What do YOU think of House Elves?

The Interview

Where are we? Who are we? What's the problem? What's the remedy?

These are the questions we are asking today on WWN. Earlier today I asked two Hogwarts students how they would answer these questions in relation to House Elves. This is what Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley had to say.

Hermione's voice "We are in a world where Wizards make all the rules and believe they have the right to have authority over all lesser beings. We are, or at least I am, a Witch who disagrees with the way this system works and believes that all beings should have equal rights and equal say. The problem is that House Elves are being treated as if they don't have feelings equal to a Wizard's and are being held in slavery, they are being forced to work endlessly with no pay and no days off. They must work for their Wizard families their whole lives and they can't leave even if they want to. If they do get released from their master's service they have no way of finding a job that isn't as a unpaid slave. The remedy is to release all the Elves and let them have paid jobs doing whatever they want. If they still want to do house work and work as servants for Wizards then let them, but give them full pay and days off! Let them wear clothes and carry wands. In short let them have all the rights that Witches and Wizards have.

Is that good? Also, if you, or any of your listeners, would like to join The Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare, send me an owl, Hermione Granger, Gryffindor Common room, Hogwarts. It only costs five Galleons!!"

Thanks for grabbing the opportunity for free advertising, Hermione, but before we hear from Ron, can I push this a little further? You know that some other young muggle-borns listen to our show, and maybe they aren't quite as aware of the Wizarding world as you are. So let's take a step back and explain to these muggle-born Witches and Wizards something a little more about the Wizarding world. We live in a magical world, right? And Elves are, like Witches and Wizards, magical creatures. How are they different? How are they similar?

Hermione's voice "Well, yes Elves are magical creatures but they are so much more. Elves are Beings. (The definition of a Being is "any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws.") There are many magical Beings but Wizards and Witches have always had dominion over all other Beings. They tell Centaurs where they can live. They tell the Merpeople what lakes they can call their home. They use the Goblin made jewellery but don't give the goblins who made them proper homage. These Beings are just as important and intelligent as Witches and Wizards. They have magic of their own and tremendous skills that Wizards use for their own personal gain, then pass laws saying that these Beings can't use their powers for themselves. And the other Beings are getting tired of being pushed down. We all know about the goblin riots in the eighteenth century and I think if we don't start giving all Beings the respect, freedom and rights they deserve, we might have something even worse on our hands very soon. It's hard to name the differences and similarities between House Elves and Witches and Wizards. It's like trying to name the differences and similarities between cats and dogs. They are two completely different types of Beings. If I had to name differences and similarities I'd say the main similarities are that they are both Beings, they both have magical abilities and they both reside in the Wizarding world rather then the Muggle world. The main difference is that while Wizards and Witches are free to use their magical powers at will (as long as there are no Muggles in the area and they are of age) House Elves are not, they can use their magic only under orders from their masters. They can not legally use their magic to protect themselves or make their lives easier the way Wizards and Witches do every day. Another big difference is the kind of magic they can do, Wizards and Witches need their wands to do almost all their magic. They need wands to Apparate and to cast or defend themselves from most spells. Elves on the other hand can Apparate, even to and from places with anti-Apparation charms in place, without a wand, they can also perform a whole host of other types of magic without wands."