Hermione & the Elves (was: Wands and Wizards)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183782

> 
> Mike:
> Umm, Hermione knit the Elf hats/cozies in GoF. 
> So yeah, I meant GoF.

Pippin:
Gosh, maybe we *are* reading different books <veg>. Hermione knitted
the elf hats over the summer post-GoF and hid them around Gryffindor
Tower during the OOP year. Ron uncovered some but apparently not all,
since the elves knew they were hidden and were so offended they
stopped cleaning GT. (chs 13 and 18 OOP) Hermione may have realized
that Dobby was taking the hats  when he arrived wearing eight of them
to warn the DA (ch 27 OOP)
> 
> 
> > Montavilla47:
> > She *may* have changed her mind by HBP, but IIRC, she doesn't say
> > *anything* about elves in the entire book, so it's hard to tell.
> 
> Mike:
> You're right about HBP. There's really only the one scene where 
> Kreacher and Dobby are making their Draco reports wherein Hermione 
> says anything about elves.

Pippin:
We do hear  indirectly about SPEW, though. The forgotten House-elf in
all this is Hokey. After experiencing her story, "[Harry] had rarely
felt more in sympathy with the society that Hermione had set up,
S.P.E.W." (HBP ch 20)

As Harry's conclusion shows, Hokey's story is the one which
illustrates that even Elves who are happy with their masters  need
civil rights. Once Hepzibah was dead, no one (except Dumbledore) cared
if Hokey was hauled off to Azkaban. I suppose Hepzibah's heirs weren't
concerned about losing the service of a very old and apparently
fatally unreliable House-elf. 


Mike:
> IOW, JKR may have tried to draw the parallel between human slavery 
> and elf enslavement by having Dobby and Hermione use the word
"slave"  or "slavery", but the elves weren't portrayed as anything
like human  slaves in the book, IMHO.

Pippin:
Exactly. Hermione's activism is well-meant, and changes *are* needed,
but she went astray in blindly trying to apply the lessons of one
culture's history to another. Despite their dependent status, mangled
English and the  superficially similar "but they're happy" excuse for
the status quo, House-elves are not 19th century Americans in tea towels. 

And, needless to say, neither are slaves  in the world today. 

Mike: 
> So I don't see the not letting Kreacher go to serve Bellatrix or 
> another Black LV supporter as worse treatment than what would have 
> been given to a human.
> 

Pippin:
Right. The Order might have had to break a few more Wizarding Laws to
do it, but that wouldn't have stopped them. As Magpie says, that
doesn't mean there shouldn't be elf rights. But my point was that you
can't get blood out of a turnip, and you can't get rights and freedoms
guaranteed by a government that's too weak and corrupt to do it. 

Any effort to get a government run by the likes of Fudge and Umbridge
to recognize elf rights would be putting the cart before the horse.

I will admit, I thought there'd  be more of a feel good resolution for
the Elves. I thought Harry would have to free them as part of his
quest, and unite the houses too. 

But now I remember what Hagrid said back in PS/SS, about
Muggles expecting wizards to provide magical solutions for all their
problems. The problems of the House-elves and the division between the
Houses are not  problems of dark magic. They're problems of greed,
prejudice, intemperance and insensitivity. There's no magical solution
for those. 


Pippin