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IS - Chapter 157: Danger Level
🕑 Added 2025-07-14 11:29:26 +0000 UTCDisclaimer:
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 157: Danger Level
When she got her face away from his, he observed an increasing amount of panic in her expression.
She then let go of him and looked away. “Any chance we can forget that happened?”
“No, unless I obliviated myself… which I won’t do ever again,” James said with confidence. “Care to explain what happened?”
“I… kinda lost control for a moment,” Bella said. “I mean, you were talking about all those wonderful things, and…”
“I was confessing to several murders…” James raised an eyebrow.
Bella licked her lips. “Please, stop.”
“Okay...I see...” Just in case he had forgotten about it, this was still the Bellatrix who one time became the most dangerous and deranged witch in Britain. And she seems to have 'a thing' for murders. This was something he would have rather not learned. “Let’s move on.”
“I appreciate it. I… I think it's best if I leave.” Without waiting for an answer, she picked up her things and walked out of the chamber.
James sighed after the door closed. “This is why I didn’t want to get too involved in other people’s lives.”
“I don’t think it was that bad.”
James glanced at his clone on the other side of the room. “I did not ask for your opinion.”
“You don't have to. I am you, that means that… we have the same op—”
“Finite Incantatem.” James dispelled the magical construction with a wave of his hand, and the clone vanished in a puff of smoke.
“Did you enjoy the company of the female?” Nyxaris hovered above him.
“Do you have no duties to attend?” James stared at the magical fairy. His patience was taking a toll today.
“Actually no. I have finished assimilating all the knowledge that the Master has provided me with. What should I do now?” she asked.
“Why not put some of it to the test? It’s very different to gain knowledge of something and actually learn how to use it,” James responded.
“Is Master suggesting one of those practice matches?” Nyx asked.
“Perhaps on another occasion. Today there is an important project that I need to work on.” He walked to the largest desk at the end of the chamber, right in front of the statue of Salazar Slytherin. “You can practice with the target dummies if you wish to. I have something to do right now”
This is where his clone had been working before he got rid of it.
The clone was making the preparations for the experiment, and now that they were concluded, he wanted to handle the next part in person.
“Kyu?” Primum poked his head from behind.
“Are you curious about what I’m doing?” James asked, and the little creature nodded its head.
“Fine, you can stay and watch, but don’t disturb me.”
“Master…” Nyxaris approached as well.
“Yes, you can stay too, just be quiet.” James took out a parcel from his storage and began to unravel it.
Inside it was the mysterious piece of leather he had obtained from the Tomb of Kilgharrah.
James had no idea how that wizard came across this item. He only found it being referenced in one of his diaries, and despite his lack of wisdom on how to use it, Kilgharrah somehow knew that this object was very special.
The fact that it was buried with him should serve as evidence of how much he valued it.
James, however, had a good idea of how to make use of this thing.
During his life as Harry Potter, the leather ended up in the hands of one fellow alchemist, after passing through many others.
That man was someone whose skills even he had to admire. And he was the first one to even begin to tap into the potential of this object. That alchemist was also the one who came up with a theory about the origins and provenance of this piece of leather.
James did try to buy it from that alchemist, but once its value became known, the alchemist refused to part with it.
He believed that with it, he would be able to create a magical artifact that could surpass anything that was ever crafted before.
Magical artifacts have their own ranking system, given to them by the Ministry of Magic. This one is based mostly on the danger that the item itself could pose if it fell into the wrong hands.
The Danger Level Rank, or DL rank, goes from one to ten, one being nearly harmless, and ten being… world-ending.
Any artifact that ranks higher than five becomes immediately tagged as illegal to possess by the Ministry, as it is considered too risky to have around.
Just for reference, a magic wand has a DL rank of four, and a flying broom is just a two.
James has already created several potions that would immediately fall into the illegal category.
The artifact that this alchemist ended up creating using this piece of mysterious leather was a very peculiar one. And it made it very difficult for the Ministry to properly rank it.
James was convinced that they had a lot of personnel watching this alchemist very closely after that day, just to make sure that he would not pose a danger to society with his creations.
What he didn't understand was why that old man decided to make something like that, but the leather was turned into a sentient magical hat.
The capabilities of the hat were not all revealed to the public, not even to other fellow alchemists.
Something that he had found very frustrating at the time, as he wanted to learn more about this object but couldn’t.
All that was known was that the hat was capable of absorbing any magic that was thrown its way, and then reusing it in some other way.
James doubted that was the full extent of its capabilities, but the truth is that even if that was the case, it would still remain a very powerful object.
There is nothing in existence that is capable of stopping every single spell. No matter how strong your protections are, they will have to be vulnerable to something.
That’s just the nature of magic. There are no absolutes.
“Except for this…” James stared at the piece of leather in front of him.
He had already decided what to create with it, and it was not going to be a hat, that’s for sure.
