"- Niblet has not met any of those, ma'am."

"I'm not a witch myself."

The elf looks confused and vaguely concerned. 

"I don't mean to alarm you."

"Is no trouble, ma'am," the elf says automatically.

"Would you have to meet a Muggle or a goblin to know if they were supposed to be free or have wands or use money?"

"Niblet would still not be knowing but would maybe be guessing better."

Nod. "So it might be that you'd think they shouldn't use money or be free, either?"

"If they are free now then probably it is their place to be free, ma'am. If elves were -" shiver -"free we would find another family, if any would take a freed elf, and definitely would not be having more elves, and soon there would not be more free elves."

"How would a freed elf attach to another family if they found one? Is it magical?"

"Yes. Niblet is not knowing exactly."

"Is that part important? Other sorts of people often do work for employers without the magical part."

"Of course it is important that house-elves are belonging to a family!!"

"I understand," Ambela assures her. Him? "I'm trying to figure out which parts of it are the most important."

"The magical part is very important. Without that we'd be - free and pretending."

"There's no non-magical way to make it not pretending?"

"Niblet is not thinking that is possible, ma'am."

"In some places humans are kept as slaves without magic. Are they pretending, or does this only apply to house elves?"

" - Niblet is not knowing. If they are happy then probably it is not pretending for them, ma'am."

"Most species actually don't like being kept as slaves at all."

"Well maybe if it were magic instead of pretending they would like it?"

"I suppose that's not impossible. Why is it pleasanter to not be pretending?"

"Pretending sounds terrible."

"Can you be more specific?"

"You wouldn't really have a family and you wouldn't know if you were doing things right, you'd probably mess up more, so you'd have to be punishing yourself all the time to be careful. And you said most species don't like it."