Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts

【Enter, stranger, but be warned】

【What will be the fate of the insatiably greedy?】

【Those who only take and never give】

【Will surely face the harshest punishment】

【So if you seek to take from our underground vaults】

【A treasure that never belonged to you】

【Thief, you have been warned】

【Beware of attracting not treasure, but retribution】

Sherlock turned his gaze away from these lines.

It was clear that this wizarding bank was very confident in its security measures.

How should he put it?

Every bank thinks that way, until something unexpected happens.

Sherlock pondered while observing the tall marble hall before him.

After only a moment's consideration, he had already discovered several loopholes.

If magic didn't exist, and he had one night, he could definitely get this bank on the news.

《Shocking! Bank's Money Vanishes, Mysterious Figure Bypasses Security and Leaves Calmly》

This wasn't a rare occurrence; for example, there was the financial bond theft in London a year ago.

The Bank of England's response at the time was classic.

Phase 1: Claim nothing happened.

Phase 2: Say maybe something happened, but we shouldn't take action.

Phase 3: Say maybe we should take action, but we can't do anything.

Phase 4: Maybe we could have done something, but now it's too late.

The wizarding bank could completely learn from this.

However, Sherlock now knew that magic existed in this world.

Before fully understanding this unfamiliar concept, it was best not to act rashly.

Upon arriving at the counter, an idle goblin was brought over by the goblin who had led them, to handle the exchange business for the three of them.

The exchange rate between Galleons and pounds wasn't fixed; today it was 1:5.

This was somewhat surprising.

It should be noted that it was 1991, and the pound was still very strong.

In this situation, the value of a Galleon was actually five times that of a pound, which was really impressive.

Fortunately, Mrs. Holmes's concerns didn't come to pass.

Because they brought enough money.

Enough to exchange for nearly a thousand Galleons.

However, an accident occurred just as they were about to exchange.

There was actually a limit to how many pounds could be exchanged for magical world currency!

Sherlock was initially surprised upon hearing the news, but he quickly understood.

In the non-magical world, there are also limits on the amount of domestic currency that can be exchanged for foreign currency.

This is mainly to prevent excessive capital flow.

Excessive capital flow, especially a large influx of short-term capital, can trigger violent fluctuations in the financial market.

Especially in some specific economic situations, such as economic downturns or increased financial market volatility, without the constraints of foreign exchange management, it can lead to large-scale capital flight.

This can then lead to currency devaluation, financial market chaos, and a series of other problems, and in more serious cases, it may even trigger a financial crisis.

Therefore, for reasons such as maintaining foreign exchange reserves, protecting the domestic economy, and maintaining financial market order, countries have limits on the amount of foreign currency that ordinary citizens can exchange each year.

Once this limit is exceeded, no more foreign currency can be exchanged that year.

Since the magical world has its own independent currency system, it's reasonable to have a limit on the exchange of magical currency...bullshit!

It would be understandable if everyone was restricted.

But according to the goblin, non-wizarding families can only exchange a maximum of 128 Galleons per year.

As for the limit for pure-wizarding families, the goblin didn't say, but Sherlock knew just by observing that this amount was far above 128 Galleons.

He could even boldly assume that there was no limit to the amount of Galleons that wizarding families could exchange.

What else could he say?

It's just that set of discriminatory practices!

However, with his keen observation, Sherlock still discovered other paths on the other party's business form.

The 128 Galleon limit seemed to only apply to pounds.

So he asked another question.

Sure enough, Gringotts was also buying gold, jewelry, antiques, etc.

In other words, although you can only exchange 128 Galleons with pounds, you can still exchange valuables such as gold.

Sherlock's eyes lit up immediately.

He suddenly realized that he had found a brand new path for those criminals in London to dispose of stolen goods.

Gringotts, a haven for money laundering!

The premise is that they can come here.

Although the goblin who was being questioned looked impatient, under Sherlock's questioning, the other party still provided a message:

128 Galleons is more than enough to buy all the items needed for a new wizard to go to school.

After all, besides these things, going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is purely compulsory education, with free room and board, and no fees are required.

This was consistent with the non-magical world.

In the UK, students begin compulsory education at the age of five when they enter kindergarten, and continue until they finish secondary education at the age of 17.

At this stage, children of the appropriate age must attend school, and all parents must send their children to school.

Students will enjoy completely free national benefits, with the state responsible for the necessary tuition, books, and necessary supplies.

11 years old is the stage to end primary school and enter secondary education.

So, apart from this shopping expense before the start of school each year, in theory, no additional expenses are required.

In the end, after paying 640 pounds to exchange for the maximum amount of Galleons, Sherlock and his parents left Gringotts.

For a long time after leaving Gringotts, Mrs. Holmes seemed a little unhappy.

She was deeply influenced by the idea of 'better to be rich on the road than poor at home', and had even begun to consider whether to go home first and bring the gold goods here to exchange for Galleons, to save her son from suffering in distant Scotland.

Sherlock stopped her from doing this in time.

"Let's go shopping first, and if the money is really not enough, then use this method."

Mrs. Holmes agreed to Sherlock's suggestion.

Next was the stage of buying, buying, buying.

According to the admission list, Sherlock bought a lot of textbooks, as well as cauldrons, balances, telescopes and other items for magic courses.

At this time, Sherlock found that the Gringotts goblin's words were somewhat exaggerated.

128 Galleons to buy the items on the admission list can only be said to be just enough, definitely not more than enough.

Judging from the prices of the items he had already purchased, three plain work robes cost 20 Galleons, a telescope cost 10 Galleons, and a quill for writing also cost 1 Galleon.

The most outrageous thing was that a brand new textbook actually cost 9 Galleons.

Is knowledge in the magical world so expensive?

This made the already unhappy Mrs. Holmes even more uncomfortable.

Because of this, she also firmly rejected Sherlock's idea of buying second-hand textbooks.

Sherlock couldn't help but feel a little helpless about this.

He was a typical pragmatist.

In his opinion, there was actually no difference between second-hand textbooks and new textbooks, but the price was one-third of the latter.

This was simply a great deal, okay?

If he were in charge, he would definitely choose second-hand textbooks.

Unfortunately, his mother didn't agree.

In addition to the specified book list, Sherlock also bought a few extra books.

Such as "Important Magical Events of the Twentieth Century" and "The Rise and Fall of Dark Magic", which could help him further understand the magical world.

There was also a best-selling work by an author named Bear Grylls - "The Ultimate Survival Guide".