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Writer's pictureAila McPhail

Dobby the House Elf

Updated: Nov 13, 2021


In this article I will be talking about Dobby the house elf. Dobby is a character in Harry Potter. Who is Dobby? Dobby is a unique house elf who used to belong to the Malfoys until Harry set him free. House elves are bound to serve one family until they are set free. Usually house elves don’t want to be freed or paid and they would find it insulting if their masters tried to do it. But one of the things that makes Dobby different from other house elfs is that when he was living with the Malfoy family they treated him so badly that he wanted to be freed. Dobby becomes a free elf working at Hogwarts school before his death.


How does Dobby know Harry? Harry Potter first met Dobby in the second book of the series “Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets”. When Harry found Dobby sitting in his bedroom waiting to warn him about the chamber of secrets. During Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Dobby tried to save Harry's life many times, often causing him serious injuries without meaning to. One thing I noticed about Dobby is that he always wants to help people but sometimes does not know the best way to do it. At the end of that same year Harry was able to free Dobby by getting Lucius Malfoy to accidentally give him a sock. Please note that the only way to free a house elf is to give them proper clothes. Dobby also helped Harry with other things, such as, when he told Harry about the room of requirement in “Harry Potter And The Order of The Phoenix”, gave him the gillyweed in the second task in the Triwizard tournament, and saved Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor.


What are lessons to learn from Dobby the house elf? There are three main lessons from my perspective. The first one is to be kind, the second is to be loyal to your friends and family, and the third is to be there for your friends in their worst moments. Dobby has always been a very brave elf and always helped his friends, often risking his own life to do so. Thank you for reading my article about Dobby the house elf. I hope you now have a better understanding of who Dobby is and why I like this character. If you are interested in Harry Potter characters then you may want to check out my article about Luna Lovegood!


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