Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter lock, stock and barrel.

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For direct quotes I use italicized font.
Instead of footnotes I use double bold parentheses: (-( footnote text )-)

CHAPTER 6
Dobby, the twice freed house-elf

Chapter summary:
Spectral dementor bent down and with a loud smack kissed the snake's head.

Harry Potter had the time of his life.
One thing he liked above everything - saving other people; the more people to save - the merrier.
And now - The Final Battle was raging.

Meaning that the whole Hogwarts student population was threatened!
Well, except Slytherins ... but it was their own fault, was it not?
Why did not they force The Sorting Hat to put them in some other House? Eh?

It seemed, nothing could spoil Harry's good mood.
And then suddenly ... the flock of dark cloaked creatures was descending on battlefield ...
"Harry!" screamed Hermione, "Look there! Dementors! Quickly, think something happy!"

"Mate," Ron said with the air of generosity, "You have my permission. Think how you will snog Ginny."
"And me," said Luna.
"And me," added Cho.
"And us," chorused Patil twins.

"Good thinking, girls," Hermione said approvingly, "According to the 2nd law of Demento-dynamics, the power of wizard's Patronus is proportional to the number of imaginary witches, being mentally snogged."

So, Harry took his most heroic pose, poked the air with his wand and shouted, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

An enormous silvery stag erupted from the tip of his wand and rushed toward dementors.
All dementors trembled in horror and cowardly fled.
All, except one.

The remaining dementor was quite unusual.
First of all he was half-transparent, like ghost.
He also was much smaller.
And his head was too wide; like his ears under the hood were sticking out.

The silver stag slowly approached the strange dementor, sniffed it and rubbed his nose against its breast.
Dementor, in return, patted the stag on the neck.
Everybody gaped at this crazy sight.

Then dementor mounted the stag and rode on its back - straight to the big snake.
Stag pressed his antlers on snake's neck, pinning her to the ground.
Spectral Dementor threw his hood back.

And Harry saw familiar set of two large bat-like ears and two tennis-ball-sized eyes.
- Dobby?
Dobby-like dementor looked at Harry and waved his bony hand at him.
Then he bent down and with a loud smack kissed the snake's head.

The puff of smoke emanated from Nagini's head.
She hissed,
- Thanks, amigo, now I am without soul again!
- Sorry, I'm in a rush ... have to lay some eggs, start a family, you know ...
and she slithered away.

Epilogue – a few hours later
WARNING: This epilogue is not humorous. It's 100% serious.

"Dobby, is it really you?" inquired Hermione, "Thank you, thank you again, It's second time you saved our lives. Please tell us what happened. I thought only wizards can become ghosts."

"You are very welcome, Hermione," Dobby said, "I wonder, where to start?
First of all, I've chosen a proper name for myself. Now I'm called Robert Freeman."
(-( in the Middle Ages Dobb was a diminutive of the name Robert )-)
- Sorry, Mr. Freeman.
- Don't apologize, Hermione. We are friends, aren't we? Please call me Dobby, as before.

- Dobby, you now speak ... you speak normally.

- When I was given clothes I did not become free.
I called myself free elf, I had no master, I worked for wages, but it was not enough.
Deep down inside I still was a slave.
I talked like a slave; I thought and behaved like a slave.

And then - when I died - a miracle happened; I discovered that I am truly free.
What caused it? I don't know.
Anyway, like other free souls - wizards and witches - I was given a choice.
I could go on to 'the next great adventure', but I chose to stay, because my friends were in danger.

Since then I continue my existence in this form.
Elf magic is different; I am not a true ghost, you saw what I could do.
And now I speak the way wizards speak.

After a brief silence Luna said, "I believe I know what happened.
Harry, it was you, who made Dobby really free."
Very surprised Harry asked, "Me? When?"

- Remember, Harry, how you dug the grave for Dobby?
You did it with hands and a shovel; you suppressed your magic for a while.
And what was the first magic you did after that?

With your wand you wrote on the gravestone:
Here lies Dobby, a free elf.
All your pent-up magical energy was channeled into these words.

Luna stopped for a few seconds and her face took on an expression of reverence and caution, as if she were holding a beautiful and fragile vase and was afraid to drop it.
She finished in a low voice, barely above a whisper,
- And the words became the truth.

NO HOUSE-ELVES WERE GIVEN CLOTHES during the writing of this story.

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