house elf

We‘ve heard of several road construction projects diverted or completely derailed in Iceland to avoid encroaching on the dwellings of supernatural beings according to local lore. We learn, however—and not for the first time, fans of the Harry Potter franchise have successfully petitioned to reroute a multimillion pound energy project linking County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland with a pebbly beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, which would have cut through the shrine to the memory of the fictional familiar Dobby.

The submarine copper cables connecting the Republic of Ireland to the UK national grid, following a rather massive outcry, was shifted to avoid the memorial—though in the process could possibly have damaged an archaeological site, an actual Bronze Age tomb with grave goods not fully excavated and conserved.