Prologue- Elf Alley
Disclaimer- I own nothing but the plot bunny and any characters you don’t recognise from Jo’s books.
Summary: Harry is abandoned by the Dursleys and disappears, only to be found years later working as a Hogwarts house elf! Snape guardian, harry/veela!draco Veela fic with a twist!
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Prologue- Elf Alley
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
He slowly opened his eyes, an unfamiliar dripping sound cutting through the fog and throbbing pain in his head. There wasn’t much to see really, just darkness, and hulking shapes looming out of it. It was enough to tell the four year old that he wasn’t in his cupboard, or anywhere he had ever been before, which consisted of the Dursley’s house and their front and back gardens. This place was cold, colder even than his cupboard, and definitely smellier. It smelled like the Dursley’s wheelie bin did when he lifted the lid to put the rubbish in.
Shivering with the cold, he painstakingly pulled himself up to lean against a damp brick wall to make more sense of his surroundings. Squinting, he could make out there was a wall across from him and an opening to the far right with a wall to his left. He decided he must be in an alleyway like the one between the Dursley’s back garden, and the one of the house behind it. He knew from hearing Aunt Petunia telling his cousin Dudley that alleyways were not good places to be in for little boys. But perhaps he would be okay; after all, while he was a Boy, he was also a Freak, so maybe he would be safe here. It did look like a good place to hide.
As he was debating whether to explore or go back to sleep, a sound came from his left in the direction of the dead-end. Eyes wide, he watched as some of the bricks started to glow golden before seemingly melting, leaving a hole, shaped like a very small (and rather lumpy-looking) person. He watched with bated breath, trying not to dwell too much on the fact that the wall should not be able to glow or melt. After all, there was no such thing as magic was there? Maybe he was just going mad. The little boy brought his knees to his chest and clutched them there as he waited for something to step through. A small foot was the first thing through, followed by a body and a head and a pair of arms, with shopping bags and sticking out elbows, followed lastly by a huge pair of floppy ears fitting perfectly in the floppy-ear shaped holes in the wall.
His eyes bugged, what was this thing? Was it even human? Was it a monster? Maybe it was the one that lived under Dudley’s bed and made him cry until he got a new toy. He was scared now, and decided to hide in a pile of what felt like old carpets. Lifting a corner of carpet, he attempted to pull it over his head as cover. He yelped when squeaking sounds and a flurry of rats came swarming and biting at him, angry with him being in their territory.
He heard a thump of bags hitting the ground, and the slapping of small feet hurrying in his direction, and tried to hold himself still. It won’t find me, he told himself. It’s not going to get me. When the sound of the footsteps stilled he cautiously peeked out of one eye, only to be greeted by a pair of eyes the size of tennis balls looking right back at him. He quickly squeezed his eyes shut, holding his breath and wishing the thing gone. Braving it, he opened one eye again. It was still there, and it was blinking at him. Fear suddenly gone, he opened both eyes and blinked right back. The monster opened its mouth and he shrunk back, fear hitting him once more.
“Why is you being here, little child?” The monster asked him in a squeaky voice, which wasn’t anything like the scary roar he had been expecting.
He blinked again. “What are you?” he dared to ask of it, though he supposed it really wasn’t all that daring as it was not much bigger than he was.
“Sappy is being a house elf!” it squeaked back, ears flapping in its exuberance. It really was a funny looking creature. Apart from the bat like ears and tennis ball eyes, it had an overly large misshapen head and a nose that greatly resembled that of a piglet. Its skin was a greenish-grey colour and it was dressed in what appeared to be a neatly ironed tea towel with some sort of crest on the front that consisted of an H in the middle, and a griffin, eagle, badger and snake in the corners.
“A house elf?” He was curious. He had heard of elves, they helped Father Christmas bring presents to good boys and girls. He was not a good boy- he had never gotten a present. He hadn’t, however, heard of a house elf before.
Sappy nodded vigorously, ears flapping madly. “Yes, we is being servants to Families, it is a great honour! Sappy is being a Hogwarts elf!” Here Sappy pulled itself into a more upright position. “It is the greatest honour of them all, it is, to cook and clean for Albus Dumbledore!”
He was confused, ‘what on earth was a Hogwarts?’
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what a ‘Hogwarts’ or an ‘Albus Dumbledore’ is.”
The house elf’s eyes widened. “Hogwarts is being a school for little wizards and witchies, and Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster. How is you not knowing that? You is being a magical child, or you is not seeing Sappy!”
He felt a flare of panic at the ‘m’ word. “No, magic doesn’t exist!” He hissed the forbidden word quietly.
“Then how is Sappy walking through the wall?” Sappy gestured in the direction of the wall that was whole again; the house elf shaped hole had disappeared.
It was a valid point. He searched his mind to see if he could come up with a valid explanation, but couldn’t. “I don’t know, but I can’t do magic. I can’t do anything except cook and clean for the Dursleys!” It was true; he didn’t think he had ever done magic before. There was those odd occasions where something had happened he couldn’t explain such as his hair growing back after it was cut off, but that wasn’t magic that was just him being his freakish self. Either way it was wrong for him to make weird things happen, Uncle Vernon always says so.
Sappy startled at this. This child is cooking and cleaning for a Family and did not know about magic, even though it was obviously magical; perhaps it was not a normal child. Reaching for her own magic, Sappy lifted a finger, its tip glowing, closer to the child in order to see it better in the pre-dawn light.
She gasped. “You is hurt!” She reached out and gently touched a finger to a blackened eye which closed in a flinch. “Who is hurting you?”
It blinked as if it had never been asked that question and didn’t think anyone would care. “Uncle Vernon. I was bad, I burned the bacon.” It answered.
Sappy nodded her head in understanding. Burning the bacon was a bad thing to do, and many Families would punish house elves for that. She trailed her eyes down the small form. It really was small, and skinny, and it was clothed in oversized rags, quite a contrast to her neat tea towel. How anyone expected him to work without the rags getting in the way, she would not know. Obviously this Family did not know much about keeping house elves other than what their duties were.
“Where is your Family now?” she asked the child. Its eyes widened as if surprised, before a frown adorned the small forehead.
“I don’t know,” its voice came out sounding very small. “I didn’t think… I just woke up here, wherever here is…”
“It is being the entrance to Elf Alley, where house elves is getting everything they is needing for their Masters. I is buying humbugs for the dinner tables, we is running out.” Sappy started suddenly. “Oh, it is being breakfast soon; Sappy must go to apparating spot and back to Hogwarts to help elves cook!”
“Oh, okay. Nice to meet you, anyway…” He tightened his arms around his knees and turned away slightly as Sappy went to collect the shopping it had dropped.
“You is coming with Sappy?”
He looked up at the question. Sappy wanted him to go with it? It was an easy decision to make, he couldn’t stay in an alleyway filled with rubbish, and Sappy had been nicer to him than anyone else ever had, and it had asked him to go with it! An emotion filled him and it took him a while before he realised what it was… happiness. He stood clumsily and stepped towards the elf that was standing on a glowing circle he had not noticed before, a small smile gracing his face as he reached to take hold of the small and knobbly hand. As his fingers brushed the greenish-grey ones of the elf, a feeling of tightness washed over him and the alleyway disappeared, only for him to reappear in what looked like an enormous kitchen. Sappy pulled him upright from where he had lost his balance on reappearing and he noticed that the kitchen was filled with hundreds of house elves, who were all staring at him.
“Why is you bringing a wizarding child here, Sappy?” A tall house elf with dainty ears and a nose almost as big as its head asked.
“It is not being a wizarding child, Alfy. It is saying it is not doing magic, but is cooking and cleaning for a Family!” Sappy squeaked. “Sappy is finding it by Elf Alley!”
There were many murmurs at this and he looked around at the elves, wondering what they were thinking.
“Then where is his Family being?” The elf, Alfy asked of Sappy.
“It is not knowing. Sappy is thinking its Family is letting it go. Albus Dumbledore says all elves is being welcome here, they is only needing to put on the uniform, and they is being a Hogwarts house elf! Sappy is knowing whats to do!”
He watched as Sappy squeaked once more before hurrying towards a cupboard by what looked to be the entrance to the kitchen, whereupon it pulled out a tea towel matching the ones it and the other elves were wearing, before hurrying back to him.
“Here, little one. You is to be taking off those horrid clothes, and Sappy is to be charming you clean so you is being able to put on the uniform. It is a great honour to be working in Hogwarts and very good indeed, no punishments here, not even when Manky is burning the water, and tis a very difficult thing to be doing, burning water,” Sappy admitted. Manky was not a very good cook at all. Manky, a small elf with big yellow eyes and ears sticking up straight like a cat’s blushed a mottled red colour.
No punishments? He thought that was a very good deal indeed. Gathering armfuls of the filthy cloth that used to be clothes of his cousin Dudley’s, he pulled the shirt over his head and dropped the trousers.
“Oh look,” Sappy squeaked in excitement. “It’s a boy!”
He blinked confused. Well of course he was a Boy, he knew that, though he didn’t know what it was about his hip area that told the elf that. He was also a Freak, but he hoped these nice elves would not notice that. He vowed to be good and not do freakish things so they would not get upset with him.
“What is being your name little boy?” Sappy asked as it made dirt and blood disappear from his body by snapping its fingers.
He blinked. He didn’t really know. “Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon call me Boy or Freak.”
Sappy frowned. “No, those is not being good house elf names.”
A vague memory assaulted him and he drew on it. “Uncle Vernon called me ‘Pot’ once,” he volunteered. “Or maybe he was going to say something like ‘potatoes’ and didn’t finish the word...”
Sappy considered for a moment before nodding. “Potty. Good strong house elf name. Now all you is needing to do, is to be speaking like a house elf. We is not to be speaking like our betters. ” Done with the cleaning she eyed the boy appraisingly. Unfortunately, while she could heal his injuries, she could not take away his scars, and there were quite a few of them, the most noticeable one being a large raised scar that cut him down the middle of his forehead, and down the side of his nose to his cheek. It was a shame really as he had nice features and may have once been a good looking boy. There was a tear in his earlobe, as well as a small scar by the corner of his eye, and what looked like a slightly jagged scar peeking from underneath the large one that bisected his face. Oh well, he had nice eyes, she thought, so all wasn’t lost. And they were nice ones, big and gleaming green. A nice house elf maiden may look beyond his scars with eyes like his. Struck by a sudden thought, she asked a question of the newly christened Potty.
“How old is you being?”
Potty thought about it before answering. He really did want to try and be a good house elf, so he tried to copy the way Sappy spoke. “I is being four, I is thinking.”
Sappy nodded, surprised. He was rather small for a human boy of that age, perhaps it was his house elfness; after all it is better to be a small elf, as there are lots of small corners in the castle, too small for the larger elves like Alfy. Well, never mind, he was still young enough that there was time before her new elfling would be needing to find a good elf-wife. Picking up his new uniform, she held it out to him and watched as he put it on.
She smiled before setting off to make breakfast. “Welcome to Hogwarts, Potty the House Elf!”
***
After breakfast, elsewhere in the castle…
“You can’t have lost him, Albus! He’s Harry Potter, he was supposed to be safe. I told you those muggles were not to be trusted!” A Scottish witch named Minerva McGonagall shouted at the headmaster of Hogwarts.
“Yes you did,” he replied sadly.
“Headmaster, what are we to do? What if the dark side has him? We’ve tried all the different searching spells out there, as well as muggle detective techniques, and he is nowhere to be found! It is as if Harry Potter does not exist!” A short dumpy witch known as Professor Pomona Sprout fretted.
“I think if they were to have him, we would have heard already, through Severus.” Dumbledore inclined his head to a tall imposing figure leaning on a wall in the corner of the headmaster’s office. “I am hopeful that he is safe, but he may very well not be as the wards around his relative’s house have fallen, hence our enlightenment to his disappearance. For all we know, he may have been taken and his name legally altered, or he may be dead.” He sighed and addressed the group of Hogwarts staff gathered before him. “I fear it is something we may not have the answer to for some time. We have tried everything available to us. The only answer left is the ancient magic responsible for sending out letters to new students. If Harry turns up at Hogwarts, then we will know he is in the land of the living, if not…”
“Still, Albus that is seven years in the future, anything could happen between now and then…” Professor Filius Flitwick was concerned.
Albus sighed once more and moved to a window where he stared out to the distance, “I understand. But there is nothing more we can do, but trust Harry to remain safe until then…”
To be continued…