Harry Potter Morgendorffer: Helen Visits The Solicitor
Daria is the creation of Glenn Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own neither, and neither expect nor deserve financial compensation for this story. I am writing for my own amusement and for ego gratification.
What if Minerva McGonagall had been able to persuade Professor McGonagall to place baby Harry Potter with different blood relatives instead of with Petunia Dursley and her husband: the Morgendorffers from MTV's Daria?
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The next day was Sunday. The Goblins being Goblins, and most if not all of Gringott's human staff being pagans or non-believers, the Christian Sabbath was ignored. The conference formally ended on Sunday in mid-afternoon. Despite the fact that she was worn out from the conference, Helen and HJ did return to the hotel, changed, then caught a late-afternoon bus tour. It was well that the bus had a guide or HJ would have missed the significance of many of the sights; Helen dozed off several times. Despite her intention of using that evening to review her legal arguments for gaining control of HJ's estate, Helen was tired. She and HJ ate pub food for dinner, then Helen began to get ready for bed.
Her plans were interrupted by a telephone call from the front desk. Helen picked up the receiver and was told by the hotel's receptionist that she had a phone call from a Petunia Dursley and if she would like to accept it. Helen accepted the call, waved HJ over to the phone so he could say hello to his aunt. After attempting to get Helen to accept dinner on either Monday evening or Wednesday evening, Petunia grudgingly accepted Tuesday evening as a good time for the cousins to meet each other. They agreed on a place and a time in the City, and Helen hung up making good wishes and saying that she looked forward to seeing Petunia again. Despite her suspicion that this family reunion might be as bad as some of the family dinners she'd had with cousins in Virginia, she made it an early evening and went to bed.
On Monday morning, Helen rose early and began reviewing her notes and a brief she'd written demanding control of HJ's estate. Harry got up about an hour and a half later after she did. Despite the fact that he'd rested well and had gotten to watch a little television the previous evening, he was feeling a little cranky. The two of them ate a breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffet.
After breakfast, Helen grabbed her briefcase and she and HJ made their way to Diagon Alley. The Leaky Cauldron had a morning crowd of sellers as well as vendors and a couple of noisy caged chickens ran unwitting interference as Helen and HJ made their way to the brick wall that blocked off Diagon Alley from the Muggle world.
Once past the archway behind the Leaky Cauldron, Helen began looking more closely at some of the smaller signs that graced some of the two- and three-story half-timbered buildings that lined Diagon Alley. Helen knew that the Potter family's solicitors were somewhere between Gringotts and the Leaky Cauldron, but wasn't sure of the exact location. She'd even done a little preliminary scouting on her way to the Goblin conference. Her search proved mercifully brief: the office of Case and Scales was located on the second floor above a shop on Diagon Alley that sold magical widgets.
The door to the second floor was not on the front but on the side. Helen opened it and she and HJ found themselves facing a steep staircase with narrow steps. Helen thought of some elderly or handicapped witch, wizard, or Goblin trying to climb the stairs and frowned. This would get nixed by ADA in the States, she thought.
Someone had done a little remodeling; the entry to Case and Scales now featured a frosted glass door with the firm's name painted on it and a transom above the door. Since it was November, the transom was closed.
She opened the door. A bell tingled as she and HJ entered the office. She looked around the front room and saw that there were law books, parchments, and papers strewn all over the place. Helen gave it credit for looking like a very old-fashioned law office, but debits for there not being a clerk or receptionist out in front to greet potential clients
Helen waited for what she considered a decent time and then said "Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Coming, coming," said a male voice from a back room.
The solicitor came out to the front, an older man who looked to be about Helen's mother's age. From his looks, Helen guessed that he was a solicitor, not a secretary or a paralegal. He looked very Victorian, with a high-collared shirt, a plum waist-coat and an ascot around his neck instead of a necktie. "Good morning, Madam, I am Terrence Case. What can I do for you?" he said.
"Mr. Case, how do you do?" said Helen. "I'm Helen Barksdale Morgendorffer. I'm Harry Potter's legal guardian."
Mr. Chase looked at Helen skeptically. He'd gotten several letters from someone from Texas purporting to be The Boy Who Lived's guardian, but he didn't expected to ever deal with him or her himself. He didn't expect an impostor to come to his office, but wouldn't put it past a bold one to make an attempt.
"HJ, you can take off your lid," said Helen. HJ took off his baseball cap. To make sure that the old geezer got the picture, he thought.
Mr. Case's eyes widened. "My word," he said. He stared for a while at HJ. "You are Harry Potter."
He briefly turned his attention to Helen. "I didn't believe you at first, Madam, and I confess I gave little credence to those letters I'd gotten from Texas."
"Young Harry, I knew both of your parents while they were students at Hogwarts. I even met you once, before your mother and father went into hiding. You look so much like your father; although your eyes and nose look much like your mother's."
"Are you the Helen Barksdale Morgendorffer who works for Gringotts Southwest?" he asked.
"Yes," said Helen.
"I again apologize. I had thought that you were an impostor but I see that I was wrong."
"We can go to Gringotts if there is any remaining uncertainty," said Helen with a touch of tartness. Case was one of the people who'd given her the run-around.
To her satisfaction she saw that Mr. Case had the good grace to blush.
"I see a strong physical resemblance to Lily Potter," he said. "May I ask you what your relationship is to her?"
"I'm her great Aunt," said Helen.
"How is this possible?" asked Mr. Chase. "You aren't much older than Lily Potter would have been if she were still alive."
"My father had a brief affair with Lily's grandmother in 1939," said Helen. "Her daughter was Lily Evans' mother. My father married my mother in 1949. I was born in 1952."
Mr. Chase decided that the best course of action would be to put the cause for embarrassment behind them and then move on to business. "So what can we do for you, Madam?"
"I understand that you or your partners used to be the Potter family solicitors," said Helen.
"We were," said Mr. Case. "We handled the legal affairs for Fleamont Potter and then for James Potter until his death in 1981."
"What happened to the Potters' records?" asked Helen.
"Albus Dumbledore said that we were no longer working for the Potter estate and took custody of their legal records."
Helen scowled in strong disapproval.
More vapor trails, Helen thought angrily, and the old wizard seems to be the guy making them.
Well, Mr. Chase handled the Potters' affairs. If I can't get documents, I can find out what he knows.
"I know very little about the Potters, Mr. Chase," said Helen. "Professor Dumbledore has written me and told me a little about James and Lily, but I know very little about James' parents or his Potter aunts and uncles, if he has any. I'm sure that—Harry would also like to learn more about his parents and grandparents."
"Would you like that, Harry?" said Helen.
"Yeah," said Harry. The solicitor looked into Harry's eyes, saw so much of the boy's parents looking back at him, then gave in.
"Let's begin with your grandfather Fleamont," said Mr. Chase.
Helen learned that Fleamont Potter had been a wizard of independent means and a skilled potion-maker. He and his wife had had fertility problems and had only had James late. He was an only child.
Fleamont had developed a product called Sleekneeze, and after growing tired of the hassle and time-consumption of marketing it independently, had sold the formula to a wizarding hair-styling company.
"I'm going to have to see if I can get bottles of this stuff," said Helen. "I'd like to try this stuff myself and I know at least one of my daughters would be interested."
HJ tried to suppress a smirk and failed. He knew that while Quinn was wary of most wizarding products, she might bend the line on beauty products.
"I have read a couple of biographies of James and Lily Potter as well as accounts of the last days of the Wizarding War," said Helen. "One of the illustrations showed the cottage James and Lily were living in when they were murdered. Was that the main Potter mansion?"
"No," said Mr. Case. "That was a safe house. The main Potter mansion was about thirty miles distant."
"What is that house's status?" asked Helen. "Is it still owned by the Potter estate or has it been sold to someone else?"
"You know, I can't tell you," said Mr. Case.
"And that is because," Helen began quietly.
"As his magical legal guardian, Albus Dumbledore has custody of all the legal records," Mr. Chase finished for her.
This was too much, Helen thought. It was time to start making a ruckus. She knew that the Goblins still had the Potters' vaults at Gringotts and probably had the contents of those vaults, assuming everything was as legal and above-board as Professor Dumbledore would have her believe.
"You know, I practice law in the States for Gringotts Southwest," said Helen. "I'm bar-certifed not only for the No-Maj state and federal courts, but MACUSA's as well. In the course of my legal training, I've learned a thing or two about how property titles are registered and stored in the US and Canada. I'm sure it's different over here. Can you give me a run-down on how it's done here in magical Britain?"
Mr. Chase marveled at Madam Morgendorffer's surprising composure after having digested the news about the existence of the Potter mansion and grounds as well as her learning just how much she'd been left in the dark. HJ knew better, recognizing Mom's mood. He hoped that Mr. Chase was no legilimens; Mom was P.O'd. Nevertheless, Mr. Chase told her not only that such records were not only stored at Gringotts, but also at the Ministry. He also apologized and told just where in the Ministry such records were kept and how she could go about looking them up.
"One other thing, Mr. Chase," said Helen. "Back when you were managing James and Lily's financial affairs, you wouldn't know how many vaults they had at Gringotts, would you?"
"They had four, Madam," said Mr. Chase. "A trust vault for young Harry here, two Potter family vaults, and a separate vault for Lily Potter."
"I see," said Helen. She was going to take up the matter of the Potter vaults with Gringotts' senior management.
She made it a point to make a display of looking at her wrist watch to check the time.
"Oh, my," she said. "Time does fly. I'm afraid that we're going to have to get going."
"Mr. Chase, thank you very much for your time. This has been very illuminating. Harry and I have learned a lot, and I, for one, am so grateful for the chance to learn more about my great-niece and her husband."
"You're quite welcome, Madam," said Mr. Chase. "My pleasure."
He opened the door to his office and watched as Madam Morgendorffer and her charge went out the hall and down the stairs.
After he closed his office door and began working on those old records he had concerning that Rosier estate. Evan Rosier's estate was being sued for damages by some of his victims' survivors.
A stray thought came to him. Why was he thinking about sharks as he saw the back of Madam Morgendorffer heading for the staircase?