Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 290 Rebuilding the Glory of Azkaban: Our Duty Is Inescapable

The plan goes through!
Cohen left the tent satisfied.

The remaining three silver keys were still fighting the Aurors, but they were struck by several spells and fell silently into the bushes near the camp.

The souls dissipated quickly, but Cohen benefited from them—the souls of these three were too weak, and together they could only add 2% to Cohen's soul integrity. Fortunately, little by little, Cohen is now very close to the "extremely safe" strength threshold.

[Soul Strength: 49]

From a certain perspective, these silver keys did indeed achieve their ultimate goal—they became "one" with Cohen.

Returning to his tent quietly, Edward's snoring was still steady, the chimera was lying quietly inside, and the lion was fiddling with a ball of yarn he had taken from a box.

The lion's ball of yarn seemed to have been polished so much that it no longer resembled a ball of yarn, but rather a round bomb encased in sulfur and dried slime, ready to explode at the slightest breath of fire.

Cohen crawled back into his body, stretched his limbs, and rolled over on the upper bunk.

"You're back?" Edward mumbled, still half asleep.

"Hmm?" Cohen responded with a puzzled "hmm".

Edward shouldn't know that his soul would drift away... would he?
"Hold on tighter..." Edward mumbled.

Cohen, who was about to get up, stopped and lay back down.

Edward probably dreamt about Rose—she almost thought Edward knew about his involvement in instigating Silver Key and the Death Eaters to attack Fudge…
-
When Cohen got up the next morning, Edward was still sleeping sprawled out, half of his body dragging on the floor.

It's hard to imagine this sleeping scene in a camp where a terrorist attack occurred just last night.

Cohen climbed down from the top bunk and tucked Edward's half-body back into the blankets.

It seems the Chimera Beast's sense of security during night watch was too much; otherwise, he wouldn't have let his guard down to this extent.

After Cohen got up, the lion nudged its head next to him, wanting Cohen to pet it.

Cohen gave its mane a perfunctory scratch and went into the bathroom to wash up—but before he could finish brushing his teeth, he heard calls coming from outside the tent.

“Cohen? Mr. Norton? Are you still there?”

Harry called out a few times from the doorway.

Cohen poked his head out from between the tent flaps, a toothbrush in his mouth.

"What's wrong?" Cohen saw Harry at the door and Sirius Black, who had already packed his bags and was about to leave, not far away.

“Aren’t you going? There’s a long line of people waiting for the key outside—” Harry warned, “but Mr. Weasley has given us a spot—you can come along if you’re ready—”

“Thanks, but Edward is still sleeping.” Cohen shook his head. “You guys go ahead. Edward and I won’t use the key anymore—he said he’d rather ride a broomstick with me than use the key again…”

“It’s not safe here—I heard the Minister for Magic was attacked again in the middle of the night yesterday…” Harry said worriedly.

Only victims worry about attacks.

Cohen is a harmful person, don't worry about him.

“It’s alright, you know my security is much better than Fudge’s.” Cohen waved his hand, rummaged around in his mouth with his toothbrush for a few moments, and said, “See you on the train.”

"See you on the train then." Harry said goodbye to Cohen and left with Sirius.

Cohen glanced around and saw that only a few tents remained in the camp, and the number was decreasing—because people were packing up their tents and preparing to leave.

No one wanted to linger too long in a place where Death Eaters were parading, even though the Dark Mark in the sky had been removed by the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic.

The wizards didn't leave last night simply because their Apparition technique wasn't working properly, or because it was inconvenient to carry too much stuff.

Cohen retreated back into the tent and waited until eight or nine o'clock before Edward yawned and got out of bed.

"Didn't you go to bed early last night?" Cohen asked as the two of them ate breakfast.

"If I went to bed early and woke up early, I would have been at work by now," Edward said sleepily. "I even had a nightmare last night—I dreamt that I had to sit in an office all day reviewing documents—it was terrifying—it was just a dream, but it was so tiring..."

After breakfast, Edward was much more awake, and Cohen helped him pack up the tent.

After packing everything up, Cohen took his suitcase, while Edward carried a backpack containing tent accessories (Cohen had suggested that these could be packed in the suitcase, but Edward insisted on maintaining the "tourist feel").

After confirming that Cohen had already mastered Apparition, the two disappeared into the woods, Apparating twice before finally returning home.

Edward had just returned home when Rose, who was waiting in the living room, rushed over and hugged him tightly—

“This is…” Edward said, at a loss for words.

Rose didn't say anything, she just kissed him on the cheek.

She was clutching a crumpled copy of the Daily Prophet in her hand, and her face looked rather pale.

Then, Rose let go of Edward, hugged Cohen who was standing next to her, and kissed Cohen on the cheek.

“I saw the newspaper—there was a Death Eater march at the stadium last night, and Fudge was attacked—” Rose said anxiously. “I didn’t sleep a wink all night—your tickets were for the penthouse box where Fudge was, I should have gone with you—”

"Alright, alright, at least we're okay, aren't we?" Edward reassured us. "We even witnessed the minister's assassination attempt up close—"

“Why didn’t you come back last night?” Rose asked. “I searched through all the interviews in the newspapers—Rita Skeeter investigated everyone involved in that box, but I couldn’t find any about you—I almost thought something had happened to you, or…”

"I won't attack the Minister of Magic in the box."

Edward joked,
"Especially after that application was approved..."

"About the Charm of Loyalty?" Rose asked. "Have you explained it to Cohen?"

“My dad told me about it,” Cohen nodded. “I agree.”

At Rose's request, Edward sat down on the sofa with her and began to describe in detail what had happened the previous night.

Cohen then picked up the newspaper that Rose had been clutching.

The front page headline read, "Death Eaters Return, Ministry of Magic Panicked." Rita Skeeter used this opportunity to publicize the Ministry of Magic's lax security and incompetent internal management, claiming that the Ministry had "brought shame to the nation."

Putting aside the fact that he was one of the culprits, Cohen felt that Rita's report was reasonable enough—the fact that the Silver Key's people could so easily sneak into the top-floor suite showed that the Ministry of Magic's security was indeed not very good.

The second edition is still about the Ministry of Magic, and it features a picture of Fudge covering his ear with a bandage.

[...The Minister of Magic claims he has been attacked multiple times by a combined force of the Silver Keys (a cult, details of which can be found in section 2 of page 3) and Death Eaters, and has engaged in several fierce battles with them. However, this statement is significantly inconsistent with the findings of this reporter's interview with the Bulgarian Minister of Magic. Whether Cornelius Fudge's words will be sufficient to quell the rumors that the Minister of Magic was beaten insane by a lowly, unemployed thug remains to be seen...]
"Pfft—" Cohen couldn't hold back anymore, "Beating someone to the point of insanity by some low-level, unemployed thug..."

"Unemployed thugs?" Rose recalled this part of the report she had just read and suddenly looked at Edward with alarm.

"I'm unemployed, but I'm not a criminal!"

Edward immediately swore,

“Cohen testifies—”

“I can vouch for him, he wasn’t the killer,” Cohen assured him without a hint of falsehood, turning the newspaper to page three.

This page features an introduction to the Silver Key, described as an "obscure cult." The Daily Prophet's bold move is described as "having some kind of secret backer."

However, this "secret backer" was explained in the fourth page of the newspaper as a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Magic, implying that there were bad people among the Ministry of Magic officials—details of the investigation will be provided in the next issue of the newspaper.

“The Ministry of Magic is going to be busy for a while.” Edward sighed after explaining everything to Rose. “I don’t know if Arnold can handle the work in the Auror’s office. Fudge is probably frantically trying to find the mastermind right now.”

“No.” Rose shook her head. “If Rita’s factual account is true, and the attackers are already dead, Fudge won’t be investigating the real killer.”

“That man’s death curse was practically thrown in his face.” Edward frowned. “If old Buddy hadn’t reacted quickly, he would already be in his grave…”

“This time, Death Eaters are involved, and there’s the Dark Mark—Voldemort might be behind it all,” Rose said confidently. “I know Fudge’s personality; he wouldn’t dare announce that Voldemort has returned—because then all the wizards in Britain would know that he’s actually a guy with absolutely no management skills, as evidenced by the arrangements for this Quidditch World Cup.”
-
During the remainder of the summer vacation, Arnold, who used to frequently visit Edward, did not show up—which shows how incredibly busy the Ministry of Magic had been during this time.

However, the Ministry of Magic was not only busy with the post-World Cup public opinion and compensation issues. If Cohen's memory served him correctly, there was another matter that the Ministry of Magic had to prepare for – the Triwizard Tournament.

Voldemort also sent a letter to Cohen through a black, smoke-like magic spell, mentioning his plan to kidnap Harry Potter a second time.

He needs to have a new body made, and considering that Cohen's "help" will take a very long time (Voldemort criticized Cohen at least three times in his letter for wasting the elixir of immortality on the "talking toilet"), he plans to do it this year.

And the plan...

As luck would have it, it's another three-way battle for supremacy.

With Lucius as his source of information, Voldemort easily obtained news of the Triwizard Tournament.

He wanted Harry Potter to participate and win—by ​​tampering with the final trophy.

This time, Cohen doesn't need to arrange the door keys; he has a new insider.

Voldemort wanted Cohen's help on how to help Harry, who was too old and incompetent, win the game.

Given Cohen's abilities, it would be quite easy for him to help Harry cheat a little.

"..."

Cohen remained silent for a while after reading the letter.

It wasn't because Voldemort's plan seemed so familiar, nor because Voldemort wanted him to help him cheat.

But...

[Ding! The evil branch has been advanced]

[Evil Side Quest (4/7)]

4. Tom Riddle, resurrected in his complete form

[Reward: 5000 Sin Points, Animagus Form Simulator (Choose one of the bloodline sources)]

[Ding! The Kindness quest has been advanced]

[Kindness Quest (4/7)]

4. As a warrior of Azkaban, win the Triwizard Tournament trophy.

[Reward: 5000 Goodwill Points, Animagus Form Simulator (Choose one of the bloodline sources)]

Does this mean the three-way battle is going to become a five-way battle?

He also had to be "a warrior of Azkaban"...

"What's wrong?" The Earl noticed that Cohen had been reading the letter for a long time without saying a word, and asked with some confusion, "Besides the Triwizard Tournament, did Voldemort write anything else strange in it? Is he pregnant?"

“It’s nothing. If it were just that he’s pregnant, that would be fine.” Cohen sighed. “But Earl, you know what? I’ve always felt that the Dementors of Azkaban have been quite nice to me…”

"Something feels off." The count shook his feathers, realizing that things didn't seem to be as simple as they appeared.

“Last year, I saw them being stopped outside the school, unable to even enter the Quidditch pitch, forced to stay outside the school and go hungry. They even remembered to bring me some food when they were hungry…”

"The sight of the Dementors wandering aimlessly outside is something I will never forget."

"At that moment, I thought that if I could get into Hogwarts and onto the field, I would win everything. Now that the trophy is right in front of me, I have to consider whether this might be my only chance in this lifetime."

"Don't tell me..." The Earl was trying his best to make a crumbling expression on his owl face.

"It is our duty to restore the glory of Azkaban!" Cohen said firmly.

"Don't say strange things with that inexplicably determined expression!"

The count shrieked:
"Are you cursed by something?! Did the letter contain something unclean—I hope it doesn't infect me? I need to go to your father to get me checked—"

"Do you think what I just said is powerful enough as a 'meme' for the Confusion Charm?" Cohen's determined expression vanished as he turned to the Earl and asked seriously, "I'm going to give myself a really awesome brainwashing, and then fool the Goblet of Fire used to select the contestants—of course, if the Goblet of Fire can't detect my thoughts and can still get me to vote, then I won't need this trick..."

(End of this chapter)