Dobby's shrill voice successfully drove away the last traces of Douglas's drowsiness.
"Morning, Dobby."
Douglas rubbed his messy hair and took the hot towel Dobby handed him.
"What's for breakfast?"
Dobby wore an immaculately pressed miniature tailcoat, offering his greetings as he gave his report.
"Breakfast is your favorite Italian curd and mushroom bisque, Chinese yeast-steamed minced meat and molten cheese buns, British spice-simmered soft-centered amber eggs, and Spanish golden twisted pastry sticks.
Today's Daily Prophet front page is about the Ministry of Magic's announcement implementing your proposed plan..."
Douglas froze for a moment at Dobby's description of the food.
Then he looked at the table: tofu pudding, soup dumplings, tea eggs, and, well... fried dough sticks...
Douglas was rather speechless. Where had Dobby learned these new terms this time...?
"Dobby, just use their original names from now on. Those were names used by Eastern aristocrats to begin with. You really should read less unreliable material."
Had Dobby not already changed so much, Douglas would never have dared openly point out his mistakes like this. Otherwise, he would have made a crashing, clattering fuss like an ordinary house-elf.
Dobby merely nodded respectfully, then noted it down in his little notebook.
As Douglas ate, he asked:
"Dobby, have you made any progress finding a suitable magical item workshop, as I asked you yesterday?"
Dobby immediately straightened his little frame and said:
"Sir, Dobby inspected every shop listed for sale in Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. Three of them more or less meet your requirements."
Douglas nodded and said:
"All right. Discuss it with Lupin and that dog later, and decide on a location."
His original plan had been to recruit a few people from each year's graduates, since production did not need to be particularly high.
But since werewolves were going