This time I had plenty of time, but couldn't accuse my laptop to properly write. This was written and posted from my phone.
A Study Into the Origins of House Elves
(By the Goblin Liaison Office)
How often do you think about your House Elf? Do you thank them? Do you even acknowledge them beyond giving them comands? The majority of the wizard kind -- or as is becoming popular, Magi -- would have answered "sometimes, sometimes, sometimes." and that's rather concerning, don't you think? This disregarded is likely stemmed from the fact that House Elves are classified by the Department of Magical Species Classification as 3rd Class Beings, instead of 2nd Class Beings. Isn't that discerning; that while being sentient, feeling, thinking people, are considered less than Hags? Even their evolutionary relatives the Wood Elves are considered 2nd Class Beings, and only are so unknown because they actively avoid contact with other species. We Magi are considered 1st Class Beings and the only ones among it. My Goblin Colleges have expressed concern that their resemblance to House Elves would lead to their eventual declassification and removal of the already low amount of rights they have here in Britain.
Many may argue that it's better than Centaurs, being the same as House Elves and being classified as beasts, however Centaurs have requested to be classified as Beasts as to not share a Classification with Vampires and Hags, which are reported as Dark Creatures
We have decided to look into the origins of House Eves to see if we can find what stops them from using their magics to fight their being classified as 3rd Class Beings, a class shared only with Werewolves in their Human form. This however, proved difficult. We were able to find that House Elves have much stronger magic then we Magi and, while they are not allowed a wand, do not even need one to use more potent spells than our most powerful sorcerers. However, it is the very contracts that give then their power, that limits it so.
Our research has told us that House Elves must have a contract in order to receive the Boon that Mistress Magic herself gave to them. We have not been able to discern whether Magic placed this restriction or another outside force, but we know that it is spoken of by the House Elves as the "Great Contract." It is also unclear whether it is only Magi that their contracts can be with, but we have only seen contracts with Magi. We have also seen evidence of the contracts not really having any limitations beyond two things: the House Elf works for someone else, and there is a way to nullify the contract. There have been contracts where multiple generations of a House Elf line worked for multiple generations of a Wizarding family, contracts where a single elf works for a single magi, contracts in which the Elf receives pay, and many more.
A few specific trends have appeared in the majority of contracts that we believe could be the reason House Elves are thought so lesser. Firstly is that the House Elves bound by the contracts would receive no pay, in any form besides their magic (the magic being stated as a required boon as per the Great Contract). Secondly is the trend that the nullification process of the contract consists as giving an Elf bound by the contract clothes; this usually wouldn't nullify the entirety of the contract, but simply remove the Elf on question from the contract. Thirdly, is that an Elf will have a specific period of time after nullification in which they are still able to access their magic.
This seems like an answer to where the greater community gained the idea that elves were lesser, however this is simply the proof that they are seen as lesser. Our question still has not been answered. So we dug deeper.
And found nothing. We did however find that the only thing restricting the House Elves was us, and that there might not be so much animosity between certain individuals if we only be kinder and maybe not have such harsh contracts. Maybe even give your Elven employees a day off every once in a while? It might even mean they can serve you longer.
