The following podcast contains audio extracted from videos on the Harry Potter Theory YouTube

channel.

Hey everyone, welcome to another instalment of Harry Potter Theory.

Today we're going to be discussing why elves are, well, house elves, despite possessing pretty powerful

magical abilities. As you may recall, elves and the concept of house elves are introduced

in the Chamber of Secrets when Harry meets Dobby, the resident house elf of Draco Malfoy's

family and the family's home, Malfoy Manor.

Through this introduction, we discover that the upper class of the wizarding world all

seem to own house elves, who are magically bound to serve their masters and work in servitude

for well-to-do visiting families without compensation.

Their tasks range from cleaning to cooking and running errands, all without question.

The only way that they can be freed from their magical enslavement is if their master gives them a piece of clothing.

Of course, this sounds quite miserable, and so it was unsurprising when we learn that

Dobby longs to be free from his indentured servitude to the cruel Malfoy family, who mistreat

him and underestimate his abilities and intelligence.

This, of course, inevitably leads to Harry helping Dobby secure his freedom, tricking Lucia's Malfoy into

tossing an old sock to the elf. However, despite Dobby being the first house elf we are introduced

to, we come to learn that he is actually quite an anomaly when compared to the majority of the

elves that we come across throughout the remainder of this series. From Dobby's friend Winky, who Harry meets at the Quidditch World Cup when he mistakes her

for Dobby, to Creature, the miserable house elf of the Black family, who is inevitably

left to Harry after Sirius Black's death.

Through these and other elves that we are introduced to throughout Harry Potter, we

...