Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 396 Go talk to my giant old man
As for which leg it is, that depends on the mood of the old water snake and the griffin.

[Something's not right.] After agreeing to Cohen's request to "bite wherever you point," the old water snake suddenly sensed something was amiss.

"You said it yourself, would your precious grandson ever harm you?" Cohen said confidently, pulling the old water snake's head close.

The next plan is very simple.

First, let the old griffin take Cohen and the old water snake to find the poachers. After dealing with the poachers, follow the clues to find the poachers' informants in the Ministry of Magic one by one.

“No wonder even the doorman stopped us,” Rolf recalled. “Damn it—”

“They can even hook up with Muggles in the City Hall. I feel like the pool of potential traitors in the Ministry of Magic has been narrowed down,” Cohen said. “But Rolf, you and your grandfather will have to stay here and keep an eye on these kids.”

The old griffin also bowed to Rolf and his companions.

"I've never seen you so polite to me before," the old water snake hissed angrily at the old griffin.

As for Newt—he's been completely entangled with those little guys.

Cohen didn't understand how he managed to calm a group of small animals with just one cry, but it seemed that Newt wouldn't be able to leave after the old griffin left.

"So what do you plan to do after we solve this problem?" Rolf asked the old griffin. "If, as Cohen said, you're wanted by the Greek Ministry of Magic..."

“You’ll only be wanted if you’re discovered,” Cohen waved his hand. “If you’re not discovered, it’s an unsolved case.”

If the ambush on the Ministry of Magic officials is discovered, Cohen will take the old griffin and all its little creatures into the box, which will also give the old water snake and the little basilisk some company.

------

Around noon, Cohen and the old water snake, guided by the old griffin, found the poachers' location—in an old shipyard in Patras.

Rusty gantry cranes, moss-covered steel roof frames, and various empty workshops.

“They’re down there,” the old griffin said, turning to Cohen, who was sitting on its back.

Cohen and the old water snake nestled on the griffin's back, while the old water snake hooked the box with its tail, saving Cohen the trouble of carrying it himself.

They were all shrouded in the old water snake's invisibility magic, so they kept their voices very low—it would be difficult to detect unless you were very close, because at this time the sound of waves crashing against the dock could be heard outside.

"The wizards here in Greece really love building houses in other worlds..."

Perhaps it's because the territory isn't very large that the land utilization rate here is so high—of course, this is only true for wizards; Muggle territory is still quite spacious.

After all, Greek wizards had to put in the effort to keep dangerous animals like the chimera in a place free of Muggles and far away from ordinary wizards, which limited their space to move around. It's normal that they could develop such magic.

“The entrance is in the pipe. I’ll take you there,” the old griffin said, leading Cohen to a rusty pipe opening in a corner.

The pipe opening was blocked by a loose wire mesh, through which a distant light could be seen—normally speaking, this pipe was only wide enough for a normal human of average size to pass through; even a griffin would have a hard time getting in with its two forelimbs out.

But the old griffin didn't stop. After tearing open the wire mesh blocking the pipe entrance, it led Cohen and the old water snake inside.

The pipe, which had seemed narrow in front of the griffin, suddenly became much wider. Cohen felt as if the direction of gravity had suddenly shifted for a moment. They free-fell along the pipe, which was parallel to the ground, for several seconds before finally sliding out from the point of light at the end of the pipe.

"Hurry, hurry! The people over there said Cohen Norton has already appeared at City Hall. Pack your things quickly!" a long-haired man in a dark silver robe urged. "He's probably almost here—the disappearance of those people from the Triwizard Tournament must also be because of..." This was a huge room filled with black iron cages, and eight people in dark silver robes were hurriedly cleaning up some animal entrails that were soaking in some kind of liquid.

All eight people were there, and Cohen was very happy.

But the decor here made Cohen very unhappy.

The more Cohen looked at it, the more it resembled the underground of Burke Manor.

“Maybe we can beat him?” one of the silver keys suggested. “All our fusion experiments have failed; we must be missing something—if we can work together to beat him… no, we don’t even need to beat him, just get a little blood out of him…”

"Did you go mad from reading too much?" the silver-key one who urged everyone on said in an angry voice, "Do you think you're more powerful than Samuel? Or do you think you can unleash a guardian spirit?"

Cohen remembered the name; one of the Silver Key members of the Triwizard Tournament, the one Cohen had first caught and refined.

“I just think everyone is making too much of a fuss about Cohen Norton—the Silver Key Prayer says that He will only destroy the world after He awakens, and right now He’s just a hybrid, artificial Myra Beast with more mixed bloodlines…”

"Then you stay and deal with him."

As they spoke, aside from the one with the silver key who insisted on "working together to get some blood from Cohen," the remaining seven people packed the precious materials into boxes, raised their wands, and were about to Apparate away in the next second—

But Cohen acted even faster—he drained the emotions of those around him, and thanks to their strange belief that "team evacuation means sticking together and teleporting," Cohen didn't even need to flit around to absorb their emotions to stop their escape with a single click.

A chill ran through everyone present, sending shivers down their spines.

"Did the Dementors not pack the box properly...?"

“Uh, Erwin…we didn’t capture a Dementor…”

“Because I’m here,” Cohen said ominously.

Then, the old water serpent slowly removed its invisibility, and Cohen was already behind the eight people, floating in mid-air in Dementor form, watching them with interest through his dark hood.

"Hoo, call upon the gods for protection—"

Some people tried to use the spell out of fear, but instead of a guardian spirit, they summoned swarms of soul maggots, which devoured them in an instant.

“There’s no need to commit suicide so quickly…” Cohen felt like he was overreacting—if everyone committed suicide so quickly, where would they find those undercover agents from the Greek Ministry of Magic?
“You are—” another Silver Key member pointed at Cohen and stammered.

"Leech!" Cohen swiftly used Legilimency on the remaining survivors to prevent anyone from attempting to resist in a suicidal manner.

The spell Cohen chanted had no controlling power. Two of the silver keys, which were still able to move after their positive emotions and some of their memories were removed, reacted and tried to escape towards the exit—but they ran into something else terrifying.

The old griffin blocked the exit, letting out a fierce roar at the wizards who were trying to escape.

"Hiss hiss hiss—" The old water snake also hissed at the people from the back of the griffin, but it looked more like a snake relying on the lion's power.

“I’ve changed my mind. Let’s just kill them all,” Cohen said to the old griffin. “Bite their necks, I’ll keep the bodies as infernals—and don’t tell Newt or Rolf about this.”

(End of this chapter)