After several rounds of back and forth, with Dobby arguing his case ("Dobby cannot take so much money, Dobby is very small, with small hands and little strength, so Dobby's wages should be lower than wizards'!"),
and Dumbledore presenting facts and evidence ("Your soul is great, Dobby. You gave away property worth over three thousand Galleons without hesitation-you did the right thing when temptation came knocking at your door."),
Dobby the job seeker finally secured a position with the Hogwarts House-elf Department paying sixty Galleons a month.
The envelope that spat out the employment contract and explained the job this time was a different one, a size smaller than the envelope Brian knew. It stumbled over its words, plainly out of practice ("The main, er, duties are-ahem, let me find them-"). Finally, the envelope let out a long breath and said to Dobby, sounding rather moved,
"Thank goodness for you! Otherwise, I really would have forgotten how to give that job introduction-all the house-elves at Hogwarts except you refuse to sign contracts. They say it shows disloyalty to Hogwarts-which might be good for Hogwarts, but it's absolutely dreadful for me-no work, only sleep, even a clever envelope turns stupid!"
Having finally returned to work after so long, the envelope smacked its lips twice after this speech, savored the experience for a while, then happily lay back down in its compartment in the cabinet to continue turning stupid. Dobby remained behind, pinching his own face as though in a dream and murmuring,
"Dobby's face hurts. Dobby isn't dreaming-sixty Galleons, too much, far too much-how could Dobby ever use so much money?"
In Dobby's original plans, thirty Galleons a month would already have been extremely generous pay-more than enough to buy himself a new outfit every month. He could even... on every