Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 558 Bluffing
In the afternoon, Cohen and Neville went to Hagrid's cabin together.

Hagrid enthusiastically showed them the new animal for the lesson: the Lancaster gibbon, a marmoset whose arms have been replaced by wings. They can only glide using their fleshy wings, which serve a greater purpose: when fully extended, they can make the marmoset appear much larger, thus scaring away enemies they cannot defeat.

The only difference between them and the coyotes of Malaysia is that they have a tail that emits cold air, which they use to freeze small prey.

The bluffing tactic was originally very effective, but unfortunately they encountered a behemoth called "humans." Not to mention Hagrid, Cohen and Neville alone were already too large for them to cover even with their wings spread wide.

Because they are about the same height as a normal adult's knee.

"Wow!"

When a group of winged monkeys saw Hagrid approaching with two other terrifying giants, they cried out and spread their wings, swaying left and right, trying to scare Cohen and his men away.

Neville breathed a sigh of relief and laughed out loud:

"They seem safe... Wait, Hagrid, they're not poisoned, are they?"

“Of course not, they only have a tail like an ice pop. I think you might find these small, toothless creatures… well… cute,” Hagrid said awkwardly.

Cohen and Neville exchanged a glance and chuckled together.

They all knew that Hagrid would only find those huge monsters with sharp teeth, claws, and venomous spikes "cute".

“If you don’t like them, I have other animals—” Hagrid quickly said.

“No, Hagrid, these pterosaurs are perfectly normal,” Cohen said. “So how are we supposed to approach them without scaring them?”

Cohen said this because several monkeys that had come close to him had already fainted, foaming at the mouth.

"Ah, that's easy. You just need to lie down on the ground, take a few steps back, and slowly approach them when they fold their wings..." Hagrid turned around and picked up two bunches of bananas from the bucket. "Also, remember to bring these, or they'll freeze you into an ice pop..."

The lesson was very simple and helped Neville regain a lot of confidence—because Neville was the only student in the “whole class” who could be accepted by the pterosaurs. Whenever Cohen got close, it would cause the pterosaurs to scream and run away, or they would faint and pretend to be dead in large numbers.

However, there is one advantage to Cohen not being able to participate in the class: Hagrid can pull Cohen away and talk to him alone.

“I heard about the attack on Slughorn,” Hagrid whispered to Cohen. “You looked terrible at dinner last night, Cohen. I know it must have been horrific, but you were brave and amazing—you saved him, didn’t you?”

“Hagrid, I’m not looking so bad because Slughorn was murdered,” Cohen explained to Hagrid, staring at Neville surrounded by the hopping winged monkeys in the distance. “It’s because of some hallucinations—”

“Oh, a hallucination…” Hagrid paused, “I don’t know much about that… perhaps Professor Dumbledore has a solution—”

“I went to look for him.” Cohen saw a lost Thestral trying to run toward Hagrid, but it was stopped at the edge of the forest by the winged monkeys that had been frightened by the sudden appearance of the strange creature and were spreading their wings to intimidate him again.

Even though the young thestral wasn't fully grown, it could easily tear these winged monkeys to shreds, but it was still frightened by the bluffing of the winged monkeys and stopped in its tracks. The scene felt strangely familiar—

Suddenly, Cohen had an idea.

The strange Lucifer in the dream first created a nightmare to scare himself, then transformed into the likeness of Dumbledore and Edward, harassing him with a provocative and arrogant tone of confidence, yet he could do nothing of substance, and only dared to meet him in his dreams, just like those bluffing little winged monkeys.

Then wouldn't I become like that frightened little Thestral?
“I wanted these little guys to cheer you up…” Hagrid said apologetically, “I didn’t expect them to be so sensitive to you—”

“It’s alright, Hagrid, I’m much better now,” Cohen said.

So... the reason Lucifer used intimidation tactics and dared not confront Cohen directly was not because he "needed Cohen's consent" to possess Cohen's body, but because he was actually no match for Cohen, and therefore needed to bluff.

Cohen still remembered the soul strength of Lucifer in his dream, 51.5, exactly the same as Cohen's.

He is not some kind of evil god, at least not an evil god on a completely different level from Cohen.

Or rather, no matter how terrifying his true form outside the world may be, at least here, his level is the same as Cohen's.

Although it's unclear why one can see souls in dreams, it means that if Lucifer were to actually appear before Cohen, Cohen would have many ways to kill him.

As long as the soul strength does not exceed that of Cohen, even if the numerical value is the same as Cohen's, Cohen can still kill the opponent by means of methods such as spitting (somewhat disgusting), staring, or splashing hot blood.

So now the only problem is...

How can I lure him into reality?
-
On Wednesday afternoon, Cohen, who had gone back to the box to ask the goat, finally received a suggestion.

The goat finally found some highly relevant knowledge in its memory: spells used in various regions to drive away mischievous spirits or vengeful ghosts. Furthermore, the goat also found the source of the Latin spell that Edward and Rose used to mend Cohen's soul.

“That was an unknown summoning spell,” the goat said. “Its meaning was inscribed on a meteorite. Some wizards have translated it into various spells of different types, but the effect should be the same, but almost no one has succeeded.”

“Almost none means…?” Cohen asked.

“Several Egyptian sorcerers tried it, and the spell killed them. At first, only one of them survived, but that person soon committed suicide with the Avada Kedavra curse. Then, the remaining dead came back to life one by one—but we have no way of knowing the specifics because we weren’t there at the time,” Goat said.

"Sounds like the Passion of Jesus... no, the Avada Kedavra curse for suicide?" Cohen raised an eyebrow. "Can anyone actually use this on themselves? I thought it was just me..."

“That’s why I don’t quite believe this record, but there’s another possibility,” Goat said. “They might have succeeded, and that summoning spell might have really brought something to life in the survivor—and then that survivor went through the same thing you did.”

(End of this chapter)