Chapter 107: A Cold Reception
Chapter 107: A Cold Reception
Fleur seemed much more relaxed after returning home. She and Gabrielle sat together, and Fleur took an apple from the fruit platter brought by the house-elf, munching on it as she spoke.
"My dad is probably still at the Ministry of Magic. He usually doesn't come home for lunch, so we don't need to wait for him."
"We'll visit Nicolas Flamel this afternoon", Sherlock outlined their plan. "After we see him, we'll head to Long Alley. It's like Diagon Alley in London."
"Yes, it's the center of activity for French wizards."
Sherlock spread out the map of France he had been carrying on the coffee table, pinching his chin as he spoke.
"We should also check out some famous Muggle landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and Notre-Dame", Harry reminded him.
"Don't forget we need to find a store to buy some film."
"Oh, right, we need to get some film too."
The Delacour family's lunch was quite sumptuous. During the meal, Fleur finally told her mother about her wand being stolen.
Mrs. Delacour frowned but did not blame Fleur for losing her wand. Instead, she asked for confirmation.
"You saw that the thief was a goblin?"
Fleur nodded.
"I'm sure. At the time, only he passed by me and even touched me."
"Losing that wand is unfortunate, but not a major issue", Mrs. Delacour said seriously. "However, if a goblin stole it, we must report this to the Ministry of Magic. It's a serious matter."
Since the goblin rebellion was defeated, the goblin race has been stripped of their right to use wands. Any contact a goblin has with a wand, regardless of their status, is a highly sensitive matter.
Let alone a wizard's wand being stolen outright.
"I'll have your father come home immediately."
Fleur's father, Mr. Delacour, worked at the French Ministry of Magic. Although he wasn't the head of the Auror department, he was involved in magical law enforcement.
Upon receiving the news, he rushed back home from the Ministry.
Compared to Mrs. Delacour and Fleur, who both had striking appearances, Mr. Delacour seemed rather ordinary. He looked like an average male wizard and was even a bit shorter than Fleur's mother.
Mr. Delacour briefly greeted Sherlock, thanking him for helping Fleur, before focusing on understanding the situation with Fleur's lost wand.
However, Fleur didn't have much information to offer. She hadn't even remembered what the goblin looked like.
In the end, Mr. Delacour had to leave disappointed and report the incident to the Ministry of Magic.
In the afternoon, Sherlock and Harry rested for a while at the Delacour residence before taking their leave to visit Nicolas Flamel. Fleur accompanied them, as she needed to go to Long Alley to buy a new wand.
Sherlock looked at the address on the letter Dumbledore had given him, then handed the map to Fleur, the local native, to guide them.
"Mr. and Mrs. Flamel are big opera fans, so they bought a small house near the Palais Garnier, also known as the Paris Opera House. They usually live there when they're in Paris."
Thanks to Fleur's guidance, Sherlock easily found Nicolas Flamel's address in Paris.
This place looked no different from a regular Muggle courtyard, and there was no Muggle-Repelling Charm in place, as they saw a postman naturally slipping a letter into the mailbox at the front of the yard.
Sherlock parked the car and got out with Harry and Fleur.
They approached the gate of the courtyard and found it locked.
“Are we not too late? I remember Professor Dumbledore set the deadline for August, and it's only July 25th,” Sherlock said uncertainly.
Fleur had also received instructions from Madame Maxime, telling her that Nicolas Flamel would be leaving Paris in August and that she should visit before then.
As they were puzzled, Harry suddenly pointed to a note on the side of the gate.
“Professor, there's a message from Nicolas Flamel here.”
Sherlock walked over to Harry and read the note.
[Out to enjoy the opera, returning on the 26th]
Fleur also came over.
“It seems we've come at an inconvenient time. The Flamel family is out.”
“No problem. Harry and I have nothing else on, so we can just come back tomorrow.”
Sherlock stared at the number 6 on the note. Since he had undergone Soul Stitching with a fragment of Voldemort's soul, his sensitivity to magical power had increased significantly. Now, he felt that something about this note was odd.
But Sherlock didn't think too much about it. After all, Nicolas Flamel was a master of magic, and he might have used a spell to write the note with magic ink.
Fleur and Harry had already gotten back into the car. Since they hadn't found the famous wizard at the Flamel residence, they decided to follow their plan and head to the Wizarding Street in Paris—Long Alley.
This street was located in the sixth arrondissement of Paris, near Place Furstemberg. The entrance to the French Ministry of Magic was also nearby, in the center of Place Furstemberg. When a wizard stood there and coughed, the roots of the surrounding trees would rise from the ground, forming a cage elevator that descended underground.
The entrance to Long Alley was similar to the wall at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. One just needed to walk to the end of a small alley, and despite the wall blocking the way, walking through it would lead to the magical commercial street in Paris.
Apart from the different architectural styles, the shops in Wizarding Streets generally sold similar items.
After Sherlock and Harry arrived, they found that Long Alley's architecture was more artistic and visually appealing than Diagon Alley, but otherwise, there wasn't much difference. Even some of the shops were the same, such as Elegant Wizard Robes and Flourish and Blotts, which were chain stores.
They wandered around the street aimlessly for a while, finding it rather uninteresting, so they decided to follow Fleur to the Wand Shop to watch her choose a wand.
There were three famous wand-making families in Europe:
The Ollivander Family from Britain, the Gregorovitch Family from Germany, and the Venger Family from France.
Each of these families had established their own companies, primarily focused on the creation and sale of wands.
Their main clients were the three major magic schools in Europe.
Unlike Ollivander's Wand Shop, which provided standard wands, Venger's Wand Shop in Long Alley specialized in custom-made wands.
The wand-makers of the Venger Family believed that wizards would encounter magical substances that resonated with them, and using these substances as the wand core would enhance the wand's compatibility with its owner.
So, Fleur's wand core is made from her grandmother's hair.
Of course, this doesn't mean that the Wenger Wand Shop doesn't offer standard wands for sale.
An older witch, wearing a tightly laced robe, with meticulously styled hair and golden-rimmed glasses, meticulously measured every aspect of Fleur's body before presenting her with three wands.
In the end, Fleur chose the rowan wood wand with a unicorn tail hair core, measuring nine inches long.
Even with her new wand in hand, she couldn't shake the thoughts of the one she had lost, a clear indication of the deep bond she shared with her grandmother.
They walked out of the wand shop, and just as Fleur was about to invite Sherlock and Harry to a pub in Diagon Alley for a drink, a surprised voice suddenly called out from their left.
"Fleur!"
They turned to see a handsome wizard.
Sherlock recognized his face; he was the man who had been with Fleur when they first met in Aspe Wizard Town.
Fleur saw him too, but she frowned.
"Mr. Jonathan, I don't think we're familiar enough to use first names, are we?"
The wizard named Jonathan scratched his head and approached them with an awkward smile.
"Sorry, Miss Delacour, seeing you again here got me a bit excited. Did you catch that thief that day?"
Fleur didn't answer his question but instead stared at him coldly.
"I also want to know, were you deliberately giving me the wrong location that day, or did you really not hear it clearly?"
Jonathan looked flustered.
"Ah! The wrong location? You think I was in league with the thief who stole your wand? Why would you think that? I thought we had a decent conversation that day."
Fleur wasn't convinced and continued to look at him coldly.
"It would be best for you if you weren't involved. But if you were, I suggest you return my wand immediately. That way, I can ask my father to withdraw the investigation from the Ministry of Magic. Yes, I have already reported this to the Ministry of Magic."
Jonathan's eyes widened, looking utterly innocent.
"Why do you suspect me? What have I done wrong?"
"You'd better not have done anything wrong."
With that, Fleur grabbed Sherlock and Harry's arms and walked away, never intending to introduce them.
Before being pulled away, Sherlock took one last look at the necklace hanging from Jonathan's chest.
It was a triangular emblem with a circle inside and a vertical line through the middle.
The symbol felt familiar to Sherlock, as if he had seen it in a book somewhere.
Harry, curious, asked Fleur.
"Since you suspect he's involved in the theft of your wand, why did you refuse to talk to him?"
Fleur whispered.
"Don't worry, I've already told my father everything about him. There are definitely Aurors investigating him now."
Fleur wasn't foolish; in fact, she was quite clever.
She knew it wasn't worth the risk to confront such a person herself. The best course of action was to provide the information to the Ministry of Magic and let the Aurors handle it.
(End of Chapter)
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