Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 8 The Sorting Hat: Sometimes I Want to Call the Police

The train rumbled forward, and soon a boy with fiery red hair and freckles on his face pushed open the sliding door of the compartment. There was a piece of dirt on the tip of his nose - but he didn't seem to realize it.

"Is anyone here?" He pointed to the seat next to Harry, and asked Harry and Cohen, because Cohen was standing next to the Count's birdcage. "Everywhere else is full."

"Uh—" Harry wasn't sure what Cohen meant and turned his gaze to Cohen.

Cohen spread his hands.

"No one, please sit down."

[Ding! Goodwill value +1]

So kind.

Cohen feels his self-assessment has been accurate all along.

Ron sat down, glanced at Harry, but quickly looked away, pretending nothing had happened.

"It seems like a secret crush..."

Cohen smacked his lips, said nothing, and decided to open his "Compendium of Positive Spells".

Honestly, the title of this book is so tacky. Who on earth came up with the name "Encyclopedia of Good Spells"? If I were to take this book out and flip through it in public, I'd definitely be laughed out loud by others...

However, Cohen felt that the two eleven-year-old wizards in front of him might not even be able to distinguish between stalactites and stalagmites, and probably would not carefully identify the title of the book in Cohen's hand.

This is indeed the case. Ron and Harry both looked at Cohen as if he were Superman - anyone at this age who could give up chatting and having fun to just read a book was a tough guy.

After the Weasley twin brothers Fred and George came over, Ron seized the opportunity and started with the question "Are you really Harry Potter?" to launch the "once we meet we're lifelong friends" friendship move typical of eleven-year-olds.

They talked about Harry's fame and wizarding families, and finally, they noticed that there was another person in the carriage -

"Cohen, Cohen Norton." Cohen looked up and answered after Ron asked his name.

Of course, Cohen didn't look up to see Ron or Harry, but to try to see the snack cart through the car window.

Oh my god, why hasn’t the food arrived yet? I’m starving!

The bad thing about the last car is that the car that buys snacks is always the last one to arrive here.

If Cohen continues to be hungry, he might start eating people.

Finally, amid Cohen's silent anticipation, the snack saleswoman pushed open the door of the box:

"Honey, do you want to buy some food from the car?"

Harry jumped up suddenly because he had eaten nothing this morning.

Cohen sat calmly in his seat, knowing that he didn't need to pay for food at all—Harry would soon activate his money ability:

"I want it all."

Ron watched as Harry gathered his food into the carriage and dumped it on the small table in front of them.

"You are hungry?"

"I'm starving." Harry grabbed the pumpkin pie closest to him and took a big bite.

Ron took out his sandwich - after Harry's repeated requests, Ron let go of his reserve and began to enjoy Harry's snack.

"Cohen, would you like one too?" Harry said with a puff in his mouth, and was about to turn around and invite Cohen.

But Cohen was one step ahead and buried himself in the pile of snacks.

"what?"

_ (: 3 "∠) _
Cohen emerged from the pile of snacks and bit off the heads of two chocolate frogs.

It felt like I had swallowed a live frog, but the chocolate sauce exploding in my mouth was delicious.

After eating and drinking, most people will start to think about sex.

But there were only two eleven-year-old wizards and a half-Dementor with an eleven-year-old body, so they would have other entertainments.

Like watching Ron perform magic.

The moment Scabbers, the mouse transformed by Peter Pettigrew, was brought out by Ron, the Earl made an anxious gurgling sound as if he had seen his dinner.

Apparently, the magical owl that could even see Coin's true identity could also see through an Animagus disguise.

However, Cohen does not intend to capture Peter Pettigrew now, even though Peter's soul has become as fragile as 11 points.

Cohen wouldn't get much goodwill by exposing him now, since he's just a guy on the run to avoid Blake.

But if Cohen reported a great villain who tried to resurrect Voldemort, the goodwill value that this incident could generate would definitely be sky-high.

Plus, what if Coin was actually the mastermind behind Voldemort's resurrection but then turned against him?

Tsk tsk tsk, Cohen couldn't imagine how much sin and goodwill points would be recorded.

At worst, they could wait until Sirius Black escaped from prison and gained Dumbledore's trust before catching him. At least they could have a chance to fight the cowardly Minister of Magic - after all, the current Minister of Magic, Fudge, would absolutely not be willing to admit that the Ministry of Magic had wrongly arrested a prisoner for ten years.

"Squeak-"

Just as Ron raised his wand, the door to the compartment opened.

Neville came to them - this was the second time, before Coln had eaten his fill, that the round-faced, tearful-eyed boy had come in search of his toad.

But this time, Neville was accompanied by a girl with thick brown hair and a pair of big front teeth, Hermione Granger.

After asking the toad again to no avail, Hermione discovered Ron casting a spell and stayed to watch the entire ineffective performance.

After severely damaging Ron's self-esteem, Hermione spoke rapidly about sorting and changing clothes, and then led Neville away.

"No matter which house I'm sorted into, I don't want to be with her..." Ron said gloomily, throwing his wand on the suitcase.

Harry asked which college Ron's two older brothers were in, and was somewhat pessimistic about the college he was going to.

When Ron asked Cohen about this topic——

"Me?" Cohen thought of what Rose said before he got on the car, and twitched his lips. "My mother said she would kill me if I went to Slytherin - I saw her mouth shape saying that, so it's better to go to Gryffindor..."

Speaking of which... the Sorting Hat should recognize him, right? There's a clear difference between the soul of a Dementor and the soul of a little wizard. Especially when Cohen looked at himself, the image of his soul was so typical.

But Dumbledore should have reminded it, otherwise the Sorting Hat would have shouted "Azkaban!" instead of some other ordinary college when sorting the houses.

"Your mother?!" Harry said in surprise, "Your mother is also a wizard?!"

"My dad did too," Cohen said nonchalantly, "but they kept it a secret from me until I received the admission letter—because I was adopted and they thought I was a Muggle child."

"If only I were Mr. Norton's adopted child..." Harry sighed.

There is indeed a huge difference between people. Cohen can grow up freely in the doting of his adoptive parents, while Harry can only spend his childhood in the closet.

This heavy topic did not last long, and the two people in front of Cohen quickly turned their attention to other topics.

Ron and Harry talked about everything from the college to Charlie from Romania, and from the underground vault of Gringotts to Quidditch, fully demonstrating the breadth of his knowledge.

Of course, there were some minor frictions during this period.

"Is it true?" asked Draco Malfoy, standing at the door of the compartment. "Everyone on the train is talking about Harry Potter being in this compartment. So that's it, isn't it?"

"Yes." Harry obviously didn't like this man very much.

Ron chuckled, and then was criticized by Malfoy by name.

After a few arguments of "I, Draco Malfoy, a noble boy, want to be your friend, please agree quickly" and "Sorry, my favorite thing about Harry Potter is saying no to those self-righteous people"...

"You want a fight?" Malfoy sneered.

"Unless you get out now." Harry said very unconfidently but decisively.

When Malfoy's follower Goyle stretched his fat hand towards the pile of snacks in front of Cohen, Cohen couldn't help it.

"Go! Count!" Cohen chose to open the birdcage directly.

Suddenly the whole area was in chaos. The Earl spread his wings, which were strong enough to slap the three little brats in the face, and rushed forward. The Malfoys and the other two were frightened by the owl that suddenly rushed towards them and fled in a hurry, but ended up knocking each other down.

The Earl even secretly pulled a few balls on the heads of the three people.

Harry and Ron laughed heartily.

"If you don't run, I will scratch out the eyeballs of you little brats." said the count viciously.

After the Earl spoke these human words, the air fell silent for a moment.

Even Harry and Ron, who had been laughing just a moment ago, froze in their seats.

It was the Malfoys and the other two who were the first to run away screaming - no one wanted to lose their eyeballs, especially when the one who made the threat was an owl.

After his harsh words, the Earl flew back to his cage in a haughty manner - and took a special look at Harry's Hedwig.

"Owls...can...can...talk?" Harry's eyes widened.

"Something's wrong..." Ron said suddenly, alert. "Even in the wizarding world, it's rare for owls to talk. Cohen - my dad once said, if you don't see where its brain is hidden, never trust what you think -" "How about I spread my feathers and let you look through my ear holes to see where my fucking magical brain is?"

The Earl angrily denied Ron's definition.

"Owls have brains, Ron," Cohen said, holding his forehead. "Besides, there's a magical contract between owls and wizards. It's just..."

Cohen is thinking about how to define the earl.

"It's probably just an owl hybridized with some other magical creature."

"You're a bastard! Your whole family is *****!"

The Earl was so angry that he jumped up and down in the cage, which made Harry and Ron feel a little relieved.

After all, it didn't come out to hurt them even though it was so angry.

As the train was about to arrive at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron changed into their school robes.

The temperature in the Scottish Highlands is much lower than that in London. Many little wizards sneezed the moment they got off the train because of the sudden drop in temperature.

Cohen didn't feel anything. He was only afraid of heat, not cold.

Following Hagrid across the Black Lake on a boat, Cohen saw a huge creature under the lake.

[Soul Strength: 50]

Bush's family? Are you the boss?
Voldemort's soul fragments only have forty points of soul strength!

Apparently, the giant squid at Hogwarts has some secrets.

But it is definitely not something Cohen can investigate now. The squid is too big to be swallowed in one bite.

In comparison, Hagrid's soul strength of 30 points seems much more normal - perhaps because he is a half-giant, Hagrid's soul strength has exceeded that of most ordinary wizards.

The young wizards who had just entered school were only seven or eight years old, and the adult wizards were between 15 and 40 years old. And those powerful wizards who were so awesome...

Cohen soon got his answer.

Professor McGonagall
[Soul Strength: 50]

As expected, sometimes the gap between people is even greater than the gap between people and pigs. This is the composure of the older generation of Hogwarts professors, which easily refreshed the upper limit of the soul strength of those second- and third-rate wizards that Cohen observed in Diagon Alley.

Not long after Professor McGonagall finished explaining the sorting and the house cup, this group of young wizards were taken to the auditorium.

While they waited, Ron gave Harry and Corn an extremely exaggerated description of "what Fred had told him about the Sorting Ceremony," which made Harry think he was going to fight a troll - even though Harry had no idea what a troll was.

"Don't stick your wand up the troll's nostrils. You'll thank me." Cohen kindly reminded Harry.

Finally, the sorting ceremony began.

At the end of the hall, Professor McGonagall gently put down a four-legged stool and placed a pointed wizard's hat on top of it.

The hat was tattered, patched, and dirty.

Then, as everyone watched, the hat twisted and split open into a slit that looked like a mouth.

It sang:
You may think I am not pretty.

But never judge a book by its appearance,
If you can find a prettier hat than mine,
I can eat myself.

……

……

……

Come wear me! Don't be afraid!
Don't panic!

In my hands (even though I don't have any hands)
you are absolutely safe

Because I am a thinking magic hat! 】

After Hat finished singing the song, the audience burst into applause.

It bowed to each of the four tables, then sat motionless on a stool.

Harry and Ron were visibly relieved.

Cohen also breathed a sigh of relief.

The soul strength of the professors in the hall did not soar to some extremely terrifying level. Most of them were between 45 and 50. The short Professor Flitwick had a slight advantage of 1 point over Professor McGonagall - of course, Dumbledore was not included.

This person looks like an old scholar who scored 100 out of 99 on the test - because Dumbledore's soul strength is a glaring 99.

The numbers are a bit broken! It feels like it's completely out of the normal range!

All I can say is that fortunately Dumbledore is not a Dementor. The strength of his soul only represents the difficulty for Coin to deal with it.

"No, why should I deal with Dumbledore? Shouldn't I just stand on the right side and safely gain experience at a time like this?" Cohen slapped his head in confusion.

But now Cohen feels that he has figured out the distribution pattern of the wizards' soul strength.

Ordinary wizards generally have a soul strength between 15-40. Some outstanding wizards will have a soul strength of 40 or above, but the highest should not exceed 60.

Dumbledore is an exception among exceptions. I don’t know what he did - anyway, this old man ranks first with a terrifying soul strength of 99 points.

But no matter how strong the soul is, it cannot stop the killing curse - in the original book, Dumbledore eventually died from Snape's "Avada Kedavra" curse.

"Now, whoever's name I call will put on his hat, sit on the stool, and wait to be sorted."

Professor McGonagall said.

"Hannah Abbott!"

She is a little girl with a rosy complexion and golden twintails.

Unfortunately, Cohen was not interested in foreign children of this age group - or rather, Cohen felt that he had no feelings for the human race.

But Cohen repeatedly convinced himself that it was because of his young age.

I can't just end up marrying a beautiful Dementor in the future, right?

"Hufflepuff!"

Well, the iron-clad Hannah came to her most loyal Hufflepuff.

"Susan Burns!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Terry Butt!"

"Ravenclaw!"

……

Cohen waited idly for the first letter of his surname, N, to come.

I was behind Neville and Malfoy.

With Neville being sorted into Gryffindor and Malfoy into Slytherin, it's finally time for the sorting...

"Cohen Norton!"

Cohen felt that Harry next to him was even more excited than he was, because Harry was almost shaking like a sieve.

Cohen sat down on the chair obediently, and Professor McGonagall reluctantly placed the Sorting Hat on Cohen's head.

……

……

……

The lobby was completely silent.

The Sorting Hat said nothing, and neither did Coin.

Cohen heard no sound either in his head or in his ears.

"Is this some kind of one-two-three-stick game?"

Cohen was extremely confused by the Sorting Hat's behavior of pretending to be dead and not moving.

Didn't Dumbledore warn the Sorting Hat?
Or is the Sorting Hat trying to remember how to spell Azkaban?
It's very embarrassing to be in a stalemate with a young wizard who has just entered school, Uncle Hat.

Cohen decided to break the silence himself and whispered a reminder to the Sorting Hat.

"You're not broken, are you? I'm good at mending people's souls. Want to try? I've never had a bad review, dear."

(End of this chapter)