Diagon Alley.
The last time he was here, it was to look for a job.
Observing the cloaks and pointed hats bustling through the streets, Murphy couldn't help but crack a smile.
Stepping out of the narrow wizarding world allowed him to view this place with ease, even finding those previously detestable, foolish, and stubborn shopkeepers somewhat naive and endearing.
Indeed, he still loved it here.
He loved magic, and by extension, he loved wizards. Most of them were quite foolish, but isn't that just another form of innocence? A bunch of simpletons might sometimes be irritating, but it was hard to genuinely dislike them.
It was just a week ago.
Yet, his perspective had undergone such a significant transformation.
It goes to show, money emboldens a man.
With a million pounds in his pocket, Murphy's step was much lighter.
His first stop was Gringotts.
At this moment, he had assumed a different appearance, not even knowing the name of the face he wore, having randomly plucked a hair from a man on the street to transform into his likeness.
"Hello, I heard that this place exchanges wizarding currency, is that correct?" Murphy feigned ignorance, approaching a goblin who was weighing gold coins.
"Are you a Muggle?" the goblin looked up slightly.
"Name?"
"Jim Stick." Murphy directly used his benefactor's name.
The goblin scribbled something on a piece of parchment with a quill pen and asked, "Purpose?"
"Shopping?"
"Objective?"
"Uh... What could the objective be?" Murphy was unsure and asked.
"A Muggle-born wizard's enrollment can only have this purpose," the goblin answered.
Then why the hell did you ask?
The wizarding and Muggle worlds are essentially isolated from each other, barring the case of Muggle-borns who must join the wizarding community, currency exchange between the two is not allowed.
"My son's enrollment." Murphy continued the lie.
"Young wizard's name?"
"David Stick."
"Contact professor?"
"Severus Snape."
Who made Snape pick on him all the time during his school days?
"Five pounds per Galleon, how much do you want to exchange?"
"Ten thousand pounds?" Murphy tentatively said.
The goblin looked up again, seemingly a bit surprised, but soon returned to his work, "The limit is forty Galleons, do you want to exchange?"
"Forty Galleons?" Murphy was taken aback, that's practically useless.
"Never mind, I'll think about it."
That route clearly wasn't viable, so Murphy left Gringotts, found an alley to change his appearance again, donned a robe, and re-entered Gringotts.
Seeing a goblin weighing gems, he approached and asked, "I have gold, can I exchange it for Galleons?"
"Of course!" This goblin was a bit more enthusiastic, "Gold, silver, gems, we handle all exchanges."
"What's the limit?"
"Limit?" The goblin looked puzzled, then understood, "There's no exchange limit for gold and silver, for gems, we'll purchase them for Galleons."
No limit?
Murphy perked up.
Gold and silver are still precious metals in the wizarding world, and as the material for minting wizard currency, it was natural for Gringotts to offer a buying service, but the absence of a limit was a pleasant surprise.
This might be the simplest way to convert pounds into Galleons.
"May I have your name?" the goblin asked.
"Patrick Duncan." Murphy continued with the fabrications.
"Your vault number?"
"Uh?" Murphy paused, "Why do you ask that?"
"To avoid unnecessary complications, this service is usually available only to families that have had a long-standing cooperation with Gringotts. Therefore, we need to verify your identity and vault number."
"..."
Patrick Duncan doesn't have a vault.
"Any other requirements?"
"That's all, but you will also need to provide the source of the precious metals."
"I'll think about it."
Walking out of Gringotts for the second time, Murphy Disapparated to the doorstep of a Muggle gold shop, bought all the gold in the store, transfigured it into untraceable gold bars, and then Disapparated back to Gringotts.
This time he dropped the disguise, entering the bank as himself.
Choosing another goblin, Murphy pulled out two gold bars from his pocket enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm, "I want to exchange these for Galleons."
The nearby goblins all turned to look, and the goblin serving him was more enthusiastic than the previous ones, "No problem, no problem. May I have your name?"
"Murphy Darkholme."
"Vault number?"
"1745."
The Darkholme family, not as prominent as the Blacks or Potters, had a relatively later vault number.
The goblin flipped through a thick book for a while, then looked at Murphy with some confusion, "This vault hasn't seen a deposit in nearly twenty years and owes Gringotts sixteen Galleons in management fees..."
"Where did your gold come from?"
Murphy anticipated this question, "Dug out from under the old house, gold buried by my ancestors."
"Please wait." The goblin seemed uncertain, consulted with a few others, and finally, a goblin that appeared to be a supervisor took over, asking, "How much gold do you have?"
"About thirty-five pounds (16 kilograms)," Murphy said.
The supervising goblin was taken aback, and after more hushed conversations, he said, "Due to your vault's credit issues, you can only exchange five pounds of gold."
"Merlin's pants! It's real gold! Why can't I exchange it!"
Murphy protested, arguing with the goblin supervisor for a good while, eventually agreeing to pay a hundred Galleons in penalty fees to increase the exchange amount to 10 pounds.
After a lengthy process of inspection, weighing, calculating, and verification, a goblin handed Murphy a bag, "This is 6572 Galleons, please verify."
Murphy's mouth twitched.
He gave the other party an international gesture of friendship.
10 pounds of gold, calculated with the current gold price, was worth close to £45,000. If using the normal Galleon to pound exchange rate, it should have given him close to nine thousand Galleons.
But after all this, he only got over six thousand!
Nearly a third of the value was swallowed by Gringotts.
Yet, he couldn't argue; after all, the gold to Galleon exchange rate at Gringotts was indeed that low. What did the Muggle gold price have to do with Gringotts?
Murphy left Gringotts feeling a bit disheartened.
These goblins were practically vampires.
How many Confundus Charms had been cast on the wizards for them to let these creatures control their monetary system?
But let it go, after all, the money was easy come, easy go. Even if skimmed a bit, what was left was still sufficient.
Holding the bag of Galleons that seemed to weigh nothing, Murphy headed to Slughorn and Jiggers Apothecary.
Upon entering, he saw a young wizard of about his age brewing potions with a cauldron.
He watched for a while, then said, "Grinding caterpillars into powder is recommended, slicing doesn't mix well, and the results aren't good."
The young wizard turned around, looking puzzled, "But, the book says to slice."
"If you're brewing a Shrinking Solution, the textbooks are a bit outdated. Using live caterpillars and extracting their juice works better."
The young wizard, with a round, slightly chubby face full of freckles, looked at Murphy curiously, "Who are you?"
"Just a customer. By the way, you've got the fire too high, your cauldron is about to burn."
"Ah, oh! My God!" The round-faced wizard scrambled to add some water, barely managing to salvage the potion.
Murphy looked at the yellow liquid produced, grimaced, "You've brewed a pot of crap, buddy."
The round-faced wizard's face turned red, the freckles standing out even more, "I, you, ah, well, now the boss is going to dock my pay again."
Murphy chuckled, finding the guy amusing. He extended a hand, "Peter Parker, nice to meet you."
The round-faced wizard grimaced, "Alex Wood."
Murphy patted his shoulder, "You know, I just applied for your job a few days ago."
Alex looked surprised, "Then why didn't they hire you? You seem like a pro."
Murphy smiled, "They're blind. But I have to thank them, thanks to them, I can stand here as their boss."
"Now, Wood, go get your boss. Tell him I want to buy all the Dittany stock you have in the store."