Hermione and House-Elves - another non-spoilery reflection
Another thing that intrigues me is... is Hermione ever going to be reminded that all of the actual reasons that pushed her into the cause of House-Elf liberation were actually misconceptions of one kind or another? For instance, when Winky talked about obeying orders and being afraid of heights (up in the top box at the Quidditch World Cup) she was
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You see, Dobby, while still bound to the Malfoys, switched his loyalties, not to the abstract cause of Voldemort's defeat, but (as is the way with House-Elves) he switched his loyalties in a very personal way, to Harry. Dobby is not entirely alone in this. Kreacher also went through a period of serving two masters: one that he was bound to serve, and one that he "chose" to serve - and in both cases there were real limitations as to what he was able to tell the master that he actually "wished" to serve; the only difference being that Narcissa Malfoy was rather better at knowing what questions to ask him than Harry was. Even so, I wonder how often Kreacher was forced to "iron his hands" for his betrayal.
Now, I'm starting to suspect that the real reason that he wants to be paid a token wage (and the important point is that it really is a "token" wage that he wanted - he "beat Dumbledore down" to the lowest amount he could) is that as long as he is being paid, he's not being bound to a new master (even an institutional one, like the school) - and the reason why he didn't want to be bound to a new master, is because he wanted to always be free to serve the master he "really" wants to serve, i.e. Harry. This was important in Order of the Phoenix, in that because he was being paid a wage,even a token one, Dobby was "not" as bound to the school as the other House-Elves were, and so was the only one that was actually able to warn Harry, when the D.A. was betrayed to Umbridge.
Of course, Dobby can't work for Harry directly, because Harry has no dwelling of his own (House-Elves are bound to Houses rather than people, it seems, and find it hard to leave them) - although this may change, if Harry now inherits the house in Grimmauld Place! But in working for the school, Dobby is in exactly the right place to be able to help Harry. My guess is he'll leave when Harry does - or as soon as Harry has a place of his own.
But my point is that Dobby may not actually see freedom as an existence in itself. To a large extent, freedom to Dobby really might mean "freedom to help Harry and his friends." He may not be quite as unlike the other House-Elves as he seems.
Not that this means that Dobby will suddenly insist on not taking wages if he were to move to working for Harry directly. Far from it. I think that Dobby (wisely) values the "freedom" to serve - and feels that he can serve all the better if he is free, rather than bound by the straitjacket of House-Elf enslavement.
And not that Dobby "is" entirely free, even now. He "still" feels a compulsion not to speak ill of the family he used to serve, and to punish himself if he does (although naturally this compulsion is not as strong as it used to be) and so far he hasn't chosen to reveal more of their secrets. Not that Harry's asked him, of course!
But going back to my earlier point, House-Elves (as Harry notices) are actually not quite as tightly bound to their masters as most wizards seem to think. Another example of this, is the way that the Hogwarts House-Elves, when "insulted" by Hermione's wish to surreptitiously free them, automatically refuse to do any cleaning in Gryffindor tower. This is work they're "supposed" to do - and yet, when they feel strongly enough, they just don't!
BTW - here's another question about House-Elves. How many of them really do work for "families" any more? We only ever see families with "one" House-Elf. Ancient institutions like Hogwarts have "more than a hundred." Are most House-Elves nowadays in some sort of "institutional" ownership? Does St Mungo's have a lot of them too? The Minsitry of Magic might have a lot too - although what Arthur Weasley says about "Magical Maintenance" suggests that it is staffed by wizards.
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The main one is The Servant Problem [http://www.redhen-publications.com/Servants.html] which floats the theory that the "enslavement" of the House Elves only dates from the establishment of wizarding Seclusion and that prior to that period, most wizarding households had actively *avoided* dealing with House Elves.
The other, more specifically related to Dobby is The Year of the Basilisk [http://www.redhen-publications.com/Basilisk.html] in which I have added some newer insights as to what seemed to be going on there. Once you take a look at the activity in Year 2 through the lens of what actually happened was what was *meant* to happen Dobby's actions and statements are open to some very different interpretations.
Right, just because their syntax makes them sound like simpletons doesn't make it so. ANd Servants have been manipulating Masters for a loooong time.
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BTW, perhaps the most terrifying post-victory distopia I ever heard of is the House Elf Republic of Hogwarts, with the House-Elves arranging everything "for master's own good, of course."
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The two elves together, iirc, tell Harry the truth about the Polyjuice plot. I think Kreacher begins to say that Draco goes to the room "with various..." (presumably various young girls) and Dobby cuts him off by saying he goes with Crabbe and Goyle. Unless I'm remembering it wrong.
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