"Please, Master Albus, please just a taste," Dobby pleaded as he was trying to feed the Potters two year old son Albus, the youngest of their three children. Every time Dobby would bring the tiny spoon full of mashed apples to the child's mouth he would close it tightly and turn his head to the side.

"Come on, it's good!" he tried again. "See, Dobby likes it!" He put the spoon into his own mouth and swallowed the baby food easily. Then he dug the spoon into the bowl again and brought it up to Albus's mouth but once again the baby turned its head and clenched its mouth shut.

Dobby was in despair. He put down the spoon and just stared at Albus. Master Harry had said this would be difficult he didn't say near to impossible and Dobby couldn't bear the thought of failing at something that Harry wanted him to do. As he thought about this his ears drooped as did his eyes and so did his mouth.

Albus apparently seemed to think this was a funny sight because he squealed and his mouth opened in laughter.

Dobby at once perked up and seized the opportunity to place the spoon into Albus's mouth. As he swallowed the food Dobby got another spoonful and attempted to feed it to him again only to be met yet again with a clenched mouth. Dobby quickly made the sad puppy face again and caused Albus to giggle again so that he could slip the food evenly into his mouth.

He continued like this as Harry stepped into the kitchen still wearing his bathrobe. "Albus isn't giving you any trouble is he, Dobby?"

"Oh no, Master Harry Potter," Dobby assured him. "He is just a bundle of joy."

Harry chuckled and said, "Well, remember to take James and Lily to get their things for school this afternoon. I'd do it myself but I'm needed at the Ministry all day."

"Of course, Master, of course," said Dobby as Albus pinched his left ear.

So that very afternoon Dobby apparated with James and Lily at either side of him to Diagon Alley. As they walked down the streets the people passing by the way waved at them and smiled and if they had an elf with them the elves would say "Look! There goes Dobby!" for they knew who he was.

Dobby was by now used to this sort of attention which he had endured ever since he became Harry Potter's house elf and he received endless praise from any other elf whom he met and he now knew how Harry always felt when he went out, not that he minded much as it warmed his heart.

After purchasing new school robes at Madame Malkin's Robes for all Occasions they went to Flourish and Blotts to purchase the new required set of books including an updated version of A History of Magic.

Once they were inside as Lily and James were walking down the selective aisles to get there required books Dobby noticed a new book was on display near the entrance. It was wrapped in a bright shiny silver cover with transparent gold letters which read,

A History of Elf Intentions and What to do for them by Hermoine Granger Weasley.

Dobby smiled as he remembered when Miss Hermoine had come to him and Winky for all the information she could about the history of the house elves enslavement after having finally given up on her S.P.E.W. Campaign. He should he have known she would intend to later publish all the information she gathered and all the articles she wrote.

Ten minutes later they came across Eeylops Owl Emporium and Dobby thought now it would be nice to get Lily her own owl so she didn't always have to use James'. He walked inside and found dozens of owls standing on perches in cages of gold, silver, and brass. Some were sleeping with their head under their wings and some were eating something and some were flapping their wings as though they were impatient to get out.

Dobby glanced around and spotted one small plump white owl with silver tipped wings and crystal blue eyes who was standing still on her perch and looking straight ahead although when she spotted them looking at her she turned her head toward them and her wings gave a little flap as if to show eagerness.

Dobby smiled and looked towards Lily who was smiling widely at the owl. "Does Mistress Lily like this owl?"

"I love her," she said. "I'll name her Hedwig after the one Daddy told me he used to have."

So they purchased the owl and just as they were about to leave Diagon Alley they passed by The Quality Quidditch Supply Store and James stopped and stared wide-eyed at what he saw standing in the display window. There was a new broom with a blue and white handle with a label on it which read The New Skyline Drive 700.

Dobby caught the longing expression in James' eyes and felt he wanted for him to be happy. He knew he was currently using his father's old broom but he was tired out with all of the new things out by now and he figured Master Harry Potter would understand and so they stepped inside a purchased the new broom for James.

"You got a new broom? But why?" Harry asked when they got back home.

"Come on, Dad," said James. "You're old broom is nice and all but this is the latest thing and everyone will be having one by the time school starts again and I bet I can beat even Scorpious at quidditch with this."

Harry gave him an understanding smile. "I suppose I'd be the same way if I was your age now. Okay, so now why don't we go out and practice for quidditch and try it out?"

So they did and James played a one on one quidditch with his best friend Teddy Lupin. He zoomed around ten feet above the ground on his new Skyline Drive with the speed and dexterity of a jet plane as he tried to catch a particularly crafty snitch.

"Come on, James! You can do it!" Harry cheered him on. "Just keep your on it and catch it when it comes in your range! Remember what I told you!"

And James did and when he finally caught the snitch in his excitement he lost his legging on the broom and fell. But fortunately Dobby cast a hovering charm and set him down gently.

Once he was safely on the ground again James ran up to his father and hugged him tightly.

"I knew you could do it, James! I'm proud of you son!" Harry exclaimed as he patted him on the back. "And I'm proud of you, too, Dobby," he added to his house elf. "I don't know where I'd be without you."

Dobby was trying to bathe Albus in a half filled tub. This he found was even harder than trying to feed him for he just wouldn't stop squirming and wiggling. The harder Dobby tried to touch him with the washcloth the more he moved away from it.

"Please, Master Albus, hold still!" Dobby pleaded anxiously. "It's just soap. Soap is good." He picked up the soap again and rubbed it on the washcloth again. Suddenly the soap bar slipped from his hands and fell into the tub.

Dobby quickly reached his hands into the water and found the soap. However it kept slipping out of his fingers and falling back in. As the bar of soap began to shrink and his hands began to get very sudsy he dropped the soap directly into Albus's lap. The two-year old picked it up in his tiny hands and stared at it curiously.

"Master Albus, please give Dobby the soap," Dobby pleaded.

Then suddenly to Dobby's horror Albus put the end of the soap bar into his mouth.

"No, no, no, Master Albus!" Dobby exclaimed as he reached to take the soap out of his mouth. "That is bad!"

Dobby started to take the soap out of Albus's mouth, however just as he was doing so Albus took hold of it again and this time he stuck it in Dobby's mouth.

Dobby spit it out at once and began gagging and spitting repeatedly as there was a terrible toxic taste left in his mouth. "You are right, young Master," Dobby sputtered. "Soap is bad!"

Harry opened the door and peered inside. "How's it going, Dobby?" he asked.

"Not so good, Master Harry Potter," Dobby replied miserably. "Young Master Albus will not stay still."

"I see," said Harry. "Well, have you tried tickling him?"

Dobby reached out with his still very soapy fingers and began tickling Albus around his waist. He started giggling at once and remained in one position as Dobby tenderly rubbed his soapy hands along his bare chest and stomach and then with the washcloth.

That night as Harry and Ginny were tucking Lily and James into their beds Dobby moved around picking the remains of a pillow fight off of the floor.

"Daddy, tell me a story, please?" Lilly begged Harry.

"Okay, sweetie," he said smiling. "Which one?"

"The one about the elf who found a home," she replied.

"Once upon a time," he began. "There was a little elf who had the misfortune of being born an orphan and he lived the first five years of his life in an orphanage for elves until he was adopted by a family one day. However this was a family of bad dark wizards who treated him like vermin. He never lived without fear as he was having to punish himself as he worked for them for every single little mistake he made and since he was so young that was very often. He was brought up to believe this was how the world works for his kind, that he owned nothing of his own and he didn't dare to hope for anything more. As bad as this family treated him he never said so to them for he was taught from the moment he was born that it was wrong of him to speak ill of the family he served."

"Then one day a wizard was born, and like the elf he was also born an orphan having survived the curse that killed his parents by the Dark Lord Voldemort who lost his power when he couldn't kill the baby wizard because he had been marked by his mother by the power of love. Everyone knew about this great wizard including the elf who lived with the bad dark wizards and he always wanted to meet him. Then when the Wizard came of the age to go to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry the elf heard his evil masters speaking of a plot to make terrible things happen there that would put the boy wizard in mortal danger. The elf knew he could never let the boy wizard die so he did everything in his power to keep him away from school but as it turned out the boy wizard survived through the peril and rescued others from it along the way. The elf felt so ashamed of himself but it also turned out that the boy wizard forgave the elf's actions and even set him free from his former family of bad dark wizards."

Harry saw that Lily was almost asleep and so he made the story's ending short.

"Then for two years the freed elf traveled the world in search of a new home but it was hard for him to stay in one place for very long because he was free of enslavement. Then one day the Headmaster of the school the boy wizard went to offered him work and a place to live there which he gladly accepted and he soon met the boy wizard again and became his dedicated friend and protector, and helped him in anything he could and once it almost cost the elf his life when he saved the boy wizard's but he survived and the boy wizard defeated the Dark Lord this time for good. Then when the boy wizard became a man and married his school sweetheart they offered the elf to come live with them not merely as a servant but as one of the family and so he did and he lived happily ever after living with the wizard who set him free and taking care of his family and had never punished himself since then."

Harry bent down and kissed his sleeping daughter goodnight on her forehead, turned out the night light and as he was leaving the room he saw Dobby standing in the doorway.

"Dobby likes that story, Master," said the elf wiping away a stray tear. "Especially the ending."

"So do I, Dobby," said Harry. "So do I."