11 The Mysterious Magical Object

The gallery, which held the magical artifacts display, was called 'Da Vinci's Chamber' because, apparently, Leonardo Da Vinci was a wizard.

According to Theo, who liked reading miscellaneous books, Da Vinci was a very weak wizard with a small magical core. However, he had developed a talent in art and his portraits expressed the essence of people he painted, thus after enchanting them to move and talk, these portraits appeared to be realistic reflections of actual people and they sometimes even had bits and pieces of their memories.

Because Leonardo was a half-blood, with pureblood mother and muggle father, he wasn't well-accepted among witches and wizards. He grew up in the muggle world, he also felt more comfortable there, so a lot of his works were muggle in nature. Wizards acknowledged his talents only after the man's death and his works became very sought-after.

Da Vinci's Chamber held many different exhibitions over the years. Sometimes on display were pureblood families' collections, other times people could come and admire paintings and portraits, often times they could also see and hear about other magical cultures' achievements. In other words, whenever there was a new exhibition being displayed, curious wizards and witches would gather from all over the country to see what the excitement was about.

This also influenced Winterfield's residents, who were always the first to find out about the gallery's changes - Draco already witnessed their strange fashion senses, which were primarily affected by the gallery's exhibitions of objects from different times and places.

When Draco's group entered the Da Vinci's Chamber's premises, they weren't surprised to find a lot of people already milling around.

This time the exhibition showed off magical objects from all over the world. One thing, which was common between these artifacts, was that they were all found in ancient magical places during excavations by one team, consisting of goblins, dwarves and curse-breakers. Current exhibition of these magical objects would be second to last - they would later be displayed in America, before coming back into the countries where they were found.

Draco and Theo were more excited to be in the gallery than other children. The girls tagged along mostly because they were a bit curious to go out and didn't have anything better to do anyway. Susan also heard a lot of things about this exhibition from her father, so she wanted to see the objects he talked about with her own eyes.

However, it was understandable that for seven and eight-year-old children, standing around and staring for a long time at objects placed on various stands was boring. So the girls followed the boys around and chatted about their own things.

Draco and Theo walked up to every exhibit and admired every object in the gallery.

Currently, Draco couldn't take his eyes away from Egyptian bracelet, which was cursed to make the wearier uglier, while the owner of a matching necklace would become more beautiful.

Similarly, Theo was curiously examining a cracked jade token, which had been found somewhere in the East. It was said to contain a cultivation method by practicing which, a person's appearance wouldn't change no matter how old they would get.

There were a lot of similar artifacts, some of which were cursed to make their owners suffer, while others prolonged life, strengthened either magical core or the soul and had other interesting effects. There was even a tea cup, drinking from which would result in cleansing the soul from negative emotions' effects caused by Dark magic. Draco wondered how much tea would Voldemort have to drink from this cup, to cleanse his soul.

The boys explored the whole place and read every inscription, describing each object's uses and effects. Finally, the group headed to the biggest exhibition hall, where in a minute, the mysterious unknown artifact would be revealed to the public.

The organizers already announced that this object had been found in one of the Egyptian pyramids.

In one of Draco's history classes, when the lesson centered around Egypt's history, the tutor once mentioned that it is widely believed that first Pharaoh's line had talent of communicating with higher existences, known as gods. According to historians' speculations, somehow, this particular talent has persevered in Pharaohs even when their lines changed completely due to wars or other circumstances.

So even now it is believed that artifacts from Pharaohs' tombs are the most 'magical' as they could have been blessed by gods. There were some actual studies conducted before, which proved that Egyptian artifacts are stronger than their equivalents from other countries. Of course, this could also be attributed to different artifact-making methods.

Besides, different magical communities have different religious practices and in a lot of them gods don't even exist. Some, like Magical Britain, just celebrate magic's gift and conduct rituals - they don't wonder about higher existences too much.

The more Draco thought about it, the more excited he felt. Since no one knew what this artifact could do, could it actually have been blessed by gods?

The organizers soon brought in a case, which was covered with a dark, purple cloth. The announcer stepped onto the platform, to stand beside the covered case. He cast a 'Sonorus' at his throat and announced with a loud voice:

"Let me first thank you all, for gathering here to see the results of our efforts. Some of the displayed artifacts haven't seen the sun's light for thousands of years and the object, which will now be revealed, dates back to more than 3,000 years! Behold!"

The cloth was removed and, what greeted everyone's eyes, was a golden scepter with snake's head on the top.

As soon as the object was revealed, Draco felt the crowd push him from behind and he moved along with everyone else. The blond boy lost sight of his friends due to the adults standing around him.

Suddenly, he felt a strong shove from behind. Draco yelled out as his childish body was involuntarily squeezed between two men, who were standing in front of him.

"Hey! Watch it, kid," said one of them as he stepped to the side, to let Draco through.

Draco quickly apologized and turned his attention to the platform, which was now right in front of him.

Draco could only briefly admire the ancient artifact because as soon as his eyes settled on it, he saw a bright golden flash and his world turned dark.

He couldn't hear the panicked shouts or see the pushing wizards and witches, trying to exit the gallery.