"Bam Bam Bam"
As Merlin watches, the black-clothed woman reaches out and taps on three different bricks on the wall of the record shop rhythmically.
Then, the Leaky Cauldron is revealed from the empty wall.
The woman pushes the door open, makes an eye gesture to Merlin, and enters the bar.
Merlin quickly follows her into the bar.
The bar in front of him looked just like the small bars in the Middle Ages, there was a fireplace made of bricks, worn-out bar tables, and next to those tables, a bunch of oddly-dressed men and women were either whispering to each other, smoking or drinking.
Under this atmosphere, no one had noticed newly entered Merlin or woman.
Pretending that this wasn't his first time here, Merlin followed behind the woman without looking around until they reached the small patio at the back of the bar.
The place looked empty, with nothing but a worn-out trash can and some wild grass.
"Now then, Mr. Coulson, open the entrance."
The woman stood aside with her hands on her waist, she looked at Merlin and said:
"I have to head to Knockturn Alley for some business, you should be familiar with the place, right?"
"I'm not familiar with it at all, girl, if not for your lead, I wouldn't even have found the entrance to Leaky Cauldron."
Merlin made a small complaint in his heart while he remained expressionless.
He takes a step forward and recollects what Mr. Arthur had described, he reaches out his finger, imbues mana on it, then from the rubbish bin, three up and two across.
His finger lightly knocks on the brick three times, then he retracts his finger.
Moments later, in front of Merlin, the bricks on the brick wall begin to spread out under the influence of mana.
In the crackling sounds of moving bricks, the wall opens up an entrance similar to an archway.
This was the way to Diagon Alley.
How very wizard-ey.
The girl next to him sees this and asks curiously:
"You didn't use a wand? The wizards that led the way always opened the path with a wand."
Merlin snorts, and while recollecting what Mr. Arthur had told him, he expressionlessly says:
"It's just misinformation old wizards use to trick young wizards."
"Anything with mana can open the path to the wizarding world. And as for Knockturn Alley, I'm somewhat inconvenient at the moment so I'll stay away from there."
"Alright, whatever."
The lady dressed like a ninja walks into the archway in front of her and asks Merlin again:
"About the promised remuneration, I'll ask you again, Coulson, are you sure you just want some insignificant information?"
"Sometimes, information is more valuable than physical things, lady."
Merlin looked at the street in front of him which was crowded with wizards, and answered in a low tone:
"Not to mention, what I'm looking for may be too much for you, so I won't make you awkward. Information regarding a powerful magic artifact, preferably one with offensive capabilities...just give me precise intel and we're clean, I won't talk about what happened here tonight, and you can finish your trial."
"But don't try to lie to me, lady."
Merlin lightly says:
"Wizards do not hold back against those who lie to them."
"My father had told me not to deal with dark wizards because they're a bunch of lunatics."
The girl walked to the end of the archway and looks back at Merlin, she uses a playful tone:
"But now it seems that you're not all that hard to deal with."
"Be cautious!"
Merlin stared at the girl's eyes and says:
"Not all dark wizards are friendly. Alright, it is time to say goodbye, I gave you the address. But there's one question I've been meaning to ask."
"What's your name? Miss, how would I call you?"
The female ninja shrugs and lightly says:
"I'm Talia."
"Mmm, sounds like a boy's name. Your father must've wished that you were a man."
Merlin comments, which made the girl glare at him angrily.
Moments later, the girl sighs desolately:
"Yes, you're right, he always had wished that I were a man, so I could inherit the family's legacy, but never mind, for even a woman can do what he expects of a man...I'll prove it to him."
"Females aren't lacking compared to males!"
"Good ideal, gender equality is the supreme truth, anyways, good luck, Talia."
Merlin comments casually, then he turns around and enters his Shadow Cloak.
He leaves unhesitantly like he was racing against time.
Talia did not mind this, she knew that many dark wizards had different quirks. She did not stay for long, then she turns and leaves for Knockturn Alley.
A few minutes later, Merlin reappears in a different street.
He did not want to be related to Talia, who had mysterious origins, plus, he was running out of wizard tales, any more and he would expose himself.
Merlin had reached his destination and did not want to cause trouble now.
It was midnight, so Diagon Alley looked somewhat empty, unlike when it was crowded with people.
But Merlin was not here to enjoy to view, he wraps himself in his coat and moved quickly through the street. At the end of the street was a tall white building that looked slightly tilted.
Even at night, this place was brightly lit.
This was Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
The only bank in the wizarding world, supposedly the safest place in the world. It is operated by goblins who excelled in calculation and hiding things.
And as Merlin approached the bank, he could see a shining copper door that looked somewhat majestic.
At the door were goblin guards dressed in red coats decorated with gold.
In New York, he had seen pixies in Midnight's nightclub, they were very pretty.
But the ones in front of Merlin were pure-blood European goblins that looked somewhat ugly.
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They were short, probably only reaching Merlin's legs.
They normally had dark green or brown, wrinkly skin, small eyes, and bat-like ears.
Their short limbs and large torso made them look weak.
But they're smart.
Probably one of the smartest races of Fantastic Beasts.
As Merlin approached, the goblin guards slightly bowed to him as a greeting, Merlin nods slightly at them and walks through the second silver-colored door.
He enters the bank without stopping.
It was a very open marble hall, mahogany long cabinets filled both sides of the hall, looking like a bank from the Middle Ages.
Behind every cabinet was a goblin, most goblins were either recording or calculating on their large ledgers using white or black quill pens, Others were measuring currency using a copper balance scale.
Merlin walks in front of a goblin who was using a balance scale, takes out his wallet, and hands over a stack of money, he uses a coarse voice and says:
"Exchange these all for Gold Gallons."
Merlin had thought that the goblins would more or less ask why.
But they didn't.
The goblin in front of him casually takes the money, it raises it under the light as if verifying its authenticity.
Moments later, it hands him a bag of coins.
From start to finish, the goblin did not utter a word.
Apparently, their daily work also included exchanging currencies for wizards, which saved Merlin a lot of trouble.
Merlin walks out of the bank as the goblin guards bow.
He knew only the exchange rate of Gold Gallons, and not its purchasing power; Merlin did not plan on keeping too many Gold Gallons on him anyways, since he would leave for Paris in a few days.
So he plans to use every last bit of the nearly 3000 dollars worth of 400+ Gold Gallons.
Merlin first headed to a bookstore, Mr. Arthur had only given him 3 years to memorize the books, which was clearly not enough time for Merlin who had first encountered magic.
But the result was disappointing.
In the bookstore named Flourish and Blotts, were books Merlin needed, but Merlin had to provide the enrollment certificate for the Three Main Wizarding Schools, or one from the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, otherwise they wouldn't sell him the books.
And for not being able to provide a said certificate, Merlin could only buy some books he either did not understand or was completely useless.
Merlin spent some time browsing through the books of the bookstore and finds a travel note written by a guy called Gilderoy Lockhart, it was his experiences throughout his travels in the world from a wizard's perspective.
Merlin found it amusing so he bought one.
Then Merlin went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, which was next door; he had heard from Arthur and Hermione that wizard robes don't have special abilities like in the legends, and they were just wardrobes for wizards.
But the clothes in this particular shop had self-regenerative and self ironing capabilities.
Which meant that one could literally wear a set of clothes from the shop for the rest of their lives.
This excited Merlin, so he bought four sets from the short yet kind-looking female store owner.
A set of casual grey suits and underclothes, a black uniform convenient for moving in the darkness, a traditional wizarding robe for young Hermione, and a purple dress for his cousin.
The four clothes cost nearly half his Gold gallons, but Merlin felt as it was worth it.
These are four sets of clothes that could be worn for life, after all...and the kind store owner had gifted him a black cloak that could resize to fit the wearer.
What's best about this robes shop is that it provided delivery services, Merlin left the address to his hotel room, and the female wizard promised that the four sets of clothes he ordered would be delivered in 3 days.
All Merlin needed to do was open the window during that time.
Merlin bids the gentle Miss Malkin a friendly goodbye, then he walks leisurely along the street, passing through many wondrous places along the way.
Even visited Crrokshank's 'old home'.
It was a place called Magical Menageri, it was a slightly noisy shop, supposedly young Hermione had bought the ugly-looking, ginger yellow magic cat Crookshanks here.
But Merlin did not plan to buy a pet, he was not a traditional wizard, after all.
He didn't like having a smart animal by his side.
This made the female store owner slightly disappointed, but as Merlin bought 40 bags of magic cat food for the price of 50 Gold Gallon, she became happy and even gifted Merlin a small spatial bag.
It was a bit worn out, but it could fit 40 bags of magic cat food, which meant it could also fit weapons of the same size.
Though the female store owner told him not to fit too many heavy items, since they had been used for a rather long time. It had limited carrying capacity, and it wasn't a top-notch magical item.
Even so, Merlin was satisfied. There was no store that sold spatial bags, and while it was a cheap alchemy construction, only alchemists could make them.
Merlin did not know any alchemists, nor did he have the means to know one.
Merlin, who had prepared a gift for Crookshanks, was relaxed, he continued his journey and saw a broom shop, but he was uninterested.
What normal man or woman would put their legs over a broomstick and fly in the air on it?
"How silly."
Merlin despises the broomsticks in the storage.
He continued his way and bought a cloak from a second-hand robe store for Erik to wear in the rain.
He also bought an old flight jacket and a set of slightly outdated sunglasses for Fury, as compensation for damaging his favorite sunglasses.
And a pair of slightly whitened leather gloves, suitable for archers to protect their fingers with, plus it had self-regenerative capabilities, this was for Barton.
Near the second-hand robe store, in Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions at 275 Diagon Alley, Merlin bought a set of fairly priced magic cosmetics, for Miss. Natasha Romanoff who was going to be 65 this year, since she might need these.
Lastly, Merlin bought some good cigars from a store for Garrett.
Erik, Barton, Natasha, Fury, and Garrett, were his few friends.
As dawn approaches, Merlin with his many bags arrives at his final destination.
In front of him, was a narrow, shabby store. In front of the store window was a wand displayed on a faded purple cushion.
Atop his head was a worn-out, sign with paint loss.
"Ollivander's Wand Shop..."
Merlin takes a deep breath and walks into the store, as the bells hanging on the door rang, Merlin lightly said:
"Here I come..."
"My wand."