Harry Potter one shots and miscellaneous short stories

He was a god

The boat slowed to a stop, the sea spray sprinkling the passengers as they prepared to exit the sea faring vessel. The man tightened his grip on the case, joining the crowd as they slowly moved onto land. An uncomfortable amount of people swiftly surrounded the magizoologist, bumping into him as he hurried down the street, only one thing on his mind. He headed straight to the archeological site, a sight that he had heard contained evidence pointing to an unknown but highly dangerous creature having lived there many years ago. His long blue overcoat swished as he picked up speed, the crowd slowly dissolving around him. He skidded to a stop in front of a small inn just outside of the city. As he went inside he noticed that it was almost entirely deserted, no more than three people who weren't employed there sat idly, the two older people watched the man, no older than twenty five, stack cards into a neat tower.
"You want a room?" a gruff voice called to him, startling him and pulling him back to the situation.
"Oh, um yes please!" he replied, smiling awkwardly at the man.
"Name?"
"Newton Artemis Fido Scamander."
The man raised his eyebrow sceptically, staring at him disbelievingly.
"Just put Newt Scamander..." He waved his hand dismissively.
The man grunted as scribbled down his name, handing him a single key,
"Room nineteen." he said simply, "There's food and drink in the dining hall, through that door over there," he gestured to a door off to the side, "Open until ten every night."
Newt thanked him and headed to the room he was allocated, going over the information the man gave him in his mind.
He stepped into the room, it was what you would expect from a low budget inn, a simple bed covered in a thin beige sheet, a small, relatively flimsy shelf, a small table and chair set in the corner. There was an odd musty smell in the room, though he dismissed it as being poorly ventilated.
He wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for, from what he had heard the creature was a man-eater and should be avoided yet respected. He wasn't even sure that the creature was still alive, but he knew it was worth a shot.
He prepared himself for the next day where he would search the site, the site had been abandoned due to a lack of funding so he knew that we would be free to search as much as he needed to. From the window Newt could see sun sink below the horizon, the darkness spread throughout the sky, dotted by countless stars.

He shut the inn door, the rising sun's rays filling the landscape with colour once again. He was excited as he had always been intrigued by Grecian ruins and now he had a change to explore one, entirely unrestrained as he searched the area. He couldn't deny that he was feeling somewhat apprehensive, not knowing what he would or wouldn't find, but this feeling was almost entirely drowned out by the excitement he felt. Brushing a small cluster of seeds from his shoulder from when he had fed his creatures earlier that morning, he walked in the direction of the site, his case securely held to his side.
He could see the edge of the ruins, it was far more decrepit than he expected though he supposed it was reasonable as it was only recently unearthed after countless years of being buried. Sliding down the earthy walls he walked into the site. He could imagine the Ancient Greeks living out their daily lived before whatever disaster had cut it off from the world.
There was a reoccurring motif appearing throughout the ancient town, an unidentifiable creature being worshipped, the same creature having a human being sacrificed to it, each artwork that he had seen featured the same creature in some way or another. One, oddly enough, had many man made scratches covering the beast, as if the person had tried with all their might to remove any evidence of the creature within the ornate fresco.
His aimless wandering ended abruptly as he saw what appeared to be a fully sealed off chamber in the centre of the town square. On it was a range of hastily written warnings, Newt was only able to translate a few of the words, picking up words such as 'beware' 'leave' and 'remain sealed' and, though the words were clearly supposed to deter him, it had made him all the more intrigued.
"Bombarda Maxima!" he commanded, his wand raised.
The wall crumbled away before him, revealing the interior of the chamber. Through the darkness he could see a foul pool of water, still being fed by an unknown stream after all this time. Countless tiny skeletons littered the floor, crunching and crumbling to dust under his feet as he walked inside. The foul smell within the chamber made him gag to he pulled an unused handkerchief from his pocket, holding it over his nose and mouth,
"Lumos..."
The  darkness was broken by a small light burning at the end of his wand. Through the flickering shadows he saw frantic claw marks covering almost every inch of the walls, they were impressive, he had to admit.
A weak, raspy voice from the unexplored shadows growled at him, spoken in a language that had been long since lost too time, like the creature himself.
Newt shone the light over to a darkened corner, a shape shifted slightly, too weak to move as he once did. With an agonised groan, the creature stood shakily, walking into the light. He was much like a lion, his torso and legs were of the proud feline, a dragon-like tail flickered slowly. The most unusual thing about the creature was his head, where one would expect a lion's head would sit was the head of a man, his cheeks were sunk in and the skin was greyed, bedraggled, filthy hair hung across his face and shoulders. He was in awe of the creature, never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that he would stand across from a Manticore. Though he was wary, knowing that a Manticore's venom would mean death but he knew that in this state it would be highly unlikely that he could muster the strength to hurt him.
Slowly, Newt placed the case on the floor, opening it and crouched behind it, looking as welcoming and reassuring as possible.
"I don't want to hurt you," he reassured the creature, "I want to help you."
The Manticore narrowed his eyes suspiciously, taking a slow step forward.
"Come with me, I will keep you safe!" he promised, watching the highly dangerous creature explore the case with a paw before stepping inside. After a moment, he shut the case, feeling highly victorious as he had been able to rescue such an amazing creature. Having no reason to remain, he had already explored the area sufficiently beforehand, he walked back towards civilisation. He looked back towards the ruins, a broad grin plastered on his face.