Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 496 "Not speaking to you for a year" is indeed a terrifying thing.
"Merlin, Arnold, what's wrong with you?!"

The red-haired Mrs. Pisgood, regardless of where she found her husband, rushed over worriedly when she saw Arnold's face covered in wounds.

Cohen felt the effects of the aging agent wearing off, and the beard on his face retracted under his skin like tiny tentacles.

Rose rushed over to Edward, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and immediately took out her wand to clean the blood and bruises off Edward's face.

“What happened? Neither you nor Cohen came back. I even went to the Ministry of Magic. They said you left work early. It was Funi who told me. Arnold didn’t come home either…” Rose quickly helped Edward reduce the swelling. Most of these physical fight injuries are healable in an instant with magic.

This is also why Edward and Arnold were able to fight so enthusiastically just now—

"They were grabbing the silver keys, and they resisted quite fiercely..." Now that his face was no longer injured, Edward said somewhat guiltily, "You just ran up here? Didn't the boss stop you?"

"I came to help out," Arnold said to his wife, equally nervously, "who knew those young men were so good at fighting..."

"No, I saw she looked like she wanted to watch a show, so I thought you were up there doing something." Rose breathed a sigh of relief after realizing that Edward wasn't seriously injured.

Hearing that Rose hadn't heard anything about Edward inviting a girl into his room, Edward's pounding heart finally calmed down.

“Cohen—oh—”

Rose found Cohen, who was trying to hide under the covers.

“I came because I was worried about him,” Cohen said after being dragged out. “I’ve already knocked out all those silver keys.”

The good news is that they are all safe now—Rose believed Edward's words, and Mrs. Pisgood believed Arnold's words.

The bad news is that this safety only lasted until they went downstairs.

Clearly, the shopkeeper assumed that Edward and Arnold, laughing and chatting with their respective wives, had been forgiven.

"Minister Norton, you haven't paid yet!" Brianna reminded Edward and his group as they prepared to leave.

"I paid!" Edward forced out the words through gritted teeth. "Brianana, don't cause trouble—"

“The witch you booked is the most expensive one in our shop. She said the Galleons you paid weren’t even enough for five minutes,” Brianna said, puzzled. “Even a minister can’t just evade payment like that, can he?”

"What?" Rose frowned, walked behind Edward, and her voice turned cold. "You hired the most expensive witch? Weren't you here to arrest the Silver Key members?"
-
The three silver keys were temporarily stored in Cohen's box, and no one knew what they would encounter in the future, but the only thing Cohen was certain of was that Edward would encounter some bad things tonight.

Even after he explained the whole story, Rose was still very angry.

Back home, in the living room, Edward sat with his head down in front of Rose, with Cohen sitting next to him—both of them were being scolded.

"So you started beating each other up to make me believe you were arresting someone?" Rose questioned the two men, hands on her hips. "Didn't you think about what would happen if you accidentally seriously injured each other?"

“I can attest that they didn’t fight for that reason alone,” Cohen said. “There were also some personal grudges involved…”

"Don't speak—" Edward tried to cover Cohen's mouth.

“And you, Cohen,” Rose said angrily. “Who told you to go to the nightclub with your dad? You’re only fifteen!”

“I’ll be sixteen in a little over two weeks!” Cohen retorted.

"Even at sixteen, it's not allowed!" Rose said sternly. "If you disobey me again..."

"Locked up?" Cohen blinked.

“Your father and I didn’t speak to you for a whole year.” Rose accurately grasped Cohen’s Achilles’ heel.

“No! Impossible—Edward will definitely be unable to resist and will secretly write to me.” Cohen’s eyes widened. “And then he’ll confiscate your suitcase,” Rose added. “Believe me, this is something your father and I discussed together; he’ll be able to resist.”

“Hmm… that’s how it is,” Edward nodded in a muffled voice.

“Okay…okay…” Cohen said dejectedly, “I promise I won’t go to nightclubs anymore.”

“And then back to you, Edward,” Rose snorted. “Is there something I’ve done to displease you?”

“How could that be!” Edward immediately exclaimed. “I swear I picked that woman randomly—just to make a fuss next to those silver-key lads, so that…”

"You need nightclubs to catch a few young people?" Rose asked. "Can't you catch the Aurors?"

“These young people have some mental health issues…” Edward said. “They’re a bit too dangerous. I thought it best not to let any news of their deaths get out of the Ministry of Magic during this time, to avoid public panic, so I chose a slightly safer method…”

Cohen nodded frantically beside him.

"Don't you think about whether this will corrupt our son?" Rose said, grabbing Edward's ear. "And why didn't you tell me that Cohen was there when the Ministry of Magic exploded?"

"Huh? How did you know—ouch, that hurts—"

“Guess how I knew? I found out from Dumbledore,” Rose said fiercely. “You’ve been keeping everything from me. Are you planning to do everything yourself?”

Meanwhile, Cohen had already quietly slipped upstairs to his room.

The longer the reckoning drags on, the more of his dark past will be exposed. Cohen feels that he will soon be implicated in the more than two hundred death curses he has cast.
-
However, no matter how loud the argument is at night, they act as if nothing happened the next day.

Of course, it's also possible that Edward received his due punishment; Cohen saw him leaving the house that morning, supporting his back.

Edward went to work as usual, and Rose continued to take care of Cohen—except that they were going to stay at Grimmauld Place today because Rose couldn't stay idle and wanted to get involved in the Order of the Phoenix's mission.

For Cohen, there was no difference between the two places, since Harry and his friends hadn't returned from Hogwarts yet—except that besides Sirius, who lived there permanently, Tonks or Moody would often stay for meals, so there were quite a few people chatting.

Dumbledore stayed here for another night at the end of June.

“Cohen, I’ve discovered the location of another Horcrux.” Dumbledore pulled Cohen into a quiet room. “If you’d like, I’d like you to come with me.”

“You must know how to handle Horcrux spells, like Fiendfyre or something,” Cohen said. “Actually, it doesn’t matter to me whether you bring it or not…”

“This Horcrux… is somewhat special,” Dumbledore said, his brows furrowed. “I wouldn’t say I’m brave enough to face all my desires; on the contrary, there’s something I’ve never dared to confront…”

“Oh… alright,” Cohen agreed. “So, are you ready to face it?”

"..." Dumbledore remained silent for a while.

“What I mean is, even if I remove the soul and curse from it, you'll still be tempted to use it, won't you?” Cohen stared at the metal buckle on Dumbledore's waist. “Then what difference would it make whether I go or not?”

"..." Dumbledore said, "Cohen, I always feel that you look older than you appear."

"You don't look as old as you do."

Cohen said,
"Nicole said that people always spend their whole lives trying to turn metal into gold, but forget that the human heart is the most perfect philosopher's stone in the universe."

"How long has it been since you last visited the Pighead Bar?"

(End of this chapter)