Five hundred Galleons was an enormous sum. One Galleon could be exchanged for five pounds, so five hundred Galleons came out to two thousand five hundred pounds.
And flying broomsticks were basically the wizarding equivalent of bicycles. A bicycle costing two thousand five hundred pounds was an outrageously high price.
Even putting Muggle currency aside, five hundred Galleons on its own was already no small figure. It was equivalent to several months of salary even for high earners like Hogwarts professors.
For George and Fred, the Weasley brothers who had grown up poor, it was simply an astronomical number.
"The price doesn't matter. As long as it's useful, the money isn't wasted." Leonard made a truly extravagant statement. "Anyway, just focus on the research. Leave the Firebolt to me. I'll get it for you."
And a Firebolt was not something you could simply buy just because you had money. Even with the funds, you still had to queue up for a custom order. Leonard had the money, but he had no interest in waiting.
So he planned to let Midgard handle it. With the werewolf wizards' current influence, acquiring a few Firebolts should not have been difficult at all.
"That's great!" George and Fred's eyes lit up like lanterns. "Then does that mean we can...?"
The first thing they thought of was Quidditch. If they had a few Firebolts backing them up, they would absolutely win the championship this year.
But the moment they started, Leonard already knew exactly what they were thinking and refused on the spot.
"No."
He cut them off and said seriously, "The Firebolts are for experimental use only. If you want one for private use, buy it yourselves."
"Oh, come on!" George wailed. "That's such a waste!"
"Exactly! It's a Firebolt. If it turns into an experimental test piece without even appearing in a single Quidditch match, that's way too tragic..." Fred also complained.
"Hah. I'm not a Gryffindor. Why would I ever hand Firebolts to you two so you could use them against us Hufflepuffs?" Leonard rolled his eyes at them, convinced the pair were dreaming.
"But you don't even like Quidditch." George was still struggling. The lure of a Firebolt was just too much. If he could take one out and show it off at a Quidditch match...
Merlin, just imagining it was enough to make George feel faint with excitement.
"I don't like Quidditch, but I happen to think Hufflepuff is great." Leonard shook his head. "So stop dreaming and go do your research."
"All right." George shrugged helplessly, and did not bring up research expenses or anything like that.
After all, Leonard had already taken care of the most expensive experimental material. And he and Fred were not real businessmen anyway. Asking for another sum of money at this point would have been hard to justify.
In their eyes, completing this product was something they themselves wanted to do. This was cooperation, not them working for Leonard.
...
For the time being, the matter of the flying dress robe came to a pause.
Leonard wrote Midgard a letter asking her to buy a batch of Firebolts and send them to the school.
That would probably take a little time, but Leonard was not in a hurry. He had other things to do anyway, such as...
Observing what exactly Harris Raymons, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, had been doing near the cliff earlier.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you would never lose.
As an important member of the Raven Organization, every move Harris Raymons made at Hogwarts probably carried some deeper meaning. Leaving him alone could easily lead to trouble.
Leonard had never trusted Harris Raymons in the first place, so naturally he was not going to ignore his actions. Even if he chose not to interfere, he still needed to know what the man was doing, so that he could report him at any time and send this Defense Against the Dark Arts professor right out of Hogwarts.
The biggest suspicious point was Harris Raymons appearing on the rocks beneath the cliff on the northeast side of the castle.
The man could not swim. He was a complete and utter landlubber who had nearly drowned after the giant squid tossed him into the Black Lake.
Would someone like that really go to such a remote and dangerous place to look for mud monsters?
Frankly, if Harris Raymons had claimed he was there to commit suicide, Leonard might have found that easier to believe.
Still, figuring out Harris Raymons's true objective was not easy. In the end, Leonard only managed to confirm that whatever Harris Raymons was after had something to do with the drainage pipes leading from the castle into the Black Lake.
"Drainage pipes..." Leonard found time to return to the cliff where he had tested the flying dress robe earlier and located the pipe outlet he had noticed before.
"What exactly does Harris Raymons have to do with this drain?" Leonard stared at the filthy opening, puzzled. "What is he trying to do?"
Surely he had not come here specifically to look for shit.
Watching the sewage and suspicious grime slowly flowing into the Black Lake, Leonard shook his head.
Even if you killed him, he was not going to crawl in there and step through human waste. If someone up above happened to flush a toilet while he was inside, that would be disaster falling right on his head.
Leonard had no intention of turning into Old Eight, so he immediately gave up on the idea of crawling in personally to investigate.
Still, since he had come all the way here, he could not just leave empty-handed. That would make him look ridiculous. He had to uncover something.
Which meant he needed to use a slightly special method.
Leonard stared at the endless flow of sewage in the drain for a while, then came up with an idea.
He raised his hand. A black hole appeared at his side, and a seed dropped into his palm. Its surface was glossy black, yet it radiated vigorous life.
It was a very healthy Devil's Snare seed.
Leonard first enhanced the seed, then tossed it into the sludge near the mouth of the pipe.
The muck churned, and soon a pitch-black vine burst out from it. Under Leonard's control, it burrowed straight into the drain.
Using plant modification, Leonard did not give this Devil's Snare any special ability. Instead, he converted all of those potential traits into sheer vitality and splitting capacity.
Once the Devil's Snare took root, it began spreading deeper into the pipe system, and at the same time Leonard activated his [Forest's Eye] talent.
A green light appeared in Leonard's eyes. Within the pitch-black drainage system, everything was reflected before him in a strange, vivid image.
The narrow, dark tunnels offered no obstacle to the Devil's Snare at all. It quickly spread against the current, rooting itself from time to time in the filth coating the pipes and using that filth as fertilizer to continue growing at high speed.
Whenever it encountered a fork, the Devil's Snare naturally split apart, sending itself down different directions to root and continue exploring.
The Devil's Snare was like a spider web that endlessly wove itself larger, gradually occupying every corner of Hogwarts's drainage system.
Then Leonard opened his eyes, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.
He had found something remarkable.