No one really knew *how* a house elf went missing. That was something only they knew. They had either left Hogwarts as soon as they heard about the money situation, or had some inside spy that heard about the money problem, and so these house elves decided to stay home. If they had a home. Tag then wondered if the house elves had their own families to return or were stuck in Hogwarts the entire year. " Professor, Ummm, are there house elves that used to be here at Hogwarts, well, what if they don't have a family to return to in the summer holidays. Do those house elves just live at Hogwarts all year round, even when the school term is finished?" Just a curious thought. And, if that had been mentioned some time in the past by any Hogwarts professors, then whoops.

And eyebrow was raised. As in, Sky's eyebrow not Vinteren's. Her answer seemed to interest him, oddly enough. Hmmm. Something to think on later and possibly warn her aunt about. Anyway, the next question was up. And she was almost cracking up some of the answers. Really, ickles? Going home to their families? Had they not studied any kind of history ever? Or was it just that they were pureblood ickles? In which case, their dumbness could be excused. "I think Truebridge sold them off just like she did the dishes. Either that, or whoever broke in the Hogwarts vault at Gringotts somehow got hold of the deed to the castle and set them free....." But no, that wasn't possible, was it? Surely the BOG couldn't be THAT stupid.....

Anya raised a hand. "Some house elves are paid." she offered. "Seeing as we don't even have proper eating utensils, I doubt we could afford to keep them."

She then lowered her voice. "... or maybe we had to sell some?" She assumed that was a thing. A sad thing. But a thing none the less.

While the students were developing their theories about where Hogwarts' elves had gone, the blackboard finished its note-taking on house elf characteristics. "Copy these down," Erik gestured toward the board before resuming his usual question and answer method of teaching.




"Old wizarding families and people who own old wizarding homes...vhose are vhe people who are house elf masters." Erik repeated this information for anyone who wasn't listening. Good job, Ella. "Toddles is vhe only Hogwarts elf left in vhe castle."

He wanted them to know that. Any other elves they saw around belonged to professors or students who had brought them from home.

It went without saying that the boy didn't know much about this school. Erik listened to his answer regardless.

"Maybe," he acknowledged the second guess with a tilt of his head. "Vhat is...plausible," but not correct.

Here was some useful information. "Good," he gave a nod of approval to Penelope. "Vell, not good vhat ve house elves had to leave, but I'm glad you're mentioning vhat Toddles told you. Vhy vould only Toddles be left behind? Do you haff a guess?"

Not here..."How clever of you," the professor commented dryly, just managing not to roll his eyes.

"Vhat is another good point, considering Hogwarts' financial troubles coincided vith vhe disappearance of vhe house elves." Erik raised an eyebrow at the Head Girl. "I vhink you're right, Ms. Dixon."

Maybe he did that? Maybe he made the house elves leave? Well done, well done.

Erik let out a dark rumble of laughter at this Slytherin's presumption. "Good one, Mr. Katharos..." he chuckled away the boy's answer with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "But I don't vhink vhe house elves left for either of vhose reasons. Sorry."

"It's sort ov a different dialect, no?" Erik understood what the boy was grasping at....mostly. "But no, vhe house elves are not on strike. I believe vhe staff or Board of Governors vould have received a list ov demands by now if vhey were truly striking." His eyes twinkled with mischief at the idea though...just twinkled.

"Good guess, but also incorrect I believe." Erik shook his head solemnly. Didn't this boy know how ineffective his Ministry was? Terrible.

"No one might vant you to know vhat is going on here," Erik replied seriously, "but I believe education is power. Perhaps vith vhis lesson I can help you all figure out vhat is going on vith vhe house elf situation. It is one vhing I vould like to do as a Governor." To improve the school, out of the kindness of his heart, by helping them relocate their lost house elves. Wasn't that nice of him to do?

No promises of answers though. He knew only slightly more than they did. Cough.

"Vhose are....guesses..." Maybe. Maybe not.

This was useful too. "Good information, Alexa," Erik gave her a nod. "I vouldn't assume vhey're somewhere terrible now, but if vhey're somewhere vhey're not used to, somevhere vhat doesn't seem as much of a home as Hogwarts, vhen ve can assume the house elves were reluctantly moved." Heh heh heh.

A sweet elf that helped with cooking and cleaning, good to know. But the guess about house elves staying with family members?? "I believe vhe house elves here are...mostly family? Vith each other?" He wasn't sure what the young Hufflepuff was saying here.

This kid was a riot. Really. Had he been in the last lesson? Heh heh. "Maybe, rebellion is alvays a possibility," he responded as seriously as the Hufflepuff was being. "Vhey do vork very hard, but......" dramatic pause, "....house elves are not free to just leave vhenever vhey want to." He eyed the boy and his classmates to see if they were listening. "Remember vhat a house elf's highest law is his master's bidding. To break vhat is to bring dishonor and shame to vhe elf and to vhe master he serves."

No, they weren't. This boy was clever....and carefully spoken. "Yes, you're correct on both points vhere." Erik hoped his classmates were listening. A slow smirk spread on his face as the boy then accused the Headmistress of sending them all away.

"Vhat is vhat it looks like, does it not?" He also paused and waited for his smile to fade. "Vhe truth is, house elves literally belong to vhe school. Vhey literally belong to whomever holds vhe deed to vhe school. So if vhat is not in posession of vhe school's current Headmaster or Headmistress...." Erik trailed off into a deliberate shrug. "Vhen vhey could sort ov be stolen." Or elf-jacked right from under the current Head's nose.

"Vhey actually do live at Hogwarts all year round," Erik gently answered the boy's questions. "Hogwarts is vheir home more vhan any other place." Which was why it was just so sad that they weren't here right now. Ha.

"Vhat's...a fair guess..." Erik shrugged off her first answer. He certainly wasn't going to defend the evil redhead for her kooky behaviour. "However, I believe your second guess," he gave her a solid look that said yessss, "is more on target."

Was he allowed to tell them the deed to the school was missing? He'd heard it straight from the Headmistress' mouth. Why shouldn't he share this with the people who lived and learned in this school and returned here every year? It wasn't like they could trace the deed back to him any more...

"Vhat's also true," Erik shrugged. "But I don't vhink Hogwarts' vere sold. It's possible though."


"So, theories on vhe missing house elves....vhis is history in vhe making, did you all know?" He turned around to the second blackboard and waved his wand at it lightly.

Why Hogwarts' Elves Are Gone
-they got new jobs
-they were elfnapped
-they had to leave, but didn't want to go
-House Elf Relocation Office moved them
-they're on strike
-Headmistress sent them away
-Headmistress sold them to pay off school debts
-someone stole the castle deed and set them free
-other theories?

"Let's discuss this." Erik returned to his desk and his lean against it, giving the class some very serious looks. "Vhich theory seems most accurate to you, and vhy?? Vhat can we do about it, to possibly bring vhe elves back?"

Anya stared at the Professor. She immediately blurted out a question. "Professor. Did you just...?" The Gryffindor blinked and then raised her hand. She controlled her tone then. "... the deed...? ... ... is that we don't have anything anymore? Because... not only did we lose the money... we lost the school...?"

And yes. She did ignore his instructions and other questions for the time being.

"Out of those, I think the most plausible would be that they had to leave, but didn't want to go. I suspect they were sold to pay off school debts." Asher thought a moment, "Didn't we just have a fundraiser anyway? Maybe we can buy them back?"

He scribbled down the notes and added some more to them. Little side remarks and arrows pointing to elfnapped and sold for debts.

Kace saw the board and scribbled down his notes the professor wrote down on the board.

Scribble....scribble....scribble...scribble...and even more scribble.....

Then he heard the professor ask a question. Which theory seemed the most logical. Kace had to look at these all and understand them and think which one seemed most logical to him. He heard the other hufflepuff first year...Asher was it? Yup it was him. His theory and explanation seemed valid.

He didn't think they were elf napped or anything like that.

"Professor i totally agree with Asher ideas about the elves being sent away because of the schools debts. Maybe we could try and buy them back with the money!" he agreed with Asher. He beamed at the Professor to help consider with the idea.

Yep, she caught that look too. But now she was wondering who had the deed. "I think my theory about the deed is correct. And if it is, we," Yeah, righhhttt. We. Mmmhmmm. "should figure out who broke into the vault and find out if they still have it or if they've sold/given it away. Then figure out how to get it back from there. But we should actually let the MLE handle all that." Now, how to get this information to the Ministry with anyone catching her. It would be easy to get it past the students, but Vinteren? Because now she was having a sinking suspicion he had something to do with it...... not that she was letting it show on her face. Oh no, the Carters hadn't raised no fool.

Oh?

Lex sat forward finally seeing some point to this discussion. Slowly her train of thought was working with her again and she busied herself taking the notes off the board but she had a theory now that it was all mentioned. Quill down, she waited for her turn to speak with her hand raised.

"You said they belong to the school...and whoever has the deed, right? Well the school was robbed, wasn't it? Maybe someone made off with the deed to Hogwarts!!!" YES! CONSPIRACY THEORY BUILDING HERE!!!

"Thoooooose people, whoever they are, must have taken it with them when they stole everything else out of the vault. I mean, I assume we have nothing left or I wouldn't be paying to sleep, eating rubbish food and cleaning my own paper plate." She gave it a moments thought. "And you know. I bet they're living large right now! They have everything probably including the elves who'll cook, clean and iron for them while I have to clean my own shoooes." The nerve of it all.

Rude people. Just really rude.

"That's the only way I see it happening...but if I'm right...Toddles doesn't belong to the school. He's the baby elf that was born here, I heard about it, so is that why he stayed?" SO MANY QUESTIONS. History was suddenly more exciting to her.

"That being the case, I think we first have to find the thieves, feed them to the dragon down in the vault--no wait--make them tell us where the stuff is first then feed them to the dragon and be happy with our stuff back."

How long? West blinked. "Always." For as long as West had been around at least? He'd never asked, Chaucer was just there. Always there.

And.... where WERE they now? And how DID they come to be missing? West had theories. He chewed on them for a while.

People were saying things that were matched up with his own theories and West finally put his hand up after chewing on it for a bit. "I don't think they would have all got set free or there'd be sightings of them in other places probably. I think they belong to someone else now. Maybe whoever stole all the stuff from Gringotts. They wouldn't have gone by choice but if they had a master that ordered them to be some other place, then they would leave... all except Toddles because he doesn't belong to Hogwarts, he just lives here. Some other elf found him in a garbage can in Hogsmeade and adopted him or something."

So... who owned Hogwarts now and why?

And... West didn't think that THEY could do anything. It was on the ministry now. Unless... "We could... ask Toddles more? Do truth serums work on elves?"

History in the making? Well that certainly explained why they were learning about the CURRENT events in HISTORY of Magic, right?

Tobias did as he was told and copied down the notes from the board, smiling proudly when he got to the ones he'd suggested. See? Look, he'd done something right.

He raised his hand again. "Maybe they weren't elf-napped, actually. Aren't House Elves meant to have really powerful magic? And they don't HAVE to follow the rules. If they really want to, they can, like... leave where they're meant to work without permission. They just tend to punish themselves afterwards." There was something about that in the book Toby had been reading about Harry Potter. It mentioned house elves super briefly so Tobias could have been wrong. He opened his mouth to start talking about another theory when-

Lost the school?

What?

Tobias was really out of the loop. He didn't know what a deed was or what people were talking about, but that caught his attention.

"How can you lose a school? We're inside it. It's right here... isn't it?"

... Was he missing something?

"Who lost it? Who does it belong to?"

Weird how he'd never thought about that question before. Or... not really that weird. Tobias had never been all that interested.

Why would only Toddles be left? Hmm... Penelope considered the thought for a moment before offering an answer, hand still raised a little. "Because he's still a baby house elf, maybe? Maybe wherever they had to go, it only required adult house elves?" That was all she could think of at the moment...

...but as she listened more, there was the deed thing being mentioned. And the elves being part of it or something. That they belonged to the school itself with the deed. She raised her hand again. "Is that why they're gone then? The deed was taken, but only the older elves were a part of the deed and Toddles wasn't, so he didn't have to leave?" That was...interesting...

Hmm...

"Where do freed elves go? If all that's what happened and whoever took the deed set them free. Can we...I dunno, buy them back or just find them and ask them to? 'Cause if they're freed...they wouldn't have to be tied to the deed anymore or do whatever the person who has it says, right?" Though if that was the case, it suddenly seemed like maybe they still couldn't do whatever they wanted because surely they would've come back here for Toddles if they didn't have a master anymore. Or maybe they weren't freed.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.



Why the emphasis on Toddles being the only Hogwarts house elf left? Ella raised her eyebrows slightly but didn't have much time to think on it. They were moving pretty fast and something else, something she was sure others had on to as well, caught her interest.

...The deed? Blink. But if that happened...and someone had that... but...BLINK.

The blonde tried to process what this might mean as she listened to her classmates react, eyes on Anya-face as she too seemed concerned about the matter. This...was alarming. And surely if the elves had been freed they'd want to return for Toddles, wouldn't they? "Toddles was still one of them, though. I mean, you don't leave someone you care about behind so if the elves were free, wouldn't they come back? Couldn't they, I mean, come for Toddles?"

Tag had to think about this question and thoroughly try to analyze them so that it could make some common sense. They got new jobs seemed like it could be one, but then Tag wondered if any of the Professors or staff in general had taken the opportunity to free the house elves. He just meant, the castle would try to keep them at all costs. Elfnapped? Tag didn't think very highly of this option so he crossed it out immediately. Had to leave but didn't want to go? If they had left, from what Professor Vinteren had just told Tag, Hogwarts was their home. Where could they have gone to? All the other options seemed so so to Tag, so he raised his hand and said "Well, maybe the Headmistress did try to send them away? But, maybe they didn't like that type of order so they tried to show her up and went on strike before the Headmistress could send them away. That way, they have, or had the upper hand. An if so, who knows where they're at at the moment."

The snake flipped her notebook open and scribbled down what had been written on the blackboard while listening to what other students were saying. She was working on her theory on her head, as well. After finishing with the notes she sat back and paaaaused thinking about the possibilities. She suspected more than one option.

Dramatically tapping her finger to the desk lightly she debated with her own self first, and she might have lost. Yeah, she was that bad. Not to worry, Lex and her were going to work on that during summer.

Cassia cleared her throat and raised her hand, time to express her thoughts out loud, "Personally," She started liking the idea of stating her theory. "I think it might be two options at once," They were three but she crossed one out, "I think there's a huge chance that Gringotts was behind it, since the bank claimed that Hogwarts didn't pay the money it borrowed" The rude goblins said that! "And maybe the bank would have taken any other property but some authority figure decided that giving away the house-elves to cover the debt was better than any other solution," And surely that figure was the Headmistress. Duh. Any snitches around to rat Cassia out of her incoming accusation? Hmmmmmmmm! "Since the house-elves are nice and would do anything they're told even if they didn't like it," Just tell them this would make everyone happy and they'd do it. No one had to know about it, and the authority figure could act sad about the absence of the elves. Because it probably wasn't possible to give up professors or part of the castle. Though, in the snake's opinion there was way too many classes and subjects. She wouldn't have minded sparing a couple.

Yep, Dylan was writing all the things down...He felt a sense of THIS IS IMPORTANT...but not for Newt reasons. Legal reasons...

Mmhmm.

...and he got it now. Dylan had never known exactly what had been stolen from the vault. No one had ever specified it to him individually...and he hadn't had time to really inquire. It was good to finally know, though. "So..." His quill paused. "...in retrospect...having the deed would give anyone a massive amount of political power over the school, right?" The Slytherin leaned forward in his seat. "...Couldn't someone just get a duplicate deed? Wouldn't it be public record at the Ministry?" This type of thing never happened in the muggle world...

...and really, because he was further asking about the deed business, he clearly thought that was the most plausible. "The deed bit, sir."

Zahra had been drawing pictures of trees and a dragon eating that stupid COW while they talked and talked and talked. History was soooooooooooooooooooooo borrrrrrrrrrringzzzzzzzzzzzz. Or so she thought. Before long, her dragon's fire breath was abandoned for the theories from her classmates about the ELVES. MOSTLY Zahra felt like she had stumbled in on some grown up discussion, but she followed SOME of it.

She stood up,instead of raising her hand. "SIR. HELLO. I have something to say." Was he listening? Did he hear her? She jumped a little in place to make sure she kept his attention.

Jumpjumpjump. "You should ask my DAD. He's in charge of basically everything. It hasn't occurred to me to ask where the House Elves are 'cause I don't mind wearing dirty clothes that much and I don't eat all that much either so it's not been on my mind, see, but I bet he knows. Just ask him. Tell him I told you to, and THEN, SIR, if you don't mind, give me lots of house points 'cause I lost SOOOOO many this term."

See? SMILING. BIG. TOOTHY SMILING FROM ZAHRA TO PROFESSSORRR.

Jumpjumpjump.

...then she sat down.

Moping stopped just for a little while, not to consider the actual question, but another one she had herself. "I think the deed theory is the most plausible too, professor, but.. if someone else holds the deed to the school.. if anyone tries to use it against the Board and the Headmistress, people will know they're the ones who stole it, if it is stolen, right? Because it's supposed to be in our possession, as far as we know. So why does it matter? Would the Board people get in trouble for losing it?"

Alice was clueless about this stuff, so she spouted some ridiculous inquisitions.

And then eyed that first year, the one who gave her ice cream high fives, 'cause she was nuts.

Also, she moped some more, because she wanted to.

Nigel had to think about these suggestions to what happened to the elves. All were likely but Nigel had to agree with Dylan's the most. The deed would make the person the owner and would set the free. But Nigel also liked the one about the Headmistress likely selling them to pay off school debts. Funny and could be true.

"The one about the Deed. It would make the deed holder, the owner of the elves. So they could set the elves free. But aren't the elves at Hogwarts already free? So maybe the one about Headmistress Truebridge selling them to pay off school debts. It sounds so far fetched it might be true"

Nigel was second guessing his own answer. But only the elves really know what happened.

Oh, so they couldn't just leave. Hmm... then yes, other people's 'Someone owns them and now ordered them to march away.' sounded the most logical. Forrest listened solemnly to others' ideas, because cleaning the school and washing his clothes himself was serious business. He also copied the whole blackboard down, and pursed his lips to think.

...

Someone else owning the school sounded so silly. Schools, unless private, were governments'. And Hogwarts didn't look very private to him. So the Headmistress sent them away? But that was even more absurd. He didn't want to accuse his own Headmistress. She was the best Headmistress he'd ever had... so, Forrest kept silent, looked thoughtful, and listened to others in general, occasionally looking at the person that was speaking.

Out of all the answers Daichi had expected to get, the dark kind of laughter had been the last option in his mind. It was in one word...scary... and the Slytherin stopped doodling on his parchment for a moment. True, he had said that his answer had been a good one but the Slytherin could not help but lower his gaze to his desk as the man smiled that fake smile at him.

Mr.Vinteren, you are one creepy bloke!

You know, even if he had SAID that the house elves weren't gone because of him he thought that it SHOULD be on the list! What if he lied and he's just trying to get everyone on a fake track? But then again...why would a professor lie? They were supposed to set an example right?

Or maybe the Slytherin was afraid to get another one of those dark laughter...cause that had been creepy. He scribbled down the list that was on the blackboard and then raised his hand.

"Well, since you said that it hadn't been you, Professor i go with that SOMEONE stole the deed and set them free" See..this way he was still suspecting him but also someone else~! Genius right? "No idea why i think that though"

MWEH he was actually only suspecting him because he had been creepy just now with his answer.... Picking up his quill, he began to doodle a snitch on the corner of his parchment.

The Slytherin nodded. Yea, he guessed it was dialect rather than a different language. Theo couldn't think of right word, though.

Oh...

He really did think they were on strike. A contributing reason as to why he was so bitter towards the old house elves. But looking at the blackboard full of possibilities, Theo raised his hand, "They must have been elfnapped then!" He hardly believed that someone would steal the school deed. HOW could someone even do that? "Someone can't just steal the deed without being caught because surely it would be under lock and key." RIGHT?

This whole elf lesson made Nessie think of one person and one person only which was of course the unofficial house elf girl, Kurumi. Man, Ness missed having her in classes, not to mention Kurumi would have surely had a LOT of information from Toddles about the elves whole disappearance. She was close to them like that, if Ness remembered it all correctly.

But the deed. She had heard someone say something about that and it had her attention. Somehow someone may have gotten a hold of it? Really not a bad theory and it would have made sense to the financial current state and all.

Yeah she was going with that one. "I say the deed thing as well, Professor." She said after raising her hand.

Notes scribbles of the board then whilst she listened to the others.

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

There. Copied. Alec didn't really have any idea what this had to do with history, though. Unless they were going to learn about the history of house elves...? ... Yeah... he still couldn't see it. But both lists on the blackboard had been copied down out of precaution and a sort of habit.

Discuss...? That meant having smart ideas and thoughts, right? Did he have any of those? ... Not likely.

And most people were talking about someone stealing the deed. Alec looked down at his piece of parchment, his lips twisting themselves into a small frown. He could see how that would happen... and Penelope had mentioned something about Toddles not being part of the deed which explained why Toddles was left behind.

But... "Professor?" he asked, raising his hand in the air, "If someone really did steal the deed and say, the house elves are with them, then does that mean that we... erm... as in the school can find out who did it, get the deed back and... the house elves will be able to come back?" ... That... sounded like something out of a superhero comic. Or a movie, actually. Maybe he was just... thinking too much into this.

"But... yeah, the deed one, I think. It would explain why the house elves had to go but didn't want to..."

Sarah knew quite a lot about House elves, she always wanted one herself. Her ansectors as Edwoods used to have them. Yet they too were no more. She could have rattled off a few answers, yet decided to keep to her policy of not drawing attention to herself. Besides she was too weak to lift up her arm to respond.
Sarah was keeping quiet during HoM and all, yet she would have liked to say abou thte magnificent history that her ansecctors had. She thought she was her mother's house elf. Like when she was at home Sarah had to do a million chores around the house and farm. And she was underage so she had to do it the muggle way. That meant she had to sweep the floor every night, even though her mother could do it quite easily with her wand. Her mother said that she did not want to a raise a child who would not be able to survive without magic and xist in the muggle world, after being spoiled in the wizarding world.
Obviously that professor had something to do with it, just because he was just the type to do it... Wait. She was being prejudiced there, as this guys gave her the creeps. Maybe the headmistress sold them? Now she was being prejudiced again.

Sarah wrote down all that she was told. By now the fustration was too great and she had to join in. She yawned, gulpng for air and raised her hand.
"A lot of fishy stuff has been happening around Hogwarts, so I think this has to do with them, like the demontors at quidditch and other strange things. Someone is against Hogwarts, causing the whole fracass at Gringotts and making the Goblins change their repossesion practices." it haSarah thought that someone could be Bellaire, Lafay yet mainly the HoM, as the other two had been at Hogwarts for a while, yet he was a newcomer, a foreigner. Also the other two were ladies, only a man oculd do such horrific things, heartless gender. "maybe he scared the elves away?"