PoA Harry Potter Broomstick Spoiler Q

[Timothy Bruening]

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At the end, Sirius Black reveals that he ordered a new Firebolt
Broomstick for Harry Potter. Sirius sent in the order via the cat
Crookshanks, using Potter's name but telling the Owl Office to take the
gold from Sirius' vault. How in the world was Sirius able to authorize
the use of his gold for Harry's broomstick without using his (Sirius')
name? What weren't Sirius' assets frozen when he was first arrested?

It would seem that maybe the Wizarding Bank operates like the Swiss
banks do - and freezing assets is not possible. If a Weasley works in
Egypt for Gringotts, it may be Multi-national - or it may not be
controlled by governments at all.
Also - Sirius' supposed victims were MUGGLES - and they would have no
access to his money in the wizarding world.

Actually, one of his supposed victims was a WIZARD!

[Timothy Bruening]

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At the end, Sirius Black reveals that he ordered a new Firebolt
Broomstick for Harry Potter. Sirius sent in the order via the cat
Crookshanks, using Potter's name but telling the Owl Office to take the
gold from Sirius' vault. How in the world was Sirius able to authorize
the use of his gold for Harry's broomstick without using his (Sirius')
name? Why weren't Sirius' assets frozen when he was first arrested?

It would seem that maybe the Wizarding Bank operates like the Swiss
banks do - and freezing assets is not possible. If a Weasley works in
Egypt for Gringotts, it may be Multi-national - or it may not be
controlled by governments at all.
Also - Sirius' supposed victims were MUGGLES - and they would have no
access to his money in the wizarding world.

3 of his supposed victims were wizards: James Potter, Lilly Potter, and Peter
Pettigrew. Shouldn't Harry, and Peter's parents be entitled to reparations
from Black's account?

Gee - I thought Voldemort killed the Potters - and last time I looked -
Pettigrew was still alive at the end of GOF.

Until the end of PoA, everyone thought that Sirius Back had killed Peter Pettigrew and 12 Muggles with an explosive curse. Only a finger of Peter was left. Fudge was still having nightmares about that explosion 12 years later! Furthermore, the MoM thought (based on Dumbledore's testimony) that Sirius had been the Potter's Secret Keeper, so was the one to betray the Potters to Voldemort.

[Timothy Bruening]

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At the end, Sirius Black reveals that he ordered a new Firebolt
Broomstick for Harry Potter. Sirius sent in the order via the cat
Crookshanks, using Potter's name but telling the Owl Office to take the
gold from Sirius' vault. How in the world was Sirius able to authorize
the use of his gold for Harry's broomstick without using his (Sirius')
name? What weren't Sirius' assets frozen when he was first arrested?

It would seem that maybe the Wizarding Bank operates like the Swiss
banks do - and freezing assets is not possible. If a Weasley works in
Egypt for Gringotts, it may be Multi-national - or it may not be
controlled by governments at all.

I seriously doubt that the Gringotts goblins cares anything about
local ministries - the Wizard authorities will always need Gringotts
more than Gringotts will need them.
I bet that if Sirius could find a way to any Gringotts branch office
he could just walk in and get access to his vault - no questions
asked.

Harry accessed his vault via the Gringotts branch in London. I had assumed that his vault was within the London city limits. How would he access a London vault from Egypt?

Furthermore the freezing of assets of a living person is - I think -
a relatively new idea (20th century), which has probably not caught
on in the wizard world.
Also - Sirius indicates that he referred to his vault by number (711 -
this has for some reason been left out in the Scholastic version),
and the goblin in PS doesn't care one bit who Harry is - as long as
he has the key (which Hagrid brought - I wonder how it came to him).
Taken together those could imply that Gringotts doesn't care one bit
who their customers are - they are identified either by having the
key or by some code word (Sirius explicitly tells us that he used
Harry's name, so he must - I think - have provided something else to
authorize the withdrawal).

I would assume that Gringotts would take precautions to make sure that no one impersonates their customers.

Book 7: Gringotts does have precautions against people using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate customers.

[Timothy Bruening]

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At the end, Sirius Black reveals that he ordered a new Firebolt
Broomstick for Harry Potter. Sirius sent in the order via the cat
Crookshanks, using Potter's name but telling the Owl Office to take the
gold from Sirius' vault. How in the world was Sirius able to authorize
the use of his gold for Harry's broomstick without using his (Sirius')
name? What weren't Sirius' assets frozen when he was first arrested?

It would seem that maybe the Wizarding Bank operates like the Swiss
banks do - and freezing assets is not possible. If a Weasley works in
Egypt for Gringotts, it may be Multi-national - or it may not be
controlled by governments at all.
Also - Sirius' supposed victims were MUGGLES - and they would have no
access to his money in the wizarding world.

I had assumed that when Sirius Black escaped, that the British MoM (as a routine part of searching for fugitives) would have sent out an all points bulletin asking Gringotts, the Owl Office, and all other wizard businesses to report any financial transactions involving Sirius Black.

[Timothy Bruening]

As per the book, the broom was purchased in Harry's name while the
money was taken from Sirius' vault. IMHO, the above scenario is the
best fit for that.

But given that Sirius Black supposedly helped to kill Harry Potter's
parents, I would expect the Owl Office and the MoM to go berserk when
Harry Potter uses Sirius Black's money to buy a broomstick, and
question Potter vigorously to find out if he knows where Sirius Black
is. I would find it highly suspicious if a teenager used the money of
a man who murdered his parents to buy an expensive car!

I was actually think about that very idea - a potentially interesting
plot device, IMHO.
Harry is faced with a decision - the MoM tells him that he must either
tell them how the broom was purchased in his name using Sirius' money,
or else give up the broom and face further investigation.

Hermione and McGonagal did suspect that Sirius had sent the broomstick. Did they pass their suspicions on to the MoM?