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Warning!
At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. Spoilers will be present within the article. |
- Ron Weasley: "Hang on a moment! We've forgotten someone! The house-elves, they'll all be down in the kitchen, won't they?"
- Harry Potter: "You mean we ought to get them fighting?"
- Ron Weasley: "No, 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–"
- — The House elves during the Battle of Hogwarts[src]
A veritable legion of house-elves are enlisted by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They work in the kitchens, preparing feasts for the entire school. They also move trunks and baggage to and from rooms, clean dormitories, and presumably other areas of the castle as well. They wear togas made of tea-towels bearing the Hogwarts crest.[1] When asked nicely, they will accommodate the dietary requests of vegetarian students.[3]
History
Helga Hufflepuff
Helga Hufflepuff brought the House-elves to work in the Hogwarts kitchens as a way of ensuring they could work and not be abused.[4]
1994
- "At least a hundred little elves were standing around the kitchen, bowing and curtseying as Dobby led Harry past them."
- —The house-elves in 1994[src]
In 1994, Dobby, a house-elf, was hired by Albus Dumbledore to work in the kitchens for a Galleon a week. Another house-elf named Winky, took up work at Hogwarts as well, but during her time there she had turned into a heavy drinker. They soon became titled as Hogwarts house-elves although the other House Elves were disconcerted by them.[1]
Tea towel, commonly used as clothing
In the same year, Hermione Granger set up the organisation S.P.E.W., she started coming to the kitchens in order to persuade them to be set free. This did not earn her any popularity, as most believe that house-elves enjoy their work; indeed, even the house-elves did not like her campaigning. She started knitting hats and socks, which she left lying around Gryffindor Tower, hoping to free some unsuspecting elf who picked them up while cleaning the common room, so as to grant them freedom. The house-elves did not appreciate this gesture; on the contrary, they took it for insult and refused to clean the Gryffindor Common Room, with the exception of Dobby. They became angry with Hermione Granger as she made these attempts to free them.[1]
1998
- "Fight, fight for my master, the defender of the house-elves! Fight for brave Regulus! Fight!"
- —Kreacher leading the house-elves during the Battle of Hogwarts[src]
They participated in the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998 in an unusually bold move for their kind, although this may have been a manifestation of their extreme loyalty to their "masters". They fought with knives and cleavers, hacking at the shins of Death Eaters.[2]
Appearances
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Wonderbook: Book of Potions
- Pottermore
- Wizarding World
- Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 21 (The House-Elf Liberation Front)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 36 (The Flaw in the Plan)
- ↑ 2000 Interview with JK Rowling
- ↑ J.K. Rowling PotterCast Interview - "Yeah, it's a complicated issue. I would say that Hufflepuff gave — Hufflepuff did what was the most moral thing to do at that time, and we are talking about over a thousand years ago. So that would be to give them good conditions of work."
