Inspired by the Web tangles in the House Competition Forum, I decided to start this little collection of stories. Most of them are nothing but fun&fluff, all featuring Dobby and presumably all Canon-Compliant. The stories won't be uploaded in chronological order. Enjoy :)

With a huge THANKS to my Beta, NinjaDevil2000

-1. Hermione-

When Dobby entered the Hogwarts kitchens, there was turmoil. Everyone seemed to be jumping around, angrily shaking their fists and heads. Dobby, who had been at Hogsmeade this evening, was stunned by their revolting. Never since he had started working here, had he seen everyone so enraged. He put down his bag and turned to Winky. No one but her was talking to him and it was quite frustrating, but he was loathed by everyone in this room because he was being payed by Dumbledore.

'Winky, what is happening?' he asked in confusion.

She glared at him, her expression carrying the same furious glare as everybody else's. 'Ah, you is back!' she said loudly. 'You has taken your day off again and now you is back and wondering why you isn't knowing what has happened.'

Dobby looked around confusedly, not knowing what to say to that.

'Is you having anything to do with it?' whined Winky, her voice shrilly. 'Has Dobby had any new ideas with his freedom?'

'I don't understand,' Dobby retorted, bewildered.

Her eyes were flashing. 'You has not been in the Gryffindor common room, has you?' she asked.

Dobby shook his head.

'It's dreadful,' she said, 'there is a plot, a plot to free us without us knowing – without the master knowing – you just go and see yourself.'

'Free you?' asked Dobby, amazed. 'Who? How? What is you meaning, Winky? What is you talking about?'

'Oh, Dobby better just sees himself, it's dreadful – probably Dobby finds it amusing – we has decided to avoid the place – but Dobby has always been different from us...' She turned away, not muttering to herself. 'I is not liking it here. I is waiting for my master still... He has to come and get Winky, he needs his Winky, Winky must not be free!'

Dobby stared after her, and then stared at everyone else, not knowing what to make of all this. The other elves' attitude towards freedom was not new, but he wondered what on earth must have happened to upset them so much. Curiously, he decided to put on his new socks and visit the Gryffindor common room himself.

He entered the room with a crack and looked around. He had half-expected to discover messy chaos, or something even worse, by what the others had been saying, but everything seemed to be just like when he had seen the common room last night: clean and quiet.

But now, that he listened more carefully, maybe not that quiet. He heard the quiet clattering of needles and now that he looked around more sharply, he saw that a girl was sitting in one of the arm chairs, holding two knitting needles in her arm. Dobby smiled as he recognized Hermione Granger.

Harry Potter's friend!

He jumped over to her. Startled, she turned around, but the expression of shock quickly changed into a smile.
'Dobby!' She eyed the little house elf. 'What are you doing here?'
'Cleaning, miss,' he squeaked. 'What is you doing here?'

She put down her needles and Dobby realized that she had been knitting small hats. 'Knitting,' she said, and she pointed at the fabric in her lap. Dobby saw that on the table as well were laying a couple of small hats. They looked really nice, and for a brief second he wondered if Miss Granger would allow him to try one of them on.

Dobby saw nothing that could have caused the other house-elves to get so enraged. 'Why is you knitting, Miss Granger?' he asked curiously. 'You is a wizard, you can go to buy clothes in the village. Look,' he stretched out one of his feet, 'even Dobby can buy his own socks now!'

Hermione smiled. 'They're lovely, Dobby. But you see, I haven't been knitting for me, exactly. Those hats would never fit me. I intend to give them to the other house elves.'

Dobby's eyes widened. 'You is wanting to give clothes to the other house-elves?' he squeaked. He thought he was getting a good idea about why the others were so angry.

She nodded. 'You like freedom, don't you, Dobby?'

'Dobby loves it,' he squeaked happily, 'Dobby can buy socks and can have free days and Dobby can visit his friends when he wants to. And Dobby can even say what he wants, he has not to punish himself for it.'

'You see, Dobby,' Hermione said softly, 'so I figured that every house elf should be granted with these rights, don't you think? So, if they would pick up the hats... they could be free, like you! I've started knitting them ages ago and scattered them all over the room last night, and I will make some more – there are so many of you...'

She smiled at him expectingly, but Dobby did not return the smile. He looked from Hermione down to the hats. Then he looked at her again.

'You is wanting to free the house-elves?' he asked slowly.

Hermione nodded happily and started rummaging in her pockets. She pulled out a small badge, with golden letters on them.

'S.P.E.W,' Hermione spelled for him, 'the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.'

Dobby clocked his head and watched her face. He noticed the joy in the girl's tired eyes, eyes that were tired of knitting hats every night. And he thought of the other house-elves that were rebelling in the kitchen.

'You could enter,' she talked on, 'you could be an honourable member, Dobby, would you like that?'

He looked up, his thoughts interrupted. 'Oh, thank you, Miss,' he said, beaming happily. 'Dobby would love to become a honourable member of S.T.E.W!'

Hermione didn't tell him he had misheard one of the letters; she bent forward to pin the little badge on his jumper. 'There you go,' she said, and if Dobby wasn't mistaken, he heard a little pride in her voice. 'Dobby, the free elf, honourable member of S.P.E.W,' she said solemnly.

Dobby beamed at her.

'Take one of the hats, too,' she said, picked one up and put it on his head. Dobby's smile grew even wider.

'Oh, thank you, Miss, thank you!'

Hermione just smiled at him and then looked at the clock. 'It's late,' she said, 'I'd better go to sleep. Can you tell the others to take care of this common room, Dobby? So they can find the hats? There would be no point if you picked them all.'

Dobby stared at her and was struggling with himself. Hermione had made him so happy with the badge – should he be hurting her feelings now? Hermione had already gotten up.

'The others is not liking Dobby for freedom,' Dobby said carefully, 'I is not sure if they will -'
'Oh, don't worry, Dobby. I know they're a bit stubborn, but once they're freed, they will like it, just like you.' She stroked him over his little head, smiled at him encouraging.

Dobby squirmed and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. After Hermione had left for bed, Dobby put away the remaining fabric and cleaned the rest of the room. He then turned the light off and went out of the room.

His little hand touched the badge on his jumper. He was a proud to be a member of "S.T.E.W". Surely, Harry Potter was a member too. The thought of his old friend cheered him up again. Surely, Harry Potter wouldn't have hurt Miss Granger's feelings, either. He would be taking care of this. Right now, he was filled with pride, joy and happiness, wearing the badge as if it were a crown.