2023-11-20 04:08:44
Chapter Twenty-Four: A Good Lawyer is Hard to Find
Lawrence Bartleby was that rare man of many, many talents. He was a certified and chartered accountant; he was a certified actuary; and in case he had nothing else to do, he was also a licensed corporate attorney.
His wife was, unbeknownst to him, the daughter of a wizard (one he never met, and more sinister, one his mother had no memory of). Although she herself was not magical, all three of her now adult children were, so she was aware of the magical world. Furthermore, due to his credentials and great competence, he was hired by the Ministry of Magic to do an audit of Gringott’s properties after the first war with Voldemort.
Due to his relationship with the wizarding world, he knew about Harry Potter, but not much about him. His children assured him that Potter was quite famous and, due to his own exploits, well thought of by many. He also died, more than once it seems, although evidently his deaths did not last long.
So when Bartleby received an OWL through his Diagon Alley satellite office from the one and only Harry Potter asking him to audit his Gringott’s accounts, Bartleby decided to accept the commission. After all, given the absurd exchange rate the goblin thieves were offering, a galleon was worth twelve pounds, so 50 galleons were equivalent to 600 pounds.
The beads were not the largest he had seen in the Wizarding World, but they were strangely moving when he and his granddaughter/assistant presented their signed contract and the key to the Goblins. He allowed her granddaughter, who she herself was boarding before continuing her own Muggle education in law, to count money while she inventoried the other items, being very careful not to touch anything that looked the least bit suspicious. Not being magical himself, he had to depend on his granddaughter if she needed magic.
What he saw was the contents of a once loving home destroyed by violence. Photos, furniture, personal belongings for the Potters, and many other items bore silent testimony to the tragedy of Harry Potter’s youth. But then they got to the heart of the matter—Potter’s financial situation.
He was surprised to discover that the Potters, through Lily’s father, had quite a bit of Muggle stock in various companies. The money from this action was not going to Gringotts, but instead appeared to be directed to a trust fund managed by the Bank of London.
Finally, he wrote a full summary of his cash holdings (203,456 galleons, 123,000 sickles, 5,463 knuts, for a total value of 210,702 galleons), or at the ridiculously undervalued exchange rate, £1,053,510. Non-cash holdings, in the form of real estate, rental income and shares actually made up the majority of Potter’s portfolio, totaling more than £2,540,234.
After a discreet investigation at the Bank of London, Bartleby discovered that the trust in which the profits from Potter’s shares were deposited also contained the dwindling but viable fortune of Walter Evans, co-founder of Grunning’s Drills. The fortune had been sitting in a trust with no primary beneficiary since the death of the Dursley family. While Harry was eligible to receive him as a grandson of Walter Evans, the Dursleys never mentioned him as such, and the Potters were at the time in hiding.
Acting as Harry’s power of attorney, Bartleby was able to provide enough evidence for Harry to be listed as the sole beneficiary of the Evans Trust, easily adding another million pounds to his portfolio, along with Evans’ shares in Grunnings. Bartleby strongly suspected that Vernon Dursley’s marriage to Evans’ eldest daughter was what led to his high-ranking position in the company.
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