Destinies Collide

Agreements

"This could turn out to be incredibly complicated," Chang declared after a couple of minutes of contemplation.

Michael had refused to even entertain her question unless a binding non-disclosure agreement was signed, which took nearly an hour of back and forth and made him glad that he'd brought one of Harry's current reads along to entertain the boy, who was currently curled up on a couch near them and entirely entranced by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Only once the ink was dry on the signed paper did he start recounting the entire situation from the beginning to the older woman's bewilderment.

"I don't doubt it," Michael sighed.

"I hate to say it, but you might be competent enough to get through it," she added, looking decidedly disgruntled at the admission.

"Careful, I just might grow an ego," He can't help but quip sarcastically.

Michael and Ms Chang knew each other long enough not to take any jabs too seriously unless they were made during billable hours. From the moment he met the woman during his first year in Macfarlanes, she had insisted he was too soft and unfit to advise any company looking for a successful merger. They found themselves on opposite sides more often than not, even when working towards a common goal, but he liked to think he'd earned some of her respect over the years. Michael mostly worked as a solicitor in his firm, though he usually dabbled as a barrister for pro-bono cases and by request, while Chang usually worked on M&A and disputes and often made headlines that he preferred to avoid. Rivalry aside, he had a lot of respect for her, which only increased with the knowledge that she worked on the magical side of the law as well.

"If you grow any more I'll have to start looking up at you, so save me the effort," Chang huffed and Michael chuckled. She wasn't wrong, he was already half a foot taller than her.

Even the light-hearted joking couldn't quite break the tension in the room, and the older woman sighed, leaning forward on the desk to level him with a more serious look.

"You are currently less than a second-class citizen in the Wizarding World. I can expedite a Ministry registration, but Squibs are hardly granted as many liberties as full-blooded wixes in the eyes of our laws," she declared. He was disappointed, but not entirely surprised. "From what you've told me, the matter of Mr Potter's guardianship is completely bungled, but it's no use to pull on that thread without a viable magical guardian, which can't be you."

"I'll look further into family relations, there's got to be some alternative," he suggested, "worse comes to worst, we can draft up a deal for nominal guardianship with no power of attorney and pay someone to sign, wrap them so tight in NDAs that they'll sneeze small print."

The laugh that followed his sentence surprised both of them.

"I suppose you have grown up, haven't you?" Chang chuckled, shaking her head, "It's a possibility, but still leaves you open to ministry interference unless it's very particularly worded, so let's put it as a last resort."

"How should we proceed, then?" He can't help but ask, deferring to her superior knowledge of magical law.

"No one currently knows where Mr Potter is, at least according to every article written about him, so there's no immediate rush to solve everything at once," she pointed out, "Let's take care of your registry first, and I'll start looking into the issue of the wills while you try to track down any remaining family. We can go from there."

"Right," Michael nodded to himself, "thank you, Ms Chang."

"You'll be paying me, I'm not exactly doing this out of the kindness of my heart," she smirked and he shook his head in exasperation.