Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 557 Slander
"Shut up." Cohen closed the book.

Having someone constantly nagging beside you can certainly make it hard to concentrate on your book, but since this is a dream, you must have a way to wake up.

“I understand. People react very negatively when their wounds are reopened,” Lucifer said, putting his arm around Cohen’s shoulder. “I understand you, Cohen. I will still help you. You know, I’m an angel—you know what an angel is, right? It’s that kind of—”

“You big moth,” Cohen said. “Did you even finish reading that book on Muggle religion? Lucifer got thrown into hell.”

“That’s an angel from hell, and even an angel from hell is still an angel,” Lucifer rambled on. “I was born to love—and of all people, you are my favorite—”

“Shut up, do you know how weird it sounds coming from Edward’s mouth?” Cohen disgustedly shook off Lucifer’s hand that was on his shoulder.

"Then I'll become a girl?" Lucifer asked.

“Even if you turn into a Dementor, it won’t help,” Cohen said. “I’m waking up; I have class this afternoon—you can play in your dreams.”

Cohen found a way to wake up—simply imagine what it would feel like to wake up, and everything around him would begin to blur and fade.

So the real power in this dream doesn't lie with Lucifer, but with Cohen.

“Oh, and Cohen—don’t make a deal with that Grim Reaper!” Lucifer shouted at Cohen as the dream was about to vanish. “He is—”

“Cohen? Cohen?” Harry’s voice came from Cohen’s ear in a very low voice.

"Hmm..." Cohen got up from the table and blinked a few times.

This has never happened before; I was able to fall asleep in the library...

“Ron and I found a few protective charms. Do you want to try them out tonight?” Harry pushed two books and a piece of parchment with several pages numbered to Cohen. “You look terrible—why don’t we go eat first?”

Cohen took the book, thanked Harry and Ron, and then took a few spellbooks he had found with him. He went to Mrs. Pince to borrow the books before going to the Great Hall with them for lunch.

On the way, Cohen was still recalling the Lucifer in his dream who had Edward's face and kept babbling.

The Count was right. Lucifer could only seduce Cohen through this kind of talk therapy, but he couldn't do anything substantial. He could only appear in Cohen's dreams.

However, Lucifer's final shout, telling Cohen not to make a deal with Death...

This may indicate that the Grim Reaper is not actually on the same side as this extraterrestrial evil god, and that their goals are fundamentally conflicting.

Lucifer's soul must be intertwined with Cohen's; perhaps if Cohen had given up his soul, he wouldn't have survived either.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that this is all Lucifer in disguise. Perhaps he and the Grim Reaper are the same person, since they both like to transform into other people's appearances—the difference is that the Grim Reaper has his own face, but Lucifer does not; he can only transform into the appearances of people that Cohen has seen.

Whether Cohen chooses to abandon his soul or begins the massacre as Lucifer instructed, the outcome is not what Cohen hoped for.

Therefore, the best approach is still to "continue doing nothing".

And now that he knows how to wake up from a dream, that nagging Lucifer won't bother Cohen for long—Cohen plans to wake up on his own whenever he hears nagging, until he stops dreaming.

Or they might simply choose not to sleep at all.
-
At lunchtime, they ran into Hermione. When Hermione learned that they had spent the entire morning in the library, she looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and relief.

“We can be quite inquisitive sometimes, you know,” Ron said. “Don’t look at us like that, saying, ‘You’ve finally made something of yourself.’”

“I’m just surprised—what are you doing at the library?” Hermione asked curiously. “Homework? But it’s Monday.”

“Help Cohen find a spell to protect his brain from all magical influences,” Harry said. “Cohen had a nightmare—”

“Occlumency?” Hermione asked. “Or look in these books; I read about them last year…”

Then, Hermione listed a long string of book titles.

“I knew it, Cohen. We didn’t need to look for it in the library this morning at all,” Ron said regretfully, upon hearing the name of the book he had found for Cohen. “I feel like everything I did this morning was pointless…”

“You can’t say that. If you read it carefully, you’ll remember some of the contents, won’t you?” Hermione said. “What nightmare did Cohen have yesterday? Was it about that…emmm…Grim Reaper?”

“No,” Cohen said. “It’s about something else—but it’s not that important anymore…”

“Ha—Harry! Cohen! Your letters…” Neville rushed in from the Great Hall entrance, panting, and handed two letters to Cohen and Harry.

“Dumbledore’s.” Cohen immediately noticed Dumbledore’s signature long, thin handwriting with nested circles on the envelope.

"About the class?" Harry asked, starting to open the letter. "Thank you, Neville."

"You're welcome. I thought the principal called me over because I did something wrong..." Neville said, his face flushed.

Their letter stated the time for the next class: Wednesday evening at eight o'clock.

“But he’s not eating lunch.” Harry looked toward the teachers’ table.

“I ran into Professor Dumbledore at the door; he looked like he was about to go out,” Neville said.

"Neville, what are you doing outside?" Ron asked. "Don't you have classes this morning?"

“Help Professor Sprout take care of Screaming Radishes, who have a cold,” Neville said. “They keep sneezing, and their voices are hoarse…”

"Used to make tranquilizers?" Hermione asked curiously. "Is it for next week's lesson? I've already previewed it, but I'm still not quite sure what the book means by the screaming radish escaping its grasp by screaming... I mean, the screaming only makes people want to cover its mouth, not just throw it away, right?"

“You won’t like that feeling,” Neville said with a gloomy face. “They’re really ear-piercing, and you can’t stop their mouths at all because they’re inside the skin. My Silent Charm didn’t work well either. Luckily, Professor Sprout’s Screaming Carrots caught a cold, otherwise…”

“Oh, and Hagrid!” Neville suddenly remembered. “I almost forgot again—Cohen, Hagrid said he found you some things to cheer you up. First you were murdered, then you saw Professor Slughorn killed. He said you must be feeling terrible…”

“I do need something uplifting,” Cohen said.

Cohen really needed to see something positive to remind himself that no matter how tempting Lucifer's words were, that genocidal, evil future was not the future Cohen truly desired.

(End of this chapter)