WTF Annabeth

Chapter 22

Harry

Even Percy shouting "What the fuck Annabeth?" didn't wake me, that is how tired I was. I felt better in the morning, but between SPEW and quidditch, my bruises were adding up. I would be happy when the first match was over and I could rest for a few days.

At breakfast Thursday, my copy of the Daily Prophet and the London Times arrived. Dumbledore had suggested I subscribe to the first as a way of learning more about the goings on in the world of magic, and the Times I got as I wanted to keep up with stock prices. As part of my civics course with Chiron I had tracked several stocks that I made imaginary purchases of and I had gotten a bit interested in finance. Hermione helped my get the Times. I sent money to her parents for a subscription and they left it out for the owl to pick up. It was nice seeing what was going on in the muggle world, but what the English call football and what we do turned out to be different things. Also the crossword was impossible as what the English call English and what we do also turned out to be completely different things as well. Although I did learn that a boob tube didn't mean television in the UK.

I tried, with Ron's help, to understand the economy of the magical world, but it made no sense and all gaps were filled in by "magic." You could trade magic currency for muggle currency at a fixed exchange rate at Gringotts. With that you could shop in muggle stores for things like groceries and clothing and the like. Where did Gringotts get muggle money? From selling gold. Where did they get gold? Well they mined it of course. Where and how? Magic!

Most of the magic users shopped in Diagon Alley and other smaller magical communities, and often by barter. Ron's father worked for the ministry and most of their groceries came from the family garden, which grew year round because of, you guessed it, magic. Some magicians came into fortunes at one time either by searching for and finding gold and gems, which was considered an honorable profession, or by inventing something useful to magicians. Since most of the industrial demands were met by magic, there were no factories, and there appeared to be little farm work as well. Food could not be created magically except by house elves, "tell that to the Amazons" I thought when I heard this, but between what could be purchased from the muggles and grown, the magic community got by.

If you didn't make something specifically magical, wands, caldrons etc, then the only real investment was in land and housing. Most magicians rented and very few had home ownership. Ron's family owned a house that was unplottable by muggles, but was surrounded by a wheat farm. I asked him who cultivated the wheat, but he had no idea. It was always there and no one was farming it apparently.

I tried to explain muggle currency and economics as best as I could to Ron, and I was by no means an expert, but about halfway through every statement he would just say "Why not just use a whatever was appropriate for that action spell?" The idea of being rich appealed to him however, and when I mentioned that at the Christmas break we would have a week before we would be due back at camp and would probably go to the Lotus to recharge our cards.

That was when he got the idea to go with us. Since Selina was coming here, it made sense that some of our Gryffindor friends might could come to camp for the break.

"So you can get five hundred dollars per day? What is a dollar?"

"That is the basic unit of currency in America, and yes you can withdraw five hundred per day, except at Gringotts. It gives you a thousand galleons there. So there must be a two to one exchange rate, except that makes no sense. See, the dollar trades one to one point three two sterling according to the Times this morning, so for five hundred dollars you would get, lets see, about three hundred seventy five pounds. And according to the Prophet the fixed rate of exchange is one galleon for every two pounds sterling. So... you should be getting, Annabeth, what is half of 375?"

"187 and a half."

"Thanks" I said as she returned to the bowl of fruit she was dining on.

"What is your point?" Ron asked.

"Well, you should get 187.5 at the ATM at Gringotts, but it gives you 1000. You could nearly double your money every day by buying pounds, going to a muggle bank and exchanging it for dollars and just banking with them. Then buy galleons as you needed them. Or just buy gold and sell it back in raw form to Gringotts as they, according to the Prophet and the Times, pay more for it than it costs in the muggle world, and its quite expensive in the muggle world. Oh, and a thousand galleons is probably... I don't know, how long would someone have to work to earn that?"

"Thats just under half a year's salary at the ministry I think" Ron said.

"So you could earn a year's salary every other day. I'm telling you, the financial system just doesn't make sense."

"How does it work then?"

"Apparently magic!" I grinned and we both laughed.

"So if you had money in the muggle world, you could make more just by using it like that?"

'No, in the muggle world there are fees for everything you do, and it is all set up to make a profit for the seller. Chiron told me the best long term investment is land, but even that doesn't make sense here. Look, in the advertisements in the Prophet, there is a 400 acre farm for sale, in a magical community called Godric's Hollow, for 1600 galleons."

"Thats... amazing. Where is someone supposed to get that kind of money? That is four galleons an acre!"

"Ron, that same farm in the muggle world would cost hundreds of thousands, maybe more, and you would get it by a loan from the bank."

"Goblins don't make loans, everyone knows that."

"Which is why they shouldn't be in charge of your banking system! Unless I'm missing something, they're idiots! Oh, and if it is still available at winter break, I think I'm going to buy it."

"The farm?"

"Yeah, that is the town my parents lived in. I might be able to hire someone to farm it and sell whatever they grow there."

"You have 1600 galleons?"

"Well, I can get another thousand at Gringotts, and all my school supplies didn't cost two fifty, so... yeah."

"But you'll be broke!"

"No, I would still have my inheritance, and the next day I could get another thousand. which is where you come in. You know how the other years complain about our quarters?"

"Yeah. Its funny I think that"

"Well, what if we offered, for say a galleon each per month to upgrade theirs?"

"They would do that no doubt, but how..."

"Well we get the tents for ten galleons each, and we get thirty two of them, that would give us three per every boy's room and three for every girls room in Gryffindor. We let them pay us a galleon each per month. If each year averages twelve students, and there are six years without ours, that would be seventy two galleons per month, and between January, when we start, and May, when we end, that would be... Hey Annabeth, what is five times seventy two?"

"360"

"Thanks!"

"No problem."

"So by the end of the year we would have a profit of forty galleons. Not much but"

"Forty galleons is a lot!"

"Well, yeah, but just think next year! Nine months would be.. Hey Annabeth!"

"What? I'm trying to eat!"

"Nine times seventy two"

"648. now leave us alone, Percy is trying to confess his love for me."

We both looked at Percy to confirm that was Annabeth's imagination, then I said to Ron "But it wouldn't be that much as we aren't going to charge ourselves and the first years won't be ready to pay until after the winter break."

"You would be rich!" Ron laughed.

"I apparently already am. And so is Annabeth and Percy. So you would be too, and with your Lotus card, even if you just used it at Vegas and Gringotts, you would have another 2000. Or more depending the exchange rate that makes no damn sense and whether or not you just used the money from Vegas to buy gold to sell to Gringotts."

"Why do you need me? I'm not even sure I understand it."

"I'm not going to rent the tents, you are. And you're going to collect the galleons every month and keep track of it. Annabeth, Percy and I will buy the tents and we get half of the profit when it occurs. Since you would be running it, you get the other half, and in the mean time we pay you half a month's profit until the money comes in. So twenty galleons a month starting in January of this year, then about forty a month next year. Unless we expand to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Then it would be about one twenty. Not bad for a part time job, right?"

"What about Slytherin?"

"Fuck Slytherin."

"And this is legal in the muggle world?"

"Its better than legal, its respectable." I grinned.

"I'm in."