Dobby revisited

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 83663

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "corinthum" <kkearney at s...> wrote:
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 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).


Differing opinions appearing on the reasons for Dobby's behaviour. 
Good. I hate it when everybody agrees.
There were too many responses to my original post to clip from them 
all, this would end up looking like a dog's dinner, but I will mention those 
that caught my eye.

To business.

Penny Bee(83489) and Jennifer (83526) place emphasis on regarding 
Dobby as atypical for an Elf; this they feel, would explain much about his 
actions.
As far as we can tell, the exemplars for Elves seem to be the Hogwarts Hive,
happy in their work, disgusted with the idea of freedom. In this category 
would be Winky too. Dobby does become atypical, but only *after* he has 
gained his freedom; before then there is little to distinguish him from the 
rest except his attraction to Harry. This is what fascinates.

Why Harry? If Dobby wanted to screw up Malfoy's plan why not warn the
Weasleys? Arthur is family, even if a bit distant and Ginny was the prime 
target after all. (IMO Lucius had marked  Ginny as his target; consider, she
was the only one of the gang who was about to start school. As such she
would be loaded down with cauldron, books, robes, scales etc. Easy to slip
a diary in amongst that lot; much more difficult with Harry, who just had
half a dozen books.) Or why didn't Dobby warn Dumbledore? He seems to 
have a good reputation among Elves and he has the power to counter Lucius.
But no, he chooses to warn a twelve year old boy who, if the plot had 
developed as planned would have been one target among many.

Annemehr (83492), apart from correcting one of my egregious mistakes, 
(thank you) takes a different line, seeing significance in the fact that Kreacher
does not punish himself whereas Dobby does. there's a strong implication
that Dobby has been instructed to punish himself whenever he says or thinks
something bad about the family. He  has no problem warning Harry that there
is a plot, even though punishments may come later. Kreacher suffers no
punishments, self inflicted or otherwise for his verbal hostility to Sirius.  This
I would take to mean that he has specific instructions on what he can talk 
about but everything else is up for grabs. Dobby is the same, except for the
sadism of the Malfoys, IMO.

Sock tossing and it's implications divided most with Annemehr taking a strict
view that any clothing under any circumstances conveys freedom, while Inge
Matt, Jennifer and Corinthum consider that Dobby might be an opportunist
who was just looking for an chance to slip Malfoy's leash.

The strict interpretation would be difficult to live with - unable to pass any
clothing, including things like visitor's cloaks to your House Elf. No, I think
that Elves consider the words 'present clothes', with it's overtones of a 
formal action (as Crouch with Winky) as the defining phrase.

leb2323 brings up the interesting point of the Elf Re-location Office at the
Ministry and that perhaps Dobby has a significant employment history.
But if he has transferred wouldn't his loyalties be adjusted? Would you
really expect that an Elf could defy his present family and go against their
interests? Not likely. In that case no-one would want a used Elf.

We agree that Harry intended that Dobby  should go free. He knows that
this can be achieved by the presentation of clothes, so he tricks Malfoy
into discarding Harry's sock so Dobby can catch it. Most posters  have
agreed that for the action to be valid there must be intention on the part
of the giver. Malfoy did not have this intention, but Harry did. Dobby
regards Harry's transfer of the sock, so long as Malfoy did not object, as
sufficient to endow freedom.

Others accept that there is some sort of familial connection between Harry
and the Malfoys  but consider that it is  probably distant. Some deny any
relationship  at all. I would argue that for that sock to mean anything the
relationship must be pretty close. Dobby  knows something; so does Malfoy,
DD and maybe a few more. Harry doesn't and neither do we - yet.

Harry thinks that he has tricked Malfoy. He has, but not in the way Harry 
thinks, i.e. that Malfoy just discarding a sock meant freedom. IMO Dobby
accepts Harry as a close(ish) family member whose intentions are to be
taken seriously, so long as Malfoy does not interfere. This is a plot
sensitive connection - the Potters and the Malfoys are close (maybe this
had an influence on the Sorting Hat wanting to put Harry in Slytherin).
Just what the connection is I haven't yet figured out, but there are indirect 
pointers to the existence of the connection: Dobby in protective mode, 
acting as if Harry is family, the sock accepted as a freedom present, Dobby 
continuing to look after Harry even after he gets his freedom.

We need more information on James Potter and his family. If James Potter
is indeed his original name - so nondescript and ordinary for a pureblood
wizarding family, so out of place among Sirius, Albus, Lupin, Severus and
Cornelius. No sign of a Potter on the Black tapestry, either. With all the old
families interconnected you'd think that Sirius would have pointed some-
thing out, even if it was just a scorched spot or two. Most unsatisfactory.

Kneasy