House Elves

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 30598

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., CB <eleri at a...> wrote:

> 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. 

There were a lot of readers criticising Hermione for trying to 
fix things for the House Elves according to her own ideas without 
asking them what THEY wanted. I suppose she should have asked them 
what they wanted, but (like dogs) perhaps they can't SAY what they 
want, but some of it is pretty clear. If I had been Hermione, I would 
have started an Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to House Elves, 
and agitated for laws to fine and imprison people who abuse their 
House Elves like the Malfoys, and to give the Bureau of House Elf 
relocation the mandate to confiscate House Elves from unworthy 
wizards and move them to safer homes. Someone in HPfGU did some 
research in Muggle folklore and found that the familiar Brownie 
Household Elf is called a Dobby someplace in England. This 
researcher, finding that Muggle tradition holds that Dobbies, 
Brownies, and the like leave homes that disrespect them, such as by 
leaving big messes for them to clean up, or not putting out bowls of 
milk for them, concluded that some one has cast a spell on all the 
House Elves, something like a generational inherited Imperius Curse, 
to override their free will and destroy their ability to leave a 
place where they are being abused. She said what House Elves need is 
to have the Curse removed, not to have some human form a union to 
demand pensions for them.