CHAPTER THREE DOBBY THE SEA KING

Dobby was a house elf, which means nothing in the ordinary world but means more than you can imagine in the magickal world. He was considered Harry's pet even though he was a "free" elf on account of a bargain he made with his prior owner. It is technically politically incorrect to call him a pet due to his free status. But we will use this terminology to help enhance the understanding of the reader.

Note: the Harry Potter book and movie inaccurately suggest that elves can win freedom by receiving clothes from their master. There is no basis for such a claim. Sometimes movies are not truthful, although their intentions might be good. Good intentions are nice, but they can be misleading, especially when they are misinterpreted. Most of us try to have good intentions, but sometimes we fail. The failure can be caused by ourselves or conversely by other forces that could be beyond our control.

What all this says about free will is another matter that is beyond our scope today.

But Dobby liked Harry and Ron and Ginny and Hermione. He did not like Draco Malfoy or the Malfoy family because they treated him badly when they owned him. That is to say, the Malfoys were Dobby's owners until the aforementioned bargain. Because of ill treatment at the hands of the Malfoys, Dobby suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, which for some reason is known in medical circles as PTSD. When he heard the Malfoys' names, he passed out or at least became apoplectic.

PTSD is not a disease to be taken lightly. House elves are prone to it when abused much in the way of soldiers who are exposed to war. What might be different is that house elves have magickal properties whereas 96% of soldiers do not. Soldiers are important for defense but they are not house elves. These are a few of the many complicated relationships that are important to the wizarding and muggle worlds.

Dobby asked Harry for a treat. He preferred donuts over bagels even though the donuts have more calories. Harry did not have donuts but rather carrots. Dobby bit into one and shrieked "Dobby does not like carrots." Harry told him to try again for health reasons. That made Dobby mad. He screamed "Harry Potter does not understand. Carrots are bad bad bad. Dobby will not eat carrots. Dobby will not look at carrots." Dobby used magick to make the carrot fly at Harry and hit him in the chest. Harry fell back on his butt.

"Do not ever feed Dobby carrots again!." Harry apologized but Dobby would have none of it. "Dobby will find a new master now. Good luck Harry Potter."

Note: Dobby's language above is redacted and paraphrased since there may be younger readers who should not be exposed to foul language.

Harry was hopping mad because Dobby didn't understand this is not how the master-servant relationship works. He ran after Dobby. But Dobby continued to defy him.

It is now a good time to ponder defiance and defiant acts. Defiance has connotations of badness. But we should realize it can be good too. Who is to decide good or bad? For example, if Dobby were being treated badly, he should be defiant. If he were not treated badly, he may be in the wrong. But then who decides "badly". I think the answer is it depends on one's point of view.

The view one takes may be dependent on a person's upbringing, culture, gender, environment, intelligence and many other factors. All of this is to say we make no assumption here about Dobby's action and reserve our judgment until more events occur.

Dobby left the house and went to find Ron. "Ron Weasley is my new master now," declared the house elf. Ron was sitting at the table reading Sterne's Tristam Shandy. Or at least he was pretending to read since illiterates can't read by definition. Ron had heard Mrs. Norris listening to the audio book and had been annoyed at the author's tendency to meander so he resolved try the written version to see if it might be more concise.

Ron did not want a house elf, but little did he know that he badly needed one. Sometimes life is that way where you need something but you don't know it. That something may seem bad to you but later turns out to be good (aka a "blessing in disguise"). This is one of those situations!

"Ooh, ooh, ooh, aah, aah", said Ron. Dobby replied, "Fine. I will go make you a sandwich." In fact, Ron meant nothing of the sort, but Dobby was sure he understood. Dobby returned after ten minutes with a watercress sandwich. You may have guessed that Ron, like all mammals, did not care for watercress. Dobby liked watercress or anything to do with water because he fancied himself to be a sea king.