SPEW how do you do ? (was Re: SOCKS and other presents)

[david_p2002ca]

No: HPFGUIDX 78358

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jesmck" <jesmck at y...> wrote:

> and now me (Jessica)
> If Harry gave Dobby socks and Ron gave him a jumper, wouldn't Dobby 
> be free?  And, if the reason these gifts didn't free him is because 
> Harry and Ron aren't his master, then why is Hermione making all of 
> those hats for the other house elves?

By the time Harry and Ron gave Dobby those gifts he had already 
received his manumission (1) (or should that be elfumission?)  Thus, 
providing clothes to Dobby had no effect - he was already free, 
working for money and even the occasional holiday!

Hermione's targets were the elves who were still bound to Hogwarts - 
those who had not yet been freed.  It does raise an interesting 
question, though:  could a student free a house elf, or would it 
require a prefect, professor or even the headmaster - a person in 
authority at the school - to release a house elf?

David P.

(Whose current laundry pile could free all the elves at Hogwarts)

(1) http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=manumission