A genie appears to you and says it will grant you ONE of the following two wishes:

1. $10 billion appears in your bank account. No questions will be asked about where you got it, everyone will accept it as legitimate.

2. The Harry Potter world is real, you have magic, and are about to attend your local magic school as a first year. Your level of magical talent is similar to Harry Potter in canon.

Which do you pick?

 

I’d choose the eleven year old option so hard Epstein would still be inviting me to his parties, sans billions, I’m sorry to say.

 

As stated here, 'you have magic, and are about to attend your local magic school as a first year' makes this a no-brainer for me -- 20 years of my life back, a greatly increased lifespan, *and* magic? Gimme.

I'd take the money if the extra lifespan and 'life redo' wasn't in the picture, though.

 

Magic makes money pretty unnecessary in most ways. Even a very average wizard has ways of navigating almost all the daily struggles a muggle might have.

Sure, you wouldn't be buying a small nation any time soon, but you would be able to have a very comfortable life, if not a lavish one, with minimal application of effort.

Plus I could turn turtles into small bronze turnips.

 

Magic can get you money and its fucking magic, anyone w/ a brain would pick the second.

 

The fact you start over at age 11 is a no-brainer. Not a debate at all.

My answer would change if I discovered I had magic today, and couldn't go to the local magical school.

 

Absolutely my way of thinking there. As I said in the discord, no youth = money. Yes youth = magic.

 

To be honest even without the education I'd still take the magic - for me, doubling my lifespan is worth more than $10 billion on its own. Just think of all that you'd see - you'd get to see humanity well into the 22nd century.

And it takes kids 7 years to learn magic - probably an adult can do it in 4-5. Can stick with my Muggle job while teaching myself magic. It probably wouldn't take too long for the magic to become useful for completing work tasks in record time too.

When you've got 100+ years ahead of you, a few years of study isn't so much time to catch up.

 

I'd pick magic even if I were 80. There's nothing money can buy that can replace the wonders of magic.

 

Is there anyone on this forum who'd take the money over the magic? Particularly in the scenario presented. Granted, if part of the deal was that you had Voldemort or similar after you...I'd probably still take the magic, to be honest.

 

Magic would let me cure my brother who's severely disabled, so its not even a question for me, though the other benefits are also nice.

 

Magic.

Money is only worth as much as the things you can buy with it. As far as I'm concerned, the entirety of goods and services available in the Muggle world is worth less than having magic and being a freaking wizard. (Not to mention de-ageing coming as an added benefit.)

Much less than that, most likely. Kids in canon don't appear to be particularly interested in learning magic, while most every HP fan would be outright obsessed with it.

 

Yeah, even if I was to only get the magic as of today and have to learn it from scratch I'd absolutely go for it. As I see it I could live in the muggle world quite happily and successfully without ever really having to touch on much of the stuff they learn at Hogwarts. A dedicated adult could likely learn the actual important, life changing pieces of magic within a handful of years. For example, there's minimal need to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts if you're living hidden in the muggle world, except perhaps as a curiosity and for self defence. You could dedicate only a very small amount of time to that and gain all the skills you'd realistically need. The majority of your learning time could go to transfiguration and charms, in all their various formats which could lead to success, money, ease of life etc.

And getting the redo and actual magical life in a magical world...fuck yes! You'd be mad to turn that down.

 

What a pointless question.

 

If I get to keep my memories and go back to 11, then that one. I can make the money pretty fast using knowledge of the future... or just steal it via magic. Plus I'd have already played all the games and seen all the movies/shows from then so... not much else to do really.

Edit: Upon clarification where it's we're just de-aged to 11 and attend in 2020, I'm taking my 10 billion because the other option means I live in a world where the events of Cursed Child really happened, and that's just the worst.

 

I'd definitely take the magic too, assuming I got to be an anonymous 11-year-old who could explore Hogwarts and magic in peace.

But...if the choice was between being a muggle with $10 billion and being the actual Harry Potter of canon, I'd hesitate. Even if I were able to make smarter choices than Harry (e.g., banging Daphne instead of Ginny), I'd still have a horcrux in my forehead and an immortal psychopath hellbent on my death. That makes $10 billion and a private island very tempting.

 

There's no amount of money that would ever equal the value of opening up a whole new world to me. Really, the only comparison would be something like discovering a cure for cancer, or a way to travel galaxies in human lifespans, or time travel. Although one could argue that I could fund that research with my 10B, the magic is guaranteed whereas the probability of actually discovering one of those things is low at best.