"...I dunno what you're talking about. Money's just—gold."

"And silver, but yes," says Pansy.

"Not everyone has the money saved up for the things they want so they can get loans where someone gives them money now, in exchange for getting more money back later."

"...where does the extra money come from?"

"If you start a business, you can make more money from the business than it took to buy the building do the other things you needed to do when starting out. I'm not sure how it works for houses though, and I know people get loans to buy houses."

"Well but that's because the goblins make new coins when they need to and control all of them."

"I think the muggle government controls their money like the goblins control their coins. I'm not sure how that's related though."

"I just mean, like, the goblins won't just give you money like that."

"I think you have to promise some sort of collateral or something, the banks get something if you fail to pay them back."

"...weird."

Sarah shrugs, "How do people start businesses in the magical world?"

Shrug.

"What do your parents do?"

"Mine work for the Ministry," says Pansy.

"My dad has a shop in Diagon Alley," explains Millicent.

"Cool, what shop? And what department?"

"Department of Mysteries."

Millicent looks at Pansy like she's not sure whether she buys that but then says, "It's a book collector's shop."

"That's cool. I'm not really sure what the Department of Mysteries does but it sounds mysterious. And bookstores are great."

"No one knows what the Department of Mysteries does, that's the point," Pansy explains, only rolling her eyes a little.

"That sounds really weird. Aren't they answerable to the Minister of Magic or something?"

"Of course."

"Oh, so you're just saying that everyday people don't know what they do. That makes more sense. Still cool to think about."

"Well I don't know if the Minister knows what they do either."

"I guess that makes sense."

"You said your uncle makes cutting stuff?" asks Millicent.

"Yeah, the company he works for makes drills for lots of things, I think my Uncle works for the part of the company that makes drills for mining."

"Mining?"