A trifling amount of money by muggle standards, even if he didn’t have the arbitrage trick, or the ability to make arbitrarily large amounts of money using the time-turner on FX markets.
It was also unclear to me that Harry could take enough gold from the wizard economy to wind up with 100,000 galleons (even in sickles) without someone noticing and perhaps interfering. And that ignores the problem of leaving Hogwarts.
I would wager that neither of those methods would actually work. We know that quirrel, snape, and other very intelligent wizards know both about the muggle world and about time turners. An idea about Arbitrage harry had within a few days of finding out about the ENTIRE wizarding world is extremely unlikely to have never been thought of. Harry is able to come up with new techniques and things no wizard would come up with but things like partial transfiguration took him days and are extremely non-obvious. Plans to make millions upon millions of dollars are something people have all the time.
Another important concern: Be careful what you call a “trifling” amount of money. You can get a LOT MORE done with a hundred thousand dollars than you can with zero dollars. You can hire bodyguards, you can rent a house, you can buy equipment, there are a vast world of things you can do that are prohibitively expensive without needing to be bill gates. We talk about vast amounts a lot when we’re talking effective altruism and existential risk ending but Harry’s not fighting to end hunger, he’s simply fighting a relatively small-scale war.
He got Lucius Malfoy to give him a huge sum of money in exchange for admitting something true at no cost to himself, and gained goodwill from Lucius in the process (which set up for his subsequent conditional alliance), and probably left Lucius feeling he’d got the better side of the deal. All in a matter of minutes.
Personally, I find that somewhat more interesting than half a chapter of watching Harry mess about with economics.
They actually agreed that if Dumbledore gets removed because of Harry, then Draco Malfoy will take power when he comes of age. This replaces a strong position for Lucius with something less predictable.
He got Lucius to agree to proposed next steps which we don’t know about and secured an alliance with House Malfoy.
Also, when he added the bit about exonerating House Malfoy, he showed Lucious one wording, then wrote down his original wording. He might have changed something important, and Lucius might not have noticed.
If Draco speaks under Versitaserum that Harry successfully manipulated him into disbelieving in blood puritythat’s not something that Lucius wants to happen.
Technically speaking, Draco can only attest that Harry claimed those things. (Harry’s an Occlumens, and the way Occlumency works in MoR implies that an Occlumens is very good at lying. So he can plausibly claim that he lied to his enemies.)
I don’t remember, does Eliezer allow unbreakable vows, or are those nerfed in MoR like Felix Felicis? Because I’m pretty sure even an Occlumens can’t lie if he vows to say the truth without suffering the penalty.
Hmm, it still sounds like they should be used more often. If you’re falsely accused and about to be condemned to Azkhaban, wouldn’t you sacrifice a portion on of your magic if it could compel your accuser to confess? As corrupt as the Wizengamot is, it should still happen on occasion.
Why did Harry admit he had a pen he could use? He wasted his advantageous bargaining position. Perhaps poison.
Also, Harry seems to have lost a lot in this chapter. All he’s gotten out of Malfoy
Some debt cancelled he cares not for
Agreement that Draco will be King
but Lucius already wanted Draco to be King! On top of that, Harry has given away much information:
That he isn’t Voldermort
That Dumbledore gave him a special weapon
That he manipulated Draco
and Draco can attest to these under Veritaserum!
Giving away the information that you’re NOT voldemort is actually pretty useful when you’re trying to cooperate with people
Erm, he also got 40,000 Galleons.
A trifling amount of money by muggle standards, even if he didn’t have the arbitrage trick, or the ability to make arbitrarily large amounts of money using the time-turner on FX markets.
He doesn’t have to explain where the money came from, and the tricks you named require starting capital.
It was also unclear to me that Harry could take enough gold from the wizard economy to wind up with 100,000 galleons (even in sickles) without someone noticing and perhaps interfering. And that ignores the problem of leaving Hogwarts.
I would wager that neither of those methods would actually work. We know that quirrel, snape, and other very intelligent wizards know both about the muggle world and about time turners. An idea about Arbitrage harry had within a few days of finding out about the ENTIRE wizarding world is extremely unlikely to have never been thought of. Harry is able to come up with new techniques and things no wizard would come up with but things like partial transfiguration took him days and are extremely non-obvious. Plans to make millions upon millions of dollars are something people have all the time.
Another important concern: Be careful what you call a “trifling” amount of money. You can get a LOT MORE done with a hundred thousand dollars than you can with zero dollars. You can hire bodyguards, you can rent a house, you can buy equipment, there are a vast world of things you can do that are prohibitively expensive without needing to be bill gates. We talk about vast amounts a lot when we’re talking effective altruism and existential risk ending but Harry’s not fighting to end hunger, he’s simply fighting a relatively small-scale war.
He gets it NOW. without having to run a risky feedback scheme between gringots and the muggle economy with only 100 galleons of seed money.
But not in a particularly interesting way
He got Lucius Malfoy to give him a huge sum of money in exchange for admitting something true at no cost to himself, and gained goodwill from Lucius in the process (which set up for his subsequent conditional alliance), and probably left Lucius feeling he’d got the better side of the deal. All in a matter of minutes.
Personally, I find that somewhat more interesting than half a chapter of watching Harry mess about with economics.
They actually agreed that if Dumbledore gets removed because of Harry, then Draco Malfoy will take power when he comes of age. This replaces a strong position for Lucius with something less predictable.
He got Lucius to agree to proposed next steps which we don’t know about and secured an alliance with House Malfoy.
Also, when he added the bit about exonerating House Malfoy, he showed Lucious one wording, then wrote down his original wording. He might have changed something important, and Lucius might not have noticed.
That seems like exactly the sort of thing Lucius Malfoy would be sure to notice, and even if it weren’t, it wouldn’t be worth the risk.
If Draco speaks under Versitaserum that Harry successfully manipulated him into disbelieving in blood puritythat’s not something that Lucius wants to happen.
Technically speaking, Draco can only attest that Harry claimed those things. (Harry’s an Occlumens, and the way Occlumency works in MoR implies that an Occlumens is very good at lying. So he can plausibly claim that he lied to his enemies.)
I don’t remember, does Eliezer allow unbreakable vows, or are those nerfed in MoR like Felix Felicis? Because I’m pretty sure even an Occlumens can’t lie if he vows to say the truth without suffering the penalty.
IIRC unbreakable vows require some large, permanent sacrifice of magical power and as such are fairly rare in HPMoR.
You’re right, I remember now.
Hmm, it still sounds like they should be used more often. If you’re falsely accused and about to be condemned to Azkhaban, wouldn’t you sacrifice a portion on of your magic if it could compel your accuser to confess? As corrupt as the Wizengamot is, it should still happen on occasion.