Thanks for commenting on my story!

Chapter 13 and 14 are already written. Right now I'm doing some last minute editing, but they should be up soon.

Right now I, unfortunately find myself betaless once again. Who would feel up up for the job?


Chapter 12

On Friday afternoon Harry entered the Three Broomsticks and felt anticipation slowly building in his stomach. Employing a lawyer was a big step to independence after all.

At the bar he was directed to a back room, where Lawyer Greengrass was already waiting. He had the same mousy brown hair as his niece at Hogwarts, hanging loose to his waist. All in all, with his sharp yellow eyes that reminded of Madam Hooch, he was an imposing wizard.

"Mr. Potter," the lawyer greeted quietly with a deep booming voice, "It is nice to meet you at last."

"Lawyer Greengrass," Harry inclined his head and offered his hand, which the Lawyer took.

"Would you like to place an order?" the lawyer inquired and Harry noticed the house elf, standing in the corner of the room.

"A butterbeer, please," Harry smiled at the elf, who popped away and returned with two butterbeers in the blink of an eye, only to pop away again and leave them alone.

"Shall we then proceed to business?" the Lawyer suggested, all the while watching Harry attentively.

"Yes please," Harry nodded and after putting on a strong set of wards on the room he took the seat the lawyer offered to him. For a couple of moments they remained silent, eyeing each other calculatingly.

"I presume, you are looking for a lawyer to permanently watch over your affairs?" Lawyer Greengrass then inquired smoothly.

"Ideally, yes," Harry nodded, "though we have yet to determine, whether you would be comfortable with that position."

In typical pureblood manner the lawyer raised an eyebrow to indicate his undivided attention.

"You see, I might require my lawyer to step on the toes of a few very influential people." Harry explained and took a sip of his butterbeer.

"That's my job." the lawyer said, "I have no qualms about going legally against supporters of the Dark Lord."

"What about going against the ministry, Fudge, Umbridge or Dumbledore then?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore?" the lawyer reaffirmed astonished and seemed to ponder the prospect for a while.

"With pleasure," he barred his teeth to a predatory grin, "but I've had the impression that the two of you were quite close?"

"Obviously, we are on the same side of this war, meaning against Voldemort, but there are a lot of things where we don't see eye to eye. So yes, it might come to that and when it does, I don't want to have to look for a new lawyer."

"You seem intend on opposing all influential groups of our society. What has brought that on?"

"I'm my own man. I don't intend to let the ministry or Dumbledore use me for their own purposes, as they are not mine."

Both eyebrows shot up, "Indeed," Lawyer Greengrass said, "I'd say you'd need a good lawyer. I cordially offer you my services." He intoned formally and opened one of the many folders spread across the table.

"This is the customary binding contract, ensuring that I solely act in your interest in regards to your legal affairs and to the best of my abilities." he explained, offering the folder to Harry, "It further prevents me to disclose any of your affairs without your explicit permission."

Harry looked the contract over and nodded approvingly. The contract regulated the fee to be paid, as well. His lawyer would gain three galleons per hour spend on Harry's affairs and then would get paid fifty galleons for his winning causes by the opposing party, as was customary in the wizarding world.

"That seems to be in order."

The lawyer offered him a quill, " To be magically binding the contract has to be signed in blood by both of us."

Harry eyed the blood quill warily, as it brought memories of his detentions with Umbridge to mind. Then he resolutely took the quill and signed his name under the contract in a flourish. He hardly felt the cut drawing his blood, but his queasiness had not gone unnoticed.

"Is something the matter?" his lawyer asked.

"I still bear the marks of the blood quill I had to use in my detentions with Umbridge," Harry explained and offered the back of his hand for the man to see.

Lawyer Greengrass drew in a sharp breath.

"I assume, you want to press charges?" His sharp eyes shone with glee and his lips qirked slightly upwards.

"Definitely," Harry smiled grimly.

"Well, let's start with your charges against the Daily Prophet, shall we?"

"Let's,"Harry agreed.

"For the sake of this case I have to ask: Is it true that you're gay?"

"Yes, for once they've got the facts right, but they have no business reporting on my personal life."

"I will see what I can do," his lawyer nodded and made a note on his paper. "They will be charged with invading the privacy of a minor and for last year we can also charge them with defamation of character."

"What are our chances to succeed?" Harry wanted to know.

"Quite good on legal grounds, I'd say, but the Daily Prophet is quite influential. So it will take a while."

Harry sighed.

"In regards to Umbridge our chances are much better to get her removed from office to begin with," the lawyer continued. "Immediately, after we have pressed charges the ministry will want to wash their hands of her. They might even want to press charges themselves. You might also succeed in pressing charges against the ministry as a whole, or Fudge at least.

Harry pondered that. Was it advisable to go through with suing the ministry? On one hand, he did not need any more enemies than he already had and he might need the ministry's cooperation to put his plans into action. On the other hand, he wanted to leave everybody with the impression that he was not to be trifled with, that eventually he would always retaliate.

"Let's start with Umbridge and dangle the possibility over the ministry's head. We can decide later on, if we want to follow through with that," Harry decided then.

"As you wish," his lawyer nodded his acquiescence, "It would help me greatly, if you gave me memories of those detentions and any other memories incriminating her further. It is more accurate than having you recount the events."

"Sure," Harry nodded.

"We can do this right now. I have brought a pensieve." Lawyer Greengrass offered.

Harry agreed and was swiftly talked through the process of removing a memory.

"You need to think of the memory, you want to extract. Bring it to the front of your mind and focus on the point you wish to bring across." the lawyer instructed, "The incantation is extraho memoria"

Harry selected the memories of his first lesson with Umbridge, his detentions and how she had attempted to Crucio him before he had set off to the department of mysteries. Then he also added the memory of her admitting that she had sent the dementors after him.

They entered the pensieve together and his lawyer silently watched the events unfold.

"That will be enough for a life sentence in Azkaban," he said with a gleam in his eyes, after they had stepped out of the pensive again. "That is, if we can prevent the ministry from hushing this up to keep their faces."

"I don't think they will dare to do that. It would give me all the more reason to sue the ministry." Harry replied.

"Of course," his lawyer's smirk was almost fond. "They are more likely to offer a bargain to you. Obviously, Fudge will be incriminated as well, but with him no longer minister, Minister Scrimgour will probably attempt to approach you, turn over a new leaf in the ministry's dealings with you and in turn attempt to distance himself as far as possible from Fudge."

Harry nodded. That might actually turn out to his advantage.

"If this is all ... " Lawyer Greengrass began.

"Actually, I'd like to outline some of my plans and consult you on which of those I can implement while still being underage."

Lawyer Greengrass indicated for Harry to go ahead. Then folded his hands in his lap and gazed calmly at Harry.

"Basically, I'd like to found an organisation for magical children, raised in the muggle world, starting with offering them pre-Hogwarts summer courses on the wizarding world, later on turning it into a permanent home for abused and orphaned magical children," Harry outlined one of his many plans.

The lawyer hummed thoughtfully "Legally, you are entitled to support and found non profit beneficial organisations up to the age of fourteen. Financially though – you wont be able to enter your family fault, till you are of age, but..."

"Family fault?" Harry asked through narrowed eyes.

"Of course. Wait – you mean – you don't know?"

Harry shook his head. It seemed that again things had been kept from him.

"The Potters were one of the wealthiest families of modern British society. You'll inherit a fortune and several properties on your seventeenth birthday."

"Dumbledore, again," Harry growled.

"With your permission, I will enquire all of your legal documentation for our next meeting, to go through together."

"Yes, please." Harry said grimly.

"I presume, your inheritance from Sirius Black went into your trust fund, so you should have the monetary resources. After all the Blacks have been modestly well of."

In regards to Sirius' death, money had been the furthest from Harry's mind, but then his fault had seemed fuller, when he had visited it over the summer, though Harry had paid it no mind at the time. Money simply did not matter to him, as long as he had enough. After all money was merely a tool to get what he wanted, whether it was supplies or the reformation of the magical world.

Harry nodded slowly and wondered why Sirius' will had been read in his absence, but that could wait until later. If he had indeed Sirius' money added to his fault, it would only be right to help the last remaining marauder with that money. Surely Sirius would have approved.

"Then I would also like to found an organisation to further werewolf rights and supply wolves bane potion, on what scale will depend on my financial resources."

"You are aware that you will cause quite the stir?" the lawyer asked, not appearing concerned at all.

"I will leave my mark on this world," Harry stated with a smirk.

"Indeed, you will," the lawyer chuckled, "It will be quite the challenge to work for you, as you will be met with constant opposition from almost all fractions. It's bound to get ugly pretty soon," he delightfully rubbed his hands. "I don't have to start on the topic of werewolves, of course. You know the general stand on that matter! To all fractions of society muggleborns are a touchy subject as well, which has now been avoided for approximately a thousand years for that very reason."

"Well, what good has that done. It's long over due to meet the topic head on." Harry said.

"Indeed," Lawyer Greengrass said.

"Are you comfortable with acting as my lawyer in regards to those volatile subjects?" Harry asked just to make sure.

"I love to cause a stir as well," the lawyer waved away Harry's concerns. "Winning difficult causes, furthers my reputation.

Personally, I'm not adverse to any of your projects, neither, although that would hardly matter." Lawyer Greengrass explained.

"May this be a profitable busienss for both of us" the lawyer then formally concluded their first ever meeting. They shook hands and the lawyer promised to keep him up to date with.

Harry stepped into the floo and landed in the headmaster's office shortly after. He braced himself for the interrogation that was sure to come.

"So Harry, did you have a productive meeting?" the Headmaster asked kindly.

"Headmaster," Harry nodded courteously, "Only time can tell, right?" he added then with an eerily close imitation of Dumbledore's twinkle.

"Actually, I was able to retrieve the real memory from Professor Slughorn. So I will see you Sunday at eight?" he only just remembered to inform him and thus he had swiftly changed the topic.

The Headmaster clapped his hands together in delight.

"Splendid"

"I wish you would trust me more," Dumbledore then sighed sadly.

"And I wish I could, but I'm afraid I can't, Headmaster," Harry replied just as sadly and with a final polite nod he left the office."

How he longed for an adult to confide in, to trust, but the Headmaster had proven time and time again, that he could not be trusted.