Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 329 Karkaroff's Problem

Since there was no "warrior exhibition" at all, the fake wand promotion that Fred and George had specially prepared was out of the question.

So Cohen saw no need to stay there and led Harry in the direction Krum had pointed.

They ventured into the woods and found a spot where they wouldn't be spotted by students passing by—because wherever Krum went, a bunch of people would chase after him asking for his autograph.

"What you said before the match..."

Krum asked somewhat awkwardly, his expression quite different from his usual gloomy demeanor; instead, he seemed rather dazed.

"about……"

“Harry isn’t in a relationship—you mean that?” Cohen looked at him with amusement. “The first thing you should know when you come to England is not to believe the Daily Prophet.”

"Phew..." Krum looked much more relaxed and let out a slight sigh of relief.

"I'm the one directly involved..." Harry asked, exasperated. "Why do you seem to believe Cohen more?"

"Because he seems more reliable?" Krum said.

“I am indeed very reliable.” Cohen nodded in agreement, then was poked by Harry.

"So, the girl next to you..." Krum asked tentatively, "Does she have a boyfriend?"

"You really like Hermione?" Harry asked in surprise. "She doesn't have a boyfriend yet—but..."

Harry didn't get to say what he was going to say next. He had meant to tell Krum that Hermione wasn't interested in Quidditch, but the way he put it sounded like he was telling Krum, "I don't want you near my friends."

“Hemien is special.” Krum nodded seriously, his English struggling with some of the more difficult words. “If she didn’t have a boyfriend…”

"Viktor." Karkarov's voice rang out from the tent not far away.

“Someone’s calling you back for dinner.” Cohen pointed in that direction to Krum. “But before you leave, I also want to ask you something.”

"What is it?" Krum stopped and turned to look at Cohen.

"Do you think there's anything wrong with Karkaroff?" Cohen asked.

"Hmm?" Krum frowned, looked into Cohen's eyes, but quickly looked away, unsure whether to tell Cohen.

But in the end, he shook his head and answered in a different way.

“Professor Karkaroff has always been the same—but his attitude toward me did change a lot before and after the Quidditch match, I think it's because of his reputation…”

"Got it." Cohen raised his eyebrows.

Although Krum didn't say anything, his expression practically said it all—Kakalov definitely had a problem and probably asked Krum not to reveal it to anyone.

Krum crossed the edge of the forest and left.

"What do you want to ask Krum later?" Harry asked Cohen curiously on the way back to the castle. "Karkaroff is suspicious. Krum's conflicted expression clearly shows he didn't say it because of some promise," Cohen said. "Besides, the spell Karkaroff taught Krum was obviously not a normal spell—what normal spell can affect a dragon with an illusion? Poking its eye is targeting a weakness, but an illusion targets the dragon's brain... You can imagine, a spell that achieves the effect of eight adult wizards' Stunning Curse."

“Then why don’t we just ask Krum what that spell was? Did Karkaroff teach it to us—the competition’s already over anyway,” Harry said, puzzled. “Besides, we gave him a chance to pursue Hermione…”

“You’ve forgotten the rules, Harry,” Cohen said. “The warriors can’t accept help from any teacher, and Krum won’t be honest with us about what he did wrong—if we asked him that directly, he probably would have walked away without a second thought.”

“However… now that we’ve confirmed that Karkaroff is indeed problematic, we have a target—next…”

"Shall we go after his leads?" Harry seemed to have some Auror gene stirred up, instantly becoming energetic. "How? Any ideas—"

“Let’s go back to the Gryffindor Tower for the victory celebration.” Cohen extinguished Harry’s newly ignited detective urges. “Shouldn’t we rest for a few days after the competition? Dealing with dragons is exhausting.”

“I don’t think we’ve had a particularly hard time,” Harry said, looking dejected. “And what if it really was Karkaroff who voted for us?”

Cohen smacked his lips a few times, neither confirming nor denying.

How could that be, little Harry? I got people to cast both of those votes.
-
Upon returning to the castle, Cohen and Harry were ushered into the common room by a group of Gryffindor students before they even reached the eighth floor.

Their dinner was replaced by a celebratory feast held by the students. Fred and George got a lot of food from the kitchen, and the tables and chairs in the lounge were piled high with cakes. Several hard-to-pull fireworks were shooting around on the ceiling, leaving brilliant trails in the air.

Surrounded and cheered by their classmates, Harry and Cohen opened the golden egg they had won during the game, as everyone wanted to see what the clues were. Cohen had the foresight to plug his ears with the earplugs Edward had given him during the Quidditch World Cup, and keeping them would prove useful.

When the two golden eggs were opened together, they emitted a sound like the simultaneous screams of female ghosts. The terrifying, shrill sound immediately filled the entire room. Fred and George rushed forward and helped Cohen and Harry close the golden eggs.

"It sounds like a female ghost's scream!" Seamus said in horror. "You two might have to deal with a female ghost next time!"

"Can ghosts really be aggressive?" Harry asked, frowning. "I don't think so..."

“If it’s a female ghost, that wouldn’t be a problem either,” Cohen said, stroking his chin.

“Don’t go too far…” Harry’s cheek muscles twitched a few times.

"It sounds like someone is being tortured!" Neville said, his face pale. "You might have to deal with the Cruciatus Curse!"

“Then Hogwarts would become Azkaban, because Dumbledore, one of the organizers, would be locked up inside.” Cohen reassured Neville, who looked terrified. “Using this spell on a person is illegal.”

“It could be that we’re facing something even more terrifying, like Dementors…” Ron guessed, but then he suddenly thought of something, his eyes lit up, and he exchanged a glance with Cohen.

“I think it sounds like Percy is singing,” George said, raising an eyebrow. “You need to ambush him while he’s taking a shower—it’s sad he’s been following Crouch around the whole time and hasn’t come to see his siblings.”

“Maybe he’s fallen in love with Mr. Crouch,” Fred said, feigning regret. “Dad always said love makes people blind, so Percy can’t see us at all now.”

Everyone was amused by Fred's joke, and everyone shared their guesses, but no one guessed the content of the next item correctly.

But at least until the project's mystery is solved, Cohen won't be surrounded by a group of concerned classmates giving him advice—there are still three months until the second project, so even if he takes a three-month break, he'll have plenty of time.

(End of this chapter)