Changing as she goes along.

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 12491

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Sister Mary Lunatic" <klaatu at p...> wrote:
> Filch is probably an overseer of the House Elves.  After all, when 
you have
> a castle as huge as Hogwarts, with hundreds of kids tracking in 
dirt &
> whatnot, you need plenty of people to clean the floors, stoke the
> fireplaces, do the laundry, cook, schlep the luggage and props 
around, etc
> etc.

I see a very fundamental difference between what Filch does and what 
the house elves do. They are NOT seen by the students if they're 
doing their job correctly. They do the mundane and basically mindless 
tasks. They have no interaction with the students at all, they do 
their work behind the scenes. Nearly Headless Nick says "You're not 
supposed to see them, are you? That's the mark of a good house-elf, 
isn't it, that you don't know it's there?"

Filch, on the other hand, is a staff member and an authority figure. 
He does far more than clean the floors. He administers punishments, 
he maintains order, he check passes to Hogsmeade at the front 
door...he interacts with students all the time. He also manages the 
cleaning and things like that, sure, and I suppose he might be the 
one the house-elves report to.

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon