Chapter 2: Dobby’s Warning
In chapter two of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets we meet the polarizing character of Dobby. Some find him irritating, and Jar Jar Binks esque
(my own mother doesn’t like him!) but I’ve always been really fond of Dobby and his pluck.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
He’s one of the reasons I love Chamber of Secrets so much. Think about it: the rest of the house elves are so obsessed with serving their masters, and here’s Dobby willfully thwarting his dangerous, vindictive, and evil masters because he knows warning Harry is the right thing to do, even though he will get painfully punished for doing so. If Dobby could get sorted, he’s the epitome of a Gryffindor.
So Harry wins Dobby’s allegiance by treating him with basic human decency, since house elves are treated like Uncle Vernon’s least favorite relation, who is treated like
and Harry somehow improbably, has manners, even after being raised by the Dursley’s, who are one step away from this.
Dobby reveals Harry can’t go back to Hogwarts for his own safety, and also makes it clear house elves may be awesome but by god are they terrible planners. Dobby’s been hiding Harry’s letters in hopes he just…gives up and lives like a Muggle because he’s unpopular? Decides the Dursley’s are somehow better than magical wizard school? Come ON Dobby. Even awesome parents are not better then magical wizard school!
Although I do wish we’d seen the letters because my personal head canon now has one from Malfoy where he writes a rhyming poem of insults at Harry that he labored over for hours, and is really angry that Harry didn’t reply to.
Scar-head,
I wish you were dead
Fall of your broom
And cry in your room
When Gryffindor loses, you big loser
After this brilliant plan fails, Dobby drops a pudding on the floor and frames Harry, and we find out how incredibly ridiculous the rules for magic outside of Hogwarts are, that Harry is threatened with expulsion with no proof he’d even been the one to complete the spell. But what should I expect from a school where your punishment for breaking a minor rule is lifelong trauma and almost death, am I right, MINERVA?
Uncle “Made of Parts resembling a Human, Yet Actually is a Deranged Orc” Vernon
locks Harry in his room, puts bars on the windows, starves him some more, and somehow doesn’t go to jail for all of this. But never fear, Ron Weasley is here!
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What did you first think of Dobby when he appeared? Did you trust him?
Why did you think Dobby was warning Harry not to go back to school?
Do you think it’s fair Harry got in trouble for “using magic” outside of school?
And how are the Dursley’s not in jail for their treatment of Harry?
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