Chapter Text
Draco Malfoy had had his suspicions about Mimsy from the moment she had appeared on a bitter Winter Solstice; the sound of her Apparating was a percussive frost-crack that rivaled the sound of trees freezing and splintering in frozen forests and she was entirely too composed, attired in a neatly tailored slip dress the color of shadows on snow. Maybe it was the recognition of a kindred spirit as Mimsy assessed him with narrowed eyes, touching each spindly finger to the one on the opposite hand before baring her too-sharp teeth in a wide grin. Something sly and calculating lurked in between those large ears, but Draco was in a pinch–she was the only house elf who had answered the ad placed three months ago, despite the generous compensation offered. The Malfoy name carried a different kind of weight these days, more dead albatross about the neck than gravitas.
Draco might have shuddered a little when he met her blood-bright eyes, but he clasped her iron-cold hand and shook it when she insisted, even if he found it odd that she muttered “And so we haves a bargain” in a strange lilting accent he’d never before heard. At the time, he supposed it was as good a way to describe an employment contract as any other. As the coming days, weeks, and months turned to a year, he found it a bit maddening that he had to precisely craft his orders and requests–Mimsy was always perfectly within the bounds of the orders given, but often with an annoying if inconsequential twist. He may have even taken it personally when Mimsy preferred to listen to and accommodate Ginny Weasley, his errant coworker, frequent visitor, and not-quite-girlfriend. At least, she had been. Mimsy might have been just as depressed about the way things ended as he was.
That was a small comfort though as he choked on the nauseating smoke that had billowed from the small bundle of blue-lobed flowers that had mysteriously appeared in the fire underneath his cauldron. Staggering to the door to throw it open and call for help, he heard the sharp crack of Mimsy Apparating away as he collapsed against the doorframe.
So much for that bargain they had struck.