Wednesday morning, before lunch
"Yes? Mays wees helps youz, young master?" a house-elf asked Harry as he came into the kitchen.
"Sure. Got a grilled cheese?"
"Child's play, young master," the house-elf snapped a finger and the sandwich appeared.
"On sourdough?"
A snap had the sandwich disappear and another snap had a new sandwich appear.
"With Munster cheese?"
"Swissy be standard, young master."
"Just trying to keep you fellahs on your toes," Harry grinned helpfully. "Oh, and you might want to check the expiration date on the cheese as the best slices to use are just a day or two outside of it going bad."
A snap had the second sandwich disappear and several heads were bobbing up and down behind tables as elves scampered to find the best slice available.
"I'm Harry by the way," Harry held out his hand to the house-elf.
The little being's eyes got big as a truly wondrous wizard wanted to shake his lowly hand. Sniff, it was almost too much and he almost broke into tears, but Gimpy was made of sterner stuff. After all, his mother had named him Gimpy of all things! By the evilness of dust bunnies everywhere, what was she thinking!
"Mees Gimpy, young master," and they shook hands. Once done, Harry released and his hands went back by his side while Gimpy simply stared at his hands in shock. The young master had actually shook his hand like… an equal!
"Say, Gimpy, you're in charge here, right?"
"Yes, young master. Gimpy has been in charge of the kitchen and laundry vats for many years."
"That's great. Ah, here comes my sandwich."
Another elf brought up the sandwich to Harry on a plate and he did a quick once-over to see if any hairs or dirt was on it. It was clean so he took a cautious bite and feeling that there were no egg shells or other things inside the bread, he began to chew. Yum.
"Oh, this is great, Gimpy. My compliments to your staff. You fellahs…"
"… and girls, young master!" squeaked a voice from the back, near a huge cauldron boiling over an open flame.
"And girls," Harry amended. "Your people are doing top notch work here and I for one cannot say how pleased I am to have such good working and dedicated elves like yourselves here. I came by to introduce myself to you and let you know that as a Hogwarts apprentice, I'll be researching how Hogwarts works for the next few years so don't be surprised if you see me in odd locations now and then."
"I's will let the other house-elves know, young master. Even Pucey who runs all the room cleaning elves. Not that I's wouldn't not tells him even thoughs he doesn't deserves to know after everythings like he thinks he shoulds. Not since… that night…"
After a few seconds of silence, another kitchen-elf Harry later learned was Mamosy said, "Youze gots to excuse Gimpy, young master. Pucey and Gimpy has been fighting ever since Pucey said Gimpy not using enough bleach in laundry."
"O… kay?"
"And that led to Gimpy sezing to Pucey that he not vacuum enough in common rooms and dirts still everywhere," Mamosy supplied.
"And I take it things just escalated from there?"
"Oh, yes, young master. Just yesterday Pucey said chocolate pudding not chocolaty enough."
"Scandalous," Harry said, quickly thinking. He quickly came up with a plan. It was certainly going to pay off going home earlier today to get something to drink. "Gimpy? Gimpy? Gimpy!"
"Yes, young master? Dids you needs something more? Baklava maybes? It's hard to make, but wes can do it."
"Actually, I thought of something that could help you. I've noticed that at the dining tables the drink selections are tea, water, and pumpkin juice. Have you ever heard of Pepsi?"
"Who's that? She works for Pucey?"
"Actually, Pepsi is a drink. Like this one," Harry said, pulling out the can of drink he'd taken from home earlier that morning. He'd kept it hidden in a shadow in his pocket which kept it nice and cool.
"I'm sure a lot of the students here would love to have something like this. You can get them in virtually any muggle convenience store. All you need to do is put the can on the table and if any of the purebloods don't know how to open it, those with muggle ties can always help. And best yet, if no one drinks a can, it can be saved and used again next time."
"That sounds likes it would save us time to prepare meals!" exclaimed a shocked and aghast elf.
"Actually, it won't. Because you need to shake up the contents of every can to mix the beverage juices together into a good flavor. And if you don't have enough time to do it, then you could always just do it for the head table and let the student tables shake it up themselves. In fact, the first time you serve a drink like this in any school, it is tradition to let the teaching staff partake of it first before allowing the students to have any. Here, why don't you take this can: that way all you have to do tonight is just shake it up and put it in on the head table, say, in front of the potions master? I heard he liked this drink. I bet he'd love to have it."
"Thank yous, young master!"
"Don't mention it," Harry replied. "And remember: the more shaking the better!"
....
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