's feelings if we left them be. For the gnomes, we can and should check with Gringotts; the gnomes are part of the Swiss banking system and may have already been absorbed into the goblins' plans. Moppy, could you please check with Gringotts to see if the gnomes have been covered, or if we should contact them independently?" Moppy darted out of the room, heading for the floo. "As for the ghosts, no clue. All we can do is ask. Cisley, do you know where to find any of the castle ghosts, and if so, could you see if one would please stop in?" Cisley solemnly nodded and headed out.

               "Remind me later to do something about the tea towels, Dobby," Harry paused to yawn. "All of you need a proper set of work clothes or a uniform. We'll talk about it and see what works."

               Dobby all but beamed. "Yes, Harry Potter sir!"

               The Grey Lady drifted in through the wall as Cisley popped in behind her. "How may I be of service, Mister Lupin?" She spoke in her usual dreamy cadence, as if she was never fully focused

on the now.

               "Hello Grey Lady. Have the castle ghosts been made aware of the current situation?" Remus asked. The Grey Lady slowly nodded, then cocked her head as if listening to a faint sound.

               "We will be well, Mister Lupin. We will remain as we are, until we choose not to remain as we are." She drifted back through the wall, gazing at something unseen by everyone else.

               "Well, strike the ghosts and vampires. That leaves us the goblins, gnomes, and centaurs with information pending, merpeople, and giants still to go. Any idea where the giants hang out?"

               Remus answered, "Their home territory is in and around Svalbard and... oh," he trailed off.

               Yeah, strike the giants, too. Okay, so just the merpeople. "Anybody know how to speak Mermish? If Mermish is understandable as English under water, is English understandable as Mermish? And here's me, fresh out of gillyweed. Do you know the bubblehead charm and do you want to make a lake run to talk to them?"

               Remus sighed. "I'll give it a try, give me an hour or so." He stood and also asked for an outside door, stepping through as quickly as he could.

               Once he was alone among the elves, he drew in a deep breath, and then another, steeling himself to ask, "Dobby, are you able to find Sirius Black?" It wasn’t that the question was difficult to ask, it was that he wasn’t sure he could bear to hear the answer.

               "Dobby is being able to know a direction," and he turned, Harry wasted no time in flashing a compass spell up - east, "but Dobby is not being able to know how far."

               Harry sighed. It was confirmation he wasn't in England, but a warm glow kindled knowing he was alive. There was still hope and he had confidence in Sirius himself. Beneath the bravado, pranks, and charm lurked a very, very good auror. Sirius would figure it out, he told himself. He'll hear about it, he'll get himself to England. He will. Despite his internal pep talk, he didn't feel wholly reassured, but enough to set the issue aside and focus on other things. There was nothing he could do about it right now, and he had other items to think about. He had so, so many things he should be focused on. Maybe he could number them and pull one from a hat, because he didn't know what to focus on first. Establishing first response to needs for several thousand people seemed far simpler than working to provide needs for a few. He went from drowning in nownownow to feeling significantly more relaxed about available time.

               First, it had been food, water, and shelter, then go after the things you were going to need huge amounts of. But they didn't need huge amounts with so few people, so his concentration felt scattered. He cast a tempus and grimaced. No wonder he was tired. Despite his stress induced nap, it was 10:30 at night. He'd wait for Remus to return and see if it was worth hitting the pepper up now, or if they could/should take the time for some proper rest. They had a place to go, even if they didn't know where, or its details as yet, so really what they were going to be most focused on were supplies. His overworked brain couldn't think of any supplies that would be needed that were strictly magical in nature other than Neville's plants and would need to be collected before shop owners packed up. He was quite sure the lack of foresight on his part would bite him on the ass later, but he was drawing a complete blank.

               Remus returned, slightly after the hour promised, tired and nursing a grindylow bite. While he wasn't dripping water, he was distinctly damp. "Merpeople are a no. The chieftess said their history predates the humans, and they will not leave their claimed territory. And before you ask, I did mention the giant squid; they said they'd look after him." Remus slumped into one of the wingback chairs. "We're just waiting on the gnomes and goblins." He slid into the corner of “his” sofa and rolled his head to the side to look at the elves. "How are you guys doing? It's been a long day."

               From his own sofa corner, Harry hummed in agreement.

               The elves looked at each other, and Hobsey spoke up. "We is also thinking it is being a very long day, and we be thinking you's both needs to be asleep. We's can all be doing a better job in the morning." Hobsey asked the room for two bedchambers, two doors appearing on the wall opposite the chalkboards. Hobsey will be getting Harry Potter sir's trunk. Does Professor Loopy need Hobsey to be getting trunk?"

               Remus shook his head. "No, thank you Hobsey, I have mine with me, and turn out it's a good thing it's waterproof. Do all of you have a place to stay? You'd be very welcome to stay here. Room, could you please create a space for the elves, with any changes they’d like made? Also, I hate to ask, because I know we’re all tired, but could we have one elf on duty, perhaps a half hour at a time, in case someone comes to the room and needs us, or if any other situation arises?" The elves nodded agreement, swiftly assigning a watch list, to which Remus ensured they added both himself and Harry. "Meet back here at 6 AM for round two, Harry?"

               Hat interrupted, “Read me the list. Should anything happen, I’ll wake the designated person for that time period. No need for everyone to be awake when I don’t really sleep. Hogwarts and I are having the most fascinating conversation, it will be no hardship for me to keep watch. Sleep well.”

               Harry agreed, and with his eyes already half closed, said goodnight to the the elves, Remus, and the hat, then trudged to one of the doors and stepped in. It was a very comfortable bedroom in shades of bronze and brown, with another off to the side door he assumed led to an en suite. Hobsey popped in with his trunk, and Harry opened the first and then the second and finaly all the trunks, then gave in and summoned his school trunk from whichever space of whichever trunk it had sorted itself to fit into. He hadn't brought a single belonging from the Dursleys, and it was no great loss, but he'd have to think about getting some clothes tomorrow. For now, though, he had sent his trunk straight from school to Gringotts, so he still had his pyjamas and a few weekend wear outfits to hand. Pulling a set out for tomorrow, he grabbed his toothbrush and pyjamas and headed for the bathroom. On his return, he fell into the bed and his brain blinked to off.