Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 63 Mike's Small Business
Perhaps because he had become rich overnight in his previous life, Mike had always been extravagant with his money. Even so, Mike never considered himself a spendthrift.

There are only two ways to save money: increasing income and reducing expenditure. Mike believes that increasing income is far more important than reducing expenditure. Although blindly reducing expenditure can save money, it will also turn people into bumpkins like Penelope who can't even spend money well. Only increasing income can make people become truly rich while saving wealth.

Due to the school holidays, the business of Dolphin Magic Drink had to stop. Without business, there would be no income, and it was not okay to just sit there and eat up all the money.

Penelope's poor appearance yesterday gave Mike a lot of inspiration. This era is not like his previous life where the currency depreciated severely. In the UK during this period, the pound is still very strong.

For example, in 1989, an average worker could earn about 3 pounds per hour, which is 8 pounds per month if he works 22 hours a day and 528 days a month. Now it is 1992, and only three years have passed. After accounting for inflation, he can now earn 3 pounds per month. With this 600 pounds, a family of three can have enough food and drink, provided that they are not living in first-tier cities.

An income of 600 pounds a month can definitely represent the income level of most people in the UK today.

The exchange limit given by Gringotts is 100 gold Galleons per year, which is 500 pounds. This is definitely not a small amount for these ordinary families.

In addition, the Ministry of Magic subsidizes the items on the Hogwarts admission list, so it takes far less than 100 gold galleons to buy all the items on the admission list. This leads to the fact that most young Muggle-born wizards will not exchange for the full 100 gold galleons.

In Mike's opinion, this was a blatant waste, but Mike considered himself a thrifty boy and naturally would not allow such a thing to happen.

So, at the entrance of Diagon Alley, two young men, one black and one white, appeared and did nothing but stare at the entrance wall every day.

Whenever they saw someone wearing Muggle clothes and coming to Diagon Alley alone, these two would approach him stealthily and ask, "Friend, do you want gold Galleons?"

If they are accompanied by their family, these two people will pretend to be kind people and introduce everything about the wizarding world to them. Finally, they will tell them that they can provide them with pounds for free so that they can exchange them for gold Galleons, and the price is just a tiny commission.

It is said to be a negligible commission, but in fact it is very unfair.

For every transaction, the two men would charge an 80% commission, of which the two teenagers, one black and one white, would take 50%, and the goblin from Gringotts who specialized in handling the exchange of pounds for gold Galleons would take 30%.

These two boys are naturally Mike and Franklin.

Mike is a professional when it comes to observation. In his previous life, scouting was essential when robbing a bank and stealing things, which also enabled him to develop a pair of sharp eyes.

Mike could tell which people were Muggles and which were wizards. Which families were well off and which families were so poor that they could barely afford to eat. This saved them a lot of effort in doing business.

Hogwarts is about to start, and everyone is thinking about buying the things they need for the new semester in these two days, so there is a lot of traffic in Diagon Alley.

As a result, Mike and Franklin's small business grew bigger and bigger. Although the commission rate he offered was very exaggerated, it was free gold galleons after all, so most people were quite satisfied with their service.

Of course, there were some short-sighted people who tried to bargain with Mike, and some even blackmailed Mike by threatening to report the two for speculation and infringement of the interests of the Ministry of Magic.

Naturally, Mike would not be polite to these people. He told them his name openly and claimed that he would teach them a lesson when he got to school.

Mike had made quite a name for himself in school last year. Now all the students in Hogwarts knew that he was Professor Flitwick's favorite disciple and that he was very powerful. It was obviously inappropriate to offend such a person who would almost certainly become a prefect or even the president of the male student union in the future for a few gold Galleons.

So these troublemakers had no choice but to give in and let Mike take a huge commission. Facts have proved that most of the Muggles and half-blood wizards who go to Hogwarts come from poor families. In just three days, Mike and Franklin earned nearly 1000 gold galleons.

On this day, Mike and Franklin met a few acquaintances while looking for business as usual.

"Mike? Franklin? What are you doing blocking the entrance?"

The person who spoke was Mr. Weasley, followed by Mrs. Weasley, Harry, and the five children of the Weasley family, big and small.

"Um..., we were shopping." Mike hesitated for a long time and then made up an excuse.

"We are going to buy new books, let's go together!" Harry was probably cooped up in the summer vacation and now he likes to be in a crowd. When he heard Mike and the others were shopping, he hurriedly invited them.

"No, we still have to wait for someone." Mike shrugged.

"Waiting for whom? Penelope?!" Percy jumped out upon hearing this and asked in an extremely sharp voice.

"I don't think this has anything to do with you." Mike realized that Percy's intentions were not good, but he did not show weakness and answered word by word, "Percy - Mr. Weasley!"

Percy was unwilling to do this and poked his left chest with his fingers, where a Hogwarts prefect badge was shining brightly in the sunlight.

"Look carefully! I'm the prefect! The prefect! Is that how you talk to a prefect?!"

"Wow, the Gryffindor prefect is meddling in Ravenclaw's affairs. Prefect Percy, you have such great authority." Mike said in a very strange tone. After that, he looked at Franklin, and the two of them burst into laughter.

Percy's face was twisted with anger, and his right hand was trembling as he fumbled around on his body, as if he was looking for his wand.

Mike's wand had already appeared in his hand. As long as Percy dared to point the wand at him, he would put Percy under a Disarming Curse. He had a close relationship with the Weasley brothers, so he was willing to let Percy suffer a little.

But before Percy could take out his wand, George at the side dragged him towards Mr. Weasley who was shopping in front. Fred made a face at Mike, nodding and bowing in a weird manner. Mike understood what he meant, that he wanted Mike not to argue with Percy.

Out of consideration for their relationship, Mike couldn't get angry and could only wave his hand to signal them to leave quickly.

Fred didn't say anything when he saw this. He just nodded to Mike and quickly caught up with George and Percy who hadn't walked far yet.

Looking at the three of them who were still struggling, Mike smiled disdainfully and spat in the direction they were leaving.

Franklin, who was standing by, probably thought it was cool and spit as well, but he spit much farther than Mike and almost spit on a passing lady.

(End of this chapter)