Chapter 52: Hogwarts (Part 2)

"Dumbledore, are you insane?"

In an ordinary room, several elderly men with white hair and beards sat around a small round table. The one seated in the center was Dumbledore.

"This is an opportunity, isn't it?" Dumbledore said with a smile.

"This is too risky. The Ministry of Magic will never agree."

"I know, but don't you think the Muggle Studies course has been neglected for years? There hasn't been any real progress. Do you remember how many wizards died due to Muggle weapons during the war? You should know how many excellent wizards fell because they didn't understand Muggle weapons. Over the years, Muggle weapons have only become more powerful. If another conflict arises, how many more wizards will fall because they don't understand these weapons?"

Dumbledore's words left everyone in the room silent. The younger wizards might not understand, but those present had all participated in that war and had lost friends to Muggle weapons.

The mentality of the wizarding world is peculiar. Perhaps it's due to their long-standing sense of superiority. Even after witnessing the power of Muggle nuclear weapons, they chose to shut themselves away, enjoying their so-called superiority. It's essentially a closed-off society.

"In the past, we could easily hide within the Muggle world. Even the leaders of the Muggle world didn't know about us. But now?"

The room fell silent again. To better conceal the wizarding world, the leaders of Muggle nations, especially major ones, are now aware of the magical community's existence. This helps maintain secrecy.

Not every wizard adheres to the International Statute of Secrecy. Those who live hidden within the Muggle world and follow its laws are easier to handle, as they only use magic to make their lives more convenient and comfortable.

In fact, these wizards live the most comfortably. With magic, finding high-paying jobs in the Muggle world is incredibly easy.

However, not everyone earns money legally. Dark wizards, who the Muggle world cannot deal with, need to be handled by Aurors.

Strictly speaking, Aurors in this world are somewhat akin to SHIELD agents, maintaining the boundary between the Muggle and wizarding worlds.

"Take a look at this," Dumbledore said, waving a hand and sending a stack of documents floating to the elderly men before him.

"What is this?" they asked, opening the documents to find a comparison chart between the Muggle and wizarding worlds. They were all taken aback.

"This is the latest survey. You can see the monthly income of ordinary Muggles. I think most wizards don't earn this much," Dumbledore stated.

This chart was created by Red Queen using data Dumbledore and Grindelwald gathered about wizarding world prices. For the Muggle world, Daniel simply paid private investigators with a stack of pounds to get the necessary information.

Upon seeing the wizarding world's price chart, Daniel was shocked by how cheap things were. He realized he had misunderstood initially.

First, Gringotts offers currency exchange between wizarding and Muggle money, as the Muggle world has many things needed by wizards.

Additionally, wizard salaries are incredibly low. Despite the technological suppression in this world keeping wages generally low, wizard incomes were still far too low.

Look at the Weasley family; their income was less than that of Harry Potter's uncle's family.

Strictly speaking, if you exclude fixed income, even the Malfoys are worse off than Harry Potter's uncle's family.

The only reason wizards don't struggle more is because magic allows them to speed up food production and expand living spaces, eliminating issues with food and housing.

But in terms of clothing, the wizarding world lags far behind the Muggle world.

Look at the Weasley household and their spending habits. Ron often wore his brothers' old clothes, even inheriting their magical pets. And the Weasleys are a pure-blood family.

Even the Malfoys had to sell off their heirlooms to get by.

If the Malfoys were in the Muggle world, any one of their antiques could support them for years.

Wizards could easily make money in the Muggle world. For example, using the Reparo spell, any formally trained wizard could open a repair business and make a fortune.

And with Aguamenti, they could sell purified water.

Don't underestimate Aguamenti. Water produced by magic is truly natural and pollution-free. In this world, it might not stand out much, but in the Marvel universe, it would be top-tier spring water, surpassing any mountain-sourced water.

Cross-world enterprises are the most profitable.

What truly moves people is profit, not ideals or violence. To implement his plan, Daniel knew he needed to rely on profit.

Wizards are still people. Given the chance to live better, who wouldn't take it?

Hogwarts is the top magic school in the wizarding world, but it can't guarantee good jobs for all its graduates.

The wizarding world's narrow scope severely limits their options.

Once most people see the benefits of interacting with the Muggle world, the movement will snowball. Anyone who tries to stand in its way will be swept aside.

"Is this all true?" the elderly men asked, disbelief written on their faces.

"Of course. If you don't believe it, you can sell some of your less important heirlooms in the Muggle world," Dumbledore said with a smile.

These men were all from Dumbledore's faction, but even they couldn't ignore the gold Galleons before them. Unlike Dumbledore, they had families to support.

"This is dragon liver? It's so cheap," Daniel remarked with a smile after finishing a plate of dragon liver. It was real dragon liver, though different from the legendary dragons, it still had significant health benefits.

After learning the price of dragon liver, Daniel went straight to Gringotts, exchanged a large sum of pounds for wizard currency, and bought a lot of dragon liver.

"You could actually establish a SHIELD-like organization in this world."

"That's a joke. First, we need mobile phones. Once we have those, owls can retire. Imagine all Hogwarts students using smartphones and browsing the internet. It's quite a thought."

Landline phones exist in Harry's world, but mobile phones seem far off.

Thinking about the years after Harry's time, when his children are attending Hogwarts, and the train is still the same old train, Daniel knew the road ahead was long and arduous.

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