Wands and Wizards...Again (Was: Epilogue ...)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183702

Carol earlier:
> > As for Harry as "slave owner," how do we know that he doesn't
ultimately give Kreacher the choice of staying at Hogwarts or
returning to 12 GP, if that's where Harry chooses to live? I doubt
that he wants his freedom; I think he'd be insulted by the offer of
clothes. But I see nothing preventing Harry from solving the Kreacher
problem the same way he solved it before, by having Kreacher work at
Hogwarts instead of staying with him. Only this time it could be
worded as a request or even a choice rather than an order.
> 
> Magpie:
> Do we want to get into this again?:-) He's a slave owner because he
owns a slave. We don't end with Harry asking Kreacher where he wants
to live (Harry barely gives a thought to where Kreacher lives anyway
until he needs him someplace so why would he start now?), we end with
him thinking about Kreacher serving him something. Of course Kreacher
 doesn't want freedom. That's why House Elves are such awesome slaves.

Carol again:
That and the fact that they can perform their duties using magic
rather than manual labor like human slaves. :-) 

Magpie:
> Even when Kreacher wants freedom (like the freedom not to work for
Harry or Sirius in HBP and OotP, but to work for other people instead)
he doesn't call it that.
> 
> His last line about the sandwich stands out not because we know
whether or not Harry will decide to request one, or whether or not
Kreacher would be offended if he didn't ask him to make it (he
probably would want to make it himself--House Elves take pride in
being good servants), but because it reminds us that Harry has
Kreacher, his loyal slave, at his disposal as part of his everyday,
Voldemort free-life. <snip>

Carol responds;

IMO, Harry's still owning Kreacher at the end of the book, and still
treating Kreacher as he did at 12 GP where Kreacher was happy (once he
accepted Harry as his master) is only a problem for readers who
expected Harry to free the Houwe-Elves at the end of the book. I never
had any such expectation. House-Elves are hermione's pet project and
crusade, not Harry's, and even if it were feasible to free them all at
once 9which it isn't), he doesn't have the means or the authority.

As I said in another post, Harry almost never thinks of generic
House-Elves, and when he does, it's the happy House-Elves at Hogwarts
that come to mind. For him, House-Elves are important only as
individuals: Dobby, who was first a nuisance and then a friend, and
who was forever indebted to Harry for freeing him (not that he was all
that free--he still served the Wizard(s) of his choice with little or
not pay); Winky, whom he couldn't really help because all she wanted
was to return to the master who had fired her; and Kreacher, who is at
first an enemy and then a loyal and happy servant.

House-Elves in general are not Harry's problem, but what to do with
Kreacher is. He can't free Kreacher, who is, at first, too dangerous,
and in any case would probably be as distraught as Winky about being
fired. At first, Harry solves the problem by sending Kreacher to
Hogwarts, attempting only once to make use of him there and finding it
futile. (Kreacher had no choice but to spy on Draco, but he was not
about to report any useful information about him.) Later, he comes to
terms with Kreacher, thanks to Hermione, and Kreacher is ecstatically,
violently, tearfully happy. At that point, the obvious solution is to
let Kreacher be a typical House-Elf, clean and happily subservient.
When Harry can't come home (and DEs apparently invade 12 GP), Kreacher
returns to Hogwarts, evidently making friends with the House-Elves,
considering that they follow him into battle. (They absolutely don't
want to give up the excellent working and living conditions at
Hogwarts to be brutally mistreated by DEs.)

Once Voldemort is defeated, Harry once again has to deal with Kreacher
(not House-Elves in general, only the House-Elf he inherited). What,
exactly, are his choices? He can free Kreacher, which Kreacher would
take as an insult and which would make Kreacher incurably unhappy. He
can leave him at Hogwarts, which might or might not make Kreacher
happy. Or he could take him with him to 12 GP, which undoubtedly
*would* make Kreacher happy.

Assuming that Harry requests that sandwich, which Kreacher would be
happy to make for him (and insulted if Harry made for himself), he
could easily thank Kreacher for his part in the battle and even offer
him the reward of Kreacher's choice (maybe the Hogwarts/12 GP choice).

I really don't see what else Harry can do with Kreacher, nor do I see
anything to be disturbed about. (It's not as if Kreacher were a human
slave who would naturally resent his servitude and would not be
capable of magic. A human slave would *want* his freedom. Kreacher
doesn't, and freedom would be an unmerited punishment rather than a
reward.)

Now if Harry went to a House-Elf auction to buy Kreacher a wife so
that his family would have Kreacher's descendants as hereditary
slaves, I'd be disturbed. But Kreacher is not a purchase Harry made.
He's an inherited obligation that Harry can't get rid of. The only
solution that I can see is to treat Kreacher as Kreacher wants to be
treated (not as a human being in his position would want to be
treated) and to make the best of the situation. Maybe Harry can offer
him a retirement pension at some point or Hermione can establish a
retirement community for House-Elves, but until that time, Harry is
stuck with Kreacher, who will live and die a House-Elf bound by
loyalty and tradition to the House of Black.

I don't know what kind of ending you expected, but one way or another,
JKR would need to show that Harry still has his contented little
House-Elf. As I said, Harry can't free Kreacher, much less all the
House-Elves at Hogwarts or in the WW.

For myself, I'd have liked it better if Harry summoned Kreacher to
thank him for bravely leading the House-Elves into battle. But free
him? Kreacher isn't Dobby and would never accept it. It would only
break his heart.

Carol, who figures that Kreacher only has a few more years to live,
anyway, and hopes that Harry's children were born after Kreacher's death