It was a very convoluted way to make some kind of hierarchy in the House of Snakes, which honestly doesn't mean much in the long term outside of the connections you make for fellow members of the court, and maybe the quick response if you want something to be made. It was a dramatic way to structure a house, but well, the house of snakes was dramatic, wasn't it? There were probably more rules and regulations on that front, but that was what his friends had told him, anyway.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts when he felt someone poking him. It was Daphne, "Come on Harry, you spaced out again."
"Hey! I was just thinking…"
"About the court?" Tracy questioned with a sly grin.
The Potter scion shrugged, "Maybe. Honestly, for all its perks, I still don't see the point. Yeah, it's nice and everything, but it's not something I'm willing to go to great lengths to get. And if all it took was a Quidditch position and a bribe to get accepted into the court, it would lose a lot of its meaning."
"But…" Tracy started.
Blaise interjected, "He has a point, Trace. Everyone and their mother know that Malfoy spent a small fortune to buy his way into the team."
The brunette pouted, "But he's been so insufferable though. I wanted Harry to scare him away again."
"Well, I don't know about scaring him away," Harry said, "But I did make sure that he would stop bothering us."
Three heads snapped towards him the moment he finished speaking, "How in Morgana's name did you manage to do that?" Daphne exclaimed.
"I just reminded him about the position he put himself in. He could beat Longbottom and show everyone he's superior, or he could fail miserably, and he'll be a laughingstock. He already made our house look back and corrupt since he bought his way in, so he needs to prove to the entire school that he's worth more than a Gringotts vault full of gold. What he did was a gamble and I put it in front of him enough to motivate and scare him into spending every single free moment training for the match. And since the match with Gryffindor is the closest one, he'll be too busy to do anything. See, I don't always have to be violent."
Harry ignored his friends' gaping faces and thought back to the situation Flint was in. Honestly, the Potter scion could sympathize with the Quidditch captain. Taking the broom was strategically the better choice, not just in terms of winning the Quidditch cup, but to dominate the other houses and impress the scouts. Better brooms mean that Flint has a better chance at getting an internship, then a sponsorship, and finally achieving the career of his dreams. So, yeah, at the cost of a single teammate and a slight loss of reputation, the brooms were worth it.
The Potter scion looked back to his friends before wondering, "That's even assuming the brooms were better than the previous model."
"What?" the three of them exclaimed at once.
Harry rolled his eyes, "Brooms are known to be released every three years. It's the time necessary to develop and remove any issues there might be. And since the Nimbus 2000 was only praised in the international scene, the quick release of the 2001 model means that it's either a money grab, and the brooms are essentially the same, or they rushed the development of this broom for some reason, which means that they won't be as stable as the normal 2000 model. They could be technically faster and just better in some ways, but they won't be as stable. So, in the best case, Malfoy was cheated by buying what is probably a prettier Nimbus 2000, or in the worst case, he bought brooms that might hinder the team, and in this case, everyone loses. And while the Nimbus series is perfect for seekers, Beaters would prefer stability over speed to aim properly, and chasers don't really go that fast, but need to be agile."
Tracy was the first one to stop staring at him, "How do you know so much about Quidditch, I thought you hated the game?"
"I don't," Harry answered, "I just like to know about the market. Just because I don't personally like the sport doesn't mean that I'm interested in the economic benefits that can come from it."
"You're planning on investing in its competitors when the professional players start complaining," Daphne spoke up with a start.
"Yeah, I already have a few meetings coming up. I need to get things going a bit since the Potter vaults aren't looking that good in the first place."
Yeah, financially speaking, the Potter family wasn't that well off after two consecutive wars. And with money in the muggle world being practically useless, it wasn't really a reliable way of income since he was planning on staying in the magical world. Of course, he was going to have a little nest egg there, in case he was ever in trouble, or just wanted to buy something from the non-magical side of the world, but he was leaving it for the following summer.
So, yeah, in terms of the magical world, the only product he knew was going to be very successful was the Firebolt broom. He had looked everywhere for any mention of it and found nothing, except for a designer that was laughed at by all broom manufacturers in the country for trying some weird method of incorporating enchantments into the wood, making them more precise and more powerful but a lot more expensive to manufacture. The man, Terrence Smythe, had started his company with his life savings, and Harry had owled the man for a demonstration and details to invest in the company.
It was mostly just fact-checking, but it was an easy way for him to make money. Most of the meetings were scheduled during Christmas vacation when he would be free enough to make financial deals. He still needed to set up some paperwork for the ministry to be able to invest legally, but it should go through rather easily since heirs are often encouraged to invest with their allowances.
Still, with a concrete plan to deal with the financial side of his duties, Harry thought back to his main problem. The Basilisk. With the ingredients still not having arrived, Harry needed to figure out how to actually fight a Basilisk in case he had no other choice. And for that, Harry would need one of his most powerful assets, one that had saved his life in the past, and unfortunately, one that he still had no idea how to use. He needed to figure out how to use his magical crest.
.....
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