The following day, Richard received reply letters from his father and Mr Weasley.
In addition, the elder Grosvenor called his son via the wizardphone and spoke with him for some time, inquiring about everything: how he had arrived at school, which house he had been sorted into, what the living conditions were like, and so on.
Mr Weasley expressed his agreement regarding the expansion of the wizarding staff and conveyed his delight at the increase in funding.
At breakfast, young Grosvenor carefully observed the Gryffindor table. More precisely, he was watching what Ronald Weasley was eating. According to the series, he was supposed to become the protagonist's best friend—but that was hardly certain. The dark-skinned boy Dean Thomas also seemed a suitable candidate for the role. Neville Longbottom — a plump, shy blond — rather resembled the actor from the second episode of the holoseries who, who was always hovering about Harry Potter.
There was only one problem—all of these boys were happily tucking into meat and showed no inclination whatsoever towards vegetarian habits.
The last suspect was Seamus Finnigan, a fair-haired Irish lad. But, as luck would have it, he too was eating meat with enthusiasm.
Blast it! Richie thought. Nothing matches the series. The Potions professor gives no indication whatsoever of being gay; not a single Gryffindor boy is vegetarian; and not one black girl among the yearmates! So who's Potter's girlfriend supposed to be, then? After all, he only ever seems to spend time with Ron in his own house…
***
Richie quickly found common ground with his dorm-mates. Gradually, with the help of his silver tongue, he found his way into the good graces of his Ravenclaw classmates and struck up friendly relations with them. The other Hufflepuffs in his group soon followed his lead.
Since there were only twelve students in their group, getting along proved no difficulty at all.
Richie crossed paths with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley several times, maintaining a friendly rapport with them. It turned out that Gryffindor and Slytherin students were similarly combined into a single group. However, their numbers were far greater—twenty-eight across both houses. The Gryffindors and Slytherins had failed to find any common ground; more than that, they competed with one another and were practically at odds. Richard was rather pleased that things in his own group were entirely different. Accordingly, the lions and snakes lived in more cramped conditions, which further confirmed the wisdom of choosing Hufflepuff.
In his spare time, Richie practised spells, stubbornly striving to achieve at least minimal success in Transfiguration.
On the third day of lessons, the boy took out two ingots of rare earth metals and began copying them. At that moment, Justin was in the room. Intrigued by his friend's activity, the boy asked:
"Richie, what are you doing?"
"Practising duplication charms."
"Does such a spell really exist?"
Instead of answering, Richard flicked his wand, mentally marked a point on the iridium ingot, selected five additional points, and imagined the metal splitting into five parts before reassembling into two. Two identical silver-coloured ingots, each shaped like a cube and weighing twelve kilograms, appeared on his bed.
"Blimey!" Finch-Fletchley exclaimed in astonishment. "That's brilliant. Can you copy anything like that?"
"Only ordinary objects without a trace of magic. And you can't copy gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, or emeralds."
"What about, say, an audio player?" Justin asked.
"You can—provided it doesn't contain electronic components with silver or gold."
"Cool. Will we be taught this spell?"
"In sixth year. If you like, I can teach you."
"Let's do it!"
For some time, Richard attempted to teach Justin the duplication charm, but after a couple of hours of fruitless wand-waving, Finch-Fletchley lost interest in the whole affair.
"Oh, forget it!" Justin said in frustration. "It's far too complicated. I'll learn it later. No wonder they only teach it in sixth year."
"As you wish," Richard shrugged. "Your choice."
"Why metal?" Justin asked.
"Heavy objects are harder to copy. A metal ingot is compact—it's more convenient."
Richard sidestepped the truthful answer. In reality, he was not only practising the spell but also creating a reserve of rather expensive rare earth metals. Iridium and palladium were far more valuable than silver and nearly as dear as gold.
Had he admitted that he intended to sell the resulting ingots to Justin's father, it was difficult to imagine the consequences. At the very least, young Finch-Fletchley would have realised the true value of these metals and told his father how easily Richard had acquired them. In that case, Mr Finch-Fletchley would almost certainly have slashed the price several times over.
As things stood, everyone benefited. The banker would receive metals at ten percent below market price, while Richie would obtain gold—necessary for injecting funds into his magical business. After all, the workshop required ever-increasing expenditure. The wages alone for three dozen wizards and Mr Weasley amounted to ten thousand Galleons per month. Add to that research grants and the creation of experimental prototypes at roughly the same cost, and then factor in staff expansion, and the expenses would grow even further. Meanwhile, the vault at Gringotts held only a finite reserve of funds.
Of course, Richie received substantial payments from British special services for enchanting various pieces of equipment—but they paid in pounds. He could have converted pounds into gold and then into Galleons, but for a young businessman, such a course of action seemed absurd. After all, he could practically conjure the means to sustain his magical workshop out of thin air.
(End of Chapter)
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