The next day, Richard received reply letters from his father and Mr. Weasley.
In addition, Rich Sr. called his son on the radio and talked to him for a while, asking about everything: how he got to school, where he went, what his living conditions were like, and so on.
Mr. Weasley expressed his agreement to expand the wizarding staff and expressed his delight at the increased funding.
At breakfast, young Rich watched the Gryffindor table closely. More precisely, he watched what Ronald Weasley was eating. It seems that in the series, he was supposed to be the hero's best friend, but that's not certain. The black man, Dean Thomas, also fits the role. The chubby and shy blond Neville Longbottom resembles the actor from the second episode of the holoseries who hung around Harry Potter.
The only problem was that all these boys happily devoured the meat and didn't even think about demonstrating their vegetarian preferences in any way.
The last person to fall under suspicion was Seamus Finnigan, a fair-haired Irishman. But as luck would have it, he, too, ate meat with gusto.
"Damn it!" thought Richie. "It's not like in the show. The Potions professor doesn't give away that he's gay; not a single Gryffindor boy is a vegetarian; and not a single black female classmate! I wonder who Potter's girlfriend is then? After all, Harry only socializes with Ron in his house."
***
Richie quickly found common ground with his roommates. Gradually, using his quick tongue, he approached his Ravenclaw classmates and established friendships with them. The rest of the Hufflepuffs in his year group followed suit.
Since there were only twelve students in their group, finding a common language was not difficult.
Richie crossed paths with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley several times, continuing their friendly relationship. It turned out that Gryffindor and Slytherin students were similarly grouped together. However, they had significantly more students-twenty-eight in both houses. The Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't get along; in fact, they were competitive and practically feuding with each other. Richard was pleased that things were completely different in his group. Consequently, the lions and snakes lived in more cramped conditions, which also spoke in favor of Hufflepuff.
In his free time, Richie practiced spells, persistently trying to achieve at least minimal success in transfiguration.
On the third day of school, the boy took out two rare earth metal ingots and began copying them. Justin was in the room at the time. Intrigued by his friend's work, the boy asked:
- Richie, what are you doing?
- I'm practicing the spell to create a duplicate.
- Does such a spell really exist?
Instead of answering, Richard waved his wand, mentally marked a spot on the iridium ingot, marked five more spots, and imagined the metal dividing into five parts and reassembling into two. On his bed were two identical silver cube-shaped ingots, each weighing twelve kilograms.
"Wow!" Finch-Fletchley exclaimed in amazement. "Cool. So, everything can be copied?"
"Only ordinary objects without a drop of magic. You also can't copy gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, or emeralds."
"Can you copy an audio player, for example?" Justin asked.
- It's possible, if there are no electronic components containing silver or gold.
- Cool. Will they teach us this spell?
- In my sixth year. If you want, I can teach you.
- Let's!
Richard tried to teach Justin the duplication charm for a while, but after a couple of hours of fruitless wand waving, Finch-Fletchley lost interest.
"Oh, screw it!" Justin said angrily. "That spell is too complicated. I'll learn it later. They teach it in sixth year for a reason."
"As you wish," Richard shrugged. "It's your right."
"Why metal?" Justin asked.
"Heavy objects are harder to copy. A metal ingot is compact, so it's more convenient."
Richard dodged the truth. In fact, he was not only practicing the spell but also stockpiling some rather expensive rare earth metals. Iridium and palladium are much more valuable than silver and very close to gold.
Had he told Justin's father that he was soon going to sell the resulting rare earth metal ingots, it's hard to imagine the consequences. At the very least, young Finch-Fletchley would have realized the value of these metals and told his father how easily Richard had acquired them. Then Mr. Finch-Fletchley would likely have reduced the price several times. So, everyone wins. The banker will receive the metals at ten percent below market price, and Richie will receive the gold needed to inject funds into the wizarding business. After all, the workshop is becoming increasingly expensive. The salaries of thirty wizards and Mr. Weasley alone amount to ten thousand Galleons a month. Plus grants for research and prototype development amount to roughly the same amount. Add to this the increase in staff, and the expenses will rise even more. And the bank vault at Gringotts has a limited supply of funds.
Of course, Richie received handsome payments from the British intelligence services for enchanting various devices, but they paid in pounds. He could have converted the pounds into gold and then into galleons, but for the young businessman, such an act seemed insane. After all, he could obtain the funds to operate a magical workshop out of practically nothing.
Soon, a report from Detective Potter arrived via Rich Sr., like Darth Vader. Scott had completed a significant amount of work in a short time. He provided a considerable amount of information on Hermione Granger and the Patil twins. It contained everything: birth dates, copies of medical records, school records, punishments, and other information that could be obtained legally and illegally.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Richie tasked Scott Potter with obtaining dossiers on all his classmates, with the exception of Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, but most importantly, on the entire Malfoy family. This promised to be a lengthy undertaking, but it was important for the boy to be aware of who he could interact with, who he should avoid, and who he should, if not befriend, at least establish a friendly relationship with.
On September 19th, after breakfast, Richard stopped in front of the stairs just outside the Great Hall. Students from various houses were passing by.
"What are you standing there for?" Justin approached him.
"I want to talk to someone. Go to Transfiguration without me, Jas, I'll be there before class starts."