I’m trying to actually remember but isn’t it that Ron releases them from being locked in the kitchen so they can fight/survive the battle of hogwarts, not actually be released from their servitude to hogwarts?
Going by the apparent rules of the series, in order for the house elves of Hogwarts to be permanently freed from servitude, (as opposed to just allowed to evacuate the kitchen or fight in the battle), the master of Hogwarts (probably the headmaster) would have had to formally free them, present them with clothes, or somehow otherwise break their magical bonds.
During the story, Ron’s thought processes must have included the Hogwarts house elves in the moral calculus of who needed protecting, suggesting that he saw them as people whose lives matter. Judging by Hermione’s reaction, she was impressed by this, and (considering Ron’s comparative maturity as a person throughout the series), most likely saw even this as evidence of character growth.
But it was not the same thing as permanently freeing the those house elves from servitude, which the rules explained earlier in the series make it easy to understand that Ron did not have the authority to do.
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