[HPforGrownups] Re: Elf Beheading?

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 102568

David said:
Given that Kreacher is nowhere near the kind of loss of faculties at which
euthanasia begins to be discussed IRL, what is your canon basis for saying
that Dumbledore 'should know better'?

Your wording above 'letting a person...' rather connotes a very passive
approach to Kreacher's rehabilitation - do you rule out all possibility of
active engagement to get him to at least have a happier life, if not develop
a finer moral sense?

Lady Macbeth replied:
I don't have the quotes for these points, because I don't have my book with
me right now.  However, here's the basis of what I was thinking when I wrote
that:

- Dumbledore's watched Winky FOR A YEAR NOW sit in the kitchens and be a
falling down drunk, with no promise to do more.  No, he doesn't mind.  Other
masters would.  Would YOU want your servant NOT doing their job and instead
drinking themselves into numbness every night?  Dobby's and anyone else's
attempts to engage her have just sent her further into self-pity.

- Kreacher, on the other hand, is the agressive to Winky's passive - HE
hasn't done squat since Mrs. Black died, otherwise Grimmauld Place wouldn't
be in NEARLY the condition it's in.  He's made no effort to contribute to
the cleanup effort other than to fish things out of the garbage and squirrel
them away somewhere.  (Anyone who's had a child do this while you're in the
process of cleaning their room knows how much help THAT is.)  He's
intentionally nasty EVERYONE who visits, pureblood to muggleborn and is
especially venemous to Hermione, the one who is MAKING the effort to ENGAGE
him in conversation and TRYING to get him to have a happier life via kind
words, attempts to ACTIVELY ENGAGE him in conversation, and giving him a
blanket for Christmas even though he's been nothing but a royal arse to her.

- Rather than engage Sirius in any activity himself, even pretending to be
nice to him or pretending he'd caused a problem somewhere, he INJURED
Buckbeak to keep Sirius occupied during the time Harry might come looking
for him.

- I mentioned Dumbledore's age, because at that age a person has seen MANY
people come and go.  Winky and Kreacher would be very unique indeed if they
were the ONLY elves belonging to estates left without an heir, especially
since we know that there was at least one previous reign of terror by
Voldemort.  Dumbledore has made no expression that Winky or Kreacher's
states of mind and being are at all strange or unique.  SAD, yes.
UNFORTUNATE, yes.  But it seems, at least in his mind, something that would
normally happen to them with the loss of their families.  However, the
impression I get from the books is that Dumbledore is the type who eternally
believes of the possibility of "that which has never happened before
happening".  PERHAPS Winky and/or Kreacher will recover.  PERHAPS this won't
have to be a long and bloody war with Voldemort.  He's an OPTIMIST,
something I have a hard time being.  What disturbs me the most is that he's
SUCH an optimist that he LET Kreacher continue living in Grimmauld Place,
NOT concerned that he was a danger in any way to any of the inhabitants
there, and NOT concerned that Kreacher's displayed secretive, vengeful and
underlying violent behavior would ever come to play against any of them.

- Kreacher's displayed most blatantly, through a series of "aggravating" but
not harmful behaviors all the way up to his endangering Harry and Sirius,
where his moral sense and happiness lie.  How much longer can he/should he
continue on like that, should rehabilitation of any kind even be possible
for him?

-Lady Macbeth


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]