House Elves, Hermione And Freedom

[pentzouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 109846

Hello all...
I could say I am new to the list, since I have posted before, but 
since then it has been a very, very long time, not to mention under 
a different username...

Any way, I have a few questions about the whole freedom-house elves-
Hermione's war thing.

First of all, I wonder if there is some separation between good 
house-elves and bad house-elves. 
I mean, Winky's behaviour is not at all similar to that of Dobby's, 
as described in GoF, and even though she had recognized that her 
master was a "bad boy", she wanted to remain loyal. I cannot start 
about Kreacher, he seems evil to the bone, and not because Sirius is 
not nice to him, he rather grabs every opportunity he can to mumble 
behind everyone's back, I assume because he served Sirius's family 
for so long. On the other hand, Dobby tries to protect Harry, even 
though his master is one of Harry's biggest enemies.

So, we have three house-elves that come from a very dark background:
Dobby : his master is the Malfoy family, and he appreciates his 
freedom by helping Harry in numerous occasions.
Winky : her master is not just Barty Crouch Sr, as we first learn, 
but the devoted servant of Voldemort, Barty Crouch Jr. This makes an 
evil enough background to me.
Kreacher : his master is the Black family, and he surely shows his 
devotion to the "dark" part of this family.

Conclusion : all the three house-elves we are introduced to come 
from "dark" wizards' families, even though their intentions are not 
always evil. The main thing is that they certainly cannot be 
trusted. Where are the good house-elves?

So, why Hermione is so willing to set them free, when it is clear 
that they will not only depreciate the gift of freedom,(at least 
most of them will), but are capable of magic not easily tamed by 
wizards?

For my part, I don't think that these trivia that we know of produce 
sufficient evidence to back up Hermione's willingness to free them. 
Even Hagrid, who loves all creatures, even the most fearful ones, 
does not agree with Hermione. Could it be that in the next two 
books, our heroine makes a terrible mistake by fulfilling her goal? 
You see, I think that although her intentions are those of a 
pacifist, and this opens a very big aspect of her personality for 
all of us to see, the fight begins after the house-elves are free : 
the fight to make them appreciate and help the right side in this 
war, and prevent them from using their powerful magic against the 
wizards who took them for granted while they were in their service.

Feel free to share your thoughts, I would really like to discuss 
this!

pentzouli