While I was reading fanfic earlier, I came across another bothersome issue that frequently comes up in Harry Potter fics: the wills of James and Lily Potter. There are several things that fanfic writers often get wrong in conjunction with those wills, and I want to address a couple of them here.
As always, this isn’t meant to reflect badly on those writers or their stories, any more than complaining about the illogic of wizards in the HP series is meant to reflect badly on Ms. Rowling. It’s just a little rant, that’s all.
Also, this is based on what I know of U.S. probate law; I assume that U.K. law is similar, though I know that there are some differences, especially when it relates to spousal beneficiaries.
First, there would be two wills, one for James and one for Lily. They’d have similar provisions, of course (most likely that the surviving spouse gets everything; if they die together or the spouse predeceases them, everything goes to their natural or adopted children, of whom at the time the will is made there is only one, Harry James Potter), but they’d still be separate wills.
Rather than showing a joint will, the author could pick one to describe in detail and then say that the other is substantially similar. (As a side note, as it’s believed that James died first, it would be Lily’s will that would control distribution of the estate, absent some technical language and maneuvers in James’ will or magical law.)
Second , often Dumbledore is listed as a witness to their wills, which fact is then extrapolated from to insinuate that he knew the contents of the will(s). That’s not what a witness to a will does; a witness only signs to confirm that, in thon’s opinion, the person making the will appears to be of sound mind and did, in fact, make the will.
Witnesses are not told the contents of the will; I know, because I’ve made and witnessed wills. The only time a witness might have an idea of the contents would be if the will is executed at the office of the attorney who prepared it and his staff witness it.
If writers want to implicate Dumbledore, or anyone else, in shenanigans resulting from failure to follow the Potters’ will(s), the best thing to do is make that person executor/executrix of the estate.
Executors carry out the final wishes of the deceased, probate the will, close out accounts, etc., so they’re the ones with opportunity to screw with the decedent’s wishes. That said, if the estate is large enough to be probated (and, given the amount in Harry’s vault, the Potters’ estate would very likely meet the threshold to be probated), the court is involved, so the chance to screw with the decedent’s wishes is small.
One trick many fanfic writers use to get around this is to claim that the Potters’ will(s) were “sealed” by order of the Wizengamot and/or Dumbledore in his capacity as Chief Warlock. That’s certainly possible
, though I don’t know of any instance in real life when that might happen.
The executor/executrix failing to probate the will, though…that’s certainly plausible.
Finally, a lot of fanfic writers include in the Potters’ will(s) a line to the effect that Peter Pettigrew, not Sirius Black, was their Secret Keeper. This isn’t information that would generally be included in a will, as wills are about distributing the decedent’s estate.
Instead, it would be more accurate for the Potters to have left a letter to be opened in the event of their deaths explaining the Secret Keeper switch. Given that they were at war, it’s also plausible that either or both Potters might have left a letter specifically to Harry and/or other friends.
Now, having thrashed some of the common tropes, I should point out one thing most fanfic writers get right: each will would list a couple of potential guardians for any surviving children. First on that list would be a surviving spouse, followed by godparents, then anyone else the Potters had discussed the possibility with. Adding a line to the effect that Vernon and Petunia Dursley were never to be considered appropriate guardians is certainly plausible.
None of these issues destroy a story for me, of course; they just make me shake my head and wish the writers had spent a few minutes doing research because, and more to the point, none of the fixes destroy the plot.
