Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 348 I'm here to end this absurd romance

"If we're just studying the golden eggs, why don't we go straight to the Black Lake or the restrooms?"

After finishing his meal, Harry started to have second thoughts.

“Because there’s nothing you like in the restrooms or the Black Lake,” Cohen said matter-of-factly. “Unless you think myrtle or giant squid are still pretty—”

"It's just as impressive as a real basilisk..." Harry's cheek twitched uncontrollably, as if he'd been electrocuted. "It must be huge by now..."

“It’s actually an adult now,” Cohen said. “But its intelligence level still needs improvement—I always feel like something was missing when it was born—but don’t think about those things. If you like it, go talk to it. If you don’t, just tell it directly. Don’t keep it hanging on.”

“I didn’t hang it—” Harry tried to explain.

“You treated it like you were dating yesterday, so it was asking last night if it could see you one more time,” Cohen said seriously. “If you don’t plan to date it, you’d better make it clear to it sooner rather than later—otherwise Sissoko might actually sneak out and crawl into your bed, just like it did when it crawled into my bed in second grade.”

Harry shuddered uneasily at the thought of being woken up in the middle of the night by a giant basilisk pulling off his blankets and coiling around him, and nodded.

Harry returned to the common room, retrieved the golden egg, and then, led by Cohen, arrived at the Room of Requirement.

"You don't secretly study here every day, do you?" Harry looked at the messy pile of books and the open alchemy workshop in the Room of Requirement and said suspiciously, "No wonder you always refused when Ron and I asked you to come play—secretly studying behind your brothers' backs... What was that word you used before—involution!"

"Then I won't help," Cohen said, turning his head away. "Even if you shout 'Miracle Cohen!' as loudly as you want, I won't make you anything like an alchemical diving mask or an artificial wife—"

“I never asked for any of these things…” Harry said, his face darkening. “Artificial wives sound like something a pervert would do—”

Harry suddenly choked.

Cohen said that the little snake monster's body was created by Cohen using alchemy.

So the little snake monster's human body actually does seem to be...

No wonder Sissoko kept calling him a little pervert after they met—had he already become a pervert himself?
Considering that he would most likely need Cohen's help in the future, Harry made a decision after thinking for half a second—"Good Cohen, amazing Cohen~" Harry put his arm around Cohen's shoulder and said, "I don't—you know—I've never thought that reading or studying is a..."

"Alright, alright—" Cohen got goosebumps, feeling that Harry, after living with Sirius, was already showing signs of developing into the old Potter. "Have you thought about how to talk to the basilisk? Just a heads-up, it might be more driven by instinct when it's in a high mood."

“Wait—what do you mean by ‘instinct drive’?” Harry asked in horror.

“Looks like you’re ready.” Cohen shook his head. “Go on in—”

With that, Cohen pushed Harry into the newly opened box and jumped in after him.

Not long after Harry landed, a long, dark green, giant shadow rushed toward him at an unimaginable speed, followed closely by another, even larger figure.

"Harry!" the little basilisk exclaimed excitedly, completely unaware of a crucial fact—given its size, a collision like that with Harry could very well kill him on the spot.

Fortunately, Sissoko managed to stop the little snake monster in the end, otherwise Cohen would have had to transform back into his snake monster form to stop it.

"Hiss..." Harry gasped uncontrollably when he saw the basilisk, which was already enormous for a human.

"Are you here to see me?!" the little snake monster asked excitedly.

Sissoko surprisingly remained silent, his orange-yellow eyes fixed intently on Harry.

Harry took a step back, took a deep breath, hesitated, and then nodded. "Then let's go out and play together!" said the little basilisk. "I'll take you to find spiders to eat—the water snake took me there, in the forest over there—and then we'll lay eggs together—"

“Laying eggs would be too deep,” Cohen cautioned. “We’re at 8+ here.”

“Um…” Harry stammered, feeling a little guilty, “I actually… the two of us…”

"What?" the little snake monster asked, tilting its head.

“I’m here to clear up yesterday’s misunderstanding,” Harry said.

"A misunderstanding?" the little snake monster asked, puzzled.

“We were just… dance partners yesterday—you know, the school requires everyone to have a dance partner…” Harry said awkwardly, “not to the point of…laying eggs…”

[...] The little basilisk quietly looked at Harry.

"Also, we're of different races, so we can't really be together—"

"But we had so much fun!" the little snake said reluctantly. "You were great too—very few friends can play with me for so long and still keep moving..."

Continue...moving?
Harry's heart skipped a beat; he suddenly seemed to picture the little basilisk "playing" with his friends.

"Don't overthink it, at least the unicorns are still alive," Cohen reminded them.

“Perhaps… let’s just forget it—” Harry said politely, “I hope you find someone suitable for you… emmmm, a basilisk?”

【knew……】

The little snake monster said dejectedly, and the whole snake lay down, slowly turning around and crawling back towards the wooden house.

"Sigh..." Sissoko sighed.

“Sigh…you’re here to end this band.” Cohen sighed as well.

"No, why are you sighing—" Harry looked at the remaining man and snake, puzzled. "And where did this band come from?!"

"You're not a little pervert... I thought it would be like those human stories, where you'd cling to my daughter and we'd scheme against each other..." Sissoko said regretfully.

"?" Harry's eyes widened. "Didn't you forbid me from touching it yesterday—"

"[Coward.]" Sissoko pointed at Harry with his tail. "You won't chase it just because I told you not to? Now I have to coax it—it whipped me at least three times last night because of this."

Harry looked at Cohen.

“This is what the basilisks here are like,” Cohen nodded. “So you really are different between humans and monsters… Sigh, love…”

“Let’s go see the golden eggs…” Harry said, covering his face. “I feel like if we stay here any longer, I’m going to have some psychological problems…”

(End of this chapter)