Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 295 Little Snake Monster: I thought it was a speed bump.

“Shouldn’t you have found a Slytherin student to replace him?” Cohen pursed his lips. “Wouldn’t it be easier to be exposed if you infiltrated an unfamiliar house…”

“Because I don’t want my son to be unable to go to school,” Hopkins said.

A perfectly valid reason.

So you think it's enough to prevent other people's sons from going to school?!

“You really don’t treat me like an outsider,” Cohen sighed. “I do have a place to take you in—it just depends on how brave you are…”

“As long as I don’t get caught by the professors, I can keep up my courage until the Dark Lord’s plan ends—you mean let me sneak into the Gryffindor dorms…” Hopkins said, stroking his chin. “I can time things out early and late to avoid being discovered by the other Gryffindor students…”

“No.” Cohen shook his head. “I’m not planning to take you to the lounge. There are only so many people in the college. I guarantee that Professor McGonagall will come and grab you the moment you go in.”

"And where is he staying..." Hopkins looked at Cohen's composed expression, but for some reason, he began to feel uneasy.

It can't be a vacant broomstick room where Filch or some other person might catch you in the act...

"Wait here for a moment, I'll be right back."

Cohen told Hopkins to stay there while he left to bring Hopkins his "temporary accommodation."

Cohen originally intended to place the man in the Room of Requirement, but he wanted to keep a close eye on the guy's actions—Cohen felt that such a reckless Death Eater would ruin the whole plan.

Missing Voldemort's resurrection is a minor matter, but if it delays Cohen's annual income of sin points and mission rewards, that would be a serious problem.

Cohen hadn't seen the Animagus form imitator in the system store, and he was too lazy to spend a whole month holding a single leaf of mandrake in his mouth—it would be too torturous to not be able to speak clearly.

Back in the common room, the rest of Gryffindor were excitedly discussing Professor Moody's first class of the school year—Fred and George were fortunate enough to experience it on the very first day of school.

“Moody!” Fred said. “He’s so cool—isn’t he?”

"It's more than just cool!" George exclaimed wistfully.

“That’s awesome!” Lee Jordan exclaimed excitedly. “We had his class this afternoon.”

Harry and Ron surrounded the two, eagerly asking Moody about the course content.

But Fred and his friends just kept acting mysterious, saying things like "I've never had a class like this before," "He's seen it all," and "He's a top-tier Auror," which made Harry and Ron very curious.

“It can’t be that far-fetched…” Hermione said helplessly from the side, “You guys acted like he took you to kill a bunch of dark wizards during class…”

“You don’t understand, little Hermione,” Fred shook his head seriously. “You’ll understand when you take his class—his class is completely different from everyone else’s…”

“Cohen has been interviewed, he must know Moody’s style.” Ron said sullenly when he saw Fred and George unwilling to say anything, and then he saw Cohen sneaking into the lounge.

“Don’t ask me, we’re not familiar with each other,” Cohen replied immediately. “Moody’s class is on Thursday, right? You’ll find out then.”

"Are you going out again tonight?" Harry asked, puzzled, seeing Cohen rushing back to the dormitory without having showered. "Want to play Gobstone?"

"I need to manage the frizzy-tailed snails. I hope the other small animals won't eat them." Cohen made up a reason, and deliberately replaced "small snake monster" with "small animals" so that the others in the break room wouldn't hear.

"If any animal likes to eat blasted snails, I hope it can eat the remaining two hundred or so that Hagrid has..." Dean said hopefully, his hand still bandaged, a burn scar left by a blasted snail during Hagrid's class.

“There really are animals that would like to eat that… disgusting…” Harry got goosebumps—the thought of biting into the slimy, grayish-white flesh of the frizzy-tailed snail made him feel nauseous.

However, whether the Bombtail Snail will ultimately have the right to survive depends on Cohen's decision, taking into account the wishes of the little snake monster.

If the little basilisk finds the blasting snails interesting, they can continue to live in the box—until the little basilisk loses interest in them.

"I wonder if she's been biting this snail all afternoon."

Cohen asked Sissoko with some disbelief as he entered the box to check the situation.

"I've already bitten 6,337 times," Sissoko said sleepily. "6,338—"

"I didn't expect them to be so resistant to poison..." Cohen's lips twitched as he watched the little snake monster and the bomb-tailed snail going through an endless cycle of biting and exploding.

"Let her play." Sissoko curled up, watching the little basilisk from afar. "She didn't even use her fangs or venom... How much venom could such a small snake have..."

Although Sissoko still sees the basilisk as a tiny little kid, its size is already that of a giant python compared to humans.

“I’ll be inviting someone over to stay later, so keep an eye on him and don’t scare him—he’ll be doing the dirty work for me later, so he can’t let me down now,” Cohen reminded Sissoko.

"Your new friend?" Sissoko perked up instantly.

“Voldemort’s men are cooperating with me for now,” Cohen said. “But if he tries to ambush the unicorn or cause trouble for himself, you can scare him a little and teach him a lesson—if you really can’t stand him, you can kill him. I have a backup plan anyway.”

[Voldemort...is he the one who drove the old basilisk out of the castle?]

Sissoko glanced in the direction of the little basilisk and said somewhat absentmindedly,
I'll try my best.

After leaving the dormitory with his suitcase, Cohen quickly returned to the empty classroom where Hopkins was.

Hopkins' complexion wasn't good; beads of cold sweat still clung to his forehead. During the time Cohen was gone, he had imagined all sorts of terrible endings in his mind, including but not limited to the Dementor ending where Cohen would return and say in a sinister tone, "I've found you a place to rest; go rest in my belly," and the betrayal ending where "Professor Dumbledore, that's the man; he's a Death Eater in disguise."

But to his surprise, Cohen brought nothing but a box.

“This is…” Hopkins asked, staring at the box in Cohen’s hand.

“I’m offering you temporary accommodation,” Cohen said. “Some of my family members live here. They won’t hurt you—as long as you don’t cause trouble first.”

“Family…” Hopkins patted his chest as if relieved, but then suddenly remembered something that didn’t feel right.

Aren't Cohen's parents Edward and Rose?

Did those two come to Hogwarts with Cohen?

"Wait, your parents are in here?" Hopkins' eyes widened.

“Not human,” Cohen said.

"Phew..." Hopkins breathed a sigh of relief—thank goodness, it wasn't human.

No way! Are you not human?!
"Do you even need a place to stay?" Cohen said impatiently, and before the man could try to escape, he pulled open the suitcase and quickly dragged him inside.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"

Before he could react, Hopkins fell in, screaming in panic at the sudden feeling of weightlessness until he landed on the ground with a thud, at which point his screams stopped abruptly.

But a short while later, Hopkins's screams came out again from the opening of the box.

"..."

Cohen originally intended to close the suitcase and head back to his dorm, but the man's screams were so dramatic and varied that Cohen became curious about what the little snake monster, which had just been biting the blasting snail, had done to him in such a short time...

Upon entering the box, Cohen immediately spotted Hopkins lying not far away, and a small snake-like creature frantically circling around a patch of ground chasing a blasting snail.

It seems that Sissoko has finally stopped the little basilisk from tormenting the snail that had been bitten all afternoon, and has brought the little basilisk's focus back to playing a hunting game with the snails.

The little snake monster was having a blast—but it wasn't so "fun" for Hopkins, who had just arrived.

Just as he was about to approach the only relatively safe wooden cabin inside (the castle was not yet completed, and there were a bunch of shadowy figures on it), he was startled by a blast of shrew shells that suddenly darted out from his blind spot.

He had already dodged them; those tadpole snails were too small, to him they were like a bunch of cat-sized beetles crawling on the ground.

But he forgot why these frantically running young monsters were fleeing in one direction—and the next second, he was lashed to the ground by the little snake monster's tail.

Then, he was greeted with a cycle of "being crawled on the face by a bunch of blasting snails" → "being slapped hard on the face by the tail of the snake monster chasing the blasting snails" → "being crawled on the face by a bunch of blasting snails".

Who told the little snake monster to chase the exploding-tailed snails in circles...?

Sissoko was supposed to step in and stop the little snake monster, but he seemed to have been completely hypnotized by the little snake monster's spinning around—he curled up in a ball next to the house and fell fast asleep.

"Behave yourself." Cohen felt that if the little snake monster slapped him a few more times, Hopkins might die, so he stepped forward and stopped the little snake monster from spinning around again and slapping Hopkins' tail.

"Dad!" The little basilisk burrowed into Cohen's arms—completely unaware that its head was now almost as big as Cohen's.

"Didn't Sissoko tell you that a human was coming to stay for a while?" Cohen pointed in Hopkins's direction. "He's almost been whipped to death by your tail..."

"Wow, there's someone here?" The little snake monster only then noticed someone there. "I thought it was a rabbit hole..."

"You and Sissoko did this on purpose, didn't you?" Cohen saw through the little snake monster's clumsy acting at a glance.

And then there's Sissoko—what snake makes a snoring sound when it sleeps? It's clearly an abnormal behavior learned from those outrageous fairy tales that goats often tell.

[Son, you're here!] Sissoko looked like he had just woken up, and after looking up and seeing Cohen, he quickly crawled towards Cohen.

"Snapped!"

He didn't forget to give Hopkins, who had finally managed to get back on his feet, one last slap on the wrist.

I thought it was a speed bump.

Talk to Cohen

We are all living life to the fullest.

How are you still alive after all that effort?

The blasting snails scattered in all directions as soon as the little snake monster stopped. Since they had no sight, they could only rely on the residual scent in the air to stay away from this terrifying creature—which was difficult because the air smelled almost the same everywhere.

"Woo..."

Hopkins lay on the ground whimpering, his face bearing red snake tail marks.

Cohen clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"Dad won't blame us, will he...?" the little snake monster asked Sissoko worriedly.

"Don't say it now..." Sissoko pressed his tail against the little snake monster's head and whispered.

"I can hear you," Cohen said helplessly. "I won't blame you. I told you, if you really don't like it, you can kill me. I don't really care about the Death Eaters' lives—they should have died fourteen years ago."

"I'm just a little annoyed by what their boss did to the old man." Sissoko leaned over and nudged Cohen's shoulder.

If he hadn't been useful to Cohen, Hopkins wouldn't have simply been slapped in the face by the tails of the two basilisks—Sissoko would have resorted to a more extreme attack.

After all, in Sissoko's eyes, dark wizards were already equated with those who stole his children.

After leaving the little snake monster to continue chasing the blasting snail, Cohen walked over to Hopkins and looked down at his condition.

Although he looked pitiful, the actual damage should not have been too great—at least his eyeballs were still there and hadn't been pulled out.

"Woo..."

Hopkins burst into tears the moment he saw Cohen again—the feeling of helplessness and defeat, from being lashed down by his tail every time he tried to get up, was unbearable.

And why are both snakes lashing at the same side of the face?

"You're crying already? Didn't the compound decoction only change your appearance?" Cohen said, frowning.

“Try this on an adult!” Hopkins yelled in despair. “Two giant snakes! And they keep slapping the same side of my face! Ouch—”

Cohen poked Hopkins' swollen right cheek with his wand, causing Hopkins to cry out in pain.

"Would he feel any better if I apologized?" Sissoko asked Cohen.

"The snake's still there?!" Hopkins heard a hissing sound coming from behind Cohen. He felt his breath catch in his throat.

“If the basilisk wanted to bite you, you would already be dead.” Cohen reached out and pulled Hopkins up.

When Hopkins stood up and saw Sissoko in front of him, his legs went weak and he almost fell to the ground again.

“Didn’t you say my family lived in the box?” Cohen pointed to Sissoko. “These are them—don’t worry, they won’t eat you, as long as you behave yourself here. Also, remember to get up early tomorrow morning. Gryffindor has class at nine, and you have to be out before my class starts.”

(End of this chapter)