Houseelves loyalty WAS: Re: JKR site update WOMBAT part 2

[Kimberly]

No: HPFGUIDX 159202

Tonks:


>And the biggest concern for me is the one about House Elves… I
>thought that they were bound to the family, not to the building.
>Can't a master order an elf to kill himself? IF the false answer
>has to be one of these and the second answer was give by someone who
>got an Outstanding, where does that leave us with house elves? How
>can their allegence be to the house? Is this some sort of British
>usage of the word? That `house' means family or something? I think
>of it as just the building, which does not make sense to me. And if
>it is the house, what happens to an elf when the house is distroyed
>and the family is still around?

Kimberly:
This is a good question, where does the loyalty of a houseelf truly lie.
I had always derived that it was to the family but after listening to
HBP (recently downloaded on my iPod, *whooo hoooo*) I am
questioning whether or not that is actually true.  Dumbledore
explains to Harry that Kreacher is "showing signs of not wanting
to pass into Harry's ownership".   He demonstrates behavior that
indicates he would like nothing less than to serve Harry, a filthy
muggleborn in Kreacher's opinion.   However, Dumbledore goes on
to say that if Harry is the true owner of Grimmauld Place than he
inherits as well, Kreacher.  This gives me the feeling that it is not only
loyalty to the person (Kreacher has to obey, he must...even though
he doesn't want to) but also the house (because of loyalty to the house,
he is forced into servitude of someone he loathes).    Hmmm, it
made more sense before I worked it out here, now it presents itself
as quite tricky.   Perhaps, the loyalty to the house and family go
hand in hand and are inseparable.

Magpie:
I thought that House Elf allegiances were to families, not houses, and based
whatever answer there was on that. Clearly it's the person since Kreacher
belongs to Harry whether he's at Grimmauld Place or Hogwarts. So I don't
think that's a problem--House Elves are definitely (imo) bound to the
family, not the house. I think that was a question that said one of the
things were false and I chose House Elves being loyal to the house rather
than the family as being false.

Kimberly here:
This is where I think the allegiance to the house comes in.  If Kreacher wasn't
bound to the house but the family, then he would have passed on to the next
blood line in the Black family, not the next owner of the house.   It seems the
ownership of the house takes precedant over the family.   Whomever owns
the house, gets Kreacher rather than whomever is next on the bloodline.
  It's like splitting a hair, it is a very fine line I believe.

Kimberly