It's been two weeks since the Christmas vacations.
In the meantime, James envisioned a way to make money, and knew how to make it a reality: he was going to make a newspaper!
For that, he already thought of a few people who could help him.
Also, while the Muggles didn't have any sort of printer or ways to take pictures, it already existed in the magical world!
But he didn't have any money; the newspaper was for making money, and printers costed money. That's why he prepared a plan: ask one of the professors to fund his printer.
He will first ask Gryffindor, and if he refuse, well, he will think about it then.
When the next Defense Against the Dark Arts class came, he stayed in the classroom for a bit before asking Gryffindor.
He answered with a bitter smile on his face: "Unfortunately, I can't.". He didn't detail the reasons why, and James knew that he won't get reasons even if he asked.
Then, he had a stroke of genius: maybe, just maybe, Ravenclaw already had one of those printer herself!
James knew she had a big collection of artifacts and built herself lots of them.
He waited for the end of the day, and at night, after the astronomy class he asked here.
She was still very focused on what was on her mind, so he needed to repeat a few times before she even heard him.
This time around, unlike Gryffindor, she gave a slight nod, before disappearing. A few moments later, she was back with a big machine. She gave some pieces of information about it: "When you will need this printer, come to me, and use it here. It's too big and bothering to transport it elsewhere".
James wondered why it was bothering, since she could teleport it alongside with her, but couldn't say that.
He then saluted her and went back to his common room, with a very satisfied look.
Now, he needed to make the actual newspaper, and sell it. First, as he was for the moment alone, and even with help from Ethan, he couldn't pull out more than an issue per week.
Secondly, he didn't know what exactly to write about, which was also a problem.
He paused to think before coming up with different categories to put in the newspaper:
- The magical creature section, where they would introduce new magical creatures.
- The potion sections, with new unknown potions and tips to brew them.
- The charm section, that will have unknown charms or tips, or both.
- And finally, obviously even, the news section that will cover a big news and/or one or two news.
He will introduce more later on, but now that is the maximum he can do.
First, he would have to prepare for the first issue, which would need to be the best to attract a lot of readers.
He paused to think and soon founded a planning that worked: one day for every section except the news, and one day for inquiring just about everything. Finally, the news section will have the remaining two days.
He also thought about the layout of the newspaper – it was actually the first thing he thought about – and founded a one that worked well: a big rectangle with a picture, an aggressive title on the side, and the newspaper's logo on the top, with other pieces of information in small around it.
Moreover, he knew which people to ask for help; for example, he knew a sixth year named Owen, who was a bookworm and knew a lot of charms.
The magical creatures section could receive help from Ethan, as James discovered he loved that a lot.
The potion section will be filled by James, as he was very good at it and knew tons of potions to share, and he will make the news section by searching scoops among the other students. What was difficult with that was finding news outside of the Gryffindor house, as he couldn't just take things from his housemates.
After putting up all that, he went to get all the knowledge he needed, and started working on the first section.
As he started on a Wednesday, with the intention of publishing Friday, he had finished writing everything, and was ready to print them out.
Since last week, he also advertised his newspaper among the Gryffindor's, in the library, and even on the school's board.
James also decided a name for the thing this week – he thought it was somewhat important – and after asking Ethan's opinion and pondering for a really long time, he settled on 'Hogwarts' Chronicles'. He thought it was both true and a good name. He also lacked inspiration to have a better name, even though he didn't admit it.
Because it was Wednesday, he had Astronomy class, and so just had to wait for it to end to talk to Ravenclaw about the printer.
Once again, she was focused on something else; not the class, not anything that was not on her desk in front of her.
When he came to her at the end of the class, she mindlessly agreed and made a quick gesture to where the printer was, and immediately went back to the thing in front of her.
James knew how to use a magical printer, because he had read about it in the library. It was a very new invention, and actually a lot simpler to use than what most think.
In less than an hour, James had finally all the ready copies he needed of the newspaper's first issue.
He also received orders in the week, even some coming from the other houses. Because of a lack of a better way, he putted on the school's board a place where he would hand down the newspaper.
When he arrived there, a big line was already forming, with at least fifty students wanting a copy of the thing.
It took a while to hand them all down, but he did. Next to him were now a not so small pouch of golden coins, and he thought he had done a pretty good job.
In the next few days, he received many other orders, and even Gryffindor himself got a look at it.
A thing he expected even less than that, was Slytherin complimenting the text he wrote for the potion section. He said it was very well written, and that there was nothing more to add to it.
In addition to those impressive things, he also got feedbacks from other students. Apparently, virtually everybody thought it was, at least, somewhat good. There were fans of each sections, and some suggested he adds another section.
He would have like to do that, but didn't know what section would interest the students, and didn't have the time, for the moment, to research and write another section.
The potion he talked about was a potion to clean lake's water, in case you were really thirsty. It also added a sweet taste to it, and finally it was really easy to make. In short: it was a perfect potion for the first issue of the newspaper.
Finally, he simply thought making this newspaper was very fun!
The only thing a little bothering was finding a big news, which was not very easy. In the end, he talked about the rumored new Nimbus broom, who will surpass even the Nimbus I he had.
While writing this, he regretted not being able to fly his broom while it was the 'Best in the world'.
He also investigated the reason as for why they didn't have flying class, and it was rather simple: the teacher, at the last moment, decided that it was not suitable for first years to do.
So, all the first years had bought a broom, and most for nothing.
Finally, after a week and a lot of copies sold, he had some money. And was now looking into the next time he could go to Hogsmeade, to find the ingredients for the Wiggenweld potion he wanted to brew so badly.
It seemed he just had one week to wait.
In just one week, he will know if the one annotating the books was trustworthy, or not.