Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 268 The Little Detectives, Time to Clean Up...

"Just wait for rescue, everyone. Don't worry, the hotel has enough food." Mr. Raven's tone remained calm. "We can get through this safely—"

"Didn't you just say there are crocodiles in the lake?" Old Deng in the suit questioned sternly. "What if they crawl in?"

“We live in the house!” said the younger of the Beatrice sisters, siding with Mr. Raven. “You stubborn old madman, have you taken gunpowder?”

"Stupid woman, this is kidnapping!" the old man in the suit shouted hysterically. "Tell me, are you from the Groning Company? For—"

“Dad, don’t have another attack here—” the young man quickly pulled his father back from his anger. “We’re here on vacation—remember? We’re going to stay here for a few days anyway, so it won’t really affect us…”

"Kid, you don't understand—business warfare always manages to catch you off guard and pull a fast one—"

“And the three of you,” Mr. Raven turned his gaze to Harry and his companions, “Do you need lodging? Ten pounds a night.”

Mr. Crow tilted his head and thought for a moment, then added, "Everyone."

"Did you bring any Muggle money?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione in a low voice.

“The Dursleys haven’t given me any pocket money in eight years,” Harry chuckled dryly.

“I’ve exchanged all my money for Galleons…” Hermione could only pull out a few coins from her pocket.

“You guys…” Cohen sighed.

“Cohen, do you have any? I can trade you Galleons for them—” Harry asked, leaning closer to Cohen.

Ron and Hermione also turned to Cohen for help.

So Cohen reached out to Edward.

"You'll give it back to me in Galonnaise, right?"

Edward reluctantly stuffed a few banknotes into Cohen's hand.

“I’m a minor, you’ll have to go ask my dad for it later,” Cohen said to Edward with an air of self-righteousness.

"You—" Edward resisted the urge to shout "I am your father."

Tolerate!
It's just my own son, and I'm only asking his friends to stay at a hotel... I can't exactly let Harry and the others sleep in the lobby.

However, Cohen wasn't really going to take advantage of Edward in this way; in the end, the money would still end up in Edward's pocket—it's just that Cohen felt it was really fun to tease Edward like this.

"Are you only staying for one day?" Mr. Crow asked.

“Yes, right—” Hermione said cleverly, “we originally planned to stay here for only one day and then leave…”

“But your ship is damaged—” Harry immediately understood Hermione’s meaning, “so if we can’t leave…shouldn’t you offer some compensation?”

Mr. Crow thought for a while.

“Yes,” Mr. Raven said. “You can stay in your original rooms for the rest of the time until you are rescued on the island in the middle of the lake.”

"And what about us?" Old Deng in the suit narrowed his eyes. "You should refund us for more than one day's room fee—shouldn't you?"

“That’s true.” The young man also agreed with his father.

“Can we use the extra room fee to offset…that?” The Beatrice sisters gave Mr. Raven a knowing wink.

"This is outrageous! You can't watch this." Cohen blocked Harry and his friends' path. "Minors shouldn't watch this kind of scene—"

“You’re a minor too.” Edward stepped in front and covered Cohen’s eyes. The farce ended after Mr. Raven agreed to everyone’s demands—they now only felt that their demands had been too lenient and that they should have asked for more compensation.

On the issue of the "refund" request, Mr. Raven is now extremely generous—as if the person who was previously muttering about charging ten pounds a night was not him at all.

Cohen had always felt that the hotel's purpose was definitely not to make money off Muggles—Silver Key wouldn't go to such lengths just to get Cohen to read "How to Make Pounds from Muggles."

Their first step has been accomplished—trapping these people on the island, which is why Mr. Raven doesn't care about their trivial requests.

Dinner was served to everyone in their rooms by a cook with a frog-headed head—Harry and the others didn’t dare to separate, so they all squeezed into Cohen’s room.

This surprised the frog chef, who left the remaining four portions of food in Cohen's room and then left silently.

Room 207 was crammed with four children and an invisible Chimera.

“Is that a real frog head? Transfiguration?” Hermione asked. “But aren’t the other residents… Muggles? I mean, if they were adult wizards, they could just Apparate or fly over the lake; they wouldn’t be arguing downstairs…”

“This violates the secrecy laws, doesn’t it?” Ron said. “Wizards aren’t supposed to reveal their identities to Muggles—and neither that ravenhead nor that frog used a forgetting charm to erase any traces of them from these Muggles…”

“Compared to crows and frogs, I’m more interested in how you guys got here.” Cohen turned his gaze to the Chimera Beast, which was still invisible and hiding by the window in the room.

“Your friend is coming to see you,” said the goat.

"So we brought them here," said the long-horned water snake.

"Roar!" the lion roared happily.

“The lion is right,” Ron nodded.

“No, I have to stick to the biggest difference between myself and the Earl…” Cohen restrained himself from swearing. “It was already troublesome enough with more people, and now there are four more.”

“We won’t cause you any trouble,” the goat comforted him. “Sissoko is very worried about you, so…”

“Don’t tell me it’s here too,” Cohen said expressionlessly.

"No, not at all," said the long-horned water snake. "We've unanimously decided on the most suitable person to help you."

“That’s…us,” the goat said.

"Roar..." The lion snorted and strolled toward Cohen, gently licking Cohen's collar with its tongue.

"..."

Cohen couldn't continue lecturing him—

“You fucking moved me,” Cohen said viciously.

“So, Cohen, how much do you know about this place?” Harry asked, seizing the opportunity. “Was it here that Mr. Frond met his accident?”

“You guys dared to run here without knowing anything…” Cohen said, rubbing his head. “That’s quite an adventurous spirit…”

“There’s a cult here called Silver Key, and they’ve kidnapped Mr. Flando’s soul,” Cohen explained to them briefly.

"The Silver Key!" Hermione's eyes widened, and she looked at Cohen in horror. "Cohen, it's that organization that sent you letters before—back in January of last year!"

“Good memory, but that’s not the point.” Cohen shook his head. “I originally found this place by following the traces of the soul, but now the link between Flandre’s body and soul has been disrupted—I can confirm that his soul is still in this area, but I can’t pinpoint a specific location.”

"What is their purpose?" Harry asked. "To capture more souls?"

(End of this chapter)