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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183765

> 
> Magpie:
> And they can do that because of the status of House Elves. Maybe 
> nobody thinks Kreacher is being treated well in OotP and HBP but
they  use their positions of power against him because they can. If
the  situation's there, they can take advantage of it.

Pippin:
I can't tell you how many wizarding laws the Order broke during OOP,
though I'm sure that harboring a fugitive, resisting arrest, breaking
into government buildings, illegal use of the floo network,
trespassing in restricted areas and violating educational decrees are
some of them. But I'm afraid  legal rights for House-elves would not
have stood in their way.  

The whole WW government needs to be rebuilt and reformed into
something that decent people can respect before its laws can protect
anybody. Canon definitely shows that, it just doesn't make it a job
that three teenagers are going to be able to accomplish in their spare
time. Nor should it, IMO. I can't imagine people lining up at midnight
to purchase "Hermione Granger and the Intransigent Bureaucracy". Some
things really are better left to the imagination.<g>
 
> Magpie:
> But Kreacher doesn't have a desire to be owned by Harry or Sirius.
So  does he really have a desire to be owned? He actually doesn't seem
to  truly want to be owned. He wants to belong to somebody in one
sense, but not belong to somebody like property whose preferences for
other  people don't matter.

Pippin:
Maybe he does want that, but that isn't what freedom means to an elf
and it wasn't what it meant to Hermione. It meant *clothes*. That
would have severed Kreacher from Sirius and Harry, but also from his
home and his  ties to Walburga and Regulus. Hermione knew from her
initial researches that Elves needed better  protection and wizards
should be made to recognize their rights. That's in GoF. But she got
sidetracked by the seemingly simpler solution of clothes instead. She
chose what was easy over what was right. 

>
> 
> Magpie:
> Yes--unfortunately at this point there's only two possibilities 
> anybody talks about--ripping them all from their masters so that
they  all fall into despair or having them owned the way they are. I
think  there's other ways to approach the problem.

Pippin:
I agree. And the books hint at what they are, back in GoF. But I think
it's an important point in the books that real life situations are
complicated and knee-jerk reactions to words, be they "slavery",
"ownership" and "freedom"  or "Voldemort" aren't much use.   

Kreacher already doesn't see Harry as an owner of property, he sees
Harry as the protector of House-elves.  Harry sees Kreacher as a
powerful ally and a darn good sandwich maker. What's rancid about that?

Pippin