Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 344 Another Group of Believers

Before the ball ended at midnight, Cohen and Harry left the ball area.

Harry went straight back to the Gryffindor common room, while Cohen still needed to take Sissoko, the Basilisk, and the unicorn back to the Room of Requirement.

The Room of Requirement now needs to be expanded by two full circumferences so that their original bodies don't knock over Cohen's table and some fragile bottles and jars, mainly because the little snake monsters are now almost half the size of Sissoko.

"Being a snake is better." Sissoko comfortably twisted his basilisk body a few times. "Besides, that body without any feeling of... well, it's too unsettling."

“There won’t be any more dances. If you still want a body, I’ll make a male sculptor,” Cohen said. “I’d find it awkward to hear someone wearing a girl’s wig speaking such rough Parseltongue.”

"Will I ever see Harry again?" the little basilisk asked wistfully. "He's a good person!"

"He's a little pervert," Sissoko said sullenly. "From now on, you're not allowed to get too close to guys who touch your tail every time we meet."

"Daddy's bad!" The little snake monster turned its head away, unwilling to look at Sissoko.

I'm doing this to prevent you from being scammed by bad guys—wait…

Sissoko was about to say a few more words when it suddenly heard the little basilisk address it as...
What did you just call me?

How come I suddenly... called it correctly?

"Hmph!" The little snake monster snorted.

"You kept saying it was wrong just to annoy me, didn't you?!" Sissoko questioned.

"You two can go inside and discuss who will raise whom. I have important things to do—and you, don't leave the puddings you brought back piled up for too long, they'll break. Go and share them with the other little unicorns."

Cohen pushed the two snakes and the horse into the box and then closed the lid.

I still need to interrogate Rita tonight. It's one thing that Karkaroff is suspected of having an affair with Silver Key, but Rita's sudden lack of fear of Cohen also seems to suggest that Silver Key is involved.

Cohen sealed the Room of Requirement and then poured the beetles that he had recently put into the jar onto the table.

"Quickly revive." Cohen drew his wand and cast a spell at the overturned beetle.

Her first reaction upon waking was to struggle to turn herself over, remain still for a moment, and then immediately flee towards the door of the room—only to bump into an invisible wall of air.

“Let’s run away,” Cohen said jokingly. “I quite enjoy playing with food—when I’m not really hungry yet.”

Like a headless fly, she bumped into the invisible wall surrounding her multiple times, and finally, as if losing hope, slowly flew to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a white light flashed, and the beetle began to rapidly swell and deform, eventually turning into a disheveled woman.

Rita's once meticulously styled wavy hair was now a mess, and her face was pale. After regaining her human form, she straightened her crooked glasses with her hand.

"How...how did you find out—"

“No matter what you become, you can’t escape me. I understand humans better than my fellow humans,” Cohen said coldly. “And who told you I don’t harm any creature other than humans?” “…” Rita chose to remain silent. Cohen could see her subtle movements; her wand was hidden behind her back, and she had already begun to secretly clench it tightly behind her back.

"Were you a Gryffindor student before? How dare you?" Cohen said. "After I 'warned' you, you still dared to go to Hagrid to ask me about things?"

“Ravenclaw.” Rita’s mind was not on answering the question at all.

“I didn’t realize you were so smart,” Cohen said. “Just tell me, what kind of backer have you found?”

“What backer?” Rita asked, bewildered. “I don’t understand what you’re saying, but whatever you’re trying to do—what you’re doing now is illegal imprisonment—”

"You'll be locked up in Azkaban, right?" Cohen raised an eyebrow. "I'll have the Dementors give you some special treatment—trust me, they're too lenient with how they torture prisoners."

“It was you who illegally imprisoned me,” Rita said, enunciating each word clearly. She hesitated to act, because Cohen’s wand was still pointed at her—she was waiting for an opportunity.

“What do you expect the Dementors to do to me? Kiss me, hug me, and lift me up high?” Cohen chuckled. “I’m not wrong—you can still talk now simply because I think it’s humane, but if you keep shutting up, I’ll have to start getting rid of some formalities.”

“I told you, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rita said, staring at Cohen. “Let me go, and I will—”

Cohen deliberately moved his wand away, and things unfolded as he had predicted—Rita seized the moment when Cohen's wand was not aimed at her and immediately pulled her hand out from behind her back.

"Call the gods to protect you!"

A silver beetle, about the size of a human head, crashed into Cohen—Rita's ability to use the Guardian Charm was indeed somewhat surprising, but only to a limited extent.

Rita intended to use the Patronus Charm to stall Cohen for a while, so that she could escape through the ring of armored charms surrounding the house while Cohen was distracted by the Patronus.

This must be Hogwarts—there are restrictions that prevent people from Apparating.

Therefore, as long as he finds any living person, Cohen certainly wouldn't dare to continue attacking her—even a great saint like Dumbledore would definitely not allow Cohen to go on a killing spree in the school.

But what happened next made her heart sink to the bottom, and she felt as if a block of ice had been stuffed into her stomach.

"Fun! Patronus!"

Cohen used the same spell, but instead of an ordinary animal, a silver-white... Dementor emerged from his wand!
Rita sensed something was wrong and tried to cancel the spell, but it was too late—Cohen's Dementor Patronus had just appeared and grabbed her Patronus with its withered hand.

She felt a chilling cold emanating from the tip of her wand, as if her hand were being gripped by a real Dementor, and the joy of creating a Patronus was being sucked away by something.

"You like playing Guardian?" Cohen said. "Is that what Silver Key told you—that Guardian could defeat me?"

Cohen removed the hood from his guardian spirit, and the face that seemed to be shrouded in mist turned towards the other guardian spirit in his hand, wisps of silver smoke being continuously drawn away.

"You, what kind of monster are you!"

Rita gasped. She couldn't believe that if even the Patronus Charm couldn't deal with this hybrid Dementor, what could possibly do?
“I hate it when people call me a monster,” Cohen said, frowning. “I created it myself, and I still complain about it.”

(End of this chapter)