The first scheme involved laundry.
FNN: People hate doing it. I don't mind doing it. There's an obvious market inefficiency here that I intend to exploit.
BRR: You want to wash other students' clothing. For money.
FNN: For a REASONABLE fee, yes.
It lasted four days. It collapsed on the fifth when Finn, having accepted considerably more laundry than one person could plausibly manage, attempted to expedite the process by washing everything simultaneously in the same enormous tub, producing a result that Arthur could only describe, upon witnessing it, as an entire generation of formerly white shirts now sharing a uniform and deeply unappealing shade of greyish purple.
BRR: What did you put in there?
FNN: Someone's dress robes. They were burgundy.
BRR: You washed burgundy with white.
FNN: IN MY DEFENSE, I didn't know that mattered.
He spent the following week's remaining coin on compensation, ending the enterprise considerably poorer than he'd begun it. The second scheme involved tutoring.
FNN: I'm good at things.
ELS: You're good at some things.
FNN: I'm good at ENOUGH things to charge for it.
He recruited Briar as an unwilling partner within the first hour, on the grounds that Briar's actual academic competence would lend the venture credibility, and Briar, who had specifically declined participation twice, found himself nonetheless sitting in a borrowed classroom on the following afternoon explaining Alchemical theory to four confused second-years while Finn collected fees at the door.
BRR: I said no.
FNN: You said no in a way that suggested flexibility.
BRR: I said no twice, Finn.
FNN: The second one was considerably softer.
The venture collapsed when the four second-years, having received genuinely excellent instruction from Briar and absolutely nothing of value from Finn, collectively demanded partial refunds on the grounds that they had paid for two tutors and received one.
FNN: I provided ADMINISTRATIVE support.
STU: You sat at a desk.
FNN: ADMINISTRATIVELY.
The third scheme involved Yseult.
YSE: Absolutely not.
FNN: You haven't heard it yet.
YSE: I don't need to hear it. The answer is no.
FNN: I want to sell Alchemically enhanced study aids.
YSE: The answer is emphatically no.
FNN: Small ones! Minor enhancements! Nothing that would violate academic honesty regulations in any way that anyone could reasonably prove!
YSE: Finn, do you understand that manufacturing Alchemical goods for sale without a license is genuinely illegal? Not academy-illegal. Actually illegal. Province-level illegal.
FNN: ...How illegal?
YSE: Meaningfully illegal.
FNN: But how MEANINGFULLY?
She refused to elaborate further, and the scheme collapsed before it had properly begun, though Finn spent the following two days visibly researching exactly how meaningfully illegal it would have been, apparently unwilling to fully abandon the idea without knowing the precise scale of what he'd narrowly avoided. The fourth scheme involved Mira.
FNN: Chess lessons.
MRA: No.
FNN: You're the tournament champion.
MRA: I'm aware.
FNN: People would pay considerably for instruction from a tournament champion.
MRA: They would. I'm still saying no.
FNN: WHY?
MRA: Because I'd have to talk to strangers for extended periods, repeatedly, about something I enjoy, and I'd like to keep enjoying it.
The clarity of the refusal was so complete that even Finn recognized it as final, and he retreated without further argument, though not without visible mourning. The fifth scheme involved Corin. Nobody, least of all Corin, ever quite understood how it had happened.
COR: I want to be clear that I did not agree to this.
FNN: You didn't disagree.
COR: I made no sound whatsoever. Silence is not agreement.
FNN: In certain contexts, it absolutely is.
The scheme, as far as Arthur could reconstruct afterward, involved Finn selling tickets to what he had advertised as a private dueling demonstration by the student who had defeated Dane Whitlock, without informing Corin of the event's existence until eleven students had already arrived at the training yard expecting a performance.
COR: Finn.
FNN: They've paid, though.
COR: FINN.
FNN: It would be genuinely unethical to refund them at this stage.
Corin, in the end, gave the demonstration, largely because eleven students were already present and standing them down would have been more embarrassing than simply proceeding, and Finn, having successfully generated actual income for the first time in weeks, celebrated by immediately losing all of it on a wager regarding whether it would rain the following Tuesday. It did not rain the following Tuesday.
ELS: How much do you currently have?
FNN: Define currently.
ELS: How much money do you have, in your possession, at this exact moment.
FNN: In my possession specifically?
BRR: Finn.
FNN: Four coppers and a button I'm fairly confident isn't mine.
The group considered this in collective silence.
ART: We could simply give you money.
FNN: ABSOLUTELY NOT.
ART: Why not?
FNN: Because that's charity, Arthur, and I have PRINCIPLES.
BRR: You tried to sell your own participation medals week.
FNN: THOSE WERE ASSETS. Selling assets is entrepreneurship. Accepting money for nothing is charity. The distinction is fundamental and I refuse to let it collapse simply because I'm currently experiencing a temporary liquidity crisis.
YSE: You've been experiencing a temporary liquidity crisis for six weeks.
FNN: TEMPORARY IS A FLEXIBLE TERM.
In the end, Briar simply began quietly paying for Finn's meals without mentioning it, and Finn, who almost certainly noticed, said nothing about it either, and the whole arrangement continued for the remainder of the term with neither of them ever once acknowledging it aloud.