Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 115: Wuwu, I’ve been searching for you so hard, wuwuwu…

"Is this the son you've been looking for for so long?"

asked the old basilisk.

“Wuwu…” The new basilisk burst into tears—even though it couldn’t cry at all—and rushed towards Cohen, “I’ve been looking for you so hard, wuwu…”

"You climbed into my bed in the middle of the night and made me risk being called the 'Heir of Slytherin' to come to the Chamber of Secrets to find you, just to take advantage of me by saying 'son' to my face?" Cohen dodged the basilisk's "love hug". If he was hit by it, it would probably be no different from being hit by a truck again.

It was strange. According to various theories, Parseltongue should have the ability to control Basilisks - but Cohen didn't feel that he could control them. Either the book in the library was wrong, or Cohen's 9/10 Parseltongue was missing the crucial last tenth.

"You don't know what kind of life I've been living these past few years, wuwuwu..." The new basilisk complained to Cohen, "Ever since everyone in that lab died, I can only catch food on my own every day - and I can't come into contact with living people, otherwise if a bunch of people suddenly die, I'll be hunted down by wizards... wuwuwu... That Derek is a liar..."

"Who's Derek?" Cohen heard an unfamiliar name.

"A wizard in that laboratory..." said the new basilisk, "He wanted to capture me. Of course... As a basilisk that has lived for over three hundred years, it would be almost impossible for a wizard with barely grown hair to capture me. Even if he learned some snake language, it would be useless. So he used very insidious and dirty means... You know... Basilisks will never be enslaved..."

"Unless food and accommodation are included."

Cohen felt as if he would never laugh again.

"You just said, 'After all the people in that lab died, I had to go out and get my own food every day.' Is that a sinister and dirty tactic? You clearly volunteered!"

"Ha..." the new basilisk said with an evasive look, looking very human.

"..."

Cohen understood why it was looking for him.

It wants to make a living by following Cohen, the kind that can do nothing.

And Cohen actually did plan this - raising a basilisk as a secret weapon is indeed very useful, plus it is close to him and of excellent quality.

However, the basilisk's despicable appearance made Cohen feel that "I would be at a loss if its plan succeeded", and he couldn't let it come and eat for free so easily.

"So, son—"

"Call me Cohen out there."

Cohen refuses to use the term now.

Can't I just collect some blood and venom and it'll be a super-generational enhancement? And Cohen didn't have any idea about the glare at his father trick for the time being, and Ali couldn't use it right now.

"Is that your name?" The new basilisk rubbed against Cohen enthusiastically and said, "I have a name too - I specially asked that Derek to help me find a name - Sissoko..."

"It's not impossible to support you," Cohen said, pretending to be troubled. "Since you've been out there for so long, you must understand the logic of human society. I'm just a student now, I don't have that much power or influence..."

"I can be your strong backing..." the basilisk Sissoko immediately followed up - it still planned to be a useless person who would just eat and wait for death.

"So raising you would make me more dangerous—and the attacks you two have committed at school have put the teachers on alert," Cohen said slowly. "I can't openly raise a basilisk of the same species as the culprit, and I'm worried that you'll run around..."

"If you provide me with food and shelter, I won't run away!" Sissoko said quickly, "I'm the most docile—"

What on earth have you been trained to be by those researchers?!

Cohen felt that it was even more important to trick it into signing an unbreakable oath—if there were no enforced constraints, it would definitely stay in the box like a dead snake, let alone be forced to work.

"Besides, there are some other residents in the box where I keep magical creatures. If you crawl around in there too, I'll be at a loss if they die."

"I promise I won't run around. Just give me a hole and feed me every day..." Sissoko hurriedly tried to prove himself. "Even the fact you snuck into my bed the first time we met made me very worried about you," Cohen said. "But there's a way we can rebuild trust..."

"I'll do it!" Sissoko rushed to say.

How could his own cub harm him? He would soon be able to stay in Cohen's nest forever!
Sissoko is full of hope for the future.

"Okay, I'll bring my owl back later, and we'll make an unbreakable vow first, and then I'll take you to my lair." Cohen said happily, "Not now. I don't want to take you around, lest people think I was the one who carried out the terrorist attack at Hogwarts - sooner or later, the professors at Hogwarts will find the murderer and eliminate the hidden dangers."

"Wait a minute..." The old basilisk who had been watching the entire "rather strange reunion of father and son" suddenly called out to Cohen, "Um... the free food and lodging you mentioned..."

"Can you take me with you?"

Both Cohen and Sissoko looked towards it.

This made the old basilisk feel a little embarrassed at first, and he looked hesitant.

"I told you not to hang out with your old friend's unreliable offspring..." Sissoko was in high spirits after getting permission to move into Cohen's box.

"You're a murderer." Cohen wasn't sure how to rescue the old basilisk in this situation, even though it was only doing what Salazar Slytherin had wished.

"Will they come to kill me?" the old basilisk hissed. "Those wizards in the castle?"

"That's the theory," Cohen said. "Fifty years ago you killed a girl, and recently you attacked a Squib—though he didn't die..."

"I thought this was what the castle needed..." the old basilisk said in a low voice, "Salazar said that the castle needs to be purified in the future... He is the master of the castle... His request should be the castle's request..."

"But Salazar Slytherin is dead. He lived more than a thousand years ago," Cohen said. "His descendants are not him. Apart from a trace of blood, there is no connection between them."

"Tsk..." Sissoko seemed to want to defend the old basilisk, "Cohen... the old man has stayed in this room all his life. You can't expect him to always know what's going on outside..."

"Let me think of a solution?"

Cohen raised his eyebrows.

The evil side quest is to rescue a basilisk...

What if we rescue two?

Will there be two rewards?
----------

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you just said."

In the room, the Count asked Cohen cautiously and politely:
"You just said that you wanted me to help you catch a fire ash snake, right?"

"Then you might want to clean your ears," Cohen corrected him. "I said it very clearly. I want to establish an unbreakable vow with one or two basilisks, and you have to be the witness—you have more experience, and I don't trust humans."

……

After five seconds of silence.

"Did a vole take your brain?!"

The Count screamed,
"Brassilius? Two of them? If you don't like me being a female, you can just change my sex or kill me. There's no need to go to great lengths to find two basilisks to stare at me!"

(End of this chapter)