Yes, but I'm fairly sure that a bank draft is supposed to be a total of the monetary value that you have. I could understand if at the top was the running total, but just putting down random numbers to make it seem larger than it is strikes me as stupid. Especially when you give him fuck-tons already.

And the US isn't the only example, but it is where I live, so I use it because I know more about my banking system than Britain's.

 

Gringotts is not the same as the bank that you use. When Harry puts his money in his vault it stays there, those are his galleons, sickles and knuts. And when he goes back those same galleons, sickles and knuts are still in his vault. So it makes sense that they would give him the exact count of what is in his vault, in this case he has x galleons, y sickles and z knuts. I'm not arguing that giving him a zillion, billion galleons is right, just that they would use that format in his bank statements.

...and in writing that last sentence I realised that this is one of the most pointless debates I've ever been in. And that's saying a lot.

 

Also, if you've been a member since 2011, how the fuck have you not seen the countless people that have spoken of this. It's kind of gotten to the point where it's just a given that everyone hates it.

Ergo you're pointless in your pointless statement.

And yeah, that's right, I pulled out the ergo. And what.

 

We have no way of knowing how much money he has.

I certainly agree that the massive amounts of cash can get annoying

 

@Bill
I don't know, it just seems off that he'd have piles of Knuts that could be exchanged for smaller piles of Galleons. For one thing, it'd mean less space needed, which would give the goblins room for plenty more vaults, increasing their profits. For another, those Knuts and Sickles lying around would be far more useful as change in some shop. And really, the Knuts and Sickles might as well not even be there for all the attention the author gives them. You never see them used other than to emphasize how poor some family is. Really, it doesn't even make sense that Harry would want any more than fifty of them, as they're apparently only useful for small transactions.

@El Duderino and dmacx
No, see, you two are missing the point I'm trying to make. It's not that Harry has tons of money, it's that Harry has tons of Sickles and Knuts in addition to his tons of Galleons, which is really quite redundant, as they translate into Galleons at a large change of value per volume. It's the difference between carrying around one 20 and carrying around twenty 1's; they're worth the same, but the one 20 takes up less space and is easier to carry/store.

 

Goblin bank. Go figure.

 

Durzkaban/Dursleykaban. Because staying with relatives who don't like him is akin to a prison guarded by soul-sucking monsters.

This is one that appears almost exclusively in fics featuring manipulative!Dumbledore(ork). Harry gets sent back to Privet Drive (for the Greater Good, of course), says he's spending the summer at Durzkaban, and his love interest invariably laughs like it's the cleverest goddamn thing she's ever heard.

 

Pretty much any portmanteau of canon words in a 'clever' and 'original' way is enough to make me hit the little x button... but yeah, 'Durzkaban' is one of the most irritating.

 

We have no way of knowing how much money Harry has... but given the size of the wizarding economy (that is, very small, both because of the population and because of the lack of mass production) I think it's safe to assume that no one has billions of galleons. I even find hundreds of millions hard to believe*. Remember, 1000 galleons was sufficient capital for Fred and George to open a business.

*(In IED, the Malfoys are the richest people in Britain and I've said they have around 10 million galleons - I feel this is the largest amount that feels realistic given the size and nature of the economy).

 

Eh, I actually think that out of all the fanon attempts at humor (Moldy Shorts, Dumb-as-a-door, Death Muchers, Bumblemore, ad nauseum), Durzkaban is the only one I think is (a) amusing and (b) not far-fetched. Think about it - equating being sent back to the Dursleys to being sent to Azkaban is just the kind of thing a teenager would do, even one as stoic and tough-skinned as Harry Potter. Hyperbole is their (teenagers's) bread and butter, especially when they can be histrionic about it.

And for Harry, being forced back to a place where he's not just disliked but actively despised, a place where he spent ten years being lied to and made to feel inferior and worthless, for the whole summer after spending nine or ten months in a world of wonder (and yes, life-and-death danger) along with good friends and good food, has *got* to feel a little bit like prison.

 

I could imagine Ron coining the term after seeing the the bars on Harry's window.

 

Quite generous in my opinion. Let's not forget It is not Sterling we are talking about, I remember reading somewhere 2k gold was enough to buy a house which I thought was reasonable and if you think about that context gold is much more valuable. I think Malfoys would around 100k gold plus investments and other possession rounding up to 500k at most. Harry himself would own 70-80k making him wealthy but not rich.

Of course that is my head canon and doesn't really based on anything other than my opinion but still 10m sounds too much to me.

Not to mention canon doesn't say Malfoy is richest, just that they are rich.

Edit: To clear my point about gold being more valuable; It isn't Gold exchanging for more sterling but rather being able to buy more as in you can buy 5 book with 5 sterling but 10 book for a gold despite being same exchange rate.

 

Depends on population figures, I suppose. I went with a very generous interpretation of canon, going by the "Quidditch Stadium Count", with 30k wizards in Britain.

 

I'm all in favor of never putting a number to Harry's wealth. He's fairly well off, okay... he should be able to purchase most of what he wants without any problem; so, unless he tries buying the NASA crawler (or should I go Bagger 288 for inflation?), it just doesn't need to be mentioned.

Really, putting hard numbers to Harry's inherited wealth is a bit tacky, anyway; and, while it may be the stock in trade of the most godawful independent!Harry and loony inheritance fics, how many stories actually need to mention this kind of information?

Beyond having a vendor ask for 5 sickles when Harry buys a trinket, just to spice up the dialog, it's just not really necessary. We know Harry has a lot more than the Weasleys, obviously, and probably a bit more than the general population. He may have more or less than the Malfoys... but unless this is going to become a part of the plot, why mention it?

I think it's indicative of the same mentality that we see in stories where people have Harry inheriting (from time-traveling future!parents, apparently...) or purchasing loads of DVD players, Playstation 3s, ultra-wide flatscreen displays, and iPods. People wish they had money, they wish they had 'stuff', and they equate worth... perhaps even their own self worth, with money.

Bearing that in mind, it's no wonder they feel compelled to write down that ridiculous 5 billion galleon figure on Harry's bank statement. So, ask yourself: "Have I ever read a story where seeing an exact figure for Harry's wealth was vital to the plot?"

Better yet: "Have I ever read a story with exact monetary figures, where there was a plot?"

 

I had a plot bunny at one time making a story out of Harry building a company after books.

I was planning to make it some sort political intrigue heavily interlinked with money where Harry is trying to succeed make money and not get caught up in politics. Than I realised I didn't have talent to write it let it go.

Main part of it was Harry using 2 way mirrors and turning them to reliable communication device similar to telephone than selling that to people.

I mean really telephone had been only a two way communication method at start as well. Easy enough to bypass I think, just keeping one of the pair in one place and linking them together. ( I assume it is possible to link them together of course thought I can't see why not)

Any way in that kind setting it would be necessary to know your money I think

 

... What the fuck have you guys been reading? :|

 

Unfortunately, yes. This is not to say that the plot was good.

 

Not even that. A vault is a big underground cupboard under the stairs. You own one. Or rent one. Or hold the license to one. You throw your shit in a heap on the floor, and leave.

In the most secure bank in the world, would they really let employees in to count other people's gold? I doubt they'd use magic to count it, either. It's a much more basic system. The classical gold storage unit of:

FLOOR -> HEAP -> DRAGON

Albeit with the dragon moved into the next room for health and safety reasons.

I have no evidence to back this up, but it seems more accurate to me than fanon nonsense trying to introduce parallels to muggle banks. Wizards store their gold in big piles, a mile or more underground, in glorified stone boxes. On the floor.

Really, who would count a heap of gold and put it back in a heap on the floor? That's a sure way to lose some. If it got counted, it would be stored more neatly. Maybe they'd have a piggybank.

 

By that same token, Lucius Malfoy doesn't bribe people with x amount of Galleons, he bribes them with x amount of bags.

 

My biggest pet peeve, and this has probably been mentioned before but I can't be assed to read through six pet peeve threads, is people trying to pseudo-science magic. Yes, I get it. You've heard someone say once upon a time that any significantly advanced technology looks like magic. I don't care.

I don't care that you think a levitation charm reverses gravity, I don't care if you think the spider from book four couldn't actually feel the Crucio since it doesn't have nerves, and I certainly don't care that you think Merlin was an alien and he left behind his ultra high tech weaponry for some humans to play with. I don't care because that's wrong, not just wrong it's also stupid. Where's the fun of reading a story about magic if it's not actual magic?