Chapter 130: Q.W.A.S.P.P.: Development In Picture

[This chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

"What do you think he is going to show us this time?" asked Lia West to her grandfather and career mentor about the upcoming event that she was so excited about.

George West glanced at his beloved granddaughter and faintly beamed the excitement the young woman was showing. Two years ago, she had been reluctant to sit at the same spot in the same room and complained about why she was called back home while working on another project.

But the success from the meeting's result had charmed Lia and George as well. While he didn't show it, George was equally excited about the meeting that was about to start. The result of the first meeting was by far the best product that West business had ever created. It had revolutionized a majority of the mail industry, bringing in massive profits by the day.

"I'm in the same position as you, my child. I have no idea what he will show us today," smiled George and thought about how blessed he was to have Lia and Quinn as his grandchildren.

He had taken Lia under his wing when she graduated from Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic and had been guiding-slash-grooming her to be the next head of the business and his successor. George had some expectations of his granddaughter because Lia had always been an intelligent child ever since she was young. She was the top of her class, had excellent communication skills, and held a genuine interest in joining the business and being a part of the family legacy.

However, Lia had surpassed his expectations. She displayed grit and a hard-working attitude towards the work she was assigned, something George thought Lia would lack at the start and gain with time. She actively took on responsibilities, and even though she made mistakes along the way, her tenacity to learn and implement what she learnt had seen that Lia grew at a steady and rapid rate.

As things were going now, George was confident that the future of the West family and his own legacy would flourish under Lia's hands, and when the time came, he would step down and let the next generation take the lead.

Then there was Quinn West, his amazing grandson. Unlike his sister Lia, Quinn wasn't interested in the family business. George knew that Quinn ran a successful mini-business/service inside Hogwarts, something the ancient school had never seen before. And Quinn was the main contributor to the most significant product that had seen the West business and in the entire magical world in decades.

Regardless, Quinn was interested in magic rather than running a business. Quinn's passion had been clear from a very tender age. Ever since Quinn had performed his first accidental magic, he had been hooked on magic, always looking at magic with starry eyes and with a young curiosity. Besides that, Quinn showed overwhelming talent in the field of magic, a talent level that George had never seen before.

The fact that Quinn could practice wandless magic since the age of five (Quinn's own account) had stunned George and the entire family. At that point, everyone in the family realized how talented Quinn was in magic. All of them came to the anonymous decision that if Quinn wanted to pursue a life in magic, they would fully support him to the best of their ability.

'Oh... Maria, if only you were here...' thought George about his late wife, the love of his life, and felt sad that he couldn't share his happiness with the person he had loved the most.

A knock on the door snapped George out of his thoughts. Lia perked up in her chair.

The door opened, and Quinn entered the room. He was smartly dressed in a well-fit white buttoned-up shirt with faint light blue strips tucked into light gray pants under a darker stone-grey sleeve suit vest. The craftsmanship of the clothes looked non-magical, showing his penchant for buying clothes from the non-magical world and modifying them to his tastes. Though the light brown shoes on his feet were of a magical origin, made from the leather of a Re'em, a magical creature that resembled a giant Ox with golden hide.

Quinn looked calm and relaxed as he entered the room with a comfortable smile on his face. George and Lia immediately felt confident about the upcoming hour because of how Quinn held himself. They both were business people and knew how big MagiFax was and knew that expecting something as notable as MagiFax wouldn't be unreasonable. Their expectation from today was to enjoy what Quinn created, and if it was marketable, they would put it into production. Quinn's relaxed demeanor showed them that he was confident in what he was about to show them, and that raised their confidence in Quinn.

"Good afternoon," greeted Quinn as he closed the door behind him and walked towards the table George and Lia were sitting behind; interestingly, he didn't have anything in his hands. He effortlessly waved his hands for the barstool at a corner which slid across the room, and stopped beside Quinn.

To this day, George and Lia still felt surprised when Quinn used wandless magic. Last summer, Quinn didn't have control over magic, and when he regained it, it was time for him to go back to Hogwarts. They didn't get to see wandless magic from him until Quinn returned home for Christmas and Easter breaks. Quinn entertained their requests during those breaks and showed him what he could do without a wand or a focus.

It boggled their minds how great at magic Quinn was; he, without a wand, was leagues better than children his age were with wands. He had shown them enough magic to confirm that Quinn was way better than most adult magicals and could be considered well versed in magic.

"I hope I didn't make you two wait," spoke Quinn as he sat down on the barstool and faced them. "It's good to do this after so long; a shame that we had to skip out on this last year. Unfortunately, my health didn't permit me to conduct an event like this." Quinn didn't look sad as he summarized the events of last summer: although a tough time, he had gained essential lessons from it.

"I'm healthy this time and I had a lot more time to create some interesting items and products that might intrigue you," continued Quinn making eye contact with his grandfather and sister. "And with some luck, let's hope that the items I show you today will bring prosperity to our family and, in turn, all the people around the world who work for us."

Quinn felt good sitting in front of George and Lia. He then introduced some of his inventions to them. His inventions were practical applications of the magic he learned; Quinn strongly believed in applying whatever he studied. Theoretical knowledge was incomplete if it couldn't be used in real life to create something. Of course, Quinn couldn't use everything he learned, but he tried to utilise whatever he could apply.

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"Welcome to Quinn West's Annual Summer Product Pitch Meetings, abbreviated as QWASPPM," grinned Quinn. He had coined his pitch meeting with a new title and a long, nonsensical abbreviation.

George lightly chuckled while Lia softly giggled; if it was someone else, they wouldn't have shown this reaction, but this was Quinn, and they were family, so being decompressed like this was acceptable. And even if Quinn spoke like this to someone else, he wouldn't have gotten in trouble after the success of MagiFax.

One product had turned into multiple lines of products with various specifications for diverse customer bases. The profits that MagiFax brought were enough for Quinn to act any way he liked. Of course, except for the family, no one knew that Quinn had developed MagiFax. The designs for MagiFax were under the name of the West business, and Quinn was simply granted a share of profits that George had set up for him.

"So what do you have for us today?" inquired Lia; her excitement peaking in anticipation.

Quinn gazed at Lia, slipped his hand inside his vest, and took out a potion vial from his detachable expanded pocket. After placing the vial with the translucent red potion on the table, Quinn's hand once again went into the pockets and took out a rectangle, long policy-styled envelope, placing it on the table beside the vial.

"As you know, I usually frequent Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop in Hogsmeade during my time at Hogwarts," started Quinn, and the other two nodded. Quinn had been caught in between the abduction of Harry Potter when he was returning from Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. It was safe to say that Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop was the store that Quinn visited the most in Hogsmeade. "The shop, being a stationery-cum-printing store, provides many printing services when not serving the students of Hogwarts with their stationery needs. And one of the services that the manager Gary provides is developing film to produce photographs..."

The cameras that were used by magical society were analog film cameras and were non-magical products from the early nineties. These cameras didn't need a single spell to take photographs; everything from the camera components to the film used was non-magical in origin. This was the reason why they weren't flagged by the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, which regulated the use of magic on non-magical objects and tried to keep items that had been bewitched away from non-magical folks.

The magic behind the signature moving photographs of the magical world didn't come from the camera but from the developing method. The developing solution was a potion that, when used in the developing of photographs, allowed the pictures to move. And because of that developing potion, the magical world could use non-magical equipment to add photography into their culture.

"... Let's put the moving photographs aside for this talk and focus on color," continued Quinn while talking out three more objects from inside his suit vest, placed them on the table, and faced them towards Lia and George. "Now, let's see what we have here."

The three objects that Quinn took out were two pages and one photograph. The two pages had one photo on them; one colored and one black-and-white. The third photograph was a colored print like any other shot printed on a photo paper. This one was a 3R(3.5"X5" / 8.89cm X 12.7cm) size.

"We know that adding color to a picture is possible as seen on this paper and photo," noted Quinn while tapping on the paper with the colored picture and the colored photograph. "But the problem is that it is costlier to achieve colour in photographs. Colour photographs are only seen in framed photographs or family albums because we can't achieve it in mass production."

Quinn placed his finger on the page with the black-and-white picture and pushed it towards Lia and George. "Pictures like this are what we see in books, newspapers, and magazines. Only a few very costly books and magazines with high subscription costs showcase colored pictures, and even those have a limited number of colored pictures."

Lia and George stared at the three pictures on the table, and they were well familiar with what Quinn was talking about. Both of them had subscriptions to a few magazines that showcased colored pictures, but they were priced much higher than something like the Quibbler that Quinn was subscribed to.

"The cost of the ingredients used in the developing solution that enables colored pictures to move is just too high for mass production printing like newspapers. That's why the market is filled with black-and-white images and lacks the gift of vibrant colors which, when combined with moving pictures, really catches the eye."

George and Lia's eyes immediately went to the potion vial as they took a guess about the vial's contents. Quinn, who saw their reactions beamed, they were correct in their guess about the vial contents.

"Yes... you're guessing correctly. It's exactly what you think it is," said Quinn, causing George and Lia to look above at him. "Once again, I present to you a product that will revolutionise the world of printing."

Quinn picked up the vial and shook it in front of them. "This one potion can be used to develop films with color and can be used to add color to mass printing like newspapers. If you put this potion into the developing tank of photo films it will give color to moving pictures. If you mix this potion with any of the cheapest of the coloured inks that don't support moving photos, the inks will move, so we'll get coloured photos."

Lia and George waited without speaking a word because the main issue still wasn't addressed. If the main problem for why colored moving photos weren't more prevalent wasn't solved, then all of this was useless.

"... I got estimates from Gary about how cheap the potion must be for printers to turn a profit by selling colored newspapers and books." The confident smile on Quinn gained then a bit of smugness. "This potion is below the price that Gary quoted, and thus, I, Quinn West, will provide the world's cheapest colored developing potion."

Lia and George stared at the potion vial on the table and the translucent red solution inside. The possibilities flashed inside their brains, and if what was promised was true, then this was huge. They would once again hold a monopoly over print media supplies because before anyone figured the recipe or created a recipe with similar effects, they wouldn't have any competitors.

This product was also perfect for a business like Wests. They operated in multiple countries and would directly spread the product without a middleman in numerous countries. Even the countries they didn't have a base in would be a targeted market if they could figure out transportation logistics.

"With colour will come the need for new printing press," explained Quinn. His potion had the potential to revolutionize the printing industry and push them into the color era in one push, but to accomplish that, the world needed infrastructure. "The black-and-white printing machines that can print fast for newspapers and books won't work anymore. We need printing machines that print fast and in color."

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Unlike George and Lia, who had just heard this, Quinn had worked on this for a few months. He had time to think about what would be needed to make the item a widespread success and not a modest one.

"During the Easter break, I went to some non-magical places, and even though it took some searching and magic, I found the blueprints of some of the colour printing presses that existed before computers," revealed Quinn. Whenever he went to non-magical places, Quinn would leave while informing that he was going to a non-magical zone; Quinn never specified where he was going except if it was to the gym. That's why none of his family had any idea when he got his hand on blueprints for the printing presses.

Quinn saw a confused look on George's face, while Lia knew what he was talking about. "It's okay, grandfather, you don't have to know what a computer is. I'll explain it to you some other day. It's quite fascinating. We'll have to take a trip to the non-magical society, though."

Quinn had made sure that Lia was normalized with the non-magical culture, and that included the computer. If she was to do business in the non-magical world, she needed to know what a computer was and how it worked. It was lucky that Lia was adaptive, if nothing else, and knew how to follow up to keep up with the development in the non-magical world.

"In any case, I found a printing press that could work without a computer, but did work on electricity, so I had to strip the electrical components from the design from it and had to modify it so that it would work with magic instead," sighed Quinn.

He thought about the hours upon hours he had spent for months to figure out how the printer worked and study the mechanics so that he didn't mess things up. It had taken Quinn a hell of a lot of time because he had to build it up from a blueprint and understand every single problem, including troubleshooting the hiccups that he faced along the way.

"After figuring out how to get electricity out of the equation, the rest of it was easy. Replacing electricity with magic was mighty easy because I know magic better than I know electricity. And I know what you're thinking; the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Offices from across the globe banning this press. Don't worry, while it works on magic and is automated to a large extent, I made it so that in the hands of a non-magical, it would be a large useless waste of metal."

"I will give you the final design later, and you can have it checked later. Though you would have to move the prototype built in my suitcase out of there to take it away." Finally, Quinn pushed the envelope towards the front and tapped on it for emphasis. "This here is the recipe for the developing potions. But I have a few simple demands before I allow the family business to use these."

"Demands?" repeated George and leaned away from the envelope. He studied his grandson while trying to deduce what he wanted in return for the potion recipe. "... and, what are these demands?"

"Nothing serious. I'm not going to ask something outrageous... I'd like the subsidiary where we'll release the potion and printing presses to be named Silver Moon Printing Magitech."

Whenever the West family business entered a new sector, they would create a new subsidiary with a new name. The West family business would act as the parent company to all their subsidiaries that spread across diverse markets.

"And the developer potion to be named 'Lunar developer 1'" smiled Quinn, remembering the day he decided to start this project

.. .

Quinn walked into his A.I.D. workshop the week after the Christmas break and felt the festive spirit die down, as the Christmas/New year decorations were removed.

Inside the workshop, he found Luna sitting by the center aisle workstation with her painting set opened up on the worktop. Quinn smiled after he saw the paint set. He had been the one who had gifted her that paint set along with many other supplies to Luna a short while back.

"Good evening, Luna," greeted Quinn. He removed his robe and took out a hanger from a cupboard to hang his outer Hogwarts robe. "What are you painting today?"

"Good evening, I'm painting the Quibbler," replied Luna shortly, not looking up at Quinn.

"The Quibbler?" repeated Quinn in surprise and confusion as he turned towards his assistant and saw this week's issue of Quibbler opened in front of her.

"Uh-huh," nodded Luna as he picked up pink paint on her brush from the color palette. "The Quibbler doesn't have color. I asked daddy to add color to the pictures and pages, but he said it wasn't possible. All these creatures in the articles are so pretty and happy, but they don't have colour. So I decided to paint all my Quibbler issues to give them colour."

Quinn sat down opposite Luna and stared at the blonde as she hummed a tune while continuing to paint and swinging her legs under the desk. He looked at his assistant/junior/dear friend and knew that out of everybody he knew, Luna was the person who held the greatest interest and love towards the fine arts.

She would regularly take on new projects like paintings, drawings, mosaics, caricatures, portraits, calligraphy, and other types of visual arts. It was the reason Quinn had brought her the paint supplies in return for her incidental but much-appreciated disturbance while he was talking to Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria about him being sighted by the Slytherin common room lake windows.

'Colour, huh...' thought Quinn as he stared at the half uncolored page of The Quibbler magazine and Luna's color palette. 'Let's make something new, shall we?'

From that day onwards, Quinn started to research why coloured moving pictures were so costly and found that the existing recipes spread across the market were too high for mass production. The ingredients that were used took time to grow, and the potion took time to brew.

Hence, Quinn took some books inside his ever-growing library and started to read on pigment potions and the range of ingredients that could be used to brew the various types of development potions. The answer to the solution was present right in front of Quinn; his books from across the globe held snippets of knowledge that, combined, could create a cheap potion recipe that stood above the colour standards of the current market.

He used the preferred colour pigments and developing-solution potions of different magical cultures since the times of ages-old paintings and murals. He studied their composition, contacted Gary to get his opinion, wrote home to Elliot to get samples, and conducted experiments to create a modern alternative to them that was cheaper and took less time to brew.

It took months of research and development while working on other projects but Quinn successfully developed a potion recipe that worked with photographs, paints, inks, and a few other types of pigments.

...

Luna had been the inspiration and reason behind creating his potion recipe, so he decided that Luna must be mentioned in some way. Quinn knew how the West family business operated and how they built subsidiaries for every new industry and since he was the creator of the product, he should have a say in the name.

So here he was, demanding that the inspiration behind his creation be honoured.

Lia and George looked at each other, and Lia shrugged in acceptance. She didn't mind naming the new subsidiary what Quinn wanted, and because the product name matched the company name, it was all good.

"Lunar developer 1?" asked George, wondering about the number in the product name.

"You can use the number one (1) in the internal records and remove it from the marketing name," answered Quinn and then crossed his arms as he stared at the potion vial on the table. "This potion recipe still has a lot of room for development. I'm sure that after some time, the potion recipe will improve, so Lunar developer 1 is the current product; the future might hold a better product than this."

Quinn knew that it wouldn't take time to figure out the potion recipe when it spread across the world, and alternates would rise given time. In those times, the Lunar developer would need to grow to stand apart from the competition.

"Set up a research and development department inside the new company and ask them to find ways to constantly research improvements to the recipe," said Quinn and removed his eyes from the vial to look up. "With all the other things I'm doing, it will take maybe a couple of years before I can revamp the entire recipe and give you a new version that will be much better than this one. So until then, employ potioneers and herbologists should add subtle improvements to remain at the top of the industry."

Quinn didn't have time to keep working on the potion recipe, and there was no need to create a better one while the one he had was the best on the market, and nothing else was even close to it. He was going to pause his research of pigment potions for a while until it was time to develop a new one, which would be a major improvement.

"Do you agree?" asked Quinn.

"We agree," nodded Lia, and George, too, nodded with a smile.

Quinn had provided them another product to put them on the top of yet another market and bring in rolling profits.

Quinn West - MC - Inventor extraordinaire.

George West - Grandfather/Big boss - Happy that his legacy is secure.

Lia West - Sister/Rising in ranks - Thinking about how this will change the and marketing game.

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