Harry Potter: Using science to be IMMORTAL

Diagon Alley.

Murphy once again entered Gringotts with gold worth tens of thousands of pounds. The first batch of orders, processed according to Patrick's suggestion, had already been delivered.

Patrick anticipated a second batch of orders soon, possibly even facing an explosion in order volume.

Although diluting the original potion allowed the previous stock to last a while, relying solely on it wasn't sustainable. Murphy still needed to solve the raw material problem.

"Mr. Darkhome," the goblin supervisor greeted Murphy as he saw him, "Exchanging gold again?"

This was his third visit to Gringotts for gold exchange, having come once before to replenish potion ingredients.

Murphy placed the bag on the counter, "Yes."

"Your ancestors must have buried quite a bit of gold," the goblin supervisor remarked.

"What, you're also interested in my ancestors' hobbies now?"

"Heh, of course, we have no say in that. But whether this gold was really buried by your ancestors, I doubt that."

"You know what, I struck a gold mine in my ancestral lands just the other day," Murphy said.

"You're joking!"

"You know too? Stop wasting my time with your nonsense. Are you going to exchange it or not?"

The goblin supervisor's face turned cold, and after a while, he said, "We'll exchange it. But this time, we'll charge a 5% service fee."

"Merlin's greedy heart! 5%, why don't you just rob me?" Murphy was furious.

Exchanging gold for Galleons was already a loss, and now they were charging such a hefty fee. These goblins' greed was more disgusting than maggots in a dung heap!

"If you tell us the true source of the gold, I can waive the fee."

"Go to hell!" Murphy exploded, "What if I give you the treasure map where my ancestors buried the gold?!"

"That would indeed be solid evidence."

"Damn you! You half-goblin, half-troll bastard!"

Murphy cursed with a low voice.

"What did you say?"

"I said Gringotts is truly civilized and elegant, and you are pretty and cute."

"Thank you for the compliment."

"The rotten teeth of a giant! Take it, and may you ascend to heaven soon."

Murphy pushed the gold forward.

There was no other choice. As the only bank and currency issuer in the wizarding world, Gringotts could act unreasonably, and as an ordinary wizard, Murphy couldn't stand against them.

Moreover, the source of his gold really couldn't withstand scrutiny.

Murphy walked out of Gringotts with a heavy heart.

He couldn't come here again. The goblins had become wary of his frequent gold exchanges. Next time, he might not just face a service fee but an Auror team waiting for him.

But apart from Gringotts, where else could he exchange pounds for Galleons in large quantities?

As these thoughts swirled in his head, Murphy suddenly felt a chill.

Something was off.

Someone was watching him!

The feeling grew stronger, as if someone was pointing a wand at the back of his head, sending shivers down his spine.

Premonition!

A wizard's sixth sense often wasn't unfounded. Having attended Divination classes, Murphy knew this was a magical warning of danger from outside his perception.

However, he was never good at Divination, and this was the first time he had such a strong premonition.

Who was it?

An Auror?

Or a dark wizard after his gold? Many had seen him exchanging gold at Gringotts, and that much Galleon was indeed enough to tempt some to take risks.

After thinking it over, instead of heading straight to Slughorn and Jiggers' Apothecary as planned, he suddenly changed his mind, stepped into an alley, and cast, "Disillusionment Charm."

He became invisible on the spot, determined to give whoever it was a nasty surprise.

Soon, a small figure hurried into the alley, looking around in confusion.

Seeing the figure, Murphy's anger surged, "Silencio! Crucio!"

Unleashing an Unforgivable Curse, he watched as the goblin fell to the ground, convulsing silently. A smug smile crept onto Murphy's face.

Damn, he had wanted to do this back in Gringotts.

After a while, the torture ended. Murphy cast a Full Body-Bind Curse on the goblin, rendering it immobile, then lifted the Silencing Charm.

"Please, please, don't, I'm not an enemy, I'm not an enemy!"

The goblin immediately began to plead for mercy the moment it was allowed to speak.

But Murphy wasn't just going to listen; wizards had more convenient ways to extract information, "Legilimens!"

A moment later, Murphy relaxed, "Locke? You've got an interesting background."

He had seen the goblin's experiences in its memories. It turned out to be a half-blood goblin, whose maternal clan had mixed with wizard blood. Because of this trace of blood, he looked slightly different from ordinary goblins—he was taller and his ears were less pointed.

This made him the subject of discrimination within his clan. He wasn't allowed to learn the traditional goblin craftsmanship or work in Gringotts, even though he believed he was smarter than his peers.

As an adult, Locke became a broker, specializing in shady deals for wizards or other magical world residents who couldn't appear in public.

He made a fortune, then bribed a clan elder for a job at Gringotts.

This wasn't an ordinary Gringotts goblin.

In the goblin's memories, Murphy also found his purpose, "You want to exchange gold for me?"

"Yes, yes!" Locke, still weak from the Crucio, responded, "Bogrod is suspicious of you. He thinks your gold is ill-gotten. You can't go to Gringotts again; they'll have the Aurors take you for interrogation!"

"They can't just interrogate a wizard; I haven't committed any crime."

"True, but Bogrod has made up plenty of reasons. He'll report to the Aurors that Gringotts' gold mines have lost some inventory, and your gold is likely from those missing stocks."

"They have no evidence."

"But you can't prove the source of your gold, can you?" Locke said, "I know, that gold comes from the Muggle world! Their gold purification technology is more advanced than Gringotts', only Muggles can produce gold with a purity of 99.99%!"

Murphy frowned, although he had transfigured the gold, indeed, there were so-called pure gold and ultra-pure gold for sale in jewelry stores, and he couldn't change its purity during transfiguration, so those gold bars did contain some extremely pure gold.

He hadn't considered this loophole before.

"You know the gold comes from Muggles and still dare to help me?" Murphy asked.

"Gold is gold, whether it comes from goblins or Muggles, it doesn't change the fact that it's gold. As long as Gringotts operates on a gold standard, they face this risk. We're just exploiting a loophole that already exists."

Murphy was surprised, "Gold standard, that's a Muggle term."

"Correct, Muggles are four centuries ahead of goblins in currency and economics! And the funny thing is, my kin dare to laugh at Muggles for being ignorant!"

"Interesting, you're interesting."

A goblin with Muggle economic thinking? That was very interesting.

Murphy lifted Locke's Body-Bind Curse, "How do you plan to help me?"

"I can open an anonymous account for you. My dim-witted kin don't even know how many vaults they have or how much is in them. With a few tricks, you can have a completely anonymous vault."

"Gringotts already has services for recycling old coins and buying gold for recasting. With some minor loopholes, I can exchange your gold for Galleons and store them in your vault. You can legally withdraw them anytime."

"Of course, I'll take a commission for this process. But believe me, I'm far less greedy than my kin."

Murphy pondered for a moment, "But I don't trust you."

Locke smiled, revealing a surprisingly human-like expression on his ugly face, "You don't need to trust me. You've experienced my power firsthand. You're not the kind of weak wizard I can resist, am I right?"

After saying this, he handed Murphy a gold coin slightly larger than a normal Galleon, "Think about it. If you need, you can summon me with this anytime."