Draco blinked. “He‘s not exactly my slave, no…”
“But he works for you?” she asked. He nodded. “And you don‘t pay him?” He nodded again. “Sounds like a slave to me,” she concluded angrily. “Didn‘t that practice die out in the eighteen hundreds?”
“But this is different,” Draco tried to explain. “He‘s not human, Hermione, he‘s a house elf.”
“Oh, so that makes it alright?” she asked incredulously. “That‘s a horrible attitude!”
“No, no, you don‘t understand,” Blaise said, trying to calm her. She looked at him with her eyebrows raised. “Have you ever heard of brownies, Hermione?”
She nodded slowly.
“House elves are directly related to them,” Blaise explained. “They help around the house, obey orders, prefer not to be seen, and are happy if you feed them and give them a place to stay.”
“Yes,” Hermione said impatiently, “But -”
“What does a brownie do if you try to pay it?” Blaise asked her. She frowned.
“In myths, it becomes offended and…” Her eyes widened. “Oh…”
Blaise nodded in satisfaction. “Exactly.”
Hermione blushed slightly. “Never mind then,” she said in a small voice.
Magical Relations, Chapter 14