Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.
Chapter 20– Firebolt.
------------------------------------
He definitely just said Firebolt, didn't he? So things can not be working out this perfectly for me, can they? Or is this just some cruel trick of the fates, bringing me someone who coincidentally thought up the same name and is actually a hack. But this is precisely what I was looking for, my first big money-making industry, and from there, I can start to expand, but first, I need a base good money-making business.
With a stable surefire fire industry under my foot, I can start taking risks on things that weren't mentioned in the story. I might have a lot of money to waste, but that is no reason to squander it willy-nilly, so this is an excellent opportunity for me. But just because the name rings a bell doesn't mean it is exactly what I am looking for. So I have to make sure.
"I will be honest with you, Randolph. Can I call you that?" He is caught off guard by my sudden turn when I was the one that asked him for that information, and when he goes to answer, I just carry on in true Gilderoy fashion. Right now, the man is nervous, semi-depressed and very close to despair. I am his last hope. So I will beat him down a bit more and make him more susceptible to the help I will offer him, which he will be very grateful for.
"To be frank, Randolph, I am not going to give you a loan today. Unless Merlin himself were to come back to life and tell me to, or some other spectacular feat occurred. Your business is just not tenable, you are a single man, and you do not show much promise, especially after knowing you have had thirty years of work put in and no results to show for it. No other place is going to give you a loan either, and the ones that might are going to bleed you for all your worth with unfair contracts." I hit him with hard facts, the truth that he needed to hear and the truth I needed him to hear.
None of the loan people would have really even listened to this guy, even if he had a brilliant idea, because that was different from what those people were looking for. Just like the guys that owned this place before me and nearly all other magical loaners, they were looking for suckers to fool and scam. So the only people that had even a chance of loaning you money or investing in your business would be the purebloods. Still, they are a no go unless you are a pureblood yourself or different in a political standing or have a bad image, and if you need a loan, then you are probably not. So this man before me, though pureblooded, will not be saved by the upper echelon. His father made sure of that by him squandering his fortune and his obsession.
"Then... what am I supposed to do? I have nothing left to sell except my father's research, and I will never do that. I need the money to fulfil my and my father's dream, the fastest broom. I need to sell brooms to gather more funds to research and develop more brooms to sell and then keep researching. No. If you don't loan to me, then I will find someone else that will, even if they might try to fool me. I have to take that chance." My words seem to have backfired a little since he stands all of a sudden and makes to leave. Instead of falling helpless, he surprisingly gets some fire in him and the courage to keep trying.
"Sit back down, please, Randolph. I wasn't finished. It is rude to interrupt. Now, while I may not be able to offer you a loan, I am prepared to offer you an alternative option." I quickly raise my phone, scolding him and trying to reel him in. I am constantly monitoring his mind, and that little spark of courage was out of the blue, suddenly rising from nowhere. At my words, however, that spark quickly dims, and he listens to me intently as he sits back in his seat, surprising me.
I suddenly saw a surge of obedience in him when I spoke, and he urgently listened to me and sat back down for some reason. Curios, I look into him a little closer, and I figure out the reason why. It seems like he has a healthy case of reverence towards me, and it isn't actually because of me, not really. People in the wizarding world, the people who aren't filthy rich and who aren't people of good stature, look up to those more powerful and successful than them, like Dumbledore, Grindlewald and Voldemort. And to a lesser state, the minister of magic, wealthy people/donation givers like Lucious Malfoy, seeker stars like Krum and even myself. So the public looks at us with veneration, and I will take advantage of that.
"...Sorry. So, uh, what alternative is this?" Randolph says, nervously fidgeting with his fingers.
"With what you have told me, I can not offer you a loan. The risk versus reward is simply not good enough. I would be risking too much for simply too little. So, the question is, what is in it for me? The option I am offering you is to increase the amount that I would gain. Give me a bigger piece of the pie, and in conjunction, what I can offer will increase. I will invest in you, in this broom. We will be partners, I will front all the costs, and you will focus on the broom and the research. I can get Andromeda here to do all the managerial work for the time being until we can source a proper candidate for the position unless you want to do it yourself." I say, giving him my whole deal, which I think is quite good.
His main goal is not to make money or achieve fame. It is simply to fulfil his father's dream and make the ultimate broom which, according to him, isn't even the Firebolt. He only needs the money and is setting up the company so he can fund the research and development. He cares much less about the profits and the business side of things.
"R-Really? Yes, I accept. When can we get started? I have quite a few experiments to do before we can start selling the brooms. I think I can improve the" Like a man drowning in the middle of the ocean, Randolph Spudmore quickly grabs onto the life raft I had thrown out and is all too happy to climb aboard. He is ecstatic to find a way out of the mire he had found himself in and quickly losses himself in ramblings about brooms and research, so I cut him off before he can get carried away.
"Again, Randolph, you have interrupted me before I could finish. Now, as I was saying, I can offer you this deal where I deal with all costs, and we become partners. However, for that to happen, I have to know about all your current dealings, the current state of your company and the current specifications of the broom you are trying to sell. I can not buy in without having the relevant details, and I will not buy into something that I do not see potential or profit in. So, tell me everything. Convince me." As I said before, I can not be assured that the Firebolt this guy is peddling is the same as the success in the actual books. I need confirmation, and Randolph, in his desperation, will spill everything to me in hopes of gaining my support.
"Ah, uh, okay. Currently, I have no assets or buildings, only the cottage that my father and I lived in and that we did our experiments in. As for current dealings, there is only one, and it isn't really current, more bi-yearly. The deal is with the goblins for goblin silver, which costs a lot, so we could only buy more every six months. My father was certain that goblin silver was the key to advancing our brooms, and he was right. They worked." Randolph reveals, confirming that this is the guy I have been looking for. I remember something about goblins when thFireboltlt came up, so this must be it.
"Goblin silver? That improves the broom, how?" I question because I still want to know everything about it even if I am ninety-nine point nine percent sure this is the one. Just because this became a big thing in canon doesn't mean that it will now. Just because I found it early and became involved, maybe there is something that will be messed up and won't happen becomes of my presence. There is no guarantee, unlike the businesses in the muggle world, I have little to no influence on those after all, but this I will have an overwhelming effect on.
"I-I don't know. All I know is that it improves the broom, not why. My father didn't know either, but he knew more than me. My father believed the key to making the ultimate broom would be to understand why goblin silver improved brooms, and if we understood that, then we could apply that knowledge directly towards the broom. It is why we were bleeding galleons. We kept buying the goblins silver and then ruining it in our experimentations, having to buy even more afterwards." They somehow ruined goblin silver, which was apparently impossible, which was why it was so impressive. Able Spudmore must have been a genius to have done such a thing, and such a feat was done just to make a broom.
"Oh, okay. And that was what all your research was on? The broom you want to make and sell at this current moment. Surely the only innovation can't be the goblin silver. There must be research done on other things these past thirty years." At my words, Randolph nods and continues to speak.
"Yes, we have done multiple other experiments on all sorts of materials and how they, for example, react together. Goblin silver gives the brooms additional stability and power that can withstand adverse weather conditions. The woods that we experimented on are the ones used for wands, and they each interact differently with the silver. We were also trying to combine the strengths of wood, but we need expert herbologists for that." Hmm, alright, it seems like they have put a lot of work into this. Which means I can get a lot of benefits and profit out of it.
"Alright, you have convinced me. I will help you. You will handle the broom design and research, and I will deal with the management, production, advertisement, PR and everything else. I will own fifty-one percent of the company, and you will own the other forty-nine percent. These are my terms. Only if you agree to that, will I be a part of this." I need control over this. It can not be a fifty-fifty thing. I need complete control. I can not have him decide to mess it up all later.
"W-What? N-No, you can't. You are just supposed to be the money man like Ellerby was. This was my father's company, his legacy. I can't just give control of it to someone else." He quickly becomes defensive and confrontational when I make my demands, and it isn't as if he personally cares. He doesn't even think his father cared about that as long as he continued to make the best brooms possible, but it is one of the only things his father left to him, and he doesn't want to give it away.