House-elves

House-elves cook, clean, and can travel through wards that stop wizards. The binding is old, and the novels present it as tradition and as injury. A free elf is a plot, not the default. Students notice at different speeds. One campaign to change the conditions is played partly as awkward. The awkwardness does not erase the condition.

Canon fact: house-elves are people with magic, tied to service. Whether the text goes far enough is a reading, and it belongs with the theories, not as a new fact in this entry. See also the longer stacks note.