Hearing Harley's words, Dobby was indeed distracted, and its resistance weakened considerably.
Though it was rolling around in pain, it still screamed:
"But, but Dobby was only trying to help Harley Potter!
Even though Dobby had cut Harley Potter off from her friends! Even though Dobby didn't want Harley Potter to return to her favorite place, Hogwarts! Even though Dobby had considered framing Harley Potter and getting her locked up at home!
Dobby was still only trying to help Harley Potter!"
Harley almost laughed in anger at Dobby's words.
Her hands never stopped moving, but her voice grew gentler. "That's right, Dobby. So I'm helping you, too!
"I don't know how what I'm doing will help you, but I'm still doing it for your own good!"
Although Harley had weakened Dobby's resistance with her words, she still couldn't get around the powerful curse already on it.
After several failed attempts, Harley immediately changed her mind. She'd originally planned to plant a Curse Seed directly and take control of the house-elf.
But now Harley could only use another ritual to gradually infect it, turning Dobby into a half-puppet while allowing it to retain its own consciousness.
The ritual wasn't practical. It took too long, was full of uncertainties, and was more difficult to perform.
At any point during the process, if the target found an opportunity to call for help, the ritual could be interrupted.
Many curse rituals could turn a living target into a puppet directly, and they were much faster and more effective.
But this ritual had one advantage: it was gentle. When used on beings already burdened with powerful curses or marked by higher beings, it could bypass their curses and marks and turn them directly into half-puppets—
living puppets who retained their original memories and consciousness, but