Hermione's House Elf Hats: Question

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 80693

Entropy wrote:
> So, the general consensus is that Hernione is doing her best with the
> situation, but is just unaware that the clothes must be given by the
> house-elves' master? How can this be? 

Ummm... the situation is not as clear cut. We really don't have canon 
to tell if students are considered masters of the Hogwarts elves or 
not. After all, they're perfect elves, by elf's standards: they do all 
the work, with most students never even wondering how it is that the 
work gets done (never mind who's the one doing it). The only way to 
even *see* an elf is to go to the kitchens, so good they are at 
cleaning and doing household work.

The one clue that could tell us about who's master to the elves is the 
fact that anyone asking for food while in the kitchen will be served by 
the elves - but then, I have the feeling that elves are happy and 
fullfilled by serving others and by making sure everyone has what they 
need (which isn't that bad a philosophy of life). So, in essence, we 
don't know if Hermione has the power to dismiss elves (not that it 
minds - see later).

Let's examine, then, the concept of "giving the boot". As Catlady has 
oft mentioned, the concept probably comes from the folklore stories 
about little creatures helping honest merchants (my country's version 
is a shoemaker, I've no idea about the possible variations), which help 
the merchant survive bad times and re-float his shop by doing huge 
amounts of work. The merchant eventually spies on those creatures and 
notices they're naked, or wearing ragged clothes, and has his wife make 
them appropiate clothes (he does tiny shoes), and lets them were the 
little creatures can find it, as thanks. However, when the little 
creatures find the clothes, they are offended and leave.

This extrapolates to house elves in a close fashion: they do the work 
for nothing, and if you give them clothes, they leave. However, we have 
the problem of the exact mechanism. Is it enough to drop a piece of 
clothing and ten minutes later to be picked up by the elf? Doubtful. In 
every case it has been mentioned, there is intent in one of the two 
parties - either the elf chooses to see it as a given cloth, or the 
owner decides it is. And this is my theory: a clothing must be, but it 
must be an intended clothing, or the elf can interpret it as such. 
Thus, a child could play "pass the sock-ball" with the family elf 
without problem, but the moment an elf is unhappy, it's a good time to 
start watching where you drop the clothes.

Back to Hermione. She's trying to trick the house elves into being 
free, so the intent is there - and the elves are intelligent enough to 
see it (and feel offended by it). Hoever, it seems clear that you have 
to hand the clothing, so Hermione's trick would, IMO, be useless even 
for an elf wanting to leave Hogwarts. The question is, however, if 
Hermione is aware of this.
 
> Wouldn't our studious Hermione, after all we know about her, have
> researched the topic for days upon days, until there was nothing more
> to research?

She has researched the topic, but we know that there is little to be 
found in the first place: Hogwarts, a History doesn't mention elves. 
Elves, like a perfect machinery, operate without ever entering the 
spotlight. Many other books might be written in similar light. There 
might be books about heouse elves, their customs and so on, but they 
might not be at Hogwarts (doubtful, I know).

A much more feasible explanaition is that Hermione has found such books 
and, having been written by wizards, she has dismissed them as biased, 
and thus she is trying her own theories. This is, right now, the worst 
problem for Hermione. She is so entrenched in her own view of the 
house-elves that she refuses to listen to any other view point. If a 
book tells her that the elves generally dislike the clothing (true) she 
probably inmediately ignores it (plenty of canon about her ignoring 
inconvenient or contrary evidence to her thoughts on this issue). House 
elves probably don't write books, but even if they did, Hermione would 
discrad those that spoke about how fine it is to work for wizards and 
how horrible to be liberated as mindwashed.

So any literature she has found is probably being ignored, as she is 
ignoring everything else except her own twisted perception: that elves 
*have* to be freed because they are slaves (nevermind that they don't 
want)

> Surely, even a cursory questioning would have told her
> that the house-elves can't be freed by the students handing out
> clothes (after all, don't the house-elves pick up after the students
> in their dorm rooms every day?). 

I'm not sure asking around Hogwarts would give you information on who 
is their owner - not very many know they are there, much less how the 
system operates.

> At the very least, Harry must have told her the story of how he 
> tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing Dobby!
> 
> What's going on?
> 
> :: Entropy ::

Cursory questioning, again, gets her answers she doesn't want to listen 
to. I think Hermione has long since crossed the line into fanatical 
defense of her own viewpoint. One charasteristic of this is refusal to 
listen to arguments against your own, so she is no longer listening. 
She understands that clothing can liberate the elves, so she uses 
clothing and hides it so the elves will be free, even if they don't 
want to. She doesn't need to be sure about wether she's a master that 
can liberate them: in her eyes, it is worth the attempt (and when Dobby 
starts collecting her hats, she grows in the certainty that the elves 
are being liberated).

Yes, I think logic does indeed tip us off to the fact that elves need 
to be handed the piece of clothing, but unfortunately, Hermione seems 
to have abandoned logic in her SPEW crusade.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf