Hermione's House Elf Hats: Question

[deedeee88]

No: HPFGUIDX 80752

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "entropymail" 
<entropymail at y...> wrote:
> Just a quick question: 
> 
> I know I must be missing something, but why does Hermione leave the
> hats she's knitted for the house elves all around the Gryffindor
> common room? Don't the clothes have to be given to the elves by 
their
> master for them to be freed? In that case, wouldn't Dumbledore have 
to
> give them to the elves, or else they wouldn't count? What have I 
missed?


I always thought that Hermione's club "SPEW" would be approved by 
Dumbledore, given that Umbridge created a MOM "new rule" to prohibit 
any student group/club/team she did not approve of.

If Dumbledore approves of the groups activities then an elf picking up 
a hat would have DD's permission to do so..

For ex...

If Malfoy had been standing next to his father the day Dobby garnered 
his freedom... and Lucius handed the dairy to his son who in turn 
handed it to Dobby would dobby still be free?

Even though Hermione may not like that it's only Dobby who cleans the 
Gryphindor quarters(yes I *do* know she was not aware of this)...We 
garner a deep insight to houseleves here..

That they could obtain freedom anytime they CHOOSE to...this is more 
impowering than them being "given" their freedom by some 
benevolent "master".  Hermoine hiding the hats is not a good 
thing..she should leave them out and in the open. (With a sign 
saying, "Free hats to welcome heads" signed by president of SPEW and 
DD! LOL) It is the freedom to choose that makes all the difference. 
I'm waiting for Hermione to see this...I think most new/younger 
wizards would be quick to give a choice.. 

I would not be surprised at all if DD keeps a massive 
wardrobe/changing room of elf sized clothes if any elf should so 
desire to be free(why else would they avoid Hermione's creations so 
much--even risking DD's disapproval because they took her hat before 
clothes he already offered were refused--note that Dobby doesn't want 
to hammer coming down on his co-workers so cleans the areas himself 
and takes all the hats himself)..I doubt however that the elves would 
be so fast to leave the side of DD. This is why Dobby is important to 
the rest of houseelves...  He is free yet loyal to whom he 
chooses...Are there anymore house elves at Hogwarts besides Dobby and 
Winky who are already free? (I'd say, "absolutely"!)

I am still disappointed that we never got to see George and Fred in 
the kitchens with all the houseelves. (can picture them 
now...tempting Winky with fire whiskey--teehee)

Slavery is wrong, very wrong!  What happens when a slave is freed?
A great deal of things of course...

I'm watching muggle news closely...a coffee plantation in South 
America was just shut down and more than 1,000 slaves were 
freed...this is in the year 2003.

What happens to these people, their families, the community in which 
the slaves were kept.

In HP world...I suppose we should watch Hermione closely...she has 
to do more than watch house elves to understand them.

DeeDee