Gnosis. It could be many things to many people... if sufficiently concentrated. To Wizards, it might enhance spellcraft; to mathematicians, discern a scintillating proof; to chosen ones, unlock new vistas of mystic possibility; and to an ordinary muggle, earn a 5% raise at a minimum-wage job with a callous boss.
It wasn't like muggles were stupider or less enlightened than wizards. It was just... most people didn't really have all that much gnosis, and in terms of magical potential a muggle didn't start at zero, they started chained down in an mythril cage inside a bunker in the bottom of a mineshaft dug into the bottom of the marianas trench, the whole trench being constantly watched for disturbances by unrelenting prison guards. It would take them far, far more gnosis to achieve the same sort of magical opportunities.
But that was a fact about the muggles, not about their Gnosis. And there were a lot more Muggles than Wizards.
And that was why Harry was throwing darts at a map to figure out where to ask one of the older hufflepuffs for portkeys to. On arrival, he would walk up to the nearest muggle and deliver his sales pitch. In exchange for Gnosis, a multitude of wishes could be theirs! Large quantities of money! Magical items! For the reckless, tutoring in the Wizarding art of Magical Runes, which should in principle be possible for Muggles since it doesn't rely on magical power, but which doesn't work for muggles(and for the slightly less reckless, a wizarding contact they can sell rune-presses to if they can figure things out); For the clever, a lecture on the basics of the observation-only parts of Astrology and Astronomy; and more!
The best part of this strategy was the selection. Muggles with higher gnosis and interest in the deal would be disproportionately more likely, because they would be able to spend some of their Gnosis on accessing the deal in the first place- by being in the right place, at the right time. No need to search; let the customers seek you. Yes indeed it would be a wondrous venture. Geist hadn't commented on the matter, but this only emboldened Harry, inspired as it was- probably there was some binding on him.
things, of course, did not go so well. For one thing, the entire thing was illegal. Harry was no stranger to working outside the law, but one of these laws was astral in scope and nature- magic protects its secrets, an edict writ in the stars themselves. Whenever he tried to explain his proposal, or for that matter if he'd tried to carry out the ambitious options, magic itself would interfere. Eventually, he'd figured out how to overcome this problem- by placing the muggle under the invisibility cloak, the edict considered him to be speaking to the air- but it had cost him several customers.
After that his next problem was an inability to measure Gnosis. There was the faintest sense of greatness at the moment of suction, but he had nothing to compare it to nor the mental certitude to use his estimate. Yet without that ability, his deal would be a superior choice for muggles with less left to offer him- entirely against his desires. It took several more muggles, probably those with otherwise the greatest potential, but he determined a method to measure the damage done to the transfer runes, allowing him compare Gnosis quantities so long as he recarved the runes every time.
He'd wasted another hour giving tutoring to the next muggle to arrive before realising that the rune was taking damage from activating with an invalid target, meaning this muggle had given him next to nothing. but these was simply growing pains! Surely, with these problems solved, the endeavour would be much easier.
...suffice it to say more problems continued to arise. magic protects its secrets, the first issue he'd run into, was hampering him at every turn and in every method. There was no way to avoid the use of magic in this endeavour, but also no way to use it.
Well, that wasn't quite true. If the muggle was being paid in non-magical resources and obliviated of the interaction- but that was immoral, and doomed besides- it went against the principles of Capitalism harry had read in that dark arts book-
Geist was laughing.
[I have no confidence in writing geist as a character
basically he would be explaining all the Other reasons this idea isn't viable
like how the gnosis harry has by now is all the gnosis this will give him for the next ten years because every muggle with gnosis he could've asked spent gnosis to meet him and people just don't get all that much gnosis
and how just because geist didn't say something is stupid doesn't mean it's smart, presumably the lack of saying is a life lesson +prank.
and also laughing at the confused understanding of capitalism I assume you would need in order to think this is definitely smart under the circumstances and not a meme.
(which harry arrived at very quickly because that one capitalism book was classified as a dark art and so harry learned the (wrong) principles very quickly.
I was going to give this more of an attempt and try to make it more cohesive but i hear gnosis is needed with some urgency and its been mostly stalled for a few days so ehhhh here you go]
