Chapter 3: Diagon Alley
When we arrived at the pub, I got a few stares and handshakes after Hagrid announced I'm Harry Potter.
"Harry... Potter... Can't tell you how pleased I am to meet you", Professor Quirrell stuttered when he saw me.
"Hello Professor, didn't see you there. Harry, this is Professor Quirrell, your new Professor against the Dark Arts teacher", Hagrid said.
"Oh, hello Professor", I said as I extended my hand. I wonder if he would crack and dissolve into stone if he actually shook it. Should I try to shake his hands? ;)
"Fearfully... fascinating subject... not that you need it eh?... Potter", Professor Quirrell stuttered as he avoided shaking my hands.
"Yes well, we must go now, lots to buy...", Hagrid said after looking at that awkward encounter.
"Goodbye", I said to Professor Quirrell as we made our way to Diagon Alley. Voldermort probably hasn't possessed him at this point in time, since my scar didn't hurt when I'm near him. Most likely they will start to become one after the failed robbery today when Professor Quirrell attempted to steal the Philosopher stone.
Weird, if that was the case then why didn't Harry's scar start to hurt when the Professor was teaching in school? Is it because Harry wasn't facing the back of his head? I wonder if I can mess with Quirrell and Voldermort just by always facing the front side...
Stepping into Diagon Alley after Hagrid tapped a few times at a wall with his umbrella, I saw a crowded street with many people coming and going out of the different stores. Our first stop was at Gringotts bank where I finally saw the ugly goblins.
Why were they in charge of money? Goblins have complete disdain for wizards, yet they are entrusted with wizard money. Plenty of dark objects that would otherwise be confiscated are allowed to be kept at Gringotts.
Let's not get started on the wizarding economy. Well, there's no currency exchange, and yet wizards regularly take advantage of muggle goods and services. Like the paper to send letters, I mean, how did they make paper? Was there a paper wizard, or cooking utensils wizards? Did they just permanently transfigure stuff? I thought that was hard.
Even if they can't transfigure stuff into gold, they could transfigure into something else right? Wasn't the first class in Hogwarts to transfigure a matchstick into silver needle? What if they smelted that silver? What about other materials?
In one of the movies, didn't Harry conjure water for Dumbledore to drink? So they can create fresh water? Wouldn't that solve the water scarcity issue in Africa? And food can actually be duplicated, just not created, at least according to the movies. And they can increase in size too! So no one would actually be hungry in the wizarding world.
Are they trading with muggles? How? A single currency would be impossible to work with so many international ministries of magic - it just couldn't compensate for local economic fluctuations in any effective manner.
The wizard economy seems to be stuck in a medieval paradigm - the private Gringott's has an apparently government-sanctioned monopoly on the banking system, and yet is not a central bank. There's no stock market; firms seem to be wholly family-owned. Even more shocking, there is literally no credit to speak of.
This forces families like the Weasleys to live virtually hand-to-mouth, while severely hampering the development of the business community. How did other Pureblood families get rich anyway? And they store all their wealth in Gringotts? Shouldn't there be more robberies attempts?
And how does the government collect revenue to pay for all its expenditures? I hope they don't just conjure galleons out of thin air, because that's courting major inflation. If they can do that, then who would be poor? But there's no taxes ever mentioned! Where does Mr. Weasley's salary come from?!
The wizard economy seems to operate purely on the blind faith and ignorance of wizards. I knew they were pretty culturally isolated, but it's a feat for them to have missed out on the last 500 years of economic innovation. That, or J.K. Rowling slept through her econs classes at university. That seems more likely...
Then, is J.K. Rowling the God of this planet? They were right, God is a woman then. How did she create this place? No wait, I'm thinking way too much. But, how did I end up here? Is this world even real?
I had too many questions as I entered the bank.
We went through the usual routine, I got my money, Hagrid got his stone, and we left to purchase my school supplies.
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