Friday, September 1st, 2006
A compartment on the Hogwarts Express

As the train lurched to a start, Casey almost had to do his own lurching.

Alone in a single compartment sat a hunched boy that barely left an indentation on the seat, already dressed in his school robes that seemed to big for him in some places. Every effort had been taken to make the boy look presentable. School tie, in the neutral black before his eventual Sorting, tied straight. Shoes shined, trousers pressed, hair freshly cut the day previous and slicked back. Casey didn't really like haircuts. He had one almost a month ago but his family insisted on a fresh cut before he would got to school. A hand appeared from out of his right sleeve, crossing over his chest to rest above his left shoulder, fingers rubbing together. In the next moment Casey realized the motion he was making, scowled, and returned his hand to its former position.

It had been over four years since the hair draped across Casey's shoulders and back.

It had been strawberry blonde once. Neither gold or red but a blend of colors like the blush on a peach. Now it had faded and felt like material that matched the consistancy of brittle straw. Suffice to say, Casey didn't like his hair. The mirror always returned a disapproving face, so he avoided them.

He wasn't alone although he was currently the only one in the compartment. When he first took his seat there had been a huge boy much bigger than he. A pile of sandbags that called himself Buster Mastiff who had gone off to 'do something about smuggling his giant dog Chugger through baggage.'

As the train picked up speed Casey eyed a flask next to him. He wanted to at least get out of the city before he had to touch his potion for motion sickness but he might not make it. He had taken every precaution. Sit straight, face forward with the direction of the train, find something to distract his mind. Yet still he felt queasy.

Casey sighed and went back to reading the Standard Book of Spells. To the careful observer they would notice that it was a grade above first year.

Zoe walked through the moving train, doing her best to keep her balance. She dragged along a large piece of luggage, though it had been charmed to have the weight of a feather that morning by her father. In front of the young girl walked a rather large, sleek, white cat with large ears and gray around its ears and muzzle, almost as if leading her. A black Hogwarts robe swished around her ankles with each step, giving her an odd outfit as it was paired with muggle clothing.

As she passed different compartment the young girl would glance into them, though Zoe didn't enter any. In most of them she saw many people, or what seemed like older students. Finally, after almost falling over in the train twice, she stumbled across a compartment empty except for one small boy.

The girl opened the doors to the compartment, her cat entering first. The white feline almost seemed to be surveilling the blond boy, but a cat couldn't do that. Zoe followed into the compartment. "I hope you don't mind me sitting here," the young girl said as she put her luggage in a place that it wouldn't get in the way and sat down on the side opposite the boy. "Most of the other compartments are full, and it's hard to walk in a moving train."

The white cat jumped onto the brown haired girl's lap. "My name's Zoe Torret, and this is Snowy. What's your name?" Her tone was bright and cheerful, as if she was hoping to become friends with this boy. Zoe subconsciously stroked the white fur of Snowy as she spoke, it was a habit.

A girl came into the compartment. Nothing in particular about her stood out to Casey. She better not be too chatty because he wanted to focus on what second year spells he didn't know scratch that, couldn't maintain by now. Since he was legally a student now he could feign previous experience with wand casting as being remarkably adaptive for a few weeks. That would impress the professors before he pulled out the older repotoire.

Zoe Torret. It had some sense of familiarity Casey couldn't place. Certainly not related to the family's business contacts. "I'm Casey O'DAACHOOO!"

The sneeze shook him as he scrambled to find a handkerchief. As he flushed his sinses he noticed the cat on her lap. Of course. This was one con to going to Hogwarts; Casey was allergic to two thirds of the pets allowed that they deemed to put in the acceptance letters. At least toads were out of fashion.

The sneeze startled Zoe, and she jumped in her seat a little. "Bless you," the young girl replied with a stifled laugh. She of course didn't realize Casey was allergic to cats, everybody sneezed. Snowy adjusted herself after her owner had jumped and Zoe resumed petting the white cat. Snowy purred softly as the hand passed over the length of her body.

"What was your last name Casey? O-something?" The first name Casey seemed silly for a boy to her, Rebecca had a female friend named Casey, but Zoe didn't judge or laugh. The small boy didn't seem like a person to laugh at.

Casey leveled a deadly watery-eyed glare at the offending cat. White ones were worse because you couldn't differ the irritating dander from the fur. He continued to blow his nose.

"O'Doherty" he meant to say, although given his congested state it came out as "O'Durgey."

Stuffed up and miserable, Casey propped up his book again to read. He would have to charm the spray of snot off the page later.

Zoe noticed Casey's glare and was confused. She hadn't done anything wrong! Why did he look so angry at her? The young girl then realized something. He wasn't looking at her, he was looking at Snowy! It hit her why he seemed so upset at her cat, who had done nothing but purring. "Oh, you're allergic to cats, aren't you?"

She couldn't understand well what his last name was because of how congested he was, and only took in that it was probably an Irish name because it began with O. Zoe tapped Snowy on her side, and the white cat leapt from her owner's lap. The young girl then walked over to her trunk, opening it. She drew her wand next, then said a spell under her breath. A bottle flew out and she caught it, putting her wand away.

As she walked back over to Casey she read the label. "Yep, this is the right one!" Zoe held it out to Casey. "It's a cat allergy potion. I made sure I had some before I left just in case something like this happened." It was only then that she noticed the book he was reading was one level above the required book. Either this boy was talented, or he liked to read future assigned books so he knew all of the material.

It was all Casey could do to not roll his eyes. Brilliant deduction! Watch her be destined for Ravenclaw, like the ones that bandied eureka moments like it was a notable achievement. Even though he could appreciate her level of preparedness her generosity made him pause. If she just happened to need her own supply of cat allergy potion why did she own a damn cat? And what tactical advantage was there to antagonize people with cat allergies  then give them an antidote afterwards? Only if you were sequestering them into your service.

No way Torret was that Slytherin.

"What's in this potion?" was corrupted into "Whags in dis potshun?" as he checked the bottle for a label. Casey's extensive array of medications required the full consultation of a mediwitch to avoid converging side effects.

The fact that Casey asked what was in it made Zoe a little suspicious. It seemed as though he expected she had poisoned it. The young girl felt slightly insulted that, not only had the boy not told her that he was allergic to cats, but that he didn't seem to have any medicine yet still didn't seem the slightest bit grateful! Afterall, it was Zoe to had insisted to her mum that she had something for cat allergies in case one of her dormmates had a cat allergy.

Her angered flared slightly, but Zoe didn't strike. "I don't know, my mum made it." She looked over the bottle for an ingredients label, though she knew her mum didn't put on. If Zoe wanted ingredients she'd have to look in her mum's potions book. The young girl knew that when it came to allergy potions, Joy had her own personal recipes.

"Would you like me to mirror her and ask?" Zoe pulled an small square mirror with an antique looking frame from her pocket. To most people this would seem an odd question, but the young witch had been sent to school with it to use it as a muggle would a phone.

One horrendously cacophonous nose blowing later, Casey felt relieved enough of congestion to be understood. The deposit of phlegm almost overfilled the handkerchief. Blazes how he hated all these stupid little allergies.

"It can't react with any other of my medications, especially if it uses wormwood, no wait, was it sandalwood? Some bloody kind of wood." After an exasperated sigh he searched the inner pockets of his uniform for a roll of parchment. It was over twenty four inches long like a particularly extensive homework essay.

"Mirror your mother then. I'm not supposed to ingest anything unless it has been prepped by a certified healer and then it can't contain any of my known allergens." He passed the list to the girl.

He grimaced at the wad of snotty handkerchief he was left with. "Dingy."

Outside the compartment was a crack and the ding of something metal striking the door. It was then opened by a house elf wearing a potato sack and a saucepan. "Dingy already has Master Casey's trunk at Hogwarts School of--"

"Give this a wash and bring me another fresh one." He tossed the wad at the elf who dutifully caught it.

Zoe's eyes widened at how big the list was. She had to put the bottle of cat allergy potion in her new empty pocket to take it. "Oh, well that's fine. My mum's the Healer-in-Charge of the third floor of St. Mungo's," the young witch stated with pride as she sat back down on her seat. "Joy Torret, if you've been to the third floor you've probably seen her."

The crack made the young witch look around. Had Lily just appeared? Then Zoe saw the house elf standing there and was shocked. Master Casey? The boy had a house elf? After living with a free one for so long, seeing one in a sorry state like that was shocking.

Another crack came, this one next to Zoe's ear. The young girl jumped to the side in her seat, quite startled. An elf stood on the seat less than a foot from where Zoe had been, though this one was quite different. She was dressed in a frilly pink dress and flat pink shoes, both which fit her small body perfectly, and her skin was clean of dirt and grime. Brown combed hair went slightly past the elf's large ears, the perfect length for it to be admireable but not get in the way of anything. One might have mistaken the elf for a large doll.

A look of regret came over the elf's face when she saw her scared mistress. "Lily is sorry for frightening Mistress!" Lily took Zoe's arm and got her back to a sitting position, then did a quick bow of her head. "Lily came to bring Mistress Zoe her book." The book Lily held out was neither a spell book nor one written by wizards at all, it was a muggle fantasy novel.

"Oh, thank you Lily." Zoe took it and put it on her left, as she had done with the list of allergens Casey had given her. The elf sat down next to the young girl, and only then noticed the boy across from her and, even worse, another elf. A house elf.

With a small frighten squeak, Lily seemed to get closer to Zoe. "Lily should be going now!"

"Oh no Lily, please, stay a while." Zoe had never seen the elf get this scared over someone new. Sure, Lily was always shy in Hogsmeade, but not like this. "Casey, this is Lily, our family elf." She couldn't say 'house elf' and 'free elf' made it sound like the Torrets had just stumbled upon Lily, so she used the term 'family elf'. "Lily, this is Casey."

At master's beckon Dingy had warped to Master Casey's compartment on the Hogwarts Express. The train was in motion, the car jostling back and forth and Dingy fell into the door when the elf appeared. Reaching up for the handle, Dingy opened the door to find master talking to a girl. "Dingy already has Master Casey's trunk at Hogwarts School--"

"Give this a wash and bring me another fresh one." Master Casey tossed a spent handkerchief and Dingy caught it, unflinching from the squlesh of the snot filled rag.

Before Dingy disappeared to follow master's orders there was another pop and another house elf appeared by the girl. Dingy was stunned; Dingy did not see too many other elves outside of Dollop and Dimple, the other O'Doherty elves. Lily was unlike any elf Dingy had ever seen. She wore clothes! A pink dress that reminded Dingy of when Master Casey had...urm...master had burned those dresses himself.

Dingy could feel for Lily's embarrassment of being seen. Mistress Torret was a nice mistress to let Lily sit after she had carried out an errand. Dingy wondered if Master Casey would let him sit after telling master all he had set up already at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In the awkwardness of the moment Dingy realized that Dingy had not been introduced by Miss Torret nor by Dingy's own master. There was the order of washing master's handkerchief but maybe, if Dingy could only prod his master who sat in stunned silence at the proceedings...

Dingy coughed slightly. "*ahem*"

"You have a house elf?!" Master Casey exclaimed. "You? How could you have a house elf if you've gone and given it clothes?"

That was not the best thing Master Casey could have said.

Lily had been very sad to watch her mistress go. Afterall, the elf had been with Mistress Zoe since she was a baby, before she was 'Mistress'. It was the exact reason she had taken a book from mistress's trunk that morning, with the intent to bring it to her on the train so she could stay with mistress until the train stopped at Hogwarts.

Apparating into the train compartment, the elf saw her mistress's alarm. "Lily is sorry for frightening Mistress!" the elf squeaked, then pulled her mistress to a sitting position and bowed her head apologetically. Lily never gave full bows, only head bows. Reaching again to pick up the book, Lily held out the stolen book. "Lily came to bring Mistress Zoe her book."

Mistress Zoe didn't seem to realize that Lily had stolen the book, with the simple reply, "Oh, thank you Lily." The elf was glad that mistress didn't remember that she had, in fact, packed it. Satisfied with the turnout, Lily sat down next to Mistress Zoe without invitation. The elf never needed invitation to sit like an equal.

Instantly, Lily noticed the small boy on the seat and his house elf. The elf always dreaded having to see other house elves, she was sure that they would judge that fact that Lily was given good clothes and living condition. But the boy's silent shock really scared her. Lily was being judged, and it wasn't good judging.

Letting out a scared squeal, the elf moved closer to her mistress. It was a habit, when the elf was shy or scared she'd get closer to Mistress Zoe. Mistress Zoe always protected Lily. "Lily should be going now!" It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Anything that was going to happen would be bad. Lily was sure of it.

Mistress Zoe seemed oblivious to Lily's reasoning. "Oh no Lily, please, stay." Lily looked down at her feet, but obeyed. "Casey, this is Lily, our family elf. Lily, this is Casey." The elf didn't seem too happy about being introduced.

At the sound of Casey yelling out, Lily looked up. For a few moments she looked the boy in the eye, until he finished what he was saying. The elf's expression changed from scared to hurt. Lily looked as if she had just been stabbed right in the heart. An audible whimper escaped her as the elf looked from her mistress down to the other elf. She gave him a pleading look, as if asking him to make his master stop.

"What do you mean?" Mistress Zoe didn't seem to be taking it any better. "Just because she's free doesn't mean she's any less loyal!"

"Mistress..." Lily's voice was soft, broken sounding, and the elf was completely ignored.

"Loyalty lies in the fact that you will do things for someone. Not because you are forced to do thing for someone," Mistress Zoe hissed at the boy. Lily squirmed.

"Dingy isn't 'forced' into servitude it's his nature," Casey retorted to Torret, not noticing any contradictions to his words. "We didn't up and capture an elf off the streets to make it do our bidding he was born into it!"

"Master, please--" Dingy was ignored as Casey continued on. The pieces were coming together now. The Torrets, Zoe was the daughter of the Third Floor Healer-In-Charge. Casey had never interacted with her but much of the knowledge and testing of his allergies had been worked through her department, so it was her signature on the forms. But more importantly, to the O'Doherty perspective, they had no idea how to handle an elf.

"I take it you don't know how an elf's geas works. An elf's bond to a family is both a security measure and a means to make everything run smoothly. It's not something you can just turn off. Elves originally kept to maintaining a property, a track of land or what have you, before the land was passed to other owners. Thus becoming wizard master and elf servant was a symbiotic relationship for both entities. And when the Statuette of Secrecy was erected you couldn't have house elves blowing everything if they stayed in a house owned by muggles." The brief jaunt of history was the justification many elf keepers still used. It sounded bleak to Casey, sometimes, but for the purposes of an argument with Torret it was going to be his keystone point.

He glanced to the elf quivering in the pink dress. "You say your elf is loyal but has she ever done something problematic, something against your family's wishes and you couldn't enforce a 'no' to her antics?"

Zoe was just shocked with how stupid the boy could sound. "Oh, being born into it isn't forced? Well, do you think your elf chose to be born as he was? He said before he was born, 'I want to be a servant for a family, and serving them is all I ever want to do with my life'?"

The lecture on how elves worked made the girl turn a little red with anger. Just as she was about to retort back that it was what they all said, and how that was how it was working back in much different times and with the world changing so does society, Casey made his final comment. "Oh that's it! Why you-" She put her hand in her robe to withdraw her wand. Next to her, Lily burst out crying.

"Lily would never do such a thing!" the elf sobbed. "Lily loves her Master and Mistresses and Lily-" The elf burst into another round of crying, making everything she said afterward garbled gibberish.

"Happy now?!" Zoe exclaimed, before turning and embracing Lily. "Lily, it's alright. Calm down. Don't listen to him." It was amazing how quickly the girl could turn from a sharp tone to a soft, caring one. She pulled out a handkerchief from a pocket and handed it to Lily, who loudly blew her nose. The elf tried to talk again, still none of it understandable.

By now, Snowy, who had previously been sitting at the girl's heels, had rose. She stood in front of her owner, ears back and hissing, daring the boy to make another move. Zoe saw this, but didn't bother to call the cat off. Casey deserved it.

"You can't talk before you're born!" Now that was a rubbish argument. "Is anything going to chose to act against the ancestry of its species? An elf is going to be industrious about a set of work whether it has an owner or not, so there's no real difference."

At the door to the compartment Dingy stood, still looking rather nervous. "At least with Dingy I'm saved the trouble of emotional breakdowns," Casey continued. "You've never had a fit, have you Dingy?"

"N-N-o-o," although Dingy was having thoughts that, if known, meant Dingy would have to punish himself. What was the hardest thing to ram into on a train car?

Casey couldn't help but notice Zoe make for a wand then pause. While Casey didn't have the wand at the ready, a mistake rectified by keeping one hand close to the pocket it was in, he doubted Torret would be able to hex him with anything given his experience and the superior quality of the ancestral leprechaun hair wand passed down the family.