57 Chapter 57: Gringotts, Shopping, and Return to School
On the last day of the Christmas vacation, Alaric arrived early in the morning at Gringotts in Diagon Alley. He intended to exchange a large sum of US dollars for Galleons.
Inside Gringotts, the exchange rate for Galleons to US dollars was 1:5, and Alaric presented five hundred thousand US dollars for the exchange, meaning he would receive approximately eighty thousand gold Galleons.
Faced with such a significant transaction, the young goblin behind the counter seemed unsure how to proceed.
He hurriedly called over an incredibly old goblin, whose face resembled a wrinkled orange peel, that had been left for a long time. His voice was sharp and astringent.
"Since I started working at Gringotts. I've never seen such a large transaction," the old goblin exclaimed, his eyes gleaming with the desire for wealth.
"Are you sure you want to exchange all of it into Galleons?"
"Of course," Alaric replied, impatiently handing over the check.
As the old goblin received the check, his hands trembled visibly. In that moment, he even entertained the thought of taking the check and vanishing into thin air.
However, he couldn't possibly do that, as Alaric could easily render the check void with just a phone call before it could be traced.
Sometimes, Alaric found the magical world's financial system quite peculiar.
While five hundred thousand US dollars might be a substantial amount in the Muggle world, for true billionaires, it was just a drop in the bucket.
Yet, for wizards, this sum—equivalent to around 80,000 gold Galleons—represented significant wealth.
The most Harry Potter's parents left him was a few thousand Galleons, including the inheritance from James Potter as the heir of a pure-blood wizarding family. The Potters were considered relatively wealthy among pure-blood families.
In other words, even the wealthiest wizards in the magical world were merely upper-middle class in the Muggle world. Considering the significantly lower wizard population, why hadn't the wizarding economy collapsed over the years?
If any rich Muggle's child became a wizard, exchanged one or two hundred million pounds into Galleons, and spent it all, the entire wizarding world would experience severe inflation. Alaric even doubted whether Gringotts could produce such a vast amount of Galleons.
Of course, in 1991, one or two hundred million pounds were worth much more than the same amount in the next two or three decades.
However, with the continuous improvement of Muggle productivity, even if the Muggle currency depreciated, the wealth possessed by Muggles continued to grow at a rate far exceeding that of the wizarding world.
In another ten or twenty years, there would be many more wizards who could exchange one or two hundred million for Galleons at once. At that time, the possibility of a financial crisis in the wizarding world would be much higher.
The stability of the wizarding world's economy was mainly due to its secrecy and closed nature. It was similar to the situation in the Muggle world, where a country with limited foreign capital flow could be less affected by international financial crises.
After carefully keeping the check, the old goblin began to pitch Gringotts' vault services to Alaric.
"Esteemed sir, with such substantial wealth, it's improbable that you'll carry all eighty thousand gold Galleons with you. I sincerely recommend Gringotts' vault services to you.
We can provide you with the safest and highest-quality storage services. Except for yourself, no one can take out a Knut from your vault.
Additionally, our interest rates are higher than those of Muggle banks. The cheapest vault starts at five hundred Galleons, but if you are willing to pay ten thousand Galleons, your vault will receive our highest standard of protection, including a Sphinx or a dragon as an anti-theft measure."
After listening to the goblin's endless sales pitch, Alaric couldn't bear it anymore.
He suspected that if he didn't stop this guy, he might start talking about financial planning services, fund investments, and the like.
Since he did need a place to store his savings, he immediately agreed to pay ten thousand Galleons for the most expensive vault. Now, his money would rest alongside those of the oldest wizarding families in the deepest part of Gringotts.
Upon leaving Gringotts, Alaric received a dragonhide pouch containing five thousand gold Galleons, a key to the vault, a personal seal, a Gringotts checkbook, and a badge representing his esteemed customer status.
With the checkbook and seal for significant expenses, as well as the badge symbolizing his prestigious customer status, Alaric felt like a true wizarding aristocrat.
Next, he went on a shopping spree, fulfilling his long-awaited procurement plans since the start of the school year.
He bought a crucible made of platinum and fairy silver that could fold and stir automatically, a platinum scale and telescope, several sets of crystal test tubes, a set of marble wizard's chess, a large quantity of various precious magical materials, and a considerable amount of expensive cat food.
Even with the use of the shrinking charm, his backpack was still filled to the brim.
Of course, he didn't buy any more books.
Firstly, Hogwarts' library surely had a far larger collection than Flourish and Blotts.
Secondly, Alaric knew that most of the books available for purchase could potentially be gifted to him by his fan club.
According to his knowledge, the fan club had a shared booklist, and any book given to him by a club member would be recorded to avoid duplicates.
Thirdly, most books written by wizards appeared flashy and lacked organization and logic.
In his spare time, Alaric had been working on a project to systematically summarize wizarding knowledge, using the format of academic papers prevalent in the Muggle world.
The final result would be similar to a magical version of the Oxford Encyclopedia that would contain everything related to magic, from different spells to potions and much more stuff.
With such a monumental work in progress, he didn't feel the need to collect numerous wizarding academic books.
Finally, he went to Madam Malkin's and ordered seven sets of clothing in the styles of Chaldea Combat Uniform, Atlas Academy uniforms, Arctic Region Chaldea Uniform, and so on. With that, he concluded his shopping spree.
Indeed, shopping and spending money were not exclusive to girls; given the chance and money, boys would also thoroughly enjoy the process.
Following that, he hurriedly made his way to King's Cross Station and boarded the train to return to Hogwarts.
Of course, during the train journey, he had to properly appease the three girls who were upset due to the lack of communication between them.
Fortunately, the gifts he brought back were quite satisfactory. Alaric gave Hermione an amber necklace containing a beetle, Cho Chang a pair of enamel earrings, and Penelope a splendid Fabergé egg.
Girls were truly like dragons, naturally drawn to shiny things.
These gifts easily won their favor, considering all three came from well-off families.
Moreover, Alaric skillfully steered the conversation towards the Russian situation and his observations of the Soviet Union's dissolution, successfully piquing their interest.
With these topics, he managed to navigate through the situation.
After a pleasant train journey, they returned to Hogwarts.
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