Red Flags, Dobby and Apparition

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19234

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., rcraigharman at h... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., devika261 at a... wrote:
> > It seems to me that Dobby just Disapparated.  And he did it
> > before, when he visited Harry in the hospital wing.  Now, I haven't
> > read Hogwarts, A History, but I do know that you aren't supposed to
> > be able to Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts.  Is this a red
> > flag?  Just how powerful are house elves, anyway?  I know someone
> > in one of the books (I'm not sure which, at the moment) said that
> > house elves have a powerful magic of their own, but that they're
> > not allowed to use it without their master's permission.
> 
> This has come up before, and I believe the consensus fell along the
> lines that (1) the house elves weren't invoking an "Apparate" or
> "Disapparate" spell, but rather were doing something that is part
> of their "nature" and that (2) this nature does include a different
> sort of magic than what the wizards use.  I believe the "real world"
> analogy was drawn with different modes of flight...

Yes - but Hogwarts' wards are surely intended to prevent _any_ magical
intrusion, surely including trolls, phoenixes, and house elves.
(Suppose Voldemort had given Sirius Black a house elf?)

"You can't just Apparate in here," Hermione says - perhaps meaning
"into here."  Does Dobby come from outside, or is he just Apparating
from one place in the school to another, after being smuggled in by
Draco or Lucius, probably Draco, right after the bit at the station?

As to how powerful they are otherwise, Dobby _is_ powerful enough in
CS to throw an adult wizard down the stairs.

Why are house elves so powerful, if they are (they seem to be regarded
as mere labour-saving devices, albeit very good ones), and why aren't
we working for them instead of the other way around?  Perhaps house
elves' magic powers are naturally strongest when they're loyal, for
biological reasons - so that when they mate, they're strongest, to
look after their children - just as humans' blood pressure goes higher
for the first eighteen years of parenthood :-)  But house elves also
bond emotionally/instinctively with humans (or perhaps with their
houses), and that triggers the biological reflex that boosts their
powers.

But that doesn't account for the gift of clothing setting them free.
Okay, so they mate, then as soon as they get dressed again, they lose
interest - I believe some humans have that gene too -

I wonder whether you can get _Debbie Does Dobby_ on Voldemort
Home System videotape...purely for academic interest, of course.

Hey, it's 0143 in the morning here, but I found out at the weekend
that I can still do this all night.  (That isn't a line from the
video, btw.)

Robert Carnegie
Glasgow, Scotland

"I read them all when I was seven and I hated them" - unnamed American
office worker on the Harry Potter books (www.dilbert.com, List of
Stupid Things Overheard)