Bab 42: The-Boy-Who-Haggled
After spending a week digging diamonds at the Diavik Diamond Mine, Harry returned to New York and made his way straight to his apartment as he wanted to exchange the diamonds for gold as quickly as possible. Tomorrow was his birthday and he wanted to perform the Ritual at sharp twelve o'clock at night.
He wouldn't gain anything extra by performing the Ritual at midnight, but tomorrow morning, Jacklyn and Brittany were going to come over to celebrate his birthday. After the Ritual, Harry knew that he was going to be tired and that was why he wanted to perform it at midnight. That way, he will have enough time to rest his body…
Harry entered his apartment and after taking a nice and long relaxing bath, he got dressed in a fresh pair of robes. He knew that he couldn't take the whole trunk to Gringotts, so he decided to use a plain-looking sack to carry the diamonds. Nodding his head in satisfaction, he left his apartment and started to make his way toward the Gringotts.
Harry arrived at Gringotts and made his way straight toward the jewel trade counter. As expected of the goblin, it didn't even bother to look up whatever he was doing. To be honest, this was a trend all the goblins followed… All of them would keep looking down at their desk until you speak up.
Maybe, the goblins knowingly ignored them as a means to look down on the Wizarding kind…
"I have something I want to exchange for Galleons" Harry said, sounding almost aloof. The goblins weren't his friends, so there was no way he was going to treat them nicely if they didn't and from all of his interactions with their kind, he finally understood why nobody liked goblins.
The goblin looked up and stared at Harry with a scowl on his face… "We only accept jewels" The goblin drawled in a bored tone as he bared his sharp teeth.
Instead of flinching back in fear, a smile appeared on Harry's face as he nodded his head. "Then it is good that I have brought jewels!" Harry exclaimed cheerfully as he placed the sack on the desk.
The goblin stared at Harry for a few seconds before he finally grabbed the sack and opened it. The goblin stared inside the sack for a few seconds before grabbing one of the diamonds from the sack. The goblin placed the diamond in his mouth and bit it before nodding his head in satisfaction. The goblin returned the diamond inside the sack and looked at Harry.
A feral grin formed on his face… "The stones are authentic, I will give you 12,500 Galleons for them" The goblin revealed and the grin on his face widened.
Harry quickly did the math in his head and couldn't help but frown. "That's too little. The stones are at least worth 20,000 Galleons" Harry complained, making the goblin scowl in displeasure.
"The stones haven't been processed, we will need to process them on our own, which also means extra work for us. 12,500 Galleons, take it or leave it" The goblin almost snarled at Harry.
Harry knew that even 20,000 Galleons were too little for the number of diamonds he bought, but the only reason he proposed the amount was because he knew that the diamonds weren't processed, but 12,500 Galleons were simply too little. He would be a fool to accept the deal, no matter how much he needed the gold.
"Fine then, I will be taking my business somewhere else" Harry growled as he grabbed the sack, and started to walk toward the exit, surprising the goblin. To be honest, he also knew that 12,500 Galleons were little for the diamonds, but he wanted to get as much profit as he could from the deal.
Though the goblin wasn't expecting the boy to simply walk away… There were some other places where the boy could sell the diamonds and they would offer the boy more gold than he was offering. They would probably ask questions, but that was not the point.
"Wait! 17,000 Galleons, that is my last offer" The goblin called out, making Harry stop. He slowly turned around and looked at the goblin.
To be honest, Harry didn't know anywhere else to sell the diamonds, but he decided to simply walk away because he refused to make such a huge loss and he also knew that the goblin would probably call out to him if the goblin really wanted the diamonds. In other words, Harry took a gamble and it worked, but he still wasn't satisfied with the amount of gold the goblin was offering.
"19,000 Galleons" Harry called out as he slowly returned to the counter. The goblin realized what the boy was doing, but he refused to play the game.
"17,500 and we will open a vault for you, which will be completely free of charge. Take it or leave it" The goblin practically snarled this time. The boy wasn't even thirteen and the boy was already haggling with him, unacceptable. If the boy didn't accept the deal, then he would need to use other means to acquire the diamonds.
The goblin was completely fine with that as he will hire some Wizards to do the dirty work. Wizards, who have failed to pay their debts and they would practically do anything to get rid of their debts as none of them would want to end up in the goblin mines.
Meanwhile, Harry also realized that he probably couldn't push the goblin anymore… "What about the annual charges?" Harry asked with a sniff. Even though he knew he couldn't push the goblin anymore, it didn't mean that he was going to show him any weakness.
The goblin bared his teeth… "Waived" The goblin bit out unhappily, making Harry smile as he returned the sack to the desk.
"We have a deal. I will be taking 7,500 Galleons with me and place the rest in the vault. It was nice doing business with you" Harry beamed at the goblin. The goblin barely held himself back from throttling the smug brat. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is John Doe" Harry added innocently while smiling brightly.
The goblin almost fell down from his chair… He had never seen anyone trying to sell such a bald-faced lie with such innocence. The goblin had to admit, the boy was good. The goblin clearly understood the message. The boy was telling him to use the name John Doe since he needed a name for the vault.
"Fine, wait here" The goblin barked while nodding at the boy and then he grabbed the sack. The goblin jumped down from his chair and disappeared into the back. After nearly fifteen minutes, the goblin finally returned with a sack in his hands and climbed on the chair. The goblin gave Harry a toothy grin and placed the sack on the table.
"7,500 Galleons, since the gold won't fit in the pouch you gave us, we had to use an expandable pouch. We did deduct the amount from your vault" The goblin revealed with a grin, sounding almost smug, and then he placed a vault key on the desk. "Your vault key, 'Mr. Doe'" The goblin added, emphasizing the 'Mr. Doe' part, wanting to make Harry understand that he knew that his name was fake.
Harry barely held himself back from cursing the little bugger. He wasn't expecting the goblin to miss the fake name part, but he should have expected the goblin to use some sort of excuse to get back at him. The expandable pouch was simply an excuse. "How much gold did the expandable pouch cost?" Harry grit out through his teeth as he grabbed the vault key.
"Not much, only 50 Galleons" The goblin revealed sullenly. He was happy that he was able to get back at the boy, but at the same time, he was sad that he wasn't able to swindle anymore from the boy.
He wanted to charge a lot more, but doing that could have gotten him in trouble with MACUSA and there was no way that they would take a goblin's side in the case, they would always support one of their own, so he had to settle with a measly amount of 50 Galleons.
Harry scowled at the goblin… 50 Galleons were a lot of gold. Harry grabbed the sack and started to leave as there was nothing he could do to get back the gold. After leaving Gringotts, he made his way straight toward the shop where he could buy a part of a Sphinx's Brain. Any part of the brain would work, but he wanted the pineal gland as the pineal gland of a Sphinx's Brain will give him the best results. It will cost him more, but he did have a lot of gold to spend.
Harry started to wonder if he could finally start designing his Mind Palace after performing the Ritual tonight. Building a Mind Palace was the next step if he wanted to progress his Occlumency as he never did things in half… Recalling memories and casting Magic would also become easier for him if he built a Mind Palace.
|You can read Sherlock Holmes if you want to get an idea on a Mind Palace. I read that book when I was small, so I barely remember anything from the book| Lily suggested and Harry nodded his head in understanding.
Maybe tomorrow after the celebration he could pay a visit to the Muggle world to buy the said book or books…
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