Honestly Hermione was just forcing freedom on them at some point, and its not like every master treats them as complete slaves...elves in Hogwarts were quite happy with their lives, forcing such a drastic change of phenomenon is quite harsh who are not willing to change imo

I get where Hermione’s coming from, seeing how Dobby reacted and how Winky was. But she should’ve listened to everyone around her, “They like working.”

Dobby (the main reason she thought they would like freedom) even said that he likes working.

Yeah, she was wrong, but with good intentions.

At one point in the booksHermione even tried to trick house elves into becoming free

Hermione wanted to free elves,but nobody bothered,some maybe because that she’s annoying