Who do the Hogwarts house elves answer to?

[pitaprh]

No: HPFGUIDX 70788


Owlery2003:

>  Of course, Dobby was under the heel of the 
Malfoy family for (I wanted to say "ages" but the bit about 
Kreacher's family heads made me stop to think - how long do house 
elves live?) a very long time, and old habits are hard to break. 
Depending upon the regularity of his payments being kept up, I'd 
think Dobby was free to do as he thought best. Then, of course, 
Harry's no ordinary Hogwarts student. There's the dynamic between him 
and Dobby to begin with, and as "the boy who lived" he's a hero to 
Dobby. I kind of think that Dobby will ultimately choose to serve 
Harry, but I'm not sure how this will come to pass. It certainly 
won't be at the request of Harry, though! >>>

Me:
This could also come back to the idea that some how Harry is related 
to the Malfoys.  There has been some speculation that the reason 
that Dobby could come to Harry in COS is because he is related to the 
Malfoys.  Like how Kreacher went to the Malfoys in OOP because of 
Narcissa.  So maybe that is why Dobby still in some ways will take 
orders from Harry because he is related to the original family 
who "owned" him.  

"pitaprh"