Dobby♥

"You shall not harm Harry Potter!"
—Dobby to Lucius Malfoy[src]

Dobby (27 June, unknown year - March 1998) was a house-elf who served the Malfoy family. His masters were Dark Wizards who treated him cruelly. In 1992, he tried to warn Harry Potter of the plot to have the Chamber of Secrets reopened which he came to know via the contact between his masters and Lord Voldemort. Dobby had to keep punishing himself because he felt he was disobeying his masters. At the end of that school year, after Harry had vanquished the memory of Tom Riddle and the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, he tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing Dobby by placing his own black sock into the diary of Tom Riddle; this was rudely handed to Dobby.

After a period of unemployment, Dobby went on to work in the kitchens at Hogwarts, for which he was paid one Galleon a week, and got one day off each month. Albus Dumbledore also told Dobby that he was free to call him a "barmy old codger" if he liked. He had been accompanied to Hogwarts by his friend Winky, who had recently been dismissed and had agreed to go looking for work . In 1997, Dobby helped Harry spy on Draco Malfoy with Kreacher. In 1998, he went on Aberforth Dumbledore's orders to save the lives of Harry and his companions Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Mr. Ollivander, and Griphook from Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor and was fatally wounded by Bellatrix Lestrange's knife as he successfully apparated Harry and Griphook to safety in the Shell Cottage. Harry dug Dobby's grave in the gardens of Shell Cottage without using magic and placed Dobby's body inside. After Harry finished burying one of his most loyal friends, he carved a rock saying Here lies Dobby, A Free Elf. placing it where Dobby was buried.

Dobby was often ostracised for having no "proper shame" about being out of work, the way most house-elves (including his friend Winky) acted. Dobby was generally pleased to be free, although he did enjoy working (as more of a hobby than a career). He was ecstatic to be out of the abusive hands of the Malfoys but equally pleased to join the Hogwarts staff, where he could come and go as he liked, and didn't have many tasks, all of which were fairly simple.Dobby requested some compensations for his work and eventually he and Dumbledore came to an agreement, and so began Dobby's new, happy life nearby his closest friends: Harry, Ron, and Hermione.