The article about my parentage, the reveal of the attackers at the finals being Death Eaters, the interview with Rita Skeeter, the start of the school year, the first horcrux and the consequences of dealing with it, my bashing of Draco and Snape, the search for a permanent Potions tutor, starting the process of becoming an animagus in earnest, the attention of the many witches at the lake, finding that Raven Clan stone slab, Professor Lupin's offer to mediate between Harry and I, my continued training under Flitwick...
This new school year started hectic.
So it was that I was feeling a bit of whiplash when Flitwick dragged me out of the Great Hall at breakfast to introduce me to my tutor in magical law on Saturday.
"You'll like him. He's a bit of an oddball, but a tenacious lawyer just starting out. He's a new hire at Ted Tonks' firm 'Grundig, Smith & Tonks', and his caseload is not yet big enough. Ted told me to give him something to do, and since the young man still owed me a favor, he's going to be tutoring you. You're going to start with everything you need to know about your blood and what you're owed," Flitwick explained and told me to sit in a study next to his office as he went to pick up my tutor.
I browsed a few books inside since they seemed to be from Flitwick's personal collection. I spotted a few tomes in Gobbledygook, the language of the goblins. I didn't understand it, much less read it, but I recognized the characters.
"Now now, Louis. I told you that he is a bright student with many legal problems. I assure you this task is not beneath you," Flitwick extolled from outside the door. It seemed my tutor needed some more convincing.
Moments later, the professor dragged a slightly pudgy man inside the study who was barely two heads taller than the resident Charms master. The young man in his early to mid 20s seemed to be... pouting?
"Ted said he'd give me a huge case so I didn't really mind doing him a favor, but I'm not about to bestow my hard earned legal expertise in long drawn out lessons to some random shmuck who came into a few galleons and suddenly thinks he is some long lost pureblood lord on the likes of Merlin," the man countered in a whiny tone.
"I'm many things, but I assure you I am not delusional," I offered as I regarded the stocky wizard who slowly looked like he recognized me.
"You're that dueling prodigy Professor Flitwick taught?" The man stated more than asked as he looked me up and down as if to assess my worth.
"And he has been attacked, Crucio'd, maligned, humiliated, unfairly treated and otherwise disadvantaged many times since joining the magical world one year ago. I've decided to arrange for someone to tutor him after he was made to spend the night in a Ministry holding cell without his wand after fighting off four hitwizards in his own room at an inn," Flitwick explained.
"That's dragon dung! As a minor there's no way they are allowed to do that without contacting his legal guardian or his head of house if he's a Hogwarts student and no legal guardian worth his salt would ever allow that to happen unless they are actively dying at St Mungo's," the young lawyer breathed out almost in one breath, clearly appalled at my mistreatment at the end of last school year after the attack at the Hogsmeade inn.
"And they still went ahead and did just that because Talion here was not aware of his rights and did not make a big enough stink when the aurors decided to collect him for 'questioning'. Though, Talion has since been emancipated as a result with Ted as his legal advisor," Flitwick countered with a sneer.
"Tell me who your parents are and how you were raised before Hogwarts," the man ordered as he sat down, and Flitwick gave me a wave in return and left the room. He didn't even bother introducing himself, but his intensity told me to comply.
"Uh, hi. Talion Macnair. My mother is Selena Macnair, daughter of Walden and Cassandra Macnair née Gamp. My father, out of wedlock, assaulted my mother with the express permission of my late grandfather to impregnate Selena. His name is Rabastan Lestrange. I don't care to find out who his parents are. I spent the first fourteen years of my life in a muggle orphanage in London. According to the matron, I had been there since I was but a few days old," I explained as concisely as I could.
The man in front of me, whose name I didn't know, allowed me to finish as he had a dict-a-quill take notes for him. He re-read those notes with narrowed eyes until he looked at me and said, "The Macnair family does not have an active seat in the Wizengamot. But both the Gamp and the Lestrange families have them, though they are currently under proxy. The Lestrange seat used to be part of the Malfoy voting block under the Goyle family, but that changed when Lord Sirius Black took back the Black seat. Now, the Lestrange seat is under Lucius Malfoy once more as he has a better claim since his wife is the sister of the current head of House Lestrange, Rudolphus Lestrange, your uncle. Do you understand that?"
I nodded with furrowed brows. That was hardly news for me.
"Good. If I were to sit you down in the Wizengamot and tell you where to sit, where would you choose to sit?"
'Uhhh, what? I mean, among the grey faction? Is that what he wants to hear?'
With an unsure look, I more asked than stated, "I guess I'd wait to be seated?"
The wizard shook his head with a small frown and explained, "Won't work. You'd not be allowed to sit. You're currently not an heir or a lord despite your noble blood. At best, you'd be allowed to sit with the common folk if the session has something to do with you. Matters of heirship are handled by the goblins if the incumbent head of house is dead or otherwise occupied with no suitable regent available. Do you know why?"
'This one, I did know.'
"One of the many concessions wizardkind granted the goblins as appeasement after one of the many wars between goblins and wizards," I explained and hoped I was right.
"Ragnuk the second. In my opinion, the goblin who did the second most damage to wizards and witches ever. Only Boggruk, eighth of his name, did more when he made galleons, sickles, and knuts into the global wizarding currency by somehow tying the magical contract to the newly formed ICW while the nation of Gringotts was made the only bank in the world allowed to mint new coin. But this is a lesson on your rights, not macro economy," the wizard explained with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Now. Your status as an heir to a noble house."
"I do not wish to become the next head of the Lestrange family," I countered as I held up my hand to stop the man.
"That's okay. The Lestranges have a regent and Lucius Malfoy guarding the inheritence. I doubt you'd get through them unless you're on good terms with Malfoy?"
I quickly shook my head and offered, "Close to a blood feud, actually."
"Oh my. Blood feuds will be a topic for the next lesson then," the wizard said with a weirded out expression.
"That's fine. I'm at school, can't go ahead and throw the gauntlet at a pureblood lord, now can I?"
"You... can. But more on that later. The Gamp lordship. Do you have a relationship to any living Gamps or Lord Ogden?"
I nodded and explained, "My grandmother's younger sister and her daughter, Bella and Gemma Farley. I have not seen or otherwise interacted with Lord Ogden or his wife, though."
"Another feud, or are you actually on good terms with Bella Farley?"
With a wry smile, I answered, "She does like me. But her husband..."
"Don't say anymore. Your great-aunt is enough. Are you interested in gaining the Gamp seat in the Wizengamot? Many people would be. You'd gain quite a bit of political clout and influence," the lawyer offered in an enticing voice.
"Since it would inconvenience Malfoy, yes. Yes, I think I would like to take it. But that depends entirely on the responsibilities to observe and oaths I'd have to swear," I confirmed.
Looking at his notes for another short moment, the man nodded and explained, "Then he's here what you need to know..."
The ways to gain the rights to inherit a house were more complicated than I thought, yet at the same time... much less puzzling than I feared. Since there were living relatives, I needed them to vouch for me. Then, I needed to file for a blood inheritence test that needed to be observed by either the relative or the proxy of the house, Lord Ogden.
Then, it came to the weird name inheritence. I could take on the name and be known as Talion Gamp henceforth if my claim withstood scrutiny. But I could also become Lord Gamp without taking the name and still be Talion Macnair outside of official matters. That made some sense for those nobles who are lords of ancient houses but at the same time also lords of many minor houses. That happened less often than I thought, but there was an example sleeping in the same room as me.
Sirius made Harry the Black heir. In the future, he'd be Lord Harry Potter, but also Lord Black unless Sirius still fathered children of his own and changed his mind.
"Now, any more questions on inheritence?" The wizard who had still not introduced himself asked after an hour long explanation on weird archaic wizarding law.
"If I wanted to get compensation for my mother's unjustified death and laid the claim at the feet of the Lestrange family, could I do that?"
"You mean as a way to cut all ties with the family or an actual criminal case?"
I pondered the difference and why he asked it like that, and eventually decided, "To cut the ties? I know it isn't the smartest decision, but I want to get ahead in life despite my father not because of him. I'd rather not become Lord Lestrange if it meant acknowledging him as a parent."
Drumming his fingers on the table, the lawyer looked at me with narrowed eyes, scoffed for a short moment, and then revealed, "That's mighty stupid of you. If you play your cards right and your father, uncle, and aunt die in Azkaban in a few years, you'd get the entire house uncontested unless he fathered another bastard and Rudolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange have a child hidden away somewhere. Both Rabastan and Rudolphus are the only male heirs left to my knowledge. No distant cousin could ever argue a better claim on the house and all its riches and influence."
"Could I ask for the three to be executed instead of rotting away in Azkaban further to speed up the process?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. If canon still wasn't changed sufficiently or if I did something to speed up the process in the future, I knew those three would get out of Azkaban in a few years at most. Personally, I didn't care to meet any of them. I wouldn't lose any sleep of causing them an early death.
"You could. But that would trigger a patricide clause, and you might lose your claim to the current regent, Lord Malfoy," the lawyer countered.
"And if I get someone else to ask for their execution? Like Heir Longbottom, for example?"
That got the pudgy wizard to perk up as he pondered all that came with it until his eyes widened for a moment, and he shook his head.
"Nope, sorry. I seem to remember that this set of laws is enforced by magic. So unless you can trick magic itself, you'd get caught in the clause and be listed as a co-conspirator in the Book of Lords. A mighty artifact said to be enchanted by Merlin himself," he explained with a sullen frown.
"In that case, I stand by my choice... I think," I affirmed, though I wasn't entirely sure.
Prinicples and honor were important, but power was much more important. Nothing is true, and everything is permitted. There was a chance that I would still need to change my mind - possibly out of necessity.
"With your father in Azkaban, you could ask for compensation due to the circumstances of your birth. But it would forever stop any claim you could make to the Lestrange lordship like I previously explained. Think of the opposite of a magically binding blood adoption. Are you looking for galleons or...?"
"Could I ask for items from their vaults?" I asked as I thought about the Hufflepuff cup horcrux.
"Certainly. Is there something you're specifically looking for?" He asked with furrowed brows.
"Indeed, and I think I know which of their many vaults it should be inside," I affirmed.
"I could look into any other possibilities for you reclaiming a specific item without choosing the... nuclear option, as muggles would put it."
"Thank you. By the way, I never caught your name?" I put forth with a sheepish grin as the man stood up and collected his notes.
"My mistake, Mister Macnair. Louis Limm, soon-to-be greatest law wizard on these isles, I reckon. At your service," Limm offered with a somewhat theatrical bow.
"Greetings, Solicitor Limm. Uh, same time next week?"
"Indeed. This has been much more enjoyable than I thought. I feared you'd bore me with boring questions, but your life was anything but boring thus far. Anything you do provides a clear challenge. Though not technically out there, filing for your Gamp heirship and subsequent lordship will be one of the biggest things I've done since graduation."
I smiled as I shook the man's hand. He originally came off as standoffish and crass, but it seemed he warmed up to me because of the challenges I was facing. I could get used to having a lawyer of his... intensity.
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[POV change 3rd person, infirmary]
"Still no word from Albus?" Poppy asked as she looked at the portrait in her office. As a respected healer and even founder of St Mungo's, Dilys Derwent's portrait frame hung not only in the headmaster's office, but also in the personal office of Hogwarts' resident healer and the personal office of the head healer of the magical hospital St Mungo's she created. The benelovent headmistress loved providing aid by hopping from portrait to portrait. And though no major breakthroughs except for the wolfsbane potion happened since her death, Derwent loved hearing about special cases and how they were resolved.
If the learning ability of a portrait wasn't as limited as it was, Derwent's portrait would have likely become the greatest diagnostician and spellcrafter for curses and magical maladies in the world. But since she was a mere portrait, she could mostly only offer help by pointing out the - well, to her - obvious and act as a means of secure communication between Hogwarts' infirmary and the head healer of St Mungo's.
This resulted in Derwent having saved quite a few lives over the roughly two centuries since her death, and the portrait soul fragment that controlled the pseudo mind of the witch relished being able to help.
But on this day, Derwent's minor conscience loathed its own bindings. The oaths to help a headmaster and keep their secrets trumped anything else a magical portrait of a headmaster had sworn in their time - even the healer's oath to do no harm and to always help.
Derwent could not help, even as much as she truly wanted to.
She appeared in the portrait frame in the hospital wing and regarded the healer in front of her with a fond yet strained smile.
"He has not. Albus said he would take it up with the board to see if a suitable potion master or mistress can be arranged to placate young Macnair," Derwent retold but left the last part unsaid, 'Someone to keep the boy in check and keep an eye on him. Someone with the moral ambiguity to potion a young man against his will if Albus can't help it.'