章節 21: 21- The wealth of Hogwarts
A/N: Please don't judge by the standards of other fanfics. Money was a major problem.
Not to mention, the ancient times where Wizards had to live in a constant state of hiding and warfare. Magic was more focused on disastrous spells, not fancy stuff, people were still using swords to fight- Even Gryffindor.
If money wasn't important and anything could be done through magic then right now, the Weasleys would not have to think about electricity, food, and clothing and Minister Fudge would not act like a dog in front of money.
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Behind the oak door is a tall black-haired witch wearing an emerald green robe. Her hair is tightly tied back and she has a serious look on her face. She gives the little wizards a feeling that she is not easy to deal with at first glance.
"First-year freshmen, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said.
"Thank you, Hagrid, leave it to me." After completing the handover, Hagrid left in a flash, while Professor McGonagall opened the door wide, revealing the foyer at the back that could accommodate a three-story villa.
As the facade of the castle, the foyer is grand and majestic, like the main building of a cathedral. Facing the door is a luxurious marble staircase, and the ceiling is so high that you can barely see the top. Just like the Muggle castle, the walls of the foyer are made of huge stones. The stone walls are filled with blazing torches, illuminating the hall as if it were daytime.
After looking at the furnishings in the hall, Rhys smacked his lips and his eyes were full of admiration: The successors have taken care of the castle very well, and judging from the decoration of the hall and the number of torches, the school should not be short of money. That reassured him.
When he thought about the number of torches, Rhys couldn't help but blush.
The little wizards around them had no life experience. They only knew how to look at the tall entrance hall and make exclamations of unknown meanings such as "oh" and "ah". In fact, the most luxurious thing was the inconspicuous torches inserted on the stone wall. It didn't cost much to build the magnificent castle, because the four of them built it all with magic - the cutting spell cut out the boulders from the surrounding mountains, and then used the teleportation magic to teleport them to the hillside, and finally, they were like building blocks. Putting them together doesn't cost anything at all, just a bit of Gryffindor, heh.
If you don't know how expensive the firewood and oil were at that time ...these little guys have no idea how much fuel so many torches would burn in one night!
As one of the four founders who once held the financial power of the school, Rhys said that this is really an astronomical figure. Even with the financial resources of the four of them, looking at the expense bills at the end of each month would give them a headache.
The cost of torch fuel, food and drink for teachers and students, the cost of heating the castle, the cost of potion materials, the salaries of professors and staff...
Each consumption made everyone's wallets deflate at a speed visible to the naked eye. Rhys once wanted to impose high tuition fees on all students, but in the end, Hufflepuff stopped him from taking action.
...
"Helga, do you have any idea about money? The money we spent last month could buy a fire dragon. This is still an ongoing expense - we must find a way to make money!"
"So you want to levy tuition fees on students? Are you crazy or am I crazy?" Helga blushed with rare anger. She slapped Slytherin's desk and said fiercely: "Many students can't even afford the money. How will they pay fees!"
"Then we can lend them money first and they can pay them back slowly after they graduate."
"Ha, I didn't see it. Salazar, you actually have goblin blood?!"
"Hufflepuff, don't go too far!" Seeing Hufflepuff humiliating himself like this, Salazar was furious like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Isn't it? Let the children take out loans to go to school, and then work for you for half their lives after graduation. Haha, even the greediest goblin didn't expect such an operation."
Seeing that the two were about to fight, Rowena and Godric hurriedly stood between them to separate the two, and then came up with a compromise plan: they contacted the parents of the wealthy students and asked them to donate to the school. If you donate enough, even if your child is not qualified to the standards of getting admitted, he can still come in and learn magic.
At the same time, they also decided to reduce school expenses through various means. For example, Hufflepuff teaches herbal medicine and also takes the students to grow vegetables together; Gryffindor's fighting class adds the content of hunting in the forest next to the castle. Don't forget to collect firewood after hunting; When Rowena taught everyone alchemy, she had to make some alchemy props and sell them; Slytherin also had to find a reliable way to sell potions. The potions that the students and he prepared in the potions class must not be wasted. …
In order to get through that difficult time, they came up with a lot of ideas. For a while, even the torches used for lighting at night were conjured by Slytherin.
It's not that the four founders are too stingy, but that people who don't have long-term concerns must have immediate worries. Now it can still be supported by the savings of the four people. In the future, the school will become bigger and bigger, with more and more students, and the four people will eventually be gone. What will Hogwarts do then?
A successful school must be able to balance its revenue and expenditure, otherwise it will end up sitting on nothing.
...
"Stop being in a daze, let's go." Hermione poked Rhys on the back and motioned for him to follow Professor McGonagall - she was leading the first-year students to a room at the other end of the hall.
"Isn't it shocking?" Daphne looked proud.
Rhys nodded silently, pride lingering in his heart, even making his face flush.
Good, really good, very good! This is the school I founded!
Seeing how prosperous Hogwarts was, Rhys was as happy as a fruit farmer seeing fruit trees full of fruit.
He also deliberately approached a torch, felt it up close, and found that it was actually fueled by grease instead of magical flames. This made him shocked by the wealth of Hogwarts.
What Rhys didn't know was that with the advancement of the Industrial Revolution, productivity had been greatly developed, and consumables such as grease were no longer as valuable as they were in the Middle Ages. The price of lard fat, a material that can extract a large amount of oil, is no different from giving it away for free. Using oil to light a torch is more economical.
The room that Professor McGonagall took everyone into was not that big. The freshmen crowded in and rubbed shoulders with each other. Tension filled the air.
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and gave a brief speech: "Welcome to Hogwarts. The opening banquet is about to begin. But before you take your seats, we must first conduct a sorting ceremony to determine which House you will enter. This is the most important ceremony at Hogwarts, because during the seven years of school, the House is your home in Hogwarts. You will attend classes and live in the House's dormitories with other students in the House as your friends and family. "
The students' nervousness eased slightly, and they were also a little eager to try. Everyone was looking forward to the upcoming sorting ceremony.
"Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, each house has its own glorious history and has produced outstanding wizards and witches. During your studies, your outstanding performance will make your House gain points, and any violation will result in points being deducted from your House. At the end of the year, the House with the highest score will receive the House Cup, which is a very high honor. I hope you aim to win it no matter which house you are assigned to. Bring glory to the House. In a few minutes, the sorting ceremony will be held in front of all the teachers and students of the school. I suggest you tidy up and be refreshed. "
Her eyes swept across the faces of the students who were not so well-dressed, causing a commotion. Everyone hurriedly adjusted their clothes to avoid embarrassment when they went on stage later.
Professor McGonagall emphasized a few words of discipline before leaving the small room. After she left, the little wizards breathed a sigh of relief.
"How can they accurately assign us to the houses we are suitable for?" Rhys heard the Potter asking his friend.
"Some kind of test, right? Fred said we would need to fight a troll, but I hope he was joking." The red-haired boy had a strange look on his face, "Merlin, I hope to go to Gryffindor. My mother, father, and several older brothers all went to that house. I don't know what they would say if I didn't go to Gryffindor."
Although the two of them were talking quietly, several people around them could still hear what they were saying.
Hermione muttered in a low voice: "I hope I can be sorted into Gryffindor. They say it is the best. I heard that Dumbledore graduated from there, but I think Ravenclaw is also not Bad, better not be Hufflepuff."
Rhys "!"
Vulgar language!
He forced down his inner unhappiness, turned to glare at Hermione, and squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "There is no distinction between high and low among the four major houses. Where does the saying 'Gryffindor is the best' come from? huh?"
As one of the founders of Hogwarts, he felt it was necessary to convey to the new students the reasons why they were taught in four separate houses. They want to teach students in accordance with their aptitude so that each young wizard can get the education that is most suitable for him, instead of creating a competitive relationship between the four major houses and distinguishing between superior and inferior.
He suddenly had a realization: The House Cup thing that Professor McGonagall just mentioned seemed to be one of the main culprits in the spread of this wrong idea.
This thing makes students from the four major houses compete with each other, destroys the unity of the school, and intensifies the conflicts between the houses. Various stereotypes are probably inseparable from it.
For example, Hufflepuff is the type of house that doesn't like competition so it must have a harder time winning the House Cup. It is inevitable that some narrow-minded people will think that Hufflepuff is just a loser. Another example is students of Slytherin. Houses that are all very ambitious may be too eager for the House Cup and put too much emphasis on the competition process, hurting the feelings between other houses.
The House Cup was not a good thing, so Rhys decided to find an opportunity to ban it.
"But Dumbledore..."
"Every academy has given birth to very outstanding wizards," Rhys predicted what Hermione would say and shot her words back.
"Listen to me, don't look at the famous people the academy has produced. It's meaningless. The one that suits you best is the best. Brave and fearless students can go to Gryffindor; students who are upright, loyal, and uncontested can go to Hufflepuff; those who are smart and are more interested in knowledge can go to Ravenclaw; those who want to be enterprising can go to Slytherin. Each house has its own advantages and disadvantages.
"Hufflepuff, for example, is the warmest place. The relationship between classmates is very harmonious. Their lounge is very close to the kitchen. Ravenclaw is suitable for children who decide to study academics. The learning atmosphere there is very strong. If you want to develop in the Ministry of Magic in the future, Slytherin is definitely the best stage. Your classmates and seniors are your best helpers, but such a life is destined to be very tiring.
Think carefully about what kind of house you want to go to and what kind of life you want to live. "
Rhys's voice was slightly higher, and many people heard his words, with thoughtful gleams in their eyes.
The red-haired boy who had just been chatting with Potter also blinked: He just vaguely heard that the Hufflepuff lounge seemed to be very close to the kitchen? But given the choice, he would still prefer to go to Gryffindor.
Neville heard the words about the harmonious relationship between Hufflepuff classmates, which made him feel a little moved...
Suddenly, there was a burst of exclamations and screams from the end of the line. Rhys looked up and saw about twenty translucent pearl-white ghosts suddenly emerging from the wall behind the freshmen.
They were arguing about something and almost didn't notice the new life in the room.
"I say we should give it another chance—"
"My my, haven't we given Peeves enough opportunities? But what's the result?"
Rhys's eyes suddenly widened because he saw someone familiar to him in the ghost. He saw his student, Waldo.
He was a very talented young man with a good background. His only shortcoming was that he had a somewhat impatient temper. After graduating from Hogwarts, he refused a well-paid job and stayed at the school. Almost everyone thought he was Slytherin's successor. After Slytherin left, he took over the management of Slytherin House.
Who would have thought that the two of them would meet again in this way? Old and young, life and death, the two people who were originally closely related are now completely opposite sides. It is an unexpected reunion.
There was almost no difference from the appearance in his memory. He still looked as thin as before, but he looked haggard and no longer had the high-spirited feeling he had when he was alive.
He had wide-open black eyes, and his body was covered with silvery blood stains. Rhys noticed that the other ghosts kept their distance from him, seeming to be afraid of him.
The ghosts filed out and disappeared through the opposite wall. Professor McGonagall also returned. She asked the students to line up in single file to attend the sorting ceremony.
The sorting ceremony was held in the auditorium.
After entering, not to mention the new students, even one of the founders of Hogwarts was shocked.
How could there be such a magical, wonderful, and magnificent place in the world?
Students from other grades of the school were already at four long solid wood tables. There were gold plates and goblets on the table, sparkling and illuminated by thousands of candles floating in the air - judging by Rhys's eyesight, they were all made of gold. There is another long table on the table at the top of the auditorium, which is where the teachers sit. It is also equipped with gold tableware.
Rhys' breathing quickened.
The financial situation of the school is really good. It is so good that the founders could not even imagine it. In their time, only the four of them used gold tableware, ordinary professors used silver plates, and students all used copper plates. As wealthy as Slytherin was, he never thought that one day nearly a thousand teachers and students at Hogwarts would be able to eat with gold tableware!
He couldn't help but look up and saw stars twinkling on the velvet-black ceiling. This starry sky dome was exactly the same as it was a thousand years ago.
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