Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 263 Sissoko gets what he wants

However, this wasn't too difficult for Cohen; he got used to it after a few twists—getting up like this actually felt like being the attacker.

Cohen awkwardly climbed towards the cabin and, through his forked tongue, sensed the scent of several other snakes in the air.

"Cohen's here. Don't let him know you killed all the rabbits..." Sissoko scolded the little basilisk in a low voice from inside the house. "Those were that pretty mother snake's treats. Just wait for her to come and teach you a lesson. This time, I won't cover for you—"

"Does Mom like it?" the little snake asked.

"No," Sissoko lied clumsily.

"Bang!" Cohen pushed the door open with his tail.

Ah! Son! I've smelled your scent for ages...

Sissoko immediately turned to greet the door, but its words trailed off midway.

Because the creature that entered was a basilisk—much smaller than the old basilisk and himself, but a size larger than the little basilisk Sophia.

But... there's definitely Cohen's scent outside the door...

You swallowed my son!?

Sissoko launched himself forward and pounced on Cohen, stretching out his tail to pry open Cohen's mouth and pull out "the swallowed Cohen".

"What's wrong with your thinking?!" Cohen turned his head and said, "I am Cohen!"

[Really?] Sissoko sniffed Cohen a few times, back and forth. [Call me "Dad," Cohen always says that when he sees me—let me hear if your tone is the same as his—]

"Get out." Cohen said calmly.

The password is correct.

"How did you turn into a snake?!" Sissoko was now completely certain of Cohen's identity. "And those patterns... that tail... tsk tsk, just like me..."

"Aren't all basilisk patterns the same...?" Cohen asked. "I just can't see any difference between you and the old basilisk except for your size..."

"I've been a snake my whole life, I'm always right," Sissoko said matter-of-factly. "If I say you look like me, then you look like me."

"Like you, like you, alright..." Cohen said helplessly, "This is the transformation technique I just learned—"

"Dad's just like me now!" The little snake excitedly wrapped itself around Cohen's body, trying to climb onto Cohen's head—but it was obvious that it had grown a lot bigger, and even Hisoko's head couldn't support it, let alone Cohen, who was a size smaller than Hisoko.

"Is it just this one snake that does this, or do all basilisks do this when they're young?" Cohen asked Sissoko, letting the little basilisk bite his head. "Did you used to like staring at other snakes' heads and biting them too?"

Although the little basilisk seemed reckless, it didn't even use its teeth when it bit Cohen—of course, it could also be because it always swallows its prey whole without using venom...

【Ha…】Sissoko's eyes darted around like a person's, clearly unwilling to reveal its embarrassing past to Cohen, so it quickly changed the subject, 【Why did you suddenly decide to become a snake? It must be quite uncomfortable…】

"To cheer you up," Cohen said bluntly. "I think parents would prefer to see their child as part of the same species as themselves, because Edward wouldn't like me as a Dementor, so you probably wouldn't like me always looking like a human—" "Who says?" Sissoko said. "I'm happy as long as you're alive, no matter what you look like—but I'm definitely happier now."

[Happy!] The little snake monster wrapped itself around Cohen like a scarf.

So let's get down to business.

Cohen used his tail to pull the little snake monster to the ground and asked kindly,
[Explain what you mean by "thousands of rabbits were all eaten"?]

The little snake monster instantly became unhappy, and it coiled up into a ball, hiding its head underneath the green defense.

"Playing the victim won't work!" Cohen lectured sternly. "Respect food! Leave the uneaten food to roam freely; don't let them kill the prey and then throw them away!"

The lesson still needs to be learned—especially the little basilisk's wasteful behavior of wasting food. It couldn't eat all the rabbits in the box, so most of them must have died in their holes and were left to die without the snake's care. In the end, Cohen had to use the Vanishing Charm to clean them up.

Those rabbits had long since gone from a litter at Christmas to thousands scattered in the box; who knows how the little basilisk killed them all.

"Next time...next time bite less..." the little snake monster whispered.

"Learn from Norbert; he's only a year older than you, and his self-control is much stronger now." Cohen sighed. "Considering his efforts to avoid causing trouble for so long, I might find him a mate next semester. If nothing unexpected happens, a few dragons will be transported to Hogwarts—I wonder if we can get a few eggs."

"Me too! Me too!" The little snake monster poked its head out from under its coiled body. "That friend from last time ran away!"

"That's because you scared it," Sissoko said helplessly to the little basilisk. "It was going to stay here for the sake of the sheep and rabbits, but you insisted on taking it to see that mother dragon in the cave..."

"I'll try to replenish the rabbit's food before the water snake discovers it's been stolen," Cohen said. "By the way, I might have to leave in a few days, so I'll leave the box in the dorm and not go out and scare the students."

"Where are you going?" Sissoko asked. "Why didn't you bring the suitcase? We can help you if anything happens—"

"Go rescue Mr. Flandre—that talking cat I brought home over the summer, and an acquaintance named Wernher von Braun," Cohen said. "The cat's soul has been extracted and trapped; I've never encountered this kind of method anywhere else but myself. I'm a little worried about taking your whole family with me."

"And there's the old goat too." Sissoko nuzzled Cohen with his tail. "It's dealt with far more humans than anyone else—"

"Let's play it safe." Cohen's attitude was firm. "That's about it. If anything unexpected happens, I'll come back and get a new body—you're all here, so taking some of your blood and getting a new body shouldn't be difficult."

"[In human terms...]" Sissoko shook his head, seeing that Cohen had no intention of changing his plans. "[Good luck.]"

"Don't talk like I'm saying goodbye!" Cohen said angrily. "I've already set this flag, now even if I run into a few ordinary wizards, they'll just rush over and kill me while yelling things like 'For love, friendship, and courage, don't underestimate the bond between us, you bastards'..."

[It's just fighting a few Silver Key members. What could possibly happen in the new dungeon? At most, we'll see some new magic and new NPCs...]

Cohen said that, but he was indeed a little uneasy.

or……

Cohen set his sights on his already high sin count of over eight thousand.

A safe bet? No more stockpiling?
(End of this chapter)