Sirius received a gift from the store owner for all the Quidditch League Games next year, a full set of 10, all privileged seats, for the purchase of the Firebolt.
The Quidditch League is the abbreviation of the British and Irish Quidditch team’s Super Contest, which is held by the 13 best teams in the magic world.
Unlike the simple confrontation between the four Hogwarts Houses, the Quidditch League is a professional competition.
They have a high level of competition and recruit players from all over the world.
Gryffindor Quidditch team's captain Oliver Wood’s biggest dream was to join Puddlemere United after graduation and become a professional player.
In school, he always brought the latest news of the Puddlemere United team. He contributed to the Hogwarts Magic newspaper with articles all about this aspect, discussing the new tactical analysis used by the team and so on.
Because they usually listened to what Wood said, Evan, Harry and Hermione were also looking forward to see what the professional league looked like.
They checked the schedule of next year and found that on the first day of the New Year, there was a match between Puddlemere United and Wimbourne Wasps.
Because it was the first Quidditch match after Christmas, and both teams were in high demand for the championship, and next summer would be the Quidditch World Cup and many other reasons, the game was very popular and it was hard to find a ticket. Fortunately, Sirius got the tickets.
After discussion, they decided to watch the game before they returned to school and invited the Weasleys to join them.
Evan went down the stairs, and these were the things that he needed to accomplish during the rest of the Christmas holidays, the most important of which was to improve his own strength.
The first floor of the Leaky Cauldron was a mess, and didn't seem like yesterday was Christmas at all.
Almost overnight, the little pub returned from its bustling Christmas party to its once small, dirty appearance, as if it hadn’t been cleaned for centuries.
However, there was no unpleasant odor in the air, but it was full of the aroma of food.
Bar owner Tom stood behind a dilapidated bar, grilling a string of sausages, and his face showed an ugly smile when he saw Evan.
“Good morning, Mr. Mason!”
“Good morning!” Evan made a greeting.
In the eccentric hall not far away, Lupin, Sirius, and Hermione were already up. They were sitting around a round table having breakfast, happily discussing something.
It seemed that they expected Evan to come and they had prepared a breakfast for him.
“Just in time, Evan, we were just talking about you!” Sirius waved as Evan walked in, motioned him to sit next to him, and spoke up coming straight to the point, “I just heard Remus and Hermione say it, are you planning to rent a house in Diagon Alley?”
“Yes!” Evan nodded, wondering why Sirius had mentioned it. He took the milk that Hermione handed over and explained. “I have carefully considered it. If I want to further expand Hogwarts magic’s sales and influence, I have to move the newspaper’s headquarters to Diagon Alley, like the "Daily Prophet". It is also convenient for Professor Lupin to manage things… ”
“Have you chosen the right location yet?” Sirius asked,” Diagon Alley shops rent is not cheap; it costs a lot of galleons! ”
Evan shook his head. In fact, this was exactly his problem.
Although he had made a lot of money from the Hogwarts magic’s lucrative advertising fees over the past two years, he had also spent a lot.
Aside from the cost of sponsoring various magic research projects by Fred, George, Hermione, and other young wizards, the vast majority of his income was spent simply on the collection of valuable magic books at Flourish and Blotts Bookseller, and the bulk purchase of potion materials.
The money that Evan could afford to spend at the time was around two hundred gold galleons. This money could only allow him to select a shop in a remote place, just hoping that the location would not be too far away.
But to top it all, what was most frustrating was that he could not spend all this money.
He had to leave some of it as a daily newspaper turnover, as well as to buy the necessary magic test materials, and things that needed to be upgraded…
The amount of money that needed to be spent on the improvement of magic was a bottomless pit.
Two thousand galleons wouldn't have been nearly enough, let along two hundred.
Evan sighed; from all angles, he had to find a long-term, profitable project that could make a lot of money.
Although the operation of newspapers could be profitable, it was far from enough. The main purpose of operating newspapers is to enhance influence and control public opinion. Making money was an added perk.
Moreover, the income of the “Hogwarts Magic” had reached a plateau, and it was hard to get a big boost in a short time.
As for the viable profitable projects, Evan currently only knew one.
That is the Weasley prank product developed by Fred and George, and it was very popular with other young wizards. If nothing went wrong, it could even become the biggest prank product brand in the magic world, and making money was not a problem.
The problem now is that if they wanted to realize all the ideas in their heads and open up the market, they still needed a large amount of money to invest at the begining.
Evan didn’t have the money. Fred and George were even less likely to have it. All of their previous research and development expenses were almost sponsored by Evan.
Besides, if they wanted to open a joke shop, they also needed to rent a shop in Diagon Alley.
All the problems went back to the original point. They didn't have enough money to rent a suitable shop in Diagon Alley right at once.
The Weasley's joke shop was put back, but the newspaper headquarters issue was imminent and had to be resolved during the Christmas holidays. It couldn't be delayed until next summer.
Evan calculated that for a location not too remote, according to the surrounding situation and the flow of people, the annual rent was about three hundred up to five hundred gold galleons.
This meant that he should at least find a way to get two hundred gold galleons.
Evan was ready to determine the specific store first, and the money on hand could be used as rent. If there was really no way at the end, in his personal collection, there were many precious magic books and some refining potions that he could sell.
However, Evan would not do so, unless it was his last resort.
He was thinking of a quick way to get two hundred gold galleons. Even if he reached out and asked for it from his family, his parents would not give him so much money at once.
He just wanted to borrow money, which was almost impossible.
Whether it was the Weasleys or Lupin, Harry, Hermione, and the people around Evan, their financial level was relatively average, or even could be called difficult, unless…
Evan suddenly thought of Sirius. Although he had been in Azkaban for twelve years, he still had an incredible fortune being the sole heir to the noblest and oldest Black family.
From the fact that he casually bought a Firebolt for Harry as a Christmas gift, it could be seen that he was not in a bad financial state at all. A few hundred gold gallons were not to pose a problem for him.
Evan's eyes became bright. Sirius didn't wait for him to open his mouth and continued.
“I can help you with the locale. If I remember correctly, the Black family still has several shops in Diagon Alley. They're an ancestral legacy. You can use them whenever you want." Sirius said indifferently, "Otherwise they would be idle there. If I rent them out, I don't have time to manage or collect rent."
When he heard Sirius, Evan was stunned. The idea had just been raised, and Sirius had already put it forward. Obviously, he had already planned to do so. It turned out that he just said this to Lupin and Hermione.
Evan hurriedly thanked Sirius, but the latter said that he shouldn't worry about such things.
In Sirius’s eyes, compared to what Evan had done to help him, it was nothing to offer him a few stores.
Because it had been a so long time, Sirius couldn't remember the exact number and location of the stores.
When Harry arrived, they discussed it for a while and decided to go to the Black family's vault in the Gringotts Wizarding Bank after breakfast and look for those deeds.
Evan was also curious about the Black family's vault. He wanted to see how amazing was the wealth accumulated by this pure blood family in the past thousand years .
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T/N: Hey there, this is Translating_Wizard. I hope you like the story so far and are happy with the releases, I just posted chapter 334 in Patreon! If you’re interested in supporting me and reading more chapters, hit the button below ^^
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