Grimmauld Place

[o_caipora]

No: HPFGUIDX 76234

Think of entailment as a "permanent sticking spell" for property. A 
legal way of insuring it doesn't leave the family. 

<president0084 at y...> wrote:

> > If Sirius was on the run from the MOM so how did it come about 
> > that he inherited the house? 

"kiricat2001" <Zarleycat at a...> wrote:

> A possible explanation was posted recently dealing with the the 
> concept of entailment.  This is not mine - I'm merely passing along 
> what I remember. 

That was me. Essentially, the argument is: Sirius's parent's disliked 
him enough to blast him from the tapestry, but still left him the 
house. Why? Maybe they were left the house under the terms of wills 
that insisted they leave it to their eldest. 

If they were powerless to alter the terms, Sirius too might not be 
entirely free to will the property to whom he wished. 

As a meta-argument, entailment is a common plot device in the sort of 
books Rowling is likely to have read. From what we've been told, the 
heir is clearly Draco, and that's too strange to be a coincidence.

Someone else asked IIRC, How does the heir get into Grimmauld Place? 
How did Sirius get in? Is there some magic?

Note the first description of the door to Grimmauld Place: "Its plack 
paint was shabby and scratched. The silver door knocker was in the 
form of a twisted serpent. There was no keyhole or letter box."

On page 77, we read of "...Tonks at the front door, magically sealing 
its many locks and bolts behind those who had just left."

The doorbell [not knocker, odd] is constantly ringing, letting in 
such OOtP luminaries as Snape and McGonnegal. Nobody seems to have a 
key, which fits with the lack of a keyhole. 

AFAIK, that door is only ever opened from the inside. 

Could it be a magic door that opens only to the heir to the House of 
Black? We've met a magic chamber than only opens to the Heir of 
Slytherin. Dumbledone is able to seal off the Headmaster's Office so 
that Umbridge can't get in, through the door or by any other means. 
Merlin made a sword recognize an heir, too.

So maybe only Sirius could open that door from without.

> Of course, this doesn't take tax issues into question.  If Convict! 
> Sirius inherits the property, but doesn't fill out the proper forms 
> to pay taxes because he's busy fighting to keep his sanity in 
> Azkaban, can the Ministry, at some point, claim the property in 
> question because of back taxes owed?

Are there any references to wizard taxes in the books? Maybe the 
wizard world sustains itself with taxes levied on Muggles. 

Will Rodgers said, "Just be happy you're not getting all the 
government you're paying for." Maybe some part of that difference 
between what we pay and what we get is secretly diverted to support 
St. Mungo's. 

 - Caipora