Harry Potter: The Invincible Stag
Chapter 150: The Skin of God

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 150: The Skin of God

"Oh… are you going to open that?" Andromeda poked her head next to them.

Bella gave her sister a glance. "Andy?! What are you doing with that?"

Andromeda was wearing a gold tiara on her head and a necklace with a thick gold chain around her neck. "What? I checked for curses. And"

I think it suits me quite well.

"You are fast…" James said. It had only been like two minutes since they came inside.

"Are you sure that thing is safe to open?" Andromeda pointed at the stone coffin.

"I was just checking that. But it doesn't appear so," James said as he tapped the surface of the coffin with his wand.

"But you may want to stand back a bit."

He then used a levitating charm to lift the cover in the air and move it aside.

"Urgg…" Bella covered her nose. "It smells even worse than how I imagined."

"A thousand-year-old mummy. What did you expect?" Andromeda said with amusement.

James climbed on top of the coffin and looked inside. There was a well-dressed skeleton. His face was covered by a cloth, and he was holding a long staff in his hands.

He scanned the contents of the coffin, looking for that item, until he finally returned to the piece of cloth that had been placed over the face and realized that it was not cloth, but a smooth leather with a light brown color.

"Could that be?…" He had never seen this thing in person. Just heard about it in books, but the few pictures and drawings depicted in them were kind of similar to this.

He stretched his hand and picked it up. It was just around a thirty-inch square in size. The moment he touched the leather, James felt like he was hit by a spark of lightning.

"This is definitely it." He jumped down while carrying the piece of leather with him.

The two girls looked at each other before turning their attention back to the object James had picked up.

"What is that?" Bella was the first to ask.

"An old piece of leather? You came all the way here just for that?…" Andromeda couldn't believe it. The room was filled with enough treasures to tempt someone like Malfoy, and James was only interested in a piece of leather that wasn't even big enough to make a jacket.

"Do you two know something about the origin of magic?" James asked them.

"What are you talking about?" Andromeda looked confused.

"An origin? Like the first wizard or something?" Bella said.

"Something like that, but even older. What do you think makes us different from Muggles? Why can we do magic when they can't? Why are some animals magical in nature while others have nothing of the sort?" James commented.

"Ah, I see what you mean. I asked something like that to my mother when I was a kid. Something like why can't Muggles do magic or why are Muggle-borns inferior to us. She got angry as usual, but this time, she answered me something," Andromeda said.

"She actually answered a question for you? Usually, her only response to me was to scream. I stopped asking her things when I was five," Bella added.

James cleared his throat. "Anyway… there is an old legend that speaks of an extremely ancient creature who came into the world when humanity was still in its infancy. This creature was supposed to be a God with incredible powers, and it is thanks to this God of Magic that a few chosen humans, as well as animals, were given the ability to wield magic. The current wizards and witches are those who carry some of the bloodlines of those first humans."

"Wait…" Andromeda pointed at the piece of leather. "If that creature was a powerful god… how did anyone manage to get some of its skin?"

"There is another version that tells the tale in a different way. In this interpretation, the humans didn't venerate the creature as a god, but instead… they killed it and ate its flesh. It was this act that gave them magical powers that would then be passed on to their descendants," James said.

"What kind of creature was it?" Bella asked with curiosity.

"It's just a legend, so it was up to the imagination of the one telling the tale. I have seen it being depicted as a large mammal similar to a bison. In others, it looks more humanoid, except much larger and with thick fur covering its body." He looked down at the skin in his hand.

"Looking at this… the first depiction may be more accurate. This skin resembles that of a cow, and not anything resembling a human."

"Even if that is true… what do you intend to do with that piece of leather?" Bella said. "I mean, does it have anything unique about it?"

James took out a wooden box and carefully placed the leather inside before reducing its size and storing it in his pocket.

"I will need to run some tests. But I'm sure I can do something great with it." He already knew that the leather was authentic because of his knowledge of future events so he wasn't taking much of a gamble here.

"If you say so…" Bella didn't look too convinced. To her, all those legends were nonsense and James had just risked his life for something that appeared worthless. But she also knew how wise James was, so if he said that it was valuable, then it must be so.

"Hold on a minute. There is something that doesn't make sense to me," Andromeda said.

"Just one thing?" Bella asked.

"How did you know that the leather was inside this tomb?" Andromeda recalled that the expedition depicted in the diary James had used to get here never made it into the treasury. Otherwise, they would have had nothing to grab.

But she noted that James had been looking for something specific from the beginning.

Andromeda had the feeling that there was much James was not telling them.

"I would love to answer that, but…" James pointed behind them.

The group heard a sizzling noise that was getting increasingly louder.

"Oh no… it's still going," Bella said.

The floor of the chamber they were in was starting to become corroded and fall apart.

"You have to be kidding me!" Andromeda shouted. "Doesn't that thing ever stop?!"

"As I said before, it will stop… but I don't think this room is going to survive," James said. "Hurry up, grab a souvenir, and let's get out of here."

"But… there is so much treasure…" Andromeda pouted. There was no way they would have time to carry everything outside now.

She made a mad rush and began to grab things, putting them in her bag. "I'll check for curses later! Come on, Bella, help me out here."

"Sigh… fine." Bella did not enjoy this aspect of her sister, but still went to help.

The two of them took a couple of minutes to fill a bag to the point that she could no longer carry it, and James had to place several charms on it to make it light and small.

"Ready, let's get out of here." He lifted his wand while Andromeda and Bella held onto him.

The next instant, they were teleported away as the chamber became consumed.

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