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Quinn tapped his finger at the beautiful mahogany table. He was sat in a conference room inside the Switzerland West Headquarters. He glanced up at the clock in front of him that showed five minutes to eleven — ten minutes remaining to his last meeting in Switzerland before he went back home.
"They should be here by now," said Quinn.
Helena looked up from her everyday paperwork, she might have been keeping Quinn company, but that didn't mean she wanted to take her regular duties back home with her. "He will be here.. . it's just that the person has a reputation for being on time, and I mean, really on time, he won't be here a minute before its time to arrive," she said.
"Is that so," said Quinn and then closed his eyes to spend some time in his mind.
The next time Quinn opened his eyes was at the sound of the door opening and a loud voice that came from the said door. "I am here, lovely people, so let's make some gorgeous gold for everybody."
Quinn looked at the loud man. Hair set with wax, a finely groomed beard, a natural tan skin, a tailored grey checkered suit on his body, and an expensive watch on his wrist.
The man strolled into the room, pulled up a chair, and dropped himself down on it. He leaned back and spread his legs wide, and stared at Quinn, who sat in front of him. "So, you're Quinn West, huh. Man, you're young, and with so much money.. . those born with silver spoons have it so good and easy."
"It would be better if you don't—" Helena tried to say something, but Quinn raised a hand.
"You are?" Quinn asked.
"Eh? You don't know me?" asked the man, blinking in surprise.
"Of course not. Should I know you?" Though he noticed the American accent
The man's broad smile somehow stretched wider. "I like you.. . I like you.. . I like you." The man leaned forward towards the table, set his elbows on it as his fingers tapped a quick beat. "My name is Jerome Walker, but I'm more popularly known as the Broker.. . It is a pleasure to meet you," he smiled.
"Well then, Mr. Walker, I heard that you can help me invest my money in the non-magical world."
"That I can," the man raised his hands and wiggled his fingers. "I am the Broker, the man who trades between the wizarding and the no-maj world. Anything you desire from the no-maj world, I'll get my hands on it — no matter what the item, the Broker will find it for you."
"And how did you get into this fascinating business, Mr. Walker?" asked Quinn.
The Broker leaned back into his chair and drummed his fingertips against each other. "I was born to a wizard father and a no-maj mother, or at least that's what I was told, but who can tell in America."
Quinn raised a brow at that. He knew about the laws in America where first-generation magicals were taken away from their family because of the witch hunt history of the country and raised by the Ministry until they had completed their education; the same went for orphans. But this was Quinn's first time seeing someone like that.
"I wasn't that good with magic," the Broker said with a satisfied smile, "the worst at it really, neither was I good at Quidditch and because of my background, I couldn't make it into the Ministry — it's tough to succeed without some backing there. So, after I graduated, I struggled for a while, jumping from job to job, before I decided that there wasn't much of a future in the wizarding world, so I decided to try my hand at the no-maj world, and well, all sort of stuff happened, and here I am. The man who everyone wants to be, but not all can become."
"It must've been tough," said Quinn, "venturing into the non-magical world after living your entire life in the magical one."
"Na, it wasn't that difficult," Broker waved it off, "people are people — they're the same everywhere. It took a year at most before I was a person brought up in the no-maj world, and I have to admit, it was much more fun than the wizarding world."
"Well, that side of the world has its own charm," said Quinn before deciding to get to the point. "I am looking to invest a little of my wealth into the non-magical world, and from the word around, the Broker's the best there is."
"You have heard correct. I'm the best in the business. I was the only one when I started; there have been many who have tried to walk the path I took, but they can't beat the original, and that's why they call me THE Broker.
So tell me, what do you want to acquire, and I'll get it for you."
The Broker looked up at the kid in front of him. What could a boy his age want — a car, maybe a computer, or a game console, or whatever a bratty teen these days wanted.
"I want companies."
The Broker's hand stroking his beard stilled over his chin as he tilted his head. What did the kid say? Companies? Maybe he heard it wrong. "Sorry I didn't get that. Could you repeat what you said?"
"I want to buy companies."
Broker slowly leaned forward. "Companies.. . as in?"
"Well, I have some in mind that I want to buy. Most of them have already gone public, so we're going to have to buy stocks, or if you approach the owners, who are looking to liquefy a part of their share, I don't mind buying from them directly. There are two that hasn't gone public, but one of them would soon, so I want to buy a lot during the IPO."
Broker opened his mouth before closing it and repeated the process a couple of times before he finally uttered some words. "You want to buy companies? You want to buy stock? As in the stock market? You.. . you actually know what stocks are."
"Of course, I know what stocks are," said Quinn, furrowing his brows. "You can do it, right? Or do I need to find someone else?"
That pulled the Broker back into the game. "Of course, I can get it. That's not even a question. I can get anything; a few stocks isn't going to be difficult. A few calls in the correct places, and you can buy all the stock you want."
"That's good to hear," said Quinn, pulling a folder from his pockets and sliding it towards the Broker. "These are the companies I have chosen and the amount I want to be invested. As this my first investment, I'm going for the long haul, and it would be a very long while before I even think of liquifying them."
"Oh ho, a client who knows what they want, huh. My favorite sort of client," he pulled the folder to him. "Let's see what you have in mind."
He opened the folder and started reading. "Oracle, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Apple.. ."
Quinn nodded. He didn't know much about the stock market, but what he did have was the memories of his previous life. However, even in his previous life, Quinn wasn't much involved in the business world or even investment. It didn't help that the detailed memories of his previous life faded with every year — those memories weren't accessible through his mindscape, and thus Quinn had to write a lot of his memories so he didn't lose them.
However, he didn't live under a rock; he knew what was really big and what would do really well in the future.
"Yeah, so these companies, as you might see, are tech companies," said Quinn. "I have full confidence that these companies will do very well in the future. There's Amazon, which I heard is going to go public very soon, so we're going to buy a lot during the IPO. Also, I would like you to keep an eye on Google."
Quinn was also looking forward to the dot com bubble crisis happening to invest more and solidify his position in the tech industry.
"And, if you flip it over, you would see that I have chosen a few more companies that aren't tech companies because I want to diversify a bit," said Quinn. "Monster Beverage Corporation — a beverage company, Jack Henry & Associates — which is again a tech-based but in the financial sector, there's Cerner — also tech-based, but it's involved in healthcare, so I have listed it separately like I did the previous one.
I have listed Best Buy, Ross Stores, which are both retail stores that I think are going to do well. Kansas City Southern is a railroad company that I researched a bit and was a last-minute entry. UnitedHealth Group because the health industry is not going anywhere but up, so it's a no-brainer. Next, I would like to invest in Berkshire Hathaway.
Finally, I want to cap it off with Nike because basketball is really huge right now, so I want to leverage that and ride that wave. And that's that.. . so what do you think; would you be able to do it?"
The Broker had his eyes trained on the sheets. He had heard what Quinn had said, but most of it wasn't registered as his attention was occupied by the numbers printed on the paper.
'.. . What are these outrageous amounts?!' He glanced up at Quinn briefly. 'Why does he have to buy so much? Did he put in an extra zero or something?'
It wasn't like he hadn't traded in this amount — there were people who wanted him to buy antiques or artworks, and those things were ridiculously priced. But this was going to be in a little different ballpark, and he was going to put in some serious work to not let these investments in very prominent companies make big waves and attract unwanted attention. He would need to invest these amounts slowly over an extended period of time to hide them from the prying eyes.
"Alright," said the Broker, "I will set up—"
"Actually, I wanted to invest more," said Quinn, crossing his arms.
"Huh, what?"
"I had to cut my investment in half because grandfather said that he wanted to match my investments, and I thought raising the amount more than that might make a serious change in the market, which I don't want."
"Match the amount.. ."
Helena jumped into the conversation. "Yes, we would need a replication of what you're going to do for Quinn, but this would be tied to a fund which is connected to George West, and this goes without saying, but we would expect absolute secrecy from your part about this matter."
".. .Double the amount," said the Broker, looking at the sheets while doing the calculation. That changed everything; now, he was going to need to call in some serious favors and grease hands to keep it under the radar. "I will make this happen, but this is going to cost you extra. This is going to take a lot of work to pull and a lot of my time."
"Not a problem," said Quinn; he gestured to Helena. "Please contact Mrs. Berenberg here, and she'll pay for your services. Just remember to see that these requests are separate from each other, and thus, you need to bill them differently."
"Whatever floats your boat," said the Broker before fully leaning into his chair, feeling mentally exhausted after the short meet. "Why couldn't you have just asked for a car or a yacht or a plane. I could have the keys in your hands before the month ended. This.. . This is going to take at least a year, most probably more than that."
Quinn shrugged. He currently had no need for a yacht or plane — he preferred to fly and swim on his own, or even a car with apparition under his belt.
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Quinn West - MC - 'Dot com bubble.. . Facebook.. . 2008's financial crisis.. . Bitcoin release.. . hehehehe.'
Jerome Walker - The Broker - A man between two worlds.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Well, the long-standing request of investing in the muggle world has been completed. Also, I'm not a financial geek, so I just chose the American stock market, which is why The Broker is an American. And all of the stocks came from 'best performing stock in the 30 year period,' and the obvious tech stocks. Also, let's not get into the butterfly effect. This was just my attempt at showing muggle investment.
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