"Respected Mr. Dumbledore, welcome to Gringotts. How may I be of service to you?"
At the entrance of Gringotts, a goblin bowed deeply to Kyle, its long nose nearly poking the floor.
As the son of the greatest white wizard of this era... [pause] ... the courteous reception Kyle received was still a bit excessive.
What Kyle didn't know was that Gringotts, with branches established across various European countries, had already sniffed out something unusual from the resurgence of the August family.
The connection between the August family and the Grindelwald family was anything but ordinary.
Not to mention Kyle's heterochromatic eyes.
Many of the old goblins at Gringotts recognized those mismatched eyes of Grindelwald; they were confident they wouldn't mistake them.
"I would like to exchange some currency."
"Please, follow me." The goblin bowed deeply once more, then led Kyle and the other three into the magnificent marble hall.
At a counter, the goblins quickly processed the exchange of Muggle currency for Galleons for the four of them.
In addition to the eight hundred Galleons exchanged via the limited pound quota, they also used a large bag of gold bars to exchange for over a thousand more Galleons.
"We're rich! We're rich!"
After emerging from Gringotts, the extremely agitated George and Fred kept chanting this phrase over and over.
Their look of having never seen money before made Kyle find them somewhat amusing.
In total, they had exchanged over two thousand one hundred Galleons. Kyle, the filthy rich moneybags who had no shortage of cash, only took the small change, leaving the remaining two thousand one hundred Galleons to be divided among the other three.
Given the price levels in the wizarding world, the one thousand four hundred Galleons split between the twin brothers was enough for them to lease a shop in a less-than-prime location in Diagon Alley.
However, the two of them had no plans to open a shop for the time being.
The reason was that neither had graduated from Hogwarts yet, so they didn't have the time to manage a shop's business.
If they were to drop out of school, Mrs. Weasley would absolutely kill the both of them.
As for hiring someone to run it... don't even think about it.
The money they had now was only enough to acquire the storefront.
Let alone hiring someone to manage the shop, they wouldn't even have spare money left to buy raw materials to process into goods after buying the property.
So, the idea of opening a shop in Diagon Alley would have to be put on hold for a few years.
They still had a lot of Muggle currency on hand that hadn't been exchanged yet due to the quota limits.
Give them a few more years to finish exchanging the Muggle money they held, and they would be able to scrape together enough capital to open the store.
Cedric, who had also received a large sum of money, was equally excited.
As the only son of the Diggory family, he had never been short on pocket money.
However, his allowance couldn't compare to a certain moneybags whose unit of currency was "ten thousand Galleons."
Having four or five Galleons in his pocket was considered a lot for him.
Seven hundred Galleons was a huge sum not just for him, but even for his father, Amos Diggory.
He really wanted to take this money home to improve his parents' lives, but considering the money came from illegitimate sources, he was eventually persuaded by Kyle to keep it for his own use.
"Aren't you quite interested in wandlore, Ced?" Kyle asked.
He pointed to a shop nearby that sold magical materials.
"You can use this money to buy materials for making wands. While improving your wand-making craftsmanship, you can also sell the wands you make."
"That way, this money will be..." Kyle suddenly choked on the words at the tip of his tongue.
He really wanted to say "laundered," but felt that something about that phrasing wasn't quite right.
Seeing Cedric's look of sudden realization, Kyle felt he didn't need to say anything more.
"Thank you, Kyle, I understand!" Cedric ran excitedly into the shop.
George and Fred also rushed into the shop, hooting and hollering; they looked less like customers and more like two robbers.
The four "Father-Worriers" made it back to the Burrow right on time before lunch.
Regarding the events that transpired in London, all four kept their lips sealed; their public story was that they had simply played in the Muggle world of London for a few days.
Mrs. Weasley didn't ask too many questions and called the four of them to lunch.
After lunch, Mr. Weasley, having finally finished a week of being a corporate slave, immediately couldn't wait to drag Kyle and the others into the shed.
Cedric didn't understand alchemy outside of wandlore and didn't have much interest in Muggle cars, so he went back first.
Regarding Mr. Weasley's beloved Ford Anglia 105E Deluxe, the modification plan had already been finalized before Kyle and the others went to London.
In the morning, Mr. Weasley had already completed the first step of the modification plan:
—Transfiguring and fusing a tank with the sedan.
Next came the installation of the power systems.
According to the plan they had discussed, this "Star Destroyer" would have two power systems: a Muggle version and a magical version.
The Muggle power system utilized a diesel engine Kyle had bought back from London, which had been stripped from a heavy-duty Mercedes truck.
Only a truck engine would be able to move the tank's heavy body.
As for why they didn't use the magic-driven engine they had bragged about a few days ago...
That thing hadn't even been designed yet.
Designing an engine from scratch was no easy task.
Even with the help of magic, they could ignore many issues.
For instance, material strength: a single Durability Rune could turn a piece of ordinary steel into something with the strength of aircraft carrier deck armor.
But engine design was more than just a materials issue.
To install such a thing on a tank... they wouldn't see any hope for at least two years.
In order to get the tank into the sky sooner, it was better to temporarily substitute it with a Muggle diesel engine.
The magical version of the power system was primarily to endow the Star Destroyer with the ability to fly. Mr. Weasley's original plan was to dismantle the old Cleansweep broom at his house and install it on his car.
However, after fusing the tank's hull with the Ford sedan, even with a Levitation Charm to reduce some of the weight, an old Cleansweep broom wouldn't be enough to make it fly.
Kyle unhesitatingly contributed his own Nimbus 2000.
"No, no, no, this is too valuable, how could we use this?" Mr. Weasley hurriedly refused.
"Uncle, this broom isn't being provided to you for free."
Kyle knew Mr. Weasley would refuse, so he planned to adopt a transaction method similar to how he had provided funds to George earlier.
"I also have a Muggle car. After you finish modifying this Ford sedan, you can help me modify my car. The payment will be this Nimbus 2000."
Mr. Weasley looked hesitant; he knew that put this way, he was getting a huge bargain.
A Nimbus 2000 was worth several hundred Galleons, equivalent to nearly half a year of his salary.
Considering he had a large family to feed and very little money left over each month, Mr. Weasley estimated he would have to save for most of his life to afford such a broomstick.
"I heard the latest Nimbus 2001 model is going on sale in a few days. It's the perfect opportunity for me to switch to a new broom."
Hearing the extravagant statement of the moneybags, Mr. Weasley finally agreed.
Mr. Weasley made up his mind that when helping Kyle modify his flying car, he would absolutely bring out his highest level of alchemy.
————
Supporting me on Pa-treon to gain early access to advanced chapters and enjoy expedited updates. Your support is greatly appreciated.
pat-reon .c-om/Dragonhair
(Just remove the hyphen - and space, to access Pa-treon normally.)