It was the year 2113, although time was inconsequential to the elves. They had no sense of time, for their entire lives were one monotonous day after monotonous day. They slaved for their masters, while knowing of no other life that they could live. It had been over 100 years since the last great wizarding war, when the great Harry Potter had defeated the evil Lord Voldemort. These facts could not be kept even from the most sheltered house elves. They knew barely anything of what happened in the world that occurred around them, but the wizard masters could not keep the fairytales from them.
Little had changed in those last 100 years in the British wizarding world. The little masters still left once they turned 11 to attend the great castle, Hogwarts. The world was still ruled by the minister, and although most of the stereotypes and blood superiority had died out, there were still a few who believed that the purebloods should rule. Another factor that was forever in place, was that house elves were slaves of their masters, who existed to do the day to day tasks while being looked down upon as dirt by those masters.
The house elves knew nothing but this life. There were no thoughts of any other life, for if one has never been told that there was anything else in the world, then one did not wish for anything else in the world. No dreams of freedom were fostered in the young elves, because they were seen as a foolish waste of time by their elders. Elves lived for a long time, and they lived for a long time by being cooperative. It was with that in mind that many young elves simply accepted their situation and worked hard at it.
House elves were often sent on expeditions into the forests to get potions ingredients when their masters believed it too dangerous or not worth their time. It was in that year 2113 that 5 young house elves were exploring the woods near the cliffs on the sea when they stumbled upon a smooth white rock, that stood upon a cliff, and looked very out of place in the dirt, sand, and grey dull rocks. One of the young elves saw this and called to the others, shouting "Come here! Look at this, it's being here so long."
The other elves hurried over to see what the commotion was about. Kneeling down, the elf who had orriginaly seen the stone brushed off the accumulated dirt and moss that had slowly grown over time. Another, being the only one who could read, slowly sounded out "Here lies Dobby. A free elf 1997." This drew gasps from the elves standing around the stone. They had never heard anything so preposterous.
"A free elf!" spoke a male elf, of about 19 human years.
"Can an elf be free?"
"I know the wizards are being free, but an elf."
"Being free sounds nice! I want to be free!" This was the youngest of the group, a female being about 17 years old.
"We could not do chores! And we would never be hit by master again!"
"We wouldn't have masters! Can you imagine!"
The elves looked at each other, silent for a moment. In their simple way, they knew that no one could know about this until they were ready. They quickly covered up the grave stone again, and gathered the plant that they had been sent to gather. They returned to the manor, and said nothing of what they had found, not even to the other elves. The talked and plotted for upwards of 3 months, but again, elves have no sense of time. They slowly gathered support of the elves around the country, working in various manors.
Most wizards and witches overlooked elves. They tended to forget that elves had magic of their own, magic that was powerful in a different way than the wizard's magic. Slowly, as more elves silently joined those original 5 elves, they all began to cultivate their magic. They grew in strength and in numbers until they were 8000 strong, and outnumbered the wizards by quite a bit.
They made their move efficiently and swiftly. In the dead of the night, with the moon for their light, they gathered in those same woods around the gravestone of the free elf Dobby. They quickly went over their plans and each went on their way. A massive contingent went to the Ministry of Magic. Over 1000 elves all creeped into the empty ministry, and went directly to the Department of House Elf Registration. All of the magical contracts of the elves were kept here, binding them to their respective masters. The elves had done their homework. They knew that using any time of wizard magic to destroy the contracts would simply kill the elves, but using elfish magic, they could destroy them and free themselves in the process.
The documents were destroyed and the entire department was destroyed. At the same time, around the country, elves were gathering their meager belongings and waiting for the signal of freedom. At 2 in the morning the elves could feel the binds loosening, and soon they were gone, and the elves felt as though a massive burden they hadn't known was there was off of their shoulders. Smiling, they popped out of their manors forever.
They left England for ever as well, traversing the Atlantic and appearing in America, where there were many house elf communities, because house elves had long been freed in wizarding America, and America accepted all elfish refugees. When the wizards woke up that morning, they found all 8000 house elves gone, and the words, "Forever Dobby, we are free elves!" written on the wall of the ministry atrium.
The wizards could do nothing, finding their contracts destroyed. They had no legal right to the elves anymore, and could never get them back. The taking in of elves as slaves had not been in practice for hundreds of years, and they had depended on their elves having children. There was no way to get the elves back, or to ever have more elves. Meanwhile, the elves were now settling into free life in America, and that was where they would live forever more, free elves.
This was known around the world as the House Elf Revolution, and years later, those elves would tell their tale of triumph over adversity. And only the Potters and Weasleys would share a smile when they heard that it was all started by Dobby, their grandfather's old friend. And that was how, in 2114, there were no longer any more slaves in England, because all of those house elves were now FREE ELVES.