Chapter 108: Galleon and the Gold
From this report, it seemed that Bertha Jorkins had gone missing.
Though she was only an unremarkable employee at the Ministry of Magic, she had stumbled across two pieces of very important information.
The first was that Bartemius Crouch, head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, had secretly freed his son, Barty Crouch Jr., from Azkaban and kept him under the Imperius Curse. Crouch Jr. was an extremely loyal Death Eater—even though Voldemort had been gone for thirteen years. (Bertha’s memory of this was erased by Crouch Sr. with a Memory Charm, but his skill with the spell had clearly been lacking.)
The second was that a competition that had been dormant for centuries—the Triwizard Tournament, jointly held by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and Durmstrang Institute—was set to reopen in just a few months.
While on a Ministry assignment in Albania, Bertha had been captured by Peter, knocked unconscious, and delivered straight to Voldemort. Her memories were drained away by Legilimency, leaving her with no secrets left to hide.
Armed with this information, Voldemort quickly returned to England, freed his faithful servant Crouch Jr., and began plotting to use the Triwizard Tournament as bait for a far greater conspiracy.
...
But what does any of this have to do with me?
If the sky comes crashing down, let someone else hold it up.
I’m only in third year—still four years from turning seventeen. Unless the Goblet of Fire has gone blind, there’s no way it would ever choose me.
Let Cedric and Harry deal with the dragons, mermaids, and sphinxes.
It’s just a pity that Cedric, such a bright and gifted boy, wouldn’t live to see another year.At least he’d come back as a vegetarian vampire—not the worst fate, all things considered.
And poor Cho Chang—widowed at sixteen, only to be abandoned by the so-called Chosen One...
Alright, maybe I’m overthinking things.
Really, the only immediate concern was that the next Defense Against the Dark Arts professor would turn out to be a Death Eater.
But in a sense, that wasn’t all bad. To earn Dumbledore’s trust, Barty Crouch Jr. would have to teach properly and prove himself useful.
That would give me a chance to learn something about the Dark Arts from him.
After all, most of the Dark Arts books in the Restricted Section had been hidden away by Dumbledore decades ago.
Still, once my third year ended and Voldemort returned... everything would become deadly serious.
Half-bloods like me—and my relatives—would be at the top of the Death Eaters’ target list.
If I could, I ought to get close to Madame Maxime, headmistress of Beauxbatons, and see if there was any chance of transferring there.
...
After a few days of settling back into routine at 86 Eastleigh Road, Jon felt rested enough. It was time to get down to business.
Thanks to the hefty reward for Sirius Black, he would no longer be living like a penniless Muggle student.
He sent an owl to Diagon Alley with a long list of potion ingredients.
Soon enough, he had bought several large bags of herbs and supplies. The small rented room he used for brewing potions was now piled high with ingredients. It had cost him several hundred Galleons, but at least this summer he could brew freely.
And without wasting money on “luxuries” like a Firebolt, it would be nearly impossible to burn through the thousands of Galleons he now had.
Money left in Gringotts wouldn’t grow on its own—better to put it to use.
Jon already had a special plan in mind for that pile of Galleons.
...
One day in late July, the dark-skinned, tall, thin “Varian Urien” appeared once again at the door of Wilson’s Hardware Store.
“Mr. Urien!” Robert Wilson hurried over, greeting him warmly.
To him, this oddly named man was clearly a valuable customer.
“I’d like to ask you something,” Varian Urien said softly, slipping a few bills into Wilson’s hand. “Do you know of a place that melts down and sells gold?”
“Gold?” Mr. Wilson frowned. “How much are we talking about?”
“Quite a lot,” the other man said calmly. “Nearly two thousand ounces—and of the highest purity.”
“What!” Wilson gasped. “That’s a massive deal. But of course, Mr. Urien—I have connections!”
Jon followed him inside cautiously, and after a short negotiation, left satisfied.
Before going, he also paid Wilson a generous fee.
...
Galleons were gold—there was no question about that.
But in the wizarding world, gold was far less rare than in the Muggle world. It wasn’t even really considered a precious metal.
Perhaps centuries ago it had been valuable—back then, a single Galleon was worth ten thousand times more than it is today.
But with the rapid development of alchemy, times had changed.
The most famous artifact was, of course, the Philosopher’s Stone—also known as the Sorcerer’s Stone. It could transform any metal into pure gold.
Though historical accounts of the Stone were scarce, it certainly existed—Nicolas Flamel, the famous French alchemist, had possessed one. The gold produced with it must have been astronomical.
Even aside from the Stone, many alchemical methods could produce large amounts of gold. Though not cost-free, they still drove the price of gold drastically down.
And with Muggle advances in gold mining—along with discoveries of massive deposits in San Francisco and Melbourne—wizards often infiltrated Muggle camps, using Confundus Charms to steal gold. This practice was only officially banned in 1888.
In fact, as Professor Binns once explained in History of Magic, the goblin rebellion of 1612 was sparked by gold.
As gold’s value collapsed, wizards forced goblins to abandon their old currency system—sparking fierce resistance.
The rebellion ended with the wizards victorious. Galleons were forcibly devalued by ten thousand times, leaving goblins unable to control wizarding society through currency.
Later, the 1631 “Wand Usage Guidelines” stripped goblins of the right to carry wands, removing any chance of resistance.
It wasn’t until 1865 that goblins were granted full control of Gringotts and the right to mint currency.
Only then did relations between wizards and goblins enter a century-long period of relative peace.
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