Chapter 17: Gringotts
Gringotts was arguably the tallest building in Diagon Alley.
Theo and Tom stood in front of this towering white building, carefully examining it.
"These goblins are quite particular about appearances," Tom muttered, pursing his lips.
"It's said that they control all the wealth in the wizarding world. It's normal to have a grand facade," Theo said with emotion.
Tom frowned and said, "I really don't understand why wizards would entrust their wealth to another creature."
"We can buy a history book later to learn about this. As for now..."
The two didn't delay any further and quickly walked towards the door.
Gringotts has two doors in total. The first door is a shiny bronze door.
Two goblin guards wearing scarlet and gold uniforms stood on each side of the door.
This was the first time Theo and Tom had seen goblins...
They were very short, with big heads, long ears, pointed noses, and long hands and feet...
Theo noticed that their arms seemed to be longer than their legs.
While Theo and Tom quickly sized up the goblins, the goblins politely bow to them.
At this time, Theo and Tom walked to the second, silver door.
The silver door was engraved with a poem-like inscription.
[Enter, stranger, but take heed of what awaits the greedy: For those who take what is not theirs but do not earn must pay most dearly.]. So if you seek beneath our floors A treasure that was never yours, Thief, you have been warned; beware Of finding more than riches there.
Behind the silver door was a spacious marble hall, where hundreds of goblins sat behind the high counters, busily working.
Some were weighing coins with scales, some were using eyepieces to examine gems, and some were receiving wizard customers and scribbling something in large ledgers...
After looking around, Theo walked to the counter of a goblin who seemed relatively free.
"Excuse me."
The goblin heard the voice, put down the quill in his hand, and leaned over the high counter to look at Theo and Tom.
At this time, Theo and Tom were both wearing decent and gorgeous clothes, looking like young masters from pure-blood families.
When the goblin saw Tom's attire, the impatience on his face immediately turned into a big smile.
"Welcome, what kind of business do you two want to conduct?" The goblin's voice was sharp and piercing.
Theo didn't take out pounds but directly took out 5 small gold bars from his pocket, "Exchange for some galleons to spend."
"Ah! Okay! Okay! I'll weigh them for you!"
When the goblin saw the gold bars, his eyes lit up, and his tone became even more flattering.
He put the 5 small gold bars that Theo handed him on the small scales and weighed them separately.
"Oh, the purity of these gold bars is very high! I can give you the highest price."
"Well... today's gold price is 10 gold galleons per gram. The weight of your 5 gold bars is 100 grams each. So, how about I exchange 5000 gold galleons for you in total?"
When Tom heard this, his eyes couldn't help but light up. To be reasonable, for him, who currently has only 20 gold galleons, 5000 gold galleons is already a huge sum of money!
However, Theo shook his head, "10 gold galleons per gram? Your handling fee is a bit high. I'd better change to another counter."
Tom couldn't help but glance at Theo. 5000 gold galleons is already a lot...
"Don't! Wait!" The goblin quickly stopped Theo, who was about to turn around and leave. "How about this? My name is Griphook; as long as you are willing to come to Gringotts for business in the future, come to me."
When Griphook said this, he cautiously looked around and then whispered, "I can offer 12 gold galleons per gramme; what do you think?"
Tom quickly pretended to rub his face inadvertently to prevent his expression from getting out of control and ruining Theo's business...
At this time, Theo began to pretend to hesitate.
"Oh! Sir, although the price of gold changes every day, this is already the highest price. I can't explain it to the superiors if it's higher." Griphook said helplessly.
"Okay, let's do it according to what you said."
"Great! I'll get the money for you! By the way... do you want to open a vault? You know, with an extra vault, you can store your own pocket money, and I guarantee that your family will not find out!"
"Then open one. And, help me put these in too." Theo said and took out the remaining gold bars.
Grip Hook's eyes widened. He was right; these two young masters were indeed very wealthy! Even their pocket money was in the form of gold bars!
...
By the time the two walked out of Gringotts' doors, their wallets were bulging, and they were rich.
Tom asked, "How did you know that the greedy goblin wasn't telling the truth?"
Theo smiled. "Goblins are all greedy; how could they tell the truth? Do you believe that 12 gold galleons per gram isn't the highest price either? Grip Hook definitely has a kickback to earn."
"Then you still exchanged with him?" Tom asked in shock.
"Tom, if you want others to do their best for you, you have to give them some benefits. Especially when dealing with creatures like goblins," Theo said nonchalantly.
"Here, this is for you." Theo took out a money bag from his pocket and threw it to Tom, which contained 500 gold galleons. "We'll each take 500 gold galleons, which should be enough for now, and put the rest in Gringotts first."
Tom nodded and silently put the money bag into his pocket.
"Alright, we should go return the clothes. And then... go buy a wand!" Theo's face showed a hint of anticipation.
Theo had always been casting spells without a wand, and now he wanted to try what it felt like to use a wand. Tom felt the same way.
The two returned to Madam Malkin's to return the clothes, and after each buying the school uniforms they needed for enrolment, they quickly arrived in front of Ollivander's Wand Shop.
This shop looked small and shabby, and the gold-lettered signboard on the door had peeled off, which read: "Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC.".
In the shop window, a wand was placed alone on a faded purple cushion.
Theo and Tom pushed the door open and walked in.
The inside of the shop looked very small, and there was nothing but a long chair in the corner.
Thousands of narrow paper boxes containing wands were piled from the floor to the ceiling, and a thin layer of dust had fallen everywhere.
"Welcome to Ollivanders Wand Shop! Ah... two more young wizards preparing to enrol in Hogwarts."
A young man with silver-white pupils squeezed out of the dense shelves.
"My name is Garrick Ollivander. You've come to the right place to buy wands at my shop."
"There are so many wands; how do we choose?" Tom looked around at the mountain of wand boxes in confusion.
Ollivander smiled and said, "Haha, in fact, it's not the wizard who chooses the wand, but the wand chooses the wizard! Alright... which of you two will go first?"
Theo pushed Tom forward, "He'll go first."
Tom frowned and glanced at Theo. He had already begun to suspect that Theo was up to something bad again!
However, Theo really didn't mean to trick him this time.
He simply wanted to see if Tom would still get the destined yew wand.
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(End of this chapter)