Dobby and Harry (was Re: What's he up to?)

[fiondavhar]

No: HPFGUIDX 95017

Kneasy wrote:

Snip

there is something in CoS that bears  thinking about - and it 
> isn't small (except physically) and that concerns Dobby. 

snip

> What I want to concentrate on is not what they are or how they are 
> treated but what Dobby actually  *does*. There could be a very big 
clue 
> lurking in there somewhere.
> 
> Dobby himself tells Harry that House Elves are bound "...to  serve 
one 
> house, one family." They're not  interested in strangers, only in  
> serving the Family they are attached to. Yet Dobby adds that he has 
> "...come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him..." And once again 
Harry 
> misses the chance to ask some pointed questions.
> 
> So why is Dobby so very concerned about an apparent stranger? Note 
that 
> he is not at all concerned about any of Harry's friends or 
colleagues 
> and certainly not with Ginny, who is the front line victim for 
Malfoy's 
> little ploy with the diary. The rebirth of Tom Riddle is of supreme 
> indifference to him, it is only the involvement of, and the 
possible 
> dangers to Harry that matters.
> 
> So  what's going on?
> 
> Well, there are two possible scenarios that could explain Dobby's 
> actions. The  first, one that I put forward last year, is that 
Harry 
> *is* a member of the family that  Dobby serves. Just as Kreacher 
> escapes  to Bella by  deliberately(?) misconstruing an instruction 
from 
> Sirius, so Dobby does the same; seeking out another family member 
who 
> holds views sympathetic to his own and giving them the low-down on 
what 
> those  horrible people back at the ranch are up to.



Bonny writes:

I find this an interesting theory, and JKR has left it open to be 
possible. 

In CoS, when Harry asks Dobby if there is anything he can do to help 
him, Dobby never answers, just rants about how good Harry is. I 
assume it would be against the magic rules of a house elf to ask 
their master to free them - Kreacher never asks Black - why, though, 
didn't Dobby just tell Harry that he couldn't free him because he 
wasn't a member of the family? Later on in CoS, Dobby mentions that 
he can only be freed if one of his masterS (PLURAL!) presents him 
with clothes. Later he insists that Harry freed him, as you said, 
Kneasy. Hmmm.

Also, Dobby is able to tell Harry things that he knows his master 
would not like him to tell (hence the hand-ironing) but which he has 
not been expressley forbidden to tell, similar to the case of 
Kreacher and Narcissa, as was mentioned above.

What I find most interesting is that, while employed by Hogwarts, 
Dobby treats not Dumbledore but Harry as his master (in a round-about 
Dobby sort of way). He breaks rules to help Harry and serve him, and 
carry out what he believes to be his will. He steals from and 
eavesdrops on Hogwarts teachers, and even defies a direct order from 
the headmaster (ursurper) and goes to warn Harry. At this point, 
Harry himself, for the first time, gives Dobby an order:

"Dobby - this is an order - get back down to the kitchen with the 
other elves and, if she asks you whether you warned me, lie and say 
no!' said Harry. 'And I forbid you to hurt yourself!' he added, 
dropping the elf as he made it over the threshold at last and slammed 
the door behind him.
  'Thank you, Harry Potter!' squeaked Dobby, and he streaked off."

Dobby obeys this order, showing that he bears more loyalty to Harry 
than to his employer, the headmaster of Hogwarts. Thus it would 
appear that he truely serves Harry. Why? Is it because Harry freed 
him, he feels love and a debt of gratitude? Is it because Harry is 
part of the family? Is Dobby descended from and elf who served the 
Potters? Did HE serve the Potters? (apoligies to whoever first 
suggested this, I don't know who it was so I can't give you the due 
credit).

Kneasy wrote:

snip
> 
> Then there is the whole brou-ha-ha of Dobby's manumission. This has 
> been argued loud and long. Malfoy obviously did not intend for 
Dobby to 
> be freed; can ties  be broken when there is no intention? Add 
Dobby's 
> insistence that it was *Harry* that set him free and we have a 
whole 
> can of flobberworms open  and writhing. How can Harry  set him free 
if 
> he's not family? Others insist that it was a trick on Harry's part 
to 
> lure Malfoy into a thoughtless but irrevocable act.

Bonny writes:

Hmmm. But then the house-elves that found the hats that Hermione left 
lying around would have been tricked into being freed, but we don't 
hear anything about any having been. It says in OotP that they were 
insulted by them, but not that they were distressed. And didn't Ron 
say his mother wanted  a house-elf to do the laundry? Wouldn't 
handing them the laundry count as handing them clothes, thereby 
freeing them? I think there must have to be deliberate intent, or 
else there would be accidentally freed house-elves all over the place.


rest has been snipped.

Bonny