Invisible Hands

They're beaten (sometimes daily), worked to exhaustion, and forced to lurk in the shadows; our invisible and unacknowledged helping hands.

The rights of a house elf are, even to this day, not widely acknowledged. Have we moved forward with legislation in the Ministry of Magic so that they can one day be guaranteed the same workers rights as wizards? Yes. But this does not mean that the fight is over. All across the country, house elves continue to work in the wealthiest of our homes as second-class citizens. Hardly earning more than a galleon every two weeks, they cook our food, they clean our dishes, and they perform vital child-sitting duties. How have we thanked them? Is there an International Elf Day to be celebrated?

Is their vacation time and sick leave competitive with the current market? No. While we have taken small steps towards a better future for our elven friends, the marked bold strides of progress still lie in our distant future. So what can you, the average wizarding citizen, do for your house elf friends? There are a few options.

If you employ a house elf, you can increase their salary to a competitive rate, allow them an increased time off each month that grows every half decade of employment, and you can eliminate the punishment of physical discipline that has run so rampant in the unfortunate enslavement of house elves.

If you have a friend who is a house elf, you can support them by lending an ear or a shoulder when they need it and by signing this petition which, if passed and approved by the Department of Magical Creatures, will prohibit the use of corporal punishment for any creature who is in the employ of a witch or wizard. (Please note that this will also extend to the alleged dreadful treatment of any possible dragons who perform services at Gringotts Bank.)

Next steps for the wider wizarding world include educating the public as much as possible to the horrific conditions house elves are subjected to while in the employ of witches and wizards, hearing from elven representatives on the rights they are eager to fight for, and making the wizarding world more elf-friendly on the whole. While they have their own brand of magic which aids them in many day-to-day activities, it is important for any elven quarters within a wizarding household to have appliances and utilities that are elf-sized.

A stretch goal for the future will be to allow house elves to carry wands as fully-fledged citizens of the wizarding world. While the concept may terrify many witches and wizards, it's an important step in making sure that the world we live in is just as much their home as it is ours. Goblins have been fighting for this right since the moment the wizarding world acknowledged them as sentient beings and still haven't overturned the provisions our ancestors fearfully put in place. While this may seem like a distant future, take a moment to imagine a world where house elves, goblins, and other magical creatures feel at home living alongside witches and wizards; a world where a young witch or wizard is just as likely to be schooled in the magical art of blacksmithing as they are to be educated in Herbology. Plenty of people in the magical world fear that giving power to other magical creatures will mean but we would do just as well to dream about what benefits these new connections would bring us.