Ron, Hermione, and the hearts of house-elves (Was: Andromeda as good Slytherin)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177661

Montavilla47 wrote:
> <snip>
> Here's the part where I have a problem, because I *don't* see any
change of heart here.  The Ron who thinks about warning the
House-Elves about the battle doesn't seem any different than the Ron
who exposes Hermione's booby-hats in the common room so that the elves
will have a choice about whether or not they want to become free.
> 
> So, that moment all the culmination of the S.P.E.W. subplot fell
flat for me.  Even if it did have the big sloppy kiss that every
Ron/Hermione shipper had been waiting for for seven books.

Carol responds:

the moment fell flat for me, too, but not for that reason. It seemed
like an excuse for them to kiss (as opposed to hugging and holding
hands, as they'd been doing throughout the book).

I agree that Ron's view of house-elves doesn't seem significantly
different in that he's not advocating freedom for house-elves. He is,
however, concerned for "Elfish Welfare," and that, for me, seems to be
the reason that Hermione kisses him.

Here's where we disagree, and I doubt that I'll convince you because
it's a matter of opinion or preference rather than interpretation of
the text. I think that Ron is right and Hermione is wrong.
House-elves, with the single exception of Dobby, don't want to be
free. "Freedom" for them equates to being fired, to unemployment and
misery--no home, no work, no use for their magic except to keep
themselves alive (and not even a house-elf can conjure food, if it
violates the Law of Whatever cited first by Hermione and then by Ron).
House-elves *want* to work for wizards, to help them do what wizards
either can't do or don't want to do. It's their nature. "We doesn't
want paying, Miss. We wants gratitude and praise." 

Winky is loyal to her "master" even after she's "freed" (read
"fired"). She's a "disgraced house-elf. The well-treated house-elves
of Hogwarts are happy and respond gratefully to Ron's compliment,
"Good service." Kreacher wants only to be understood and treated with
kindness and respect. Once Harry understands that his true loyalty is
to "Master Regulus," who *deserves* that loyalty, Kreacher is willing
to serve Harry, call him "master," voluntarily clean himself up, and
stop muttering about "blood traitors" and "Mudbloods." But his
rallying cry and his locket show where his true loyalties lie. It's
the Slytherin brother, Regulus, rather than the Gryffindor brother,
Sirius, who understood and won the devotion of Kreacher. 

Hermione, it seems to me, comes much closer in DH to understanding the
psychology of house-elves in DH than in earlier books, and her new
understanding helps Harry to reach Kreacher's mind and begin to treat
his views with something other than contempt. Apparently, house-elves
follow their masters' loyalties and philosophies unless, like Dobby,
they're so badly abused that they start thinking for themselves and
viewing freedom as desirable rather than disgraceful. But Kreacher's
loyalty is also personal and based on Regulus's courageous sacrifice.
(Harry wrongly assumes that Regulus would have made Kreacher drink the
poison; that he would drink it himself *for Kreacher* and that
Kreacher would respond with almost fanatical devotion is a revelation
to Harry.) Although we're not told explicitly that he thinks so, IMO,
Harry realizes at this point that, like most house-elves, Kreacher
doesn't want to be free; he just wants a master he thinks is worthy of
being served. By respecting "Master Regulus" and giving Kreacher
something that belonged to him (however briefly), Harry shows himself
worthy (in Kreacher's eyes) of being Kreacher's new master. 

The house-elves of Hogwarts don't want freedom, either, but they don't
want the abuse they'll suffer if Voldemort and his followers win. (We
saw how the Malfoys treated Dobby, which was worse than Sirius's
neglect of and contempt for Kreacher. I'd rather not imagine what the
Carrows would do to a house-elf.) They're not going to leave Hogwarts
en masse looking for "freedom" and paid employment after the Battle of
Hogwarts. I'm quite sure they'll happily go back to bedmaking and
cooking, having helped to defeat their would-be oppressors.

Anyway, I don't think that Hermione kisses Ron because he's come
around to her view that house-elves should be freed. She's just happy
that he's expressed concern that they might be killed by the DEs like
Dobby (DH Am. ed. 625). Obviously, he's right to fear for their safety
(though he's underestimating their power and feistiness). IMO, he's
also right in the view he expresses earlier (GoF) that they shouldn't
be freed against their will. Doing so would be like firing all the
factory workers in nineteenth-century England to "free" them from
oppressive working conditions rather than improving the working
conditions and letting them retain their jobs.

Carol, happy that SPEW played such a small role as it was always, in
her view, a well-intentioned but wrong-headed idea of the "Hermione
knows best" variety