"I'll ask my father, I bet there are and that he wouldn't mind."

"Cool."

There are, and he doesn't mind. How does elf magic work? The elves are not sure, sir, they are just doing things that need to be done. Can an anti-Apparition ward be set against them - yep, looks like the standard ones aren't only for reasons of convenience. Do they have any stories about what they did before they served wizards - no, that is ridiculous, they have always served wizards. Are they willing to try using a wand? (They are not.) Do they get sick (yes, but they wouldn't want to stop working when sick and it'd be shameful for wizards to notice). Do they like some work more than others - no, whatever is most needed is the best! What if they had a bad master - this results in pages and pages of assurances that Finis is a good one, and pages and pages of increasingly frustrated rephrasings from Finis. They have the concept of a bad master, apparently, but it's a very taboo one and no one will admit to ever having heard of an actual existing bad master. They definitely don't want to be free, or be paid, or have days off, and get upset when these things are suggested.

How long do they live? Forty or fifty years; they'll usually stop eating when they can't work anymore. Finis spends apparently months trying tacks to talk them out of this; they eventually convince him that they will be miserable if ordered not to do that. How long do they take to grow up - a year or two. How do they decide when to have children? When there'll be enough work for them. The Way house-elves have had lots of children recently because all of the Way grandchildren will be starting their own families. Why don't they ask for time off for the children? Oh, house-elf babies aren't much trouble. Why don't they tell wizards about their babies? Well, it's really better for everyone - the babies might be told to do things and do them badly and not know to punish themselves appropriately, or the wizards might feel burdened by catering to the babies and that would be so horrible and shameful. 

Finis tries and fails to convince them that 'shame' is meaningless and does not carry ethical import; the exchange leaves everyone involved quite angry with each other.

They regard themselves as bound more to the interests of the household than to the orders being given, though it takes a white to tease that out; if Finis told them, say, to not get him a drink when he was already drinking, they would listen to that over later instructions to get a drink, and their explanations eventually resolve to 'he said both things and one of them is clearly better for him'. Their definition of 'better' seems to mean 'running an honorable and thriving wizarding family', and Finis can't tell if most other house-elves would share their values or if they absorb them from the household (so in this case, from his father).

 They refuse to participate in tests of their magic abilities and if ordered to beg to do something else instead; Finis didn't insist. he does observe that clearly they like some kinds of work more than others, and is told frustratedly that participating in his questioning sessions isn't work, work is nice things like cooking or cleaning or watching children or tending to animals that makes something better for their family.

Finis spends another couple months trying to convince them that experimentation makes things better for the family, to no avail. He runs a series of complicated payment schemes by them - are they okay with bonuses? Incentives? Presents? (Bonuses and incentives stress them out because they insist they are doing a good job all the time, is he dissatisfied?) They are divided on presents but eventually concede that if their work makes Finis so happy he wants to give them presents that'd be very nice. 

"...they sound like one of the more frustrating possible designs for a slave race, actually..."

" - how so?"

"I suppose they might appeal to some people but the inability to answer questions - and these are the ones who are used to that! - and the narrow definition of 'work' and the general nontransparency."

"Maybe it's a difference in sensibilities - the idea is that a useful servant is one who you don't even notice-"

"But they're willing to supervise children! If I were responsible for children I would not hand them off to these creatures without really impoverished options!"

"Elves're good company! They don't let you light yourself on fire, they'll play games with you..."

"I would have found them very frustrating even as a six-year-old, I assure you."

"Fair enough. And parenting might be another thing that changes over the centuries - Elves sure do it differently -"

"Yeah, that's probably most of it."

"I don't know if their sensibilities adapt with the expectations of their owners, though."

"Not very much or any that had been around your father for his entire life would be better at answering questions - is there an observable generation gap in the family elves, how many do you guys have -"

"They weren't around him his entire life, he ran away from home when he was eight and didn't reconcile with his father until after he'd graduated from Hogwarts - and we have five -"

"I suppose running away would explain it. They've known you lot your entire lives, though, right?"

"Yeah. It certainly hasn't produced a drastic shift in outlook."

"How do they divvy up between households when kids grow up and move out?"

"Typically one would come with me and one with my wife, and then they'd have kids if the household needed more than two. So there'll probably be a few children by the time James and Samuel are of age."

"Do you get to pick? How does that work if the spouse doesn't have one or the genders don't work out?"

"I'd take my favorite, yeah. I am not a hundred percent sure house-elves do genders. And I could take two, or we could borrow my grandparents', but mostly the wealthy families intermarry and it doesn't come up."

"Is your favorite house elf going to judge you for not heading up an honorable and thriving branch of their family by taking up with an unsuitable person who does not even have a house elf."

"If I planned on any present social institutions still being in one piece in ten years I'd have to worry about that, yes."

"I was mostly being facetious but it is plausible that the house elves are harder than humans to shove into improved social attitudes, especially if they never see a non-house-elf until they're old enough to make cherries jubilee."

"Yeah. And taking kids away from their parents to improve them seems a bit - horrible."