The first ray of light in the morning breaks through the thin fog, reflecting mottled light and shadow on the stone streets.
It will take at least another hour or two for the empty streets to slowly become lively.
In Gringotts, where the bronze doors were closed and business had not yet begun, a difficult negotiation that lasted all night had just ended.
"Dear Miss Kaslana, you can actually think about it again. If Hogwarts' funds are stored in Gringotts, we can even make some concessions in terms of handling fees."
An elf elder with a wrinkled face rubbed his palms unwillingly and said with a flattering smile, hoping to change Elena's mind.
At this time, Elena was accompanied by Andy Serkis and Gallywix, standing in front of a huge "gold mountain" made of gold galleons and counting carefully. The goblin's unique counting magic made the whole process
It has become much easier than imagined.
"Needless to say. All loans must be kept by Hogwarts. This is one of the foundations of the entire contract."
Elena refused unmoved and firmly, not even bothering to turn her head, and continued to watch the two goblins counting the gold coins.
Although there are various terms and conditions in the entire Hogwarts mortgage loan contract, if you put aside all the bells and whistles, there are only four core ideas.
[All loan funds must be handed over to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for safekeeping]
[The currency lent and returned is the currency of the Muggle world - rubles]
[Gringotts must convert rubles into gold galleons as much as possible when making payments. (Based on negotiation, the shortfall can be made up by using Muggle currency—US dollars or pounds sterling—according to the exchange rate)]
[This content is temporarily invisible to Muggles, wizards please use the Appearance Spell to view it yourself]
Compared to the endless stream of villains in the business world in later generations, in Elena's view, the goblins at this time were still in a relatively innocent and simple state.
Apart from a little trickery on interest rates and handling fees, as well as some fancy word games, there are not too many traps and malicious clauses deliberately included in the contract.
Therefore, Elena's response was extremely simple and crude. She directly copied more than half of the mature commercial mortgage contract styles and terms in her memory.
Another result of this is that in the minds of the goblins, the mysterious and wise aura surrounding Dumbledore has become a little more dazzling.
"I'm sorry, because of time constraints, we only mobilized 400 million gold galleons and 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, and the rest was made up of pounds sterling, a total of 730 million..."
Gallywix wiped the sweat from his forehead, held a piece of parchment with trembling hands, glanced at Elena with some restraint, and explained quickly.
"Well, I understand, there's no need to read any more. After arriving at Hogwarts, someone will naturally review and accept it with you."
Elena waved her hand indifferently, interrupted Gallywix's words, turned around, and looked behind her.
Behind her, hundreds of fully armed goblins were waiting there. Each goblin held a small, worn-out money bag in their hands. She knew that these were storage bags that had been casted with a traceless stretching spell.
"By the way, let me ask you a final, trivial question. Is Gringotts a joint-stock company?"
Elena blinked and asked a strange question to the old goblin beside her.
"Of course, goblins are not backward and primitive low-level animals. We only believe in contracts and gold galleons." The old goblin replied without thinking.
"That's it, I understand."
Elena nodded lightly, said nothing more, glanced at the dazzling wealth in front of her, and took a deep breath.
"You can start teleporting in sequence - destination, the main entrance of Hogwarts Castle."
…………
Hogwarts.
The sky in the Scottish Highlands usually lights up later, and at this time the sky is still slightly hazy blue.
Huh~ha~
Dumbledore, who was wearing blue pajamas, suddenly sat up from the bed and took a few heavy breaths. For some reason, he suddenly felt a strange chest tightness.
Turning his head, Dumbledore looked at the wall clock on the wall. It was not yet half past six.
"Sure enough, you are getting older...you are no longer as young as you were when you were younger."
Dumbledore smiled mockingly to himself. If Madam Pomfrey in the school hospital knew about it, there would definitely be another fuss and complaint.
Dude, dunk, dunk.
At this moment, there was a rhythmic knocking sound outside the window.
Dumbledore raised his head and saw a small owl the size of a fist standing by the window, flapping its wings and tapping anxiously on his bedroom window. There was a small letter tied to its feet.
Isn't this Elena's owl named Vika? With such eagerness, could something unexpected have happened?
The old man's expression condensed, he quickly stood up, quickly opened the window, let the little owl in, and took the envelope from the little owl's feet.
Dumbledore walked to the bed, put on his glasses, shook out the letter and read softly.
[Dear, gentle, great, kind, never angry... Dear Professor Dumbledore:]
[When you read this letter, cute little Elena has already arrived at the gate of Hogwarts Castle.]
[With me, there are 350 goblins from Gringotts, and wealth worth approximately 750 million gold galleons. 】
[Because the amount is huge, besides you, I suggest bringing all the house elves in the school to help with the inventory. 】
[Of course, you can rest assured. This is a completely reasonable and legal asset that can be completely controlled by Hogwarts. No matter what, you must transport this money into Hogwarts! 】
[This asset comes from a mortgage loan I made in Gringotts. The mortgage is the estate certificate of the Salazar Slytherin family, which is the title certificate of the current Hogwarts Castle. 】
[When you see this, please don’t get angry. Not only is this bad for your health, it also won’t solve the problem. I can explain it.]
【——Your loyal, lovely, Elena Kaslana.】
At the bottom of the letter, there is also a loan contract signed by Gringotts and Elena, with a magical seal shining on it.
Uh-huh!
After reading the letter, Dumbledore suddenly felt his vision go dark, and there was a dull cramp in his chest, as if someone had cast a Cruciatus Curse.
He finally realized what the ominous premonition that had been lingering in his mind since yesterday was - Elena Kaslana. He should not have allowed this terrible little girl to have the opportunity to come into contact with ancient times.
Those greedy fairies in Ling Pavilion.
Gu Gu Gu~
As if he sensed something was wrong with Dumbledore's mood, Reserve Liang, who was drinking water at the side, raised his head curiously, flapped his wings and flew to Dumbledore's side, and bumped the old man's finger with his little head.
By the way, now is not the time to be in a daze, there is still a terrifying amount of wealth piled at the school gate.
Dumbledore quickly came to his senses, picked up the wand and pointed at his throat - [loud voice]
"Attention all house elves in Hogwarts, please follow me to gather at the gate of the castle."
At the same time, a flash of fire flashed in the bedroom. Dumbledore looked at the sudden appearance of the phoenix and nodded, "Fox, please."
…………
At the gate of Hogwarts Castle, the huge empty space is now filled with gold galleons as high as a hill. Below the gold mountain, there are hundreds of giant money bricks composed of tied pounds and US dollars.
"So, how long do we have to wait? Why hasn't Mr. Dumbledore come yet?"
Andy Serkis pinched his fingers anxiously, looked at the closed castle door in front of him, and urged in a sharp voice.
After leaving Gringotts, every second of waiting was no less than a catastrophic ordeal for it. Not only it, but all the goblins present had their nerves broken to the extreme, and they were all looking forward to Dumbledore's speed.
point appears.
"Relax, it will be soon. After all, Professor Dumbledore still needs to summon..."
Elena tried to keep a relaxed expression to comfort the goblins who were about to collapse, and kept repeating in her mind - there are movie props behind her, all movie props.
Snapped.
The air in front of the castle suddenly made a crisp explosion, and a short figure appeared on the bridge of the castle.
Immediately, a series of dense crackling sounds like firecrackers sounded continuously.
One after another, house elves appeared in front of the gate of Hogwarts Castle.
"Elena Kaslana!"
Accompanied by a brilliant firelight and a sound, Dumbledore, wearing dark blue pajamas with a pattern of stars and moons, appeared at the front of the castle.
Dumbledore's blue eyes were filled with anger, and on the back of the old man's left hand, a silver-white oath chain shone with dazzling brilliance.
"Ah, Professor Dumbledore, I've been waiting for you."
Seeing the tall figure with a long silver beard, Elena felt relieved, raised the back of her smooth left hand, and shook it weakly towards Dumbledore.
——She could feel that with the appearance of Dumbledore, the energy that had sustained her all the way until now was rapidly receding.
"I completed my oath ahead of schedule. This is the past, present, and future of Hogwarts."
Elena pointed behind her and showed a tired smile, "We will transport them into the castle first, and then you will listen to my explanation..."
Bang.
Before the silver-haired little Luoli could finish speaking, a strong sense of exhaustion quickly swallowed her consciousness, her vision went dark, her body swayed slightly and she fell straight to the ground.
"Elena?!"
"Miss Kaslana?!"
Without thinking too much, Dumbledore's expression changed, and he waved his wand with his right hand. He called the unconscious girl into his arms and carefully explored her.
"Huh~ It's okay, I was just too tired and fell asleep."
The old man breathed a sigh of relief, his eyes passed thoughtfully over the back of the girl's smooth hands, and he ordered the house elf beside him, "Take Elena back to the student dormitory and have a good rest."
As for the situation in front of me...
Dumbledore raised his head, looked at the hill-like golden galleons, and the corners of his eyes twitched slightly imperceptibly.
"Ahem, it seems that the cooperation is going very smoothly."
Dumbledore coughed lightly, took out the original contract sent by Elena and quickly glanced at it, then straightened his face and said in a deep voice with no surprise.
"Then Mr. Goblin, let's start counting. It seems that it is not an easy project."
No matter what happens, there is absolutely no problem in transporting these Galleons into Hogwarts first.
————
I’m so tired. It’s still a 3,000-word chapter. Please vote. I can finally get on the train for the next chapter.
After drinking two cans of Red Bull, I went to rest and forced myself to finish writing the plot here.
Oh, by the way, the food reserve and water are in Dumbledore's bedroom. Feel free to touch them if you want.