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59.27% HP: A Magical Journey [Complete] / Chapter 261: Meeting The Broker

Chapter 261: Meeting The Broker

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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Quinn tapped his finger at the beautiful mahogany table. He was sat in a conference room inside the Switzerland West Headquarters. He glanced up at the clock in front of him that showed five minutes to eleven — ten minutes remaining to his last meeting in Switzerland before he went back home.

"They should be here by now," said Quinn.

Helena looked up from her everyday paperwork, she might have been keeping Quinn company, but that didn't mean she wanted to take her regular duties back home with her. "He will be here. . . it's just that the person has a reputation for being on time, and I mean, really on time, he won't be here a minute before its time to arrive," she said.

"Is that so," said Quinn and then closed his eyes to spend some time in his mind.

The next time Quinn opened his eyes was at the sound of the door opening and a loud voice that came from the said door. "I am here, lovely people, so let's make some gorgeous gold for everybody."

Quinn looked at the loud man. Hair set with wax, a finely groomed beard, a natural tan skin, a tailored grey checkered suit on his body, and an expensive watch on his wrist.

The man strolled into the room, pulled up a chair, and dropped himself down on it. He leaned back and spread his legs wide, and stared at Quinn, who sat in front of him. "So, you're Quinn West, huh. Man, you're young, and with so much money. . . those born with silver spoons have it so good and easy."

"It would be better if you don't—" Helena tried to say something, but Quinn raised a hand.

"You are?" Quinn asked.

"Eh? You don't know me?" asked the man, blinking in surprise.

"Of course not. Should I know you?" Though he noticed the American accent

The man's broad smile somehow stretched wider. "I like you. . . I like you. . . I like you." The man leaned forward towards the table, set his elbows on it as his fingers tapped a quick beat. "My name is Jerome Walker, but I'm more popularly known as the Broker. . . It is a pleasure to meet you," he smiled.

"Well then, Mr. Walker, I heard that you can help me invest my money in the non-magical world."

"That I can," the man raised his hands and wiggled his fingers. "I am the Broker, the man who trades between the wizarding and the no-maj world. Anything you desire from the no-maj world, I'll get my hands on it — no matter what the item, the Broker will find it for you."

"And how did you get into this fascinating business, Mr. Walker?" asked Quinn.

The Broker leaned back into his chair and drummed his fingertips against each other. "I was born to a wizard father and a no-maj mother, or at least that's what I was told, but who can tell in America."

Quinn raised a brow at that. He knew about the laws in America where first-generation magicals were taken away from their family because of the witch hunt history of the country and raised by the Ministry until they had completed their education; the same went for orphans. But this was Quinn's first time seeing someone like that.

"I wasn't that good with magic," the Broker said with a satisfied smile, "the worst at it really, neither was I good at Quidditch and because of my background, I couldn't make it into the Ministry — it's tough to succeed without some backing there. So, after I graduated, I struggled for a while, jumping from job to job, before I decided that there wasn't much of a future in the wizarding world, so I decided to try my hand at the no-maj world, and well, all sort of stuff happened, and here I am. The man who everyone wants to be, but not all can become."

"It must've been tough," said Quinn, "venturing into the non-magical world after living your entire life in the magical one."

"Na, it wasn't that difficult," Broker waved it off, "people are people — they're the same everywhere. It took a year at most before I was a person brought up in the no-maj world, and I have to admit, it was much more fun than the wizarding world."

"Well, that side of the world has its own charm," said Quinn before deciding to get to the point. "I am looking to invest a little of my wealth into the non-magical world, and from the word around, the Broker's the best there is."

"You have heard correct. I'm the best in the business. I was the only one when I started; there have been many who have tried to walk the path I took, but they can't beat the original, and that's why they call me THE Broker.

So tell me, what do you want to acquire, and I'll get it for you."

The Broker looked up at the kid in front of him. What could a boy his age want — a car, maybe a computer, or a game console, or whatever a bratty teen these days wanted.

"I want companies."

The Broker's hand stroking his beard stilled over his chin as he tilted his head. What did the kid say? Companies? Maybe he heard it wrong. "Sorry I didn't get that. Could you repeat what you said?"

"I want to buy companies."

Broker slowly leaned forward. "Companies. . . as in?"

"Well, I have some in mind that I want to buy. Most of them have already gone public, so we're going to have to buy stocks, or if you approach the owners, who are looking to liquefy a part of their share, I don't mind buying from them directly. There are two that hasn't gone public, but one of them would soon, so I want to buy a lot during the IPO."

Broker opened his mouth before closing it and repeated the process a couple of times before he finally uttered some words. "You want to buy companies? You want to buy stock? As in the stock market? You. . . you actually know what stocks are."

"Of course, I know what stocks are," said Quinn, furrowing his brows. "You can do it, right? Or do I need to find someone else?"

That pulled the Broker back into the game. "Of course, I can get it. That's not even a question. I can get anything; a few stocks isn't going to be difficult. A few calls in the correct places, and you can buy all the stock you want."

"That's good to hear," said Quinn, pulling a folder from his pockets and sliding it towards the Broker. "These are the companies I have chosen and the amount I want to be invested. As this my first investment, I'm going for the long haul, and it would be a very long while before I even think of liquifying them."

"Oh ho, a client who knows what they want, huh. My favorite sort of client," he pulled the folder to him. "Let's see what you have in mind."

He opened the folder and started reading. "Oracle, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Apple. . ."

Quinn nodded. He didn't know much about the stock market, but what he did have was the memories of his previous life. However, even in his previous life, Quinn wasn't much involved in the business world or even investment. It didn't help that the detailed memories of his previous life faded with every year — those memories weren't accessible through his mindscape, and thus Quinn had to write a lot of his memories so he didn't lose them.

However, he didn't live under a rock; he knew what was really big and what would do really well in the future.

"Yeah, so these companies, as you might see, are tech companies," said Quinn. "I have full confidence that these companies will do very well in the future. There's Amazon, which I heard is going to go public very soon, so we're going to buy a lot during the IPO. Also, I would like you to keep an eye on Google."

Quinn was also looking forward to the dot com bubble crisis happening to invest more and solidify his position in the tech industry.

"And, if you flip it over, you would see that I have chosen a few more companies that aren't tech companies because I want to diversify a bit," said Quinn. "Monster Beverage Corporation — a beverage company, Jack Henry & Associates — which is again a tech-based but in the financial sector, there's Cerner — also tech-based, but it's involved in healthcare, so I have listed it separately like I did the previous one.

I have listed Best Buy, Ross Stores, which are both retail stores that I think are going to do well. Kansas City Southern is a railroad company that I researched a bit and was a last-minute entry. UnitedHealth Group because the health industry is not going anywhere but up, so it's a no-brainer. Next, I would like to invest in Berkshire Hathaway.

Finally, I want to cap it off with Nike because basketball is really huge right now, so I want to leverage that and ride that wave. And that's that. . . so what do you think; would you be able to do it?"

The Broker had his eyes trained on the sheets. He had heard what Quinn had said, but most of it wasn't registered as his attention was occupied by the numbers printed on the paper.

'. . . What are these outrageous amounts?!' He glanced up at Quinn briefly. 'Why does he have to buy so much? Did he put in an extra zero or something?'

It wasn't like he hadn't traded in this amount — there were people who wanted him to buy antiques or artworks, and those things were ridiculously priced. But this was going to be in a little different ballpark, and he was going to put in some serious work to not let these investments in very prominent companies make big waves and attract unwanted attention. He would need to invest these amounts slowly over an extended period of time to hide them from the prying eyes.

"Alright," said the Broker, "I will set up—"

"Actually, I wanted to invest more," said Quinn, crossing his arms.

"Huh, what?"

"I had to cut my investment in half because grandfather said that he wanted to match my investments, and I thought raising the amount more than that might make a serious change in the market, which I don't want."

"Match the amount. . ."

Helena jumped into the conversation. "Yes, we would need a replication of what you're going to do for Quinn, but this would be tied to a fund which is connected to George West, and this goes without saying, but we would expect absolute secrecy from your part about this matter."

". . .Double the amount," said the Broker, looking at the sheets while doing the calculation. That changed everything; now, he was going to need to call in some serious favors and grease hands to keep it under the radar. "I will make this happen, but this is going to cost you extra. This is going to take a lot of work to pull and a lot of my time."

"Not a problem," said Quinn; he gestured to Helena. "Please contact Mrs. Berenberg here, and she'll pay for your services. Just remember to see that these requests are separate from each other, and thus, you need to bill them differently."

"Whatever floats your boat," said the Broker before fully leaning into his chair, feeling mentally exhausted after the short meet. "Why couldn't you have just asked for a car or a yacht or a plane. I could have the keys in your hands before the month ended. This. . . This is going to take at least a year, most probably more than that."

Quinn shrugged. He currently had no need for a yacht or plane — he preferred to fly and swim on his own, or even a car with apparition under his belt.

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Quinn West - MC - 'Dot com bubble. . . Facebook. . . 2008's financial crisis. . . Bitcoin release. . . hehehehe.'

Jerome Walker - The Broker - A man between two worlds.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Well, the long-standing request of investing in the muggle world has been completed. Also, I'm not a financial geek, so I just chose the American stock market, which is why The Broker is an American. And all of the stocks came from 'best performing stock in the 30 year period,' and the obvious tech stocks. Also, let's not get into the butterfly effect. This was just my attempt at showing muggle investment.

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If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.

The link is in the synopsis!


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Chapter 262: An Inspired QWASPP

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]

The link is also in the synopsis.

.

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George and Lia walked in the corridors of West Manor.

"I'm a bit worried about him," said George.

"Why? What did he do now?" asked Lia, the twenty-seven-year-old, who looked to be in her early twenties.

"He's barely at home these days. He goes out in the morning to the gym of his; I'm already gone by the time he returns for breakfast. Then Rosey tells me that he goes out again soon after that only to return in time for supper."

"Does he say where he goes?"

"He names places, towns, cities, seaside ports; he has named almost every portion of the country. But that isn't much to go with."

"I'm sure he's just going to the Greengrass' place," Lia grinned, looping her arm with her grandfather.

George hummed.

"So, any idea what he's going to show us today?" she asked.

George shook his head. "Just that it's not something new. Or that what's he told Elliot."

"Then I hope it's something we already sell," sighed the person in charge of every subsidiary built for her brother's inventions. "Opening a new company every year's bothersome work, not to mention looking for the correct people to lead those companies. There are so many people with their top bunks empty."

"You can always pass one of them to Elliot."

"No, that won't be necessary," said Lia in firm refusal. She was trying to build a reputation in the West businesses that didn't have anything to do with her family name. She was secure enough to delegate responsibility to her subordinates, but passing on the companies assigned to her, which involved her baby brother's inventions, wasn't something she was going to do anytime soon. "Uncle Elliot oversees more than twice number companies than I do. He already makes it like I'm wet behind the ear; I don't want to make further fun of myself.

"Good," said George, satisfied, "if you accepted, I would've been disappointed." He didn't oversee any of the companies, but when he was working under his own father, he oversaw thrice as many companies as Lia and expected her to reach that level someday.

"Oh, we're here." Lia removed her arm from George's as the door to the room where they were going to spend the upcoming time came into view. "Let's see what he for us today."

Lia opened the door with George peering from above her head. They stared at a door standing in the middle of the room, and from behind the door, Quinn's face peaked out with a white sketch marker clenched between his teeth.

Quinn opened his mouth to speak, letting the maker fall, but it began to float up immediately after being let go. "Excellent time, both of you. I just finished putting the last touches on the product today; please gather around so that we can start this year's QWASPP."

"Now, what this might be?" asked Lia, moving around the cerulean blue door standing in its frame.

"It's a door," said Quinn, puffing his chest as he crossed his arms.

George brushed his hand against the door pane. "This is. . . not a good wood, neither is the craftsmanship. What is this made from?"

"Common Oak," said Quinn. "As for the craftsmanship, it's made like that purposefully."

"What does it do?" asked Lia excitedly as she wrapped an arm around Quinn's shoulder.

"Well, you might actually recognize it without me telling you," Quinn took out a skeletal key hanging from a thin chain from his pocket, and the moment George saw the gold glint of the metal, his eyes widened.

"Is that an Abate key?" George asked, taking the key into his hand.

"No," said Quinn chuckling, "while I would love to have a key that could access the Abate network, I don't have it." He smiled at the key, "Though, this key in your hand does work something like Abates."

Lia looked at the door, "You mean. . ."

"Grandfather, would you like to do the honors," said Quinn.

George nodded. He took the key to the door and used it to open the door with a click. He grabbed the doorknob above the keyhole and twisted it for the door to open to a back alley street.

"It's really like the Abate network," said George as he stepped out into the deserted street with Quinn and Lia following after him.

"Ah, so we are in North Yorkshire," said Quinn looking around.

Lia frowned, "Why do you say it like that?" Even George noticed how Quinn worded his sentence.

"Well, this is a QWASPP, so I'm going for something that we can sell," said Quinn. "Britain already has the floo network, and while walking through a door would be much better jumping into a fireplace, I don't think if we can take floo out of Britain. . . well, maybe we can, but that's not what I made this for."

"Then what?" asked Lia.

Quinn looked at George. "Grandfather, do you know what a Vanishing Cabinet is?"

George's eyes widen with realization. He looked at the door, then at the desolate street, then back at Quinn, who smiled.

"It's the best time to sell something like this," said Quinn.

"Uhm, what are we talking about here?" asked Lia.

"Vanishing Cabinets — are a pair of cabinets connected to each through the means of spatial magic that allow an object or person to enter one cabinet and exit through the other. They have been a popular household item to have during wars — they were especially favored here in Britain during the last war to escape using them when the Dark Lord and Death Eaters stuck."

"That doesn't make sense," said Lia, recalling one of her readings on the war, "didn't Death Eaters attacked people in their homes," she looked at the door, "if they had these. . . then why?"

". . . Because Vanishing Cabinets weren't commonplace," said George with somber tenor. "It requires considerable skill to craft a pair of working Vanishing Cabinets; not anyone can make those; as such, only a select few were able to get their hands on them."

Quinn added, "Moreover, Vanishing Cabinets weren't popular items outside wartime. They were much more common during Grindlewald's conquest that spanned more than two decades, but after in the time of peace, the market fell, and the craftsman stopped making them, and with time, they became rare, and so did the people who could build them.

"When the Dark Lord struck, there were only a few people who could build them, and even those could only produce at a limited rate, forget about training others. So only those with the gold and connections could get one built, and the rest were left without one. Peace was achieved again, but the Vanishing Cabinet went away with it as it did before.

". . . But as we know, the Dark Lord's recently ended his vacation and is back in the office, so. . ."

"It's the best time to sell," said Lia, repeating Quinn's words.

"Yes," said Quinn, grabbing the doorknob of the door, "this takes inspiration from the Abate network that it is indeed a network of doors. For the last week, I went around the country and built a limited network.

"How this work is that when a person opens a door, it connects to a random door on the network, which as you might have noticed," Quinn pointed around him, "are in deserted places, all covered by anti-non-magical wards, which eliminates the Vanishing Cabinet's weakness — that is, if you find the cabinet outside the house, opens you up to an ambush, but with random doors, you don't have that problem."

"What if someone finds all the doors in the network?" asked Lia.

"Doesn't matter," said Quinn, "if we add enough doors, it doesn't matter if you find them all if you don't have enough man to cover every one of them." He raised the key, "It wouldn't take a key to exit the house, just a secret password — but if you want to go back home — it will take the key held by the people who would be pre-connected to it and would require another secret password."

"You said something about the door being crafted the way it was?" asked George.

"Ah yes, that was for a showcase that any door could be on the network. It could be anything, anywhere, and one wouldn't know unless they used the door. Similarly, it could be any door in the house — a bathroom door, bedroom door, or even a door to the basement — it could also be a secret door hidden in any random wall."

The West exited the back alley and back to their house, closing the door behind them, after which Quinn showcased the randomized feature of the door, opening the door to a couple more places around the country that Quinn had visited via apparition and found the deserted places by flying while being invisible.

"I have a question," asked Lia, "how does this interact with the wards. What is stopping a person from using these doors to bypass the wards and arrive inside a house?"

"Good question," Quinn said, appreciating the question. "These doors can be tied into the wards. You can set the doors so that no one can come into the house using one of the outside doors — so only outgoing would be available. In fact, it's the recommended setting. If you get out of your house during danger, then don't return to the house for a while, and go somewhere else."

"The idea is good," said George, walking around the door. He stopped and opened the door, and without a key, it was just a normal door. "If we can construct a wide enough network, we would be able to turn it into something that would be very attractive to everyone."

"Yeah, about that. . . there is one teeny problem with this," said Quinn.

"What is it?" asked Lia, snapping out of her thoughts that went to how to set up a business around the door network.

"Only I'm able to build these doors," said Quinn.

The magic behind the connected doors came from four sources — spatial magic books, the Vanishing Cabinet technology, the Abate network, and finally, from the entrance tunnel of the Aquatic Vault.

He had started with studying spatial magic to solve the entrance tunnel in the Great Lake guarded by the Kraken, which would somehow switch going down to up. And after years of irregular research, Quinn was able to figure out how the entrance worked. During the progress of that research, Quinn came across the Abate network, and after dealing with Dolion, Quinn had spent a portion of his remaining time in Italy studying the Abate doors while he was alone with Aksel Thorn. The Vanishing Cabinet technology was easy to get his hands by paying for the manuals, and while he never went to the Vanishing Cabinet in Hogwarts, he knew everything about them.

The problem was that Quinn's approach was sophisticated because Quinn valued stability and the range of the door, which made it very difficult for a person to learn how to do it. It would require a magical with considerable skill to learn the method created by the sources, which is even individually challenging to learn, and to train someone in his technique would require money and a lot of time.

"I can make ten a day," said Quinn. He could make more, but only ten in the time he was willing to set aside for the venture. "Which isn't bad as in little more than three months, we can have a thousand doors across the country, which I think are more than enough for the initial stage.

"After that, we can take orders from the customers, and I can continue to make ten a day that would be installed inside the customer's home. If we started early, by the same time next year, we would have covered a lot of people all around Britain."

George stayed silent for a while before saying, "The fact that you have presented to us, it means that you require something from us, or you would've done it on your own."

Quinn nodded.

"What do you require from us?" asked Lia.

"I don't want this to be connected to the Wests or even me and want the manufacturer to be a mystery, and for that to happen, I would require the family's help." Quinn didn't want to involve his family in the war, but it would prevent multiple people from becoming victims of the upcoming raids if this was implemented.

George held his hands behind his back, staring at the door for a good while. ". . . It is easy enough to do," he said, "I can make it so that West wouldn't be connected to your doors. Even if someone tried to dig out the truth, they would only find themselves in a labyrinth. However, I have a condition."

"Please say so. If it's something I can do, I'll do it," said Quinn.

George turned to his grandson and spoke in his serious-business voice. "You're to give me a promise that I can call in later."

Quinn tilted his head. That's it? He was absolutely fine with that. "I accept your condition," he said.

"Then the deal is made," George said. "You make these doors, and I personally will make sure that a secret operation is ready for you to spread this product."

In the future, a mysterious group would start to sell their escape services. The secretive group and their network of doors would infamously be known by a common name — The Labyrinth.

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Quinn West - MC - I'm always working on the old projects.

George West - Grandfather - Now has a promise from his grandson.

Lia West - Elder Sister - Handles all of the businesses that sell Quinn's products.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - The reason why Quinn accepted was that it was asked by his grandfather. He doesn't mistrust George at all. Quinn would have rejected if some asked him; he would have put it down if they asked him of a promise, essentially a blank cheque.

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.

If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.

The link is in the synopsis!


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
FictionOnlyReader FictionOnlyReader

Just like always,

Review, comment, add to the library, and share this fic.

Thx

Link To Discord

https://discord.gg/w5dJ82SfMr

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