Dobby has been the most loyal and brave character of the Harry Potter series. This was a character that touched everyone’s heart. During the entire series, not only did Dobby support and help Harry many times, but in the end, while saving Harry’s life, he also lost his own life.
But if we talk about movies, we have seen Dobby in only two movies, but Dobby’s role in the books was much greater than that of the movies.
Today we will know Dobby’s entire story in detail, from his birth to his death.
Dobby was born in Malfoy Manor on 28 June. No one knows in which year he was born. Dobby was a slave of the Malfoy family since birth, and his parents and ancestors also worked for the Malfoy family.
Dobby was a house-helper, and in the magical world, a house-helper was one of the most powerful beings in the world. Magical creatures are those who serve the same family all their life. They are very loyal and, basically, house-elves are with those families which are from very old and rich magical families.
Although these house-elves exist in the magical world, their magic is different from that of wizards. They do not need any magic wand to do magic, and they can fly and go to places where wizards or witches cannot.
House-elves, as their name suggests, do all the household work like cooking and cleaning, and they have to follow every order of their master. If they fail in this, they also punish themselves. They have to follow the orders of their master until they are free.
They become free, and the only way to free them is if their master gives them clothes. But most of the house-elves do not want to be free; they consider it very bad and believe that a house-elf should always serve his master.
Dobby was different from other house-elves
Dobby worked for Malfoy and obeyed all his orders, but despite this, Malfoy used to behave very rudely with Dobby. He often used to beat Dobby and punished him excessively. Not only this, he used to threaten him with death five times a day.
Dobby knew that his masters were not good people and their behavior towards him was also not right. That is why he always wanted to be free so that he could live in peace.
One day, while working, Dobby overheard Lucius talking about how he was planning to open the Chamber of Secrets. He also found out that the last time the Chamber was opened, a student was killed in Hogwarts. After hearing all this, Dobby started worrying about Harry.
Now, the biggest question here is why was Dobby so worried about Harry when he had never met Harry till now. The answer is very simple. House-elves were treated very badly during Voldemort’s reign. But when Voldemort was defeated due to Harry, the condition of house-elves started improving.
Therefore, Dobby liked Harry and was grateful to him. Dobby had decided that he would keep Harry safe under any circumstances. Even if Harry could not continue his studies at Hogwarts because of him, he had decided that he would not let Harry go to Hogwarts.
Dobby started keeping an eye on Harry during the summer holidays and began stealing all the letters sent by Ron and Hermione for Harry so that Harry would feel that his friends did not care about him at all. Because of this, Harry would not go to Hogwarts.
Dobby went to the Dursleys’ house and warned Harry that this year a terrible conspiracy would be carried out at Hogwarts and that he should not go because his life was in danger.
When Harry asked him about the conspiracy, Dobby told him that he could not tell him because by coming there and telling him, he had already gone against his master, for which he would have to punish himself.
Harry told Dobby that he must go to Hogwarts because he did not have his own people here; his real place was in the magical world, Hogwarts, where his friends were. When Harry did not listen to Dobby even after Dobby explained, Dobby used the Hover Charm to make Petunia’s cake float in the air and drop it on Mrs. Mason’s head.
When the Ministry of Magic found out about the magical activity at Privet Drive, and because Harry was the only wizard at Privet Drive, the Ministry thought that Harry used magic.
For this, Harry got a warning letter from the Ministry stating that minor wizards are not allowed to do magic outside the school. With the help of this letter, the Dursleys also came to know about this and locked him in his room to punish him.
Dobby thought that for breaking the law, Harry would either be expelled from the school or Harry’s uncle and aunt would not let him go to school. But Dobby’s plan failed. When Harry tried to go to platform number 9¾ with Ron to go to Hogwarts, Dobby closed that path so that Harry could not reach the train.
But once again, Dobby’s plan failed because Harry and Ron used the flying car to go to school, and they reached the school with its help. When Dobby found out that Harry returned to Hogwarts, Malfoy punished him. Dobby started making more dangerous plans to send Harry back to Privet Drive.
During the Quidditch games, Dobby cast a spell on the Bludger so that it attacked only Harry. He did this in the hope that Harry would get injured because of it and would be sent back to Privet Drive.
Because of the Bludger, Harry’s arm bone broke. Although Madam Pomfrey could have joined those bones in the blink of an eye, due to Lockhart, the bones of Harry’s arm disappeared. So Harry had to stay in the hospital wing until Madam Pomfrey made his bones back.
At night, Dobby flew to meet Harry in the hospital wing. Such a spell was cast on Hogwarts that house-elves could not fly, but because Dobby was a house-elf, he could. Dobby met Harry and told him everything, that he was the one who blocked platform number 9¾ and cast the spell on the Bludger.
After listening to everything from Dobby, Harry got angry, but Dobby unknowingly told Harry that the mysterious chamber had been opened and history was about to repeat itself.
When Harry asked Dobby when this happened last time, Dobby did not tell him anything and flew away from there, but later Harry came to know about that mysterious chamber and also destroyed Tom Riddle’s diary.
Lucius came to school with Dobby to see whether Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had really returned to Hogwarts or not. When Harry saw Dobby with Lucius Malfoy, he realized that Dobby was Malfoy’s house-elf and all this planning was done by Lucius.
He put the diary in Ginny’s luggage. Harry made a plan to free Dobby and put one of his socks in Tom Riddle’s diary and gave that diary to Lucius, who gave it to Dobby, and in this way, Dobby was freed. Dobby looked at the sock as if it were a treasure and was very happy to get freedom.
There, Lucius attacked Harry in anger for having his slave taken away, but Dobby intervened to save Harry and attacked Lucius. Harry took a promise from Dobby that he would never again intervene to save his life.
After being free, Dobby started looking for work and wanted to get paid for his work, but this was not the case with house-elves, so he was not getting work anywhere.
But after a few years, Dobby finally got a job. Dumbledore hired Dobby to work in the kitchen of Hogwarts, and for this, Dobby got one Galleon per week and one day off in a month.
Although Dumbledore had earlier offered Dobby 10 Galleons per week and weekends off, Dobby did not want so much money and comfort because he enjoyed working.
Dobby also had a friend named Winky, who was a house-elf of Barty Crouch Sr. When her owner freed Winky by giving her clothes, she was not happy at all like Dobby. Rather, she started seeing this as a failure and punishment.
After some time, Dumbledore hired Winky to work in the kitchen of Hogwarts. But Winky was still in trauma, and because of this, she started drinking butterbeer all day long. Because of this, she was always drunk, and Dobby used to take care of her.
At the same time, Hermione started SPEW, i.e., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, for the rights of the house-elves so that they could get their rights. She wanted that all the house-elves should be paid for their work like Dobby and should be kept safe.
During this time, Hermione used to make hats and socks for the elves and hide them in different places in the common room of Gryffindor so that when the house-elves cleaned the common room, they could pick up these clothes and be free like Dobby.
But the house-elves in Hogwarts did not want this at all. They did not want freedom. Rather, they started considering it an insult. So, they stopped cleaning the Gryffindor common room. Dobby used to clean the Gryffindor common room alone and picked up all the clothes and wore them himself. Apart from this, Dobby also liked cleaning Harry’s room.
During the Christmas holidays, Hermione gave Dobby a jumper as a gift, and seeing this, Dobby became very happy and made a wonderful gift for Harry in return. When the second Wizarding War started, Dobby took an active part in it.
Dobby gave Harry very important information during the Triwizard Tournament: that gillyweed would help Harry breathe underwater. After the death of Dumbledore, the situation of house-elves started getting worse again, and Dobby’s condition was also not good.
When Harry, Ron, and Hermione were caught and imprisoned in Malfoy Manor along with other prisoners, Dobby flew to Malfoy Manor to save everyone. He first disarmed Narcissa and then saved everyone. When Bellatrix attacked with her knife, Dobby took everyone to a safe place, but the knife hit Dobby and he got injured. As a result, Dobby died.
Dobby’s last words were
Such a beautiful place, to be with friends. Dobby is happy to be with his friend, Harry Potter.
These were the last words spoken by Dobby, and then he closed his eyes forever.
Friends, this was the whole story of Dobby, the bravest house-elf. This is the reason why Dobby is everyone’s favorite character. Harry Potter was very sad after the death of Dobby and he himself buried Dobby in the garden of Bill and Fleur’s house and wrote “Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf” on his grave.
Harry dug Dobby’s grave without magic because he wanted to give respect to Dobby’s sacrifice. Harry Potter was not able to forget Dobby’s sacrifice throughout his life. In the book, Harry told Kreacher to cook food and keep some for Dobby, but Kreacher did not like this.
