Early Saturday morning, Jack Avery arrived in Hogsmeade accompanied by Rad and one of his house-elves. He had combed his hair to perfection and was dressed in traditional noble robes, carrying an expensive walking cane. He looked every bit the pure-blood aristocrat.
Although Rad's analysis had eased most of his doubts, Avery still brought the house-elf along—just in case.
Sullivan personally greeted them at the entrance of the experience store. He extended his hand with a warm, genuine smile. "Mr. Avery, it's a real pleasure to finally meet you!"
"Mr. Sullivan, the pleasure is mine. I never imagined someone your age could invent an alchemical device that's going to change the entire wizarding world." Avery's tone was equally polite.
Avery was no fool—if he had been, he never would have survived the big trials after the war. He didn't particularly dislike Muggle-borns, nor was he obsessed with blood purity. Everything he did was driven by profit. As long as there was money to be made, he was willing to be very flexible with his principles.
"Have we met before at school?" Sullivan asked casually as they walked inside.
"What year did you start?" Avery replied. "I'm sure I would remember someone as talented an alchemist as you."
"1971. You?"
"I graduated in 1970, so I don't believe our paths crossed."
"What a shame," Sullivan said with mock regret.
They stepped into the experience store. Avery cut straight to the point. "Mr. Sullivan, if you'll forgive my bluntness, I'd really like to know why exactly you want to partner with the Avery family."
Sullivan had prepared for this. He laughed lightly. "Mr. Avery, what do you think the Magic Phone means for the future of the wizarding world?"
Thanks to Rad's earlier insights, Avery had a ready answer. "I believe the Magic Phone will eventually become a necessity for every witch and wizard. But the phone itself is just the hardware. The real revolution is the Magical Network."
Sullivan nodded approvingly. "As expected from the head of a distinguished family—you've already seen the heart of it. Truth be told, selling phones isn't our main focus anymore. What we want right now is to get phones into as many hands as possible, as quickly as possible."
Avery nodded. That lined up with what Rad had told him. But Sullivan wasn't finished.
"We also have a new project in the works called the Online Mall."
"Online Mall? What does that mean?" Avery asked, though his mind was already racing with possibilities.
"For example," Sullivan explained, "take Honeydukes Sweetshop. They could put all their products online. Witches and wizards could browse the selection from home using their phones. If they want to buy something, they just place an order, and Honeydukes ships the candy straight to their door."
Avery's eyes lit up. The convenience was obvious—and more importantly, it would require delivery. Delivery meant owls.
Everything suddenly made sense. Sullivan wanted to partner with him because of the Avery family's owl breeding business.
His last lingering doubts melted away. Avery visibly relaxed, though he kept his expression carefully neutral. "This Online Mall idea sounds promising, but there are many challenges—payment methods, quality assurance, and so on."
"Of course there are challenges," Sullivan agreed, "but we have solutions. We can act as a trusted middleman. Customers pay us first—"
Sullivan continued laying out his broader business vision while they moved from the storefront into the actual production facility.
The moment Avery and Rad saw the semi-automatic casting and pressing machines, their eyes went wide. Avery thought to himself: No wonder they can produce them so quickly. Even if we gathered every alchemist in Britain, we'd never be able to compete with this kind of setup.
Rad was even more stunned. As an alchemist, he had never imagined using alchemy to manufacture more alchemical items. It opened up an entirely new world of possibilities. He soon became completely absorbed, running his hands over the machines like a man caressing a beautiful woman.
"Mr. Avery," Sullivan said, "since Mr. Rad seems so fascinated by the production line, why don't we let him stay here and explore? We can head to the back and discuss the specific terms of our partnership."
Avery, now eager to move forward, nodded immediately. "Excellent. Let's do that."
Once they were seated comfortably in the private meeting room, Avery asked, "Mr. Sullivan, how exactly do you envision our cooperation working?"
Sullivan got straight to business. "I currently have two more complete production lines like the ones you saw. I can offer you two different partnership models.
"Option one: The Avery family acts as our contract manufacturer. We supply the production lines and all raw materials. For every phone you produce, we pay the Avery family one Galleon in processing fees.
"Option two: The Avery family purchases the production lines outright. You can either create your own brand or use ours. We'll negotiate pricing and sales terms—as long as they're reasonable, we can be flexible."
Avery had just watched the entire manufacturing process and had a rough idea of the costs. A single Magic Phone probably cost no more than ten Galleons to make. On the street they sold for fifty, and scalpers were charging seventy to eighty. The profit margin was insane. There was no way he was going to settle for one Galleon per phone as a subcontractor.
Without much hesitation, Avery said, "I prefer the second option. How many Galleons would I need to pay?"
Sullivan had anticipated this choice. In fact, he had written the script for exactly this outcome.
"We're not interested in Galleons," he said calmly. "For the two production lines, I want 49% of the Avery family's owl breeding operations, plus the Avery family's shares in Hogwarts."
"You want a seat on the Hogwarts Board of Governors?" Avery asked sharply.
Sullivan leaned back, perfectly at ease. "Of course. I want more influence at Hogwarts."
Avery finally understood the full picture behind Sullivan's invitation. The offer was incredibly tempting. Two production lines running 24 hours a day could easily produce fifteen thousand phones a year. At roughly forty Galleons profit per phone, that was six hundred thousand Galleons annually.
The entire Avery family fortune was only around one million Galleons. The question was… was he willing to give up nearly half his most valuable business and a major source of political influence to get it?