Later that night:

" We are using him for our practice?" Hermione asked in a voice that almost rose to a shriek.

" Hermione, I know you might have problem with this. So I thought that let's clear both our positions on the matter in his presence.

I believe that whoever designed them is extremely evil. But now they have been designed that way I don't think there is much we can do.

So if you have problem with us using Dobby for practice, you must tell what can we do about him." Harry calmly replied.

" You really believe that his condition can't be changed?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, it's like they have been hardwired to follow the orders. What do you think you are going to do now?

Give him a Godel-esque command 'I order you not to follow orders?'" Harry said and then stopped.

It was like a sudden thought wiped out every other reality for him.

" Actually it's a rather good idea, don't you think. I'll try it right now."

"Stop" Hermione's voice was now an actual shriek. " You are giving him an 'order' Harry, not a 'command', its not that innocent, he is not a computer program. And even a computer program would crash on that one. What do you want to do to Dobby, drive him insane?"

"Relax. I wasn't directly going to give him Godel command. I would have tried other things first. And even then I would have modified the final command to " I order you to not follow any further orders until they are in your interest", or something similar. That won't crash a program, would it?" Harry asked.

" I repeat Harry, he is not a program." Hermione said in a calm and firm tone.

" Well magical creatures are created with certain fixed rules, so his behaviour would be somewhat similar to a program. How about we start with simple commands, I mean orders" Harry corrected himself as he saw the look on Hermione's face "..and see how he reacts to it. We will come to know if he can actually be helped or not."

Hermione took a moment to think that over. Harry took that to mean that she had no issue.

"Great. I will be giving him a complex set of commands to check how he handles the data. So first let's check whether he follows order list in FIFO or LIFO." He said and then continued talking to Dobby " Dobby, I am going to give you two commands right now. Start following them only when I have given you both the commands. Ok?"

Dobby looked at both of them and nodded. He felt strange that people were asking him whether or not it was ok to give an order.

Hermione meanwhile was immersed in seeing what was going on. She had even stopped trying to correct Harry's use of 'command' back to 'order'.

" First command is" Harry said, " that you should not follow my second command.

My second command is that you go and sit on that chair." Harry said and pointed to a chair.

Dobby stood blinking. He did nothing.

" Great, now let's reverse it. I am again going to give you two commands. Follow them only after I have given both the commands.

My first command is to go sit on that chair and my second command is to not follow my first command. "

Dobby moved and sat on the chair that was pointed at.

And then, he suddenly looked possessed as the time to fulfill the second order came.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted as both of them rushed towards him. Dobby was not the docile, cute-ugly creature that they were with just a moment ago.

No longer he was blinks, wide eyes and eagerness.

He was rage, madness and guilt.

He took the chair and tried to hit himself with it. Harry and Hermione tried to stop him from doing so , but their combined physical effort didn't contain Dobby's self destruction streak.

Dobby found the chair to be too light, so he rushed to a wall. And started to bang his head.

He is a head banger on rock now. Harry observed. What has happened to my sense of humor, he then questioned.

"Stop!" He shouted.

Dobby stopped.

Hermione rushed towards him to examine him "Are you ok? Are you hurt in anyway? Should we take you to Madam Pomfrey?"

Dobby was apparently ok. He was stopped just in time.

"Great." Harry said, "So you follow FIFO then.

Now, are you ready to move on with next command chain?"

"What do you mean by next command chain?" Hermione interrupted. She was determined that there wasn't going to be any more 'command', let alone a 'chain'.

"You are the one who wants to change him Hermione.

Do you now see what that process or even attempt would mean to him?" Harry asked. "And after all that I am still not sure if he would be able to change his hardwired instructions; the primary magic of a house-elf's creation."

Hermione was breathing anger.

"Change may be always painful Harry but that doesn't mean that the pain has to be made beyond endurance.

Your approach isn't the only approach to try and change him.

In fact, this is not even your approach." Hermione said.

" Not my approach? Then whose is it?" Harry asked.

" Professor Quirrell's."

"What?"

"You are doing the same thing to Dobby that Prof. Quirell did to you in the class when he asked Derrick and others to push you around. "

"That was.." Harry protested.

"That was beyond excuse." Hermione replied. " The only reason Professor Quirell got away with it, the only reason Dumbledore didn't fire him or did something worse than firing, the only reason that entire Ravenclaw or at least I didn't jump in to stop that class was because of you.

Because you consented. Because you were convinced it was good for you. Because you showed us that you could endure that concentrated pain of growing up.

But apparently we were wrong. Apparently that pain was in deed beyond you.

Or you wouldn't have tried to do the same thing to Dobby. "

" Hermione. You are just being too sensitive. Look at him; Dobby is ok. Totally unharmed.

If anything at all I was just trying to do the same thing as you, trying to see if he could be freed of his servitude.

You are angry because you have just seen what your efforts would lead to." Harry calmly replied.

Hermione looked at him, her fury now cold.

" Dobby" she said to the elf ".. come with me. We are getting out of here." And with a regal air she walked out of the classroom.

Dobby followed Hermione out of the door. Just before the door closed, he looked at Harry. And then the door closed shut.

" 'Dobby, come with me.'" Harry mimicked Hermione's words that echoed in that empty classroom " So when it suits her, then she is ok with commanding house elves."