Justin Morningway

Justin Morningway is a fictional character on the television series "The Dresden Files". He is portrayed by Daniel Kash and is based on the character of Justin DuMorne of the book series by Jim Butcher.

Justin Morningway was a powerful sorcerer and a member of the High Council, the ruling body of wizards. He was quite wealthy, living in a mansion in the city of Chicago. He possessed numerous magical artifacts, not least of which was the skull of Hrothbert of Bainbridge, which came complete with his ghost. Morningway concerned himself greatly with his magical bloodline, desiring to see it continue. When his sister was murdered by an unknown agency, he sought to adopt her young son, Harry in order to teach him the full potential of his magical abilities, but her husband Malcolm Dresden objected strenuously as he suspects Morningway only wished to exploit the boy (episode 01, "Birds of a Feather"). In retaliation, Morningway secretly murdered Malcolm using thaumaturgy, in the form of a voodoo doll, using a purloined ring as a focus. The death was ruled to be a heart attack.

After Harry came to live at his mansion, Morningway gave him into the tutelage of the ghost Hrothbert of Bainbridge. "Bob" taught Harry all the principles of magic, even and particularly black magic like the thaumaturgy used to murder Malcolm Dresden, ostensibly so the boy can learn to defend himself from it in the future. Eventually, Harry left Chicago to travel the world. On his return, he discovered, to his horror, that Morningway had murdered his father when he sees his uncle wearing the ring stolen so many years before. He palmed the ring and also found Morningway's voodoo doll. Harry confronted his uncle, who admits to killing Malcolm but denies also murdering Harry's mother. He also hinted that he planned to destroy the High Council, which was gathering for a meeting as they spoke. When Morningway attempted to kill Harry with a large shard of wood, Bob, standing by throughout the confrontation, called out a warning to Harry, who dodged out of the way. In the process, however, he fell hard on the voodoo doll and the ring, thereby crushing all the arteries leading from Morningway's heart. Horrified by his own actions, killing a man with black magic, Harry fled the scene. Though the Chicago coroner's office called Morningway's death a heart attack, the High Council knew better and pursued Harry for some time, though they later ruled that he acted in self-defense (episode 10, "What About Bob?").

Harry inherited all of Morningway's possessions. He gave away all the money to charity, but kept both Bob and the mansion, which probably contains many dangerous magical items. Harry, however, does not live in the mansion, nor does he mention any of his other inheritances from Morningway, aside from Bob (episode 10, "What About Bob?"). He also kept a large selection of books, destroying those he felt were too dangerous, including one authored by Bob.

Morningway left behind him at least one dopplegänger, a magical construct, with the sole purpose to find a way to return the original to life. This "Morningway-lite," as Bob terms it, is responsible for setting a skinwalker on a young latent wizard (episode 101, "Birds of a Feather"). The dopplgänger later succeeds in restoring Bob's mortality using the arrow that killed the ghost's long-dead lover Winifred in return for Bob using his forbidden resurrection spell on Morningway. Bob, however, double-crosses both dopplegänger and original when he destroys Morningway forever (episode 10, "What About Bob?"). In the process Bob also sacrificed his second chance at life to save Harry and thus returned to his ghostly state.