Your Son Is Your Son
Ross knew it was most likely a fake name, but he didn't mind and thanked Tom with a big smile.
Ross pulled out all the money he had on him. "A day is enough time for me to travel a long way, far beyond what I've been asked for. Brother, this is all I have, don't think it's too little."
Tom refused the Dragon Hide wallet. "You're a fugitive now. You need to keep some money on you to get by. What will you do with it if I give it to you?"
Ross laughed nonchalantly, "Hey, what's the big deal? My destination is Germany; I have relatives there."
"The entire Germany Wizarding World is at odds with the International Confederation of Wizards, and the International Auror can't do anything to me there."
Tom nodded. That's how it is with Pure-blood; they have relatives everywhere they go.
Especially in the United States, the Pure-blood are all immigrants from other places; you never know who is from the main family and who is from a branch family.
However, this was the first time he had heard about the discord between the Germany Ministry of Magic and the Witchcraft Union.
Tom suddenly said, "You have a tracking curse on you, don't you? I can remove it for you."
Ross was overjoyed, but then hesitated. "But I'm out of money too. How about I transfer the money to you through Gringotts when I get to Germany? Let old Borgin receive it; it'll be safe."
Tom smiled and agreed. "Okay. But you have to agree to one condition: I want to know about your relationship with that deputy minister."
Ross immediately began to recount his actions with great enthusiasm, clearly very proud of what he had done.
Ross Wilkinson, Ilvermorny graduate, is the leader of the United States Wizarding World, which is governed by the twelve Auror who were among the first immigrants.
Some of these twelve Auror died, and their family lineages were cut off, while others continued to grow stronger because they had original shares.
The Wilkinson Family and Graves Family families are descendants of the Twelve Auror and have now grown into behemoths in the United States Wizarding World.
These original shareholders weren't all the same; some were Britain immigrants, like Abraham Potter, a member of the Potter Family and considered Harry's ancestor.
Wilkinson is Germany immigrant, Graves is France immigrant; those who know about these two countries understand.
Their feud didn't stop even after they moved to a new continent; they continued their open and covert struggles.
But Graves wouldn't go so far as to make things difficult for a student; ultimately, it was Ross who was just being sarcastic.
He was once joking with his friends about Percival Graves when Robert Graves, who was then a professor, overheard him.
This Percival Graves is Robert's grandfather, and also has another identity: the unfortunate man whose identity was taken by Gellert Grindelwald in disguise.
Gellert Grindelwald, being quite chivalrous, did not kill Percival, perhaps because Albus Dumbledore's name also contains the character for Percival?
When the truth came out, Percival was rescued, but he lived with immense shame and even doubted whether his son was his own.
Because it just so happened that his wife became pregnant during the time his identity was stolen.
Would Robert let Ross off the hook? Relying on his status as a professor and his equal family background, Robert began to relentlessly bully Ross.
Ross endured this until graduation, secretly sleeping with Robert's wife and even leaving Robert a note. "Don't worry, your son will definitely be your son."
If Robert could still tolerate this, he wouldn't be a man. He casually pinned a crime on Ross and used the power of the International Auror to arrest him.
Tom was also amazed by the chaotic relationships between the characters, but he was certain that Robert's father was definitely a member of the Graves family, since Gellert Grindelwald already had someone he loved.
With his gossip satisfied, he placed an anti-tracking spell on Ross as promised, canceling out the tracking spell previously cast by the International Auror. Ross felt a sense of relief.
The next day, Tom, disguised as Michael, arrived at the store, Borgin's signature fake smile reappeared. "Guest, you've finally arrived! Mr. Ross has been praising you quite a bit."
He pushed a leather bag over. "The mission reward, plus an extra five hundred Galleon, I'll pay for Mr. Ross in advance."
Tom accepted the money without hesitation, and in the blink of an eye, he had already raised half of the money to buy the Dragon Heartstring.
"Mr. Burke, are there any other similar missions?"
Borgin shook his head. "No more for now. It's rare to find a big client like Mr. Ross."
"Other tasks are either time-consuming or involve exploring ruins, with inconsistent rewards."
"There's a mission to deliver the letter to Michael's residence."
Borgin smiled and agreed. "No problem."
After Tom left Knockturn Alley, he began to busy himself with matters in the Muggle world.
He discovered that everything he did during this holiday seemed to be related to making money; first, he earned Galleon, and now he's tirelessly trying to earn Dota.
That's right, even in Britain, the knife is a hard currency, given its status.
He used some underhanded methods to help Michael obtain a national insurance number and a driver's license.
In the Britain, these two items functioned like identity cards; he opened bank and stock accounts and took out all his savings.
They poured all their money into military-related stocks, and even leveraged it up by a factor of two.
After the problems arose in the north, he had no idea how the US stock market rose or fell, or by how much.
But anyone with a brain knows that the military industry will take off, and in a few years it will be a famous bubble. At that time, just buy Microsoft without thinking, make your money, and then sell it all.
He doesn't need a lot of money; he just needs to ensure he can achieve financial freedom and buy a few more vacation estates.
The most profitable option would actually be to directly harvest profits from the industrial sector in the north, but he simply didn't have that much time and didn't want to invest too much energy in it, so he could only choose this lazy person's method.
Tom was very busy before Christmas, as both Hermione and Daphne sent him letters.
Hermione also invited Tom to her home, but he declined, only briefly replying with a few words about his recent situation before writing no further.
He accepted two more quests from Borgin, one of which was to threaten a wizard into selling treasures obtained from ruins to Borgin's shop.
The other task is to help collect debts; both tasks only yield a reward of 200 Galleon.
He took advantage of these few days to learn Apparition and Disapparition, which made things much easier for him.
There's still no news about the Dragon Heartstring he's been longing for. He's lowered his expectations; even a slice wouldn't be out of the question if a complete one wasn't available.
As long as it's stored properly, it's fine, but a heart that's completely shriveled up is unusable; all the life force inside has been lost.
He was considering whether to ask Snape for help; with his connections, getting a few pieces of dragon hearts shouldn't be a problem.