money / summer jobs in uk

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 31833

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Barry Hill <barry at p...> wrote:
>From abced:
> I wonder if the Dursley's are going to make Harry get some sort of 
> summer job to pay for his upkeep 
> 
> Can't he use (a fraction of) the gold his parents left him, 
> suitably exchanged for muggle-money??

Not if he wants to keep the vault with the pile of gold a secret 
from the Dursleys, which would be wise IMO.  Early in the first 
book, Vernon declares that he isn't going to pay for Harry's magical 
education or supplies; it is never clear whether he wonders how 
Harry DOES manage to pay for these things.  It might be that he 
doesn't know people can get Galleons exchanged for Muggle money and 
vice versa, so he might think wizarding money would be useless to 
him anyway.  He might not have considered how Muggle-born students' 
parents pay their tuition and purchase their school supplies in 
Diagon Alley.  Given that Vernon dislikes thinking about magic AT 
ALL, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case.

Now that Harry's about to turn fifteen, there doesn't seem to be any 
reason he can't get out of the house more during the summer, cutting 
lawns and perhaps delivering newspapers and such.  He might not get 
much work babysitting, though, in that Vernon and Petunia would be 
unlikely to give a good recommendation to any neighborhood parents, 
and there would always be the risk that an especially mischievous 
small child could make Harry lose his temper and perform accidental 
magic--picture a toddler version of Dudley.  (Wait--now that I think 
about it, that would be really funny!)  Since JKR likes to start off 
each book with some humor, I could see that humor emanating from 
Harry's summer work situation in the next book.

--Barb

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