Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 388 Are all the Ministry of Magic going to build their entrances inside the toilets?
The old water snake had no idea what was going to happen the next day.

"I'm planning to visit Mr. Scamander's friend first." Cohen looked thoughtfully into the old water snake's bright eyes and said, "Are you coming with me?"

"Go! I'll be your guide—you goat, you used to say humans lead their kind around everywhere, right?!" the old water snake said enthusiastically.
"Let's wait until Cohen and Mr. Scamander are finished with their business," the goat suggested to the old water snake. "We might cause them some trouble and danger..."

"Danger? Wherever my grandson goes, I'll go. How could my grandson possibly harm me?" the old water snake said, raising his head.

"The goat is saying that you bring danger to others..." the water snake's tail corrected.

That's what it said, but after Cohen agreed to the old water snake's request to follow, it happily followed Cohen and Newt invisibly.

The Chimera and the Griffin chose to stay in the box and come out when Cohen needed them.

“Once we get to the wizard's territory, it won't need to stay invisible anymore,” Newt reminded Cohen as they left. “I can say it's one of my safe magical creature helpers…”

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Cohen said. “It actually fled from Greece to England, which happens to be related to that temple you mentioned—I’d like to see why.”

Cohen always felt that the relatively official wizards in the temple wouldn't hunt down a long-horned water snake simply because it "stole the offerings."

After leaving the hotel, the invisible old water snake excitedly crawled in front of Cohen while telling him about his days in Greece.

Newt gave Cohen a magical map with small ink dots representing Cohen, simplified drawings of buildings within the Athens area, and a pale blue dotted line connecting the ink dots to the destination.

This way, Cohen wouldn't have to hear both Old Water Snake and Newt's voices at the same time—Cohen was glad Newt had considered this, because Old Water Snake's conversation was as loud as a midnight snore.

But the closer they got to their destination, the less the old water snake spoke.

"My dear grandson, did this map give you the wrong directions?" Old Water Snake sensed something was wrong when he saw the ancient building complex on the Acropolis Hill and quickly went over to Cohen to ask.

"You didn't give me the wrong directions; that's our destination." Cohen said, glancing at the map.

[No, no—] The old water snake, nudging the box Cohen was carrying in his right hand, frantically tried to pry it open and crawl inside. [That's where those wizards who were chasing me are—I have to hide quickly—let me in—if they find me, it's all over—you'll only ever see your grandpa in a cage again…]

"What are you afraid of? You can't hide from them forever." Cohen shook his head. "Especially here in our hometown. I came with Newt to help you clear your name with these wizards. You can't understand human language anyway, maybe it's just a misunderstanding—"

"It can't be a misunderstanding," the old water snake said firmly. "I even stole their food—the way they were searching for me everywhere was to catch me and force me to catch fish as compensation. That's how wizards are." "Now I'm even more suspicious that there's a misunderstanding..." Cohen said helplessly. "Don't worry, you'll be safe with me here."

This entire Acropolis area is a tourist attraction, and the place where only ruins and weathered relics remain is certainly not where wizards lived and worked—Newt led Cohen through the complex of buildings and arrived near a modern museum.

“In 1874, after reaching an agreement with the Muggle government, the wizards of Athens chose this place as the new entrance to the wizarding world.” Newt led Cohen through the museum and explained to him, “I heard from some of my old friends that there are plans to move this place to a new location in a few years. The new museum will probably be built in the southeast—you should be able to see the vacant lot when you come here.”

“I feel like I’ve seen this before at the British Museum…” Cohen said, staring at a horse head sculpture in a display case. “But thinking about it, it makes sense; it seems like they’ve looted everything there…”

“If you like, you can wander around here.” Newt suggested, seeing Cohen looking around curiously. “Muggles do have quite a few old wizarding artifacts in their collections. See that centaur sculpture? The Greek Ministry of Magic has been trying to get it back from the Muggle government because it ‘might expose the existence of wizards’…”

“I doubt any Greek government at any time would agree to this,” Cohen said, pursing his lips. “Muggles all think centaurs are from ancient Greek mythology.”

Cohen wasn't planning to spend time here now; he'd have plenty of time to play in Greece after everything was done—and the old water snake was quite nervous, afraid that some wizard might suddenly jump out and grab it.

This tension is unlikely to dissipate until Cohen clarifies the misunderstanding with the staff at the Greek temples.

Then, Cohen followed Newt to a room...

The public toilet was located in a corner, with a bucket with a mop outside and a sign that read "Under Repair, Do Not Enter". Cohen couldn't read Greek, but the words on the sign probably meant the same thing.

"Why do so many of the Ministry of Magic's proper entrances have to be built inside toilets..." Cohen sighed. "At least the British Ministry of Magic's guest entrance is a telephone booth..."

“Because toilets are the most inconspicuous and the easiest to disguise.” Newt said, pushing open the toilet door and leading Cohen over the bucket to the inside. “But actually, not many Ministry of Magic disguises their entrances as toilets. I’ve been to the Magical Congress of the United States before, and their entrances are completely unrelated to Muggles—the bigger reason is probably their strained relationship with Muggles; they almost never cooperate, even after the Rappaport Law was repealed…”

“It sounds very depressing,” Cohen said.

“It’s very depressing,” Newt said with a frown. “My wife Tina has been raving about England since she came here—for example, there’s no ‘wand license’ or anything like that. The only downside is that there’s very little food.”

“That’s how it is in Britain,” Cohen shook his head.

“Alright, go in, stand on the toilet, and flush yourself down.” Newt opened a stall door for Cohen. “Only one person can go in at a time—but to prevent teleportation errors, I suggest… the water snake next to you should stay close to you, or go back into the box, so it doesn’t get flushed to other places.”

(End of this chapter)