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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183760

Pippin wrote:
> <snip> Right, but they *don't* want the freedom of having no master
at all. Canon itself makes it clear that the Hogwarts Elves don't envy
Dobby his freedom one bit,  though the books  don't show any downside
to it. <snip>

Carol responds:

No downside except that he was knocking on doors for about a year
asking for work and being refused because he "wanted paying." And
after Winky was given clothes, she and Dobby were both jobless and
homeless until Dobby thought of asking for work at Hogwarts. (Dobby
didn't even have clothes, just his nasty old pillowcase and one old
sock.) And, for Winky, the downside involved the disgrace that all the
House-Elves associated with being "freed" (fired).

I'm sure that a lot of people on this list would love to be "free"
from their current employers who overwork them or don't pay enough or
whatever. Unfortunately, freedom doesn't pay the bills (or, in the
case of a House-Elf, doesn't provide a home to live in, food to eat,
and a family to serve).

Carol, wondering how Dobby managed to eat between the end of CoS and
the beginning of GoF considering that even House-Elf magic probably
can't conjure food