Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 505: A breathtaking view lies ahead, so it's time to lay out the bait.
Seeing Edward's eagerness to show off his son's straight NEWT scores of 12, Cohen went through a difficult internal struggle.

The final decision was to increase the number of courses from three to five.

“It’s tough; I have to spend ten hours a week in class,” Cohen said.

“I work ten hours a day,” Edward said in a muffled voice.
-
It wasn't until the end of July that Dumbledore approached Cohen again.

This time, the search wasn't for Horcruxes, although neither Cohen nor Dumbledore were certain whether Voldemort's Horcruxes had all been destroyed...

Cohen felt that to be on the safe side, he should steal Nagini, but there was no rush—whether he stole her or not, he had to wait until Lily disappeared from Harry's body before he could deal with the Voldemort fragments in Harry's body.

Then the rest of the body is no threat. The only thing Cohen can't handle is Lily's sacrificial protection. The burn wound from crossing the line last time took a month to fully heal.

Voldemort must use this time before Harry comes of age to quickly devise a way to deal with Cohen, or he will face death in a year.

This was also the first time Cohen had ever felt like he was the boss, and he had to give the hero time to develop—although Voldemort couldn't really be considered a hero, because he couldn't use the slogans of love and friendship.

It happened to be Harry's birthday, and Dumbledore planned to take Cohen and Harry to find an old professor to invite him to return to his post.

"Retirement and re-entering the workforce? That's very avant-garde," Cohen said.

“The retirement age in the wizarding world is dynamic,” Dumbledore said slyly. “And Slughorn does need some protection. Some things he knows could very well make him vulnerable to Voldemort’s attacks. He would be safer at Hogwarts than wandering around outside.”

Having learned from his previous experience, Cohen was less dizzy this time when Dumbledore Apparated him.

However, this still doesn't qualify as a very comfortable way to travel. Cohen thinks it's very likely that Dumbledore's Apparition is different from others; his Apparition is more brutal and rapid.

At eight o'clock in the evening, they arrived at the Dursleys' house. The lights in the living room were still on.

Dumbledore knocked on the door—and the Dursleys’ door was immediately pulled open, as if someone were waiting for them.

“Ah, you’ve come to pick him up,” Mr. Dursley said in a tone that was barely suppressing some emotion.

I don't know what method Edward used to get the Dursleys to treat Harry better, but it must have worked.

“I can tell that Harry told you beforehand, can’t I?” Dumbledore said kindly, then looked over Mr. Dursley’s head—he was a head taller than Mr. Dursley, so it wasn’t difficult for him.

Harry had already packed his suitcase and was sitting on the sofa in the living room. Now he stood up, dragged his suitcase, and went behind Mr. Dursley.

“Harry.” Cohen waved to Harry, and Harry smiled and greeted Cohen back—meaning it wasn’t a love potion.
-
"Aphrodisiac?!" Harry exclaimed incredulously to Cohen as he followed Dumbledore and Cohen into the street.

“Fred and George guessed,” Cohen shrugged. “I was thinking if it were an aphrodisiac, you’d definitely be spending a lot of time at the proctology clinic this summer…”

"Ahem." Dumbledore coughed twice.

“Listen to what the experienced people have to say,” Cohen said.

“We have important things to do,” Dumbledore changed the subject. “Harry, if you don’t mind, I can take your luggage to Sirius first. You might need to act a little more natural where we’re going next.”

“Where to?” Harry looked at Dumbledore, then at Cohen. “To seduce another old man,” Cohen said. “This country is finished, I told you.”

“We’re going to try to persuade a retired professor to come back to work,” Dumbledore said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve brought this up over the years—alas, we’ve always had a hard time filling our teaching positions. Your Professor Burke resigned at the end of the semester to take his little one on a trip to Chicago.”

"A little one?" Harry exclaimed in surprise, then looked at Cohen, seemingly thinking that Cohen was expecting a younger sibling.

“I recommended it,” Cohen sighed, “because of Mick, Chicago, you know…”

It's hard to go into specifics, but in short, Chicago is a great place for Mick to travel.

It would also effectively reduce the crime rate there—Cohen felt the US government should give Herbert a large sum of money.

Upon hearing that it was Cohen's Dementor, Harry seemed less interested.

Then, Dumbledore Apparated them to a very secluded park grounds.

The place looked abandoned; the fallen leaves on the ground were unswept, and in the center of the park stood an old war memorial and a few dusty benches.

“The charming village of Badley Barberton,” Dumbledore said to the two as he led them in one direction. “The old teacher we’re going to invite is in the south, so you can prepare yourselves.”

"Are we going to show off our talents?" Harry asked nervously.

“We need to explain our backing,” Cohen said. “For example, you are a kid who survived a disaster, and I am a kid who is in dire straits—because my ‘ultimately easy course selection plan’ for next semester has been ruined by my father, who has become extremely controlling due to his corrupting influence.”

“Five courses aren’t many,” Dumbledore said with a chuckle. “Besides, Edward is only doing it out of a sense of fatherly duty…”

“He just wanted to put on a good show in front of Arnold,” Cohen said dejectedly.

“Mr. Norton is a very nice man,” Harry said, helping Edward out. “If it weren’t for him, I definitely wouldn’t have had such a comfortable month—”

"How did he tell the Dursleys?" Cohen asked curiously.

"Because he had the Prime Minister's phone number?" Harry wasn't entirely sure. "I remember when I first got back, the Dursleys received a phone call, and then a few men in sunglasses knocked on the door. They looked like the Prime Minister's bodyguards from TV—after that, the Dursleys were incredibly nice to me..."

“What does this ‘good’ mean? Like inviting you to sit at the table for a meal?” Cohen asked.

“For example, they don’t say a word to me.” Harry laughed. “They don’t comment on what I do at home.”

“Looks like we’ve arrived.” Dumbledore stopped near a neat little stone house nestled in a garden. “But… oh dear.”

Dumbledore's "Oh my God" at the end felt very deliberately theatrical.

The house looked as if someone had violently broken in, resembling a murder scene, though Dumbledore didn't believe it at all.

Cohen didn't believe it either—because Cohen could see a brightly lit [Soul Strength: 50] in the room.

(End of this chapter)