House-elves

House-elves keep great houses running. They can apparate inside places wizards cannot, and they are bound by old rules the stories present as both tradition and injury. Laundry, kitchens, and warnings arrive through them. So does the series' clearest argument about unpaid labor.

A student campaign in the books tries to change their conditions and is often played as awkward. The awkwardness does not erase the condition. Readers still argue about how far the text goes. That argument belongs in the Margin, labeled as a reading, not as a new fact.

Here, the fact is the institution: a class of magical people whose freedom is not the default.