CHAPDISC: DH26, Gringotts

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184114

Carol:
>  Of course, they're also fighting to avoid being enslaved to the
cruel DEs,
> > 
> 
> Pippin:
> Voldemort  threatened to *kill* everyone at Hogwarts if Harry was
not turned over to him. Do you think he planned to make an exception
for Centaurs and Elves? More to the point, would the Centaurs and
Elves think so? They weren't fighting to avoid enslavement by cruel
DE's. They were fighting for their lives and homes. <snip>

Carol responds:

When Voldemort demands Harry, he claims that he doesn't want blood. If
they give him Harry Potter, he says, he'll leave the school unharmed
(DH Am. ed. 610). After Harry's supposed death, Voldemort says,
"Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman, or child, will be
slaughtered, as will every member of their family" (729). He's
speaking to Witches and Wizards, to (magical) *humans*. It doesn't
occur to him to mention "lesser" beings, such as House-Elves or
Centaurs, even though one Centaur has already resisted him. Of course,
once he realizes that such a thing can happen, he intends to kill the
rebellious Centaurs and House-Elves, but there's no indication that he
intends to wipe out either species, any more than he intends to wipe
out Pure-Blood (or even Half-blood) Witches and Wizards. But *until
they rebelled*, I doubt that he gave a thought to the Centaurs, and he
probably thought of the House-Elves only in terms of how he could use
them (cf. Kreacher in the cave), or perhaps as spoils of war to reward
his loyal followers. He might kill a House-Elf just for the sake of
murder if he encountered one personally, but someone like Travers or
Yaxley would be much more inclined to enslave them. We have Dobby's
word (in CoS) for the way that House-Elves were treated during VW1.
And the House-Elves, IMO, don't want that to happen again. That's what
the rallying cry is all about, fighting the Dark Lord and his minions
in the name of Regulus, the good master who died for a House-Elf.

There's no indication whatever that they're fighting for their
*lives*. They wouldn't have been slaughtered as rebels if they hadn't
chosen to fight--or, to "resist," to use Voldemort's word. They're
following their unlikely leader, Kreacher, who believes in loyally
serving a worthy master, a belief that all normal House-elves share.
And they've had worthy masters at Hogwarts. (I'm quite sure that Snape
treated them as well as Dumbledore did, trying to keep conditions as
close to normal as possible at Hogwarts, though perhaps the Carrows
gave them a taste of what would happen if Voldemort won. and if
conditions for the Centaurs under Snape had been worse than under
Dumbledore, they'd have joined the battle much sooner, IMO.)

My main argument, which you snipped, was that neither Firenze nor
Dobby was the leader of a rebel movement. Both the House-Elves under
Kreacher and the Centaurs (who don't seem to be following a leader)
are fighting to preserve the status quo--the conditions at Hogwarts
under Dumbledore and Snape. That includes their homes, as you say, and
by extension, their lives. But it's the life they were previously
living that they're trying to preserve, not unmerited and pointless
wholesale slaughter, which Voldemort did not threaten, even to the
Witches and Wizards of Hogwarts. Only rebels and their families will
be slaughtered. The rest, teachers, students, and Hogsmeade merchants
alike, can live--as long as they accept Voldemort's regime.

Carol, who *does* think that Voldemort planned to make an exception of
House-Elves, Centaurs, and even humans as long as they didn't rebel
against his rule