Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 7 Hogwarts Express!

There was no need to wait until Edward came back—or rather, Edward probably didn't even know there was such a law about owls.

Cohen had found this passage in his newly purchased History of Magic.

Due to the prevalence and uncontrollability of owl communications, after the International Statute of Secrecy was enacted in 1692, owls were also included in the scope of control of easily exposed magical animals.

At the same time, the "Owl Purchase Contract" appeared, which required owl trainers and people involved in selling owls to ensure that every owl circulating in the market was bound by a contract spell to prevent the owl from escaping, disappearing, or betraying the normal situation.

Cohen's attempt was also very successful. He only needed to think about "forbidding" the Count to speak, and the Count could not say a word.

"Congratulations, you can live and be my messenger."

Cohen announced to the Count in a sunny manner, silently forbidding the Count to say anything about Cohen being a Dementor.

Perhaps the Count had no such idea at all, but Cohen still chose to act cautiously. This way, he not only had a talking owl, but also ensured that his identity would not be exposed inexplicably.

In the days that followed, Cohen asked the Count more than once why it could speak.

But the Earl's answer was always the same story.

In the story, it lives in a dilapidated lighthouse with an attic with an old man named John (Count: There is an old man named John on every street). Old John carves wood carvings year after year, and the Count flies out with the wood carvings and throws them into the forest.

"John carved at least a few hundred wooden sculptures, and I have to fly out several times a day. Unfortunately, although my original intention was to make a spacious nest, those wooden sculptures are always picked up by people who are lost in the forest - lost people can always find the lighthouse."

The Count smacked his beak. He had just flown back from the window, the bright moonlight shining on his wings.

It sounds like something out of a fairy tale: a lighthouse guiding people lost in the forest, a silent wooden old man, a talking owl...

"Am I some gullible-looking little brat?" Cohen looked at the earl on the windowsill with dead eyes. He was enjoying a vole he had picked up from somewhere.

"Isn't it—I mean, coo—the fact that birds can talk is very fairy-tale-like, and this story is very appropriate." The count smeared the windowsill with blood.

"If you don't want to talk, forget it. There are so many things in the magical world that can talk."

Cohen waved his wand casually.

"Cleaned up."

"My midnight snack!" the Count uttered an indescribable scream.

[Ding! Sin value +1]
Looking at the clean windowsill and the Count who had flown out again and decided to have his next midnight snack on the spot, Cohen climbed into bed with satisfaction.

More than a month before entering school, Cohen had reviewed all the spells in "Standard Book of Spells, Elementary".

Most of the spells these young wizards learned were some elementary fire spells, cutting spells, levitation spells, etc. The more practical ones were the repair spell and the descaling spell.

These were not difficult at all. Although the book had digital models of magic behind each spell, it was obvious that this was not something a normal student would study. No eleven-year-old would learn three-dimensional function models, and neither would Cohen.

"Imagine this: a person finally travels to the magical world and excitedly steps through the gates of Hogwarts. Then, a student passing by on the left says, 'Hey, did you listen to today's class? I didn't quite understand the polynomial fitting.' The student passing by on the right replies, 'I understand this. Suppose your initial magic power usage is x, and the final stepped magic power output is y, then use y=a+bx+cx+dx...' How desperate would that traveler be..."

Cohen told himself a joke.

This is definitely not a reason for not studying seriously.

Anyway, although the theories of these magics are very scientific, the way they are released is very idealistic.

All you have to do is wave the wand according to the gestures specified in the textbook, chant the spell, and think about the effect of the spell in your mind - bang! The spell works!

The only difficulty may be memorizing the spell and the corresponding gestures.

Perhaps later, as I gained more experience in spellcasting, I could dispense with the incantations and hand gestures—maybe even the wand.

But the only book Cohen can currently teach himself openly is "Standard Spells, Elementary", because Edward and Rose jointly emphasize that young wizards should not learn too many spells in advance - without a teacher's guidance and supervision, young wizards can easily cause big trouble with an ordinary spell.

Even grown wizards make mistakes, as happened with Baruffio who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself lying on the floor with a bison on his chest.

So Cohen only practiced this ordinary textbook during the day, and at night...

Of course, Cohen was practicing the "Compendium of Positive Spells" that he bought from the Goodwill Store, which was worth 250 goodwill points.

The first three chapters of this book of spells were easy for Cohen to perform, but when it came to the advanced spells like the Existence Spell and the Head-Bubble Spell at the beginning of the fourth chapter, Cohen couldn't perform them at all.

Perhaps because it required a higher level of magic power, Cohen's attempt was superficial and he could only flip through the book to satisfy his curiosity (in order to allow young wizards to understand the effects of spells more intuitively, there are dynamic illustrations next to the spells recorded in the textbooks, and the spell testers above will repeatedly cast or be cast with the corresponding spells).

In the following month, Cohen had wanted to wait until he met Harry to reveal that he was also a freshman at Hogwarts, to make Harry happy.

But Harry had never come to see Cohen since he moved back from the island with the Dursleys. Even when he ran into Cohen once, he just said hello awkwardly and ran away in a panic.

Cohen almost thought that Harry knew that he was a Dementor.

In this way, the vacation passed in a flash, and Cohen was pulled up by Rose early in the morning.

"Today is your first day of school, and Mommy must dress you up beautifully—"

Rose lovingly tidied Cohen's hair and clothes.

"Mom, that's what you say when you dress a girl up."

Cohen said embarrassedly, but did not break free from Rose's hand, even though Rose tried to pin a pink bow tie on Cohen's collar.

"It doesn't look right with your hair..."

Rose tossed the pink bow tie aside in disappointment.

"Cohen will have to change these things into school uniforms when he gets to school." Edward leaned against the door and said in a wise tone.

"Hmm?" Rose only needed a look to make Edward shut up and go downstairs to prepare breakfast.

Cohen was overwhelmed by the discomfort of the tight dress throughout the journey, watching Rose wiping her tears with a handkerchief from time to time in the passenger seat because her child was about to leave her for at least one semester.

"Hogwarts will take good care of the child. Didn't we get through this the same way last time?" Edward comforted.

This scene made Cohen feel for a moment that he was not going to school, but getting married.

After arriving at King's Cross Station, Cohen followed Edward and Rose through the wall between platforms nine and ten and arrived at platform nine and three-quarters.

The scarlet steam train stopped at the platform, surrounded by a dreamy mist. Amid the bustling crowd, the noise of children and the shouts of some reckless parents could be heard everywhere.

"When you go to school, you must abide by the school rules. Don't go to dangerous places, don't go against professors, study hard, eat more, drink more water, write to us once a week with the earl, and you must be sorted into Gryffindor. If you dare to go to Slytherin, I will put your--" "Okay, Rose, aren't you afraid that Cohen will jump out of the car and escape halfway - it doesn't matter which college he goes to, right?" Edward hurriedly stopped Rose, who was talking without restraint due to anxiety.

Then Edward squatted down and rubbed Cohen's head.

"Cohen, just enjoy your school life and don't put too much pressure on yourself. The courses at Hogwarts are quite easy—at least easier than Smelting."

"I know. I can dress myself, go to the toilet, eat, and glue myself. Don't worry, Mom and Dad."

Cohen quietly grabbed his collar, as he was almost out of breath, and quickly fled into the train.

Outside, Rose was leaning on Edward's shoulder, looking at Cohen speeding through the train window, with a relieved and tearful expression on her face.

"Edward, remember when we first met on the train?"

"I remember." Edward froze. "I was being bullied by some bad kids."

"Those guys are just wimps." Rose reminisced.

"You beat me up after you chased them away." Edward said with a twitch of his mouth.

"It's because you were a sniveling wimp, and I hate wimps." Rose leaned closer to Edward's face. "But... there's something different about you."

"uh-huh?"

"You're a wimp for raising a Dementor with me." Rose kissed Edward. "Cohen will be fine, right?"

"Of course not, he's a good boy." Edward's face flushed where he was kissed. "Hogwarts has Dumbledore, and... when we went to buy school supplies, he told me I was a good father."

"Evil Dementors can't have 'love', can they?"
-
On the other hand, Harry wanted to ask Uncle Vernon to wait for a while before leaving.

"I don't have time for your nonsense, kid," said Uncle Vernon, who was waiting beside the car. "Dally has to go to the hospital. You only have two minutes—"

With permission, Harry rushed to the door of Cohen's house and knocked hurriedly.

A few days ago, Harry really wanted to share these new things with Cohen, about owls and letters, huge giants, and wonderful magic...

All those magical things that popped into your head on your birthday night.

But Harry was told by Hagrid not to tell any Muggles about magic - not even their closest friends.

So Harry has been avoiding Cohen, fearing that he would not be able to help but tell everything when faced with Cohen's questions.

And Harry didn't dare to think about how painful it would be to know that his friends could do magic and he couldn't.

But before leaving Privet Drive, Harry finally decided to say goodbye to Coin.

"Cohen, I'm going to another school, but I will definitely come back. We will always be good friends, right..."

While waiting for Cohen to open the door, Harry kept reciting the farewell speech he had prepared long ago.

Unfortunately, no one opened the door.

"Ha, boy, do you think the Norton kid will wait for you to say goodbye to him when school starts? No one wants to hang out with someone like you." Uncle Vernon said sarcastically in the distance, taking out his anger on Harry viciously. "If it weren't for that damn pig tail, Dudley wouldn't have to delay his enrollment at all—"

Harry didn't listen to Uncle Vernon at all. He got into the car in a depressed mood and took a last look in the direction of Cohen's bedroom. He felt that the joy of starting school could not overcome the feeling of being missing a piece of his heart.
-
On the other side, Cohen found an empty carriage at the rear of the train and impatiently stuffed his suitcase next to the seat. He slammed the door shut and began to laboriously unbutton his stretched collar.

Oh my god, mother’s love is really suffocating.

And why do I, a race clearly labeled as Dementors, still need to breathe? Is it really because my flesh and blood are too weak...

"You look like a werewolf in heat, about to invade me."

The Count tilted his head and looked at Cohen who was taking off his clothes.

"You're like a perverted alchemist peeping into children's bodies."

Cohen retorted mercilessly.

Finally, Cohen changed into his school robes ahead of time and decided to cast a subtle swelling spell on the tight dress before returning to school so that he would not be murdered by a piece of clothing and leave himself with eternal infamy.

Rose handed over a bag of jingling pocket money before leaving the house, because there was a snack cart on the bus, and children often preferred these magically processed and interesting snacks to the dry lunch boxes left in the boxes by their parents.

However, Cohen thought that there was no need to spend this pocket money today, because a rich man who would take it all with a wave of his hand was about to arrive in the car at the end of the train.

"Hello, can I sit--Cohen?!"

Harry pushed open the door of this compartment, and after seeing who was sitting there, he froze in the aisle.

"Excuse me, we need to go through." The student in the opposite carriage was about to go to the bathroom, and seeing Harry blocking the way, he reminded him helplessly.

"Oh - okay - sorry..." Harry quickly turned around and apologized, dragging the box into the carriage. His movements were so rough that Hedwig in the cage on top of the box let out a protest cry.

Cohen noticed that after Hedwig appeared, the Count's eyes never left the pure white snowy owl.

"Don't even think about it. I don't even have a heroine yet. Why are you trying to snatch her away?" Cohen threatened the earl in a low voice.

The Count glanced at Cohen with contempt, as if to say, "What can you do to me if I have an affair with other birds in the owl shed at night?"

"Cohen! I thought you—no, I thought—" Harry felt that he could hardly speak clearly.

"Wow - what a coincidence, Harry, you also come to Hogwarts to study." Cohen said seriously.

"Your reaction is a little too slow..." Harry felt his expression gradually stiffen, "I've been sitting in my seat for thirty seconds."

"I'm really not very good at sentimentality." Cohen sighed, "You didn't come to see me last month, and I was thinking of secretly telling you something about the magical world-"

"But Hagrid said not to tell Muggles - you didn't know I was a wizard at the time, did you?" Harry asked anxiously and confusedly.

"Who is Hagrid?" Cohen asked decisively.

Once the topic was opened, Harry began to talk about the wonderful experience he had on his birthday.

Eleven-year-old children are too easy to manipulate. It only takes a little temptation to make them forget their original goal.

Cohen didn't have to say anything as he wished. Listening was more labor-saving than talking, especially when the snack cart hadn't arrived yet.

(End of this chapter)