A matter of Law

2

An hour after Kyle Stanton had unshrunk his possessions and gotten them arranged to his liking, the Floo chimed for an incoming call. Wiping the dust from his hands with a rag, he answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Stanton, I've found some of the information you were looking for, sir," his assistant Deborah Parker began, "but the information is very difficult to see, almost as if someone obscured it somehow."

"Were Vernon and Petunia Dursley clients? Possibly the clients of one of the other partners in the firm?"

"No sir, but their names did appear in one of the files of two clients of the firm. I'm not able to open the file because of whatever is obscuring it. I was only able to find the names because I was looking for those particular names, not a specific file."

"Who were the clients, Deborah?" he asked. He needed to know if this could wait until he could go to the office tomorrow, or if he needed to handle this immediately.

"Vernon and Petunia Dursley are mentioned in one of the client files for James and Lily Potter, sir. But I don't know what is in the file itself."

After three breaths of silence, Kyle replied.

"Put on a pot of tea, Deborah. I'll be there momentarily."

He hoped he was wrong, as he quickly walked to the middle of his living room/lounge. If he wasn't, then the boy he'd seen being shaken was Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. Time was of the essence.

Concentrating hard, he turned on the spot, and apparated with a near silent pop.

When he walked into his office, he immediately went to the file cabinet, pulling out the drawer for clients whose names began with the letters M-P. Extracting a thick file labeled 'Potter, James Charlus and Potter, Lily Janet (Evans)', he sat down at his desk. Opening it to the summary page, which listed everything that should be contained in the file, there was one line that looked blurred. Investments, accounts, properties, business interests, all of those were clearly listed. After thinking a moment, Kyle realized what he couldn't clearly see on the list…the Last Will and Testament of James and Lily Potter.

"Deborah, are you busy at the moment?" he called to his assistant.

"No, sir, I was just about to go for a late lunch."

"Please get me the parchments to request information from the Probate office in the Ministry. After you do that, you can go to lunch. I'll even give you a few galleons to compensate you for the delay."

"I'll just be a moment sir," she said, walking to her desk. Less than five minutes later, she passed Kyle the requested parchment, and as promised he handed her five galleons.

"The Probate office closes at five, sir, so you may want to make sure you get there in time."

"Thank you, Deborah, I'll keep that in mind," he replied, noticing it was almost four.

After his assistant left, it took Kyle approximately fifteen minutes to fill out the request form. Leaving his office, he apparated to the Ministry, and after checking in with the Welcome Witch, went to the Probate office.

"Good afternoon," he began, seeing the elderly looking wizard at the desk.

"Good afternoon, how can I help you?"

As answer, Kyle handed over the parchment.

"Request for an official copy of a Last Will, eh?"

"Yes, I'm the solicitor of record, and I want to make sure there are no discrepancies in our copy. I'm sure you understand. Some of the old families change their wills so often the self-updating spells can't keep up."

"Well, let me look and see if there was a copy filed with us. Some families don't, or they forget to do so, which puts off any heirs claiming his or her inheritance."

"I'll wait. This is fairly important. There may be a lost heir involved, so I need to make sure all my nifflers are in a row."

"Quite all right, young man, quite all right. Now, according to this, it would have been written in either late 1980 or early to mid 1981. That tells me approximately where it should be; I should be back shortly."

Kyle had just begun to pace in front of the desk for the fifth time when the elderly wizard came back. The old gentleman handed Kyle a thin folder with a red stamp on the front. His tone was regretful.

"I'm sorry, young man, but this is all I could locate."

Looking down at the folder, Kyle was able to read what the stamp said:

"SEALED BY ORDER OF ALBUS PERCIVAL WULFRIC BRIAN DUMBLEDORE

Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards".

Looking over the rest of the folder, Kyle wasn't able to find an official stamp of the Minister of Magic, or the ICW. Which meant the will had been sealed illegally.

Kyle was beyond angry walking to the nearest Floo to leave. He couldn't shake the feeling that the magic used to seal the will had caused everyone who knew the will existed to either overlook it, or forget it existed entirely. And it might have worked indefinitely, had Kyle not recently met someone specifically mentioned in the will.

He'd already seen Vernon Dursley shaking a young boy. He needed to find a way to help him, and soon. And if that young boy was Harry Potter, the urgency was magnified.

It was time to make a call to Gringotts, and speak with the account manager for the Potters.