Warning: spoilers ahead for Harry Potter - as it turns out, some people genuinely have been spoiled because of this!
We all know that tragic scene in Harry Potter where Dobby takes Bellatrix LeStrange's knife to protect Harry and his friends. He is taken through a magic portal, and dies in Harry's arms. He even has a funeral, where he is properly lay to rest. Well, that scene had to be filmed somewhere.
And that place is Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales. And, ever since the movie, people have been flocking to it to pay tribute. Socks, stones, practically anything you can think of.
But then, a 125-mile cable threatened to take it all down, per Yahoo!Entertainment. The cable, called the Greenlink interconnector, would have connected the UK's National Grid with Ireland, to share renewable energy.
And the problem was - it was going to go straight through Dobby's grave. People were outraged! According to the project manager of the cable, Simon Ludlam, people had harassed him and his team about it for weeks.
"Hundreds of calls" came through to the company. He was left distraught, thinking, "Dobby, who's Dobby? I don't know Dobby?".
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He Thought the 'Harry Potter' Fans Were Ridiculous
Ludlam remembered thinking, "He's a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious, what are you talking about?"
But, despite it all, he ended up needing to re-route it. He said sarcastically of the change, "we went quite close to some real Bronze Age remains, but we avoided Dobby's grave."
Ludlam's sentiment was shared by some people online, who said the Harry Potter fans were definitely in the wrong. One commenter wrote, "Harry Potter fans really out here prioritizing a beach grave for a cgi elf over actual bronze age remains like the irony writes itself."
However, others thought it was a reasonable decision, with one writing, "Dobby's grave generates a ton of tourism for Pembrokeshire and the beach... the decision makes sense when there's real economic losses."
Who do you think is right? Whatever the case, one thing remains true - Dobby is very much so a free elf!
