A Malfoy never does a losing business.
Draco was determined to get the house. One of the small perks of his second life was that he could clearly see the economic trends over the past few years and the appreciation level of certain assets.
Just as he knew that stocks in the Muggle world would rise steadily at certain points in time—such as the beginning of 1995—he also knew that in the coming years, real estate would be a means of preserving and increasing assets in any world.
Even if the house was left unused, by the time he was in seventh year, its value would have increased by fifty per cent compared to the market price.
Both people at the coffee table were satisfied with the deal. They skilfully cast a series of confidential magical contracts on the agreement, and both parties readily signed their names.
At this point, Mrs Mason finally realised what kind of wizard she was dealing with. Just minutes before, she had been resentful about the prices she had been offered—who would turn down Galleons? Now, she was only grateful that she had sold the unfortunate house for a price far exceeding her expectations. After all, the boy had given her a discount—the price was considerably higher than the original purchase price.
No wonder this child knows it so well! The Malfoys are naturally very familiar with land and property pricing, she thought. It is a pity he has so little experience in choosing houses, and his eye for value needs more practice, allowing me to snag a bargain.
"Mrs Mason, I hope this deal is a secret," Draco said. "There is no need for anyone to know."
"Of course, of course, just what I wanted." Secretly sweating, Mrs Mason smiled broadly, nodding in agreement.
She did not have the guts to let the head of the Malfoy family know that she had tricked this young master by selling him such a bad asset! Fortunately, she would be leaving England in a few days, and then they would be far apart and have no further connection.
Draco pulled out a cheque and casually placed it on the dark coffee table in front of Mrs Mason.
"A cheque? That is quite rare," Mrs Mason said.
"Am I supposed to carry around so many Galleons?" Draco chuckled. "You must have heard that Gringotts provides these kinds of cheques to some big clients."
"Yes, that is right." Mrs Mason picked up the cheque, examined it against the dusty, dirty air, and finally carefully put it into her dark red handbag. "There should not be any problem."
"You can register at the Ministry of Magic and the Hogsmeade village administration office at any time." She took out the property deed and other relevant documents for the house and handed them to Draco one by one. "These are all proof of magical validity."
"The money and goods are settled, you can leave now." Draco carefully checked the documents and nodded towards the stairwell. He had seen many such transactions and procedures with his parents in his previous life, and had even been taught by them. He was quite adept at it.
He was not worried that Mrs Mason would reveal the "new homeowner" arrangement. The confidentiality magic in the contract was not to be underestimated.
According to Dobby's background check, the widow, now living alone, was about to leave England to stay with her niece in the United States—one of the reasons Mrs Mason was eager to sell the property—and there was no more discreet buyer than a seller far from England.
To wizards, registering property ownership was a joke. For the Hogsmeade administration, as long as the annual public management fees were paid in full, no one cared whose name the property was registered under. As for the officials of the Ministry of Magic, they never really knew the details of wizards' residences and houses—few wizards would bother to register and make things difficult for themselves.
The magical contracts and documents in Draco's possession were the most important. They were key to protecting the rights of wizard homeowners. This was slightly different from the Muggle world.
Ever since Draco uttered the words "buy a house," the Weasley twins' mouths had been agape. They had not expected to witness such a shrewd house sale on such an ordinary Saturday. It was not until they saw Mrs Mason out the door that the brothers came to their senses.
They exchanged glances, seeing the same shock in each other's eyes: a rich man's son!
"Buying a house outright, going all out?" Fred strode up from the first floor to the second floor, grinning at Draco. "I even wagered George that you were just messing around."
"A Malfoy would never play games with money," Draco said calmly, slowly tidying up the documents.
"Are you sure you are not just acting on impulse?" George followed behind his brother, his eyes darting around as if he were seeing not a dusty, dirty room, but some pristine, ideal world.
"Of course not," Draco said.
"Give me the money, Fred," George shouted into the other end of the room.
Fred tossed a Galleon to George, snorted, but looked quite pleased.
"Are you not afraid of losing this house?" George asked with a grin, clutching the gold Galleon. "I see Mrs Mason is eager to get rid of it, treating it like a hot potato. Are you not afraid of suffering a huge loss?"
"For Mrs Mason, this property, which cannot even be rented out, is just something that keeps depreciating, so of course she is eager to get rid of it," Draco said. "Did you notice all those notices on the door? Most of them are urging her to repair the house. I wager a lot of people in Hogsmeade do not like how dilapidated the house is, especially the manager of the Gladrags Wizardwear shop next door."
"Oh, I reckon so. They really are impatient with this house, and the people at the tea shop next door often say its image 'lowers the whole alley's standards.'" George mimicked the disdainful expressions of the people at the clothing shop and tea shop perfectly.
"The homeowners are responsible for maintaining the property, so their complaints are understandable. Maintaining and repairing a house is a significant expense. They could have used a portion of their rental income for this; unfortunately, the house is not rented out, and if Mrs Mason wants to maintain and repair it, she will have to pay out of pocket year after year. Do you not think that is a devaluation or even a loss for her?" Draco said. "But for me, it is not like that. I originally planned to use the house to open a shop and make a profit. Renovating the house is to attract customers, making it a win-win situation, so why not?"
"No problem," Fred asked excitedly. "But are you really that confident our shop will be a huge success? Are you not worried we will not be able to pay your rent?"
"I have faith in you." Draco glanced disdainfully at the worm-eaten carpet, finally deciding to put his feet on the table in front of him—at least it was not very dusty. "I think I will not charge rent until the shop is profitable. That way, the pressure of running the shop will be much less, right?"
Draco's generosity was thanks to his grandfather, who secretly added a large amount of gold to his grandson's vault before he died.
"That being said—" A hint of hesitation appeared on George's face.
Could two fifteen-year-old boys and a twelve-year-old boy really open this shop smoothly? In the process of researching how to open a shop, George gradually discovered that things were not so simple.
"There are risks involved. Purchasing raw materials, product development, selling products, after-sales service, and so on—each step requires exploration, and any bottleneck in any step will affect the progress of the next step," George pondered.
"Tell me more about it?" Draco's interest was piqued; his languid demeanour vanished, replaced by a gleaming curiosity in his eyes.
"For example, quality control and price fluctuations when purchasing raw materials are already old news... You need to constantly compare prices amongst suppliers, instead of just one, otherwise they will raise prices arbitrarily..." George said with annoyance. "In the past, we were just doing small-scale operations and did not pay much attention to these things, but now that we are going to scale up production and operations, we have to be extra careful."
Draco nodded slightly. At this moment, his inner sense of agreement with George was definitely greater than what he showed.
George's words were very pragmatic. Hearing this, Draco felt even more confident about the shop's future. They were not the kind of arrogant people who relied on their limited intelligence to be oblivious to their own limitations; instead, they were actively identifying problems and considering how to solve them.
This is a good start.
Draco looked at George Weasley and suddenly realised that, without realising it, he could clearly distinguish him from his brother.
In terms of appearance, although they looked very similar, Draco could basically distinguish them by subtle differences when they laughed—George's nose pointed downwards more and his mouth also pointed downwards when he laughed. His brother Fred's mouth pointed upwards, making his face appear a bit fleshier.
In terms of personality, George was calmer, more perceptive, more stable, and more meticulous, as could be seen from his thinking about running the shop; whilst Fred was bolder and more outgoing, and his personality was more lively and interesting. He started many jokes and was the first to suggest many products. He was more humorous and more creative.