Hermione's Hats

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 88724

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Robert Jones"
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:
> If you think Hermione doesn't make mistakes, here is an idea I 
> posted last year:
> 
> How do the House Elves get freed?  It cannot be by merely touching 
> clothing.  The Hogwarts students get their clothing cleaned, 
> presumably by the House Elves. ....
> 
> The House Elves are freed only if their master hands them some 
> clothing (like with Dobby at the end of COS).  Dobby treats Harry 
> like a master in the scene in OOTP 27 where he warns Harry that 
> Umbridge is coming to the Room of Requirement.  So presumably the 
> students count as "masters."  But they still must hand clothing to 
> the Elves to free them. ....
> 
> So ... this means that the great Hermione Granger is making a 
> mistake when she thinks that the hats she is knitting and leaving 
> around the Gryffindor Common Room will free the House Elves. ....

bboy_mn:

I agree, you are definitely on the right track here. However, while I
agree with your overal statement I take exception to a couple of points.

First, I don't think Dobby and Harry's relationship is sufficient to
use as an example to prove that 'students count as Masters'. Dobby and
Harry have a very special relationship, and I don't think it can serve
as a model for the average student and average elf relationship.  The
elves server the school and the students are part of the school,
therefore, elves would most likely comply with any reasonable request
made by a student. That would simply fall in the domain of serving the
school, but it is the school administration that has the true
authority over the elves. They do the hiring, therefore, only they can
do the firing.


I am in complete agreement with your thoughts on elves merely touching
clothing. To be an effective servant, not to mention functionally
living in the world, it would be next to impossible for elves to not
touch clothes at some point. But they can only be freed or dismissed
from their positions by their Master specifically handing them clothes.

Hermione is so unbelievably misguide in this latest attempt to free
elves. The most important thing she forgot is that SHE doesn't have
the authority to free any elf. 

Would it seem reasonable and logical that I could come into your home
and free your elves on a whim? Or that I could come to your house and
hand my coat to the house elf and free him. That seems a very
impractical system even by wizard standards.

Hermione is most lost in her S.P.E.W. effort in thinking that there is
something about the house elves that needs to be fixed, but I can't
agree with that. There is nothing wrong with the elves, they are happy
to do what they do. Happy to do what they do, but not necessarily
happy with the way the are treated. The problem is with wizards;
wizards who abuse the honorable commitment made by the elves to server
them. The problem is that wizards do not enter into the agreement with
the same sense of honor, integrity, loyalty, and commitment that the
house elves do.

Hermione needs to direct all her efforts toward reforming wizards,
once that is done, elves will have the good quality lives that
Hermione wants them to have.

Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn