Chapter 21 The wealth of Hogwarts is beyond Rice’s imagination (page 12)

Behind the oak door is a tall black-haired witch wearing an emerald green robe. Her hair is tightly tied back and she has a serious look on her face. She is not easy to deal with at first glance.

"First year, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said.

"Thank you, Hagrid, leave it to me." After completing the handover, Hagrid left in a flash, while Professor McGonagall opened the door wide, revealing the foyer at the back that could accommodate a three-story villa.

As the facade of the castle, the foyer is majestic and majestic, like the main building of a cathedral. Facing the door is a luxurious marble staircase, and the ceiling is so high that you can barely see the top. Just like the Muggle castle, the walls of the foyer are made of huge stones. The stone walls are filled with blazing torches, illuminating the hall as if it were daylight.

After looking at the furnishings in the hall, Les smacked his lips and his eyes were full of admiration: The successors have taken care of the castle very well, and judging from the decoration of the hall and the number of torches, the school should not be short of money. That reassured him.

When he thought about the number of torches, Les couldn't help but blush. The little wizards around them had no life experience. They only knew how to look at the tall entrance hall and make exclamations of unknown meaning such as "oh" and "ah". In fact, the most luxurious thing was the inconspicuous torches inserted on the stone wall. It didn't cost much to build the magnificent castle, because the four of them built it all with magic - the cutting spell cut out the boulders from the surrounding mountains, and then used the teleportation magic to teleport them to the hillside, and finally they were like building blocks. Putting them together doesn't cost anything at all, just a bit of Gryffindor.

If you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are, these little guys have no idea how much fuel so many torches will burn in one night!

As one of the four giants who once held the financial power of the school, Rice said that this is really an astronomical figure. Even with the financial resources of the four of them, looking at the expense bills at the end of each month will give them a headache.

The cost of torch fuel, food and drink for teachers and students, the cost of heating the castle, the cost of potion materials, the salaries of professors and staff...

Each consumption made everyone's wallets deflate at a speed visible to the naked eye. Les once wanted to impose high tuition fees on all students, but in the end Hufflepuff stopped him from taking action.

"Helga, do you have any idea about money? The money we spent last month could buy a fire dragon. This is still an ongoing expense - we must find a way to make money!"

"So you want to levy tuition fees on students? Are you crazy or am I crazy?" Helga blushed with rare anger. She slapped Slytherin's desk and said fiercely: "Many students don't pay at all. I can’t afford this money!”

"Then we can lend them money first and pay them back slowly after they graduate."

"Ha, I didn't see it. Salazar, you actually have goblin blood?"

"Hufflepuff, don't go too far!" Seeing Hufflepuff humiliating himself like this, Salazar was furious like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"Isn't it? Let the children take out loans to go to school, and then work for you for half their lives after graduation. Haha, even the greediest goblin didn't expect such an operation."

Seeing that the two were about to fight, Rowena and Godric hurriedly stood between them to separate the two, and then came up with a compromise plan: they contacted the parents of the wealthy students and asked them to donate to the school. If you donate enough, even if your child is not favored by everyone, you can still come in and learn magic.

At the same time, they also decided to reduce school expenses through various means. For example, Hufflepuff teaches herbal medicine and also takes the students to grow vegetables together; Gryffindor's fighting class adds the content of hunting in the forest next to the castle. Don't forget to collect firewood after returning from hunting; When Winclaw taught everyone alchemy, he had to make some alchemy props and sell them; Slytherin also had to find a reliable way to sell potions. The potions that the students and he prepared in the potions class must not be wasted. …

In order to get through that difficult time, they came up with a lot of ideas. For a while, even the torches used for lighting at night were conjured by Slytherin.

It’s not that the four founders are too stingy, but that people who don’t have long-term concerns must worry about the near future. Now it can still be supported by the savings of the four people. In the future, the school will become bigger and bigger, with more and more students, and the four people are gone. What will Hogwarts do?

A successful school must be able to balance its revenue and expenditure, otherwise it will end up sitting on nothing.

"Stop being in a daze, let's go." Hermione poked Rice on the back and motioned for him to follow Professor McGonagall - she was leading the first-year students to an empty room at the other end of the hall.

"Isn't it shocking?" Daphne looked proud.

Les nodded silently, pride lingering in his heart, even making his face flush.

Good, really good, very good! This is the school I founded!

Seeing how prosperous Hogwarts was, Les was as happy as a fruit farmer seeing fruit trees full of fruit.

He also deliberately approached a torch, felt it up close, and found that it was actually fueled by grease instead of magical flames. This made him shocked by the wealth of Hogwarts.

What Rice didn't know was that with the advancement of the Industrial Revolution, productivity had been greatly developed, and consumables such as grease were no longer as precious as they were in the Middle Ages. The price of lard fat, a material that can extract a large amount of oil, is no different from giving it away for free. Using oil to light a torch is more economical.

The room that Professor McGonagall took everyone into was not that big. The freshmen crowded in and rubbed shoulders with each other. Tension filled the air.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and gave a brief speech: "Welcome to Hogwarts. The opening banquet is about to begin. But before you take the seats, we must first conduct a sorting ceremony to determine which school you will enter in the future. A college. This is the most important ceremony at Hogwarts, because during the seven years of school, the college is your home in Hogwarts. You have to take classes with other students in the college and live in the college's dormitory together. , spend your spare time together in the common room of the college. After graduation, this symbol will accompany you throughout your life."

The students' nervousness eased slightly, and they were also a little eager to try. Everyone was looking forward to the upcoming sorting ceremony.

"Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, each house has its own glorious history and has produced outstanding wizards and witches. Your outstanding performance during your studies will make you The college you are in will receive extra points, and any violation will cause your college to lose points. At the end of the year, the college with the highest score will receive the College Cup, which is a very high honor. I hope you can be successful no matter which college you are assigned to. Bring glory to the college. In a few minutes, the sorting ceremony will be held in front of all the teachers and students of the school. I suggest that you tidy up and be energetic while waiting."

Her eyes swept across the faces of the students who were not so well-dressed, causing a commotion. Everyone hurriedly adjusted their clothes to avoid embarrassment when they went on stage later.

Professor McGonagall emphasized a few words of discipline before leaving the small room. After she left, the little wizards breathed a sigh of relief.

"How can they accurately assign us to the colleges we are suitable for?" Les heard the Potter asking his friend.

"Some kind of test, right? Fred said it would hurt us a lot, but I think he was joking." The red-haired boy had a strange look on his face, "Merlin, I hope to go to Gryffindor. My mother, father, and several older brothers all went to this academy. If I didn’t go to Gryffindor, I don’t know what they would say.”