After celebrating a bit, one of the first things I did after getting home from the pub was call up Archibald and inform him about the good news. I wanted to keep my sudden rise in fortune as secret as possible, but I still needed somebody to trust with this knowledge.
After letting him known about my recent windfall, Archibald had gotten me in contact with a trustworthy accountant and financial advisor – a Squib, of course, so he could handle the money I'd make in both worlds – and I immediately made sure the winnings were sent his way so he could put it away safely.
Through my accountant's help, a third of my winnings were turned into galleons and stored with Gringotts. The goblins kept the wizarding economy stable if nothing else, and I'd need magical currency to afford magical resources. Then, I turned another third into dollars and kept the final third as Pounds Sterling. Several bank accounts were opened up for me locally, as well as across the pond in the USA. Those would be funds for my foray into the tech world as well as other investment opportunities in a few years.
Best of all, thanks to some help from Archibald's financial advisor, my winnings wouldn't be taxed as heavily as they normally would be. Just because I'd won several million pounds didn't mean I'd actually get that amount, not after the government took its cut. But with some deft help – and also some magical shenanigans and less than legal loopholes – my newfound wealth was mostly safe and secure.
To that end, I had kept 'only' one hundred thousand Pounds Sterling in direct, liquid cash-assets, with the remainder of the Pounds Sterling put aside for business investments, such as new storefronts, marketing, and supplies.
And in the States, I had nearly two million dollars squirreled away thanks to the exchange rate of one pound being worth a dollar and eighty cents at the time. As for my Gringotts accounts, I had two hundred thousand galleons ready to be used.
Having so much money was intoxicating, and I had to rely on my Occlumency a lot in order to avoid succumbing to the desire to buy a bunch of frivolous things now that I could afford to do so.
Still, now that I had money, I was even more aware of the various economic downturns that would soon hit England and the world than ever before.
Sadly, I wasn't in a position to do much about it. Archibald's contacts in the financial world only went so far, and I only knew the broad strokes of the event in question. I knew it would happen, though, so the best I could do at the moment was shuffle my investments around so they would be safer.
For now, all I could do was wait for September to see if the economic collapse I'd predicted would come about or not.
'On the bright side, the recession will mean some commercial properties will be cheaper. Diversifying assets into the real estate game could be beneficial,' I mused to myself, only to pause as what I was thinking sank in.
'Oh, God! I'm turning into a scummy landlord!' I realized in horror.
After a few minutes to try and calm down from my perfectly justifiable panic attack, I sorted through the rest of my thoughts for the future.
Business-wise on the internet side of things, it wouldn't be until 1995 that the Dotcom Bubble would truly take off. And then, it would pop in March of 2000, so I had a couple years to start looking into and investing in tech. And buying up the failed businesses. Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon would emerge from this era and grow to become juggernauts in the future, and I was determined to have my slice of the pie.
'I should make a trip to Silicon Valley at some point,' I mused to myself. Another thing to put on the to-do list. I also wanted to visit Magical America because I'd heard some interesting things about it, and from the whispers, it seemed a lot of investment opportunities might be coming around soon in that region.
On the local magical side of things, Harry's second year was where things started to get dicey. Oh, his first year at Hogwarts was a mess, but you can't exactly deny that a freaking thousand-year-old basilisk wasn't a drastic ramping up of the stakes.
'Note to self, have Harry learn Protego and Expeliarmus as soon as possible,' I mused to myself. 'And get to work replicating Hexes like Piercing and Bludgeoning for my own defense purposes. Oh, and get more guns.'
I'd kept the ones I'd stolen from the kidnappers last Christmas, but I was an American at heart, and you could never have enough firepower. Plus, I was really curious to find out if I could enchant bullets or inscribe runes on them.
For now, though, I had a meeting with Mrs. Finch-Fletchley. Not about business, for once, but a tutoring session for her son, Justin.
He'd gotten back from Hogwarts safe and sound, but whatever he'd told them about his time there had had them immediately call me up the evening he returned and asked me to tutor him in mundane school lessons.
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