Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 5 Owl "Earl"

But after all, it was the only wand in the entire store that dared to face Cohen. It seemed unfair to Mr. Ollivander who had been running back and forth for so long not to buy it.

After paying Ollivander seven gold Galleons, Coin and Edward left Ollivander's wand shop.

Cohen pondered the wand for a long time before realizing that the soul in the wand seemed to have only some simple emotions, such as "I like this wizard so I will live with him in this life", "I hate this wizard so I won't help him" and so on.

Now we have to add a new emotion, which is the fear of "running away quickly to avoid being killed by Dementors who come to pick up your wand."

Considering the setting that "a wand will change its allegiance if its master is defeated", Cohen feels that these wands are like some kind of slightly intelligent door locks, but if they see their master being beaten at the door, they will immediately open the door for the guy who beat their master -

They are called fence-sitters in short. They have some intelligence, but not much.

The subsequent process of buying textbooks, wizard robes, crucibles, and herbs went smoothly. After all, the books, robes, crucibles, and herbs would not run around in fear of Cohen sucking away their souls - perhaps the "Monster Book of Monsters" in the corner of Flourish and Blotts was an exception.

It was originally alone in the iron cage, tearing at its own pages, but when Cohen entered the store, the book instantly became quiet and hid in the corner, trembling.

[Soul Strength: 5]

What a weak book—Cohen thought to himself at the time.

The clerk who was helping Cohen pick up his textbooks happened to see the book suddenly become quiet, and concluded that Cohen was his lucky star. He secretly stuffed two Galleons and seven Sickles into Cohen's pocket, and begged Cohen to take away the strange book worth two Galleons.

The clerk even showed the healed scar on his hand.

"This book is horrible... I can't believe the manager would have such a book in the shop... They're just as bad as the Cornish pixies—no, at least those pixies don't bite..."

Edward pushed a cart of books and school supplies for Cohen out of the bookstore while the clerk cursed, "In the future, these things will become Hogwarts textbooks and we will have to purchase thousands of them, and the owner will have to take care of all the books alone - because by then the clerks will have resigned long ago."

"Ah~ Okay, next thing is to buy you a pet."

Edward groaned as if he had finished his work, and glanced at the "Monster Book of Monsters" lying quietly in the cart, as if wondering why the book was so quiet, as if it was dead.

"I now understand why your grandmother was so reluctant to bring me shopping. The school supplies for a little wizard are a bit too complicated..."

"I hope the little animals aren't as timid as the magic wand..."

Cohen, who had just sucked the soul out of the monster book, suddenly had a bad feeling.

In the memories of his previous life that Cohen inherited, normal animals would not be afraid of Cohen - as long as Cohen did not actively start to suck their souls.

But I don't know if magical creatures will have any special reaction to the breath of Dementors...

This question was answered when Cohen walked into the dark Eeyore Owl Shop.

The Owl Shop, which was originally very noisy, became quiet the moment Cohen entered.

"Huh?" The female store manager was a little confused by the owls' sudden silence, and then she saw Cohen walking in alone with a bag of money.

Edward stayed outside with the cart loaded with goods because the cart could not be pushed into the small shop that could only accommodate one person, and there were pickpockets in Diagon Alley from time to time - even in the wizarding world, there were always greedy people who tried to get something for nothing, and perhaps the only place those people dared not steal was Gringotts.

"Hello, I want to buy an owl." Cohen said to the middle-aged woman with curly hair, pretending to be ignorant.

No, it wasn't that these birds shivering in their cages had nothing to do with him. Cohen hadn't sucked their souls dry... "Well... the owls here are very... lively..."

The store manager's prepared promotional slogan got stuck in his throat.

Because now almost all the owls are stiffly pretending to be stone sculptures.

"Can I pick one myself?" Cohen asked politely.

Seeing this situation, Cohen actually didn't want to continue buying the owl - if the owl was so afraid of him, it seemed that buying it would be suspected of "animal abuse".

The owls only had two or three points of soul strength, and Cohen had just absorbed the "Monster Book of Monsters" with a soul strength of five points, but it only increased the soul integrity by 0.5%...

In other words, killing a normal owl would not even give Cohen as much of a boost as stealing a few children's lollipops.

What made Cohen change his mind was not that the toffee in his mouth was finished, but the two different owls in the group.

One was a pure white snowy owl with a soul strength of seven points, and Cohen suspected at first sight that this was the "Hedwig" that Harry later raised.

And the other one...

It is a generally brown mixed-feathered screech owl with a white eyebrow and black "feather tips".

Of course, an owl's ears are not pointed on the top of its head. Its real ears are under the feathers on both sides of its head. Even if you part the feathers, you can see its huge eyeballs through the ear holes.

[Soul Strength: 10]

Is this the soul strength a normal owl can have?

Cohen was curious about the owl, and of course, the owl was curious about Cohen too.

Its eyes were fixed on Cohen, and its head turned 90 degrees clockwise, as if it was examining something strange.

Somehow, Cohen always felt that this thing would extend a black, linear arm from under its wings and take out some chips from the chip bag next to it and eat them - wait, why would there be half-eaten chips in a bird's cage?

Are there potato chips in the wizarding world???

"What's this thing called? And how much is it?"
-
"Doesn't this owl look a bit old?"

Edward frowned as he watched Cohen carrying a screech owl that was several times larger than the other young owls.

"Its name is Earl. The store manager said it's been in the store for three years. If it's not sold, it might be sent to the Owl Post Office to work illegally..."

Cohen explained to Edward.

"Oh..." Edward nodded thoughtfully. "It sounds so pitiful, it makes me feel a little sad. Is this why you bought it?"

"No." Cohen shook his head matter-of-factly, "Because it only costs ten Sickles, while other owls cost at least two Galleons."

Ten Sickles is a huge profit to buy such an owl with extraordinary soul strength. Even if he can't research anything, Cohen can eat it with tears in his eyes when it gets old, both spiritually and physically.

(End of this chapter)