House elves WAS: realistic resolutions

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 181040


> > >>Pippin:
> > <snip>
> > But since Harry and Hermione know as well as anyone that worms     
> > always turn, why assume that they aren't doing their best to treat 
> > house-elves as house-elves want to be treated?
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I've never seen Harry or Hermione experience a worm turning.  Those 
> they stomp on either stay down or die. 

Pippin:
Let's see, Kreacher and Draco both turned on Harry after being
oppressed. They didn't end the book dead, and both had more
status and contentment at the end than at any time previously.

 Harry himself was a worm who considered 
vengeance against Dudley and abandoned it. But he certainly knew 
how good it felt to have it within his grasp. 

Other worms are legion in canon, including Wormtail
who turns first against the patronizing James and then against 
 Voldemort, not to mention the ultimate example, Snape. 


Betsy Hp:
  But as we've seen, if Harry needs to abuse his house-elf, 
> he'll do it.  And Hermione will (maybe) shake her head.

Pippin:
Why assume something that's contradicted by canon?

HBP!Harry abused his house-elf. DH!Harry whose need was
even greater, did not do so. That change was the result of
everything that went before, including Hermione and Dumbledore's
activism. Head-shaking did not work, practical advice that helped
Harry and Kreacher devise a win-win solution, did. 

> 
> > >>Pippin:
> > That all is well with the WW, as with the Hogwarts Express, not    
> > because it has arrived at its destination but because reasonable   
> > progress is being made?
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I've seen nothing to suggest progress is why.  Why assume something 
> of which we've seen no sign? I honestly don't think we're supposed to 
> see an issue with house-elf slavery.  

Pippin:
If there wasn't an issue,  JKR wouldn't have called it slavery <g>. She
wouldn't have had Harry honor Dobby for taking up the burden of
being a free elf. She wouldn't have had Hermione kiss Ron for realizing
the Hogwarts elves shouldn't be ordered into battle. She wouldn't
have made us feel sorry for Kreacher and wish that he could be
freed.

She wouldn't have made her heroine a champion of house-elves 
who was planning to make that her career, one who, as the book 
closed, had finally figured out how to make her fellow wizards
listen to her. 


Betsy Hp
Dobby's life was ultimately 
> useless (he was just a mad fool) and Harry betrayed him in the end.
> 

Pippin:
Okay, I'll bite. 
 What do you mean, Harry betrayed him, and why do you think
it was useless of Dobby to protect Harry with his life? 

Pippin