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The Bat Returns From Hell
- Chapter 4: The Settlement
The still young man opened the door to the whitewashed, one-storey house in the woods on the outskirts of the little town of Godric's Hollow. He looked the distinguished, older man on his stoop up and down, as he took a step back to allow him to enter
"Hello Blackie, glad you could make the trip," Harry Potter greeted his long-time solicitor and the closest thing he had left to personal counsellor. "Now tell me something that only you would know about me."
"Umm" … the pinstripe clad man thought for a second. "That little glitch in that Muggle algorithm that Hermione Granger fixed just before she left made you an awful lot of money…."
"Well, I don't know if that will do," Harry said thoughtfully. "Hermione knows all about that, and Dennis did, too."
"One's been gone for nine years and the other's dead, Harry," Blackie Howe, parried. "I think that right well qualifies."
"Oh, Hell, sure it does," Harry said with a mirthless laugh. "Come in and tell me if I'll be parting with an even larger amount."
"That depends on whether you agree to the terms I've worked out or whether you'd rather run the gauntlet of extended litigation. I'm confident you'll prevail in the end. After all, you weren't the one throwing her out."
"But I knew," Harry smiled sadly. "I knew what had gone on, and I never told her. I deserved her showing me the door."
"Yes, you knew what had transpired, but not what it meant, Harry." We've been over and over this. As your counsellor, I'm telling you that's your position. "Nobody did. Not until Molly got sick."
"And I'm telling you as a friend, that I damn sure did appreciate it - and even before nine-eleven," Harry said with squared jaw. "I just couldn't admit, even to myself, how badly I'd cocked everything up. That's why I think I'm ready to do this and get it over with."
"It's an awful, awful lot of money, Harry," Howe reminded him.
"I grew up with nothing; I found the best friends in the world with nothing, and with all the money in the world - I bollixed the lot of it royally," Harry smiled ruefully as he slumped into a chair and willed a cool glass of pumpkin juice to appear in his other hand. "Besides, I'm sure she'll use it well - set up more orphanages with it, or something…."
"It wasn't your doing, Harry - it all goes back to Voldemort. If you hadn't destroyed him…, well nothing else would have been possible." Howe knew he sounded like a broken record.
"But there was another way to do that," Harry reminisced. "The missing Horcrux was staring us in the face all the time. It melted half the trophy case when it disintegrated after I'd done the deed - so to speak. Hah, hah, hah." Harry shook his head with every feigned laugh.
"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, Harry," the solicitor replied.
"Okay, but even putting that aside…," Harry continued. Howe let him ramble. After all, he had heard all this from his young client many times before. "…There was still another way. I suggested it, but she wouldn't hear of it. It would have hacked Ron off, but at least the blighter wouldn't have died that night if he'd sulked in a tent someplace."
"Are you sure you still could have done it, without all three of you present?" Howe questioned.
"Not a doubt in my mind," Harry fiercely reaffirmed. "Probably would have been a lot quicker - and certainly cleaner, without the Lynch to Moran to Mullet aspect of it. She was too damn honourable; always was, that woman."
"You were honourable, too," Howe added. "Even more so, since to this day we'll never know whether she really did it because she thought you needed the extra edge…."
"It doesn't matter now - and I love Molly with all my heart…. Oh, I needed an extra edge all right," Harry admitted, wiping his brow with his left hand. "Just not that one. It's because of all those edges that we're here - ready to slice my fortune in half…. So I gather she's agreed?"
They were down to business. "In principle, yes." Howe affirmed.
"I get primary custody of Molly, and the right to control her magical education and upbringing?" Harry asked.
"Agreed to," Howe told him, while looking at the notes he had fished from his attaché case. "And she gets two months a year, and two weekends a month, as her right - and whatever more the two of you agree upon at any particular moment."
"Of course," Harry replied. "That didn't even need to be in there. I'd never keep her from Molly - she loves her too, I know that…"
"Better safe than sorry, Harry," Howe responded. "It's better to have and not need, than to need and not have. I even agree with Beasley on that."
"All right," Harry conceded. "It's just…. Well, to me it implies that I'm untrustworthy. Anyway, I get to amend the Muggle birth certificate and the birthing talisman to update the parental information?"
"The talisman, yes." Howe affirmed. "As for the Muggles, I'm not sure they'll know what to make of the request. There will be no legal opposition, however."
"I get the right to change Molly's middle name to whatever I please?" Harry asked.
"Oddly, that little demand was the hardest, but yes, Beasley conceded it yesterday," Howe remarked. "Frankly, I think your ex knows what you have in mind."
"And, of course, I get the divorce?" Harry finished with his terms.
"Actually, she's consented to an annulment," Howe informed his client. "That way it's as if the marriage never happened at all. That's how she thinks it should be. She believes that you never really loved her in the first place, and that you simply did the honourable thing."
"She's wrong about that," Harry remarked. "She's right about everything else, but wrong on that. I did love her. I'll always love her in a way. I just could never love her … in the way a husband is supposed to love a wife. It was a mistake - an honourable mistake, but the worst I've ever made. And now I'm going to make it right."
"Will this make it right?" Howe asked, more rhetorically than anything else.
"No, but it's a necessary first step."
Howe got out the papers. "Before we do this, I think we should go over not only your terms, but hers as well…."
"All right, but they're only money, right?" Harry sighed.
"Not entirely," Howe reminded him. "Remember, there's the stipulation that all the Black Estate's house-elves must be manumitted upon her death, if not freed before that point."
"Right, I'd forgotten that one," Harry admitted. "Okay, go through them."
"She gets all the real property and the magical assets that comprise what once was the estate of Sirius Black," Howe started.
"Good riddance to it," Harry spat. "Except that doesn't include the bank shares, right?"
"That's correct, Harry," Howe confirmed. "It's the next item. You will retain, pursuant to your codicil to the Goblin Treaty of 1996, the six blocking shares in Gringotts' bank. You also keep the motorcycle."
"All right, next," Harry said.
"She gets one-half of your interest in the Muggle Google Corporation - a one-sixth interest in the whole - that being the half you put up as bounty after nine-eleven for anyone who provided you with information leading to your reuniting with the Granger girl…."
"She's a woman now, remember that," Harry reminded. "Ginny understands that she can't get the other half of that interest?"
"I've explained that you have put it in irrevocable trust for the benefit of the Granger … er … woman, and she accepts that."
"Good riddance to that, too," Harry agreed. "I've concluded that Tonks and everyone else were right, anyway. The bounty never worked…. Just drove her deeper. Another blasted mistake."
"We all make them," Howe commented vaguely. He agreed wholeheartedly with those sentiments, and had tried to stop him then - but his client could be headstrong, especially when the subject was Hermione Granger.
"Those Muggles wouldn't have been anything if she hadn't fixed their glitch; she deserves the benefit," Harry said flatly.
Howe ignored that comment as he continued ticking items off. "She gets one half of your one-third of the book royalties on the Rowling series…."
"With Ron's family getting one-third, one-third in trust for Hermione, and the last sixth to me," Harry added.
"Correct," Howe affirmed. "And finally, she relinquishes all right, title, and interest in the Potter inheritance, the minor trusts and life estate bequests, and the supplemental list of other Muggle assets."
Harry made a hand motion, and a quill shot from his desk into his hand. He had it poised above the documents that would finalize his divorce - no annulment - from Ginevra Weasley Potter. He let out a breath he had very consciously been holding and brought the quill down to his side. He looked over to his long-time solicitor.
"Any more news about the recent sighting?" he asked.
"Do you really want to discuss that before you've signed those papers?" Howe replied.
"Yes," he said. "It might affect my willingness to sign. If it's as hopeless as it seemed until recently, I might fight her original divorce demand."
"Harry, I don't want to go into this until the papers are finalized because I don't want you thinking I'm trying to increase my firm's fees…."
That little speech brought a very thoughtful look to Harry's face. "Go on," he demanded, "get to the bloody point. Is there something there?"
"Yes," Howe told him. That news produced the first real smile he had seen on his client's face in quite some time. "It wasn't just a sighting. It was an intentional contact. I don't know why, but she wanted a copy of the Book Six Rowling manuscript. She contacted my office through the Auror Nymphadora Tonks. Auror Tonks produced a legally valid proxy, so I turned over the manuscript. As you no doubt understand, Auror Tonks was extremely circumspect in her dealings with me. She did, however, accept use of one of my overseas owls, as apparently there was some urgency to the matter, and my owls are quite a bit faster than what the Ministry has on hand. Her spellwork was good, but not perfect. I engaged one of my services, and determined that a delivery was made somewhere in New York City - that's in the United…."
"I know where bleeping New York City is," Harry cut him off. "I once Apparated there from halfway around the world … remember?" Howe said nothing, and heard the scratching of quill upon parchment. He turned and saw Harry frantically signing everything he could lay his hands on that had one of the D'Israeli firm's sticky arrows. His eyes shone with intensity that the solicitor had not seen since Healer Huxley's announcement that Molly was out of danger and would make a complete recovery.
"She's been in contact with Tonks," Harry declared as he collected the papers and handed them to Howe. "I always suspected that those two kept some means of communication. Do you think Tonks told her about Molly? Merlin, I hope so."
"I have no idea, although I recommended it," Howe told him. "I told her that Miss Granger deserved to know - for her own sake, not yours."
"You're a genius, you know that?" Harry chirped as he grabbed a traveling cape. "That's exactly the line that Tonks would buy. I'm going over there…."
"Do you think it wise?" Howe cautioned. "I don't know if she'll talk to you about this. Money won't buy her, you know."
"Money never bought Hermione either," Harry replied quickly. "She'll talk to me all right. She has to. I need to set up a play date with Tommy for Molly anyway. They'll be going to Hogwarts together in a couple of years, and it's quite likely that they'll eventually be Head Boy and Girl, so it's a good idea for them to get to know each other. That'll get my foot in the door. After that, I'll just have to do what comes naturally."
- 7 -
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\HP & The Fifth Element.Bat from Hell Ch 4 Settlement.doc.doc 12/28/06
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