Ch.17 - Less Restricted

Now that he was finally an adult, he would be more able to act freely in the magical world. With that in mind, he went to Gringotts Bank to finally make his own account. He felt a certain relief that he could move around more without a disguise. Of course, he also found a certain freedom when hiding behind his mask. But, one of the benefits of finally being able to move around without a guise was entering Gringotts Bank.

He walked to a teller and asked to see the person who could help him set up his vault. He was shown into a private office to the left, where he waited for the assigned goblin to show up.

The Goblins certainly enjoyed making wizards wait on them. A lot of goblins have strong opinions regarding the Ministry and their restrictions on non-human creatures. But Alex knew that the Goblins were indeed legally subservient to wizards. Alex had entertained the thought of creating an alliance between the Order and the Goblins, but he didn't know how steadfast the goblins as a whole was, and he suspected he would be giving more than he would be receiving with such an arrangement with the goblins.

It was a good 15 minutes later when a male goblin entered the room. It marched its little feet behind the desk and climbed the elevated chair with a small hop. Alex had watched the entire thing silently. He didn't want to give the goblin any satisfaction by acting impatient.

"How can Gringotts serve you, young wizard?" said the goblin after settling down.

"I would like to open an account. Please explain the options to me," said Alex in a very business-like tone.

"There are 7 levels in the cavern of Gringotts. The ones on the deeper levels are usually reserved for our wealthiest clients."

"And which would be more secure?"

"All vaults within Gringotts are secured, young wizard," said the goblin with a laugh.

"And yet, some vaults are more secured than others. Which one would be appropriate for a personal vault?"

"Vaults in the level 1-5 are usually used by an individual witch or wizard."

"I'd like to open one in the third level. Let's talk about the rates."

"Gringotts vaults are rented in exchange for a fixed monthly rate depending on its size. For a typical vault on the third level, the rate is 3 Galleons and 8 Sickles."

After that, he filled out the paperwork and signed the agreement regarding the usage of the vault. For a vault that was relatively near to the surface, only wizarding currencies could be stored. The vault rent would be automatically deducted from its contents. He also had to choose what level of security he would prefer to use. Alex had chosen the minimum level of security, meaning anyone with his vault key could withdraw up to 1000 Galleons at once.

Alex didn't plan on depositing a large amount of money in his vault, so his initial deposit was just a thousand Galleons. He just wanted to have a Gringotts vault for personal business. If he wanted to take a job as part of his public persona, there would be a Gringotts vault that could receive his salaries. He would be storing the money he earned from his businesses in a secret vault.

His other businesses with Gringotts were being handled by Mr Baxter. One of their dealings with the Goblins was actually exchanging wizarding currencies for British bills. Every year, a number of muggle-born and their families would trade their British money to the bank. It wasn't much, but Gringotts would use this money to buy precious metals from the muggle market, therefore bringing the muggle currency back to the muggle world. Mr Baxter had offered to exchange for the money instead. The Goblins happily agreed as it reduced their work.

The banking services that Gringotts offered were very simple due to their lack of competition. There was the storage vaults for rent. There was the checking service for withdrawal or payments. And, they could lend a person money with a fixed interest rate. Their income was supplemented by their metal works and archaeology digs in Egypt.

They wouldn't pay their customers interest on their deposits no matter how big. The money in the vaults wouldn't be circulating as they stay secured in their vaults. It was the main reason why the value of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts stayed the same for the last thousand years.

Alex would rather keep his money in the muggle banks where it was constantly earning him an interest. It was also easier to invest and let the money grow by itself in the muggle world. The members of his Order had taken to doing the same, only keeping a minimum amount of wizarding currencies for their expenses in the wizarding world. In fact, most transactions between Order members were done using muggle money.

Some day in the far future, they would have to revolutionize the banking system in the British Wizarding World. In fact, they could even abandon the Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts all together and just use British currency. It might cause deflation in muggle U.K. when a large amount of money was suddenly removed from their economy, but it would only be temporary.

He left after his vault was properly set up. Within the same week, he had gotten his license in Apparition. Now, he felt like an adult once again. Being a restricted child again was truly difficult even when he could just disguise himself.

[AN: We don't really know the operations of Gringotts from the canon. We know that muggle money that is exchanged in Gringotts is somehow recirculated back to the muggle world and Ludo Bagman got in trouble with the goblins for borrowing money which he lost in gambling.]

Back in muggle London, Alex decided to raid the bases of organized criminal groups in the city. Now that the Trace was no longer a concern for him, he had less restriction in his use of magic in the muggle world. As long as he didn't use any powerful spell, he should be able to avoid detection by the Ministry of Magic.

He started with the drug traffickers. After reading the minds of a few peddlers on the streets of London, he had learned the locations of their suppliers. Repeating the process and eventually, he found out the location of the bases where they count all the money.

He was like death himself. He came unseen, struck unseen, and left unseen. He was using an invisibility charm and a shield charm on his self constantly. Other than that, he only used the occasional unlocking charm, human detection, and some Legilimency. All the killings were done with his flying dagger which was fast and precise. After the killings were done, he left a circle written in blood on a wall at each site.

He had collected over 150 Million GBP, all in cash. If he didn't have an expanded briefcase, he would be swimming in paper bills. He was surprised at how much cash those criminals were keeping. He just had to gradually put the money into his fake accounts so no one could trace it to him.

A few days later and the news was wild with speculations once again about the elusive syndicate called 'The Circle'. The public's opinion was divided on the matter.

He had killed a ton of people within the span of a couple of weeks. He figured he was doing the city a favour. But, something was bothering him. During his attacks, he felt a certain push inside him. It happened every time he had killed someone. As his attack went on, his methods had become more violent.

Using his Occlumency meditation, he examined where that impulse had come from. And just as he suspected, it was from the orb of fire beside his magical core. It was wilder than before. He could only assume that the cursed fire had affected him. And, he knew that he must learn to control it.

He examined it closer. Then, as if by instinct, he willed the orbiting of the orb of fire around his magical core to be faster. With each revolution, he felt his core getting stronger by a small increment. His magical core was slowly assimilating the cursed fire. If he had to guess using its current rate, it would completely absorb the fire in twenty years. But, he didn't want to wait that long. As long as that fire was there, he could become more impulsive as time went on. With his meditation, he could make the process faster. From that moment on, he spent all his free time meditating.

[AN: There was an article from the Guardian that says that the money spent on cocaine in London was about 1 Billion Euros per year. So it's not completely unthinkable that the MC could collect 150 Million by raiding drug syndicates in the '80s.]

He apparated in Diagon Alley to meet with Clay and Katie. It was the first week of July and it was once again time to do their school shopping for their last year in Hogwarts.

While walking around, he spotted a couple of closed-off buildings that were closed off for renovations. These were the buildings that Mr Baxter had purchased for him. They would serve as the location of his businesses in the future.

One would be the communications company that he had planned. That was set to open during the holiday break. And the other was for a realtor's office. The housing industry in the magical world was not as developed as in the muggle world. A lot of people were still finding it hard to have a permanent home in the magical world. With space expansion, a two-story building could have 4 or more families living in it. And with that, the rent would also be much cheaper. It was a good business idea that was helpful and profitable, and, it came from one Order member who had experienced being homeless before. As a reward, he was assigned to oversee the project and lead the company in the future. Several properties within the magical communities all over the U.K. were already under renovations during that time.

After Alex and his friends had finished their shopping, they agreed to Katie's invitation to visit the AIM Building and check it out. Once there, they checked out all the programs that AIM was offering. Alex had also taken the chance to examine the place.

The three of them registered as members of the Association. Registration only cost them 1 Galleon each. That was enough to give them access to most of the information and resources offered in the Association.

There were a lot of seminars on the schedule board, some were regarding the Ministry's Laws and others were about certain trades and crafts, and most were free to all members of AIM. There was also a job listing board were people could find available jobs or apprenticeships. The most amazing to Alex was the incentives offered to those who would be willing to lend their help, like Potions Masters who would be willing to teach a seminar. AIM had always encouraged people to be proactive in helping other people.

For students like them, they could also visit AIM on certain days during the summer and Christmas break to practice their magic in a safe environment with the presence of a tutor. AIM had also started a circulating library for its members. As it turned out, the three of them were not the first student members of AIM. Student membership was offered the first summer after AIM had gone public.

Up to this point, no one in AIM, except for those who were also members of the Orders, knew of the identity of Xander Greywolf, the elusive founder of the Association. All they knew about him were the couple of books that he self-published and that AIM was initially funded solely by him in the beginning. Naturally, a lot of the members of the Association were curious about him, their benefactor. There were even rumours that he was some prince-like figure from a muggle aristocratic family.

Alex had liked what he saw from the Association. Everyone was doing their job properly. It was even bringing in enough income to keep itself running. Knowing the near future expansions of AIM, like branch offices in other cities and the Business Funding Program still in its planning stage, Alex was assured of the prominence that AIM would achieve. Fortunately for him, he had no shortage of people he could trust with the works as the Order members were handling almost all of his operations directly. Mr Baxter was only involved with the funding aspect of his different ventures.

END OF CHAPTER

Disclaimer:

This work is not for profit. No copyright infringement intended. All recognizable characters, plot, setting, etc. are the property of J. and/or Warner Bros.