Ravenclaw's Equal-Opportunity Scam

Hogwarts' library was never short of people.

As long as the library remained open, there were always a few audacious students lurking beside the Restricted Section, hoping Madam Pince would make a mistake while catching someone else so they could have a chance to try their own luck.

Yes—try, because most books in the Restricted Section could only be judged by their covers. To read their actual contents, one had to go to Madam Pince and complete the borrowing procedures. As for the books not locked away behind such procedures, opening them would cause a commotion loud enough for the entire library to hear.

But that had nothing to do with Andrew. Transfiguration alone was more than enough for him to study. He had not even finished walking the proper broad road ahead of him; where would he find the interest to get distracted by anything else?

As he searched for books, he once again marveled at Hogwarts' vast collection before diligently resuming his hunt for information.

But today was somewhat different.

Not long after he sat down, someone appeared at the neighboring table. The person was reading seriously as well, but from the moment they sat down, Andrew felt their gaze drifting toward him now and then.

?

He paused, inspected his clothes, then glanced at his backpack. Everything was utterly ordinary, without the slightest hint of anything unusual. Even his accessories were common goods, completely unrelated to words like ancient or mysterious.

What's going on? Who's looking to cause me trouble?

After confirming once more that the other person was still staring at him, Andrew stood up, took a book to their table, and sat down. "Hello. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Ah? No... no, no, there is..."

The other person panicked badly, their face flushing red, then turning pale, then red again. Clearly, Andrew had thrown their prepared opening completely into disarray.

"Um... well, I noticed you really like reading?"

Their original opening was probably meant to sound more impressive, but now it came out rather stammered.

"That's not true—I'm just interested in Transfiguration."

"Then have you ever felt the urge to turn your knowledge into a little pocket money—ah?"

The other person kept babbling nonsense until they nearly finished speaking before noticing Andrew's response.

"We really aren't scammers... it's just that this money needs to be found through history... and this is also a rare—"

"I already have a club," Andrew cut them off directly, rummaging through his bag for the badge he had received upon being formally accepted. "Recognize this?"

"Alright. Sorry for disturbing you."

The string of trouble that might have followed immediately vanished. The other person gathered their belongings and left almost at once, as though fleeing from the plague.

Were they trying to scam money, or scam free labor?

Andrew did not know, but he leaned toward the latter. Under the pretense of exchanging knowledge for money, they tricked people into searching through the library's vast sea of books for the information they wanted, then paid them a tiny sum afterward...

It was a somewhat more sophisticated scam than hiring student workers, with book-loving students in the library as the preferred targets.

There was no helping it. Hogwarts' library was simply too large, and its resources too comprehensive. At least professional books had established traditions and systematic guidance. But for those planning to become adventurers after graduation, or those who needed information in certain fields, paying a few students to work hard in exchange for a handful of Galleons was an excellent deal when there was no index to consult.

The scam itself was not particularly professional. Andrew had spotted the problem immediately—but the reason he knew so much was naturally thanks to his club's so-called internal materials...

Although Andrew felt that his club was the sort to walk down the street with a ruler, measuring everyone else while refusing to measure itself, he had to admit that its internal materials were remarkably thorough.

Passed down through generations, they contained an extensive collection of information on common student gray areas at Hogwarts, even including a great deal about scams in the Wizarding world—though one needed to be in fifth year before being qualified to view the latter.

Things like selling lucky charms, memory potions, or intelligence potions before exams were child's play. Records of nearly a hundred fights of varying sizes on campus, methods for smuggling prohibited items into school in recent years—anything that could make Filch excited had been carefully compiled and preserved.

However, Andrew still did not have permission to view the more in-depth materials. As before, he had to wait until after fifth year.

After all, those things had originally been collected and organized by students above fifth year. Without contributing, one naturally had no right to read them. Besides, they were not collected to hand over to the school, but to serve as the basis for the so-called allocation of internal club resources...

And the so-called internal allocation of resources was something one could not talk about either... one had to reach fifth year to learn about it.

In short, it was both magical and absurd...

In any case, Andrew had no plans to get deeply involved for now. He was just going through the motions, checking in, borrowing the club's name when needed. As for the things he could read, he would simply wait until he was removed.

I have to admit, some students in my house are far more motivated than those in other houses when it comes to exploiting first-years...

The first-years had now settled into the rhythm of school life, and those with ulterior motives had already begun assessing their personalities in preparation for making their moves. That was also the main reason Andrew had encountered that scammer just now.

It still can't be called a scam, because they really do pay... You can't exactly hit someone over that...

He shook his head helplessly and prepared to immerse himself in the sea of books again.

But then, from beyond a bookshelf away, he heard a similar conversation.

"...turn knowledge into a little money."

"Is that possible? I guess it is?"

"It's quite a lot. As long as you search carefully, there's a base wage. Not only is it five Knuts an hour, but if you find the information we need, the reward can be as high as one Galleon!"

"One Galleon... ah, then forget it..."

???

Andrew was stunned, and the person with the similar voice froze as well—it was a girl's voice.

They even use someone of the same gender to reduce the target's worries about being scammed? And while one Galleon is money they'll never actually get, just a carrot dangled in front of a donkey, do first-years really not care about the temptation of a Galleon?

He was an exception—not to brag, but he had been better off than many graduates even before enrolling. What ordinary first-year would be so generous? Had they run straight into one of those Slytherin kids?

His curiosity slightly piqued, Andrew used the excuse of looking for a book to take a glance, then quickly returned with a guilty conscience.

He knew the one who had not fallen for it. Miss Granger was especially famous in Ravenclaw—expected to take first place.

And the reason for his guilty conscience was obvious—the scammer was from his own house...

Well, aside from certain members of their club, most Ravenclaws had no house-based prejudice whatsoever. There were plenty of good aspects to that, such as competitions, card games, and forming groups to have fun. But there were bad aspects too. For instance, the person just now was running an equal-opportunity scam.