Draco, Hermione, and the others had come with Harry.
They watched Harry struggle to drag Sirius away.
None of them stepped forward to help. It was only out of consideration for Harry that they had refrained from joining in the jeering.
Hermione had considered helping, but ultimately decided against it. Even with her kind heart, she felt Sirius was being utterly unreasonable.
Hermione turned her gaze toward the Castle's house-elves, who had rarely appeared in public before, her eyes full of satisfaction.
Then she could not help sighing.
Besides taking twelve subjects and handling some of the school affairs in Alice's place, she also had to investigate the young wizards' disappearances.
Even with a Time-Turner, she was nearly run ragged.
Otherwise, she would have long since founded a Society for the Promotion of House-elf Welfare. She had even thought up the name: S.P.E.W.
Ahem. In the original story, that name had also been mocked for spelling "spew."
Now that Hermione saw the house-elves actually knew how to stand up for themselves, she immediately approached them in delight.
"That's exactly what you should do! Don't be afraid of wizards. We're all intelligent beings. You weren't born to be servants. We all have the same rights..."
Before Hermione could finish, the house-elves shrank back as though they had seen a lunatic, then Disapparated one after another.
"..."
Hermione stood with her mouth hanging open, speechless and stunned by their reaction.
Draco said in amusement,
"Hermione, it's no use. House-elves are born lowly. Serving wizards is a belief etched into their very bones."
"Nonsense! The Chief can accept even werewolves and vampires, let alone house-elves.
"We are equals! Professor Lupin is a werewolf himself, and that's what he teaches us in his wizarding ethics class."
Hermione retorted indignantly, but Draco remained unconvinced.
"There's