Harry's hearing a few days ago went rather well. He was cleared of all charges.
Even as the days go by, Merlin is no closer to reaching Harry's good graces. Ron and Hermione tried to tell him that it is utterly ridiculous by this point but his mind on Merlin won't change. His timing on everything seems far too coincidental for it to be a coincidence and he always seems far too nice for it to be real. The books Harry has seen him reading seem to surpass even Hermione's level and she's the smartest witch their age.
Today, everyone has arrived in Diagon Alley. School starts tomorrow and last minute school supplies are needed. First stop on the list of places to go is Gringotts bank. Filing into the building as a group, they all head up together to one of the seated Goblins.
"Mhm," Mrs. Weasley coughs and the Goblin looks up from his stack of papers, "we need to withdraw money for school supplies and make an exchange in currency using muggle money."
"Are you all withdrawing from the same vault?" the Goblin quizzically asks them.
Mrs. Weasley looks over at Merlin who simply states, "I have my own vault," but looks down at the floor when he says it.
She nods and looks back the Goblin, "Three separate vaults actually. One for these two," she points to Ron and Ginny, "one for Harry here and another for Martin."
The Goblin sneers in turn and looks around the group. "Do you have all of your keys?"
Mrs. Weasley hands the Goblin both hers and Harry's key and stands back so that 'Martin' may give him his. Very slowly Merlin walks towards the Goblin who is staring at him impatiently and removes the chain from around his neck before handing his 'keys' to the Goblin. A moment to examine the set leaves a surprise upon his face. "Very well," he says quickly and then ushers them immediately to the rail line cart spread levels below the bank.
"That's probably that fastest we've ever managed to get a cart here," Ron says as soon as they make their first stop at the Weasley's vault. All the while Merlin squirms in his seat. He knows why that is. The Goblin recognized the key set that Merlin had given him and ushered them forwards as quickly as possible. He only wished that visiting his vault didn't involve a group of already slightly suspicious onlookers.
The first vault they reached was the Weasley's. In there were a small pile of sickles and three Galleons with which Mrs. Weasley emptied the vault. The next vault the group approaches is Harry's. With in it is a moderately sized mountain of Galleons. Harry quickly glances over at Merlin only to find that he is looking the other direction. This gives Harry some relief.
"All that's left is yours dear," Mrs. Weasley says as she pats Merlin on the shoulder and they continue the decent downwards.
Some time passes by and the group still has not reached the vault. "Just how deep is this thing?" Ron asks Merlin who just shrugs and pretends like it's nothing. Even then it is not for another five minutes that the cart comes to a halt. The group has reached the ground floor of the bank and must now walk the rest of the way.
Looking around Harry notices the vault numbers. They were currently passing vault number thirty-six. Nudging Ron with his elbow and pointing to the number, Ron's eyebrows skyrocket. Both glance to where 'Martin' is located, looking at the ground beneath his feet with a withdrawn expression as he keeps walking forwards. Suddenly he snaps his attention back to where they were and turns to everybody else. "You guys wait here, I'll go on ahead and meet back up with you in a second."
'Martin' and the Goblin both turn the corner and continue walking while everyone else stays where they are, everyone except Ron who decided to move on ahead and check on Merlin when nobody else was looking.
"Ah! Here we are at vault number two." The Goblin says and heads over to open the door.
The first thing Ron notices as he approaches is that there is no number one nearby. Either it is located somewhere else or it just doesn't exist. He has stopped a few paces back from the complete end of a long hallway. Here, there is a pair of double door that rival the entrance size at Hogwarts. In order for the Goblin to open the doors, he must first insert and turn them in a specific sequence. Next, he had had to lay his hand on the door and with a click popped a large dial. Giving it a full three-sixty before pushing it back in, the doors finally opened in unison and the Goblin stood back.
Before Ron's eyes lay what appeared to be a collection of thousands of different artifacts and priceless mementos. The size of the room alone rivaled a small manor. Galleons littered the floor all over. Small mountains of them were created in sections of the room. Along the walls featured paintings, sculptures, scrolls, furniture, armor and shields and swords, bookshelves overflowing, jewels scattered everywhere. Located at the back of the room stood a two large chairs but they looked different than most. Directly beside each, two pedestals stood tall, concealing within glass what looks like two velvet pillows each containing a different crown. As quickly as possible, Merlin enters the vault, snatched up a handful of galleons within a red velvet pouch, walks over to a small box located on the left chair taking the content inside before he turns to leave sees Ron there.
Now feeling like a deer trapped in headlights, Ron just smiles innocently towards Merlin and waits for him to get closer.
"I thought you were going to wait with the others," Merlin comments as the two begin to follow the goblin back to the group.
"Yeah but I wanted to check on you," Ron says back with that same innocent smile. The disbelieving look on Merlin's face was enough to let it go though. "Alright, I may have let my curiosity get the better of me but Bloody Hell! Where on earth did all of that come from? Did your family derive from royalty or something?"
"Something like that." Before they can continue on any further though, Merlin quickly stops Ron mid-step and looks him directly in the eyes. "Whatever you do, you cannot tell anyone what you saw down here, do you understand? Not Harry, or Hermione, or even your family. Nobody can know."
"Why?"
"Because it is to painful for me to explain and certain things aren't meant to be discussed as of yet." Those were the last words he uttered before continuing back towards the others and they all made it back to the lobby.
After a quick currency exchange from muggle money for Hermione, everyone filed back out of the bank to begin shopping and prepare for their departures tomorrow. All the while, Ron watched Merlin questioningly. The mystery that is 'Martin Ambrosias' is now so much larger than Ron had originally thought and it is a mystery that he fully intends on solving.