Professor Jowd's Office
Mid Morning on a Saturday

"Either give up the elf, Casey, or I'll give you detention!"

Sissel flopped from leaning back in his wooden wheeled office chair to pointing a finger over his desk at the fourth year Slytherin summoned to his office. A meek looking lad that tried but failed to hide the shock of surprise and contemptuous disgust on his face.

Sissel broke into a grin. "Relax, Casey, I'm only joking. You're not in trouble or obligated to do anything." The kid was always so severe, it made the History of Magic professor think of Mr. Dawlish, Terrence's father, who was rumored to be as severe during all his years of school, a man that never left time for fun. Of course, thinking about Terrence brought up auror Jonas Trevelyan's critique of Sissel's conduct. Who knows, he might be giving the kid more troubles.

"Rather, if you are able to spare your elf, Din-GEE no Ding-EE, is it? - I would very much appreciate it, even make it worth your while. All I need is for you to give him the time needed for rehearsals and that'll be it. What would you like, bonus house points? Signature for a form? Tutoring?" Behind him on the hatrack with a rabbit cage built in, Sissel's pet rabbit Layton climbed up to a post and turned into a silk top hat.

The fourth year Slytherin looked distracted. "No, you can have Dingy for the class, I don't need anything," a rare thing for a Slytherin to say when presented with an open opportunity, "I thought...nevermind. He's yours for the class."

"Excellent, send the next one in why don't you," Sissel added cheerily as the Slytherin made as hasty of an exit as he was physically capable of. Sissel made a checkmark on a list. "Next!"

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((Any student previously stated to have an house elf, secondary, NPC, whatever, is welcome to post! Assume you got a memo from Professor Jowd. Feel free to get off subject too!))

Zoe had spent all day convincing Lily to come. At first the excuse was that her mum's garden needed tending to, then it was she wasn't feeling well, after that the elf caved and agreed. Lily apperated over to Hogwarts and Zoe was able to make it near the front of the line.

Casey passed, and Lily gave a small squeak, rushing for the black folds of Zoe's robe. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice either of them as he was moving so quickly. Lily slowly backed out from the robe.

As soon as she heard Professor Jowd call for the next person, the Ravenclaw began to walk in. For once, Lily didn't hide under Zoe's robe. Instead, she walked at her side, still in an outfit that made her look like a doll, with as much confidence as the elf could fake. "Hello Professor," Zoe greeted. "I brought Lily."

The elf gave a bow of her head. "Hello Mistress's Professor." Lily looked back up, noticing Dingy was there as well. She flushed slightly then went quiet.

"Professor Jowd, um, you will be sure that Lily isn't, well," Zoe looked nervously down at Lily, then back to Jowd. "Teased for being a free elf, won't you? I'm not sure if any other free elves are coming, and..." She leaned in to the professor, lowering her voice. "Lily really is a tender soul. Kind, but easily offended." It was obvious the girl was concerned for her elf.

As Zoe Torret came in with her elf Sissel just noticed that Casey's elf, Dingy, was standing off to the side. Even for the pot on its head Sissel was surprised on how he hadn't noticed the elf before. He blended into the wall too well. "You don't have anywhere to be?"

"Master has given permission to Dingy, so is that time...now?"

"I guess." The professor hadn't expected to be meeting some of the elves today but that got things working sooner. Sissel wondered how to phrase this as not really an order since after all, this was a student's elf. "You're familiar with the castle elves, right?"

Dingy nodded.

Sissel held out a smaller list. "If it is possible for you at any point of today, would you go down to the kitchens and ask about a few particular elves?"

Dingy readily grabbed the list and proceeded to exit...slowly, as his neck would turn back every few steps to look at Lily.

"Sorry on the wait, right, Zoe and Lily...." More checkmarks. "She's free then?" If it wasn't already made obvious by the dress and shoes. "That's the best case scenario of what I'm looking for, actually. I would be using Hogwarts elves but I can't use large numbers of them because they're all needed for the various tasks at the castle. So that's why I've been looking to ones students know. Being free tells me there shouldn't be too much trouble keeping Lily on task."

To business. Sissel glanced from student then to elf. "Do you think you can act?"

Lily tried to keep her eyes up and looking at Mistress's Professor. This was a bit difficult when he began talking to Dingy, the house elf she'd preferred to have not been there. The man looked nice enough, if Mistress Zoe trusted him he had to be trustworthy. The elf focused on calming herself, one deep breath after another. She'd be fine.

However, as Dingy left it was hard to keep looking at the man. The elf felt his eyes on her, a couple times looking back at him herself, not being able to help being curious at why he looked at her so much. Dingy had seen Lily enough, he knew what she looked like. Did Dingy really think she was that strange? Did he.... like her? The thought was too odd for the elf.

"Yes, she's a free elf," Mistress Zoe replied once Mistress's Professor had given his attention back to Mistress. Lily went back to looking at the man.

The elf seemed to cheer up a little when he said being free was good, that she'd stay on task. Lily smiled up at the man, a little surprised when he suddenly spoke to her. "Lily supposes Lily could sir. Lily has never acted before, but Lily will try," she answered as brightly as she could, before pausing. The elf looked a little nervous before slowly speaking again.

"Um, sir. Mistress Zoe told Lily this was about house elves. Will Lily have to dress in... house elf clothing? Will Lily have to.. be a house elf? Lily hasn't been a house elf for a very long time, Lily isn't used to......" Lily didn't finish what she was saying, instead flushing to a deep shade of red and looking down. Lily was a failure of an elf. She couldn't even be a proper house elf anymore if she needed to.

"Great!" There were going to be some important roles that needed elves with flexible minds. Sissel tried to word the task the way an elf might understand. "Think of acting like being a big chore. You'll be asked to recite lines and perform certain actions. There's a script to follow, your 'tasklist.' Can you read? If not I'll have Zoe work through the lines with you."

It took a moment to recognize why the next question was asked. Even for having worked with Time before the quandary of Does a house elf have to be a house elf was getting very metaphysical. Looking back to his fourth year student everything snapped together. "Oh, no no, you aren't going to be! I was asking for help from house elves for a lesson but it's not going to be about house elves. No, nothing like that."

"You're going to be a goblin." Spoken as if this was a better alternative. "Since you're already used to clothes yours will be one of the more elaborate costumes."

"A big chore?" Lily asked, looking confused. "Sir, Mistress Zoe said this would be a fun activity for Lily to do."

Mistress Zoe looked down at the elf. "Lily, Professor is phrasing it in, well..." Mistress didn't finish her sentence, as Lily's face suddenly became of realization. The man was talking to Lily as like she was a house elf. No one at home ever talked to Lily like she was an elf, her Mistresses and Master talked to her like she was a person. This was how people saw her, wasn't it? All she could do was chores and tasks. All she knew was chores and tasks.

Quickly, Lily moved onto the next question. "Yes sir, Lily can read. Lily is very good at reading and writing."

Lily seemed quite relieved when she heard the lesson wasn't going to be about house elves. She looked back up at Mistress's Professor. A goblin, the elf had seen those before at Gringotts. It seemed a bit reassuring she'd be wearing a costume, not her usual outfit, in front of students she didn't know.

"Is there anything else I'll be needed for Professor?" Mistress spoke up again. Lily looked a bit worried, Mistress would be leaving soon. The elf would have to face anything beyond this by herself.

Sissel couldn't be flacked for doing a better job on trying to read body language. "Well, yes, acting is fun! A lot of people have fun with it but it's also considered work. Someone who acts full time is called an actor and sometimes it feels like a chore for them. But you won't be doing this for too long, the rehearsals and one or two performances in front of other people."

He scratched the back of his head. Hopefully that covered everything. "Actually, Zoe, there might be something. I noticed how sizable your costume was at Halloween. How much of that did you do yourself? I ask because you might be able to help with some of the remaining costumes. The human sized ones."

Zoe quietly let out her breath slowly as Professor Jowd covered for his mistake. Lily seemed to except this and cheer up, though the girl knew that the elf very well could have been pretending. Either way, the elf only nodded to the professor, not speaking up again.

The girl blushed a little as the professor talked about her Halloween costume. "Most of the stuff I bought and fiddled with. I used a couple color changing charms on things to make them how I wanted, I changed the size of things if they didn't fit with charms. I used the severing and sticking charms quite often.  Those glove-like things I was wearing I made from cutting the sleeves of a black shirt and sticking all of those scales to them. But the wings I had on, the dragon ones I stuck straight to my skin, I made those from scratch and enchanted them myself by using Locomotor several times."

Zoe considered what Professor Jowd was proposing. "I suppose I can help make costumes, Professor, if I don't actually have to sew. I can't sew. I can mend broken seams though. But I'm sure I can help you make some of the costumes. All I need is my wand, the supplies, and an idea of what the final product is."

It was a bit odd to the Ravenclaw that Jowd would ask her to help. As the professor was already gathering together house elves to act she was suspecting several would be very used to making clothing and could do the costume design.

"How very inventive of you," Sissel told Zoe. It was much more elaborate than his efforts. All he needed was a hat, shades, and a beard growing spell to masquerade as a member of ZZTop over Halloween. Or as the unknowing probably saw it, 'weird dude with a floor length beard hanging around the holiday festivities.'

Yet another list of instructions was pulled out from the stack. "It's mainly for the use of wand spells, the stuff witches can do. I'll have one of the laundry elves bring them to you when the costumes are ready. Your additions will be like the things you did with your costume but time sensitive. It might be challenging but good practice, Professors Kesali or Sandusky could help you if you get stuck." The aforementioned list talked about prepping color-changing, flash-producing and rip-making enchantments that would simulate 'battle damage' over the course of the staged production.

Plus another packet. "Add to that Lily's script and you'll both be set. Any questions?"

The elf looked up at her Mistress, who seemed to drink in the praise of her costume. The only time the smile on Mistress Zoe's face flickered for a moment was when the man said time sensitive spells would be needed for it all. Lily knew that her Mistress had never worked with those before, but the look of concern was soon replaced with one of confidence.

"Thank you Professor," Mistress Zoe said, taking the packet. "I'll get those costumes properly enchanted." Mistress took the elf's script as well, but handed it down to the elf as soon as it was received. Lily glanced over the first page, trying to find the name of her character and first few lines.

"No sir, I think we're both set." Mistress looked down at Lily. "Bye Lily. Have fun." The two hugged, Mistress Zoe bending down quite a bit to do so, and then her Mistress left the room with her list. Lily felt a wave of nerves come over her, and she quietly made her way back where Dingy had been standing before, hoping her pink clothing wouldn't make her too noticeable.