Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 318 Father, mother, and son meet, but only the father and mother are filled with envy.
On Monday morning, Harry and Cohen blocked the door of the Charms classroom, waiting for Cedric to appear.

Because there was a crowd surrounding Cedric, Harry had originally intended to use a spell to open Cedric's backpack so that they could have a chance to speak to him alone.

Because whenever Harry was in the same place as any of the warriors except Cohen, the students watching would start quoting Rita's report to make fun of him.

But Cohen stopped Harry from damaging other people's property.

"Manners, you need to have manners!" Cohen held up a finger and shook it in front of Harry's eyes. "Watch me."

After saying that, Cohen secured Harry to the corner and walked straight toward Cedric.

"Isn't that Cohen Norton? Who is he looking for?"

"Of course they're here to see Cedric...maybe they want to ask him how he did on his first project..."

"Wait, you're wrong. He looks more like he's here to beat someone up—"

"No way, the competition is tomorrow, he can't possibly..."

"!"

These rumors vanished the moment Cohen stormed up to Cedric. Bearing the name of Azkaban and the label of "a terrorist criminal in the house," Cohen had become a fearsome outcast at Hogwarts.

In particular, there were rumors circulating at the school that Cohen frequently visited the principal's office because the principal suspected him of doing something illegal.

“oioi.” Cohen said to Cedric in a thug’s tone, “You, come with me to the bathroom, I have something important to tell you.”

"Huh?" Cedric politely expressed his confusion.

"Why are you still attacking?!" Hufflepuff students tried to stop Cohen from taking Cedric away.

Perhaps he was confident in his abilities, or perhaps he was skeptical that Cohen would turn against him—after all, Cohen had received a special contribution award from the school in his freshman year.

Cedric stopped his friends.

“You guys go to the classroom first,” he said to his classmates. “I’m fine.”

"Let's go, let's go—" Cohen pulled Cedric toward the men's restroom next door, and waved back at Harry in the corner not far away.

Seeing Harry's face flushed red as he walked over, Cohen shook his head regretfully and pushed Cedric into the toilet.

After the three of them went into the toilet, the Hufflepuffs outside did not go to class as Cedric had advised, but instead blocked the toilet entrance.

In the toilet.

"Jie Jie Jie..."

Cohen slammed the door shut and pulled out his wand to plug the bathroom's ears.

There was no one hiding in the toilet stalls—Cohen could tell at a glance that there were no other soul strength tags here.

“What’s important?” Cedric took a step back, looking somewhat uneasy.

"You'll find out soon enough..." Cohen said sinisterly.

“Cohen, you don’t have to get so into character…” Harry said, covering his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry, this is my first time kidnapping a student, I don't have much experience," Cohen said, his tone changing. "Are you going to talk to him or should I?"

“I’ll do it…” With the onlookers gone and Cohen casting a sound-blocking spell on the toilet, Harry felt much more at ease. “Cedric, the first project is the dragon.”

"Huh?" Cedric looked at Harry, then at Cohen, as if trying to determine if it was a prank. "What?"

“There are five dragons in total.” Harry started to get nervous. “We’ll each have one. We might have to get past them or survive their attacks or something.”

Fear began to flicker in Cedric's grey eyes.

“Are you sure?” He swallowed hard. “Yes, we all saw it,” Harry said.

“And Maxim and Karkaroff, they’ll tell Fleur and Krum,” Cohen added.

"Why are you telling me this?" Cedric still seemed somewhat skeptical.

"Because we have high moral character," Cohen said without any modesty.

“That’s…fair?” Harry said. “Otherwise, you’ll be the only one among all the heroes who won’t know…”

"Thank you, thank you." Cedric said, but he still seemed a little skeptical of what the two said—after all, they were rivals, and it would be normal for a rival to suddenly tell him the day before the competition that they would be facing an invincible creature the next day.

"Is that all?" Cohen asked Harry. Harry had received a letter from Sirius Black this morning, and Sirius should have already told Harry how to deal with the dragon. It was uncertain whether Harry would reveal anything to Cedric.

“That’s all.” Harry nodded.

"Then I'll go back to class?" Cedric said.

He reached the door and prepared to leave, and Cohen removed the spell from the door—but when Cedric opened the door, he was met not by Hufflepuff's classmate, but by a somewhat balding, middle-aged stranger.

“Excuse me—wait, are you from the school?” Cedric didn’t remember having this person at the school.

“I’m looking for Cohen—oh, he’s over there—” The man waved to Cohen after seeing him past Cedric.

“Isn’t this the one—” Harry recognized him; he’d seen him at the Cohen’s house last summer.

“The man who’s after my mother!” Cohen recognized Arnold.

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Even Cedric, who was in a hurry to get to class, stopped in his tracks out of curiosity, wanting to hear what would happen next.

"Don't you have class? Go to class now." Arnold urged Cedric to leave quickly, lest Cohen label him in front of other students.

“We also have a herb class,” Harry reminded Cohen.

“But you might be a little late,” Arnold said to Cohen. “Harry, you go to class first, Cohen, come with me.”

"You didn't come all this way just to prevent me from attending this herbalism class, did you?" Cohen asked suspiciously. "Does my dad owe you money? Or did he spill the beans about your affair?"

"I must be really bored."

Arnold pursed his lips. "Just follow me."

Harry was very curious, but since Herbology class was about to start in ten minutes, and he believed that Cohen would tell him what happened next, he didn't follow along.

Cohen was led downstairs by Arnold, through the Great Hall, out of the castle and onto the grounds, and then toward the Forbidden Forest.

Along the way, the news that "Cohen was taken away by the Ministry of Magic" spread rapidly and inexplicably among the students.

“I have two good news items and one bad news item for you. Which do you want to hear first?” Arnold said to Cohen as he pulled him across the field by the shoulder.

“Two pieces of good news,” Cohen said, though he seemed to already know what they were.

“Your parents are here, especially your dad, who's excitedly bringing a tent to stay outside Hogwarts,” Arnold said. “And there’s more good news: your uncle is here too, and I’ve been assigned to supervise and accompany him in the office—”

"There's no need to go on with the bad news." Cohen's lips twitched.

(End of this chapter)