Chapter 24: The Hospitable House-Elves
Chapter 24: The Hospitable House-Elves
Near the entrance hall on the first floor of the castle, there was a door that led to the Hufflepuff common room and kitchen.
Albert spent some time wandering around the entrance hall and found two doors and Filch's office beside the marble staircase. Filch's cat was staring at him with narrowed eyes.
"What's its name?" Albert asked.
Filch didn't answer and simply picked up his cat and went into his office.
"Must be jealous," Albert muttered. If he remembered correctly, Filch was a Squib. He thought that since Filch was a Squib, he should just abandon the magical world and assimilate into the Muggle world. Why stay here and bring trouble and unhappiness upon himself?
Alright, now that the unpleasant fellow was gone, which door should he choose?
"Now, where's the kitchen?" Albert took out a coin from his pocket, flipped it, and decided to go left of the staircase since it landed on heads.
Behind the door was another descending staircase. It led to a wide stone corridor. As Albert walked, torches on the walls lit up automatically, illuminating his surroundings. He noticed that the walls were decorated with various paintings of food.
"Lucky," Albert muttered to himself as he found a large painting of a silver bowl filled with fruits. The kitchen was supposedly hidden behind this painting.
The secret to entering the kitchen lies with the pear.
Albert gently poked the large, emerald green pear, and to his surprise, it squirmed and giggled, suddenly transforming into a huge green doorknob.
"As expected, it's here. My luck is pretty good," Albert said cheerfully. After finding the Room of Requirement, he had now successfully located the kitchen as well.
He reached out, grabbed the doorknob, and pulled the door open. The kitchen was as spacious as the Great Hall above. Cabinets lined the walls, filled with various utensils. Four long wooden tables were placed in the same arrangement as the house tables in the Great Hall above.
Some food was already laid out on the tables, presumably for the students' breakfast. When mealtime arrived, the house-elves would use magic to transport the food to the corresponding tables above.
"Sir, may I help you?" A house-elf spotted Albert and scurried over.
"The dining hall isn't open yet, so I thought I'd take a look at the kitchen," Albert said, offering a polite smile.
"Please follow me, sir," the house-elf said, taking Albert's hand and leading him to a table. Six house-elves hurried over with a large silver tray bearing a pot of milk, ham, fried eggs, toast, salad, and pumpkin porridge.
"Thank you, little ones," Albert said as he poured himself half a cup of milk. In his previous life, he hadn't been in the habit of drinking milk, but he had developed the habit over the years. Thanks to this, he was sturdier than in his previous life.
"It is our honor, sir," the house-elves replied with beaming smiles, bowing to him.
Albert ate a portion of ham, fried eggs, and two slices of toast, along with a small bowl of pumpkin porridge, filling his stomach.
As he finished the last bit of fruit salad, he took the time to observe the house-elves. They were wrapped, not dressed, in tea towels emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest.
"I should be going. Thank you for breakfast," Albert said, noting that his exploration progress had reached 7.3%.
"It is our duty, sir," the house-elf replied in a sharp voice. Before Albert left, many of the house-elves gathered around him, offering him various snacks to take with him.
"That's enough, goodbye little ones," Albert said as he stuffed four meat pies into a paper bag and tucked it into his robe. These were for George and the others.
The house-elves crowded by the door, seeing Albert off. They cherished the words of thanks, feeling respected and appreciated by Albert.
Following the route he had taken the day before, Albert returned to the common room in a few minutes.
However, the room was still empty, and the ghost lady had left as well.
When Albert returned to the room, the twins were still asleep, but Lee Jordan was awake. He stared at Albert in surprise and asked, "Where have you been?"
"Just taking a walk and having breakfast," Albert grinned. "I brought back presents!"
"What presents?" The right-side Weasley, Fred, climbed out of bed, rubbing his head sleepily.
"I thought you guys were still sleeping," Lee Jordan said as he got out of bed and stretched lazily. "What presents?"
"Pastries," Albert said, taking out a paper bag from his pocket, biting into one of the pies, and handing the bag to Lee Jordan. "One each."
"Where did you get them?" Fred asked curiously.
"The kitchen."
"Wow, you found the kitchen!"
"By the way, you sneaked out without calling for us," Fred said, now fully awake. Albert couldn't tell the twins apart if not for their bed positions.
"Go brush your teeth first," Albert said.
"Oh, I almost forgot about that," George said, putting down his pie and asking curiously, "How did you find the kitchen?"
"I just wandered around and stumbled upon it," Albert said, recounting his encounter with Filch. "His cat is smart and will notify him. I think Filch is probably looking for me to cause trouble."
"I bet he's frustrated!" Fred couldn't help but laugh. He got up to get ready to go out and explore, finding Hogwarts Castle increasingly fascinating.
The three of them got dressed, washed up, and made their way to the Gryffindor common room, where they found no one else. Albert lit the fireplace and sat on the nearby sofa. The rain outside had stopped.
"Bill and Charlie said there are many secret passages in the castle," Fred said to the others as he ate his pie.
"But they won't tell us where they are," George complained about his older brothers.
"Maybe they want you to explore the castle's secrets yourselves. That's more interesting," Albert said, recalling Nick's words and offering consolation.
"I think so, too," Lee Jordan agreed.
"By the way, I almost forgot about this," Albert said as he walked to the entrance. Taking advantage of the empty common room, he took a few photos and even snapped one of the Fat Lady.
"You're taking photos again?"
"I plan to send letters to my family. Everything about the magical world is intriguing to Muggles," Albert said as he checked the photos. He had previously discovered that he had gained a new skill related to photography.
"I heard from Charlie that Filch likes to make trouble for students. He's always thinking of ways to hang them up and whip them," George said after finishing his pie. "Filch also knows a lot of the school's secret passages and can suddenly appear out of nowhere."
"Most students who wander at night are caught by Filch," Fred added. "Then they get heavily penalized and locked up."
(End of Chapter)
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