The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 632 Beyond Expectations (Please subscribe, please bookmark, please vote)
"So why did you call us here today?" Just as Ryan was thinking about these things, Hermione asked directly. "I believe you should not just explain the current situation to us."

"Of course not. I have something to discuss with you." Professor Dumbledore paused here, and then said, "Can you lend me some funds? Not just Galleons, I also need Muggle money."

"What?" Ryan, who was thinking about the question just now, opened his eyes wide. "Are you kidding? Such a big Hogwarts and Hogsmeade are placed here. How can there be no money?"

"But this is indeed the case." Dumbledore seemed a little at a loss when he said this. Maybe this was the first time for him to borrow money after becoming the greatest white wizard, so he was not very used to the current situation.

"Hogwarts' operation mainly relies on grants from the Ministry of Magic and donations from wealthy school directors, but since the Ministry of Magic was controlled by Voldemort, all of these are gone now. Most people who fled to Hogsmeade also lost their jobs. At the same time, Gringotts is now full of Death Eaters. We have no way to withdraw money."

"Didn't Gringotts say they could deliver the money directly to your door?" Ryan asked. "Why don't you just ask the goblins to deliver the money directly to you?"

"They rejected me." Dumbledore spread his hands. "The goblin representative said they couldn't get involved in the fight between wizards. There were a few goblins who were willing to provide me with loans privately, but the interest rate was too high."

This shouldn't be a private loan business. Ryan didn't believe that any goblin could bypass Gringotts's regulations and lend a large sum of money to Dumbledore. This could only be that the goblins wanted to make more money.

Ryan was not surprised why Dumbledore asked him to borrow money. As an alchemist who possessed the Philosopher's Stone, he was well-off financially. So he asked straightforwardly, "How much do you need?"

"The more the better." Professor Dumbledore realized that it was a bit inappropriate to say this, so he added: "It's mainly because it takes too much money to run a school. It costs 2500 Galleons every day. I have already used my personal property, but it is far from enough."

"I don't have many Galleons." As soon as Ryan said this, the light in Professor Dumbledore's eyes dimmed a little, but the next sentence quickly cheered up Professor Dumbledore.

"But I have a lot of gold, gems and various magical herbs, which I think are needed for the operation of the school." Ryan said.

"That's great." Professor Dumbledore nodded. "In fact, most of the money used to run the school is used to buy various materials needed for life and teaching. With gold, those daily materials and consumables can be imported from the Celestial Empire.

The wizards there are willing to accept our credit for magical items, but daily supplies must be purchased with hard currency. Because those things they need to purchase from Muggles, they must use cash. "

"Cash? But I don't have any RMB or pounds here." Ryan scratched his head and said, "And it will be difficult to exchange this gold into the currency used by Muggles in a short time."

"Ah, don't worry about that." Dumbledore comforted, "The wizard sent by the Celestial Empire to hand over the items last time told me that the Muggles there are willing to accept all hard currencies, including gold. As long as there is gold, all kinds of food, clothing and even everything needed for daily life can be easily purchased."

At this point, Dumbledore even revealed a slightly incredible expression: "You know what? The Chinese wizard told me that as long as they negotiate with the Muggle government according to the traditional procedures, the gold will be exchanged for local currency by the Muggle government to purchase everything we need." "They can prepare all the daily necessities needed by our entire school, including Hogsmeade under the castle, in one city in a very short time and transport them to us, and this kind of purchase will not have any impact on the lives of local Muggles. I'm really curious how they do all this without magic? At least I can't find a place in the UK other than London that can gather so many things at once."

That's the future world factory! It's easy to produce goods for thousands of people, Ryan thought. At this time, only the United States on the west side of the ocean has similar production capacity.

As for old Europe, it is already the mid-90s, and the decline of old Europe has slowly begun to emerge. To purchase supplies for thousands of people like this, it would probably take trips to many cities, and it would certainly be much more expensive than importing from China.

"Okay, this is the wealth I have with me. Do you think it's enough? If not, I can raise more money within three days." Ryan said as he took out a small space bag from his arms and gave it to Professor Dumbledore.

Dumbledore opened his pocket, and inside were ten gold bars of 400 ounces each, which were in accordance with international standards. In addition, there were three transparent boxes the size of an adult's fist, each containing cut natural rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. Although they were not large in size, they were the best-selling sizes on the market.

These things came from New York in the Fallout world. After clearing out the local gangsters and gunmen, the underground vault of the Federal Reserve Bank on Wall Street belonged to them. That time they obtained more than 7000 tons of gold and a large amount of various jewels from it. The gold that Ryan took out today was part of that harvest.

"This wealth is more than enough to support the next round of taxation in Hogsmeade." Dumbledore looked relieved. The recent financial problems did put him under great pressure, especially when a lot of money could not be withdrawn from Gringotts in London. It must be said that Voldemort's immediate control of the bank did cause enough trouble.

"We will definitely pay you back first when we have money," Dumbledore said. "But now we are still a long way from victory. Besides, even after victory we will need a lot of money for reconstruction. So the repayment time is -"

"You mean - it's hard to get the money back after we lend it out, right?" Hermione looked at Headmaster Dumbledore and asked. She knew Ryan was not suitable to refute the Headmaster at this time, so she had to play the good cop.

"That is indeed the case," said Professor Dumbledore, crossing his arms. "It sounds awful, but I don't think I can deceive you about it."

At this point, Dumbledore straightened up and said, "But besides the long wait, I actually have another way to solve this problem, which is to count all this money as your donation."

At this point, he waved his hand to signal Hermione, who was about to say something, to calm down and listen to his detailed explanation. "Of course, I won't ask you to donate for nothing. Robbing wealth is what Voldemort and his group of Death Eaters do, and I naturally won't do that. The reason I suggest you donate is because I will give you corresponding compensation later."

"Is it the Order of Merlin? Even if it's the first level, I don't think it would be of much use." Hermione said. Her words seemed a bit harsh, but Dumbledore was not angry. In the Western world, the issue of private wealth is very important, so Hermione, as Ryan's fiancée, can completely ask Dumbledore such a question on behalf of Ryan.

"Of course not." Dumbledore shook his head. "Besides, the Order of Merlin is issued by the Ministry of Magic. I have no right to interfere. What I want to discuss with you is that I hope you can become a director of Hogwarts."

(End of this chapter)