[HPforGrownups] What motivated Dobby in CoS?

[SeventhSqueal]

No: HPFGUIDX 53383


Nobody's Rib posted:

We don't know much about house elf magic.  Might Dobby somehow *know* that it will at some point be his job to save Harry?  Pre-CoS, he overhears the Malfoy's plotting to destroy Harry and assumes that he is the only one who can save Harry's life.  Only, by the end of CoS, he sees that he has not saved Harry's life (only endangered him) - 
this time is yet to come.  He smiles to Harry's "don't save my life again" comment because he knows this is a promise he cannot make.

(snip)
But house elves aren't allowed to make choices for themselves...  well, all but one, the free one, the odd duck named Dobby.  

SeventhSqueal thinks about Dobby:

Dobby's role in CoS really bothers me. If this is what motivates him:

Dobby is the Malfoy's enslaved and abused, but faithful house elf (like all house elves). He overhears that Lucius is plotting to get him killed in his second year at Hogwarts. Dobby has heard that Harry Potter is a wonderful and great guy who's nice to everyone. He risks sneaking away from his master's home everyday for most of the summer break to hang out in the bushes in Privet drive to prevent Harry Potter from getting his mail and spy on him. He wants to keep Harry Potter safe and away from Hogwarts. Just because?

I don't buy it.

Dobby is a house elf. They get a strange sort of fulfillment from serving people and obeying their masters' wills. They are compelled to obey their masters or beat themselves up over it. Plus, in the Malfoy household I imagine that a wayward house elf would have been dealt with with severe abuse.
If Dobby was hiding in the bushes against the will of his masters wouldn't the bushes be shredded from his trying to knock his head against the ground every day?

There are only two ways I can justify this. 

One: Lucius Malfoy didn't want Harry Potter damaged during the following school year, and gave Dobby instructions to keep him out of Hogwarts by any means necessary.

Two: Narcissa Malfoy put her house elf up to preventing Harry Potter from going to Hogwarts and getting hurt, because she's secretly sympathetic to Harry Potter and not her husband's little Mrs. We know she's a bit of a softie because she prevented Draco from being sent far away from her (at least this is the story that we were told) to Durmstrang and she sends him care packages full of sweets from home. This sounds like someone in the Malfoy house has the capacity for love. Plus, it could have been from her that Dobby learned that Harry is such a decent and noble person. Narcissa. Hmmmmmm. 

I notice there is no place for Narcissa next to Lucius on my Death Eater chart here. The Lestranges would have stood next to each other. Curious.

Three: Add your idea here.

 






~SeventhSqueal

There's no earthly way of knowing / Which direction we are going / There's no knowing where we're rowing / Or which way the river's flowing / Is it raining? / Is it snowing? / Is a hurricane a-blowing? / Not a speck of light is showing / So the danger must be growing / Are the fires of hell a-glowing? / Is the grisly reaper mowing? / Yes, the danger must be growing / 'Cause the rowers keep on rowing / And they're certainly not showing / Any signs that they are slowing!


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