Voldemort stayed beside Nagini, while Cohen returned to the castle alone.
The Dentors outside the castle were still slacking off because Cohen had told them they couldn't suck the soul out of Sirius Black even if they caught him.
Ti quickly arrived for Harry and Lupin's secret tutoring session. Only Cohen and Ron remained in the common room.
"Harry's going to learn the Patronus Charm because of Quidditch..." Ron said, poking a lazy fire salamander with a small twig as he asked Cohen, "But what's Hermione learning it for? I an, Professor Lupin even said it's not sothing we should be learning right now—"
The fire salamander spat out a spark, instantly igniting the twig Ron was using to poke its belly.
Fred had caught this fire salamander to amuse Ron. Fire salamanders can only survive for six hours after being removed from flas, and wizards usually take their blood when they're close to dying.
But Ron wasn't that cruel. He'd release this fire salamander into the common room fireplace later.
"No idea. Maybe she wants to murder a Dentor."
Cohen yawned, lying back in an armchair.
Hopefully, Harry and Hermione won't co back all excited and show off that spell in front of ...
#IfHarryPotterMurdersARoommateAtHogwartsCanItGuaranteeOtherGryffindorsPostgraduateAdmission?#
"But it's good that Hermione's learning it too—ow!" Ron yelped as the fire salamander lightly bit him. "It bit !"
"That ans it likes you," Cohen said knowingly. "If it were impatient with you, it would probably choose to burn off your eyebrows instead of just nibbling on your finger."
The fire salamander tilted its head and stared at Ron for a few seconds, as if wanting Ron to touch it with his hand instead of the burnt twig that was now just a tiny stub.
"Then my hand would be cooked," Ron said, dragging his armchair away from it.
Seeing that Ron was so boring, the fire salamander spat a few sparks at him, then quickly hopped off the table and into the fireplace.
anwhile, on the other side, Harry and Hermione had also arrived at their eting place with Lupin—the History of Magic classroom.
It was pitch black when they first entered. Hermione lit the lamps with her wand, and they only waited for five minutes before Lupin arrived with a large trunk.
"The Boggart from last ti," Lupin said. "It was originally supposed to be defeated by the students in my lesson plan—but either way, this saves the trouble of finding another one."
"Can a Boggart imitate a Dentor?" Harry asked sowhat doubtfully. "I an... I thought it could only imitate a shape..."
"When imitating dark creatures, Boggarts will imitate the corresponding ability effects to a great extent," Hermione answered quickly, sounding like she was reciting from a book. "And the Patronus Charm can also be used to drive away Boggarts."
"Excellent answer, Hermione," Lupin said with a smile. "It's a sha this isn't a regular class, otherwise I'd definitely award Gryffindor ten points."
"Alright then," Lupin said, clapping his hands together. "Let's begin our lesson now—the spell I'm going to teach you next—as Hermione said, the Patronus Charm..."
"This is a very advanced piece of magic, far beyond the ordinary wizarding level. It's quite difficult for young wizards in terms of both magic power and control, so please be prepared," Lupin warned.
Harry and Hermione both nodded.
"What does this spell do?" Harry asked.
[Website address removed]
"It summons a Patronus," Hermione answered again. "A Patronus is a positive force, an embodint of the things that Dentors feed on—hope, happiness, the desire to survive... But there's one thing I don't understand—Professor Lupin, if the components of a Patronus are the food of Dentors, why can it block Dentors instead of being eaten by them?"
"Because of the non-existent nature of Dentors and their dark, terrifying essence," Lupin said. "Firstly, the Patronus is the only thing that can directly interact with and harm a Dentor—only non-existence can attack non-existence."
"Secondly, the Patronus Charm contains not only happiness but also the wizard's desire to survive and protect. Its purpose is to fight back, not simply to materialize sothing," Lupin said. "That might sound a bit abstract. Let explain it in a more common way. A Patronus is a weapon ford by the wizard using magic, like you guys fighting with hard baguettes—and right now, you can only hit each other with this baguette."
"Pfft—" Harry chuckled at the analogy. "What does a Patronus look like?"
"Each Patronus is unique to the wizard who conjures it," Lupin said. "You need to say an incantation, and you must focus all your thoughts on a particularly happy mont for the spell to work."
Harry and Hermione both began to recall their happiest mories.
But it's often difficult to judge which mory is "happier."
"The incantation is 'Expecto Patronum'," Lupin cleared his throat and recited the spell. "You can try it first."
Harry, on his first try, summoned a cloud of silvery mist—which suddenly reminded him of sothing.
"I think I saw Cohen use that!" Harry said in surprise.
Back in their first year, in the room hiding the Mirror of Erised, Harry seed to rember seeing Cohen use this spell. Cohen had also summoned a large cloud of mist back then, except it seed Cohen's mist stayed close to the ground, while the mist Harry had just summoned floated upwards...
"Cohen?!" Hermione's eyes widened.
"Cohen?" Lupin's expression was strange.
Harry was about to explain, but he suddenly felt it wasn't a good idea to ntion his and Cohen's rule-breaking night-ti wanderings to Lupin...
"Maybe it was during one of our attempts in the common room," Harry changed his story. "Cohen also seed to conjure up a bunch of that silvery mist..."
Next was Hermione's attempt—Hermione tried several tis before finally conjuring a wisp of mist, which made her look quite frustrated.
"Is that it?" After both of them managed to produce so reaction with the spell, Harry eagerly asked Lupin.
"You can't tell its effectiveness just from its form—of course, the ultimate form of a Patronus is a corporeal animal, but for you two right now, you don't need to aim that high," Lupin explained. "Are you ready to try it out on a Dentor?"
"Yeah," Harry nodded with extre confidence.
But Harry had clearly overestimated himself—
After several attempts, he still couldn't use this formless Patronus to repel the Boggart disguised as a Dentor.
"Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum—"
Harry repeatedly heard the voices of his parents before their deaths, his father's shout, his mother's dying scream—death had never felt so close.
"Perhaps we should stop here for tonight," Lupin said uneasily after hearing Harry say he heard his parents' voices. "Practicing against Dentors... I shouldn't have suggested you go through this..."
"Maybe we should call it a night, Harry..." Hermione said from the side, tears welling up in her eyes. "That sounds awful..."
"No," Harry shook his head. "I want to try one more ti! I'm not thinking of sothing happy enough, that's why..."
Until the very last ti, Harry finally managed to remain standing instead of fainting under the Dentor's influence—
"Excellent! Harry, excellent!" Lupin said with relief.
"Can I try again?" Harry asked.
"No," Lupin said firmly. "Have so chocolate, Harry. That's enough practice for one night. Here—"
"Okay..." Harry sat down to the side, ready to watch Hermione practice.
"Hermione, this practice thod is indeed very uncomfortable," Lupin said, turning to Hermione. "I'm worried—"
"It's okay," Hermione bit her lip. "I have to practice too—I must."
Harry didn't quite understand why Hermione was so insistent—she didn't need to play in the Quidditch match, and she couldn't offer Harry much help from the stands because they were too far away.
Lupin assud she was doing it for her friends, which reminded him of his own school days with Jas, Sirius, and Wormtail.
But Cohen, who had slipped in here ten minutes earlier in his ghostly form to secretly watch the tutoring session, knew why Hermione was doing this.
Hermione knew Cohen's identity and was afraid Cohen would harm her friends—no one knew why a creature that fed on human emotions and souls would infiltrate the human community.
If Cohen only had magical creature blood, that would be one thing. Even if magical creatures were dangerous, their diet included things other than humans.
But Dentors were different—Dentors only hard humans. That's what the books said, and even Cohen himself had admitted it.
She was currently wavering between "believing Cohen" and "being wary of Cohen," and even she wasn't sure what was right.
"Then shall we give it a try first?" Lupin asked, ready to open the cupboard at any mont. "Ready?"
"Ready..." Hermione nodded.
Lupin opened the cupboard—but what ca out wasn't a Dentor, but...
"Cohen?" Harry's eyes widened as he looked at Cohen, who climbed out of the cupboard with a gloomy expression, then looked at the bewildered Hermione. "What—"
The Boggart-turned-Cohen wasn't even holding a wand, and the robes he was wearing were large and tattered—Harry didn't rember Cohen ever dressing so poorly.
"No—no—" Hermione scread, covering her face. "I can't—"
"Riddikulus!" Lupin seed to understand what was happening and stepped between Hermione and the Boggart.
The Boggart turned back into a deflated balloon and whizzed back into the trunk.
"What was that all about?" Harry asked, full of confusion.
"I'll handle this," Lupin said, helping to cover up the situation. "Harry, why don't you go back and rest? I need to have a word with Hermione."
"Okay... alright," Harry mumbled, seeing that neither Hermione nor Lupin was willing to explain things to him.
He was indeed quite tired now—maybe Hermione would be willing to explain the reason to them tomorrow.
"Don't—don't tell Ron and Cohen," Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and reminded him before he left.
"Huh?" Harry said in surprise. "What does this have to do with Ron—"
"Just don't tell them—" Hermione said. "You guys will find out about this eventually... but not so suddenly..."
The ghostly Cohen, who had been watching the drama unfold, furrowed his non-existent brow.
It's too easy for people to misunderstand and think Hermione has a crush on , isn't it?!
"Alright," Harry nodded doubtfully and left the classroom alone.
Now only Lupin and Hermione, the two "living people," remained.
"Prof-Professor...?" Hermione asked hesitantly when Lupin remained silent.
"You know?" Lupin said with a strange expression.
"Know what?" Hermione tried to play dumb, but Lupin was already quite certain of his guess.
"You're learning the Patronus Charm to protect yourself from a friend, aren't you?" Lupin said.
"You know too?" Hermione said in surprise. "Or is it..."
"Most of the professors know about this. I even asked Professor Dumbledore after arriving at the school," Lupin said. "Professor Dumbledore trusts him—and I trust him too."
"I really shouldn't doubt my friends..." Hermione said guiltily. "It's just that the description of this species in the books... it's terrifying..."
"Blood often doesn't determine whether a person is good or bad," Lupin said aningfully. "But considering the Boggart situation, your practice probably can't continue normally—why don't you get so rest? You look like you're a bit overworked..."
"Yeah," Hermione nodded and hurried out of there.
Lupin left the classroom after putting away the trunk containing the Boggart. Now only the ghostly Cohen remained.
His body was left on the bed in the dorm pretending to sleep. He wasn't in a hurry to go back.
Hermione's suspicion of him was actually a relatively important part of Cohen's plan—but she had already learned the spell, and being able to produce so silvery mist should achieve the sa effect...
But what Cohen still couldn't understand was—according to his various plans, Sirius Black wouldn't be caught by the Ministry of Magic and the Dentors.
There was no foreseeable outco where "Sirius Black is caught by the Ministry of Magic."
So under what circumstances would the future he had observed co to pass?
However, the ti to verify the prophecy's outco was approaching soon—the Hogsade weekend the day after tomorrow, Saturday, would be the mont to finalize everything.
Cohen floated back to his body in the dorm, arriving just as Harry returned.
"How was it? Did you learn a new spell?" Ron asked Harry curiously as he ca back.
"Does this an we won't have to worry about Dentors anymore next ti?" Seamus was also very concerned about whether Gryffindor could win the Quidditch Cup.
"I know the spell, but the effect doesn't seem very obvious," Harry said uncertainly. "But I made a lot of progress tonight. I'll practice a few more tis. I should be able to get it right before the Quidditch match..."
"What about Hermione? Did Hermione learn it?" Ron asked.
"She didn't try—" Harry suddenly rembered Hermione's warning.
"Why?" Ron frowned.
"She... was too tired—she had too many classes and almost fell asleep," Harry made up a reason.
"I told her a long ti ago to study less," Ron shook his head and burrowed back under the covers. "If she keeps going like this, she'll end up working herself to death at school..."
Harry glanced one last ti towards Cohen's bed, where Cohen was curled up in a ball.
Why did Hermione's Boggart turn into Cohen?
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