Chapter 39: Notes Publication
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Around the same time Quinn started to dive into the Icy vault, he was visited by a student at the A.I.D office.
He was working in the workspace when he heard the over-the-door chime ring, followed by a voice, "Is anyone here?"
"Yeah, please wait. Take a seat. I will be there in a moment," said Quinn as he removed his work gloves and leather apron. He waved his hand over his workstation, making sure that everything was packed and arranged for him when he returned.
Quinn's clothes straightened them up as he walked towards the office door. When he entered the office, Quinn saw Padma Patil, a first-year Ravenclaw, sitting in the client chair.
"Welcome to the A.I.D office. How may I help you?" Quinn greeted her with a smile.
Quinn sat down on his chair and asked, "Now that the standard greeting is out of the way. What can I do for you, Ms. Patil? This is your first time here at my office."
Quinn already knew the British girl with Indian heritage because they were in the same house, and Quinn was just a year older than her. He had frequent communication with most of the Ravenclaw first-year students.
This year, Quinn had gained most of his business from the students from his own age and then from the new first years. Most older students still didn't treat Quinn's venture as a serious service because of Quinn's age.
Why would they go to a second-year who was still new to Hogwarts? This line of thought and the belief that they knew more than Quinn was why Quinn's A.I.D wasn't popular among the older students. And, Quinn had no intention to lord his actual knowledge and skills to the upperclassmen just so he could gain more business.
Padma Patil looked at Quinn and straightforwardly said, "The final exams are coming in a few months, so I would like to have your first-year notes."
"My notes?" asked Quinn. His expression was one of a mix of surprise and intrigue.
"Yes, your notes. I have heard that you scored more than a hundred percent on all subjects other than Potions and History of Magic. With your reputation, I think your notes would be a lot of help to me," answered the studious of the Patil twins.
Quinn smiled and inquired, "And, where did you learn this reputation of mine?"
"Professor Sprout told us during her Herbology lessons," answered Padma.
Quinn nodded, though it slightly surprised him she didn't hear it from Professor Flitwick.
"Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, and History of Magic," listed Quinn. "Seven first-year subjects, and you want notes on all these subjects."
Padma nodded.
"I can arrange that. You will have my notes of all seven first-year subjects in your hands in a week's worth of time," replied Quinn.
"And, how much will these notes cost me?" asked the Ravenclaw Patil. She had researched Quinn's service before coming to him. She knew he charged money for the help he provided, plus the card stated the terms themselves.
Quinn did some quick math in his head and answered, "Five (5) sickles a subject, that makes thirty-five (35) sickles... so, two (2) galleons and one (1) sickle."
Padma nodded and left after saying goodbye.
Quinn didn't move from his office chair for a long while, thinking about the job he had just taken.
'A great business opportunity has come to my doorstep. It would be a crime not to exploit this, wouldn't it?' thought Quinn.
"I can sell my notes to the entire first and second-year student population," spoke Quinn.
Quinn knew of his reputation for being the smartest of his class, and his notes would be a huge commodity for students preparing for their end-of-year examinations.
"I have to thank Padma. There are still months before the exams, and even Ravenclaws haven't started going into the preparation mode. I still have a lot of time to advertise this," said Quinn. If Padma Patil didn't come here, Quinn wouldn't have thought of this idea this year.
'But, then there is that problem,' sighed Quinn. While it sounded as easy as taking out his first-year notes and compiling them so anybody could read them, but the reality of it was rather different.
His notes weren't just from Hogwarts but from a boatload of different communities. They had a lot of viewpoints and information that wasn't taught in Hogwarts.
"I need to separate the Hogwarts material," said Quinn, rubbing his forehead, "That would take some time."
End-of-year exam notes had to be short and concise. Quinn's actual notes were short and concise but on a different level; they weren't suitable for end-of-year examinations. Quinn's notes had information and knowledge from a boatload of various communities that would not help students in Hogwarts examinations.
"Plus, if these notes become popular, then they would most probably make their way to at least one of the teachers," sighed Quinn.
Quinn needed to be very careful that something out of Hogwarts course books and Hogwarts library didn't make itself into his notes because teachers might see it, and they might notice the oddities.
"Keep the cards close to the chest... all about that long-term game," murmured Quinn.
He stood up from his desk and exhaled, "This is going to be a busy week."
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn stood in front of forty-nine stacked sheets of parchment paper, arranged neatly in the order of seven-by-seven. A fountain pen laid on every sheet of parchment paper.
He was standing in his workshop, and usually, there would be a center island table standing in the place of the stacks of paper, but that island table had been shrunk down and set on the side.
Quinn sat down in front of the stacks of parchments, took in deep breaths, and closed his eyes. Quinn appeared in his mindscape and stood in front of seven books. Seven books, set in a single shelf bookcase, in a room with nothing else inside.
These seven books were the essence of Quinn's knowledge of seven Hogwarts subjects with information from Hogwarts course books and Hogwarts library. He had sorted these seven books from his knowledge bank of Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, and History of Magic.
He had carefully crafted these seven memory books and made sure that there was no extra knowledge from foreign communities.
The seven memory books radiated with light, and when Quinn opened his eyes, all forty-nine of the fountain pens suddenly stood up straight and started to write on sheets of parchments.
Quinn used every ounce of his Occlumency mastery of the efficiency aspect to control forty-nine different objects to perform complex tasks. Simultaneous multitasking was one of the Occlumency skills Quinn was working on, and this was a great way to practice that skill.
He allotted seven stacks of parchments to every subject, and the pens wrote notes on the parchments. The fountain pens wrote paragraphs, drew complex diagrams, and referenced every point for extra information and validation if required.
Little by little, Quinn got in the grove, and the pens began moving faster and faster. As the process became faster and faster, the sheets of parchments also changed quicker and quicker.
Quinn's eyes were now only showing white as the forty-nine pens wrote, wrote, and wrote.
After an unidentified amount of time, all the pens stopped and set themselves down on the few remaining sheets of parchments.
Quinn's eyes still showed white for at least a minute before the irises came back down to the front of the eyes, and Quinn started to badly cough as he leaned down to his side with one hand supported his body and the other hand on his chest.
"Th- *cough* *cough* this needs more work. Definitely needs more work," coughed Quinn. He laid down on the floor and breathed heavily as his chest raised up and down.
He turned his head to the side and saw multiple stacks of parchments, more than the initial forty-nine stacks. There were hundreds of thin stacks of parchments lining the wide floor of Quinn's workshop.
"But, it was worth it," he sighed, watching the sweet result of his work.
He turned his head to look up at the ceiling and sighed, "Now, I have to do this once more for the second-year course." Quinn groaned as he got up from the floor and groaned because of the slight headache.
He looked at the stacks and then at one of the tables on the side of the workshop, and thin post-it-sized slips flew to the hundreds of stacks. The thin post-it slips stuck to the stacks, and after all the parchment stacks were marked, with a snap of Quinn's finger, all the slips changed colors to one of the seven rainbow colors, each representing one of the subjects.
The marked stacks flew up in the air and arranged themselves into seven neat stacks for seven subjects.
Quinn yawned as he walked out of the workshop, "I need a quick nap."
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- (Scene Break) -
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Three days before the deadline he gave to Padma Patil, Quinn entered the Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop in Hogsmeade. The shop was owned by the West family, and as the name suggested, it was a stationery store.
Quinn walked inside and approached the counter. He looked around and saw no one behind the counter. Looking down, he saw a bell, so he rang it and waited.
"I will be right there," heard Quinn from a back room.
Quinn turned away from the counter and looked at the store. It was a simple store that sold rolls of parchments, quills, inks, notebooks, binding material, and all other kinds of charmed stationery material.
Quinn noticed things in the store that screamed business strategy to him.
'The Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop catered to Hogwarts students, but with no Hogsmeade weekend nearby, they reduced the section dedicated to Hogwarts to a small corner,' thought Quinn.
He looked around the store and saw the current ambiance of the store was catered to another audience. 'This seems more like a printing business rather than a stationery store.'
The majority of the store's adverts showed the different types of printing parchments, leather bindings, ink packages, charms the store offered that animated letters and drawings in books.
Seeing the store being run dynamically to the demand made him smile.
"Sorry for the wait. How may I help you?" heard Quinn, and when he turned, he saw a middle-aged man walking behind the counter, looking at some letters in his hands.
When the person looked up and saw Quinn, he frowned.
"You... are you a Hogwarts student?" asked the person. Quinn's looks showed that he was definitely over eleven, so the shop employee was skeptical about seeing Quinn. But, Quinn wasn't wearing a Hogwarts uniform, so the shop employee wasn't sure.
Quinn smiled and walked towards the counter and said,
"Yes, I am a Hogwarts student. My name is Quinn West. I was told that you would be expecting me."
The shop owner's jaw dropped as he exclaimed, "West?!"
"Yes, you heard it correctly," replied Quinn, taking out multiple matchbox-sized stacks of parchment.
"But, I thought you would be owling the documents you needed to be printed. I never thought you would be coming here personally. There isn't a Hogsmeade weekend anywhere near... scratch that... today is a weekday. How are you here?!" spoke the employee, still feeling a little shock.
"Let's not sweat the small stuff," said Quinn as he took out his fake wand and unshrunk the multiple stacks of parchment on the countertop and continued,
"Now, take note as what I am about to say is important. There are seven color strips, one of those strips mark every stack. This means that the stacks marked by the red strips go together," Quinn looked up and asked, "Are you with me?"
The shop employee nodded, so Quinn continued,
"Good, every strip is marked with a number, which denotes the order they go in while binding the pages. Every page also has a page number just in case the order gets messed up," Quinn continued to explain all the details of the print and binding he wanted.
He stared at the shop employee and asked, "Would you be able to remember all of this?"
The shop employee nodded.
"Good, nevertheless, here you go," Quinn retrieved a couple of sheets of paper and handed it to the employee.
"Everything I said is on the sheets, and there is even more like the design of the cover and the in-between cover pages." He tapped on the pages and insisted, "I want things done exactly according to these documents."
The shop employee looked through the instructions and asked, "And, how many copies do you want?"
"For now, I want twenty copies of each final package, but please keep the print with you. I will need more in the future," answered Quinn.
Quinn also looked up and asked, "How much will all this cost?"
"I can't take money from you," said the employee, his tone incredulous.
Quinn shook his head and answered, "No, this is my personal endeavor. I will pay for this myself."
When Quinn had contacted his family to ask for the services of the Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, his grandfather had outright told him he would have to pay from his own trust vault, and Quinn had no problem with it.
Quinn's trust vault had a lot of money, compared to the capital Quinn used for buying beast parts, herbs, books, and other stuff. This bill would be relatively small, and he would most probably break even if a few sets sold.
'Profit was never really the motive,' though Quinn.
"I will send you the bill after the delivery," answered the shop employee. Quinn's family owned the business, and it wouldn't be a problem if Quinn never paid.
"I will be needing these in three days. Would that time be enough," asked Quinn.
The shop employee nodded and responded, "You will have these in two days." He looked at Quinn and asked, "Would you come here to collect?"
Quinn shook his head, "No, shrunk the notebooks and owl them to Hogwarts."
"Understood."
Quinn nodded, "Excellent. Now, I would have to leave. I have to return to the castle."
The shop employee stepped from behind the counter and said, "I will escort you."
Quinn waved his hand and said, "It's okay. I can find my way. By the way, I didn't get your name."
"Oh, my name is Gary," answered the now-named shop employee.
"Good evening, Gary. Let's hope this goes well and we can work more," said Quinn as he bid farewell to Gary.
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- (Scene Break) -
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As Gary promised, Quinn got his delivery on the day he had to give the notes to Padma Patil.
During breakfast, the owl raid brought the Scrivenshaft's package dropped on the table in front of Quinn.
Quinn saw the Scrivenshaft's logo on the package, and a wide grin surfaced on his face. He picked the parcel and placed it in his bookbag.
He hummed a tune while eating his breakfast.
Marcus, who was looking at Quinn, asked, "What got you in a good mood?"
"Today will be a momentous day, Belby. A momentous day," said Quinn. Quinn looked at Marcus, but he was already back eating his food, not paying attention to him.
"You just missed the footnote, you glutton," deadpanned Quinn.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn sat in his office reading a book on Blood magic when he heard the door chime ring. He closed the book and looked up to see Padma Patil enter the office.
"Good evening, Ms. Patil. Your notes are ready," greeted Quinn. He opened a drawer in his desk and took out seven bound stacks of parchments.
The cover of each stack had a different color, the seven books covered all seven colors of the rainbow. The design on the cover was quite mentalistic. Mentioned in the center of the cover page were the subject names and the year. On the bottom right corner, there was a small box with A.I.D written inside it.
The cover page was made from a slightly thicker parchment than the pages inside, but it was still parchment, so the notes had a paperback feel instead of a hardback.
Quinn had the notes made from parchment instead of paper so that all would readily accept them.
He pushed the seven notebooks towards Padma and let her take a look.
The looks of notes surprised her. She wasn't expecting them to look so aesthetically pleasing.
"These are your notes?" she asked as she opened the Charms notebook.
"Yes, these are my notes, an amalgamation of my knowledge. These notes contain everything I consider important, written in easy words and figures. You will find everything from the course books and the books I have read from the library," said Quinn, not lying at all. He was just omitting that he knew a lot more than this.
"Why do they look like this," asked Padma, not looking at Quinn at all. The notebooks intrigued her too much.
"Oh that," Quinn smiled and said, "I have decided to sell these notes, so I made them look good. This design will attract a lot more attention."
He leaned forward and spoke, "Now, Ms. Patil, I have a proposition that I would like to offer you."
Padma looked up from the notes and asked, "What proposition?"
"I would give you a discount of ten (10) sickles, or two of these seven notebooks if you advertise these notes to your friends. Study in the common room. Keep the notes out on the tables; so they remain in view, and everyone can see them. You know that kind of stuff," answered Quinn.
Padma thought for a second before nodding, "I can do that." She put twenty-five (25) sickles on the table.
Quinn counted the money before asking, "Can you sign your name, the subjects you purchased, and the money you gave me on here?" He pulled out a paper from his desk with a table on it. "Write your name here, tick the subjects you purchased and write the amount in sickles... Excellent."
Quinn shook hands with Padma and said, "Pleasure doing business with you."
When Padma left, Quinn looked at the sole name written on the table and talked, "Let's start phase-2."
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Quinn West - MC - Has a plan in mind... *Mwuhahahahaha!*
Padma Patil - Ravenclaw - Talks less - Wants to get a head start on exam prep.
Gary - Shop Employee - "How did he get out of Hogwarts..."
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