Loki waiting inside his room, sipped on tea as he waited patiently for Bilton to show up.
It wasn't long after Loki's arrival that Bilton arrived, making himself known as he tapped his cane on the door to grab Loki's attention.
"You're here before time as usual Loki."
"Haha~ It's alright Mr. Bilmes. I enjoy waiting and watching the hustle and bustle of the streets below." Loki said politely and stood up to greet Bilton.
"Have you prepared all the required designs Loki?" Bilton asked after the two of them had a little tea in silence and greeted each other with flattery.
"Yes. The designs are with me. I've prepared them for your viewing." Loki said with a soft smile while pulling out several pages from inside his bag.
"Ah~! They're well done." Bilton replied with a smile of his own as he laid his eyes on the artwork. "If I didn't know that the Greengrass heiress was working on these, I'd have poached the employee from your company Mr. Loki."
"Haha~ Thank you for the comments Mr. Bilmes, I'll make sure to pass them on."
"Hmm~m."
Scrutinizing the card designs for a little bit, Bilton spoke up after a few minutes.
"These designs are perfect, I don't have any complaints. Do you want to use them for production to sell the games you've designed as a standalone product apart from the papers?"
"Yes, Mr. Bilmes, I plan to. I've already spoken with my coworkers and they also think it is for the best if we work it out to sell as standalone products."
"*sigh* such young kids you all are and you've got such impressive ideas. Well, don't mind me working on these then. I will let you know the progress through my spirit messenger if that's alright."
"That would be alright. I welcome anything that increases the privacy of our letters." Loki said with a polished smile.
Breaking away from Bilton, Loki roamed the streets of Diagon Alley until he reached his next destination, the Gringotts Bank.
As soon as Loki stepped into the bank, he found himself thinking back to the event that had occurred last year here. The moment when Lucius Malfoy was picked as a customer that was more important than him.
He felt even worse since he saw Malfoy walking towards the same teller assigned to give out Hogwarts Orphan Funds that Loki was moving towards.
'Does that guy still remember me?'
Logically there wasn't any mistake from the bank since it made sense that the Malfoy's were indeed more important, but Loki couldn't help but feel a sense of mistrust that brought along with it a bad aftertaste that he couldn't get rid of.
And so when Loki found himself in front of the bank teller he'd worked with the last time, Loki did not reveal his real reason for coming to the bank immediately.
Instead, he just said, "Good afternoon, could you please give me the money for the Hogwarts Orphan funds for this year?"
The Goblin glared at Loki but said nothing, ignoring him like the air as he looked behind Loki at the Malfoys.
Loki scowled and spoke in a harsh tone, "Is there no Goblin in this stupid place that can treat its customers better?"
"There are more important customers could you please wait over there?" The Goblin said with a sneer, pointing at the dusty cushioned sofas beside a dustbin with flies hovering around it.
"Are you sure about this?" Loki asked the teller with a scowl on his face.
The goblin scowled but before he could answer, Loki felt a claw rest on his shoulder and pull him backwards and out of the way.
"Don't waste my time boy, you've already done plenty of that you pauper.", Malfoy said and stepped in front of Loki.
Lucius Malfoy then produced a golden card and placed it in front of the teller, "I need to visit my vault."
"Reason?"
But just as Malfoy was about to respond to the teller, another goblin, dressed in plain clothes, quickly walked up to the desk and scowled at the teller.
"I am the Malfoy's personal handler Gornuk." the teller complained, wondering if he was here to take his personal client.
But Gornuk's scowl only deepened before he turned away from the goblin and looked at Loki with a smile.
"I'm sorry Mr. Loki, he is a little stupid and slow I apologise for letting such a stupid face show at our bank. Would you like to move to a more private room? I promise you, you are a much more important client to us than the Malfoys." Gornuk said shocking Malfoy who looked at Loki with wide eyes.
"Are you the only one who knows how to treat a customer well? I'd like to deal with you exclusively from now on if that's possible. If not, a place where you don't learn how to treat your customers right isn't a place I want to do my business at."
Gornuk nodded with a smile before guiding Loki to a private room where he spoke calmly to flatter Loki, "I apologise for my colleague's foolishness, he doesn't get to do much other than hand out Hogwarts funds and handle the Malfoys' dying businesses."
They moved to a fresh room where the goblin greeted Loki again with a fresh smile and waited for him to speak.
Loki nodded calmly before asking the goblin the same question as last time, "Can I get my Hogwarts Orphan funds?"
Gornuk nodded calmly before pressing a button on the side of the table which called for a second goblin who Gornuk asked to bring out the Hogwarts funds.
As they waited, Gornuk spoke again, "Mr. Loki, your sudden rise in fame has had me rooting for you for the last year. I believe your ideas have brought you quite the wealth."
"They have." Loki nodded patiently before continuing, "In fact the second reason I'm here is related to it."
"Oh? May I hear?"
"Sure. I want to open a business vault under the name of Hogwarts Honest Mill and deposit some funds into it."
"Oh? And how much would we be talking about?"
"About a few hundred thousand galleons, give or take a few."
Gornuk's eyes widened but he quickly nodded and pulled out a few pages from his desk, he quickly filled them out and then handed them over to Loki to sign.
Loki signed them only after performing divination to see if there were any traps but finding none, he signed them away and placed a simple-looking pouch on the table.
"The funds that I want to deposit are in there."
Gornuk nodded before calling another goblin to whom he handed the pouch Loki had given.
"Is there anything else for us to discuss while we wait for your vault to be initialised Mr. Loki?"
"Yes, have a look at this contract. I want to know how to proceed from here."
Gornuk quickly took the pages Loki gave him and found himself getting excited as he read through it, especially when he saw Lockharts signature at the end.
"Would you like to tour the vaults Mr. Loki?"
"Is there anything special in there or is it all just money?"
Gornuk shook his head before explaining, "I'm sorry I would not be privy to that information, but the manager of this vault should. Let me call him here."
Gornuk called a goblin who he spoke to in Gobbeldegook, sending him away to return with a new goblin who was excited. But as soon as he saw Loki and Gornuk he became a little confused.
"You called me to answer questions regarding my vault Gornuk?"
"Yes."
"But I don't see Lockhart here. I can only speak in his presence."
Gornuk nodded before explaining, "Lockhart has sold his vault to Mr. Loki. I shall be handling the vault from now on."
The goblin's eyes widened and he quickly read through the contract that Gornuk handed over to him. His face turned into a scowl, before turning into a frown. He then looked at Loki before asking him a question, "Who was the witness to this contract?"
"Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey."
The goblin sighed after hearing those names before proceeding to answer Loki's questions.
Only an hour later was everything handled and Loki learnt he had precisely seven hundred thousand galleons in his new vaults. He'd gotten three hundred thousand from Lockhart and four hundred thousand from the newspaper.
Most of the money from the newspapers wasn't from the paper itself, they were from people purchasing fresh newspapers to gain new cards, especially the nobles who were the 'whales' of the game.
In total about Fifty million copies of the paper were sold over a span of over ten months. Which came to about a hundred and sixty-four thousand papers each month or about, six thousand copies each day.
This wasn't a large number by any means since there were about three thousand people at Hogwarts, and the remaining three thousand came from other people related to the first three thousand.
Additionally, there were several business contracts that Lockhart had signed with businesses in Diagon Alley which Loki inherited and aimed to make the most out of.
All these combined put him comfortably over the million galleons mark.
He was told this much money was above what the Malfoys had, even if not by much. But the businesses Lockhart had invested in were booming so he was a more valuable customer.
Loki felt that the goblins were only trying to sweeten his tongue a little by saying this so he didn't take them seriously, but he couldn't deny that it felt good.
So as Loki returned from the private room, he became excited when he saw Lucius and Draco Malfoy exiting their vaults.
He walked behind them before clearing his throat loudly to catch their attention.
"*AHEM* *AHEM*"
Malfoy turned around and spoke with annoyance, "Keep it down, you pauper."
Loki mentally smiled when Malfoy said that and immediately retorted, "Pauper? If I'm a pauper what are you? The beggar that roams on the streets stealing?"
Malfoy raised his eyebrows, trying to figure out where Loki's confidence came from but that was when Loki pulled out an elegant silver clip pin that he pinned to his pocket.
"I became a platinum member at Gringotts in just a year Mr. Malfoy. What about you? I heard you dropped from the Platinum tier and have become a gold one?"
Loki walked away from the bank under the stunned gazes of Malfoys.
"Tsk. What a shitty place." Loki mumbled under his breath and walked out of the bank, moving towards 'R.O.B's Warehouse' where he wanted to get information about the location of his next ingredient.
Walking through the alleyway, Loki passed by the busy people, until he came to the old building he recognised from his memories of being here a year earlier.
Loki immediately used his illusions to become Gehrman Sparrow after which he slipped on the ring from the Black Mannor that would keep his identity confined behind a veil of mirages just to be safe that no one would be able to track him down.
Pushing open the door, Loki found the place to be a little busier than the last time he was there, or at least that is what he thought since two more people were waiting for their turn to speak to the lady behind the counter.
Loki sat down on one of the chairs, patiently waiting for his turn.
Meanwhile, his thoughts drifted to the bank, 'Do the goblins deal with all of the Wizards' monies? Isn't that risky?'
'What if I open a bank?'
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