Fleur seemed much more relaxed after returning home. She sat with Gabrielle, picked up an apple from the fruit brought by a House-elf, and spoke while munching on it.
"My father should still be at the Ministry of Magic working and hasn't returned yet, but he usually doesn't come home for lunch, so we don't have to wait for him."
"We'll go find Nicolas Flamel this afternoon," Sherlock laid out their next plan. "After visiting Mr. Flamel, we'll go check out Rue de Mercière. I hear it's the equivalent of Diagon Alley in London."
"Yes, that's the centre of activity for French Wizards."
Sherlock spread out the French map he always carried on the coffee table, stroking his chin as he spoke.
"We should also visit some famous Muggle attractions, like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame."
Harry reminded him.
"Don't forget we also need to find a mall to buy some film."
"Oh, right, we need to get some film too."
Lunch at the Delacours' was lavish. During the meal, Fleur finally told her mother about her wand being stolen.
Madam Delacour frowned. She didn't blame Fleur for losing her wand, but instead confirmed again.
"You saw that the thief who stole your wand was a Goblin?"
Fleur nodded.
"I'm sure. At that time, he was the only one who passed by me and even bumped into me."
"Although losing that wand is a pity, it's not a major issue," Madam Delacour said seriously. "But if a Goblin stole the wand, this matter must be reported to the Ministry of Magic. It's a very serious incident."
Ever since the Goblin rebellion was defeated, this race was stripped of the right to use wands. Regardless of their status, any Goblin touching a wand is considered a highly sensitive act.
Not to mention a Wizard's wand being directly stolen.
"I'll have your father come back right away."
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 with magical law.
After receiving the news from home, he hurriedly left the Ministry of Magic and returned.
Compared to the outstanding appearances of Madam Delacour, Fleur, and Gabrielle, Fleur's father seemed much more ordinary.
He looked like an ordinary Wizard, and was even a bit shorter than Madam Delacour.
Mr. Delacour simply greeted Sherlock and thanked him for helping Fleur, then focused on understanding the situation surrounding Fleur's lost wand.
But Fleur actually didn't know much. She didn't even remember what the Goblin looked like.
Ultimately, Mr. Delacour could only leave disappointed to report the matter to the Ministry of Magic.
In the afternoon, Sherlock and Harry rested for a moment at the Delacours' before getting up to leave, preparing to visit Nicolas Flamel.
Fleur left with them, as she still needed to go to Rue de Mercière to buy a new wand.
Sherlock looked at the address on the recommendation letter Dumbledore had given him. Instead of looking at the map again, he directly asked Fleur, the local native, to guide them.
"Mr. and Madam Flamel love listening to opera, so they bought a small courtyard near the Paris Opera House. They live there when they're in Paris."
Following Fleur's guidance, Sherlock easily found Nicolas Flamel's residence in Paris.
It looked no different from a normal Muggle courtyard, and there was no Muggle-Repelling Charm set up, as they saw a postman naturally putting a letter into the mailbox in front of the courtyard.
Sherlock parked the car and walked down with Harry and Fleur.
They arrived at the gate of the courtyard and found the iron gate tightly shut.
"We're not late, are we? I remember Professor Dumbledore gave me a deadline of before August, and it's only July 25th now," Sherlock said uncertainly.
Fleur had also received instructions from Madam Maxime, telling her that Nicolas Flamel would be leaving Paris in August and that she should visit before then.
Just as they were wondering, Harry suddenly pointed to the nameplate next to the gate and said,
"Professor, there's a message from Nicolas Flamel here."
Cavendish walked over to Harry and looked at the message on the nameplate.
[Out to enjoy the opera, returning on the 26th]
Fleur also came over.
"It seems we came at the wrong time. Mr. Flamel and his wife are out."
"It's alright, Harry and I don't have anything else to do anyway. We can just come back tomorrow," Sherlock said, staring at the number 6 in the message.
Since he had performed soul stitching with a part of Voldemort's lingering soul, his perception of magic had become much sharper, and now he vaguely felt that this message was a bit strange.
But Sherlock didn't think much of it.
After all, Nicolas Flamel was also a master of magic, so perhaps when he wrote this message, he used spells to conjure the ink.
Fleur and Harry had already gotten back into the car. Since they hadn't found the famous Wizard at the Flamels' house, they would proceed as planned and head to Rue de Mercière, the magical street in Paris.
This street is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, in a small alley next to Place de Furstemberg.
The entrance to the French Ministry of Magic is also nearby, in the centre of Place de Furstemberg. When a Wizard coughs there, the roots of the surrounding trees will rise from the ground, forming a birdcage elevator around them that descends underground.
And the entrance to Rue de Mercière is somewhat similar to the wall at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. By walking to the end of a small alley, even if you see a wall blocking the way, you can still walk straight through it to enter this magical commercial street located in Paris.
Actually, other than the architectural styles being different, the items sold in magical streets are largely similar.
When Sherlock and Harry arrived there, they felt that the architecture of Rue de Mercière was more artistic and prettier than Diagon Alley, but they didn't notice any other differences.
Even some shops were the same, such as Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and Flourish and Blotts, these chain stores.
The two of them aimlessly wandered the street for a while, feeling it wasn't very interesting, so they simply followed Fleur to the wand shop to watch her choose a wand.
There are three famous wand-making families in Europe that have been passed down through generations.
They are the Ollivander family in Britain, the Gregorovitch family in Germany, and the Wenger family in France (Note).
These three families have all established their own family companies, with the main business being the production and sale of wands.
And their clients are the three magical schools in Europe.
Unlike Ollivander's wand shop, which provides standard wands, the Wenger Wand Shop on Rue de Mercière advocates personalised wands.
The Wenger family's wandmakers firmly believe that Wizards will encounter certain magical substances that are fated for them, and that using these substances as the wand core will improve compatibility with the wand's owner.
So, the core of Fleur's wand was her grandmother's hair.
Of course, this doesn't mean that the Wenger Wand Shop doesn't sell standard wands.
An elderly Witch, dressed in a belted robe, with meticulously combed hair and golden spectacles on her face, rigorously measured every aspect of Fleur's body before presenting three wands to her.
Ultimately, Fleur chose the nine-inch wand made of Rowan wood with a Unicorn tail hair core.
Even with a new wand, she still missed the one she had lost, showing how deep her affection for her grandmother was.
They walked out of the wand shop. Just as Fleur was about to invite Sherlock and Harry for a drink at a bar on Rue de Mercière, a surprised voice suddenly rang out to their left.
"Fleur!"
They turned their heads to see a handsome Wizard.
Sherlock still remembered his face; he was the male companion Fleur had been with when Sherlock first met her in the Wizarding town of Aspet.
Fleur saw him too, but her beautiful brows furrowed.
"Mr. Jonathan, I don't think we're familiar enough to call each other by our first names, are we?"
The Wizard named Jonathan rubbed his head, smiling awkwardly as he walked up to them.
"I apologise, Miss Delacour. I was a bit excited to see you here again. Did you catch that thief that day?"
Fleur didn't answer his question, but stared at him intently, asking in a cold tone,
"I'd also like to know if you deliberately gave me the wrong location that day, or if you genuinely didn't hear clearly."
Jonathan looked utterly flustered.
"Ah! The wrong location? Are you suspecting that I'm in league with the thief who stole your wand? Why would you think that? I thought we had a pretty good chat that day..."
Fleur wasn't swayed by this and still looked at him coldly.
"It's best if this has nothing to do with you, but if you were involved, I suggest you immediately hand over my wand. That way, I can still ask my father to withdraw the Ministry of Magic's investigation. Yes, I've already reported this to the Ministry of Magic."
Jonathan's eyes widened, looking utterly innocent.
"Why would you suspect me? Have I done something wrong?!"
"You'd better not have done anything wrong."
With that, Fleur grabbed Sherlock's and Harry's arms respectively and left, never once offering to introduce them.
Before Fleur pulled him away, Sherlock took one last look at the necklace the Wizard named Jonathan was wearing on his chest.
It was a symbol of a circle with a vertical line in the middle, enclosed within a triangle.(TN: The plot thickens.)
This symbol felt very familiar to Sherlock, making him feel like he had seen it in a book somewhere.
Harry, curious, asked Fleur,
"Since you suspect his involvement in your wand being lost, why did you refuse to interact with him?"
Fleur quietly said,
"Don't worry, I've already given all his information to my father. Aurors are definitely investigating him now."
Fleur wasn't foolish; on the contrary, she was very clever.
She knew it wasn't worth risking contact with such a person. Providing the information to the Ministry of Magic and letting the Aurors handle it was the safest approach.