"How about you continue employing me to manage the bar? I could find every scratch on every corner of the Leaky Cauldron with my eyes closed. And besides running the bar, I also brew the beer myself."
Garfield stared into Old Tom's eyes and finally realized the man was being sincere.
Pretending not to care, Garfield said, "Fine. You can continue running the bar."
"As long as you don't come back telling me you're losing money and need more investment, it's your business. I'm a king who makes tens of thousands of Galleons a minute."
"This place is small change."
Customers A, B, and C watched in stunned silence as Garfield and Old Tom finalized the purchase agreement in ten minutes.
Garfield offered a 200% premium for the Leaky Cauldron and its associated property.
To keep Old Tom motivated, he also gave him 20% temporary equity for profit sharing during operations.
Old Tom held the large stack of gold bars and the contract, his feelings complicated. His business was gone just like that.
But it wasn't so bad, better than having it taken away by those greedy little goblins in a couple of years.
Why a large stack of gold bars? Because the Leaky Cauldron's *property* was included.
That huge pile of gold jewelry, converted into pounds, was worth over two million.
Managed properly, that price would make Old Tom's family wealthy for three generations.
After receiving the money from Garfield, Old Tom immediately went to Gringotts to repay his loan.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
The goblins had long coveted the Leaky Cauldron. Naturally, they were unhappy that someone had beaten them to it.
"Old Tom, which family did you sell the pub to?"
Old Tom looked helpless. "Not a wizarding family."
The goblins immediately became interested.
If it wasn't a long-established wizarding family, they might be able to use some tricks against simple wizards.
Old Tom knew exactly what the goblins were plotting. But he deliberately didn't mention that Garfield had bought his Leaky Cauldron.
He sneered inwardly. Hmph, greedy fellows. Let's see what you do this time.
However, Old Tom let slip an important piece of information, the money he paid was gold bars given to him by Garfield.
As an important symbol of his identity, each gold bar was imprinted with Garfield's cat paw print.
After Old Tom left, a sharp-eyed old goblin thwarted the ambitions of his followers.
"Enough. Stop discussing. Greed has to be measured against who the other party is. Take a close look at the markings on these gold bars."
As creatures with an extreme greed for money, the goblins naturally understood ordinary human society and the state of the world.
The important logo of the High claw Group was right there.
They instantly understood.
"These are Highclaw Group gold bars."
"Damn it. That wizard bar owner, Tom sold the bar to High claw."
"Damn it. They wouldn't even tell us who bought it. They were obviously trying to set us up."
The goblins were very excited, muttering about getting revenge on Old Tom.
But in truth, none of them actually moved.
They all knew who was behind Hela, the one who had stirred up the European wizarding world and turned a hundred adult wizards into candied hawthorns on a stick.
Deep down, the goblins believed Garfield was connected to High claw. Grindelwald called Garfield his mentor.
Hela was Garfield's woman. If High claw was connected to Garfield, that proved they were behind everything.
The goblins knew the destructive power of a hundred wizards.
They wouldn't dare challenge High claw. They'd be too busy currying favor to do anything so stupid.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
The goblin matter was temporarily put on hold. Garfield was unaware that the seemingly honest Old Tom had tried to use his power to teach the goblins a lesson.
Actually, Garfield wouldn't have minded teaching those ugly, greedy creatures a lesson himself.
After Old Tom left, Garfield's first action was to change the sign.
He reached the entrance, erased the old lettering, and carved "High claw" along with his paw print in the center.
Garfield thought the color of the sign was unattractive, so he changed it to a light orange.
After finishing, Garfield returned to the bar. He looked at the chairs, the teacups, the teaware. Then he used his paw to mark every single item with his paw print.
The bar patrons were stunned. Garfield's control over magic was beyond the reach of ordinary wizards.
Even in the entire wizarding world, no one could achieve such precision with more than five fingers.
*Clap. Clap. Clap.*
Applause came from behind Garfield.
He turned around. Dumbledore had arrived just as he was casting the spell.
"Dumbledore, what brings you here?"
"It's all because of you, my friend. I've been waiting for you for years!"
What was the point of following Garfield around?
"Dumbledore, let me make this clear first. My interests are not the same as yours."
Dumbledore walked to the bar, sat down, and smiled mysteriously at Garfield. "I took your advice. I've been trying to get things on the right track all these years. Like McGonagall."
Good heavens.
Garfield stared wide-eyed at Dumbledore, unable to believe his ears. This was the most unbelievable thing he had ever heard in his life.
"Old Bee, are you sure you're not joking?"
Dumbledore: "Who knows?"
The old bee didn't give a direct answer. He was definitely lying, but not necessarily.
Dumbledore always liked to set traps for others to fall into. He wasn't the kind of shrewd old fox people imagined.
When faced with an enemy, he usually did only two things: first, charge in. Second, if he couldn't win by charging, he ran away.
"Old Bee, you came so fast this time. Don't tell me it's a coincidence."
Dumbledore looked quite distressed. He had been exhausted from fighting Grindelwald.
After finally achieving some results, Hela had suddenly appeared.
Hela's appearance and her powerful feat of fighting a hundred adult wizards had completely disrupted Dumbledore's plans.
He had to change course and withdraw all his manpower and deployments to prevent significant losses.
After a period of secret observation and information from his spies, he discovered that Hela and Garfield had intricate connections.
Dumbledore, who already had ties to Garfield, knew things weren't so simple.
For example, the unfathomable Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme, was someone *he* couldn't defeat. Perhaps only the great Merlin himself could stand against her.
"Garfield, you really should do something about Grindelwald and your woman Hela. The world is going to fall into chaos."
Garfield looked at Dumbledore, pulled him into a dimensional space, and told him helplessly.
"It's not that I won't do anything. It's that I can't control her."