You're basing the Potter's financial situation upon the wishful thinking of a not particularly mature or responsible 14-year old? Even if they had the money to spend on a ridiculously expensive broom I doubt they would, the Potter's are not in the habit of spoiling their children with unnecessary luxury, and a professional racing broom is most certainly not necessary. Hell, even the most wealthy and spoilt brat in Hogwarts didn't get a Firebolt and had to make do with a Nimbus.

To make a real-world comparison, it'd be like buying your kid a Ferrari as a present for getting their driver's license, fucking insane. Unless you're not particularly fond of them and hope they'll crash and burn.

 

Is it? In your example they just learned to drive. Nathan has been flying for years.

 

The aspect of the example he intended us to focus on is the cost of the car and the broom, rather than how long the person had been driving/flying.

 

And the performance of it, most kids are taught how to drive with a regular car, put them in a high-performance sports car and they're gonna end up wrapped around a tree. I figure it's much the same for brooms, acceleration, cornering and top speed all vary between different brooms, and the Firebolt is the most powerful broom you can buy in the wizarding world. Not that different from having a kid who learned how to drive in a Corolla try out a Testarossa.

Sure, Nathan probably has a Nimbus or something, I don't think we've been told, and there might not be that much of a gap in performance between the two brooms, but he's still far from what I'd call an experienced rider. He's only flown competively on an amateur-level for 3 years, and a handful of matches per year is hardly an impressive resumé, I doubt his parents would be comfortable with him flying around on a Firebolt.

Then again, it's not as if anything of what I've just said matters, maybe the Potters think Nathan can handle a Firebolt and the only reason they haven't bought him one is that they can't justify spending that much on a broom or they can't afford one. Only The Santi knows.

 

Those people do exist. A highschool classmate of mine and his brother both got a Ferrari for their 18th birthday - which means they didn't even have their driver's license yet, since the minimum age for taking driving lessons in the Netherlands is 18.

The particular family didn't come across as pompous or stuck-up, they were just... very, very rich... Nonetheless, your point stands: it doesn't seem to be a likely thing for the Potters to do.

 

I fail to see why Nathan would have trouble flying a Firebolt. His life is directly patterned off of canon Harry, and his character and skills, for all intents and purposes, are the same as those of canon-Harry. Canon-Harry had even less flying experience than Nathan (growing up with the Dursleys) and he had no issues whatsoever controlling the Firebolt. There's no reason Nathan should either.

Brooms are not cars. They are fundamentally different. Cars have to stay on a road and conted with traffic. Brooms can move in 3 dimensions, have the entire sky and aren't likely to run into traffic. The wizarding world doesn't have to correlate with the muggle word. The effort to force it do so nearly always leads to a worse story.

 

Yeah, I realized as I posted it that I took the allegory a bit too far, even if it is fucking ridiculous that someone could be as skilled as Harry/Nathan the first time they sit on a broom. I figured with the big deal Santi's been making about just how goddamn much hard work Krum's put in, aside from his natural talent, that the gap between school quidditch and the pro leagues are so ridiculously huge that the worst pro-seeker in the world would humiliate Nathan no matter what brooms they fly. And therefore the Firebolt, a broom designed to be used by guys like Krum, would be out of Nathan's capabilities for years and years, unless he puts in the same ridiculous effort as Krum did.

tl;dr
Nathan's still an amateur, him being capable of handling the same gear as the professionals with enough proficiency for it to not be retardedly dangerous or a waste of time bothers me.

 

The answer is "magic", same as everything else in JKR's world that doesn't make sense. It's because JKR herself has a very limited POV on the real world, had done no research when writing, and did not grow the books from those targeting eight year olds to those targeting sixteen year olds nearly as well as she (and we) hoped.

The Firebolt is not the same as a Formula-1 car, which Top Gear demonstrated only real Formula-1 drivers can handle. It's a piece of gear that apparently lets a spectrum of riders get as much performance as each one can handle. Maybe it only does the canon!Harry .. Krum range instead of the full Hermione .. Krum range, but it seems to be capable of being handled by merely proficient fliers. Will it corner better under Krum? Probably. Will Neville fall off it if he tried riding it? Possibly.

An explanation might be made thus: There is no money is making brooms only two dozen people will buy, so the manufacturer made some engineering trade offs during design. Do I think JKR thought of this when writing? Of course not. Neither did she think about the size of the population required to support a professional league of a dozen teams, their seconds, coaches and managers.

 

I've been pretty busy with work, so I was hoping that someone else would write an in depth reply first.

CANON.

This is Word of God. It comes from the same interview that JRK used to reveal Dumbledore's homosexuality. I don't know if Santi follows WoG.

James, Lily, Remus and Sirius did not work after leaving Hogwarts. Remus was unable to find work because he was a werewolf. Remus, Lily and James lived on James' [presumably inherited] money. Sirius was given money by an uncle which he used to finance his own lifestyle. James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus were "full time" members of the Order of the Phoenix and so wouldn't have had time for ordinary employment anyway, according to JKR.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2...neville-marries-hannah-abbott-and-scores-more

Boy Who Lived CANON.

I don't recall seeing anything definitive, though there are hints. This is what I can remember.

Lily: She's described by Harry as a "charms mistress", but it's never explained what a charms mistress is, except that one is expected to be competent with charms. A job? A title? A rank based on skill? apprentice/master/mistress? McGonagall is described as a transfiguration mistress, Kosarev as a charms master, and Snape as a potions master.

Lily also attended a potions conference in 1985 [Harry and Nathan would have been about 5yo] and has a potions supplier who's able to obtain rare ingredients such as powdered longhorn horn. There's no indication whether Lily's work in the field of potions is a hobby, a standard part of being a magical mum, employment, or something else.

James: James seems to be a member of the idle rich. I haven't seen any indication that he earns an income at all. There was talk in the latest chapter of him considering an entry into politics.

Perhaps James' [and other house heads] performs business transactions much like Calypso describes her father doing. She mentions Romulus having "business partners", documents that needed to be signed, but no face to face meetings required, at least not to continue a pre-existing business relationship. If said business partners believed Romulus to actually be a goblin, then their business can't have revolved around the use of any of Romulus' particular skills and knowledge. There aren't many types of business that I can think of that'd fit those constraints except financial investments and selling resources. If the wizarding economy involves such things, then perhaps the head of the House of Potter uses his inherited wealth in a similar manner.

James and Lily: Now that Nathan's parents are aware that Voldemort is coming back and plans to kill their son, there's a very good chance that James and Lily have resumed their "full time" job with the Order of the Phoenix. They may still be relying on James' inherited wealth as JKR indicated, though it's been about a decade and a half since they left school. Surely it must run out at some point.

Sirius: Has inside information on auror goings on. He knew who Tonks' auror instructor was and how nasty of an instructor Moody would be without her telling him. He referred to the Auror Academy as just "the Academy". Sirius generally speaks of Auror Academy goings on with some familiarity. Perhaps he went through it himself, or has auror friends, or works closely with the aurors in some way. Honestly, there's a hundred different ways to explain Sirius' knowledge, but it might be related to his employment, if any.

Remus: Remus became the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts, as in canon. There was no mention of Remus being outted as a werewolf at the end of the year, so it's possible that he'll continue on in that position next year during the TriWizard. It may have happened off screen tho. Remus might have been living on James' largesse as he did after Hogwarts and during the war.

tl;dr: We don't know exactly how they obtain money, but Santi has provided enough hints to speculate on.

 

Doesn't this depends on whether Voldemort's curse exists in Santi's canon?

 

Looks like one source of Lily's income is potions research, considering nothing's been said about her being a "potions mistress" she's probably Snape's research assistant. That said, she probably does research in Charms too since she holds a mastery in it, much like Snape holds one in potions.

I guess that's what mastery means, you either do research or you teach.

EDIT: In some fics the ministry has departments (aside from the DoM) dedicated to research of charms/curses/potions but I haven't found any source for it, probably fanon.

EDIT2: Right you are Taure, found it on the potter wiki, but for some reason it's not included in the article on the ministry.

 

There is the Committee on Experimental Charms, which is part of the Ministry.

 

There's no mention of her getting paid for doing research with Snape. I understood it as her way of reconciling with him.

 

This. There was no mention of Harry making any money off of his discovery in Transfiguration which seems to indicate that she would need to be hired to do research in order to make money. We have no evidence to support this though. She could just be funding her research with her husband's inheritance. It could very well just be a hobby for her. I mean we don't even know if she has made any noteworthy discoveries.

 

I'm just going to point out that there are non-monetary rewards to experimentation too. Harry's great-great uncle won the Order of Merlin for Research in experimental charms.

Mind you, with something like that (or published spells/works) behind you, various magical companies would be interested in hiring or having you consult (freelancing may suite Lily better if she wants low profile). The Firebolt, for example, would have had several experts working on & testing its spells.

Edit: Oh, and regarding the economic viability of the Firebolt (number purchased vs development, ect) - if they do record a loss over it then it may be like formula cars - more of a high-end showcase that interest the customer in whatever brand produces the Firebolt. And those spells that are developed could eventually be applied to more conventional models, just like new technologies...

 

For the Firebolt broom to be a brand building loss maker, it has to be named "Nimbus Professional". As-is, it does not enhance the reputation of any other broom manufacturer. Also, in such a small community people would know if the Firebolt and the mass produced broom were designed by different teams (as is common for luxury items by the same conglomerate that also produces mass market items).

Anyway, since Wizarding Britain is in effect a single small town where everyone is related, real modern market conditions won't exist. Mass production doesn't make sense. Advertising doesn't make sense. Businesses are probably family owned monopolies.

 

What wolf said. Trying to make sense of Wizarding Britian's economy is a futile endeavor, especially given how much JKR fucked up.

 

Wizarding Britain is likely much bigger than you think. Nobody builds a stadium big enough for 100k just for a single event.

Of course, the likelihood of JKR ever thinking these things through is basically zero. And even if she tried to create a world that makes any sense, she failed horribly.

 

Personally, I thought the stadium was dismantled after the event. I did wonder where the British ministry got the stated 500 people to work on it (from GoF):

There is never any talk about a different school anyone ever graduated. Even if Hogwarts has a thousand students instead of the ~280 in canon, think about classroom hours for teachers of required subjects and classroom size: 20 kids in a classroom. 1000 kids means 50 classes. McGonagall is the only transfiguration professor. Muggle teachers do 23 classroom hours per week (She also has to grade homework and tests and help run the school as deputy head). Harry has double classes, IIRC more than once a week. There is no talk of there ever being a Transfiguration department and different students of the same generation having different teachers. Even if they do have a thousand students, that's 143 births per year and 14K total population if they on average live to be a hundred, but since almost the entire generation of the protagonist's grandparents appears to be missing, on average they don't live to be a 100.

Wizarding Britain is one of those Alaskan towns where the major, the sheriff, the postman and the proprietor of the only general store are the same person and everyone thinks it's completely normal.