--- title: People Are Trying to Free Dobby With Socks at WB Studio Tour description: On behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare canonical: https://time.com/4056853/people-are-trying-to-free-harry-potters-dobby-in-london/ copyright: © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. terms: https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/ license_contact: syndication@time.com author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-30T22:27:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:03.082Z og:title: Tourists Are Trying to Free Dobby With Socks og:description: Hermione would have been proud og:url: https://time.com/4056853/people-are-trying-to-free-harry-potters-dobby-in-london/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tourists Are Trying to Free Dobby With Socks twitter:description: Hermione would have been proud twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # People Are Trying to Free Harry Potter's Dobby in London > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8fdbf4d1-606f-46b0-8407-0584ab26db69&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Nerds Unite To Fix House-Themed 'Harry Potter' Book Cover [Watch (HLS stream): Nerds Unite To Fix House-Themed 'Harry Potter' Book Cover](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/K9g8cg2R.m3u8) (1:06)  _Published 2015-09-17. A book cover that had the wrong symbol for the Ravenclaw house made_  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Sep 30, 2015 10:27 PM UTC  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Sep 30, 2015 10:27 PM UTC It’s as if Hermione Granger’s beloved [Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Society%5Ffor%5Fthe%5FPromotion%5Fof%5FElfish%5FWelfare) has sprung up some heartened rebels. Photographs have appeared on the Internet (and [retweeted by _Harry Potter_ author J.K. Rowling](https://twitter.com/jk%5Frowling)) of people leaving socks by an encased Dobby at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour of Harry Potter at Leavesden in London. > [](https://twitter.com/HogwartsLogic/status/648202470842195968) If you’re not a Potterhead, it might not make sense, so here’s some history: Houselves, who are practically enslaved in the _Harry Potter_ world, can attain freedom if given a piece of clothing. Hermione busily knits socks and leaves them in nooks and crannies through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she stays, hoping that elves like Dobby—who served Harry and was eventually freed—would pick them up and free themselves. Dobby, of course, was a real hero in the Potter series, falling to his death by the blade of Bellatrix Lestrange while saving Harry, Ron and Hermione. But when he died, one thing was certain: He was free. ## Transcript It's a magical mistake that stopped Harry Potter fans in their tracks. Petrificus Totalus. [ MUSIC ] Juniper Books released this new set of Hogwarts house theme book covers for $ 275. Each house repping it's colors and mascots. Red and gold for Grifeendoor. Green and black from Slitheren. A badger for Hufflepuff, and a raven for Ravenclaw. Despite it's name the correct bird that officially represents Ravenclaw is an Eagle And Harry Potter fans worldwide treated the misrepresented book cover exactly like a horcrux. This time I cannot hope to destroy it alone. As a united front, these wanna- be wizards sought to destroy the cover. But since they couldn't take a basilisk fang to this Colorado- based publisher, Time reports the publisher received enough complaints from fans That they're gonna change the cover. The new cover now features a soaring eagle that would make any raven claw proud, so well done all you Hogwarts hopefuls. Your acceptance letter may not have come this year, but consider applying it [ UNKNOWN ]. Books are so your thing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4056853/people-are-trying-to-free-harry-potters-dobby-in-london/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4056853/people-are-trying-to-free-harry-potters-dobby-in-london/"},"headline":"People Are Trying to Free Harry Potter's Dobby in London","datePublished":"2015-09-30T22:27:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:03.082Z","description":"Hermione would have been proud","url":"https://time.com/4056853/people-are-trying-to-free-harry-potters-dobby-in-london/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","viral","Books","Harry Potter","J.K. 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