Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 272 Another Cohen (6000 words)
"You still have a chance to back out." Mr. Raven left a message and a small note. "I'll be waiting for you in room 103."

Mr. Crow left, his expression unreadable from his head covered in jet-black feathers.

Ms. Beatrice leaned against the bed, staring blankly at the foot of the bed, conflicted by this sudden "deal".

Cohen, along with Hermione and Harry, followed Mr. Raven as he left, trailing him all the way down to the corridor where room 103 was located.

He entered the room, and the light shining through the crack in the door went out quietly a moment later, indicating that the crow-headed man had gone to sleep.

Doesn't he brush his teeth and wash his face before bed?

Cohen was disappointed with the biomimicry of this Mr. Raven.

They didn't go inside; after all, they could check on the situation more safely in the morning, once Mr. Crow was locked up.

“He doesn’t have human teeth at all…” Hermione whispered. “And those feathers aren’t easy to wash…”

"Are there really wizards with bird heads?" Harry asked Cohen and Hermione in surprise.

“Velves can transform into something resembling a harpy,” Hermione said. “But all Velves are female, and this Mr. Raven is definitely not—”

“To be precise, he’s not even a human being,” Cohen said. “Let’s go back to our rooms and wait until daytime.”

“We still need to save Lady Beatrice…” Harry said anxiously, “She’s about to be killed—”

“Harry…” Hermione took a deep breath and said softly to Harry, “I know… this might be hard to accept—but we can’t save her—”

"Didn't we go back in time to save her?" Harry asked, utterly bewildered. "She's going to die soon—"

"Not here." Cohen stopped Harry's voice, which was getting louder, and pulled him back upstairs.

After closing the door to room 208, Cohen cast a soundproofing spell inside the room.

“We saw Lady Beatrice’s body, Harry,” Hermione explained cautiously to Harry. “The future cannot be changed—we can’t save someone who is destined to die…”

“But we’re already there!” Harry’s eyes widened. “All we have to do is wait in room 203 and we can save her…”

“There’s a reason the Ministry of Magic has regulations regarding the Time-Turner, Harry,” Hermione said, pulling Harry back as he tried to leave. “If we had saved her, we wouldn’t have seen her body earlier…”

"Then what's the point of going back in time?!" Harry gasped, "To watch her die again?"

"..."

Cohen remained silent, leaning against the bedside, deep in thought.

“Because we need to find out the truth,” Hermione said, pursing her lips. “Now we know that it wasn’t Mr. Raven who killed him, but Ms. Beatrice’s sister—and obviously, Mr. Raven told both of them… Now all we have to do is wait, until morning—”

“No,” Cohen said.

"Ms. Beatrice is not dead—or rather, the body we saw was not the real Ms. Beatrice."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked in surprise.

“What? Not Lady Beatrice?” Harry asked. “Then who did we see…”

Cohen didn't say much, but instead untied the bag and turned it upside down—a small "person" fell out with a thud.

“Peter Pettigrew?” Harry recognized the man Cohen had dumped out. “Wasn’t he executed?”

“This is a doll,” Cohen said. “Alchemy, isn’t it amazing?”

“I thought alchemy was just for making Philosopher’s Stones…” Harry said weakly.

“You know, alchemists can make anything except the Philosopher’s Stone,” Cohen said. “Never mind that for now. Remember the corpse we saw this morning?”

“I remember…” Harry said, “so…”

“The body was bleeding,” Cohen said. “And what a coincidence, the bleeding only started while we were examining the body. Isn’t that a bit too much of a coincidence and a bit too illogical?”

"So... that corpse is actually a puppet you've left behind?!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise.

“A normal corpse wouldn’t start bleeding hours after death; the bloodstains should have soaked the sheets long ago, and the room should have been filled with the smell of blood by now, instead of only appearing when we arrived—and moreover, remember the corners of that corpse’s mouth this morning? Those white things—” Cohen said.

“That’s really heavy…” Hermione said with a distorted expression.

“I initially thought it was ** too.” Cohen raised his eyebrows. “But thinking about it carefully, although that crow-headed man’s ejaculation was indeed massive, it’s impossible for that woman to have been sucking on it until she died…”

“There’s no need to continue this deduction…” Harry interrupted, “It’s disgusting…”

“Then things will be much easier from here on out,” Cohen said casually.

After adjusting the flesh puppet to resemble Ms. Beatrice, the three donned invisibility cloaks and returned to room 203.

This time, they simply pushed the door open and went inside.

The lights were already off here, and Ms. Beatrice thought Mr. Crow had returned—

“I’m tired,” Ms. Beatrice said sullenly. “Not tonight—and I’ve thought it through, I won’t hurt my sister for this—”

"Collapsed."

Cohen's wand emerged from beneath Harry's Invisibility Cloak, and a red spell struck Lady Beatrice.

"Should we start working on the crime scene now?" Harry asked. "Isn't it...too early—"

“Who said that?” Cohen said. “It’s just a case of switching living people.”

With that, Cohen carried the flesh puppet onto the bed and then put the unconscious Beatrice into the pocket of the Unseen Stretching Charm.

Under Cohen's control, the puppet began to imitate Beatrice's various behaviors in a simple way, and at least for a short time, no one should be able to tell the difference between it and Beatrice.

"It can talk?!" Harry asked.

“Of course she can talk,” Cohen said. “Otherwise, wouldn’t she be exposed when her sister comes to kill her later? —Wait…I need to add something…”

Cohen waved his wand, adding some "small marks" to the puppet to make it more like the corpse they had seen.

"I can't bear to think about what will happen when Ms. Beatrice wakes up and hears that her sister wants to kill her..." Hermione said with a heavy heart.

“The Ministry of Magic will erase their memories,” Cohen shook his head. “None of them will remember this—but even if they lose their memories, they’ll definitely get into trouble later. How could anyone take the life of their own loved one for the sake of immortality?”

After dealing with Ms. Beatrice's matter, they returned to room 208.

No one will come here; they can stay here until morning—during which time Harry asked Cohen many questions about the silver key.

Cohen responded with some facts—including that he was an object of admiration for the Silver Key.

"If they admire you, why would they be hostile to you?" Harry asked, puzzled.

“Because the ‘me’ they worship is clearly ideologically different from me,” Cohen said, rubbing his forehead. “They think I will destroy the world one day, so they can’t wait to drag me down with them to destroy the world—that’s very cult-like. It seems that kidnapping my friends and my cat is the fuse for their world destruction.”

"Do you think Mr. Frondo's soul might be hidden in room 103? The one where Mr. Raven lives?" Harry asked curiously.

“Cohen, didn’t you just say… that Mr. Raven isn’t actually human?” Hermione suddenly remembered.

“That’s right.” Cohen nodded. “After all, I’m a Dementor; it’s easy for me to tell whether something has a soul or not—”

“You mean… Mr. Raven…” Harry’s eyes widened, “that he has no soul?”

“Just like my puppet, it can heal its body quickly because of this, not because there’s any real elixir of immortality.” Cohen raised his eyebrows. “So you can imagine someone here playing a management simulation game—the kind with some erotic elements—with a remote control for the puppet. But what I don’t understand is, did the Silver Key kidnap Wernher von Braun and then Flandre’s soul, luring me here just to show me Muggles killing each other for immortality?”

Or...

Cohen actually had a premonition—and that premonition was coming to him with a strong feeling.

The hotel performance was so familiar that Cohen even thought he had put it on himself.

There is no "Rusty Lake" in this world; only Cohen himself knows the story behind this game.

"When one person dies, another is enlightened."

Cohen flipped through his special abilities section again.

【特殊能力解锁：灵体塑形（10/10）、情绪汲取（10/10）、液态诅咒（3/10）、蛇佬腔（10/10）、死亡凝视（5/10）、启示（8/10）】

The ability panel happens to have an "Revelation" ability, which represents Cohen's occasional prophetic abilities.

Is it just that the two words happen to be the same? Or is it that the Silver Key wants Cohen's ability?
Not long after, the puppet controlled by Cohen was killed—the murderer was indeed Miss Beatrice. She went to her sister's room, pretended to be scared and snuggled into her sister's arms, telling her sister about Mr. Raven's non-existent "atrocities," and then took the opportunity to stab Miss Beatrice in the back—in the end, Miss Beatrice cut off her sister's tongue.

After waiting for who knows how long, Hermione, who was listening to the sounds outside the door, waved to Cohen and Harry.

“There are a lot of footsteps outside, and we can hear us talking next door,” Hermione said in a low voice. “We should go downstairs.”

The time is almost up—the "they" are about to discover the murder and return upstairs.

After a series of chaotic footsteps and arguments sounded outside the door again, the time came for everyone to check room 203. Cohen controlled Ms. Beatrice's corpse to bleed, completing the time loop.

“We need to put on invisibility cloaks,” Hermione said. “We’ll fill in for the other team of ‘us’ after they come in and use the Time-Turner.”

“That’s amazing,” Harry exclaimed. “I can’t even imagine what it would be like if I saw another version of myself standing in front of me…”

“I hope this never happens,” Hermione said seriously. “This is the most dangerous place for time travel—”

They waited behind the door—Cohen remembered that he didn't seem to have checked behind the door using Dementor's perspective.

Otherwise, the invisibility cloak would not have prevented them from being seen by "Cohen".

"Squeak-"

The door opened, and Cohen, Hermione, and Harry walked in. As remembered, Hermione explained the Time-Turner, and the three of them gathered together.

"one two Three……"

Hermione carefully turned the hourglass in the middle of the time-turner eight times.

In the blink of an eye, the three people in the room vanished.

"Phew..." Hermione lifted the Invisibility Cloak covering them and let out a long breath.

"Thankfully...nothing unexpected happened..."

“Are we going to Mr. Raven’s room next?” Harry said. “To see what secrets are hidden there…”

“No.” Cohen suddenly refused their request.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked. "Is something unusual?"

“We have to go back first—” Cohen said, “and then you guys stay in 207, and I’ll go check things out by myself.”

“No,” Harry said firmly. “We came here so you wouldn’t have to act alone—”

“Don’t be silly, this detective game is just for fun,” Cohen refused. “I won’t die, but you won’t—you’ll have to stay next to the Chimera Beasts.”

“But you had that accident when you were in first year!” Harry said stubbornly. “I won’t let anything happen to you again—at least…”

“Don’t be so British,” Cohen said, rubbing his forehead. “Just think of it as a break from school life. If you keep going, I’ll cast a Stunning Spell on each of you and wake you up when it’s all over.”

Cohen raised his wand—and Harry and Hermione both fell silent.

“Alright, let’s go back to 207 first,” Cohen said.

When Cohen was about to open the door, he saw the spirit outside.

Edward's soul emerged from behind the door of room 207 next door, turned to the other side, and then... returned to room 206?

What does that mean? Why did Edward suddenly run out all by himself?

Cohen immediately pushed open the door and rushed out of room 208 into the hallway.
The door to room 207 was wide open, and Ron peeked out—but when Ron saw Cohen, his eyes clearly showed surprise—

“Cohen? And Harry—Hermione—no, Cohen, you didn’t just come back alone—” Ron was confused. “Where’s your dad?”

"What do you mean?" Hermione frowned.

"Huh?" Harry was also a little confused by Ron's words. "Cohen has been with us the whole time?"

Ignoring all that, Cohen rushed toward room 206, whose door had just been closed—Cohen had only seen Edward's soul through the door as it entered the corridor.

Ron meant that "Cohen came back alone and took Edward away from room 207."

In other words, a soulless "Cohen" took advantage of the loophole.

"Bang!" Cohen slammed open the door to room 206.

Edward was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a crying child in his arms, comforting the child and patting the child's back.

"Alright, alright... tell Dad what happened? It's only been less than two minutes..." Edward said with concern, "Where are Harry and Hermione—"

Edward suddenly stopped talking because Cohen barged in.

He stared blankly at Cohen at the doorway, then at the child in his arms—

"Cohen?" He looked up and down repeatedly. "No—wait... what's going on—"

The child in his arms slowly turned his head.

Cohen felt very strange—a “Cohen” who looked exactly like him was hiding in Edward’s arms, with tear stains on his face, looking at him with complicated eyes.

Unlike Mr. Raven, Cohen is certain that this "Cohen" is not a puppet.

Because it gave Cohen a similar feeling to the Dementors—perhaps mixed with humans and basilisks, since Cohen could smell the basilisk.

"Immediately imprison!" Cohen raised his hand and cast a spell, aiming at the child in Edward's arms.

But Edward reacted quickly and broke free of the spell—he began to doubt which "Cohen" was the real Cohen.

So at the same time, he also let go of "Cohen" in his arms.

"..." Cohen didn't speak, staring blankly at Edward, who was no longer hugging him, looking like a homeless puppy.

This caused Edward a pang of heartache—

“He’s a fake.” Cohen frowned, his wand still pointed at the pitiful version of himself, then asked Edward, “I wouldn’t make that face no matter what—can’t you tell?”

“What’s going on…” Edward stood there uncertainly, his eyes fixed on Cohen, who was huddled by the bed.

“Dad…” Cohen tentatively reached out his hands toward Edward.

"I fainted." Cohen cast another spell—the red light hit another version of himself, but the spell had no effect.

Cohen even had a feeling—he could no longer distinguish between it and himself.

"Can you hug me one more time..." Cohen pleaded.

"..." Edward lowered his wand—using this move on Cohen's face was too unfair.

But Edward didn't reach out to it—which was clearly not Cohen.

"..." Cohen watched as Edward took a step back in resistance and slowly withdrew his hand.

It looked at Cohen on the other side.

Cohen saw confusion, envy, and... a hint of hostility in the face that looked exactly like his own.

Suddenly, it let out a shriek, and large clumps of black mist emanated from its surroundings. Once the mist completely enveloped it, a gigantic figure covered by a tattered black cloth emerged from within—

"Dementors?!" Harry exclaimed in surprise as he arrived at the door.

[Cohen] leaped into the air and rushed straight towards Cohen at the door—at the same time, Edward also burst out with amazing speed, taking a big step to block Cohen's way.

"Call the gods to protect you!"

Edward raised his wand and chanted the spell at the Dementor.

Cohen had never seen Edward's guardian spirit before—Edward neither needed nor would he use this spell in front of Cohen.

Cohen knows now.

A silver Dementor emerged from the tip of Edward's wand.

It's hard to believe that a wizard could summon a guardian spirit that looks like a Dementor—Cohen used to think that only he would experience this, since he himself was a Dementor.

Cohen heard the Dementors' screams—the [Cohen] in front of him was speaking in the Dementors' unique way of thinking.

He looks like Cohen, can transform into a Dementor, fears Patronus, but doesn't seem very bright...

Cohen seemed to understand what the silver key was doing here.

They were so anxious that they wanted to create another "god".

Edward's guardian spirit had some effect, but not much—Cohen was already trying to tear a small opening in the guardian spirit's light and continue his breakthrough toward them.

"Call the gods to protect you!"

Harry followed closely behind, and then Hermione—although the Patronus they summoned were now noticeably different.

Hermione could still only summon a puff of smoke, while Harry this time summoned a tangible object—

A male deer.

It raised its horns and leaped towards Cohen.

Cohen also released a guardian spirit, exactly the same as Edward's.

Even so, Edward still turned to look at Cohen in surprise:

"What are you-"

"Let's not talk about each other, we'll explain everything together later," Cohen said dryly.

Three guardian spirits surrounded Cohen in the room, and it could only frantically bump into things, only to run into obstacles everywhere it went.

But it did not settle down. The black mist rose again, and this time, a giant snake that everyone recognized horribly emerged from the mist that enveloped it.

"What? There's a basilisk too!" Ron exclaimed in surprise, unable to help.

Now it could bypass the guardian spirit—it twisted and charged toward Cohen and Edward.

Edward threw out many spells, but they were all deflected by the basilisk's scales.

"Step aside--"

Cohen pushed Edward aside and transformed into the basilisk—the two basilisks, roughly the same size, roared and entangled in a fierce battle, leaving the onlookers at the door dumbfounded.

"You guys, get out of here in the next room!" Edward snapped out of his daze and grabbed Harry and the others. "Stay with that chimera—don't come out—"

After pushing the three little devils into room 207, Edward returned to the door of room 206. One of the basilisk monsters had already darted out the door and escaped.

"Damn, I almost broke a tooth..." Cohen rubbed his mouth as he followed behind.

“Just now…” Edward swallowed.

“A high-quality fake 'Cohen',” Cohen said irritably. “Looks like Silver Key is starting to pull off something big—as if they think I’m still too focused on my studies to take care of them.”

“But a fake is a fake, and it seems to be starting to become unstable.” Cohen looked in the direction it had fled—towards the downstairs corridor.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!! There's a snake!!!"

A Muggle scream came from downstairs; it must have come from Miss Beatrice.

“After all, it has no soul,” Cohen added. “It’ll probably die within two hours—I want to see what these people are up to… But before that, you, and Harry and the others, all have to get out of here.”

(End of this chapter)