Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 274 If the original version can be easily replaced by the pirated version, then what's the point of distinguishing between the original and the pirated versions?
In Mr. Crow's room, there is now a very obvious path—

What should have been a wardrobe has been replaced by an open door, behind which is a staircase leading down.

“Sure enough, every adventure has a secret basement,” Cohen said calmly. “It’s always the same, and a new one pops up at Hogwarts every year.”

“Cheer up, this time there won’t be your unicorn mom and basilisk dad in the basement,” the count said. “Your parents’ seats are already full.”

"What on earth happened to you guys at Hogwarts?!" Edward said, scratching his hair.

This was clearly due to Edward being too obedient when he was in school—any law-abiding student would have a relatively unsuccessful and mediocre school life at Hogwarts.

This is what Hufflepuff's students are like.

But Cedric in the original books is an exception—that was Voldemort's doing.

But now that Cohen is here, the world is saved!
They went down the stairs and came to a dark basement.

This place is filled with chaotic magic—it's this thing that blocked Cohen's investigation of Mr. Frondo.

In the basement, a large number of bottles and jars were placed on a wooden table against the wall, and Mr. Crow's "corpse" and a motionless snake were placed on several other experimental tables haphazardly placed in the center.

Cohen recognized the snake as a basilisk—it was a cub that looked much smaller than the little basilisk Sophia. It had lost its soul, and many thin tubes were inserted under its scales, delivering a dark liquid into the basilisk's body.

There were two other people standing in the room besides Miss Beatrice and Cohen.

One was Wernher von Braun—he appeared unharmed and seemed to be helping the lab's owner with research.

And the other one...

He was a short, hunched old man with white hair. He was filthy, and the wrinkles on his face resembled the bark of a willow tree. Perhaps because he had been doing research, his hair was so sparse that you could almost see his scalp covered with age spots.

[Soul Strength: 42]

He was feeding Cohen a mixture of solutions from a test tube.

Because the real Cohen had torn apart Cohen's scales, its human body now looked broken and was huddled in a corner, whimpering incessantly.

“You promised!” Miss Beatrice screamed hysterically at the old man. “I brought back my sister’s tongue! You promised me eternal life!”

“Don’t rush…don’t rush…” the old man said softly, but he didn’t even glance at Ms. Beatrice.

Seeing that Cohen was slightly better under the effects of the medicine, the old man seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Child, once I find the incredible secret of immortality within that cat… you won’t need to rely on medicine anymore…” the old man said to Cohen. “If you can devour that cat’s soul… you won’t collapse…”

"Still thinking about your damn immortality..." Wernher von Braun gritted his teeth and growled at the still-angry Miss Beatrice, "You're about to die, you know that? If you want to live, run away right now—"

“Von Braun, restrain that girl,” the old man said. He was hard of hearing and hadn’t heard what Von Braun had just said. “My child is dying, the Lord has found him…”

“Okay, okay—” von Braun immediately nodded and bowed in agreement.

"What are you trying to do!" Ms. Beatrice exclaimed, drawing a blood-stained dagger from her hand. "Don't come any closer—are you lying to me?"

“Idiot, run!” Wernher von Braun yelled at her. “Don’t Muggles understand human language?!”

"what?"

“No need to run anymore.” Cohen led Edward and the Earl out from behind the half-open door. “You can’t kill anyone anymore—the old man whose name I don’t know.”

"Ah..." The old man turned around unsteadily. He saw Cohen, but unlike the other fanatical followers of the Silver Key, he did not immediately kneel down. "My beloved Lord... I knew you would come here..."

“What nonsense are you talking about—” Miss Beatrice said, bewildered.

"She fainted." Wernher von Braun secretly cast a stun spell on her.

If you're not going to run, then just lie down and don't cause any trouble.

However, after seeing Cohen arrive, Wernher von Braun finally breathed a sigh of relief—he had been unable to bear being exploited by this old man for so many days.

“Speak English.” Cohen had no patience for the old man, especially since the little guy the old man kept, with his face plastered on his skin, was breathing on him.

The fact that Cohen didn't pounce on him and kill him shows that he still had some humanity left.

At least he was given a chance to explain.

“I had no intention of turning away from you, my Lord…” the old man said in a fervent tone, “but your coming gave me hope… I succeeded…”

As he spoke, he stroked Cohen's hair with satisfaction.

“You failed. This thing is going to die,” Cohen said coldly. “You completely misunderstood the real reason why the ‘man in a bottle’ was able to survive.”

"Hiss..." Cohen hissed threateningly at Cohen, but hesitated to rush over due to its instinctive fear of Cohen—Cohen had just given it a good beating not long ago.

“There isn’t one now…” the old man laughed, “and there never will be… He lacked one crucial thing… He found something from your vast knowledge… ‘When one dies, another is enlightened’…”

"So you want it to devour me?" Cohen raised an eyebrow. "Are you senile? It can't beat me. If the original can be easily replaced by the pirated version, then what's the point of distinguishing between the two?"

"It was you who swallowed him, my Lord..."

The old man said in a daze,

“You will devour him, for he will hunt down those who make you indulge in grand dreams… I wanted to make it more complete—but you’ve come too soon…”

"Hiss—" [Cohen] wriggled uneasily.

“I have given everything for this… my child, my love, my soul…” The old man looked at Mr. Crow lying on the platform—without a doubt, the body of this crow-headed man was originally the old man’s child.

"You're insane!" Edward gripped his wand, looking at the old man with utter disgust. "You killed your own son and wife for a cult?!"

"Because this world took their lives first!" the old man suddenly roared at Edward as if provoked. "You don't understand—I've lost everything! And the one who killed them is still alive—always alive—always alive..."

"Who was the murderer?" Cohen asked.

"Do it, von Braun." The old man didn't answer Cohen's question, but ordered von Braun.

"Huh? Me?" Wernher von Braun stepped aside innocently.

“Are you deaf?!” the old man shouted at von Braun. “I told you to attack them!” “This is not something I can explain to you…” von Braun said slowly.

"Didn't you say you were willing to give your life for the great ambition of destroying this world?!" the old man demanded.

"Do I really have to spell it out?" Wernher von Braun said, pursing his lips. "I'm the mole—you were the one who aggressively forced me to do this with you—it wasn't my choice..."

"Fine, fine, fine," the old man said through gritted teeth, "Then I'll do it myself..."

While the old man was speaking, von Braun quickly threw a red spell at the scoundrel—but the old man deflected the spell incredibly fast.

Edward, who was next to Cohen, immediately threw several silent spells at the old man, but they were all deflected.

"Avada Kedavra!" Amid the barrage of curses from the two men, the old man managed to throw a killing curse at von Braun.

Just as the green light was about to hit Wernher von Braun, Cohen swiftly transformed into a Dementor and lunged into the path of the curse, blocking the fatal curse.

"Avada Kedavra—damn it, I've wanted to try this for ages—"

The count also cast a green spell at the old man.

Unfortunately, the count seemed to be too kind; the spell wasn't very harmful, and the old man only got a nosebleed.

“Avada Kedavra is still too difficult for a bird.” The Count, facing Edward’s complicated gaze, pecked at his wing somewhat awkwardly.

However, the old man still had no chance of surviving—Cohen had gotten close enough to absorb his soul.

42.8 to 42, the advantage lies with Cohen.

There's no need to resort to other methods, such as smearing blood on the old man's face or using the Death Curse in front of Edward.

After absorbing the old man's soul, Cohen's soul strength steadily reached 45 points.

The efficiency of absorbing wizards' souls is decreasing—Cohen suspects that what he needs are pure soul fragments to replenish his soul, rather than food.

However, the old man's death was not the end, because there was another dangerous thing here.

[Cohen] is no longer in the original corner.

It lunged at Edward, and the Earl tried many spells but couldn't stop it—even the Guardian Charm.

[Cohen] braved the silver owl's beak and pounced on Edward, whose body was already bleeding.

At the same time, Cohen, who had just arrived, was stopped by Edward as soon as he made a move.

They watched in silence as Cohen, this familiar yet unfamiliar "child," held Edward tightly, his black blood smeared all over Edward's clothes.

Fortunately, the mad old man didn't add the Nightmare bloodline, so this blood, like the basilisk blood, didn't have any dangerous effects.

"..."

“I feel guilty now,” the count said, smacking his lips. “It feels like I’ve beaten up an innocent child.”

"That old man must be very disappointed..."

Cohen looked at this pirated version of himself and felt a strange sensation.

Why would a replica be so dependent on Edward?
He looks just like... the "Cohen" before Cohen traveled here, the child who loved his parents deeply until his death.

"Have you been here all this time?" Cohen turned to von Braun and asked.

“Yes.” Wernher von Braun rubbed his kidneys—he had been so frightened by the old madman’s death curse that he had almost knocked over the table, which resulted in the table corner piercing his kidneys precisely.

“The old man said he found the phrase ‘one dies, another is enlightened’ in my mind,” Cohen asked. “How did he do that? This…emmmm…memory, I’ve never shared it with anyone.”

“Wizards leave their mark on the places they go.” von Braun narrowed his eyes as he looked at the [Cohen] in Edward’s arms. “This old man has been collecting those clues and piecing together the child’s original parts from the fragments of the mark.”

"So...it's actually a tiny bit of Cohen's remains?" Edward asked. The way the child hugged his belly did feel very much like Cohen's—Come to think of it, Cohen hadn't hugged himself in a long time and patted his belly every day.

Kids are definitely cutest when they're little; Cohen used to stick to me all the time...

But even such a tiny fragment loves him so much… Thinking of this, Edward chuckled.

"How greasy!" Cohen accused. "You've become a pathetic middle-aged man controlled by your children!"

“I’m not moved anymore.” Edward’s previously upturned lips drooped.

Cohen's life cycle has also come to an end—without being fed medication to maintain its bodily stability, this cobbled-together thing could not survive for long.

Even knowing it was fake, Edward still couldn't control his emotions as he watched Cohen die and gradually turn into black mist.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t like to eat sadness,” Cohen said. “It’s too sour.”

"Promise me, you won't act alone in dangerous situations like this in the future," Edward said to Cohen in an unusually serious tone.

“It’s not dangerous,” Cohen said, turning his head away. “Didn’t you notice I was dominating them…”

“What if there’s a next time?” Edward said. “What if next time they create a monster that you can’t handle alone?”

“If I can’t handle it, then there’s no point in you coming.” Cohen still didn’t agree to Edward’s request.

"That's what I'm trying to say."

Edward turned Cohen's head back, his eyes meeting Cohen's, his brown eyes filled with a kind of magical emotion.
“You don’t have to carry everything alone, no matter how different you are or how terrifying the things you have to face are… Your mother and I will always stand with you—even if the whole world is against you, we will stand with you.”

“Then I’m going to take down the Minister of Magic right now,” Cohen said, rubbing his hands together. “Since you’ve said so, let’s get started—I’ve been wanting to get rid of Fudge for a long time, let’s burn the Ministry of Magic to ashes!”

“Your time is over. I’ll take you back to school in a bit,” Edward said dryly.

“I already asked Dumbledore for leave!” Cohen protested. “I still have five days of leave! Going back now would be a huge waste—”

“Go to school and do what you should be doing,” Edward admonished. “Don’t think about all that nonsense all day, or I’ll tell your mother you’re skipping school with your classmates.”

(End of this chapter)