"Winky is keeping her masters' silence," sniffs Winky. "But - but Winky is having to do a difficult task and it was so high and Winky was afraid and did not pay good attention and Master Barty got into such terrible trouble and Mr. Crouch sacked Winky and - and he was right to do it because Winky was a bad elf."

Okay, that first part was interesting. "Didn't you say they had, erm, passed away? Why are you still keeping their silence?"

"Winky tries to be good. And does not want to be embarrassing her masters."

"Mr. Crouch was caring about their reputations," Winky sniffs, more haughty than weepy in this moment.

"Yes, but is he caring about them now?"

"No, but he was! Winky is still loyal even though she is being a Hogwarts elf now."

"And why are you still loyal even though he's no longer around to be loyal to?"

"Winky loves her family!" says Winky, wringing her hands.

"Why do you love them?"

"They were - they were mine!" she exclaims, crying again, probably more from emotion than because she used an unauthorized possessive pronoun. "Winky served them as her mother and her mother before her - Winky was for looking after Crouches - Winky tried to be good for them -"

"I mean, I get that, but why did you love them? I mean, what caused you to feel love for them? Was it just... was the fact that you worked for them enough?"

"Winky always loved them," blinks the elf. "Oh, when Master Barty was born Winky loved him at once, when Winky was born she loved Mr. Crouch right away and when he married Mistress Winky loved her too..."

"Well, Winky does not remember being a baby but certainly does not remember not loving Mr. Crouch," says Winky primly.

"Winky's mother loved them too of course and taught Winky to be a good elf."

"A good elf minds her masters and does not embarrass or disobey them and makes them comfortable and is not seen when she is not wanted and always works for their good and does not shirk her chores and hones all of the talents she needs to support and care for them and does not gossip or complain," Winky says.

Winky blinks. "Elves who are not that are bad elves," she says, not quite understanding the question.

"But why are elves who are not that bad elves? How do you know there isn't another way to be a good elf?"

"There was a bad elf working at Hogwarts," says Winky primly. "Until last year. He hated his family and did not do as he was told and tricked Harry Potter into making his master free him and then he was being paid wages by Headmaster Dumbledore. He was a bad elf."

"Well... what if he was another kind of good? A different kind?"

"Elves should be being good elves, not other things. We is elves."