I own no part of the Harry Potter universe; I'm just playing.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
The next morning came far to early for Harry's liking. He stumbled to the kitchen and nearly fell face down in the plate his aunt set in front of him.
"Your grandmother was never a morning person either," Petunia chuckled, "I've always thought it to be the best part of the day."
"Is there coffee?" Harry mumbled.
"Not for teenagers. Now eat your breakfast and then a good shower should perk you right up."
Petunia proved to be right and she, along with a far more awake Harry, set off for the tube station.
"It really is more hassle than it's worth, keeping a car in the city," she responded when Harry asked why they weren't driving.
A short commute later found the pair in front of an imposing building.
"Come along, we mustn't dawdle, Mr. Dellon is waiting for us," Petunia said, pulling Harry along with her.
The pair was silent as they rode the elevator up, Petunia reviewing the day's agenda in her head and Harry nervously contemplating what might happen next. They soon stepped into a well-appointed waiting room and Petunia walked over to the reception desk, "Petunia Dursley and Harry Potter to see Mr. Dellon, please."
"Good morning Mrs. Dursley, Mr. Potter. Mr. Dellon is just on his way up, let me show you to his office," the receptionist smiled.
Harry sat down in the luxurious leather guest chair and tried not to fidget. Fortunately, Mr. Dellon soon joined the two and set straight to business.
"Mr. Potter, first allow me to offer my condolences on the recent loss of your godfather, I don't know how close you were given circumstances, but I realize this is a difficult time for you. Yes, I know about Mr. Blacks innocence, it was on the front page of the Prophet today," Mr. Dellon said, noticing the look of surprise on Harry's face. "I understand your Uncle has explained what will be happening here today and to let you know, I am a borderline squib. I never had enough magic to attend a school like Hogwarts but I went to one of the smaller London schools and specialize in family law in both the magical and Muggle worlds."
"Yes sir, and all the guardianship things sound good. I do have a few questions about how this will work legally in the Wizarding World, I think if Dumbledore really wants me to be sent somewhere, he'll just do it," answered Harry.
"I've done some checking into just that matter. You see, I can't access your parents' will unless you accompany me to Gringott's –we'll do that later today or at a future appointment- but matters of guardianship are handled by Child Services. It's one of the few departments that cross over between the Muggle and magical governments because of the number of Muggleborn and squib children they deal with. I looked into your records there and no guardian was ever assigned after your parents' death. They had appointed Sirius Black to be your Godfather, but provided no secondary guardian, which I find very odd given their visibility in the war. I don't know how Dumbledore got physical custody of you after the attack but I have my suspicions as to how he avoided your placement in a Wizarding home later."
"I know that Dumbledore had Hagrid, the groundskeeper at Hogwarts, get me from my parents house after the attack, before anyone else got there. Sirius arrived before we left and wanted to take me, but Hagrid told him Dumbledore had made arrangements," Harry informed him.
"I see, well it's a shame Black let you go, but I know most Hogwarts students wouldn't dream of standing up to Dumbledore," Mr. Dellon said. "I suspect that Dumbledore cast a low level avoidance charm on your file, it wouldn't prevent anyone from looking it up with a reason, as I did, but would discourage people from browsing out of curiosity. I believe he hoped that no one would think to check that he didn't have authority to take guardianship of you and that by the time someone did check, he could argue that the Dursley's were your only biological family and could best care for you. The Ministry has a policy of leaving children with family whenever possible and Dumbledore has been rather vocal about the protections that living with your family provides. Now, if Dumbledore tries to counteract the arrangements we make today, he'll be in for a surprise. We aren't contesting your guardianship, simply making it legal and official, so he can't oppose that and defend his decision to leave you there. In fact, he'll be in for a bit of embarrassment should it come out that he just left you on the doorstep. Didn't bother to ring the bell, much less go through proper channels. The things we are setting in place largely concern the Potter Estate and if he wanted any say in that he should have had himself named guardian."
"Well, I'm glad he didn't," said Harry. "He meddles enough without any legal right."
"He certainly does. Some of the documents we will be going over today are various restraining orders. Against Dumbledore, preventing him from overstepping his bounds has your headmaster; against the papers, preventing them from printing anything against you that isn't common provable knowledge-if you are seen in a store they can report that, they can't speculate or approach you and anything they wish to ask must be routed to my office for an official statement, usually 'no comment' unless you want to address something. I am certain Dumbledore is currently diverting your mail, the Ministry will assure that changes and our office has a department to deal with dangerous mail and take appropriate action against those that would harm you. We have dealt with several high profile orphans since the last war and have procedures in place. I have prepared lawsuits against the Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly and the Ministry, but would recommend holding those in reserve in case the restraining orders aren't enough. As for the Ministry, given recent events, the Minister is quite eager to work with you and keep you happy."
"That all sounds good," Harry agreed.
The rest of the morning was spent going over the various papers and orders and signing numerous documents.
"Well Mr. Potter, that was the last paper, I'll file all these with the proper offices and have a set sent out to your residence along with an updated National Health Card and ID papers. You'll need to have a new picture taken for you ID card and Passport; I've put a rush on the Passport given that you will be moving out of the country. Let's just set up an appointment to go to Gringott's and start getting all that in order and we'll be done for the day."
"Um, I start school next week, so we should meet this week if that's okay with you," Harry said uncertainly.
"That would be fine, how's Thursday sound to you?" Mr. Dellon asked.
"I think that would work, is that okay Aunt Petunia?"
"That would be just fine, Harry," answered Petunia.
"Alright, Thursday at 9am, lets met in the Leaky Cauldron so we can get right to it." Mr. Dellon marked the date down on his calendar. "You both have a good afternoon, it's been a pleasure working with you."
"Good day Mr. Dellon," Petunia said.
"Yes, good day and thank you so much," Harry said as they left the office.
"Well, that went very well," said Petunia," now let's get some lunch and then we have a bit more shopping to do."