There are so many ways for Harry to get money—I hope the debt doesn’t become a major plot point. If there are downsides to the debt in terms of obligations to Lucius, Harry should just get the money and be done with it.
If the Supreme Mugwump doesn’t want Harry to be indebted to Lucius, shouldn’t he be able to call in a few favors and have it paid off tomorrow? There’s the general blood debt to Harry. The general goodwill to Harry. The desire by others not to have the Boy Who Lived in debt to Malfoy.
There should be enough people in the Wizarding world who’d want to help Harry, or owe him, to pay off the debt immediately.
And then there’s all the ways Harry could make money using magic in Muggleland. Get him an internet connection in Hogwarts and play the market using his time turner. The Grangers look like they have rather deep pockets and could provide Harry some decent seed capital, if not pay it off themselves. He did save their daughter from being tortured to death. If nothing else, he could just play the gold-silver arbitrage.
In fact, why not decide to be filthy rich and bankrupt the Old Money like Lucius in the magical world?
Get him an internet connection in Hogwarts and play the market using his time turner.
Early ’90s. That’d be a JANET connection, which was an academic network. I expect AOL or Compuserve might be possible. We’re talking about the mists of prehistory here, i.e. before 1995. Heck, it was even before the National Lottery was operating in the UK (that started 1994). The stock market would be playable, if he had a suitable adult to front for him.
No, how he makes serious money in the muggle world in 1991 Britain may require actual research.
Eh no… Harry has Mining++ also known as partial transfiguration. Now EY didn’t believe that to be enough so he also equipped Harry with an invisibility cloak a bag AND a suitcase of holding.
If Harry is really pressed for cash and some rules against arbitrage, stock market manipulation, insurance fraud (which he should be able to do to an amount that’s not even funny to think about) exist, he still has one glaringly easy way of earning shit tons. He should be able to, as soon as he is allowed to use magic outside school (which IIRC is at 17 which is before his last year at Hogwarts’ starts; the 31st of July to be exact) of doing the following:
a) Robin Hood his way through pretty much anything (Invis+teleport is an old classic)
b) mine diamonds/gold/other valuable resources by using partial transfiguration, invisibility and if need be Apparation.Some mines in Somalia are just waiting for a wizard to abuse them…
c) and of course just straight up gambling.
Sincerely: this stuff doesn’t even require a lot of thinking. He could also just do some honest transport business of high quality wares… Teleportation is a whole lot faster than anything else I can think of.
There was virtually no online trading for individual investors until about 1994. You had to phone your full-service or discount broker and talk to him (or very rarely her) to make a trade.
No, how he makes serious money in the muggle world in 1991 Britain may require actual research.
“Hi. See this gold bar I have in this box? See this silver bar I have in this box? Buy gold if the exchange rate falls below X, and deliver it to Y address. Buy silver if the gold exchange rate goes ABOVE this rate, and then start selling the gold. These bars? Oh, yeah. They’re seed money for the operation. We’ll talk once you’ve depleted the funds for this operation.”
They could happily provide a laundering service of sorts. If the goblins get suspicious of where Harry got the muggle money (which he will supposedly get via one of many ways outlined on this thread), he could just say that the Grangers gave it to him to rescue his daughter—He earns money through them (stocks in their name, or whatever), and they turn around and give it back to him to trade into galleons for the Hermione-Rescue Debt.
I doubt the goblins would look into how MUGGLES managed to earn so much money. Especially if they already seemed to be relatively well-off.
There are so many ways for Harry to get money—I hope the debt doesn’t become a major plot point. If there are downsides to the debt in terms of obligations to Lucius, Harry should just get the money and be done with it.
If the Supreme Mugwump doesn’t want Harry to be indebted to Lucius, shouldn’t he be able to call in a few favors and have it paid off tomorrow? There’s the general blood debt to Harry. The general goodwill to Harry. The desire by others not to have the Boy Who Lived in debt to Malfoy.
There should be enough people in the Wizarding world who’d want to help Harry, or owe him, to pay off the debt immediately.
And then there’s all the ways Harry could make money using magic in Muggleland. Get him an internet connection in Hogwarts and play the market using his time turner. The Grangers look like they have rather deep pockets and could provide Harry some decent seed capital, if not pay it off themselves. He did save their daughter from being tortured to death. If nothing else, he could just play the gold-silver arbitrage.
In fact, why not decide to be filthy rich and bankrupt the Old Money like Lucius in the magical world?
The debt really just shouldn’t be a problem.
Early ’90s. That’d be a JANET connection, which was an academic network. I expect AOL or Compuserve might be possible. We’re talking about the mists of prehistory here, i.e. before 1995. Heck, it was even before the National Lottery was operating in the UK (that started 1994). The stock market would be playable, if he had a suitable adult to front for him.
No, how he makes serious money in the muggle world in 1991 Britain may require actual research.
Eh no… Harry has Mining++ also known as partial transfiguration. Now EY didn’t believe that to be enough so he also equipped Harry with an invisibility cloak a bag AND a suitcase of holding.
If Harry is really pressed for cash and some rules against arbitrage, stock market manipulation, insurance fraud (which he should be able to do to an amount that’s not even funny to think about) exist, he still has one glaringly easy way of earning shit tons. He should be able to, as soon as he is allowed to use magic outside school (which IIRC is at 17 which is before his last year at Hogwarts’ starts; the 31st of July to be exact) of doing the following:
a) Robin Hood his way through pretty much anything (Invis+teleport is an old classic) b) mine diamonds/gold/other valuable resources by using partial transfiguration, invisibility and if need be Apparation.Some mines in Somalia are just waiting for a wizard to abuse them… c) and of course just straight up gambling.
Sincerely: this stuff doesn’t even require a lot of thinking. He could also just do some honest transport business of high quality wares… Teleportation is a whole lot faster than anything else I can think of.
There was virtually no online trading for individual investors until about 1994. You had to phone your full-service or discount broker and talk to him (or very rarely her) to make a trade.
“Hi. See this gold bar I have in this box? See this silver bar I have in this box? Buy gold if the exchange rate falls below X, and deliver it to Y address. Buy silver if the gold exchange rate goes ABOVE this rate, and then start selling the gold. These bars? Oh, yeah. They’re seed money for the operation. We’ll talk once you’ve depleted the funds for this operation.”
The Grangers are comfortable, but two million 1991!pounds is well beyond the capabilities of any dentist I’m familiar with.
They could happily provide a laundering service of sorts. If the goblins get suspicious of where Harry got the muggle money (which he will supposedly get via one of many ways outlined on this thread), he could just say that the Grangers gave it to him to rescue his daughter—He earns money through them (stocks in their name, or whatever), and they turn around and give it back to him to trade into galleons for the Hermione-Rescue Debt.
I doubt the goblins would look into how MUGGLES managed to earn so much money. Especially if they already seemed to be relatively well-off.