Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 18 Damn, it turns out Occlumency isn't considered magic.

Quirrell's Defense Against the Dark Arts was the class that the young wizards looked forward to the most - even a young wizard like Harry, who had never been exposed to the wizarding world before, was full of unrealistic expectations for this class under the influence of Ron.

In the auditorium, breakfast time.

"Fred and George said that in this class you can learn real combat—" Ron would repeat this sentence every five minutes, his eyes full of longing, "Fighting with dark wizards..."

"We're not going to learn how to fight in our first class."

Hermione sat across from the three boys, put away the textbooks she had finished studying, and raised her head to correct them:

"We will first learn the basics of the dark arts, how to defend against them, and then the actual practice—"

"Yes, Professor Granger." Ron pursed his lips. "As if you have already attended the class..."

"..."

Hermione didn't continue arguing with Ron. She stood up and left the table without looking back.

"Honestly, I think she likes to preach a little too much—"

Ron turned to Harry and Coin and complained.

"Shouldn't I be so sarcastic about her..." Harry said uncertainly.

"Ron, she's actually right." Cohen took the last bite of his porridge and put on his schoolbag. "The first class should indeed be a theory class, and..."

Cohen looked at the empty faculty table.

"Don't forget that our teacher is Professor Quirrell. He stutters even when saying two consecutive words. I doubt the quality of his teaching."

Cohen was right; Quirrell's class had turned into a disastrous joke.

His classes were filled with the smell of garlic, and some said Quirrell did this to drive away a vampire he encountered in Romania—

But Cohen knew that the strong smell of garlic on Chilo was actually to cover up the stench of decay on his body.

Because of Voldemort's possession, Quirrell's body should have begun to rot, just like the small animals that Voldemort possessed in the Albanian forest.

The first five minutes of the class were normal. After all, Quirrell was just reading from the textbook at the beginning. But when Seamus impatiently asked Quirrell how to defeat the resurrected zombies, Quirrell panicked.

His face flushed red and he mumbled something about the weather.

Because Quirrell had set a trap for Cohen yesterday, Cohen always felt that Quirrell was glancing at him intentionally or unintentionally today, as if he wanted Cohen to come to him after class.

But Coin did not intend to have a second, more in-depth contact with Quirrell so soon - Voldemort's first contact was just a test. If he really wanted to form an alliance the second time, given Voldemort's temperament, he would definitely let Quirrell perform Legilimency on Coin to judge his loyalty.

Unsure whether he, as a half-Dementor, was immune to the spell, Cohen planned to test it on himself sometime—or at least learn a little Occlumency.

After all, Quirrell's current level is not very high, and he should be able to defend himself with a little learning.

Otherwise, in the original book, he could have used Legilimency on Harry when he was standing in front of the Mirror of Erised to find out whether Harry had obtained the Philosopher's Stone.

"Cohen, you're right..."

After class, Ron seemed to have lost all his strength and means, and said listlessly.

"I've never had such a difficult class before," Harry complained.

But Harry was obviously too happy too early.

For Harry - or most Gryffindor students, the most difficult class is always Snape's Potions class, followed by Professor Binns' History of Magic.

The afternoon's Charms class was much more normal. Although Professor Flitwick had to stand on a pile of books to reach the podium, his teaching skills were far superior to his height. Even the most boring theories, as long as they were accompanied by some interesting case stories and jokes from Professor Flitwick, could keep the young wizards entertained.

After dinner today, Quirrell didn't come to see Cohen like he did yesterday - this was indeed a bit too suspicious.

But Cohen did not go back to Gryffindor Tower with Harry, Ron and the others, but went to the library.

He was looking for some books on Occlumency.

"Occlumency?"

Madam Pince, the librarian, looked at Cohen suspiciously. The first-year wizard had only been in class for two days and should not have been exposed to something like "Occlumency" which was not part of the Hogwarts curriculum.

"Is this something that cannot be learned..."

Cohen looked at Madam Pince pitifully. He felt that he would soon be able to force out tears - he really couldn't find any books on brain occlumency. Cohen felt that he had already read all the books in the spell section.

"It's not that you can't learn it..." Madam Pince was not fooled by Cohen's pitiful appearance, but Occlumency was indeed not a knowledge with grade restrictions.

In fact, Occlumency is so safe that it's even documented in—

"The Power of Sorrow. The maximum loan period is one week." Madam Pince placed a thick, peeling book in front of Cohen. "Please take good care of it."

If you scratch, tear, fold, soil, damage, throw, drop, or in any other way damage, abuse, or desecrate this book, I will impose the most dire consequences within my power.

This is the warning on the borrowing slip, written by Madam Pince. Just from these sharp words, one can feel how much Madam Pince hates the behavior of destroying books.

After getting the book and the borrowing slip, Cohen finally understood why he couldn't find it in the cursed area.

Who would have thought that "The Power of Sorrow" would be a book about the art of occlumency!

This book is even in the section on magical principles. Most of the books in this area record some boring structural principles, like the basic theories of magical knowledge, rather than the evolved branching spells.

The library closed at eight o'clock, so Cohen chose to borrow the book directly back to the lounge to read - Cohen originally planned to find an empty classroom, but if he ran into Quirrell and Quirrell happened to see the book, it might interfere with Cohen's original plan.

"Cohen, are you crazy?"

After returning to the lounge, Ron looked at Cohen who came in with another thick book and said in disbelief:
“It’s only been two days since school started!”

"I didn't want to, but you can't bring video game consoles into Hogwarts," Cohen said, spreading his hands. "I probably won't have any other entertainment activities besides reading."

"You can play chess with us, round-the-clock—or go see Fred and George, they're figuring out how to give Puffy a haircut."

Ron gestured towards the large group of people gathered around the fire.

The Weasley brothers each held a pair of scissors, and in front of them was a pink Puffball that had somehow made its way to Gryffindor Tower.

This creature, which looks like a large ball of marshmallow, is one of the favorite pets of wizards.

Many people like the cute cattail, of course, provided that they don't mind having human boogers in their diet.

Normal Puffballs are very docile, but the one caught by the Weasley brothers seemed less afraid of people, because it crawled onto the face of either Fred or George like a facehugger, causing people around them to exclaim.

"Forget it." Cohen's body was covered with goose bumps. It must be itchy to have a ball of hair crawling all over his face.

Cohen chose a relatively quiet corner and planned to study how to use the brain-blocking technique - after all, when Harry in the book was receiving one-on-one teaching, all Snape said was "close your mind."

A magic can't be without spells, right?

(End of this chapter)