"How could there be ownerless house-elves?" Hermione asked. "Were they all expelled by their original families? Or did they become independent on their own, like Dobby? "
She looked very excited. Elwyn knew why Hermione was so excited when she heard about ownerless house-elves.
After all, although there was no progress, she had never given up on S.P.E.W.
As long as there was a chance, Hermione would not give up.
In order to fight for the legal rights of the house-elves, she wrote articles in the newspaper, persuading wizards to treat the house-elves better. At school, she also insisted on going to the kitchen every week to talk to the elves.
Hermione did a lot of things, but the results were very poor.
Apart from Dobby, almost no other house-elves agreed with her philosophy.
The house-elves did not need wages or holidays. All they needed was work. The more work they had, the happier they were. If they could not finish their work, they would punish them as much as they liked, such as whipping them, burning their hands with iron, or cutting them with a knife, and then ordering them to hurry up and work.
In the eyes of traditional house-elves, only a master who treated them like this was a good master …
They regarded serving their master for life as the greatest honor, especially after the Blake family had created a perverted tradition. Many house-elves dreamed of being like their ancestors. When they were too old to work, their masters would cut off their heads and hang them side by side with their ancestors' heads on the wall as decoration.
Even the house-elves in France had followed this custom, as if they had found a treasure.
Therefore, for the house-elves, the things that Hermione promoted were deviant.
Over time, she became the most unpopular person in the kitchen.
When other students went to the kitchen, the house-elves would take the initiative to surround them and stuff all kinds of food into their arms.
When Hermione went over, the house-elves all hid at once …
There had been no progress in S.P.E.W., but if there were many ownerless house-elves, perhaps this situation could be changed. Without the constraints of a master, it would be much easier to help them fight for their rights. At that time, they could also set many examples for other house-elves to learn from.
"Don't get excited, Hermione. I may not have made it clear. These house-elves still have masters in name. They are not expelled house-elves like Dobby, but their masters are actually gone." Fred explained, "Think about it. Those ancient pure-blooded sorcerer families lost their descendants due to various reasons during the inheritance process. Without family members, the family perished, but the house-elves remained. These house-elves who lost their masters would not pledge their loyalty to a new sorcerer. They just …"
"House-Elves who have lost their masters?"
"Yes, if you go and ask them, they will be willing to tell you about their masters. They are all pure-blooded wizard families that have disappeared for a long time, and they have ancient surnames from hundreds of years ago." Fred pointed to the house-elves who were working in the room and said, "These house-elves you see now are the descendants of those house-elves who have lost their masters. They nominally belong to those wizard families that have died out."
Bound by ancient contracts and magic, house-elves were slaves of ancient and wealthy wizard families.
Their descendants were the same. Although many of these wizard families were no longer around, their power still existed.
The house-elves would not betray and turn to other wizards, even if their masters were no longer around.
This situation was very common in the magic world, especially in the past. Wars between wizards were frequent, and duels were prevalent. If there was a disagreement, someone would die, and ancient families would become extinct. As the last members of these families, house-elves may have been reproducing for centuries.
After listening to Fred's explanation, Elwyn thought that there was indeed such a possibility.
He had read books that introduced the heraldry of the wizard families in the UK. In the past few hundred years, there were countless families that had disappeared. There were hundreds of thousands of them. Even if not all families had House Elves left, as long as there were one-tenth of them, it would still be a considerable number.
"I don't know when it started, but these house-elves who have lost their masters have gathered in the underground world of London. It is the edge of the magic world, and they live there in obscurity." Fred said, "I heard that the history of their living there can even be traced back to a thousand years ago."
"This is the first time I have heard of the existence of such a group of house-elves."
"I only found out about their existence not long ago. Only the house-elves know about their existence, but the house-elves regard this kind of thing as a taboo and will not speak of it easily." Fred said, "If it weren't for the recent chaos caused by the werewolves and dark wizards in the underground world, George and I would not have known about this."
"What are the werewolves planning to do? Why do they want to occupy the territory of the house-elves? "Elwyn asked.
"Maybe it's because of the treasures of the house-elves. Many of these house-elves are the last members of those ancient wizard families. When they moved to the underground world, they brought the last things of these families with them." Fred said disapprovingly, "I have seen some of their so-called treasures, and they are not of much value. The concept of house-elves is different from ours. The things they fancy and collect as treasures are not of high value. The real treasures of those pure-blooded wizard families are generally kept in Gringotts …"
It was true, but it was undeniable that doing so would more or less have some gains.
However, this kind of thing sounded like something only wizards like the Mondungues Fletch would do. The werewolves would not do this kind of thing.
Greedy werewolves? That was a bit strange.
They had lived in the underground world for many years and had always lived in harmony with the house-elves there. The relationship between them might be quite friendly, but it was not worth it to attack them and occupy the territory of the elves.
The house-elves only looked weak, but their actual combat strength was still very strong.
Elwyn did not understand why the werewolves were doing this. He suddenly thought that this matter was related to the Lord Voldemort?
Assuming that the werewolves were now obeying the orders of the Lord Voldemort, was there some secret behind this?
"These house-elves, have you and George paid them?" Hermione asked.
Compared to the illusory conspiracy, she was more concerned about this.
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