House elves battle

[Petra Pan]

No: HPFGUIDX 176308

Paul L. asked:
> In the final battle for Hogwarts, the house elves burst from
> the kitchen, and attack the forces of LV with knives and meat
> cleavers. Why not magic?? <snip> Why not use magic at the BIG
> battle, when all the marbles are up for grabs. Seems kind of
> funny when it REALLY counts, the house elves don't use magic,
> but resort to close quarters armed combat instead.
 
Petra asks in return:
 
The impression I've gotten, and admittedly it's not one that's 
based on careful parsing of the canon text, is that the house 
elves' brand of magic is very much service oriented.  Which makes
sense within their enslavement: *if* house elves can only do 
magic in service to their wizarding masters, their wizard masters 
do not have to strictly restrict such magic, in order to protect 
themselves.
 
In exchange for the kind of freedom exhibited in being able to 
apparate without the limits that the wizards live with, the house 
elves probably live with limits on the circumstances under which 
they can perform magic.
 
Where wizards and witches can't freely apparate, the house elves 
can, probably because house elves "can be counted on" to do no
harm, either because of their nature or because of wizarding magic
that ensures they cannot do harm to wizards.  Whereas secretly
apparating witches and wizards may be sneaking around in order to 
do mischief, house elves are doing so in order to be that very 
"old world" notion of "good servants" - effective but never seen 
while exerting effort.
 
I've always felt that the general notion of elves in folktales
and how they astonish by magically accomplishing tasks out of 
sight may be referring to the phenomenon that is good servants
getting things done, seemingly magically.
 
So in terms of Paul L.'s question, I think it very likely that 
house elves cannot do magic to combat wizards.  Why then can 
they do armed combat?  Perhaps the wizarding magic that restricts
the house elves somehow did not take into account the extra-
ordinary circumstances present at the Hogwarts battle.  As we've
seen, instructions to house elves must be very carefully worded.
 
Does anyone remember any details from canon that supports this
impression?  Or supports a completely different impression?
 
Petra
a
n  :)