House Elves Freedom....& MORE....!

[moviebec]

No: HPFGUIDX 83318

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Paula Gaon <paulag5777 at y...> 
wrote:

> Paula now: Yes, this makes a lot of sense.  All throughout the 
series we see that house elves, by definition serve a house, ie 
family and take pride in doing so.  But, this fact still leaves us 
hanging.  Why was Dobby so ready and willing to leave the Malfoys?  
Why did he choose to take the sock that Lucius inadvertantly passed 
him as his ticket to freedom and subsequent betrayal of his family?  
What in Dobby's background made him the "Elf Exception" (quoting Grey 
Wolf)?  Even more to the point, why does Dobby love Harry so much in 
the first place?  As far as I can remember, throughout canon, we are 
never given a reason for Dobby's undying devotion to Harry.  > 



For the most part IMHO house elves like their enslavement, and get 
along reasonably well with their masters. House elves strike me as 
peacefull magical creatures with a good undrstanding of morals unless 
otherwise provoked into using their own brand of magic(Kreacher not 
included). 
I'm sure Winky was quite happy in her position before the GoF events. 
However it's clear Dobby is not happy in his enslavement. In CoS 
Harry says something like "you can't have met many decent wizards". 
Dobby shakes his head and then horrified starts banging himself up. 
Later on in CoS Dobby explains What it was like during the dark 
times "we house elves were treated like vermin, sir! Of course, Dobby 
is still treated like that, sir, but mostly, sir, life has improved 
for my kind since you triumphed over He Who Must Not Be Named. Harry 
Potter survived and the dark lords power was broken, and it was a new 
dawn, sir, and Harry Potter shone like like a beakon of hope for 
those of us who thought the dark days would never end, sir...." page 
133-134.
I think this explanation goes a long way toward a good reason for 
Dobby being so devoted to Harry's plight. Lucius Malfoy doesn't even 
treat his own son in a loving or even decent way let alone the 
enslaved help. Wouldn't you want to be freed from serving The 
Malfoy's at the first opportunity you got. Death threats every day, 
constantly having to physically punish yourself, which your master 
encourages. 
IMO Dobby only became the exception to the elf rule after gaining his 
freedom. He liked freedom, but still wanted to work. However he now 
wanted to be payed for his services. Quite reasonable I think. It's 
not like he even wanted to be paid that much, he beat DD down to 1 
Galleon a week, from memory.

Bec 
Adelaide, Australia

Pro house elf union movement!!
Can ya tell?