Camp Potter: First Aid – Week 5 [prejudice; gold; shame]

The Ultimate Side of Disney Movie Challenge: Ratatouille

Worth

You had always been treated with prejudice. Your masters had always looked down at you and taunted you further with every mistake, every punishment you had to endure only reminded them of another mistake you had made some time long ago. They told you to punish yourself again, and again over the same mistake.

That was part of why you were there, surrounded by opulence yet covered in rags. You were worth nothing to them, and you knew it. Yet this was what you had been born to do. You had been born to serve whichever family bought you.

That was the life of the house elf. You weren't expected to feel, you weren't supposed to feel a shred of shame any time your Masters kicked of belittled you in public for their own amusement.

You lived to serve. There was nothing more to it.

Yet, no matter how hard you tried, no matter how hard you tried to put your Masters and Mistresses wishes before your own, you knew that you did not want to live like this.

You knew you had your own opinions, own mind, own thoughts that were nothing like those of your owners.

That was exactly what they were. They were your owners, but they had never managed to truly own you.

They had bought you with gold from another wizard. They had never learned that you could never truly be bought through gold. Your services could, for you had no other choice, but your entire being and your personality would never be that cheap.

To be honest, you had never known how anyone would be able to win your trust and loyalty. You had never met anyone that had treated you any different from the family that owned you.

You never knew much other than whatever went on in the manor you lived in, but you knew everything that happened in the manor because there wasn't anything else to know. You knew you didn't like it. You knew it had to be stopped. You knew the magic from the pale snake-man was something you never wanted to come into contact with again. It was scary.

The snake was too. She would always nip at you as you passed, making you jump back in fear while the other witches and wizards laughed at your misfortune.

You had seen them shaking when faced with the snake too. They weren't as brave as they acted, not when faced with the snake themselves.

You had realized what loyalty was that day, when the skinny boy Harry Potter had offered you a seat like you were his equal; when he stopped you from harming yourself over a slip. You had felt worth something more than a servant that day, and you had marvelled at the feeling.

Your realization only grew stronger at the end of the year, when he had found a way to free you of your family.

You had chosen your loyalties then, as you stood against your old Master within the walls of Hogwarts. You had been willing to defend a person who had treated you with kindness over a person who had lorded over you.

It had felt significant.

It had felt right.

It had made you happy.