"It takes forever," Barchoke groused.
"And it legitimizes this claim of guardianship," Lichfield explained. "By claiming they were a bad guardian we're still recognizing their status as a guardian. With them recognized as your guardian, even minimally, it immunizes Gringotts from any liability and leaves that guardian and Gropegold as the sole persons responsible for what happened and may end up limiting how much you're able to get back of what they stole from you."
"So if they already wasted all of the money they stole I'm not likely to get anything back," Harry summed up.
"Exactly."
"Wonderful," Harry said, silently cursing this shadowy guardian. Just because he never cared about having the money before doesn't mean he wanted it stolen.
"There are some within Gringotts who would prefer you take this option-"
"-But you two don't?" Harry interjected, looking at Barchoke.
"I may not like Gringotts being seen in a bad light," the goblin said, "but what Lester's saying makes a lot of sense. Plus," the Overseer leafed through the files in front of him, "from what I'm seeing there are some pretty big fish out there to catch with this. But it will take time," Barchoke said meaningfully.
"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," Lichfield grumped. "Your youth will be an obstacle for us either way, but with this being a purely civil matter we have all of Gringotts behind us - or rather, in front of us, providing a very nice cover for our joint investigation. As your litigator what I would suggest, and the Overseer here agrees, is we handle this as a case of ward abandonment and let Gringotts pursue this would-be guardian for bank fraud."
"Why bank fraud?" Harry asked.
"Because if this guardian got you, already intending to abandon you, then an easy case can be made that he was never really your guardian at all."
"And if they were never your guardian-," the Overseer prompted.
"-Then they had no right to administer your account and ten years of transactions and transfers go up in smoke," the litigator waved his hand as if wafting away a breeze.
"So what exactly would that mean for me?" Harry asked.
"What bank fraud means for you is that you're back in black."
Harry looked at him quizzically.
"It means all your money goes back to the way it should have been," Barchoke said, seemingly engrossed in the transfer orders.
"Just like that?" Harry asked, wondering what the catch was.
"Just like that," Lichfield said.
"Not just like that," the goblin said sharply.
Lichfield moved to explain.
"Gringotts honors its account security when it comes to fraud-"
"Gringotts is required to honor its account security when it comes to fraud-," the Overseer grumped.
"Do you want to do this yourself or do you want piddle with your papers?"
The Overseer gave him a chagrined look and silently backpedaled into piddling.
"By Ministry banking law Gringotts is required-," Lichfield shot Barchoke a look, "-to honor its account security when it comes to fraud. The law was designed to stop Gringotts, or any affiliated goblin, from defrauding the public for their own gain. Your accounts are insured so your losses are reversed and all the debt incurred becomes the property of Gringotts."
"Why would who owns the debt be important?" Harry asked.
This time it was the litigator who looked wary.
"Let's just say it's never good to owe a bank," Lichfield said, carefully not looking anywhere near the Overseer.
"Especially not a goblin bank," Barchoke interjected, now safely beyond rebuke.
"Right," Harry said to fill the tense silence that followed.
"So when it comes to finding this guardian," Lichfield said, choosing to address the least scary topic raised so far. "As it stands right now, I can see three ways of going about it. The first is Gropegold; we've got him safely stashed away. He'll be facing goblin justice soon anyway so the only hope he has is giving up his accomplice-"
"-And even then he won't get much," the Overseer pronounced.
"Our second avenue of inquiry is these Dursleys."
Harry made a disgusted look, already seeing where this was going.
"Now I'm not gonna say I like it," Lichfield said quickly. "Or even that I'm suggesting it. I'm simply saying that bringing civil or criminal charges in the wizarding world against muggles is almost impossible and it'll bring all sorts of attention I'm sure you don't want, while bringing those same charges in the muggle world threatens the Statute of Secrecy. We can't even arrange for anything unfortunate to happen to them without breaking a dozen anti-muggle persecution laws ourselves."
"But they don't know that," Harry said quietly.
"They may not know that," Lichfield corrected him. "And even if they don't the only leverage we'd gain on them is for information in exchange for leaving them alone."
Lichfield let the silence linger.
"And this third option?" Harry asked.
"We do nothing."
Harry looked up at him.
"We've already closed down their access to Gropegold," Lichfield explained. "The rest of your account is easy enough to put under seal so they can't possibly touch it. We pinch them in the pocket book and eventually they'll turn up."
"That's not to say we'll give up on Gropegold," Barchoke said. "Not by any means. It just means if he doesn't talk we can still find this guardian."
"We'll just be a little flat-footed when they show up and if they're suitably important-"
"-And it looks like they are-"
"-Then they may catch us with our pants down before we're ready to display what we've got."
"So what do we need in order to get ready?" Harry asked.
"The first order of business is to deal with that youth issue," Lichfield said.
"Second order," Barchoke corrected him. "First order is getting him out of that house and into our world."
"You mean away from the Dursleys?" Harry asked, looking from one to the other, hopes rising for the first time. "You mean never going back?"
"We mean never ever going back," Lichfield agreed.
.....
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