Finally, it seemed that the elves had had enough. It was Halloween and classes had just gotten out for luch. Students filed down the grand staircase towards the Entrance Hall, and were stopped by a line of 40 angry looking elves with their arms crossed.

"What is the meaning of this?" Professor McGonagall asked. She sounded concerned more than stern.

"Fold all of my socks into a triangle," said the first elf in line. He shook his head and said, "I most certainly will not!" Then he was gone with a little pop.

"Dye my underwear blue and black!" Came the next elfs voice, more of a squeak than the one that had spoken before him. "That's not my job!" Then he disappeared too.

"I want caviar! Not at two in the morning master Malfoy!" This elf, a girl Harry knew to be named Tinky disappeared after waving her finger angrily towards Draco who was at the bottom of the steps.

"Give me the answers on my homework! I'm not a student here!" Dobby said, marching right up to Ron and putting his hands on his hips. Ron startled when he disappeared with a louder than usual pop. The elves continued on in this fashion until 39 of them had gone and only one remained, the oldest, most shriveled looking of them all.

"We cook, we clean, we serve. That is our job. We ask nothing in return from any of you except for respect and appreciation. You neither respect or appreciate us when you ask us to do ridiculous things that are not our job, at ridiculous times of the day or night. Now you will find out what it is like to be a house elf. With no one to cook for you, clean for you, or serve you, you will have to do it yourselves." And then he was gone too, with a very faint pop, as though he was too old, and perhaps to weak to disappear to anyplace very far away. There was silence for the space of ten seconds, and then suddenly a shout echoed across the Entrance Hall followed by a clatter, and everyone turned to look at Filch. "Forget it! If they quit, I'm not doing all their work for them! I am NOT a house elf!" He shuffled off in a hurry, muttering.

Chaos broke out amongst the students as they shouted and worried cries of, "Oh no," and, "what will we do," came forth. Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape ushered the students into the Great Hall and made them all sit even though there was no food on the tables for them to eat. Everyone spoke quietly and anxiously at the student tables as the staff held an impromptu meeting behind the Head table. Finally Dumbledore stood at almost the end of the lunch hour, and said, "If everyone would please calm down. Your next class is canceled so that we can have time to speak to the house elves. You will all go to the kitchen entrance in the Hufflepuff hallway and form an orderly line. A staff member will give you all something to eat and drink."

Professor Hooch and Professor Sinistra stood and lead the way out of the Great Hall and down to the kitchen, the students from the four houses following them. Harry and his friends ended up somewhere in the middle of the line. After a few minutes the line started to move forward and they could see students going back towards the Entrance hall with an apple, or an orange and a Muggle style bottle of water.

"Great," Ron muttered.

"At least it's food," Harry said as his stomach grumbled.

"Rabbit food," Ron said. "It's the big feast tonight. What are we supposed to eat then? Lettuce?"

"Well maybe if you and the others hadn't harrassed the elves so much," Hermione said crossly, "then we wouldn't be in this situation." Ron crossed his arms at that and frowned but didn't argue.

After ten minutes, they each had something to eat and were back up at Gryffindor table. The other students, not having any place better to go until the start of their next class, also returned to the Great Hall. After almost an hour had passed, Snape and Dumbledore came out from the door behind the Head Table which Harry suspected was some sort of teacher's lounge. Dumbledore had a long roll of parchment.

"May I have your attention," he said, his voice magically magnified. People stopped talking and looked up at him. "We have spoken to the house elves. They have given us a list of names of all students who have harrassed them this year with unreasonable requests, repeated calls at innappropriate hours, or name calling. When I call your name, you will stand up and go to stand on the front steps of the castle, where you will formally apologize to each and every house elf. You will then report to Mr. Filch for detention until dinner time, and after dinner tonight you will report to Professor McGonagall to speak about your future detentions. Unfortunately this is not enough to secure the return of the elves at this time. The rest of the staff and I are working on a solution. Anyone whose name is not called, has the rest of the afternoon off, though I suggest you stay out of trouble and out of the way." Dumbledore didn't sound happy and the students looked worried.

Ron's name was called almost immediately, along with almost twenty other Gryffindors. Almost every name from Slytherin was called as well as most of Ravenclaw house. Only five names from Hufflepuff were listed. All in all Harry thought there were about 140 students that headed out of the Great Hall and to the front steps of the castle. That was half the student body and it left the Great Hall feeling very empty. Harry looked around and was surprised at who had gone from Gryffindor. Even Ginny had gone out with Ron and he made a mental note to ask her later what she'd said or asked of the elves.

"Pathetic," Hermione said from next to Harry at the table as the staff filed out. Harry had to agree. 140 students asking crazy things all day long from 40 elves. That was rough. During the summers he often felt overworked at the Dursleys just having to cater to the three of them.

"Should we go watch?"

"I don't think I want to," said a second year from behind them at Ravenclaw table, and Harry nodded. Probably not the best thing to do.

"What should we do?" the boy asked. "I mean, if the elves aren't comming back?"

Harry frowned. Most of the students were from wizarding families and they were probably used to seeing things done with magic like he'd seen Mrs. Weasley do. Maybe they could teach everybody spells to do the chores around the castle with. That would be fine for laundry if every student did their own laundry, and even for cleaning, but what about food service?

"Are there spells for preparing food?" Harry asked Hermione long after the boy had turned around and Hermione had pulled out her books to start studying.

"I don't think there are many," she said, looking up. "I mean, there are spells for boiling water, and for keeping food warm, and I'm sure there are spells to send the food up here."

Harry looked around at the mostly empty tables. It was two o'clock, and in three hours the hall would be full again of hungry students and teachers. He was the only person he knew that could cook. Was he even allowed to go down into the kitchens?

"Hermione," he said, "go to the library and find a book about cooking spells and then meet me down in the kitchen."

"What for?"

"You'll see."

With a sigh she stood, not bothering to pack her books away, clearing intending on coming back to study. She gave Harry a look that he read as, 'I am not a house elf either,' and went on her way.

"You," Harry said to the second year at Ravenclaw table. "What's your name?"

"Evan."

"Come with me Evan." He stood up and headed for the kitchens, Evan in tow.

The kitchens were empty and Harry waved his wand as he'd seen professors do on occasion, glad that it worked and the lights came on nice and bright. The lights revealed a long kitchen with a low ceiling. The walls were lined with counters, refrigerators, and sinks. In the center of the room were rows of counters, stove tops, and ovens.

"It looks like they left in the middle of preparing for the feast," Evan said, and he was right. There were half finished deserts on the counters against the walls, dirty pots and pans in some of the sinks, and bags of vegetables left out on the counters.

"What are we going to do?" Evan asked, sounding concerned.

"It's the feast tonight. We're going to make it."

"Us? I've never cooked before."

"Don't worry, I have, and Hermione's comming back with a book on cooking spells."

"I- I'm only 12. My mum usually makes all the food."

"I'm only 13, and I've made a lot of meals. It's ok, I'll show you what to do. First I just have to figure out what we have so I can make a menu.... something we can do in just a couple of hours. I'll look in the fridges. You go look in the boxes against that wall and tell me what's in them."

Evan moved to the other end of the room and Harry went to the refrigerator, having to pull hard to get the heavy doors to come open. Either the elves were very strong, or they used magic to get things from the fridge.

"Ok," said Harry, looking in the first fridge. "This one just has a lot of ham in it."

"This box has carrots."

They moved on. "Chicken," said Harry, and Evan replied with, "Giant potatoes."

After a few minutes they'd been through all the boxes and fridges and started going through cupboards, most of which held pots and pans, but some of which held things like flour, sugar, and spices.

"I think I've got it down," Harry said. "Come here." He lead Evan over to the counter where almost 30 cooled but unfrosted layer cakes sat on platters. "You're going to put frosting on them. It's not that hard. Here," he pulled open a drawer beneath the counter, suspecting that this was some sort of desert station, and found spatulas, and then went over to the fridge next to this station and found bowls of different colors of frosting the elves had already made.

"Like this," Harry said, and he put the spatula into a bowl of orange frosting and showed him how to spread it onto one of the cakes. "It doesn't have to be perfect, just edible. If you want to smooth it down use this tool." He handed him a longer spatula with a flat edge from the drawer.

"But, the cakes the elves make on Halloween have a lot of other decorations on them," Evan said.

Harry opened the cupboard above the cakes and Evan looked up. "Go wild," he said with a grin as Evan's eyes lit up at the cupboard full of sprinkles, dried fruits, nuts, and candies. "Just, don't eat anything now or you'll get a stomach ache and never finish the cakes."

Evan laughed and Harry went to a box full of freshly made bread the elves had made and wrapped and began pulling loaves out. He'd just finished when Hermione came into the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" she asked, one brow raised.

"Making dinner," Harry said.

"And cakes!" called Evan from across the vast kitchen.

"For over 300 students and staff?"

"Well, it's not going to be anything fancy," Harry said. "We have to do something easy, but I think we can if you help."

She flipped open the book and set it on the island counter across from Harry.

"I have warming spells, anti-decay spells, heating spells, cleaning spells, and a spell to send the food up to the Great Hall."

"All that from one book?"

"No," Hermione said, pulling another book out from her bookbag. Apparently she'd gone back to the Great Hall to collect her things after all.

"What are we making?"

Harry grinned, and they set to work. Because Hermione had the books full of spells, he had her peel, wash, and cut up four large boxes of potatoes and get them boiling in massive pots big enough to fit a house elf. Mashed potatoes was easy, and with the spells it only took Hermione half an hour to prepare them all and get them cooking. In the mean time Harry put hams in every oven in the kitchen to cook, and had begun slicing bread. Sandwiches wasn't a grand thing to have at a feast, but it would fill them up with the mashed potatoes and then the cakes.

"What about other vegetables?" Hermione called, and Harry said, "If you can do something in the time we have left..." He looked at his watch. It was 3:30 and dinner was usually at five. Hermione was quick in making a decision though and soon had broccoli washed, cut, and into pots to steam.

"Don't forget the potatoes," Evan called from the cake station, where he had several brightly decorated (and over sprinkled) cakes finished and was working on frosting the rest two or three at a time before moving on to decorating them. "They're boiling over," he said, and Hermione rushed to the massive pots.

"I don't know when they're done," she said, biting her lip.

"If the fork goes in easy and comes out," Harry said with his back to her. She must have decided they were done, because she turned the burners off and used her wand to gently lift the pots off of the stove.

"What next? I don't have a spell for mashing them."

"Get rid of the water. I think I saw mashers in a drawer by that row of fridges."

Harry finished slicing the loaves of bread (over a hundred and fifty loaves in all), and used a spell Hermione had shown him to keep them from going stale as he put the sliced loafs on plates.

"This is really hard work," Hermione said, and Harry pulled out another potato masher and went to help her. It was 4:30 by the time they were done mashing the potatoes, and they'd had to apply several warming charms in the process. "You add butter into them and use a spell to mix it all in," Harry told her. "I've got to find things to go on all the sandwiches."

"Mustard," Evan called as he put purple sprinkles and candies on the last cake, this one orange and white.

"I didn't see mustard or other condiments anywhere though," Harry said. His eyes raked the kitchen as if there was a hidden cupboard he hadn't been into yet, and he noticed a door between two fridges. He opened it and found a large supply room, half the size of the kitchen, and a door on the other side. Curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the door.

"Come here!" Harry called and Hermione and Evan came to look through the door with him.

"I never would have thought this was down here," Evan said. There was a room the size of the Great Hall (only with regular height ceiling). There were four house tables and the staff table.

"We must have to put the food out like we want it to go up," Harry said. He looked at his watch. "There's not much time, come on. I'll help you with the cakes and then you can help me get everything else out. Hermione, finish those potatoes and the broccoli." Hermione ran out of the room and he and Evan began carefully carrying cakes into the Great Hall.

"That's a lot of cherries," Harry commented as they took the fourth one out. The cake was almost twice as heavy as the first three had been.

Evan grinned. "You said go wild."

"And you did," laughed Harry.

"It's 4:45 Harry!" Hermione called and Harry and Evan ran back into the kitchen. "Evan, help Hermione get all of that into bowls." Evan ran to help and Harry wished he had enlisted more help. If they had more people helping, they could have had a much grander feast he was sure. He ran into the store room with an empty box that had once held potatoes, and began throwing condiments into it, and then hurried back into the fake Great Hall to put it all out onto the tables. A few minutes later Evan came in with a bowl of mashed potatoes, tripped, and watched in horror as the bowl went flying. It landed on the floor between the staff table and Hufflepuff table with a splatter and loud clanging noise.

"Uh-" Evan said, mortified.

"Forget it," Harry said. We'll clean it up later. Go get more.

The bread went out to the tables along with the bowls of mashed potatoes and bowls of broccoli, and finally Harry rushed back into the kitchen to get the hams that Hermione had used a spell to slice so they could go on sandwiches.

"Harry, what about the candy? We didn't make any candy."

His watch read five on the nose as Harry went back into the store room. He let his eyes scan the shelves until they found a brightly colored box that said honeydukes on the bottom shelf. "Help me with this Hermione," he said, and together they dragged the massive, heavy box out into the fake Great Hall. Evan's eyes lit up as they opened the box. There were hundreds of brightly wrapped candies of about 10 different varieties.

"I'll go look for another," Hermione said. "I don't think there's time to get it all out though."

Evan took a handful and ran to Ravenclaw table and began putting out one piece at a time between the bowls of food.

"No," said Harry. "Not like that. "Like this!" He took a handful and threw it at Gryffindor table. Some of the candies landed on the floor but most of them landed on the table and scattered. "Just be careful not to get any in the food."

Hermione levitated another box out, and took in the scene before her, of Harry and Evan throwing wrapped candies around the Great Hall, not caring in the least how much of it ended up on the floor.

"Come on Hermione!" Harry laughed, and she opened the box and used her wand to more carefully send out bunches of candy to Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables. These were mostly chocolates in different flavors, she switched places with Harry and Evan so make sure every table got different candies.

"Record time," Harry said with a grin as they emptied the boxes. "Now we just have to get it up there."

Hermione opened the book and showed Harry the spell. He went to Hufflepuff table, which was the closest and stared hard at a plate of ham. "How do you say it?" Harry asked, and Hermione slowly pronounced: "Lift-ee-um floor-ee-uss." Harry aimed his wand at the platter and said the spell and it vanished with a pop.

"Do you think it made it up?" Harry asked, staring at the ceiling.

* * *

The staff were talking behind the staff table again as the students sat glumly at their house tables, looking at their empty plates. Many of them were tired from their four hour detention spent scrubbing floors and walls, cleaning out toilets, and making windows shine.

Ron mumbled something and Ginny nudged him. "What?"

"Missing the feast," he mumbled again.

"Well it's partly your fault," she admonished him.

"You were in detention too."

"Because of you," Ginny told him, sounding irritated. "If you hadn't asked me to call them for you... I didn't know you'd already called them and told them to do your homework. I'm definitely telling mum in a letter that the detention wasn't my fault."

Ron mumbled something else but no one could hear what.

"I'm hungry," someone said.

"Yeah, it's after five," a girl at Hufflepuff said.

Suddenly there was a pop, and the girl from Hufflepuff squealed in delight. Everyone, including the staff looked over at her. There in front of her was a plate of steaming ham.

"Hufflepuff's got ham!" someone at Slytherin shouted, and the students at Slytherin all stood up as if to rush Hufflepuff. The next second though, Dumbledore's voice boomed out into the hall.

"Sit down!" The Slytherins didn't look happy about it, but they obeyed.

"One plate of ham," Severus said, an eyebrow raised.

There was another pop and a red cake appeared at Ravenclaw, covered with cherries and red sprinkles. "Cake!" said a first year excitedly.

Three more pops and a plate of bread appeared at Gryffindor along with a bowl of mashed potatoes, and a bowl of broccoli appeared at Slytherin.

"Albus, do you think the elves have come back?" Minerva asked. Albus stroked his beard, and suddenly there was pop after pop after pop, non stop as the hall filled with food. Candy was everywhere on the tables and floors, and Albus shook his head.

"No my dear lady," he said with a smile, "I do not believe the elves are back. Their food apparations are always silent, and I do not believe they usually deliver candy in such a fashion."

"I will get to the bottom of this," Severus said, and Albus, too curious for his own good, followed him out of the hall, raucous sounds of delighted children following them as they went.

"Here Harry, have some candy," Evan said, standing at the end of fake Ravenclaw table. Harry reached out and took the chocolate and stuffed it into his pocket, more intent on filling his plate with vegetables and ham and the delicious home made bread.

"I'm glad we kept some of this back," Hermione said, and Harry laughed. They'd kept one bowl of potatoes, one bowl of broccoli, a plate of ham and bread, candy, and an orange cake covered with entirely too many sprinkles and orange sugar crystals for themselves. Their own private feast.

"Oh Harry!" Evan said suddenly. "We forgot the pumpkin juice!" Harry and Hermione laughed. So what if they had. At least people had food. At least they had their feast and their desert and their candy.

"Perhaps I can help with that," came a voice behind them, and the two third years and second year froze. Harry and Evan saw the professor's first. Hermione had to turn becuase her back was to them as they stood at the tables. She swallowed a bite of broccoli and looked as if she'd just been caught doing something terribly wrong.

"Professor Dumbledore," she said, eyes wide. Harry wasn't afraid though. The Headmaster didn't look angry, more like pleasantly surprised. Snape on the other hand had his arms crossed and looked as cross as he normally did.

"The pumpkin juice," Dumbledore said. "I believe the elves keep it in barrels in the pantry. He waved his wand and three cups appeared in front of the three students. And then he said a spell that sounded similar to the one they had used to send all of the food up to the Great Hall, and pumpkin juice poured out of thin air over each of their cups. In the pantry, they heard a noise like water running.

"There," he said with a smile."

"Are we- in trouble?" Evan asked, hand still paused midway over a piece of bread he had been reaching for when they'd come in.

"That depends Mr. Poole. Are you responsible for the students and staff upstairs enjoying a delicious and well prepared feast?"

"Only the cakes and candy sir," he said.

"Then no," said Dumbledore with a smile. "You are not in trouble."

"And you Harry? Hermione?"

"The meat and sandwiches and candy," Harry said.

"The vegetables and candy," Hermione said.

Finally Snape spoke, and the three stopped smiling again. "And what prompted you to spend hours preparing all of this?" His tone dripped with something... Harry couldn't tell. It was almost like he expected the food to be poisoned or something.

"It was Harry's idea sir," Hermione said, and Harry was glad she'd spoken up. He didn't want to answer to Snape. He always made everything Harry did seem like it was bad, even if it wasn't meant to be. "He sent me to find a book on cooking spells and brought Evan down here. He decided to do sandwiches and had Evan frost and decorate the cakes the elves had already made. And when I came down he had me do all the vegetables."

Dumbledore clapped his hands together. "I have had the unfortunate experience of having to deduct a great many house points today. Now I have the pleasure of awarding some of them back. 100 points to Gryffindor and 100 to Ravenclaw, for stepping up and taking charge of a situation that needed handling."

"And what if the student body gets food poisoning?" Severus asked. Harry sighed inwardly. He would say that, wouldn't he?"

"We washed our hands," Harry said, "and I made sure the ham was cooked all the way through. We kept everything heated with warming charms."

Snape looked past them to the potatoes that were still all over the floor at the other end of the fake Great Hall.

"That was me," Evan said. "I tripped."

"Yes, and I saw the state of the kitchen as well," Snape said.

Dumbledore clasped his hands together.

"What a wonderful assignment for all of the students who have five more detentions to serve," he said. To clean up after themselves as well as the kitchen and lower Great Hall!"

Snape put his head in his hand, holding his elbow and shook it. "Come Severus, we have a feast to attend." He turned and then stopped and said, "Mr. Poole, Mr. Potter, and Miss Granger. If you would be so kind as to stay here and direct the cleaning, we will send students down to you shortly, along with a teacher to ensure that the students do as they are told." Harry nodded and the Professors disappeared back into the supply room. Harry leaned back and looked into the supply room a few minutes later to be sure they had gone and then said, "Just so long as it isn't Snape." Evan laughed, and so did Hermione despite herself as they dug into the rest of the food.

Half an hour later, Madam Hooch came down with a dozen students, mostly Slytherins, and told them they'd better do exactly as Harry, Hermione, and Evan told them to do or else they'd be there all night cleaning. Harry took some pleasure in directing Malfoy to do dishes, to which the blond cursed and shot Harry a dirty look. Evan took over in the lower Great Hall and had four students scrubbing tables and the floor, and Hermione had four students doing the same in the kitchen and store room. The rest did the dishes. When everything was clean, Madam Hooch (who was thankful to see Draco go because she'd had to tell him off twice in the detention already), opened the door and let another line of students in, all carrying piles of dirty dishes.

"Thanks for the feast," a Ravenclaw said to Evan, and the other students nodded and thanked them as well as they were set to doing dishes. It was almost eight when Harry, Hermione, and Evan were told by madam Hooch that they could go, and as they made their way up and past the real Great Hall, they peered inside and were surprised to find more students who had detention in there cleaning and even washing the windows.

"There was a food fight," Professor McGonagall said when she saw them. "With the mashed potatoes. Thank you for the lovely meal by the way." They grinned and headed off to their common rooms.

* * *

Harry went to bed extremely happy that night. Even Snape hadn't been able to completely spoil his mood. All of his housemates thanked him and Hermione for cooking them dinner, and even though Ron was out until 9 for detention scrubbing down the Great Hall, he was also satisfied with how the night had turned out.

"That'll show those elves," he said. "We can do it on our own."

"Shh Ronald!" Hermione scolded him. "Just because we made dinner tonight doesn't mean we don't want them to come back!"

"Psh, they're gone," Ron said, though he looked a little worried. "I heard Sinistra saying they'd gone on holiday somewhere. I'm sure they'll be back tomorrow."

But in the morning, they weren't back. Piles of laundry backed up in the laundry shoots leading out of each common room, and students were hungry at breakfast. The teachers resorted to handing out fruit and water again, to many unhappy grumbles from the students.

"Can't you fix us lunch Harry?" Ron asked.

"I don't have hours to fix food before lunch," Harry said. "I have classes."

"But, I could help!" Ron said. Ginny crossed her arms though.

"Don't let him Harry," she said. "He'll just eat whatever's in front of him and then say he's too full to help. He's lazy like that at home too."

Harry laughed as Transfiguration started. At the end of class, Professor McGonagall pulled him aside though. "Mr. Potter, you proved that you could cook last night, as well as organize a small staff to help you. Would you be willing to help cook more meals until the house elves come back?"

"Uh-" Harry said. It was fun last night, but also a bit stressfull cooking under such time constraints and for such a large number of people, even if his portion of the meal had only been sandwiches.

"I guess," he said.

"I am aware that it would be difficult alone. I would like you to look at this list and pick two or three people from each house to help you."

"This is everyone who got detention," Harry said, and she nodded.

"It is. If everyone on this list helps, it will count as one of their detentions. Make your selection and I will send them down to you for lunch and dinner. There will also be a staff member to supervise and help. Then tomorrow you can pick new people from the list. I've spoken to the Headmaster and he's agreed to move dinner to seven, so you can prepare from five to seven and not miss any classes. As for lunch, you will be allowed to miss the class before lunch."

"And the work?"

"I will see to it that you are given ample time to finish the missed work. For those on the list, they will also be allowed to miss the class before lunch, but will just have to do the work before bed."

"Ok," Harry said. He took out a quill and started circling names and then handed it to Professor McGonagall.

"Thank you Mr. Potter. You'll also receive an extra ten house points per day for doing this for us, five for each meal. Those in detention will not. If you will please hurry down to the kitchen, I will have these students sent down to you. Lunch will still be served at noon, so I would suggest something easy."

"Yes maam."

Harry hurried down to the kitchen, which was empty, and suddenly didn't feel like this was fun anymore. Now it was a chore, just like at the Dursleys, although he was at least earning extra points for this. What about Quidditch games though? Would he have to do this on Quidditch days and miss games and practices? What if the elves never came back?

Harry went to the fridges and found a lot of leftover ham. If he could slice it thinner with a spell then they could do sandwiches again. They'd still have to bake bread though, and if he was lucky he'd get it done in an hour with magic since the dough took time to rise. Maybe some sort of time charm to speed things up?

The portrait of the pear opened and Ginny came in with Dean and Parvati Patil, his choices from Gryffindor, and before it closed, more students filed in. He'd decided to leave Draco for another day and had chosen three first year Slytherins he didn't have an issue with.

"What do you want us to do?" Ginny asked.

"We need to make bread, slice the meat thinner, and set out condiments on the tables. Ginny, you help me with bread. Ernie," he turned to Ernie McMillan, who looked irritated to be there doing such menial work. "You take charge of setting out food in the lower Great Hall. Take the other two Ravenclaws with you. Dean and Parvati," slice the meat thin for sandwiches. The ham is in the fridges against that wall."

"What about us?" asked one of the first year Slytherins. "You'll help with bread. We'll set it up assembly line style."

"What line style?" Ginny asked, and Harry shook his head. He pulled out a cook book and looked up the recipe for bread and then had the Slytherins bring the ingredients in while Ginny set out bowls and he set out untensils. He and Ginny measured out the wet and dry ingredients in five large bowls and then they each took a bowl and began to knead it. When they were done, Ginny put a bubble time spell on the bowls to speed up the rising process, and then they cut them into loafs and put them in the oven. By that time, Ernie and the other Ravenclaws were done with the table and Dean and Parvati were done with the meat.

"We have half an hour left," Ernie said.

Harry levitated a box of carrots to the counter near a large sink and said, "Fine, we'll do carrots. Slytherins wash, Ravenclaws, fill a big pot with water and get it heated up to boiling, and then come help us slice them up with a spell. It took them until five minutes to lunch to get the carrots done, at which point Harry had Dean and Parvati help him and Ginny slice up all the bread and had the rest put the carrots and meat out onto the tables. Harry couldn't help but feeling, like he had last night, as though they'd just finished in the nick of time.

"Start sending it up." He showed the third years the spell and had them go along the tables while he sent water and pumpkin juice up to pitchers, which he'd had the foresight to have the Ravenclaws set out this time. When the food was gone, he called everyone back into the kitchen where he'd had them keep enough food back for themselves and told them to eat so they could hurry up and start cleaning. Luckily, after only fifteen minutes though, the portrait of the ticklish pear opened and 12 more students came in to help them wash dishes.

"You lot come back at five," he said to those that had helped him with lunch, and he sent them on their way. Apparently other detention goers were supposed to do the clean up as they had the night before. Where was the staff member though? McGonagall had said there was supposed to be someone there to help him.

Harry found a sheet of parchment and quill in a drawer and began to write down a dinner menu. His plan was for chicken, rolls, and green beans, and beyond that he didn't know, becuase the food was running short. He had no idea how the elves got more, and only hoped that McGonagall would come down for dinner service so he could ask. Hooch came in to hurry them all out of the kitchen and off to class, and Harry left the parchment and quill on the counter, worry filling him. I am not an elf, he told himself, even though he didn't believe it.

* * *

Harry ran out of the defense room at ten til five and raced down through the castle to the kitchen. He flung open the portrait and was surprised to find the lights already on. Someone was in here. The box of green beans was open and there were green beans in a large strainer next to the sink. Had the other students come early and seen the list? There was a noise in the store room so he decided to see for himself.

As he stood in the doorway, he could see that it wasn't the students who had come early to help, and his heart sank. Snape was bent over a box, with a white apron tied around his waist, rumaging through food stuffs.

"What did you plan on seasoning the chicken with Potter?"

"Sir?"

Snape stood up with several jars of seasoning in his arms.

"The chicken Potter, the chicken."

"Oh, I- I hadn't gotten that far yet."

"Of course not."

Snape moved past him and into the kitchen, setting the seasoning down next to several other seasoning jars he'd pulled out.

"And the green beans?"

"The beans sir?"

"Yes Potter, the beans!" he snapped out at him, irritated. "What seasoning?"

"I- wasn't going to season them."

Severus shook his head. "The elves season them."

"I didn't think we had time," Harry said in defense of his menu choices. Not only that, but Harry never seasoned the green beans at home. Dudley was a very picky eater and it had never crossed his mind to do anything with them except cook them with bacon. Bacon was a guarantee that Dudley would eat something, even if it was something he didn't like.

Harry watched as Snape pulled out a bowl and started pouring seasoning in from different jars. Harry hoped it wouldn't taste awful on the beans, or the chicken, or whatever he was planning on putting it on. Wizards didn't usually know how to cook, or at least men didn't, he revised his statement to himself, because Mrs. Weasley was a wonderful cook.

"What's that for?" Harry asked, and Snape shook seasoning into the bowl harder as if it was his only outlet for the anger and irritation he had towards Harry.

"Potter, if you insist on being idiotic, please refrain from doing so out loud. We have been talking about chicken and beans. Use that dunderhead brain of yours and put things together."

"So- so you're helping?"

A loud sigh of frustration was all he got in return, so Harry set his bookbag down, washed his hands, and started pulling out the ingredients to make rolls. If he could get it all into bowls now, then students could mix it and knead it when they came down, hopefully soon. Harry didn't like being in a room alone with Snape, and never thought he'd be in a room with Snape, cooking together. Did this mean that Snape was in charge now? Was he still allowed to direct students to do as he needed, or was Snape going to do that? Would Snape be making the meal plans from now on, or would it be a different teacher every night? And why wasn't he there for lunch to help?

The door opened and Ginny came in alone, putting her book bag next to Harry's. She stopped at the sight of Snape, and then went to wash her hands before coming to stand next to Harry. "What's on the menu?"

"Chicken, rolls, green beans."

"What about desert?"

Harry looked up. He hadn't thought of that. The elves always did make some sort of desert. Was he expected to also? Last night had been an exception, because it had been the halloween feast.

"Cookies," Snape said, and then was silent again as he went to the fridge and began pulling out chickens to take to the counter next to his bowl of seasoning.

"Ok," Ginny said, "cookies. Want me to do that Harry?"

"Sure," he said, feeling overwhelmed.

"I help mum with them. She likes to make them in different shapes and colors. I'll make owl cookies."

"I just need them to get done," Harry said as he kept measuring out flour and putting it into bowls.

Ginny went to the desert station and began getting things out to make cookies as the rest of the dinner crew filed in. The Slytherins seemed pleased to see their Head of house, but no one else did.

"Wash the beans," Harry directed the three first year Slytherins. "Parvati, and Dean, help Ginny with cookies," he directed, and they moved to do as they were told. What now? Harry wondered. Did Snape want help? Could Harry tell someone to go help him? The man would be mad if he did, he thought as he bit his lip.

"Would you like help with the chickens sir?" Harry asked, trying not to sound timid.

"Yes," was the only response he got, so Harry sent Ernie to help him and had the other Ravenclaw help him begin to knead the dough for dinner rolls.

As the evening wore on, Harry had people move to new tasks as old ones were completed, and by seven, was pleased to find that they weren't rushing at all as they began to send food up to the Great Hall, including delicious looking seasoned chicken and green beans, and Ginny's admittedly cute looking owl cookies. Harry sent his helpers up to the Great Hall to eat, hoping it would mean he was allowed to leave too so that he wouldn't have to eat down there with Snape, but he wasn't sure if Snape would let him leave or not and he was afraid to ask. Some pickle he'd gotten himself into, he thought. Everyone was gone and it was just him and Snape now.

"Your cooking skills were... sufficient," Snape said after a moment when he was done washing his hands. He untied the waist apron.

"Thank you," Harry said quietly.

"I do not know many thirteen year olds that can cook."

Harry bit his lip. "You do now." And it was almost true, because in the past two days he'd had a lot of students down there helping him.

"Indeed."

Just as Harry started to bite his lip again, Snape waved him away. "Be gone Potter. Go up to the Great Hall and eat."

Harry turned to make haste for the door, but stopped. "Sir, the food is almost gone."

"As I have seen."

"How do we get more?"

Snape gave him a hard look and then went over to a list on the wall. "Write what is needed on this list and the grocers Hogwarts procure food from will send it within twelve hours. I assume you have a meal plan for the next week already?"

Harry shook his head. No, actually he didn't. That was something he did at home so aunt Petunia could buy groceries for the week, but here he'd just suddenly been thrust into the situation.

"I suggest you make one then Potter, and come back down here after you're done eating so that you can make the grocers a list."

"You're- leaving it up to me?"

Snape put his hands on his hips and looked a little ridiculous for just a moment because there was a flour hand print on his otherwise pristine black trousers.

"Did I not say that your preformance was satisfactory?"

Something like that, Harry thought. He left his book bag by the door and left to go join his friends in the Great Hall. Well, that was wierd. Snape hadn't yelled at him tonight, not really, and he'd almost given Harry a compliment. What was more, was that he was trusting Harry to order food for 300 people for the next week.

"Harry! This chicken is great!" Ron called out to him as he neared his usual spot at Gryffindor table. Harry looked at the chicken he'd just helped send up to the Great Hall not five minutes ago.

"Really Harry," Ron said. "This should have been at the feast." Harry put some on his plate and took a bite and paused mid chew. It was really very good. Snape had done this. Snape knew how to cook.

"The green beans are great too," Seamus said. "Almost like me mum makes them."

Harry tried them too and almost laughed to himself. So that was why Snape had been sent to help. He could cook.

"Snape made them," Harry said then, and those who hadn't been there helping stopped to stare at him.

"He did," Dean said then.

"Oy," Ron said. "He must have poisoned them," but then he took another bite. McGonagall rose a few minutes later and called a list of names, and even though Harry's wasn't on it, he scarfed down the rest of his meal and left with the 12 that were being sent for clean-up duty.

Snape was still in the Kitchen when he got down there, and Harry went straight to the list. Snape had already written down several things such as, 100 gallons of pumpkin juice, 20 crates of apples, 2 barrels of rolled oats, 50 pounds of flour and 20 pounds of sugar. There were also a handfull of spices written down. Harry sighed and wondered what to make and how much to order, and he suspected that this was why Snape had stuck around instead of going back up to the Great Hall.

Maybe if Harry wrote out a meal plan on another sheet of parchment, then he could ask Snape (and hopefully not get yelled at), to help him figure out the ammounts of food and ingredients to make up those meals. Well, it was a good place to start anyhow, so Harry began writing.

Thursday:
Breakfast - Oatmeal, peaches, and Orange Juice
Lunch - Turkey sandwiches, pumpkin juice
Dinner - Corned Beef, cabbage, pumpkin juice, strawberry cupcakes

After ten minutes he had a 5 day meal plan, and thought he'd better not plan further ahead than that in case the elves came back, and because he didn't think they could store that much food unless there was another store room he didn't know about.

He didn't have to ask for Snape to come look over his list, because he turned around and was startled to find him there reading it over his shoulder already.

"This is acceptable Potter," Snape said, and Harry couldn't help but feel like the man might have been just a little bit impressed.

"You know how to cook all of these things?"

"Yes sir."

"And you wish to serve oatmeal for breakfast each morning?"

Harry shrugged. He didn't mind getting up early to do breakfast, but eggs for that many people was too much of a task.

"I wasn't sure what else to do. Eggs are ok for a few people, but for 300..." he trailed off.

"I would suggest serving eggs for two days. One day you can serve them scrambled, and another you can serve them boiled and the students can peel them themselves. I would suggest oatmeal for two days, and some sort of fruit salad for one day. It will keep the students from complaining."

Harry thought it over. If he could do scrambled eggs on a Saturday or Sunday and ensure he had people there to help him crack them all early and cook them, then it could be doable.

"Ok," Harry said. He made the changes to the list and wrote in parenthesis (3 eggs per person) next to scrambled, and (2 eggs per person) next to boiled. He handed the list to Snape, but he didn't take it.

"I-" he hesitated, and then finished, "was hoping you could help me figure out how much food to order."

Snape took the list and set it back down in front of Harry. "I will figure out dinners and lunches, you will figure out breakfasts. I have already put enough rolled oats on the order list for breakfasts and oatmeal cookies. I would suggest you come up with a side for your egg dishes. Perhaps bangers and tomatoes."

Harry began scratching out numbers next to the breakfasts on his list and when Snape was done writing things down on the order form, he wrote his ingredients down as well, noting that Snape had already put down hundreds of eggs, probably for the cupcakes and cookies and other deserts they would have to make.

"You may go Potter. You must be back here two and a half hours before breakfast tomorrow to sort through and store the food that will come in over night." Harry nodded, still feeling odd about their exchange, and left, the other students having already finished their cleaning and having gone back to their own common rooms.

* * *

Harry rose early and roused a grouchy Ron from sleep.

"Wassit?"

"You're on my list today. Come help me with supplies."

"S'three thirty!" Ron said, voice high as if Harry were crazy.

"We need to get down there."

"Is everyone else going this early?"

"No, but you're my best mate."

Ron grumbled and finally threw his pillow at Harry, but he did rise up, hair a mess and started getting dressed. Harry left him to it, already dressed, and went do see if he could find some way to rouse Hermione without going into the girl's dorms. She didn't have to help, but he hoped she would. He had a plan and he hoped that he could get all the food sorted and start on it.

When Ron came down the stairs, Harry was there with Hermione and Ginny both.

"Oh good," he said with a yawn. "You have help. I'll just go back to bed."

"Not so fast," Ginny said. She marched over to him and took his ear, dragging him to the portrait hole, much in the same way Harry imagined Mrs. Weasley would do.

"Today you're not helping because you have detention, you're helping becuase you're Harry's friend."

"Ok ok, get off!" She let go of his ear, and was satisfied that he was fully awake now.

"Come on. We don't have to be there til' 4:30 but it's almost four and I want to get started."

The halls were empty, and Harry was certain that Filch and the other staff would all be asleep, so they wouldn't get in trouble for being out so late, or rather so early. The official curfew for morning was usually 5:30, though Harry had never heard of anyone getting detention for being out too early.

"What are we doing anyway?" Ron asked, but he closed his mouth as they rounded the corner into the Kitchen/Hufflepuff corridor. The hall was filled with boxes almost up to the ceiling and there was a narrow path between them all. "What?"

"Come on, lets start in the kitchen," Harry said.

The kitchen had boxes on every counter and island.

"I want all the boxes with vegetables against that wall like they were before," Harry said. Each stack should have one kind of vegetable. Fruits go on this wall where the bookbags usually go. Put meats, milk, and eggs away in their own separate fridges. Spices, sugars, and flours go in the pantry on their own shelves. Put all cake decorating supplies in the cupboard above the desert station."

"So-" Ron said, and then paused.

"Pick a box, find out what's in it, and put it away," Harry said, and they set to work, eventually moving into the hallway to carry more boxes in to sort and put away.

"I think this tower of tomato boxes is going to fall mate," Ron said, holding a box of tomatoes and looking up at the ominously high pile of boxes against the wall already.

"Start a new pile," Harry said.

"I think that's all the meat Harry," Hermione told him, and he nodded.

He looked at his watch. The work had gone a lot faster than he'd thought with four of them. It was only four thirty.

"Can I go back to bed now?" Ron asked, throwing his thumb over his shoulder towards the door.

"No, we need to bake 40 extra cupcakes and it would be nice if we could get all those done plus the 300 we need for dinner before the breakfast crew arrives."

"And then I can go back to bed?"

"No Ron," Ginny said, "and then you can join the breakfast crew." Ron grumbled and Harry laughed.

They set to work and Harry let Ginny take charge of the operation since she seemed to like baking. She set the operation up like an assembly line like Harry had shown her the other day, and soon they had dozens of cupcakes in seven different ovens.

"That's 250," Ginny said, and Harry looked at his watch. "It's almost five. If you and Hermione want to go, you can."

"No, I'll stay and finish up the other cupcakes so you can do breakfast," Ginny said, and Harry knew his cheeks had tinged red then because she'd looked right at him. What was that about?

"I'll help Ginny," Hermione said. "Someone's got to take these out when they're done."

The door opened and Snape stepped in with a cup of coffee, and paused. He eyed the four Gryffindors and the well ordered room now full of food and smelling like cake, and said, "Potter," before taking a sip of his coffee.

"Sir," Harry said. Ron gave him a sideways glance but said nothing.

"Um, how would we send something to the elves if we wanted to?"

"With the same spell you use to send the food to the Great Hall. You must think about the elves and whatever it is will appear there."

Harry nodded. "Can I assume you wish to send them food?"

"40 Cupcakes sir," Harry said.

Snape didn't say anything and went to inspect the pantry as Hermione and Ginny set to work making more cupcake batter. The door opened several minutes later admitting more students, and Harry set them to boiling eggs and making bacon, toast, and buttercream frosting for the hundreds of cupcakes. Breakfast went out on time and all the cupcakes were out and cooling off, the new frosting in the fridges.

"I'll be back at lunch to frost them Harry," Ginny said with a smile, and his cheeks turned red again as she waved on her way out the door.

When Harry just stood there for several long moments, Snape said, "Go to class Potter," and Harry jumped, not realizing there was still someone else there in the room with him, and hurried out after his friends.

Ginny returned at lunch as promised, and after Harry had helped get the students going on lunch duty, he helped Ginny frost the cupcakes and then set to carefully decorating each of the 40 special cupcakes in a different and unique way, with different colored sprinkles and dried fruits on top, and in some cases with chocolate shavings or chocolate chips.

"Really Potter, do you intend on decorating 300 cupcakes each in a different way?"

"No sir," Harry said. He pointed to the 300 frosted cupcakes on racks. "Those are for the students. These are for the elves. Is there a list of all of the house elf names so we can send them?"

Snape looked dubious but went to a drawer and rummaged through it for a moment before coming back with a list of all of the house elves employed at Hogwarts.

"Wait!" Ginny said, just as Harry was about to send the first one off, to Dobby. He watched as she hurried to the trays of cupcakes and pulled one more out, and quickly decorated it with stripes of different colored sprinkles and a dried strawberry on the top.

"For Mr. Filch," she said, hurrying back to Harry with it.

He let Ginny send off the cupcake to filch and she took over half of the list of elves to send them off since lunch was nearing an end and it was almost time to go back to class. Snape watched them with some interest as they hurried to send off their carefully decorated treats, and then hurried off to class.

Everyone complained through the cooking of dinner at the smell in the kitchen from cooking cabbage, but Harry ignored them as he scratched out a plan for tomorrow's treat. Ginny was waiting for him in the common room the next morning at 4:30 without having been asked, and they headed off together to make something else for the elves.

* * *

40 different cupcakes, 40 different types of cookies (mostly variations on 4 kinds of cookie dough), 40 different shapes of pulled sugar candy (which Snape had shown up early to show them how to make one day), and 40 different tiny pies. They'd all been sent to the house elves over four days, and Harry was out of ideas of what to send them.

"Why do you send them each something different?" Snape asked on Monday morning when he came in and found Harry sitting at an island counter with a recipe book.

"They said they didn't feel appreciated," Harry said. "If someone took time to make me something special and unique, it would make me feel appreciated."

"Hm." That was actually rather... thoughtful, even for a dunderhead Gryffindor, Snape thought. Potter, the spoilt brat who must be used to being showered with gifts and goodies, actually understood what it was to show appreciation. That was strange. Severus watched him as he finally settled on an idea and began to copy a recipe out of the book.

"What are you making 40 of today?"

"Muffins."

"I did not realize there were 40 different types of muffins."

"We'll figure something out."

Severus peered over Harry's shoulder and read what he was writing. 'Strawberry, chocolate chip, orange, lemon, poppy seed, plain, bannanna, pumpkin, cheese cake, chocolate, blue berry, apple, kiwi..'

"Kiwi Potter?"

"No?"

"I think not."

Harry scribbled it out and Severus was surprised yet again by the brat. He seemed to take constructive advice rather well and without an attitude, something he hadn't previously thought him capable of. Then again, he hadn't thought the brat could cook, organize a kitchen, organize a group of students to cook and clean, or be thoughtful enough to think of house elves either. Or to be one to take initiative as he had done on Halloween. His eyes followed Potter as he went about collecting ingredients for the muffins.

"What would one make you to make you feel appreciated Potter?"

Harry stopped what he was doing and looked at the Potions Master across the room. "Me?"

"That is what I said." Not that he cared to make the brat anything, but his curiosity was peaked now. He expected him to say something expensive and extravagant.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I liked it when Hagrid made me a birthday cake when he came to give me my Hogwarts letter."

"You mean a rock cake?"

Harry nodded, and Severus wondered at the smile the memory seemed to bring about from the boy. Hagrid's cakes were notoriously inedible and Severus had often wondered if there were actually rocks in the cake. No one told Hagrid that they called them 'rock' cakes, so he assumed he'd never have an answer to that question.

"You felt appreciated by a cake full of rocks." It wasn't a question, more of a statement of disbelief.

Harry nodded, and Severus narrowed his eyes. No, the boy was lying. He was trying to get some sort of attention by acting as though he were really that good.

"And you ate it?" Severus queried.

"Yes sir."

"I do not believe you."

"I ate around the hard bits. I think it's pieces he burned."

"Get out Potter." Harry looked up from the flour he'd been measuring out.

"Sir?"

"Get out."

"I don't understand."

"You're a liar Potter. All of this, it's all been a ploy. For what, I don't know yet, but that's what I intend to find out." He advanced on Harry as he spoke, and Harry backed closer and closer to the door until he had no choice but to go through it. Snape slammed it in his face, and Harry breathed hard as he listened on the other side of the door. He hoped the man would at least make the muffins so that the house elves would know they were appreciated. Feeling confused about what the man thought he had lied about, and why he'd gotten angry so suddenly, Harry headed towards the Great Hall as his selection for the day's meal crew came down, Draco amongst them. Harry tried to catch up on homework as he waited for his friends to come to breakfast, but was unable. Snape was down there without him making meals. That was Harry's job now. It was stressful at times, but the more he accomplished, and the more his friends helped him, the less he felt like a house elf as he had at the Dursleys, and the more he felt in control. Now Snape had gone and taken that away from him.

Harry stuffed his books back in his bag and headed back to the Kitchen. He eased the portrait open and peered inside. Snape was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey," Harry said softly to a first year Gryffindor who was passing by with a bag of oats.

"Yes sir?" the boy said, and Harry almost laughed at being called sir.

"Is Professor Snape in here?"

"No, he left after he gave us instructions."

Harry opened the door the rest of the way and came in to drop his book bag next to the others. "What are you making?"

"Oatmeal, bacon, and orange juice."

Harry looked around, received a sneer from Draco who was stirring oatmeal in as lazy a manner as possible, and went to work on his muffins, which hadn't even been mixed yet. If he hurried, and stayed through breakfast, maybe he could get them done and out of the oven so that they'd be ready to send off by lunch.

"Professor Snape didn't say to make anything else Potter," Draco said.

"You made the house elves mad Draco," Harry said. "I've been sending them gifts every day to get them to come back."

"Thank Gawd," Draco drawled. "I'm getting tired of your simple meals, and doing house elf work."

"You're learning a lesson," Harry reminded him. "And if you want the house elves to come back, then come help me with this batter."

Draco dropped the spoon he was using into the porrige bowl and went to Harry. "How do you even know what to do Potter?"

Harry pointed to the recipe he'd copied earlier. "It's like making potions. Only we've got one potions base and we're making 40 different potions from it."

Draco began measuring and Harry said, "Do a good job. They'll know if you do something bad to them." Draco rolled his eyes and kept measuring.

Harry had just put the last batch of muffins in when the portrait opened again and Snape came in, looking perterbed about something. Harry ducked, and seeing this, the first year Gryffindor he'd talked to earlier hurried over to ask Snape a question to give him time to escape through the storage room and into the lower Great Hall. From here, Harry had nowhere to go, but hopefully since most of the food was on the tables Snape wouldn't come in here. Just in case, he went to the far end of Gryffindor table and hid under it. A few minutes later he heard Snape telling them all how to do the spell, and then the older students came in to start sending food up to the Great Hall.

"Pathetic Potter," Draco said as he passed him hiding under the table. Harry didn't say anything though and waited until they'd all gone, presumably back up to the Great Hall themselves to eat.

Then Harry snuck out from his hiding place and went back into the kitchen.

"I knew you were here," Snape said in an icy voice, and Harry straightened up. Apparently he'd been hiding himself because Harry hadn't seen him when he'd come in.

"Sir," Harry said, sounding and feeling guilty.

"The muffins were in the ovens and no one else knew what you had planned to make."

"I have to sir!" Harry said. "You heard what the house elves said! It's not nice to feel overworked and not appreciated. Its not nice at all to feel like you're not respected."

"I do not recall your name on the list of people in detention Potter," Snape spat out, suddenly angry again, and Harry recoiled a little at his tone.

"So what! I don't have to be in trouble to do something nice! No one else is going to do it! The house elves all take care of us, and no one takes care of them!" He was practically shouting by the end, and wondering at the same time what he was doing. It wasn't smart to shout at Snape. It wasn't smart at all.

"And you would know, would you Potter? You would know what it's like to be a house elf?" He wanted to say that before the last week the boy had probably never had to do anything for anybody, but he did know how to cook, and that contradicted some of what he liked to believe about the boy.

"Do I have to know to be nice? Why can't I just be nice becuase I feel like showing my appreciation for them? Why can't you just be nice instead of always believing the worst in me?"

"Because," Snape spat, slamming his hands down on the island. He was angry and he knew he should stop, but he didn't. "I know where you come from Potter. I know what your father was like."

"Well, good," Harry said halfheartedly, throwing his hands up in the air. His chest felt constricted and he hoped the hot angry tears that were behind his eyes wouldn't come out in front of this man. "I'm glad someone knows what he was like, becuase I don't. I'm glad someone knows where I come from... wait, that's me. I know where I come from. You have no idea. If you did, you wouldn't think the things you do. Or you would, because I'm just a house elf to everybody, and that's all I've ever been." Harry stormed to the portrait, breathing heavily and just hoping to escape, but as he flung it open he turned and pointed at the ovens and said angrily, "You'd better pull those out before they burn if you want to get out of this kitchen. I'm sure that's all that matters to you, is you." And then he was gone.

He could hear Snape shouting at him as he went into the hallway, but Harry was afraid his disrespect would bring Snape into the corridor after him, so he ran. He didn't go back to the Great Hall for breakfast and instead ran right up to his dorm and threw a locking charm at the door before he flung himself down on the bed.

"I appreciate you Dobby," Harry said to thin air. "I know what it's like to be a house elf."

Harry didn't intend on going to classes for the rest of the day. He was too tired and too afraid of facing Snape down to leave the dormitory. Ron came to check on him at lunch and told him that Hermione wanted him to come to classes, but he still didn't go. "What's got you riled anyway?"

"Snape."

"What about him? You know he's a git."

"He said I was only working in the kitchen for attention, and a load of other stuff. Like I was spoiled and pampered. He always puts me down."

Ron patted Harry on the shoulder. "Don't listen to him mate."

"Yeah," Harry said, but he was feeling glum and Ron seemed to notice, so he left him alone.

* * *

"I have something to say to you."

Severus spun around to find Ron behind him in the kitchen. Lunch was almost over and the lunch crew had already gone to eat in the Great Hall.

"And what makes you think I want to hear it?"

"You don't, but you don't have a choice. You've made my friend feel like garbage and he doesn't need that. I think he feels like that all on his own without you most of the time. Here he goes and does something good, and tries to turn a bad situation around, and you have to put him down for doing it. He hasn't even eaten today. You're supposed to be a teacher. I thought teachers were supposed to care about their students."

"It would be best if you were silent Weasley," Severus sneered, but Ron seemed determined.

"No, it wouldn't. Everybody's always silent about Harry. Well I'm done. He deserves better than what he's got at home for family, and he deserves better than what he's got here as a Potions teacher who's supposed to be down here helping him. He didn't have to do this you know. He hates cooking and cleaning because he has to do it so much at home, but he does it anyway."

"You do not know what you speak of Weasley. And you can schedule yourself for another detention for speaking to your superior in such a way."

"Fine, go ahead. Mum will back me up on this one. I won't get into trouble for sticking up for Harry."

"You stick up for someone you do not even know. He's got you wrapped around his finger, believing lies about poor, orphaned Harry Potter. I know for a fact that he's pampered and his family is well paid to take care of him."

"His family is well paid to put bars up on his windows and locks on his bedroom door so he can't get out except to do chores and cook meals for them. He doesn't see a penny of any money aside from that. He buys all of his own school clothes and books from his mum and dad's vault."

"Nonsense."

"It's not. Fred and George and I rescued him in the summer before our second year. We flew my dad's car to his bedroom window and broke the bars off to get him out. You're the one who doesn't know what he's talking about. So until you figure it out, just leave him alone."

Ron walked out of the kitchen and Severus was left there trying to work out what he'd been told. Bars on the brat's window? Impossible. The Headmaster would know... wouldn't he? He left to find out in the little time he had before his next class. He couldn't find the Headmaster, but he did run into Hagrid, who described having to hand deliver Harry's letter to the rock on the sea, where Harry slept on the floor. He also described the boy's cousin stealing part of his birthday cake, and about where the boy's initial letters were addressed to: 'The Cupboard Under The Stairs."

Severus' head was spinning. Two accounts of the boy's home life, and the boy's own admission that he knew what it felt like to feel overworked and underappreciated. Things were starting to make sense, and he was still trying to work through those things as he finished his afternoon classes and went back to the kitchen for dinner. He expected it to be empty, but it was packed with students and house elves alike.

"What- is going on here?"

"We're making things to appreciate Harry Potter sir!" Dobby said, bounding up to him with a smile. "Harry Potter appreciated us sir! We is happy to be comming back to work and showing him love and appreciation too!"

"Mr. Poole," Snape said as Evan passed by with a single cupcake, over decorated as seemed to be the boy's style.

"Yes sir?"

"What are you doing?"

"Making cake for Harry. He's the reason we've eaten all week." He went into the lower Great Hall along with several other students who had made sweet treats.

"We're not all making junk food," Hermione assured him. "He's got to eat something normal or else he's going to be sick," and he watched as she took a plate of food into the lower Great Hall, followed by Ginny who had a glass of pumpkin juice and a tray of cookies.

Students bumped into each other and into the house elves, though they seemed quick to apologize to the house elves whenever it happened.

"You need to make one too," Ron said grudgingly as he walked by with a muffin, not bothering to look up.

"Here sir," Tinky, another house elf said, and she handed Snape a bowl of batter. "That's for cupcakes. Headmaster Dumbledore and the other professors has already been in and out making things."

Severus stood there with the bowl feeling rather dumb. If what Weasley and Hagrid had said was true, cupcakes and cookies weren't going to make up for the things Harry had apparently gone through, nor would they make up for the way he had acted towards the boy. He set the bowl down. No, he needed to do something else. Something different. 'They always take care of everybody, but there's no one to take care of them.' Harry's words about the house elves from earlier that day came back to him. Did they also ring true for Harry? He took care of others but there was no one to take care of him? He would see.

* * *

Harry was almost asleep, lying on his back in the bed as his stomach grumbled when there was a soft pop. He opened his eyes and looked around, and was surprised to find a colorful, over decorated cupcake on his night stand. What was this? It looked like Evan's handywork. He was just reaching for it when there was another pop and a plate of owl cookies appeared on his night stand. "What?" These had to be from Ginny, but why were they sending him cookies and cupcakes?

Pop. There was a plate of food and a note on top of it with Hermione's tidy scrawl reading, 'Eat dinner first.' And almost immediately another pop and next to the plate appeared a muffin with a note in Ron's handwriting saying, 'Nah eat the good stuff first.'

Pop, pop, pop. Snacks of all shapes, colors, and sizes started to appear on napkins and plates on his bed, and another pop brought an entire cake on a platter right onto his lap. He startled so much that he almost dumped the whole thing onto the floor. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Candy, fruit, chocolate bars, bags of every flavor beans scattering across his floor. There was no room for it all and, almost as if the entire kitchen had decided to appear in his room, there was a thunder of popping noises and cupcakes and cookies started to fall from the ceiling, the only thing protecting Harry's head, the drapes over the top of his four poster bed.

"Ahh!"

"Harry Potter!"

Harry opened his eyes amidst the treats still raining down to find Dobby beside his bed, trying to shield his head from the onslaught of treats.

"Dobby, what's going on?"

"Harry Potter's friends wished to send him thank you presents, to show him appreciation for all of his hard work. All of the elves is sending treats too. We is back at work because we is proud of how the school stepped up and followed Harry Potter's lead. Dobby was being so proud of his friend Harry Potter for going to the kitchen like he did on the first day, and we is all feeling loved and appreciated when Harry Potter decided to send us gifts."

"But," Harry said, this is so much food! What will I do with it all?"

"That is up to Harry Potter sir," Dobby said. "I suggests swimming in it." Dobby disappeared as the cookies and candies still rained down from the ceiling. Almost as soon as he had gone, the door to the dorm opened to reveal Ron and Hermione and the other third year Gryffindor boys.

"Oy!" Ron said. Harry was laughing and he didn't stop when his friends appeared.

"You going to eat all this?" Ron asked. Harry motioned for him to come in if he could as the last of the candies appeared at the ceiling and fell to the ground on top of the smashed cakes and other goodies.

"I don't know what to do with it," Harry said. "People really made all this for me?"

"You made all that food all week for us."

Ron moved aside and Hermione was finally able to see into the room. She covered her mouth.

"Where will we sleep?" Neville asked, and Dean and Seamus laughed, walking right into the cakes and pies and muffins ankle deep.

"Find all the candies," Seamus said. "We'll be stocked until next Halloween."

"Take them!" Harry said. "Take it all."

"Just not the dinner part," Hermione said. She used her wand to clear the treats off the top of Harry's plate of dinner and then levitated it onto Harry's lap.

"Yes mum," Dean teased, as Harry took a bite.

* * *

"I want to know," said Harry on their way to classes the next day. "How did you all know what I had said to Snape about making unique things to appreciate the elves?"

"Not from Snape," Ron said. "Dobby told us. The elves never left the castle. They've been around, watching us do detention, watching you cook, and listening."

Harry grinned, glad to know that he had made the elves feel appreciated and happy and that they had come back.

"Well," Harry said, "thanks." They had eaten sweets last night (the entire house had), until their bellies ached and then, not knowing what to do with the mess, the third year boys had gone to bed. When they'd woken in the morning, the gooey, sticky, frosting filled mess was gone, though Ron had found bits of cake tucked into the bottom of one of his shoes (something Harry suspected that Dobby had done).

"I'm glad they're back," Ron said. "Everything's back to normal now."

"Hey Potter," Draco called from down the hall. "Make me something to eat. I'm starving." Harry was just about to ask him if he'd learned nothing at all about how to treat others, but Snape swept past Draco then and said, "That will be enough Mr. Malfoy." Harry and Ron raised their brows but said nothing until Snape walked right up to them and handed Harry an envelope.

"Read it Potter," he said, and then he swept away, robes billowing behind them.

"What do you think it is?" Ron asked. Harry shrugged, and opened the envelope. There was a piece of paper inside with Snape's loopy script. Harry read it and then stuffed it back into the envelope.

"What does it say?" Ron asked.

"I get to stay at the castle over the summer instead of going back to the Dursleys, and something about you having detention."

Ron grinned, sure he knew what the letter had been about. "Yeah, well, I'm ok with one more detention. He moved off to talk to Hermione who was already waiting outside the Charms classroom. Harry pulled out the letter and read it again, just to be certain his eyes hadn't been playing tricks on him.

'Mr. Potter,
It has come to my attention that your home life is less than satisfactory. Seeing as how you are not appreciated or respected there, you will be allowed to stay at the castle over all future holidays so that you can be afforded these rights. You will be under the direct supervision of a staff member during holidays, which I regret to inform you is me. If you can stand such an arrangement, I belive I can forgo putting you down during said holidays. If this is agreeable to you, respond at your earliest convenience.

P.S. Tell Mr. Weasley that he still owes me a detention.

-S. Snape'

Harry shook his head in disbelief. Snape wanted him to feel appreciated and respected, so he had worked it out to let him stay at the castle... who would have thought? Anything was better than the Dursleys, and working with Snape hadn't been entirely terrible in the kitchens over the past week. At least Harry knew now that he'd eat well over the holidays. He hurried to stand in line with Ron and Hermione, and even with Ron's knowing look, he couldn't wipe the smile from his face.