HG-HBP/LegalSystems/Co-Creator(3)/Sandwich/Bed(2)/CHAPDISC(2)/Free HE/Regulus

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 178860

> Magpie:
> People presumably thought that lifting this compulsion or spell 
> would be part of the story. 

zgirnius:
For the record, I did not. I had no idea where SPEW would go, but I 
doubted, by the end of GoF (when SPEW was introduced) that it would 
be freeing the elves.

> Magpie:
> Instead it ends with the resolution that 
> as sick as it is to watch House Elves punish themselves that hasn't 
> changed, and this particular House Elf belongs to Harry, with a 
> focus on the nice bits. It's a problem that's there, that Hermione 
> makes noise about, but does not find any solution for, that still 
> goes on being there at the end of the book--but it's also got some 
> pleasant sides to it and that's the last image of it we see. 

zgirnius:
It seems to me you are defining what the story is too narrowly. Elves 
are slaves, this can only be resolved if elves are free. Why is a 
resolution in which the one main character who sees the problem, 
manages to pass on her concern to two other main characters, not a 
resolution? It constitutes a change from the previous situation. It 
is a step in the right direction (more people caring, more people 
thinking about it and treating elves better). 

Jen said it all for me in her post, better than I could, about what I 
was expecting of this storyline:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/178857