Farley returned about ten minutes later to guide Harry down to the office of Mark Howards. The senior partner was a stout man in his late forties, with light brown hair, and clear blue eyes.
Harry had expected him to be stern and scary after talking to Farley. Instead, he was greeted with an enthusiastic handshake and a warm smile.
"Welcome Mr. Potter. It's a pleasure to meet you. Rebecca has informed me of your legal issues and I think we can help."
Harry gave a relieved sigh as he sat down in the chair next to Farley. He had been worried that they would kick him out and he would have to go to his meeting without a solicitor in the morning.
"I'm sure Rebecca has explained to you that we usually take on criminal cases. However, considering your situation I think we can help. Rebecca will handle the basilisk contract and assist me with your guardianship and inheritance," Howards explained.
"Thank you sir, but I wouldn't want you to go out of your way. I can go somewhere else for the basilisk and inheritance problems." Harry replied feeling unsure. He wanted people who knew what they were doing when it came to his inheritance. He didn't know what he would do if he lost this new connection he had to his family.
"Please don't misunderstand me Mr. Potter. I am both willing and able to help you. Although we often deal with criminal matters, ancient family laws and inheritance often come up. Many of our muggle-born clients run afoul of these laws and get themselves into legal trouble," Howards explained, losing some of his humor.
"Oh," Harry said relaxing, "in that case, I would appreciate your help".
"Good, I'm glad we cleared that up. Now Rebecca tells me you have a meeting with Madame Bones scheduled for tomorrow morning concerning your guardianship. Can you give me a little more detail about this meeting," Howards asked with a kind smile putting Harry at ease.
Harry explained as he pulled the letter out of his pocket and handed it over in case he missed something.
"Rebecca and I will meet you at 10:30 tomorrow to make sure there aren't any updates before the meeting. I will contact Gringotts to get a copy of your inheritance test. I will also reach out to Mills, Lowback, and Nott for a copy of your parents' wills. Hopefully they get back to us before then, but I wouldn't hold my breath. They can be very difficult. I can guarantee they will be dragging their feet considering you are their most famous client," Howards explained, handing back the letter.
"But I'm not! At least I don't think I am. I've never talked to them or received anything from them. Although, apparently I haven't been getting mail from Gringotts either," Harry replied, annoyed. He was starting to think that he would have to go back to them and make sure they weren't his solicitors. If so, they were going to get the boot.
"I want to come back to your mail issue in a second but I want to be sure I have this correct. As far as you know Mills, Lowback, and Nott are not your legal representatives?"
"Yes sir. I have never talked to them and if they still have me down as a client then I will be firing them. I went there first, and they kicked me out of the office. Granted they didn't know who I was, but they still treated me like trash. They don't seem like the kind of people I want to work with."
The look on Howards face reminded Harry that one should be careful of what they wish for. Howards now looked like the scary lawyer he had been looking for. His eyes had narrowed and his smile had turned into a smirk.
"Excellent! We have been going head to head with them in the courtroom for years. Losing Harry Potter as a client will be a huge blow after using you to bring in clients. People will wonder what they did to lose you. It will be even better if it turns out they have been lying."
Harry may have imagined standing outside their office and calling them liars but he wouldn't really do that. He really didn't want people to be talking about him more than they usually did. He got enough of that at Hogwarts.
"We don't really have to tell people about this, do we Mr. Howards?" Harry asked, hoping to slow the man down.
Howards face became more neutral as he focused on Harry.
"You must understand Mr. Potter. They have been helping to uphold the archaic pureblood laws that restrict muggle-borns and half-bloods to some extent, for years. At the same time they have been thriving using your name to bring in clients with moderate views. These people assume that if the defeater of the Dark Lord uses them, they must be an upstanding and trustworthy firm. In reality, they uphold pureblood supremacist ideas and over charge their clients for substandard service if they are not of the same mindset or the purest of blood." Farley explained, speaking for the first time.
"Rebecca is correct. They have been a major roadblock to the advancement of muggle-borns and I intend to use this opportunity to knock them down. I'll be honest with you Mr. Potter, snatching you out from them was a major factor for why I decided to take your case. You want your freedom and so do we. We want the freedom to grow and professionally succeed in this world. We want to be treated with the same respect and consideration given to purebloods. And taking you on as a client will be a major blow to them." Howards explained.
On one hand Harry didn't want to acknowledge his leaving them to be that important. At the same time he couldn't pass on the change to help stick it to pureblood supremacists and help muggle-borns. Harry decided to suck up his discomfort and agree.
"Thank you for explaining things and being honest with me. I don't like using my fame but in this case, I guess it would be ok. Muggle-borns shouldn't be treated as less than purebloods. My mother and best friend are muggle-borns, and I hate when people look down on them. Especially when they are both brilliant witches." Harry said with a soft smile.
Howards and Farley returned his smile. Howards then picked up a pen, yes an actual pen, and started questioning Harry about his mail problem.
"We will have one of our investigators look into this. Tampering with someone's mail is a criminal offence. However, considering you have been living in the muggle world, it may have been done for your protection. Nonetheless, you should now have full access to your mail and access to previous correspondence. Is there anything else we need to look into for you?" Howards concluded.
"No, that should be it," Harry said, checking his notes from Goldfeather. "Oh, I almost forgot. I have copies of my parents' wills. I got them from Gringotts this morning. They also gave me a copy of my health report. I was told to give it to Madame Bones to help with the case against my relatives." Harry exclaimed, digging the documents out of his pockets.
Howards took the documents and said a spell that made them glow gold.
"Perfect!" Farley chimed in. "This will save us the time of having to go back and forth with those people."
Howards then said another spell that made them glow blue and duplicate. Harry wondered why they turned blue. All the documents he had dealt with today had glowed gold. Was there something wrong with them?
Seeing Harry frown, Farley began to explain what Howards was doing. "The gold glow means that a document is authentic and legally binding. When a document glows blue it means it is authentic but a copy. It is not the original or binding. We can open the copies to see what they say without breaking the seal on the originals. When it comes to wills, it allows us to see who the beneficiaries are so we can invite them to the reading."
Howards quickly looked through the documents and then the black book on the side of his desk. "I would like to hold the reading on Wednesday afternoon. Normally we would space things out more, but we need to get as much done as possible by September 1st. After that you will be at school and I'm sure the Goblins want to start on that basilisk as soon as possible. It has already been sitting down there for a few months."
Howards then moved on to Aurora's report. He gave a little jump as the parchment opened up and expanded. Frowning, he began to read. A few moments later he looked back up and gave Harry a concerned look before folding the parchment back up.
"I do believe we have taken up enough of your day Mr. Potter. If there is nothing else, I think we have enough to get us started." Howards said coming around his desk to give Harry's hand another shake.
"Before you leave, make sure you get all of our contact information from Rebecca. And if you would, please give her the names of everyone who was petrified last year. I want to thank you once again for choosing us Mr. Potter. I promise we will do right by you."
Harry was led back to Farley's office for a second time to pick the copy of his contract, their new client welcome packet, and wrote down the names of the petrified. Leaving Second Horizon, Harry headed straight for the Cauldron for a well deserved dinner and an early night.
Thank you for all of the reviews and favorites.
The story starts to pick up a little from here. Next Chapter Harry has his meeting with Madam Bones.
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