Laura continued to sit quietly in the back of class, she wasn't in the mood to answer any questions the Professor asked, she just continued to take notes whilst listening to her classmates saying what they had to do.

Minerva had been smiling and day dreaming getting lost in her own thoughts. She didn't even hear the question. Still just day dreaming and smiling she happen to catch someones words and looking around coming out of her own thoughts. What.. what were they talking about.. Oh the elves not being here. Yeah.. but what was the question.


She saw the list of theories, but that wasn't helping her unless they were talking about them. Then yes she could answer, just as she was listening to others to see if her thought process was right she heard West and spun in her seat. "We will do no such thing to poor Toddles. That elf works very hard and it is not fair to force him into saying anything. What if he feels threatened by whatever happened to the others? We might be putting him in danger. That is not fair to him at all."

She turned back to the front of the room. She didn't care if the potion was safe it still wasn't right. The entire House Elf theory or way of life wasn't fair to the poor creatures and now you want to force an Elf to talk about something he may not be allowed to talk about.

Technically, the Hufflepuff wasn't talking to her. But she'd thought that West had a rather good idea. So, yeah she added her opinion to that little side conversation. "What if it's the only way to find out what happened? Are you really going to put one elf above the whole school, Wheatborn?" But then again, she was a Hufflepuff. It would be a typical Hufflepuff move. And now Sky was reminding herself of Sierra. Lovely.

Minerva spun around looking to Sky, "The school.. Last I checked we are doing fine without all the elves. Goodness I didn't realize it was so hard to do things for ourselves. So I think if Toddles doesn't want to take a potion and doesn't want to say what's going on then yes. Plus if something is going on I would think the headmistress knows. So I think people should be asking her or even the Board of Governors before torturing a house elf."


She turned back to the professor knowing that he was on the board and she gave a smile, "No offense professor, I just think that maybe if the board or the headmistress knows whats going on, maybe it's time for the students to get to know. I would think parents have been wondering as well." She didn't have any to wonder and her grandparents didn't have a clue, but others had to have parents wanting answers and it was just so shady that no one was getting any.

Mer-lin. Girl was stupid. "West was talking about finding out what happened to the DEED to Hogwarts, brainiac. And I'm sorry, but the Headmistress isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box. Plus, she just LEFT when West and Theo were being attacked by dementors, didn't even try to help. So, excuse me if I don't exactly have confidence in her ability to realize something's going on much less do something about it. And the BOG? They're the ones that lost the deed in the first place, no offense Mr. Vinteren." Think about it, Puffer. Because sorry, Sky wasn't that naive.

And wait, wasn't the girl about the same age as her? She should be smarter than that.

Minerva glared at the slytherin, "I don't care if it's about the deed or about the house elves or if it's about your attitude Toddles does not need to be forced to do anything. Give the potion to the headmistress or the board to figure it out. There are other ways to find out whats going on than to force a house elf, who is already doing more than enough around this castle, into taking the potion. How do we even know if he knows anything? So why not leave him be so he can cook your little meals for you." Because most likely she wasn't in the kitchen helping him.

The blame for any of this should be on the humans, adults, they should know the answers, not a house elf. This was just even stupid to be talking about.

And eyebrow raised. "You think I let that elf cook for me? I cook for myself, thank you. And again, I seriously doubt the Headmistress or the BOG knows anything." Seriously? The people that lost it in the first place. Girl, sit your butt down.

"You guys don't know anything about it, right Mr. Vinteren?" See, fixed that little problem. Or, not quite. But Sky was done trying to make stupid Puffers see sense now.

Minerva fought not to roll her eyes, but she lost that battle and rolled them anyway. "Wow.. that's great that you can do that." Yes ladies and Gentlemen Minerva could do sarcasm. "So if the leaders of our school, the ones that should know everything that is going on around here don't know what happened to it how on earth is one house elf suppose to know. Are you trying to say the leaders of our school are.." how could she word this not to offend the professor, she wanted to say idiot, dumb, but that wasn't going to work. "... clueless as to their own responsibilities and jobs."


She turned back to Professor Vinteren as Sky addressed him. Of course he knew answers. He was super smart, probably one of the smartest here. He wasn't super hero professor for nothing. She put her head in her hand and smiled waiting for his answer.

Did he just what, Anya Phillips? Vinteren slowly turned those icy blue eyes of his on the girl blurting out questions and not answering his own.

He shook his head at her ever so subtly. "Do try to stay on topic, Ms. Phillips." That was as good a non answer as she was going to get.

How cute, the first years were in agreement with each other. "Good reasoning, boys," Erik shrugged at their answers. For all he was pretending to know knew, the Hufflepuffs could be correct. "Maybe we can buy vhem or new ones back. Sure, vhy not. Ve'd just haff to find vhem first." House elves were bought and sold all the time.

It wasn't Erik's decision what was to be done about them though. No he was just a lowly little Governor, just doing his duty to help the school.

"We probably should do exactly vhat," Erik wondered if the girl would be surprised by his agreeing with her. "Shame vhe MLE is taking so long to investigate vhis little case though...."

Must be because...they could find no evidence? What a pity.

It was amusing to watch Alexa put all the pieces together, slowly and out loud as usual. She was no Ravenclaw, that much was certain. But despite all that, and despite her wild habits of lying and jumping to conclusions, Erik still liked the girl....a tiny bit.

"I vouldn't start making plans of vhat to do vith vhe thieves until we've caught vhem, Alexa," Erik chuckled dryly, "but I do like your reasoning regarding Toddles. He's more of an adopted Hogwarts elf vhan he is one owned by vhe school. Vhat vould make sense as to vhy he vas left behind. If vhat is vot happened, of course." Because this was all hypothetical, see. Alllllllll hypothetical.

"Solid logic," Erik complimented the Slytherin. One would think that as attached and loyal as house elves are in general...at least one would have tried to return to the castle, if they could have? No?

The truth serum question was trickier. "It does," he answered more hesitantly. "But is vhat truly vhe right thing to do here? Why would Toddles be withholding information?" What did they stand to gain by shoving a potion down the elf's throat, in other words?

"Vhis is all true," Vinteren replied thoughtfully. "Unless vhere is a more powerful type of magic holding vhe house elves vherever vhey currently are....?" He did a good job of making that sound like an innocent guess. Just saying.

...

"Nooo, noooo, vhe school isn't lost," the professor shook his head impatiently, "just vhe official document vhich states legal ownership to it." That's all, kids, nothing to worry about here.

"Vhe only freed elves I haff ever had vhe pleasure of knowing," Erik answered slowly, "found work for pay in other places." So it wasn't like they all went off and formed a colony somewhere. "If ve could find vhem, in theory I suppose we could buy vhem or persuade vhem to come back. IF vhey have been freed." And that was working on a lot of assumptions here.

"I don't know," he answered the Hufflepuff captain with a pitying expression. "One could only hope..." that Hogwarts' elves weren't so cruel as to just abandon one of their own...

"Vhis is an excellent theory," Erik praised the boy. And one so very off the mark. "I vonder vhy vhe press never heard about vheir strike vhough. Headmistress Truebridge must be very adept at covering things up." And that wasn't a direct insinuation of anything at all either, nooooo nooooo.

Well well, looked like Cambridge had some competition in the Department of Conspiracy Theorists. Was that an actual division in the British Ministry of Magic? Because if so Vinteren would willingly write letters of recommendation for these two.

"Vhat is also an excellent theory," he informed her, very serious and deadpan. "I actually vhink vhis should be looked into, if not by vhe Board of Governors vhan certainly by Magical Law Enforcement at vhe least." It was all a scam, a big cover-up! Clearly!

So, in retrospect...."Vhat is correct," Erik nodded, following the Slytherin with his suspicious blue eyes, "and yet incorrect. Vhe school's deed is not public record as far as I, and I believe I can speak for vhe entire Board of Governors here, are aware. Othervise ve vould have looked into taking action vith vhat by now." But he was right that he who held the deed held the power.

Um.....and this girl was......? Erik blinked at her jumping and shouting. Was she even old enough to go to this school?

"Sorry," he blinked at her blankly, "you father is...?" And he could help how?

"Right," he finally had to acknowledge the scary Captain again, "he who holds vhe deed holds vhe power, but to use it against vhe school vould be to come out into vhe open and more or less admit to robbing vhe Board's Gringott's vault." He shrugged yet again. "Vhat is how I understand vhis problem, anyhow."

"I don't know vhe technicalities of vhe school's elves, I'm afraid, as I do not own vhem myself." Erik flashed a bitter smile toward the Ravenclaw. "But you know, some of vhe most far-fetched vheories turn out to be vhe ones most correct in vhe end. I vhink perhaps vhe Headmistress needs to answer to some of vhese questions." Rather than him, poor, innocent Erik Vinteren.

"Sounds plausible," Erik answered dryly, turning to the next person. The less attention this accuser received the better for him.

"And surely it vas," Erik pointed out, "right up until it mysteriously disappeared from Hogwarts' vault in Gringotts." The bank with the world's worst security, let it be known. "Who do vhink elfnapped Hogwarts' elves though? Any guesses?"

He would laugh if someone said Santa Claus now. HAH.

"I see..." Another vote for the deed thing...good to know the Head Girl had a capable head on her shoulders.

This was the Hufflepuff with all the questions, Erik was starting to realise. "Vhat is vhat I'm hoping, Mr. Summers," he told the boy with a tilted head. "And I do haff an idea as to how we can accomplish that..." One of those ideas that was so far-fetched it just might work...

Hmmmmmmmm..."Vhat could be," Erik answered, his scepticism coming through his response rather strongly, "but I fail to see vhe connection here. Strange vhings have happened at Hogwarts for as long as vhe book Hogwarts, a History has existed." And even before then. Just look at who the bloody school had for founders: four arguing nutcases.

Also, "I didn't realise we had an expert on repossession in vhe room." Round of applause for Sour Sarah Powerpuff, everyone.



He had managed to spark a real debate in his last lesson of the year, look at that. Erik didn't intervene in the girls' discussion at first, mostly because it was entertaining educational, but when there was a pause he held up a hand to stop them both without actually agreeing with one side or the other.

"I don't vhink it's necessary to force Toddles to do anyvhing, at vhis point," Erik spoke up. "I haff told you everything vhe staff and vhe Board of Governors know regarding vhe school's missing deed and missing elves. And regarding Toddles...ve haff already determined vhat he is friendly toward vhe students and forthcoming vith information regarding his fellow elves' whereabouts. Correct?" Erik looked toward Penelope and Alexa specifically. "Vhy don't ve try contacting vhe other elves instead?"

It was time to move on with the lesson anyway. Erik strolled around to his desk and opened a drawer in the centre of it with his wand. He took out a thick stack of blank parchments and returned to the centre aisle, where he started moving down the rows and passing out enough parchment for each student to have at least one piece. When he was finished, he returned to the front of the room and dropped the extras lightly on top of his desk.

"Vhe beauty of wizard communication is vhat ve have an intelligent creature delivering our mail for us." He gave the class a look. "Haff you ever wondered how it is vhat owls alvays, or almost always, know where to deliver your letters? Vhey don't need addresses to find a person. I vould like to vhink vhe same works for elves, considering vhat vhey, too, are classified as intelligent beings."

He paused. "Today you haff a few options: one, you may write a letter on vhis specially charmed parchment to one of Hogwarts' house elves, asking vhem vhere vhey have gone, why, vhen vhey plan to return, vhat sort of vhing, and trust vhat I vill do everyvhing in my power to see it delivered to vhem. Two, you may write to whomever you vhink took vhe elves, or sold or freed vhem, and ask for vhem back. Or three, you may come up vith your own option and write your own theory of vhat happened to vhe elves and vhat you think you could do to help bring vhem home to Hogwarts."

Another paaaaause. "Any questions? Before you get started, I vould recommend having a class discussion about vhe elves ve are missing here. It vould help if you knew vheir names as you're writing to vhem." If the students even knew this information. He did, but he was a Governor, and a staff member at present. Of course he knew these things.

So they didn't have the deed. He had more or less admitted it just now.

Alice considered her options, ultimately deciding on theory writing and how to bring the elves home, the last option. It seemed to give her the most creative freedom, which she obviously needed, because she was extremely creative and all.

The elves that were missing? He wanted them to name them?

No thanks, she was good on elf talk.

History in the making, huh? That probably meant that Ethan should be writing some of this down, so he copied the theories written on the board into his journal while he thought over some of the possibilities. He guessed that he had been under the impression that they had to be sold along with some of the other possessions of Hogwarts to help pay off whatever massive debt that the school had incurred. Elves would fetch a hefty price, he thought.. though now that he thought about it, he was fairly certain they were free elves. So his original thought couldn't be correct if that were the case.. right? Oh, but Vinteren sort of shot down that theory when he said they were owned by the school..

As he thought over this and the other theories brought up, he became aware of the debate between his girlfriend and that Snake girl. Of course he loved the humanity Minerva showed, standing up for that baby elf, not to mention holding her ground.. something he always admired about her. He watched for a moment until Vinteren stepped in.. not that Ethan would have had much chance to add anything else to the heated discussion. Moving on anyway..

Ugh.. writing letters? No.. he did not want to do that today, but he probably didn't have much choice in the matter. That seemed to be the in-class assignment for the day. But which option did he want to choose? There seemed to be something.. off about this whole letter-writing deal. The Prefect took one of the "specially charmed" pieces of parchment and continued to weigh his options. Maybe the first one.. but he wasn't sure what writing to the elves, wherever they might be, would do. Would they even answer? What if they couldn't.. Ethan thought some more.

"That's a shame. Maybe if it were, it'd be less likely that the deed would be in danger...It's also a shame that magic couldn't protect it better." Seems like anyone could've came in and stole the thing...and he didn't mean the Headmistress. Why would she have needed to be in on something like that? She already ran the show around here......or used to. Whoever had the deed now clearly did.

It was all very curious. The smidgen of Ravenclaw residing in his brain demanded to know all the things...but he'd bite his tongue for now. It'd do no good to spook his peers with conspiracy theories...and the Slytherin had a few...

Anyway...they were going to be writing a letter...to a house elf. Or to the person who stole them. Or they could write a theory about everything. How very interesting, Professor Vinteren.

"Beezley was one of the elves..."...if anyone wanted to know. Dylan remembered her busting in on a Potions lesson back in the day. It was during the Dreamer's Elixir class...Fond memories.

He accepted his paper and thought on it a moment. He didn't know which he'd prefer to do more...

This Professor talked funnily, didn't he? Forrest was lost in his accent for a while and missed some of his comments to people's answers. But who cared when he spoke so differently? His accent was a mystery of his own, and it required more than two ears to understand.

Luckily though, he understood the task, and nodded at Professor. He didn't have any questions, especially if he was going to say their names.

*squint*

Was that a jab or a subtle comment? Sky couldn't really tell and before she could do anymore thinking on it, they were moving on. Glossing over Minerva's sarcastic return, because it just silly to see a Puff use it and at such a bad time (really, you were suppose to use it before you were proved stupid instead of after so that it could pack the appropriate punch). Nope, instead she focused on the assignment. Well, writing directly to the elves was out, because that just seemed useless as they couldn't come back unless whomever had them told them to. Writing to whoever took them just seemed childish. Like the person who would go far enough as to break into Gringotts and steal from the Hogwarts vault would really return the elves just because a bunch of students wrote and asked them to. Which left option number three. For which she just copied down her earlier suggestion. Hey, Vinteren had said it was a sound one.

Laura looked at the Professor and for the first time she sat up straight and then she raised her hand. "Professor if you can do everything in your power to have the letter delivered to them, does that mean you know where they are?" Laura was hoping he would because then she would personally go and ask them to come back.

The Board, the Board, the Board.

This dude just kept going on and on about the BOARD and then was telling them that they were going to have to write letters. Well... Tobias didn't want to write letters... he wanted to talk. Obviously. Because talking was his favourite. So he latched onto the only thing he could thing to answer back and flung his hand back into the air.

"Just one thing sir. What if someone on the Board of Governors has the deed and made it look like a robbery or something and made it LOOK like a robbery... I mean, that's way more plausible than the vault being robbed by someone else." 'Cause people kept saying Truebridge was sending away the elves and Toby didn't believe that for a SECOND. She was far too pink. And pink was a nice colour. "I can't think of a reason why but... well..."

He barely knew anything about the wizarding world.

Mainly he was talking so he didn't have to concentrate on writing.

Minerva listened to the Professor and couldn't help but smile again when he agreed that Toddles should not be put through that. He must care as well. As she listened to him speak about the Elves Minerva tried to go back in her head on some of the ones she had come across. She remembered the mess Toddles started his first term here. She was actually in the transfiguration practice room when he come in causing a mess and scaring her to death.

Putting up her hand, "Professor I know some of the names, Nimma, Tinka , and Quirly are ones that I have seen the most around the castle and in the kitchen." Especially Tinka, Minerva couldn't help but frown a bit thinking of them. She really hoped they were safe wherever they were. She decided Tinka was who she was sending the letter to. She wondered if it would work or not, but she was willing to try.


Taking the charmed parchment she thought about what she was even going to write. How do you word this. Tinka are you in danger, are you safe? How was the elf even going to respond if they were somewhere against their will. The whole thing was just upsetting to say the least.

"We should make a list of their names. Is there someone who would put them all down on a piece of parchment or the board as students list them off?" Asher was excited. He waned to write a letter to an House Elf. Maybe they would come back for his second year of Hogwarts. "I don't know any of them, but I bet a lot of you older students do."

He looked around to see if anyone volunteered. Maybe Dylan or Minerva would. She seemed to know several of their names.

Ohhh, so no discussing how they'd punish the baddies yet? Okie dokes, she could wait and she would have a long list ready by then. For now, she was grinning at her best friend. See? She wasn't the only one who saw conspiracy theories everywhere she went. Mostly hers were about candy thieves but it was the same concept.

The activity sounded neat but she didn't know if she would write to the elves or the elf thieves who were making her have burnt bread and over-cooked potatoes.

Decisions decisions.

For now she kept quiet, yeah she knew the elf names but people were already naming them all. She would just scribble her punishment ideas while she waited for them to start.

That seemed legit enough.

He had an idea? Alec grinned and sat up a little straighter. "Sounds awesome!" Because it did! How awesome would it be if they managed to bring the house elves back? That is, if they wanted to come back. Which... hopefully they did, yeah?

... Owls? Wait, they could send the house elves letters and try to bring them back? How was it that no one had thought of this before?

While most of the class started talking about the names of the house elves, Alec quickly jotted them down into his journal. It was weird... he'd seen them around and probably smiled at them once or twice but he didn't really know them properly. Not on a name basis, that is. And to think he had been at this school for five years.

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

So since Nigel did not know any of the elves names besides the one at his house and toddle. Plus Nigel did not want to say anybody did. Even though Vinteren smile was really creepy and made Nigel want to write him down on his parchment.

But that was not very polite. So option three sounded sounded better by the seconds. But Nigel did not really think students should be doing this. Shouldn't the Board of Governers' and the Professor be handling this personally?

Making this exercise pointless.

Question!
 

Why was Professor Vinteren telling them all this? Not that she didn't appreciate the information, she totally did. It just seemed a bit strange, bringing up this stuff now with all the other dodgy stuff going on. Was he trying to get the students involved somehow? And she couldn't be sure but couldn't some of this information about the deed be a bit frightening to the younger students? What if they wrote home about it and the headmistress received angered letters from parents? The blonde thought on all of this as she watched the man curious. Hmmm.

So...they were going to be writing a letter of some sort. That or write down their theories though Ella didn't want hers written down on paper. Just saying.

The sixteen year old scribbled down the names of the elves she knew of and those her classmates had mentioned before she thought of something else. Hand raised, she waited to be called on. "Professor? If the elves did actually receive the letters and respond, would the replies come to you or back to us?" ...Just wondering.

Nooods for you Professor, to show that she was listening of course. What else?

But yeah, she understood this whole class thing. Basically they'd be writing a letter to either a house elf about where they were and all, or to someone who took them to ask why, or lastly to a theory of their own about this whole fiasco.

Ehh. What was this badger choosing? Option one, even if she wasn't an elf fan. Seemed like the easiest.

Oh, boring!

Theo huffed a tiny huff, then maneuvered himself into a position that was comfy for lots of writing. Theo sucked at writing, but when he had to do it, he liked having his own space and doing it in his own time. Not class time, blah. Anyway, he listened to all of the options and decided to go with the first one. Not that he knew any of the house elf's names other than Toddles. And Toddles didn't count, right?

He sighed, rested the side of his head lazily on the desk, and began writing. Well, I say writing, I mean doing a squiggly line across the top of his page.

Hmm, where to begin.