Back when we first saw Harry heading into Gringotts to take out gold to buy school supplies, it wasn't totally clear how wealthy the Potter family really was.
Well, now we've got a better idea about the net worth of the Boy Who Lived.
A Reddit thread recently broke down the exchange rate between wizard and muggle money. It turns out, Harry was pretty loaded. After a quick conversion of sickles, knuts, and galleons into dollars and cents, a clearer picture of his fortune appeared.
"At the World Cup, [Harry] spent $750 to buy he, Ron, and Hermione Omnioculars as Christmas presents (for about 10 years, mind). Not only that, but he gave Fred and George $25,000 of Triwizard Tournament winnings to start their joke shop because he didn't need it," the Reddit author wrote.
Pretty generous, absolutely, but young moneybags obviously must have had the funds. While J.K. Rowling never revealed Harry's bank balance, if he could afford to do such nice things for his friends, his fortune was likely pretty sizable.
The thread also delves into the extent of the Weasley family's poverty — which was apparently substantial. "In Chamber of Secrets, the Weasleys completely emptied their vault which consisted of 1 galleon and a pile of sickles, which could be equated from $50 to $75, and they had to buy everyone books, plus robes, a wand and cauldron for Ginny, etc.," wrote the Redditor.
"It didn't really hit me until now just how hard the 50 galleon fine for the Flying Ford Anglia hit the family. Also, it made it that more surprising to me that when they win the 700 galleon Daily Prophet Grand Prize, they spend the better part of $17,500 on a trip to Egypt (I suspect that a good chunk of it may have been spent getting out of debt, but they didn't tell any of the children). Finally, it meant Fred and George's 37 galleon bet with Bagman was over a thousand dollars on something of a longshot."
The Redditor also pointed out some other fun facts about the cost of living in the magical world. Wands, as it turns out, are relatively inexpensive: Harry's cost $175. A Butterbeer would set the buyer back about $2. As for a Unicorn horn? You're looking at $525, easy. It might be magical being a wizard, but their world is just as consumerist as the real one.
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