#house elf

"I know I will be long dead before you read this..."

Today on 31 Oct 1991: Harry and Ron saved Hermione from the Mountain Troll and became friends.

Today on 31 Oct 1992: The trio attended Sir Nicholas’s Deathday party and the Basilisk was released from the Chamber of Secrets and petrified Mrs. Norris.

Today on 31 Oct 1993: Sirius Black enters Hogwarts Castle and attacks the Fat Lady when she refuses to give him passage to Gryffindor Tower.

Today on 31 Oct 1994: Everyone was shocked that Harry’s name came out of the Goblet of Fire, forcing him to participate in the Triwizard Tournament.

Note: Harry lost his family on 31 Oct 1981 and he found a family in the name of friends i.e Ron and Hermione on 31 Oct 1991.

Happy Halloween 🎃

(The post anon is referring to is here)

Harry's outlook on house elves is pretty interesting actually, because while he pities elves like Dobby and Winkey, he doesn't go out of his way to free them or work toward their welfare the way Hermione does. Harry sees issues with house elves that are mistreated, but he doesn't see an issue with the institution of house elves — that is, he doesn't really care about the slavory bit, just when their masters mistreat them, which is, yeah...

Harry doesn't make a big deal out of house elves the way everyone around him does:

“House-elves is not paid, sir!” she said in a muffled squeak. “No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and next thing I hear you’s up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin.” “Well, it’s about time he had a bit of fun,” said Harry. “House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter,” said Winky firmly [...] “So that’s a house-elf?” Ron muttered. “Weird things, aren’t they?” “Dobby was weirder,” said Harry fervently.

(GoF, Ch8)

In the above conversation he didn't even react to Winky not getting paid. He doesn't seem to conceptualise what house elves' position means and that they are slaves. Ron and everyone treats it as normal, and Harry does too.

Some fans say that JKR retconned Harry's opinion on house elves, but that is false. Even back in CoS, he frees Dobby because he pities him and Dobby tried to help him, but he doesn't see the inherent problem in the house elves' slavery. He treats elves and their masters on a case-by-case basis:

“A house-elf must be set free, sir. And the family will never set Dobby free . . . Dobby will serve the family until he dies, sir. . . .” Harry stared. “And I thought I had it bad staying here for another four weeks,” he said. “This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. Can’t anyone help you? Can’t I?”

(CoS, Ch2)

Harry wants to help becouse Dobby's situation is familiar to him. Dobby is being mistreated by the family he serves like Harry — but unlike Harry, he can't run away. Harry isn't thinking about the systems in place that cause it, he's thinking about Dobby and his family as a specific case, not a symptom of something bigger. He wants to help because he's a kind person, but he isn't thinking big the way Hermione does. He's not an idealist.

He doesn't seem to care about grand injustices. He cares about personal injustice to people he cares about. He cares Sirius not getting a trial, but would he care as much if Snape was thrown into Azkaban without a trial? Because I don't think he would. He cares about werewolf rights because Remus is a werewolf, if he didn't know him, he probably wouldn't care as much.

“Harry Potter freed Dobby!” said the elf shrilly, gazing up at Harry, moonlight from the nearest window reflected in his orb-like eyes. “Harry Potter set Dobby free!” “Least I could do, Dobby,” said Harry, grinning. “Just promise never to try and save my life again.”

(CoS, Ch18)

He freed Dobby out of personal gratitude, not a general anti-slavery idea. Like I said, it was personal, not ideological.

When Ron and Hermione are arguing about house elf slavery, Harry just keeps himself out of it because he doesn't want to take a side and disappoint either of his friends:

“You know, house-elves get a very raw deal!” said Hermione indignantly. “It’s slavery, that’s what it is! That Mr. Crouch made her go up to the top of the stadium, and she was terrified, and he’s got her bewitched so she can’t even run when they start trampling tents! Why doesn’t anyone do something about it?” “Well, the elves are happy, aren’t they?” Ron said. “You heard old Winky back at the match . . . ‘House-elves is not supposed to have fun’ . . . that’s what she likes, being bossed around. . . .”

(GoF, Ch8)

But Harry clearly doesn't really care about the house elf issue either way.

I will say, at first, he is more open to Hermione's SPEW ideas than Ron (and most wizards) is:

“Our short-term aims,” said Hermione, speaking even more loudly than Ron, and acting as though she hadn’t heard a word, “are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long-term aims include changing the law about non-wand use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they’re shockingly underrepresented.” “And how do we do all this?” Harry asked

(GoF, Ch14)

But he doesn't actually want to do anything Hermione plans (I think it has more to do with Hermione's initial plans for SPEW being crap, honestly):

There was a pause in which Hermione beamed at the pair of them, and Harry sat, torn between exasperation at Hermione and amusement at the look on Ron’s face.

(GoF, Ch14)

And he and Ron mostly rolled with her to try and appease her:

Harry shook his head and applied himself to his scrambled eggs. His and Ron’s lack of enthusiasm had done nothing whatsoever to curb Hermione’s determination to pursue justice for house-elves. True, both of them had paid two Sickles for a S.P.E.W. badge, but they had only done it to keep her quiet.

(GoF, Ch15)

But by book 7, Ron is the one who understood SPEW, better than Harry:

“Hang on a moment!” said Ron sharply. “We’ve forgotten someone!” “Who?” asked Hermione. “The house-elves, they’ll all be down in the kitchen, won’t they?” “You mean we ought to get them fighting?” asked Harry. “No,” said Ron seriously, “I mean we should tell them to get out. We don’t want anymore Dobbies, do we? We can’t order them to die for us—“

(DH, Ch31)

Ron understands they can't order slaves to die for them, that it's messed up to do so, Harry is the one who offers getting the house elves to fight.

I don't think he really got the slavery thing and how it works, tbh. And he never really bothered to understand. Hermione explains it to him, and he pretty willfully ignores it (I think some of it has to do with how Hermione explains it, but that's a different matter).

Hary doesn't really care for house elves as a whole. He treats them as individuals. He would treat them differently based on his feelings regarding each specific elf. And you see it with his initial response to Kreacher:

“I forbid you to call anyone ’blood traitor’ or ’Mudblood,”’ growled Harry. He would have found Kreacher, with his snoutlike nose and bloodshot eyes, a distinctively unlovable object even if the elf had not betrayed Sirius to Voldemort. “I’ve got a question for you,” said Harry, his heart beating rather fast as he looked down at the elf, “and I order you to answer it truthfully. Understand?” “Yes, Master,” said Kreacher, bowing low again. Harry saw his lips moving soundlessly, undoubtedly framing the insults he was now forbidden to utter.

(DH, Ch10)

He doesn't have the pity Hermione (and Dumbledore in HBP) have towards house elves just due to their life situation. He doesn't see it as mitigating Kreacher's behaviour. He treats all of them like they have free will and can forge their own path, slaves or not, so any wrong an elf does, is that elf's fault.

I think this has to do with Harry's experiences growing up. He grew up with little to no freedoms, given chores, beaten, and generally mistreated — he's probably more familiar than any wizard could be with how house elves live. And that's why he treats them as individuals the way he does. Becouse to him, his childhood isn't an excuse for his behaviour, so their slavory shouldn't excuse theirs. (I don't think his childhood and house elf slavory is the same situation, it's quite different, I just think this is an element in the way Harry sees house elves and their slavery). Harry treats house elves like equals, like they are as capable as him to make choices and find ways to disobey their masters (the way Dobby and Kreacher show they are able to!)

Harry is one of the only characters who treats elves as being of their own, who are responsible for their own actions. Hermione looks down on them as beings who "don't know what's good for them, like I do," she sees them just as lesser than her as most wizards do. (I think Dumbledore also sees elves as individuals capable of free-will and reason).

So because Harry sees them as capable of agency, if an elf says they're happy being slaves (regardless of why they think that and the brainwashing that was involved in that), Harry would take them at their word, and let them remain as they are. He doesn't presume he knows what they feel better than they do. Harry freed Dobby because Dobby wanted to be free — it was Dobby's choice.

It's why Harry doesn't free Kreacher, becouse he knows Kreacher would be insulted by it. He won't want it. It's why Harry is exasperated with Hermione when she's bothering elves who don't want her help. It's why he offers to ask the elves to fight, he doesn't see it as ordering them, he sees it as legitimate because it would be their choice to fight and stay at Hogwarts. Not saying house elves choosing to remain slaves isn't super messed up and something Harry should be chill with, but I'm explaining how a kind person who sees house elves as beings with agency could behave the way Harry does.

In DH, he clearly enjoys the pleasures and luxuries of having a house elf:

Kreacher came bustling to the table with a large tureen in his hands, and ladled out soup into pristine bowls, whistling between his teeth as he did so. “Thanks, Kreacher,” said Harry, flipping over the Prophet so as not to have to look at Snape’s face. “Well, at least we know exactly where Snape is now.” He began to spoon soup into his mouth. The quality of Kreacher’s cooking had improved dramatically ever since he had been given Regulus’s locket: Today’s French onion was as good as Harry had ever tasted

(DH, Ch12)

And, well, by the end of the series:

“That wand’s more trouble than it’s worth,” said Harry. “And quite honestly,” he turned away from the painted portraits, thinking now only of the fourposter bead lying waiting for him in Gryffindor Tower and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there, “I’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime.”

(DH, Ch36)

He clearly feels fine with asking Kreacher (a house elf bound to serve and obey him) to make him a sandwich. Is Harry gonna be a decent master for Kreacher? Probably, yeah, I can't see him being cruel. But, Kreacher still isn't free by the end of the book and it doesn't look like Harry is planning to free him (or any other elf) either.

So, with all of my love to Harry, I have to say the guy is chill with house elf slavory and isn't very enthusiastic about working to free them. He might help Hermione with future SPEW endeavors if she nags him enough, but he doesn't really care about this cause himself. I do think he cares about the abuse or mistreatment of elves though and would probably work to free these elves. But, again, he's not addressing the larger problem, which is the slavery.

So, yeah, I think Harry would feel comfortable having a house elf and commanding them as long as the elf is happy being there and doesn't say they want to be free. He seems to have no problem doing so with Kreacher, and the end note of the series implies he feels no guilt about it.