The Day of the Draw at Hogwarts

Tom was also nearby, listening to the question.

This issue is quite complex. The source of the complexity comes from the morbid currency conversion system in the wizarding world, where 1 gold Galleung is exchanged for 17 Silver Sickles, and 1 Silver Sickle is exchanged for 29 Copper Nuts.

Tom really doesn't understand. Why do you choose two prime numbers as the conversion unit? Aren’t decimal and twelve decimal systems good? Even if the wizarding world wants to show its unique characteristics, why not choose the most magical number 7?

Incomprehensible.

However, we can still make a rough judgment. The complete collection of Lockhart is worth 35 Galleons, so the 10% discount is 31.5 Galleons. If you want change, it depends on whether the remaining book fee is enough for 2.5 galleons.

3 Galleons and 9 Sickles. Judging by my feeling, even with a 20% discount, it is still greater than 2.5 Galleons, so that person needs to make up money.

But then Tom was a little dumbfounded: I'm afraid he needs to calculate carefully how much money he will have to pay.

Hermione: ...

She looked like her calculations were overloaded. She was down for a while. In the end, she rolled her eyes and her breathing became short, but she still couldn't get a result. Finally, she took out a pen and paper and did some calculations by hand. Come to the conclusion: "367.5 Nats, which is 12 Sickles and 19 Nats?"

Lawrence took out something like a typewriter and started tapping away. After a while, he nodded, "It is indeed the money to erase the odd change."

Seeing that both Tom and Hermione were looking at the machine, he smiled sheepishly, "This is a calculator. To be honest, I deliberately made things difficult for you with the question just now. We don't usually have things like this in our store." Fancy discounts..."

Then he showed Tom and Hermione how to use the calculator. The calculator is covered with metal gears and levers, giving it an unsettling look.

The method of use is not complicated. There are three glass rollers on the left side of the calculator, which correspond to the gold Galleons, Silver Sickles, and Copper Nats paid by the customer respectively. There are five scroll wheels on the right side. You can enter the price of the book here. The first three are currency units, the second to last is the discount amount, and the last one is confirmation. After pressing Confirm, you can enter the price of the next book. If you press it twice, it means that all the book prices have been entered, and the machine will start to calculate. Under the machine, there are also three rollers, where the change is displayed.

After reading this calculator, Tom and Hermione had very complicated expressions: there were so many flaws that they didn't know how to complain about it.

"So if you enter any number incorrectly, you have to enter them all again, right?" Hermione discovered the key to the problem.

Lawrence:…

"You actually got the correct answer just by calculating in writing?"

Hermione: "It's nothing, I'm just sensitive to numbers."

Tom \u0026 Laurence:…

Lawrence coughed twice, "Actually, because it's too troublesome to calculate, Flourish and Blotts Bookstore basically doesn't offer discounts. Let me test you with a few more questions."

So Mr. Lawrence asked a few more questions. This time, since there was no discount involved, Hermione could calculate much faster, even faster than Lawrence could type on the calculator.

"Merlin!" Mr. Lawrence scratched his thin hair. He felt that Hermione was simply a monster. It was incredible.

"She is the top student in our grade." Tom reported Hermione's identity.

Lawrence's eyes flickered between the two of them for a while, and without saying anything else, he took Hermione to sign the contract.

After Hermione signed the contract, Lawrence gave each of them a vest with the Flourish and Blotts trademark. Tom and Hermione were considered part of Flourish and Blotts.

Hermione was in charge of the cashier at the front desk, and Tom was in charge of restocking the bookshelves.

For Hermione, the work in the bookstore is very leisurely, and there are not many customers on weekdays. Many people just come in for a walk and then go out, which results in Hermione not having much work. Her working hours are also normal, which coincides with the bookstore's opening hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tom came an hour before her to stock the shelves. Hermione worked five days a week and earned ten galleons a week.

Tom is a little busier. He needs to take out the new books from the warehouse and put them on the bookshelf. At the same time, he needs to put the missing books on the bookshelf in small notebooks, and then go back to the warehouse to fill them up. However, since not many books were sold, and the best-selling books were only a few, Tom became proficient after just a few trips.

Soon, Tom completed his work and began to fish confidently. He sat on the small stool next to the cashier, put his hands on the counter, and tilted his head to look at Hermione.

Hermione was out of work - the last customer had checked out a quarter of an hour ago. At this time, she was reading a best-selling book called "Breaking with the Female Ghost" with great interest. She felt someone was watching her, and as soon as she put the book down, she saw Tom resting his head on the cashier, staring straight at her.

Hermione's face turned red and she slapped the book directly: "What are you looking at? Go and do your work!"

"But my work is done."

"Then find a book to read!"

"Is this book good? This author's books have been selling very well recently."

When talking about books, Hermione opened up her chatterbox and began to talk endlessly about her thoughts after reading. Tom was listening quietly next to him, as if he were listening to a stand-up comedy. But after listening for a while, he also came up with the idea of ​​​​finding a book by Lockhart to read.

So he looked for a Lockhart novel and read it twice. It didn't matter, and Tom was also attracted by the story in it. Lockhart's stories are all "based on real events", and the writing is good, so naturally many people buy into it.

This is how the first day of work ends. At five o'clock in the afternoon, Tom and Hermione left Flourish and Blotts Bookstore after cleaning up. Hermione walked through the Leaky Cauldron to catch her father's car home, while Tom went back to Ollivander's Wand Shop.

Back at the wand shop, Mr. Ollivander also finished what he was doing. He stood up with a smile and handed Tom a thick notebook and a half-person-sized box.

"You should read this first in the next two days and combine it with what's in the box."

Only then did Tom realize that the big book was an illustration of wand materials, and the box contained samples of various materials. Mr. Ollivander handed the illustrated book to Tom and left. But Tom didn't go back to the dormitory immediately. Although Mr. Ollivander didn't say anything, he still cleaned the shop a little, sweeping the floor and wiping the counter: this is an apprentice's obligation.

After that, he moved into the house provided by Mr. Ollivander. The house is located behind the wand shop. It is small and the interior decoration is very simple: there is only a bed, a chair, a table and an oil lamp. There is also a small cubicle next to the house with a bathroom and toilet.

This is where Tom will live for the next two months. Although the room is simple, it is very clean and the various furniture give it just the right feel.