Scientific Endeavours

[Pippy]

Pippy was walking through Hogsmeade, looking curiously at all the public displays of affection. Human people really were an odd bunch. She had noticed one common denominator in what everyone was doing, though; tea!

Out of all the people she had seen spontaneously fall in love or the like, not one of them hadn't been drinking tea. Something had to be wrong with it! A bad batch? A potion? Hmm, she had to investigate! After all, who knows what would happen if her mistress got a hold of the magic tea!

So there she was, looking at a half drunk mug of warm tea. She felt a bit rebellious but it had to be done! It was for her own research! Important and necessary research for the good of Amalia Meliflua and her family! They had to be kept safe from this strange new epidemic!

And the tea briskly floated toward her. She looked at it and saw the spiralling steam; it looked beautiful with a pearly sheen. Pip gulped and took a cautious sip.

"Hmm.." She shrugged, "Odd."

She felt no different.

Humans really were just strange.

So it was time for her research to progress further! She needed a candidate. Pip scanned the street, looking for someone who hadn't drank any tea. And she found one; the first human she saw.

Pip approached the person and tugged on their shoulder, holding the mug.

"Excuse me." She said politely, "Could person try this please? Pip needs to find out research for her masters." She continued as she held out the mug of tea.

  

[Dodger]

• Dodger was hungry, it had been a few days since last he had eaten and he was getting to a stage of dehydration and starvation that made him want to eat just about anything. He had stolen a few pieces of bread and cheese from a plate that had been abandoned outside the cafe on the highstreet but he needed a drink badly. He was skulking along the line of the building when he spotted one of his own kind, a female by the look of her, carrying a mug. Stealing out of the hands of a wizard was risky, that way aurors and magic lay but one of his own...well...he could handle her. With a sudden flurry of movement he skurried along the path and snatched the mug from her hands as she was about to speak to a nearby wizard.
  
  The moment the mug made contact with his hands he was raising it to his face, having not heard what she was asking the wizard he immediately began to gulp down the tepid liquid. His eyes never left the other house elf, he was concerned she might try and stop him by grabbing at the mug or using magic on him. By the second mouthful, something happened, something changed and he didnt know what. A strange shuddering ran the length of his spine, his pupils dilated in his bug eyes and his mouth went slack, the last little bit of the tea spilling out of his mouth and onto his dirty great coat.
  
  The mug fell away from his mouth and he stared at the other house elf as though mesmerised. 'Pretty elfie.' he garbled, not really realising he was speaking. There was something in the mere presence of this other of his own kind that somehow made him forget the fact he was nearly starving and half dead of dehydration. 'Dodger thinks he wants to touch elfie' he said and the hand which wasnt holding the mug reached out to take the liberty of touching her.

  

[Pippy]

The wizard seemed keen to find out what this research was. It was a very important experiment, after all! If she could find out what the tea was doing, Pippy could brew a potion to make Amalia immune to it! Pip did not want a random person coming up to her and stealing her mistress!

Similarly, Pippy did not want someone coming up to her and stealing her mug! This was intervention of an unwanted degree! Someone call the department of Magical Law enforcement.

Shocked, Pippy turned around to look at the person. She was going to have to apprehend the person!

And it wasn't a person! It was an elf! A drooling elf.

But the way the tea dribbled from his mouth and streamed down his chinà it was dreamlike. The way in which it soaked into his tattered coat was mesmerising. This elf was the most handsome thing she had ever seen.

That was it! This must have been what the silly humans were feeling! Pip had figured it out; it wasn't the tea at all. Everybody was in love. And Pippy, on this day, had fallen in love with another house elf. Pippy looked to the floor, embarrassed at his compliment.

And his accentà it was so domineering. So macho. It made Pip's heart race. She had never felt so alive. She had been so foolish to think there was a potion in the tea! She couldn't even think about that anymore. All that mattered was this elfà Dodger.

A name for the kings. Her king. And she was to be the queen.

Together, Pippy and Dodger would rule the world! With their masters, of course.

"Pip wants Dodger to touch her." She said softly, taking a step toward the house elf's touch.

He was so handsome, how had Pip never found him before?

When his gritty hand touched her face, she closed her eyes. The warm touch made everything else go away. It was just him and her.

  

[Dodger]

• What Dodger had been going for was a petting stroke across her face, like he had seen the wizards do to woe the witches which they thought were pretty, what he actually achieved was poking her in the face, mainly the nose and upper lip. She was such a pretty little elf how had he never met her before. He had been in and out of almost every house in the town - he thought he knew all of the elves that worked in the houses here abouts - mostly because at some point or other they had chased him from the house with spells and wards.
  
  This one he would have remembered, this one he would have marked and stolen away with him in a sack to keep for his own. He swept his hat from his head gave her a low bow that made his filthy great coat trail on the ground trying to be the decorous gentleman that he had seen wizards imitate. 'I is Dodger the free elf.' he declared very loudly and with great pride, drawing an amused laugh from some of the witches and wizards who had been in the area anyway and who were finding the little spectacle between the two elves to be very funny.
  
  'who is the pretty elf I is seeing now.' He went down on one knee, like he had seen the actors doing when they were professing love. 'For she is the loveliest elf that Dodger is ever seeing and he thinks he is loving her more than anything.' he oohed and aahed, fawning over her in a way that he thought would make her love him back.