Harry Potter fans have successfully campaigned to reroute a major undersea power cable project after it emerged that the original path would have run straight through the fictional grave of house-elf Dobby. The memorial, located on a beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, marks the spot from the films where Dobby was buried and draws hundreds of pilgrims each year who leave painted stones and tributes. The dispute highlights the surprising real-world influence of fan culture, forcing engineers on a major infrastructure scheme to accommodate a site with no official heritage status but immense sentimental value.

The £430 million ($580 million) Greenlink interconnector, which will link the UK mainland to Ireland, has now been diverted away from the grave after project manager Simon Ludlam said opposition exploded into "hundreds of calls" once the plans became public via a podcast. Ludlam admitted his initial scepticism, given Dobby is "a fictitious character in a fictitious book," but said he was quickly told the matter was "very, very serious." Ironically, the new route instead uncovered genuine Bronze Age remains, possibly up to 4,000 years old, while the National Trust, which owns the site, continues to ask visitors not to leave socks due to its environmental protection status.