House Elves

[CB]

No: HPFGUIDX 30594

At 04:09 AM 12/2/01 +0000, you wrote:
> > The social structure of the wizarding world depends upon labor
> > provided by house-elves who, clearly, do not have the same degree of
> > rights that wizards have.
>
>There was a spirited debate a while back, on whether the house-elves
>*want* this. If someone firmly and repeatedly seeks a certain role and
>is happy in it, and alteration of their role causes them grief, is that
>alteration doing any good to the recipient?

My impression was that servitude was in the house-elves magical nature, 
that it wasn't a matter of what they wanted to do or didn't want to do, but 
it was how they were made. A bit like (excuse the poor analogy) dogs being 
bread for certain traits. Dobby only becomes free when a certain set of 
criteria are met (the sock), and it changes his magical nature. He still 
has to adjust to not being required to serve a particular person, but it is 
still in his nature to serve, and he transfers that reflex to Dumbledore 
and Harry.

Eleri