House Elfs - why DID Dobby help Harry?

[kneazle255]

No: HPFGUIDX 81940

samnanya wrote:
I dont think that proves anything about Harry being a pureblood - 
especially since his mother was a mudblood, and the whole magic 
protection charm would be null and void if Lily was not Harry's 
mother. I think that Malfoy acted under the principle of "keep your 
friends close and your enemies closer".
That said, I never did understand why Dobby got involved with Harry 
in the first place. Winky defended Barty Crouch even though he was 
despicable just because he was her master. Why would Dobby "desert" 
the Malfoy family? 

Kneazle255:
Harry's a halfblood. Potters were a wizarding line. Both Ron and 
Sirius state that all the wizarding families are inter-related 
somehow. It's not such a stretch to assume that the Malfoy line and 
the Potter line intermingled at some point.

Was Dobby was a Potter elf inherited by the Malfoys because the 
Potters and the Malfoys were closely related?

i have questions about Dobby's motivations in CoS.  There is no overt 
reason why Dobby would think Harry was in any particular danger. 
Dobby knows about the diary. The diary's purpose is to kill 
muggleborns. Harry is not muggleborn. Why does he assume Harry is in 
mortal danger?

Lucius' apparent purpose is to get DD out of Hogwarts and discredit 
the Weasleys.  There is no hint that Lucius knows that the diary has 
its own will or that it is capable of bringing Riddle back. I think 
Lucius would have used the diary differently if he realized it was a 
means to bring back his Dark Lord.)

If Dobby knows what Lucius knows and no more, his motivations don't 
make sense. He has to know more than Lucius.  He WOULD know more if 
he were orginally a Potter elf.

It also makes sense that Dobby would be extremely unhappy as a Malfoy 
elf if he started life as a Potter elf.

Like Kreacher, Dobby may have been more loyal to his former masters 
than his current one. And like Kreacher, he may have acted on that 
loyalty.

Kneazle