Chapter 71
Time flies, and it is now May.
There is still one month left until the end of the school year. At this time, even the most lazy and playful Gryffindors start going to the library.
Let alone the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s exams that determine the fate of wizards, the final exam report card will directly affect whether you'll have a big meal or fried meat on a stick when you go home during the summer vacation.
This has also led to the crazy sales of Buraffio's Brain Elixir starting last week. Of course, the main buyers are the seniors, but even the lower grades are cramming at the last minute.
"Ethan, have you finished refining the Burrafio potion?"
The debt collectors came again.
George and Fred blocked Ethan at the intersection as he was leaving Potions class.
The Weasley brothers hadn't stopped smiling during this period.
Gryffindor alone can sell more than 20 bottles a day, which means they earn at least 20 gold galleons, more than 10 each per day, which is far more than their father Arthur's salary.
Now they are in their third year, with four years still left until graduation.
At this rate, they can save up the money needed for their joke shop before graduating.
They'll also have enough gold galleons to develop new products.
When they graduate, they'll have both products and gold galleons.
Nothing could be better than this, making them very enthusiastic about it.
The only issue is that Ethan's production has hit a snag, and the supply can't meet the demand.
The four houses need about a hundred bottles a day, but Ethan only has three people refining them.
They have to attend classes on weekdays, so production is higher on weekends.
The stock they sold over the past few days ran out the day before yesterday.
"I can give you twelve bottles."
On school days, the three roommates, each working during evening events, can make three pots, with each pot yielding five bottles. This is the maximum output.
It's a pity none of them can operate multiple cauldrons at once, otherwise, the speed would be double.
During this time, several roommates are both happy and in pain. For the sake of gold galleons, they only complain a little.
If you want to buy flying brooms, magical props, and extracurricular books, you have to earn gold galleons. Except for Gene, who comes from a wizard family and isn't short on money, the other two won't easily give up this opportunity.
Fortunately, as Ravenclaws, their academic performance is good, and they don't need to revise like the other houses during this period.
"Ethan, give us more!"
Fred put his arm around Ethan's shoulders and showed a flattering smile.
This isn't just a potion, it's practically gold galleons. It's not shameful to bow to gold galleons.
"You already have one more bottle than the other three houses, what else do you want?"
Ethan said helplessly; he had to treat everyone equally.
He had chosen students from the four houses to handle the sales, and they all had a certain influence in their houses.
If the distribution was uneven, it would cause dissatisfaction among students from each house at this critical time before exams, affecting them all.
At the very least, all kinds of rumors would be inevitable; don't underestimate the complexity of people's hearts.
"To be honest, Ethan, you should find more people to make Buraffio's Brain Elixir, or at least prepare enough in advance!"
Fred took the twelve bottles of Buraffio's Brain Elixir and put them away, sighing.
These twelve bottles would be sold out in one morning, and every loss was lost money!
Even if Ethan didn't feel sorry, they certainly did!
"I asked you to help make the potion, and I offered you the same price as Michael. Who can you blame if you didn't agree?"
Ethan had considered this before.
He knew that when the school year was about to end, the sales of Buraffio's Brain Elixir would be better than usual. This was obvious, just like how mineral water and beverages are very popular in the summer.
For this reason, Ethan had specially saved more than 300 bottles of Buraffio's Brain Elixir, which, along with daily production, should have been enough. But he didn't expect them to sell out in less than ten weeks.
After all, there were only 700 bottles in more than a month before, and now that number was sold in just a week.
He had really underestimated the wealthy students at Hogwarts; five gold galleons per bottle, and it wasn't cheap!
And the duration was pitifully short, only 20 minutes.
As a result, many regular customers came to buy a bottle every day, with some even buying more than one bottle.
When it became popular a few days ago, Ethan also thought about adding a few people to help refine the potion. The first people he thought of were the twins. They were good in all aspects and would have no problem learning the process, but they refused.
They wanted to develop new products. Previously, they were limited by funding issues and had no progress in this area. Now that they had sufficient funds, they couldn't stop at all, so naturally, they were unwilling to do the same boring work.
The rest were either unsuitable or Ethan didn't trust them enough.
"Ethan, I can help you, provided the potion isn't too complicated."
Hermione, who had listened to the whole conversation, made her suggestion.
She thought her potion skills were excellent among her peers and believed she could help Ethan.
"Then Hermione, can you accept nighttime excursions?"
Ethan didn't avoid anyone when he said this. How rare is a nighttime excursion?
How many Gryffindors haven't gone on a nighttime excursion?
If Hermione wanted to help, Ethan certainly wouldn't refuse. Her talent for potions was quite good; she had self-studied and successfully brewed Polyjuice Potion in her second year.
But Buraffio's Brain Elixir couldn't be brewed in the Gryffindor dormitory.
Not to mention the issue of formula leakage, but killing frogs to extract their brains in the girls' dormitory would likely cause Hermione's roommates to lose sleep, resulting in Hermione being thrown out along with the cauldron and frogs.
The dormitory wouldn't work, so it would have to be outside.
No matter where, they would need to go on a nighttime excursion, as there were classes during the day, and time wasn't continuous.
Except for potions that take a long time to brew, where one can operate in intervals, people cannot leave during the brewing of short-term potions.
"If it's nighttime, I can!"
Hermione said seriously after a moment of silence.
She really didn't want to violate Hogwarts rules, fearing she would be caught and lose points. But in the Gryffindor environment, nighttime excursions were too common.
Not to mention the group of energetic boys—even Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil in her dormitory had gone on nighttime excursions.
Maybe she could also try out the traits of Gryffindor.
It was definitely not to help Ethan and outdo Cassandra that she broke her own rules.
"Okay, I'll wait for you outside the Gryffindor common room at ten o'clock tonight."
Alas, he's really a sinner, dragging a pure little witch into the dirty water again.
"Harry, hurry up! Ethan just gave Fred and George the Bafe Brain Refresher, let's go buy some."
Ronald, who had just come out of the classroom, shouted excitedly to Harry.
In Potions class just now, the two had made several mistakes in a row, were scolded, and had points deducted. They were now no different from eggplants hit by frost.
If nothing unexpected happens, it will be extremely difficult for the two to get a grade above an A in Potions this year.
They hadn't studied hard for almost a year and had to borrow others' homework. Though they performed better in other courses than in Potions, there were limits.
Especially Ronald; he wasn't as talented as Harry, and he played more vigorously. In the written tests, they were on par, but Ronald lagged far behind in practical work.
Just after class, Ronald suggested getting some Buraffio's Brain Elixir to improve their grades.
Ronald hadn't cared much before, but with exams approaching, the atmosphere around him had changed, causing Ronald to "think of how angry his mom would be when she got his report card.
At home, Bill, who had already graduated, was the best of them. He had been head boy and got multiple Os in his exams. Charlie also had good grades and became the captain of the Quidditch team.
The three brothers still in school were not house captains, but Percy was a Prefect, and George and Fred's grades weren't bad. They were the best in third-year theory and practicals, even though they liked playing pranks and received a lot of complaints.
Among such a pile of report cards, only his was out of place. Thinking about this kind of thing made Ronald feel cold.
And Harry, because he had improved his relationship with his aunt's family, also wanted to go home decently. It would be embarrassing to return to the Muggle world with a bunch of barely passing or failing grades.
So he agreed with Ronald's idea.
"Fred, can you give me two bottles of Baruffio's Brain Elixir?"
Hearing Ronald's suggestion, Harry immediately ran over to Fred.
He knew how popular Buraffio's Brain Elixir had become recently. Yesterday, Neville had wanted to buy a bottle to try, saying he wanted to improve his brain and maybe become smarter, but it was sold out, and he couldn't get any.
The potion, which was originally only popular among the older students, had become known to the whole school because of Ethan's involvement. It could be said that this also served as an advertisement for Ethan.
"Ronald, this is yours!"
After paying the gold galleons and getting two bottles of Buraffio's Brain Elixir, Harry gave one bottle directly to Ronald, showing quite a bit of generosity.
Anyway, the gold galleons in the Gringotts vault were piled up into a small mountain, and they couldn't be spent.
Unfortunately, Harry didn't know that there were two inheritances waiting for him, and soon, he really wouldn't be able to spend it all.
"Thank you!"
Ronald accepted it a little awkwardly. Although he wanted Harry to pay for it, he still felt a bit embarrassed.
The main issue was that he was too poor. He had rented Scabbers to Ethan as an experimental subject and earned four gold galleons. He had given one gold galleon each to his two brothers as a thank you, and he had five left in total.
It wasn't easy to make that money.
He only had nine gold galleons in total. Even adding what he had saved over the years, he could only buy two bottles. He also wanted to buy a new wand this summer, as the core of his current wand was exposed, which wasn't very convenient.
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