Hogwarts’ John Wick

Longbottom was running himself ragged, and so was Weasley.

Mr Weasley had never imagined that one day he would become involved in such an enormous web of interests.

The Weasley twins were natural businessmen, so busy every day that their feet barely touched the ground.

Fred had even put his newlywed wife, Angelina, in charge of supervising production.

Mr Weasley was no less busy. After all, he was the head of the second ancient family.

As a Ministry official, he had no idea why the people who once looked down on him had suddenly become so respectful.

Those who used to call him Arthur directly now addressed him as Director Weasley.

That day, Mr Weasley dragged his exhausted body home.

There were only four people living in the house now. Apart from Mr and Mrs Weasley, only Ron and Ginny remained.

Ron was busy planning to open a shop of his own, while Ginny had repeatedly failed to persuade him to train Quidditch with her.

"Arthur?"

Molly Weasley came out when she heard the door open. Seeing that it was her husband, she said with disappointment, "I thought it was Fred and George."

"They’re not coming today. Oh, Molly, this is for you."

Mr Weasley set down a bag.

Confused, Mrs Weasley walked over and opened it.

A flash of gold nearly blinded her.

"Merlin’s beard!"

She screamed, and the bag toppled over.

Shining Galleons spilled across the entire table and clattered onto the floor.

There was also a gift box inside containing gemstone earrings.

Mrs Weasley could barely speak.

"W-What is all this?"

"As you can see," Mr Weasley said, "money and gifts."

He pointed outside.

"Ginny’s new broom is out there."

"No, Arthur, I mean what did you do?" Mrs Weasley asked worriedly. "You didn’t rob Gringotts, did you?"

"Gringotts? Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have the ability," Mr Weasley said helplessly. "These are dividends from the Ancient Alliance."

The Ancient Alliance Fund essentially pooled money for investment, and this was the return.

When old Goyle had placed all of this in front of him, Mr Weasley’s reaction had been almost identical to his wife’s.

"Mum, what happened... Merlin’s soggy socks."

Ron and Ginny came downstairs after hearing the commotion.

The moment they saw all the Galleons, both of them froze.

"Are we dreaming?" Ron muttered blankly.

Ginny was more direct.

She reached over and pinched Ron hard enough to make him jump.

That confirmed it.

They were not dreaming.

There were at least five thousand Galleons here.

They had already earned back a quarter of the money originally invested in the Ancient Alliance Fund.

And that did not even include what Mr Weasley had spent on the gifts.

The moment Ginny heard that her new broom was outside, she screamed and rushed out.

When she opened the package, she found a Nimbus 2001.

Ron stared at it with intense envy.

"Aren’t you planning to open a shop? Take some of this money."

Even now, Mr Weasley still found everything unreal.

He had never imagined that he would earn this much money.

In the past, the Weasley family had counted every Knut and would never have spoken so casually about money.

Now, however, the words felt completely natural coming from his mouth.

Ron’s eyes were already filled with Galleons.

...

The industries of the Second Dynasty had one very obvious feature.

Every one of them accepted the Young Wizard Card discount.

Half price.

Quills at half price.

Ink at half price.

Parchment at half price.

Hotels at half price.

Materials at half price.

Potions at half price.

Even the Knight Bus was half price.

Anything related to education was half price.

Wolfsbane Potion and Ruby Potion were also half price.

Did that mean the Second Dynasty was losing money?

No.

Not at all.

There was a prerequisite for using the Young Wizard Card.

If a Young Wizard Card was found to be used for profiteering, Silver Hand had the right to revoke it.

At the same time, half-price products purchased with the Young Wizard Card could not be paid for directly with Galleons. The Galleons first had to be deposited into the card.

That meant large amounts of Galleons would be converted into numbers stored on the cards.

The Second Dynasty would have a continuous surplus of Galleons flowing into its industrial chain.

Young wizards would not spend all their points at once. They would use them gradually.

So by the time someone bought one half-price product, the profits generated throughout the entire cycle were already enough to produce a hundred more.

As for how they ensured that the data on the cards could not be altered?

Do not forget where the world’s greatest alchemist was.

John implanted a sliver of magical crystal into every Young Wizard Card, forming a fixed storage structure that could not be modified except by authorised institutions.

That was what made the Second Dynasty so terrifying.

Internal circulation.

As for merchants excluded from the system, they had no way to offer prices this low.

Those who refused to submit would simply be crushed until nothing remained.

Submit or be conquered.

One way or another, they had to choose.

The Young Wizards Foundation gave John the moral high ground. No Ministry of Magic would reject it, because doing so would mean turning every wizarding family against itself.

At this moment, the Second Dynasty stood in an unbeatable position.

And John had even greater ambitions.

He intended to continue expanding the Young Wizard Card system.

Once its coverage became broad enough, the Young Wizard Card could begin to replace the role of Galleons.

At that point, the importance of Gringotts would be reduced without limit.

The Second Dynasty would become the largest financial interest group in the wizarding world, much like a Muggle bank.

At the dining table, John watched Kiki being fed a mouthful of salad before calmly turning his attention back to the newspaper.

"This Second Dynasty... what exactly is it?"

Watson took a sip of milk.

He had also developed the habit of reading wizarding newspapers, though he rarely understood much of them because he knew little about the wizarding world.

Still, the shocking headlines plastered across every newspaper made it sound as though something terrible was happening.

"There’s magic outside Britain too?" Watson asked a rather foolish question.

John thought for a moment before answering, "There are wizards all over the world. It just depends on where they’re hiding."

"There are that many wizards?" Watson looked surprised.

He had always assumed that people with magical talent were extremely rare.

"Has no wizard ever thought about ruling the world?"

"Compared with ordinary people, they don’t even make up one in ten thousand," John said, shaking his head. "Aside from magic, wizards have no real advantage over ordinary people."

"Dad, you’ve been attacked by wizards before, and with a handgun, you weren’t any worse than they were," John reminded him.

Watson thought about it and realised he was right.

He had nearly crippled Sirius and had even participated in a magical war.

Most Muggle fear of wizards came from the terrifying legends passed down over generations.

Mystery was what made people afraid.

Once the mystery disappeared and people understood what wizards could actually do, things became much simpler.

"All right. I thought this Second Dynasty was planning to conquer the world or something."

Having put the matter out of his mind, Watson teased Kiki with a strip of bacon.

Kiki swallowed another mouthful of salad resentfully, its eyes fixed on the bacon in his hand.

John smiled but did not tell him that the Second Dynasty belonged to his son.

What John was more curious about was why Ariana kept feeding Kiki salad.

Ariana said seriously, "Eating salad helps it lose weight. That way, the meat will taste better."

Kiki: "?"

Terrified, it tried to fly away, only for Ariana to grab its leg and pull it back.

John was startled as well.

"Where did you hear that?"

At his question, Ariana let go of Kiki, ran upstairs to her room, then hurried back down.

She brought a handwritten recipe with her.

John stared at it for a long moment before asking speechlessly, "Where did you get this?"

"From the Constellation Society." Ariana blinked innocently. "Is it wrong?"

"It’s not wrong, but..." John gave Kiki a sympathetic look.

He had not expected Ariana to regard Kiki as emergency rations.

It seemed he needed to explain to her properly that owls were companions to wizards. Although they could technically be eaten, there were plenty of other choices.

Besides, Kiki was not even an owl.

It was a genuine Peruvian Vipertooth.

After a great deal of persuasion, Ariana finally let Kiki go and allowed the poor dragon to eat some bacon.

Of course, it came from Watson’s plate.

Watson had only wanted to tease the owl, yet somehow ended up losing his own breakfast.

This proved that being too smug was rarely a good idea.

After breakfast, John ignored the fragile friendship between Watson and Kiki and went to deal with matters concerning the Second Dynasty.

He might have looked leisurely, but in reality, John was the busiest of them all.

He needed to oversee the overall situation and use his own reputation to establish contact with various countries.

The message was essentially the same everywhere.

Support Barty Crouch Sr.

Choosing this moment to take such a large step forward was also a way of boosting Barty Crouch Sr.’s reputation.

They might not be in the same boat, but their interests were closely tied together.

The more successful Barty Crouch Sr. became, the easier it would be for the Second Dynasty to operate.

Mutual benefit.

Why wouldn’t they do it?

____

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