Dobby the house elf was set free when Master Draco was five.
It was on the young boy's fifth birthday that his mother told him to do something good for someone worse off than him.
Draco Malfoy looked around his room, sitting on his mother's lap, and considered her request. "Why?" He asked, simply curious.
"Because, when one is so well off as we are, it only makes sense to make life easier for those below us, doesn't it?" Narcissa told him with a laugh.
Draco nodded, though he thought it made no sense what so ever. If you had money, didn't it make sense to keep for yourself?
Later on, he wandered around his house, thinking about how he could possibly do anything good for anyone else besides himself. He was, afterall, just a five year old boy (a whole hand!) with no way to do anything for himself.
"Master, would you be needing anything else?" Asked the filth covered elf after bringing in a cup of warm tea and a biscuit.
Draco looked at the elf, dressed in a messy old pillow case and looked quite disgusting. "Yes. I want you to get a nice pair of clothes. In fact, here you go." Said the boy, and handed Dobby a clean shirt out of his closet.
"Master!" yelped Dobby, holding the pristine white shirt in front of him.
"Draco!" screeched Narcissa, who stood at the doorway and had just witnessed the gift that her son had bestowed upon the now sobbing elf. She strode across the room and slapped the boy, leaving a very noticeable mark on his cheek. "Do you know what you just did?!"
"But you said," he whispered as he felt the first drops of tears fall down his face. "You said that I should do something to help someone below me."
"LUCIUS!" the woman yelled, her face tinged bright pink from anger. With a loud pop, an intimidating man appeared in the nursery.
"What?" He snarled, and then noticed the red handprint, his flustered wife, and his house elf holding a now soaking wet shirt. "What," he said deadly quietly, "is going on?"
"You're son let the house elf go!"
"My son! My son wouldn't think about doing this on his own!"
"Mommy told me to!" Draco whimpered.
Lucius rounded on his son with a look of disbelief, and exclaimed "Excuse me?!"
"She told me to do something good for someone!"
In the background, the house elf looked up at the family in front of him. He was free! Free! Oh the things he could do now. Oh, it would be splendid. Dobby could do whatever he wanted now, with no masters to stop him! "Dobby is free," he whispered feverishly.
No one heard him.
"A house elf is not a 'someone', Draco, you imbecile! A someone is a human! And you just lost me my house elf!" Mr. Malfoy tossed one final glare at his son, who shrunk back into his bed and let out a fresh wave of tears, and strutted out of the room.
Narcissa looked scornfully at the boy. "You," she spat, "are entirely disappointing." She too followed her husband out of the room; leaving a sobbing Draco in her wake.
"Master Malfoy, may Dobby be thanking you, sir? That was a most noble thing you did Master. Maybe you is not as bad as you seem. You is noble, Master Malfoy." Dobby said, his large green eyes staring at the quivering child in front of him.
"JUST GO, YOU STUPID HOUSE ELF," yelled Draco; wishing that he had never let that elf go.