Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 8 The Shit-Refining Master

Diagon Alley.

The last time I came here was to look for a job.

Looking at the long robes and pointed hats coming and going on the street, Murphy suddenly smiled.

Having stepped outside this narrow wizarding world, he could now view this place with ease. Even the shopkeepers, who had previously seemed repulsive, foolish, and stubborn, appeared innocent and endearing.

Sure enough, he still prefers this place.

He likes magic, and by extension, wizards. Most of them are pretty silly, but isn't that just another way of describing "naive"? A bunch of goofballs might annoy you sometimes, but it's hard to really hate them.

It was only a week ago.

But his thinking has undergone such a huge change.

All I can say is that money gives men courage.

With a million pounds in his pocket, Murphy walked with a much lighter step.

He first went to Gringotts.

He had changed his appearance, and he himself didn't know what the name of this face was. He had just randomly picked a man's hair on the street and transformed into it.

"Hello, I heard that you can exchange wizard currency here, is that right?" Murphy pretended to be completely clueless and asked a fairy who was weighing gold coins.

"Are you a Muggle?" The goblin raised his head slightly.

"name?"

"Jim Stick," Murphy stated the name of his benefactor directly.

The fairy wrote something on a piece of parchment with a quill pen, then asked, "What is it?"

"Shopping?"

"Purpose?"

"Uh... what could be the purpose?" Murphy asked, somewhat unsure.

"That's the only reason a Muggle-born wizard can enroll," the goblin replied.

Then why the hell did you ask?

The wizarding world and the Muggle world are basically isolated, and the two are not allowed to exchange currencies unless a former Muggle with no roots in the wizarding world is forced to join.

"My son is enrolled in school," Murphy continued, lying.

"What is the little wizard's name?"

"David Stick".

"Contact a tutor?"

Severus Snape.

Who told Snape to pick on him all the time when they were in school?

"Five pounds to one Galleon, how much do you want to exchange?"

"Ten thousand pounds?" Murphy asked tentatively.

The fairy raised her eyes again, seemingly slightly surprised, but quickly lowered her head again to continue her work. "The maximum is forty Galleons. Do you want to exchange?"

"Forty Galleons?" Murphy was stunned. What good would that be?

"Never mind, I'll think about it some more."

This path was clearly blocked, so Murphy left Gringotts, found an alley, changed his appearance again, put on a robe, and went back into Gringotts.

Seeing a fairy weighing gems, he walked over and said, "I have gold, can you exchange it for Galleons?"

"Of course!" the fairy replied with a slightly more enthusiasm. "We offer exchange services for gold, silver, and gems."

"What is the upper limit?"

"A cap?" The fairy was puzzled, but then she understood. "There's no limit to the exchange of gold and silver, and we'll buy gems with Galleons."

No limit?

Murphy was invigorated.

Gold and silver remain precious metals in the wizarding world, and as materials for minting wizarding currency, it's only natural that Gringotts would acquire them, but the lack of a limit is somewhat surprising.

This is perhaps the simplest way to convert pounds into gallons.

"May I ask your name?" the fairy asked.

"Patrick Duncan," Murphy continued, making things up.

What is your vault number?

"Huh?" Murphy paused, then asked, "Why are you asking that?"

"To avoid unnecessary trouble, this service is usually only available to families that have had a long-term partnership with Gringotts. Therefore, you will need to verify your identity and vault number."

"..."

Patrick has no savings.

"Any other requests?"

"No, but you still need to provide the source of the precious metals."

"I'll think about it some more."

After leaving Gringotts for the second time, Murphy Apparated to the entrance of a Muggle gold shop, bought all the gold in the shop, transformed it into gold nuggets of unidentifiable origin using Transfiguration, and then Apparated back to Gringotts once more.

This time, he removed his disguise and walked through the gate in his original form.

Murphy then chose another fairy and took out two gold bars from his pocket, which was enchanted with a smudge-proof stretching spell. "I want to exchange them for Galleons."

Several fairies nearby looked over, and the fairy in charge of greeting them was even more enthusiastic than the previous ones, "No problem, no problem. May I ask your name?"

"Murphy Darkholm".

"Vault number?"

"1745".

The Darkholm family is not as prestigious as pure-blood families like the Black and Potter families, and their vault numbers are relatively late.

The fairy rummaged through a thick book for a while, then looked at Murphy with some confusion. "This vault hasn't had any deposits for almost twenty years, and it also owes Gringotts sixteen Galleons in management fees..."

"Where does your gold come from?"

This was exactly what Murphy had expected: "Gold dug up from under the old house, gold buried by our ancestors."

"Please wait a moment." The fairy seemed hesitant, whispering a few words to the surrounding fairies. Finally, a fairy who appeared to be in charge stepped in and asked, "How much gold do you have?"

"Around thirty-five pounds (16 kilograms)," Murphy said.

The fairy manager was somewhat surprised. After the fairies whispered among themselves for a while, the fairy manager said, "Because of the problem with your vault's credibility, you can only exchange five pounds of gold."

"Merlin's bullshit! I'm offering real gold and silver! Why can't I exchange it?!"

Murphy disagreed and argued with the fairy manager for a long time. Finally, after agreeing to pay a penalty of 100 gallons, he increased the exchange limit to 10 pounds.

After a lengthy process of inspection, weighing, calculation, and counting, a goblin handed Murphy a bag. "This contains 6572 Galleons. Please count them."

Murphy's lips twitched.

He gave the other party a gesture of international goodwill.

Ten pounds of gold, at today's gold price, is worth nearly £45,000. If we use the standard Gallo-pound exchange rate, he should be given nearly nine thousand Gallo gold coins.

But after a week, I only received a little over six thousand!

Nearly a third of the profits were swallowed up by Gringotts.

However, he couldn't reason with them, since the exchange rate for Garlington gold was indeed that low, and it didn't match the exchange rate for pounds.

What is the relationship between Muggle gold prices and Gringotts?

Murphy walked out of Gringotts somewhat dejectedly.

These fairies are practically vampires.

How many brain-destroying spells were cast on the wizards to allow them to control their monetary system?

Oh well, it's all free money anyway, so let them take a little. There's still enough left.

Carrying the seamlessly stretched bag of gold coins, Murphy arrived at Slug and Giggs' pharmacy.

Upon entering, one sees a young wizard, roughly the same age as Murphy, brewing potions in a cauldron.

After looking at it for a while, he suddenly said, "I suggest grinding the dried caterpillars into powder. Slicing them makes them difficult to mix, and the result won't be as good."

The young wizard turned around, looking somewhat confused: "But the book says it's sliced."

"You're making a shrinking potion, aren't you? Actually, the method in the textbook is rather outdated. Juicing live caterpillars is more effective."

The young wizard, with a freckled face and a slightly chubby round face, looked at Murphy with a puzzled expression. "Who are you?"

"Just a customer. By the way, you turned the heat up too high; the crucible is almost burnt."

"Oh, good heavens!" The round-faced wizard hurriedly added some water and finally managed to brew the potion.

Murphy glanced at the finished yellow liquid, curled his lip, and said, "You've produced a pot of shit, bro."

The round-faced wizard's face turned bright red, making his freckles even more noticeable. "I, you, sigh, well, now the boss is going to deduct my salary again."

Murphy smiled. This guy was quite amusing. He extended a hand. "Peter Parker, nice to meet you."

The round-faced wizard frowned. "Alex Wood."

Murphy patted the other person on the shoulder. "You know what? I just applied for your current position a few days ago."

Alex looked at him in surprise. "Then why didn't they hire you? You seem like a veteran."

Murphy smiled. "They're blind. But I have to thank them. Thanks to them, I'm standing here, being their client."

"Now, Wood, go and call your boss out. Tell him I want to buy all the white chlorine in your store."

(End of this chapter)