Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 196: Don’t starve yourself, kid. Eat more when you can.

The door of their compartment was closed by the last person who came in, but the scene that followed made everyone in the compartment except Cohen and Lupin gasp.

click-

A rotten, bony hand reached in from the crack in the door and slowly pried open the door of the carriage. Cold air rushed in from outside. No one made a sound - they felt like their souls were frozen.

A huge figure in a cloak was standing at the door of the carriage. Its face was completely hidden under the hood, and the rags on its body were floating in the air. It did not look like a real creature at all.

Cohen felt like he was back home—no, he felt like he had arrived “home.”

【Come out quickly】

The Dementor kindly floated towards Cohen and stretched out its hand to pull Cohen away.

Lupin quickly cast the Patronus Charm to try to stop the Dementor from getting close to Cohen, as it looked like it was about to rush over, grab Cohen and eat his soul.

"Hey wait——"

Coin was about to stop him, but Lupin's Patronus, which was deliberately not formed, had already crashed towards Coin and the Dementors.

Normally, Patronuses pass through humans; they can only attack Dementors.

But to Lupin's disbelief, his Patronus Charm was blocked by Coin - and Coin even let out a howl.

"Ouch!" Cohen cried out in pain, holding the back of his head.

"What's going on—" Lupin looked at Cohen in disbelief, then at the wand in his hand.

He's losing his confidence. Didn't he just cast the Patronus Charm? Could the Patronus Charm have such a big effect on people?
What puzzled Lupin even more was that this Dementor seemed to have... no effect on Coin.

If there was a creature that wasn't negatively affected by Dementors, yet could be harmed by the Patronus Charm... but how could that be possible? This student couldn't be a Dementor; Dementors couldn't take on human form...

In any case, Lupin stopped cautiously, but Lupin's action of hurting Coin made the Dementor who was about to take Coin a little dissatisfied.

More Dementors are gathering here, and the positive emotions in the air are being madly drained away - the students in the carriage are already beginning to have nightmare hallucinations.

【injured? 】

Also concerned about -

[Stop, stop, I'm not caught]

Cohen covered the back of his head and sent a thought message to the Dementors. Now there were five or six of them gathered outside the box, and they never restrained their ability to absorb emotions. If they stayed any longer, these students who had never suffered would faint from fear.

These are...

Cohen didn't know how to explain to them what "friend" or "companion" meant. Dementors only saw food and non-food, and food that provided a stable supply of food.

Your food?

The Dementor that had captured Coin guessed.

"Yeah, that's right, the food I raised," Cohen said to it. "At my age, I just need to replenish my body..."

[Too small...eat more...] another Dementor said to Cohen.

[Eat more...] The Dementors advised Coin, [There's plenty of food here, we won't fight over it.]

[We're looking for a runaway food...] One of the Dementors seemed to be asking Coin if he had seen Sirius Black, [fragile, easy-to-suck food...]

What does fragile and easy to suck mean?
Cohen seemed to suddenly understand why the Dementors would hold a prisoner and suck out his emotions every day instead of eating his soul directly one bite at a time - not only because emotions have a certain regenerative nature, but also because those wizards who have been sucked out of happiness for a long time simply have no strength to resist.

It's like a can of reusable soda. If the lid is open, you can drink it directly, but if the lid is not open, you have to pry it open with force. [He's not in the car, let's look for him somewhere else]

After Cohen took them away, the air temperature in the carriage gradually returned to normal, and Ron and the others gradually recovered from their horrific hallucinations.

But Harry was different from them, he was lying unconscious on the ground.

"Harry!"

After Ron came to his senses, he quickly dragged Harry up from the ground.

"What happened to Harry—" Seamus asked worriedly.

"He looks like he's fainted—" said Ginny.

The carriage door opened again and Hermione returned.

"It's a Dementor check - I can't believe the Ministry of Magic would let those Dementors have direct access to us - it's too dangerous!" Hermione said in shock. "What happened to Harry?"

"The Dementors have a greater impact on him." Lupin said thoughtfully, but what he was most concerned about now was Cohen - the child had just done nothing, just stood there quietly for a while, and the Dementors left.

All signs indicate that there is some special connection between Coin and the Dementors...

Lupin found a large bar of chocolate and shared it with everyone - but not Coin.

"Eat it, it'll do you good," said Lupin. "Give Harry a piece when he wakes up. I have to go find the driver. If you'll excuse me, could Coin come with me? I have something I want to confirm with you."

"What's going on?" Ron took a bite of chocolate and looked at Lupin and Coin in confusion.

They were all having a "real nightmare" just now. They couldn't see anything and only vaguely heard Cohen groaning in pain.

"About my parents." Cohen knew what Lupin was going to ask him, so he helped him find an excuse. "I remember that my parents seemed to be Professor Lupin's classmates - Edward and Rose. They mentioned it to me during the summer vacation..."

"Yes," said Lupin. "Let's go, Coin."

With that, Lupin pulled Cohen out of the carriage.

But at the empty aisle near the locomotive, Lupin stopped and turned to look at Cohen seriously.

"Are you Edward and Rose's child?" Lupin asked in disbelief.

"I thought you were going to say, 'I held you in my arms when you were a baby.'" Cohen raised his eyebrows. "My name is Cohen Norton. I was adopted by Edward and Rose twelve years ago—you didn't know that?"

"I—" Lupin hesitated, "…"

After a moment of silence, he seemed to have thought of what to say.

"Twelve years ago, I began to lose touch with the wizarding world," Lupin said restrainedly. "If there is no special need, I usually don't contact old friends..."

Cohen knew why.

After the Wizarding War, Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix was temporarily disbanded, and Lupin naturally returned to the isolated life of a "normal werewolf wizard".

But what puzzled Cohen was that Dumbledore hadn't told Lupin about his situation in advance?

Is Old Deng really that good? He keeps it secret so strictly...

"So you didn't pull me over here just to give me that chocolate you didn't give out earlier, did you?" Cohen said. "Everyone got one, but I didn't. That's a little hurtful."

(End of this chapter)