Winky the House Elf

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 191792

Dorothy
> I found the chapter very interesting, both because I learned a bit 
> about world class quiddich, and because we found out about several 
> characters that would later on come to be important to the story, 
> Victor Krum, Barty Crouch, Winky the house-elf, etc.

Bart:
This had not occurred to me until the moment I read this: we never find 
out what happened to Winky. And she was not in great shape the last few 
times we saw her, and now she's a widow. We do get some interesting 
(albeit never made relevant to the story) information about house elves 
from her, at least by inference. It appears that house elves are bound 
to their houses for life. It is not clear what the life spans of house 
elves are; they may be immune to disease and aging. Still house elves 
can apparently have children, although we know nothing of the upbringing 
of those children. Now, by house elf standards, Dobby is quite insane, 
but he had no problem transferring his loyalty to Harry Potter and 
Hogwarts. And Kreacher was able to transfer his loyalty with difficulty, 
although it was to the same house. Winky, after being given her freedom, 
seems unable to attach to Hogwarts, and doesn't even seem capable of 
doing her job, although it is implied that the Hogwarts house elves are 
given the appreciation that they seem to crave (they are compelled to 
work hard, but appreciation seems to be their major source of pleasure).

So, I have a question: other than giving explanation about the Crouches, 
what purpose does Winky serve in the novels?

     Bart