Philo clutched at the strap of his satchel. Nothing bothered him about the basement. He just hoped nobody noticed and told a professor. Or that a professor showed up.

His fingers hovered over the paint, unsure of the texture. Would it smudge the paint? And how much trouble could he potentially get in? Trouble had became a strange bedfellow for Philo, which almost beat out the current bedfellow of a swear croaking frog. But there were students that apparently did this all the time because there was an information network for how it worked.

He gulped. The paint felt like ridged dry paint. Well, it would have to. What fruit was he supposed to tickle? Philo experimentally scratched each fruit, from cherries to pineapple to orange to banana to apple to fig to pear...and the pear giggled and bulged out to form a doorknob.

Philo entered the kitchens. This late after dinner yet all the elves still looked busy. Hopefully he could finish this discreetly.

"Um, excuse me, uh..." he asked of a passing elf. "I have something of a request."

Dingy did not really know how best to apologize to Master Casey. It could not really be Dingy's fault as Dingy had been ordered to by Dingy's other masters.  Perhaps surprising Master Casey with a treat. Master never asked for treats anymore but there were several that had been his favorites.

Dingy finished the last touch a caramel flan that was very bland for master's indigestion. The elf was about to head down to Slytherin dungeons when a student entered the doorway.

"Um, excuse me, uh...I have something of a request."

Dingy had to resist the urge to do something as he was going to try to please Master Casey, but it was a student in the castle with a request. "Dingy can..." The elf looked about the kitchen crew he had come to know over the years visiting Hogwarts. "Tipper! Dingy has found a student with a request!"

Tipper loved the Hogwarts kitchens, yes he did! There were always so many shiny pots and pans and lots of loud noises and bunches of crazy yummilicious smells and house elf friends for Tipper to chatter with while he worked. He wasn’t in the kitchens all the time, nope nope nope! He liked to work late at night, keeping the young master’s rooms warm by stoking the fires and cleaning their messy habits. Tipper had been having a very good day, he hadn’t even had to punish himself at all, no he had not!

The Dingy house elf, the one that wasn’t a Hogwarts house elf but was always around and was friendly, called Tipper over to talk to a young master. Tipper loved to talk to the young masters of Hogwarts, there was always one or two coming to visit his friends in the kitchen and Tipper always made it his job to talk to them. He was, after all, a very important elf who got two galleons a week. “Tipper says hello, young master!” He said in his best, most squeakiest voice. “Dingy says young master has a request, how can Tipper be of service?” He asked, wringing his hands and bouncing on his heels in excitement.

OOC: Hope nobody minds me throwing Lily in.

It was late. Lily should have been back at home, keeping Mistress Joy's dinner warm for her. However, it had been the elf's day to keep the mirror, Mistress Zoe's way of quickly contacting home, and Mistress Zoe had mirrored the elf after dinner. Mistress needed raspberries for Mistress's fairy, but Lily had given the last ones to Mistress the day before! The elf weighed her options, finally deciding to go to Hogwarts.

Lily apparated a few feet from the painting, walking over to the familiar fruits. She wore nothing but her usual outfit, not having bothered to wear her apron. The elf made the door handle appear, and cautiously opened the door. It always made her nervous to be among other elves. It wasn't Lily's first time in the kitchen, she came now and then at emergencies like this, but that didn't help how she felt.

Peeking inside, Lily noticed a student was in the kitchen. The elf slipped inside, hoping that she was not attracting too much attention until she had to. The chatter melted together, it was hard to make out specific conversations. Let's see, who did she recognize? Anyone in there that was nice to her before? It only took a few moments to spot Dingy, and at that point Lily would have been as happy to leave as to stay.

Now or never. Someone had certainly seen Lily by this point. "Uh- excuse Lily," the elf said softly, stepping forward. "Lily needs some raspberries for her mistress, Lily would like to know if the kitchen house elves," she made sure to include they were house elves, "Would be kind enough to let Lily have a few. Lily doesn't need many raspberries, only three or four."

Oh bother.

When Philo had flagged down the closest elf he hadn't realized how unusual it looked, with a dingy potato sack and a pan on its head. Did all the castle elves wear this? Not so as the other elf the first one summoned ('Ding-y' 'Tipper' he was trying to kept track of the names they gave) looked like a Hogwarts elf plus a beanie cap.

Before all of them were en-massed in one spot Philo tried to talk quickly. "Request, yes, I guess you can call it that. Well, I called it that, um, could you cook a specific dinner on the 26th?" The young Ravenclaw figured a week's notice would be what they needed.

"Oh where's the list?" Philo found too many papers in his bag and the specific list was lost among them.

"Uh- excuse Lily." Philo blinked, turned. Another elf had snuck up behind him. This one was quite tellingly a girl elf, or whoever had freed her if a 'not-her' had a nasty sense of humor. Philo had never realized to what variation there was for house elves, his common knowledge had been of the larger units that worked in institutions like Hogwarts or St. Mungo's.

"Uh, her raspberries, that's much quicker." Philo frantically searched his bag again.

Tipper looked thoughtfully at the smartypants Ravenclaw and couldn't help but think to himself that the dirty old patched up hat must have made a mistake. All the wonderful Hogwarts elves knew that a clean work space was a happy work space, but obviously this young fellow didn't get the message. The poor elf's mouth was lolling open, trying to think of a way to politely tell the boy that he was very disorganized (without needing to punish himself for it later) when the other elf showed up.

At first Tipper wasn't aware that Lily even was an elf. He took in her normal people clothes and quickly looked away in embarrassment. He remembered what it was like to be forced to wear human clothes, and he did not like it one little bit. Tipper realized that his mouth was still hanging open and he snapped it shut, creating an audible -pop-. His tennis ball sized eyes glanced from the smartypants Ravenclaw to the free elf Lily and then back. He wasn't sure exactly what to do. On one hand, he was himself a free elf, and felt bad for the Lily elf, but on the other hand, he was trying to help a young master of the castle, who certainly took precedence.

Philo told Tipper and Dingy to go ahead and help Lily, though Tipper knew Dingy wasn't a Hogwarts elf and he would certainly be trying to get back to his mean slimy snake of an icky master (though Tipper would never tell Dingy that himself). So instead of helping either party, Tipper ran over to the nearest table and started bashing his head on the hard surface, emitting yelps of pain upon every point of impact. When in doubt, punish yourself, that had always been Tipper's motto!

Lily looked up at the Ravenclaw, giving the boy a shy smile. "Thank you, sir." It was so kind of the boy to let the elf get what she needed before himself, as that typically wasn't the case. The elf looked back to the other elves, opening her mouth to address them again, when she noticed one of them staring. Her head sank, eyes looking at her pink shoes. "Um... if a house elf would tell Lily where the berries are she'll just get them and leave," Lily practically whispered.

The elf saw one of the elves begin to run away, and she assumed it was to get the raspberries for her. Lily looked up, only to see the house elf smashing his head. Her first reaction was a yelp, which, with her high-pitched voice, was more of a squeal. "Did Lily..." She never finished her question before her eyes teared up. Lily still had trouble watching elves punish themselves, but this one seemed to be doing it because of her.

"Stop! Please!" the elf cried, hiding her face behind her hands. "Lily didn't mean to do anything! The house elves of the kitchen have been very good to Lily!" The sounds of pain were far to much for the emotional creature to bear. Lily bowed her head in shame.

The elf tried to scramble to the door, but with her eyes covered and crying she only succeeded in making it half of the way to the exit before tripping over her own feet and falling. Lily grunted as she landed hard on her side, wincing in pain as she tried to get back to her feet. "Lily is fine..." she mumbled.

Dingy was not sure what to do when Lily entered. Dingy's master and Lily's mistress were not on good speaking terms. It did not help that Dingy thought Lily would judge Dingy based on the elf's masters. It also didn't help that Lily looked...erm...as pretty as freshly polished silver when Dingy but the elbow grease into it.

Dingy was thus feeling very shy, although Lily's question was easily answered. Dingy would point out the location of raspberries but wanted to get out of Lily's site. Had Tipper stayed still, Dingy would have said Tipper should let Dingy hide behind him, in a low mumble. The taller elf could dwarf any of his fellows.

But things did no go that way. Tipper began to punish himself and that in turn frightened and offended Lily. And there Dingy was with a dessert for Master Casey. Although Master had not ordered Casey to do so, it was meant to be a surprise, so Dingy was duty-less until there was a proper order, so the dessert could be delayed.

"Tipper should stop that!" Dingy placed the flan on the same table. "He will undone Dingy's cooking." Dingy looked back to Lily. "Lily is not a bad elf. She has mistress--urm, loyalties, to one of the Raven students. It is like duty to another student in castle. That is what raspberries are for?" Dingy pointed off towards the fruit baskets.

"Uh..."

Philo had no clue as to what had been unleashed. Was it his fault? He extended a hand to the fallen female elf. Hopefully that was the right thing to do. "Here. Sorry for getting in your way. I know students aren't supposed to be down here"

Bending to help the elf Lily made a little scroll fall out of a pouch pocket on Philo's satchel. Aha! That's where it he had placed it, up front for easy retrieval.

"I found it, the list of items for the dinner plan. But it's fine for her raspberries to come first. This dinner has to specifically be for next week."

At the request of the only coherent elf, Tipper stopped bashing his head. Like flipping a switch, Tipper was back to his normal, happy self. Looking over to the lady elf, Tipper felt a pang of guilt, knowing it was his fault that the elfling hurted herself. Turning slightly away from the human/elf couple, Tipper ran over to the fruit baskets and grabbed as many berries as his little elf hands could carry. “Tipper is sorry for upsetting Lily!” He squeaked in his most bestest house elf voice.

Then, thinking it would help, he dumped all the raspberries on Lily, hoping she’d reach out her hands and take them. “Master, we like young masters in the kitchens. Come sit down, Tipper will bring you snackages!” He grabbed toward Philo’s hand, attempting to lead him to a chair and take his list from him at the same time. “Tipper doesn’t read, no he doesn’t, but Tipper thinks Gobearl can. We’ll take him your list later, yes Tipper will.” The young elf looked up at the second year with a lopsided grin.

Dingy's compliments caused a rosy blush to come over Lily's sun-tanned cheeks. She accepted the outstretched hand from the boy without shame, giving the boy a bow of her head. "Yes," Lily replied turning to Dingy, her voice quavering as she tried to get herself under control. The elf wiped tears from under her eyes with her wrist and sniffed. "Lily is bringing them for Mistress's fairy."

The berries surprised the elf slightly, and she levitated them with a snap of her fingers just before they hit the ground. Many raspberries, Lily hadn't been expecting to get this many. "Lily thanks and forgives Tipper," the elf said with a smile. "And..." She looked over to Dingy, her voice waning in volume. "Lily thanks Dingy as well."

Lily turned and started to the door, the raspberries floating in a cluster next to her, when she heard Tipper comment on his lack of ability to read. She bit her lip, then faced the three once more. "Um, Lily doesn't want to overstay Lily's welcome in the kitchen, but Lily can read. Lily can read the list now if Tipper and Dingy would like Lily to."

"Snackages?" Philo asked before being dragged off by the taller elf and almost loosing the list again. Elves had far stronger grips than he had thought. Philo was curious were exactly there would be room to sit in the kitchen until he realized that the kitchen was around the size of the Great Hall upstairs, with four duplicate house tables and all the stoves and cupboards around the edges. And, funnily enough, he was being dragged to the Ravenclaw prep table.

He found it odd for an elf to say he couldn't read. Could most elves not read? Then how would they tell a flour sack from a salt sack, or a recipe out of a cookbook, or...?

But he was getting distracted. And before Tipper ladened him with 'Snackages' Philo unrolled the list for whichever elf ending up reading it, Lily or Gorbachev (that couldn't have been the name but Tipper had such a squeaky voice Philo hadn't understood what elf he was talking to).

"This is kind of like a Christmas Feast. But not really, different bird. Or same bird, actually, depending on...*ahem* right, I think I found out everything." He spread the list smooth which read as follows:

- Turkey
- Mashed Potatoes
- Greenbean Casserole something an mushroom soup and fried onions
- Sweet P Candied Yams
- Stuffing (seemingly not upholstery)
- Corn left on the cob
- Cranberry Sauce
- Dinner rolls
- Steamed Vegetables
- Salad
- Pies: Pumpkin, Pecan, Mincemeat