Ron, Hermione and the Elves was Re: SHIP: Harry and Hermione

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 92369

Other people have responded to the shipping section of Neil's 
post...but this bit intrigued me.

Neil said:
 >>They have two different mind sets. Ron 
envies rich families with elves, Hermione wants them free. <<

Ron seems to be much more interested than House Elf 
liberation than Harry does. At least he's willing to discuss it. I 
don't see Ron envying rich families per se. What do you base 
that on? 

We don't hear Ron complaining  so much about not having 
money in OOP.  Maybe that's because having  seen how 
the other half lives, at Grimmauld Place, he's realized that wealth 
isn't all he thought it was. He has decent dress robes and a 
respectable broom now, which seems to be all that  he wanted, 
really

 He says in CoS that his mother wishes she had a House Elf to 
do the ironing, but I can't find anywhere in canon that he, or Molly 
for that matter, would be averse to paying the Elf. His point of 
contention with Hermione is solely that the House Elves are 
happy not to work for pay, and are unhappy if freed against their 
will. She's been trying for two books now to convince him  that 
they would get used to freedom if they had it. Muggle thinking, of 
course.  The House Elves are *magically* enslaved, as 
Dumbledore tells us. Once Hermione gets her mind around that 
fact, maybe she'll be able to accomplish something.

 Fred, in GoF,  advises Hermione not to go upsetting the Elves 
because it will put them off their cooking. Ron predicts later that 
they will send substandard food to the Gryffindor table if they are 
insulted.  It sounds like they're just being  pigs, but we learn in 
OOP that Elves can and do refuse to work if they're offended. 
Does that sound like slavery as we know it?

Pippin