OOP: The Inheritance?

[serenadust]

No: HPFGUIDX 65859

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> bboy_mn:
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> A little space here for security reason.
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> Wouldn't want anyone to accidently stumble across this piece of
> information unintensionally.
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> Now to the point.
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> Question: Now that Sirius Black is dead, who gets his house and his
> money? 
> 
> Harry is, in a sense, Black's de facto son. Black being the 
godfather,
> has taken over the role as father and legal guardian. There are no
> actual decendance of Black, so there is no true downward line of
> inheritance. We do have a sideways line of inheritance as Mrs. 
Malfoy
> is a cousin and unless I'm mistaken was a Black before becoming a
> Malfoy (should really look that up). 
> 
> So, does Harry get the money and the house, which includes an nasty
> and untrustworth house elf, and would that house elf now have
> allegance to Harry as the master of the house, or does the elf 
become
> a free agent now that their is no direct family/Family Name to 
serve?
> 
> Will members of the sideways line of inheritance contest if the 
money
> and house are left to Harry?


I've given this some thought ever since I finished the book, and as 
much as I'd like Harry to be Sirius' heir, I really don't think that 
will happen.

Does Sirius really seem to be the type to have actually written a 
will before he went to Azkaban?  Remember that he was only in his 
early twenties, and while I'm sure he knew he was in danger of 
losing his life during the first war against Voldemort, he doesn't 
seem to me to have been the sort of fellow to have gotten a 
solicitor to put all his affairs in order in the midst of all the 
chaos.  Furthermore, I don't know why he would choose to leave his 
estate to Lily & James' son at that time, even if he was Harry's 
Godfather, since it's obvious that none of them forsaw the exact 
chain of events as they actually occured.  Of course, he could have 
designated James as his beneficiary, which would put Harry in line 
for the Black estate, but that brings us back to lovely, reckless 
Sirius (Sob!) not really being the type to have made a will in the 
first place.

However, given the circumstances of his untimely death, who is going 
to be able to prove that he *is* dead?  After all, it's not as if 
there's a body left behind as evidence, and it would be a bit 
awkward for Narcissa or Bellatrix (his murderer) to come forward 
with a claim on the estate.  I don't think that anyone in the Order 
will be announcing his death and the events surrounding it to the 
Daily Prophet either.  As far as the WW knows, Sirius is still on 
the run from the aurors and I imagine that that's how it will be 
left for the time being.

It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out, but I 
don't think we'll find out until Book 7.

Of course, it's not like I haven't been wrong before ;--).

Jo Serenadust, who is glad she didn't actually have a farm, because 
she would have bet it on any number of bum predictions for OoP