Legal Matters
Greengrass sent a retaliatory letter. Not a howler. A letter from their lawyer.
The gist of it, Harry thought was that unless Harry gave Greengrass a job as a housekeeper, they couldn't comply with the court order. So they had filed a counter-suit at the ministry. Harry had thirty days to make redress.
Harry sighed. It looked like next Saturday he was going to be headed to Britain.
Harry went to the owl-post-office, bought an overpriced portkey to Paris, and left in a tug to just below his navel, and a blur of colours. Harry landed with a thud on the Rue Magique in Paris, and after just an hour stumbling around , got an even more overpriced international portkey to Britain.
Harry landed in the Ministry of magic, portkey office. With a thud, and on his face. He got up, and eyed the on-duty Auror, badge and red cloak over hard-wearing robes.
"I'm Harry Potter" said Harry "Where do I go to handle a Ministry Court order counter-suit redress form?"
The Auror blinked at him "You what?"
"A lawyer?" asked Harry.
"On a Saturday? Not a chance" they said.
"Humour me" said Harry, thinking about killing someone in a red cloak.
"The law firms are in Diagon Alley, most of them are past Gringotts, before Knockturn Alley" said The Auror. "There's little chance anyone's open this weekend."
Harry found the lifts, was battered about, got to the Atruim, and flooed to The Leaky Cauldron.
The Cauldron hadn't changed since Harry had started at Hogwarts. The rag old Tom was using definitely hadn't.
Harry sped through the pub, tapped the brick walls, and headed down the Alley.
Past Gringotts, Harry looked carefully at the otherwise pointless little signs on the side-doors.
He found a sign for Wilkes-Davis lawyers, but the door was locked. The next firm he found was called Viridian, and the door wasn't locked. Harry felt the foreign sensation of hope. The door led to a steep staircase with a faded green and cream carpet, and at the top there was another door. Which was locked, but a painted sign on the door said.
'If unattended, pull lever for service'
Harry pulled the brown lever on the door, and after some resistance, a bell tinkled. Nothing happened for quite some time. Then the door was loudly unlocked, and opened inwards. A tall blond man with a greying goatee stood there in robes.
"Welcome to Viridian. How can I help?"
Harry handed over the letter from the Greengrasses, and the (Harry hoped they were a lawyer) took it and read it, They looked down at Harry – still on the stairs.
"You'd better come in. You're Harry Potter then?" Harry nodded. Behind him was a small waiting room with four overstuffed green chairs, a black desk for a secretary, and two doors; one was open, and Harry could see an office through it.
"Cyrus" said the man, turning and walking towards the office. Harry followed what he hoped was a lawyer.
Cyrus sat behind the desk, took out a sheet or parchment, and drew a quill,, and wrote 'Harry Potter, Greengrass Countersuit redress, March 14th 1998' as the heading.
"So, I need to make sure Daphne Greengrass has a job as my housekeeper within thirty days." said Harry.
Cyrus eyed the letter carefully "You need to pay fifty galleons as a retainer first" he said.
Harry dug out his moneybag and shook out a pile of galleons.
"Now, you don't need to have Daphne Greengrass employed as your housekeeper within thirty days, but you do need a letter of employment in her family's hands within thirty days. Starting last Thursday." said Cyrus.
"Just a letter?" asked Harry "Can you write that?"
"I'm supremely qualified" said Cyrus in a vaguely oily tone.
"Well, I've got a house in London, twelve Grimmauld place and it needs… well it needs so much cleaning and maintenance." said Harry "I'm attending Beauxbatons, so I'm not going to be back in Britain before July at the earliest."
"It did make the third page of the Daily Prophet, yes" sad Crus blandly. "You're a little famous."
Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes and continued "As far as I know, Greengrass was just deported from France, and not arrested, so she's probably back at Hogwarts."
"Well, she sent the letter, so that's a fair assumption" said Cyrus.
"So she won't finish Hogwarts till June anyway; maybe she'll fail some NEWT classes and need to re-sit" said Harry. For some reason, Cyrus blotted the parchment on hearing that. Harry's new Lawyer drew his wand and vanished the ink blot.
"So I'm thinking the job starts as soon as she finishes Hogwarts, which should be June" said Harry.
"And is accommodation provided?" asked Cyrus.
"Well… it's got lots of rooms" said Harry "Technically. There's a house-elf."
"If you have a house-elf, why would you need a housekeeper?" asked Cyrus.
"My Steward sued the Greengrasses for damaging my um health" said Harry. "I would have used them to do stuff but they're… busy" said Harry, eyeing the date Cyrus had written. It was a full moon today, and the moon had been nearly full since the letter had arrived.
"And?" asked Cyrus.
"Well, it was either a housekeeper or marry Greengrass" said Harry.
"There are apparently two Greengrass sisters" said Cyrus.
"Greengrass the elder would murder me if I touched her sister" said Harry candidly. "She's very protective of her little sister."
Cyrus nodded "So… a housekeeper who's attacked you. An exciting choice."
"Well I've never lived there, and probably won't" said Harry "But that's what my steward organised. Its a bit rubbish really, as I cured bloody Astoria Greengrass of her… whatever that was."
"Cured Astoria Greengrass" asked Cyrus slowly. "That wasn't something I'd heard. I'd heard she was cured. Not that you'd done it."
"Well, I told her to go try phoenix tears" said Harry "The headmaster of Hogwarts has a phoenix. It cured her, but Daphne Greengrass attacked me anyway. Thought I was being coarse."
"What an ungrateful girl" said Cyrus, looking positively malevolent.
"Hex-happy" said Harry. "And by December, she was convinced we had some sort of thing. Which we don't."
"So… she's going to be your housekeeper for your London Town-house, with a House-elf to boss around. Most married witches would be spoilt to be treated like that" said Cyrus.
"I think someone got there early and spoiled her." said Harry "I blame her parents. Probably indulged her."
"There are stories, in the gutter press, of course" said Cyrus "That you yourself might have a slight temper."
"No" said Harry "I hated my relatives before Hogwarts, hated Hogwarts, and my friends were murdered, or maimed. I'm just lucky the headmaster relented and let me transfer to Beauxbatons."
"Why did he do that?" asked Cyrus idly.
"I did him a favour" said Harry "He owes me."
"You hated your relatives?"
"Dumbledore sent Alistor Moody to come check up on me when I was four." said Harry "He came once a year till I was eleven. Alistor Moody is a very scary man. My relatives signed an agreement that I would arrive at Hogwarts, aged eleven, well fed, clothed and educated. That probably kept me alive."
"Oh" said Cyrus.
"Yes, Oh" said Harry. "And they got a small stipend. It ended last summer; I had turned seventeen, and would not be returning."
"So, will you be going to your London townhouse?" asked Cyrus.
"I'll get my Steward to find somewhere else" said Harry "Greengrass will at least be fantasising about killing me. I'd need magical life insurance."
Harry, having said that had the strangest feeling that he had quite literally known a spell for that. And forgotten it.
Regardless, Cyrus wrote a very professional looking letter, informing the Greengrasses that Daphne would start as Housekeeper at Number twelve, Grimmauld place as soon as she finished at Hogwarts.
"Of course, some people would assume this was just a fig-leaf for something licentious." said Cyrus.
"Well she's pretty, but… she's hexed my bits multiple times" said Harry "You don't get over that sort of thing quickly."
"Quite" said Cyrus. "Should I investigate adding a magically enforced non-murdering control to the employment contract?"
"Don't bother. She's smart enough to find a loophole" said Harry.
"Indeed" said Cyrus. "I feel we have covered all the salient points. Your Steward's contact details?"
"Remus Lupin, Steward of the house of Black" said Harry "That'll get to him."
Cyrus added that to the bottom of the parchment.
"Right. Well Mr Potter, I think I can safely say you're in good hands." said Cyrus.
"I'm just glad you were open on a Saturday" said Harry, relaxing.
"Oh we were closed." said Cyrus "The lever called me from home."
"Lucky for me" said Harry.
"Well, my hourly rates on Saturdays do reflect this" said Cyrus, standing.
Harry left Viridian with confidence. It's a shame he didn't take a business card.