OOC: I apologise for the length. >.<

Kiri had been expecting it, but even though, she was a little surprised at how quickly someone had risen in opposition to the point of view she was representing. As her classmates talked, she took some hasty notes so she would have something to refer to when it was time for her own rebuttal.
Which was now. She stood up and walked slowly to the front of the class, trying to structure the arguments in her mind. When she passed Clifford, she dropped a small piece of parchment on his desk.
KiRi, it said simply, followed by a winking face, the R underlined several times.

She had delivered her opening statement successfully, so she felt a little more confident when she stepped up to the podium a second time.
"Just, um, a few things I'd like to address," she said, looking at her notes. There were only a few densely scribbled lines on the parchment. That was hardly enough! She felt the nervousness rush back - it made it difficult to think. She sought for an easy point to begin. Ah, yes.

"First, about the, er, option of letting the house-elves decide for themselves." She smiled self-consciously at the Ravenclaw who'd brought it up, feeling more nervous still. He was much older and smarter than she was, how could she try and argue with him!?
"I... think that, in most aspects, there's a lot of... common ground? But the reason we are saying it should not be left to the house-elves is because we are, in the end, living in a human society. It has been shaped by a long time to be the way it is. Although, of course, as several people have said, even if it the elv... the house-elves were given a choice, they wouldn't change anything."

Kiri shuffled her papers to gain a few moments' time to get her thoughts in order. "Now, about what, er..." she tried frantically to remember the Gryffindor boy's name, "Chris? Right? What you said..." Check notes. "I've read about Dobby, yes, but he's one out of how many house-elves? Compared to him, there are dozens, hundreds of other elves who do not want the situation to change. In fact, Dobby, at the time he was working in this school, um, alienated all the other elves because he wanted wages and holidays. They were angry with him and the students who tried to set them free. It insulted them! They refused to work in your common room. For people on our side, it's confusing how you can say it's for the best of the elves when they themselves become so upset by it.
"We made..." A small note on the parchment caught her eye. "Erm, sorry," she amended hastily, blushing, "something else about Dobby. He abandoned his masters. If he was right in doing so is probably a debate in itself, so I just want to say that when he did it, he punished himself. What he had done went against his identity as a house-elf, and you can see how much that troubled him. As I was going to say, we made the house-elves into what they are. Over a very long time. As such, they're our responsibility, and we probably know what's best for them. If a witch or wizard wants to pay their house-elf, they can do that, of course. But they should know they'll probably offend their elf very much."

Kiri picked up her papers. "Dobby is, I think, more of an example of what can happen if we do not treat the house-elves right. If we act that cruelly towards them that they have to do something that basically goes against their own being, like Dobby, then it's perhaps our own fault. But it doesn't mean we should force human ideas and choices on our elves. Thank you."

She sat down again. Her throat was very dry by now.