Dobby revisited

[corinthum]

No: HPFGUIDX 83617

James Redmont asked:

> I don't understand why this is up for debate.  Harry gave the sock 
> to Lucius, therefore it was Lucius's sock when he gave it to Dobby.  

The debate arises over the definition of "give".  If Harry had handed
the sock to Lucius, who, graciously or not, accepted the sock, then
handed it to Dobby, there would be no debate.  What actually happens,
though, is

"[Harry] forced the smelly sock into Lucius Malfoy's hand....  Mr.
Malfoy ripped the sock off the diary, threw it aside, then looked
furiously from the ruined book to Harry." (CoS, p 337, US paperback) 

It is pretty apparent that at no point during this little interaction
did Malfoy (or Harry or Dobby, for that matter) consider himself to be
the owner of the sock.  When Dobby catches it a moment later, the sock
is still described as Harry's sock, not Lucius'.  Nor did Lucius
intentionally mean for Dobby to catch the sock.  It was flung randomly
(and though it's not stated, I bet Dobby make a spectacular diving
catch to get that sock before it hit the ground, rather than just
standing there).  But Dobby is freed nonetheless.

Now, you could simply accept this at face value and say, yes, Lucius
had the sock and then Dobby did; therefore, Lucius gave the sock to
Dobby.  But that's no fun.  The alternate theories that have been
presented are 1a) Harry is actually related to the Malfoy's, and so
Harry was capable of freeing Dobby directly, 1b) Dobby used to serve
the Potters, and so Dobby still considers him his family, or 2) The
"master gave clothes" action is verified at the discretion of the
house elf himself, and Dobby chose the loosest possible definition for
it, not caring about intention or possession time (whereas Winky had
much stricter guidelines).

-Corinth