Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 93 This time it is a legitimate visit to relatives
"Bock Manor?" Ern asked doubtfully.

"I have a distant cousin in jail there. Go visit him," Cohen said. "Isn't that humane?"

"That's true—" Ern said with relief. "No one goes there. The last time it was a Ministry employee doing a routine inspection…"

After the bus started moving, Cohen felt it wasn't just the conductor who needed to be replaced.

The driver, Ern Plan, was about the same age as the conductor, Tucker, and wore thick glasses, looking like a shrunken walnut.

He could barely drive at all—because the car was careening around aimlessly, and if it hadn't been enchanted to keep Muggle buildings out of the way, everyone in it would have been killed.

The crooked and sometimes fast and sometimes slow speed of movement made the journey full of dizziness and nausea. No matter how hard Cohen tried to resist dizziness, he still felt uncomfortable in his stomach because of this operation.

Cohen felt that he would soon vomit out the soul and happiness he had eaten.

What's even more terrifying is that Cohen will need to take this car when he comes back.

"..."

After an unknown amount of time, Cohen got out of the car with a grim face after a sudden brake.

The Knight Bus stopped at the edge of the woods outside Burke Manor.

Cohen shook his head, feeling grounded again.

This car actually did something that nothing else could do - it managed to stun a Dementor.

Cohen carried his box through the woods and saw the familiar wooden house again - why did it feel like there were so many wooden houses in the magical world? The one in his box was a wooden house, his original father's house was a wooden house, and Hagrid also lived in a wooden house.

The whole world is just a giant wooden house?

The atmosphere suddenly became philosophical.

This time, Cohen didn't have to clean up the traces after visiting his relatives - in the eyes of Dumbledore and Edward, Cohen already knew his life experience, so visiting his relatives was a very legitimate thing.

Cohen suddenly stopped before he walked out of the inner circle of the forest.

Two strange wizards came out of Herbert's cabin and disapparated away after a loud noise.

Is this someone who comes for a regular checkup?
I don’t know if there has been any follow-up on the two Aurors who died before - the Ministry of Magic probably couldn’t track them down, so they can only be labeled as missing.

Because they were not here for a routine inspection at that time. They just passed by from the sky and found that the snow on the ruins had been cleared, so they came down to take a look temporarily.

After the two strange wizards left, Cohen came out of the woods, walked to Herbert's door and knocked.

"What? It's not enough to humiliate me, you want to steal my dinner--" Herbert opened the door angrily.

"Were you bullied?" Cohen asked curiously.

Herbert looked the same as he had at Christmas.
He looked at Cohen—as if he had suddenly lost his voice.

"Who were those two people just now? What did they humiliate you for?" Cohen squeezed into the room beside Herbert. "Do you want me to help you find a place to fight—"

"You're here—ah, no, don't—don't—" Herbert waved his hands quickly, "Don't provoke them... I don't want to see you because of me..."

Herbert closed the door, and the shackles and chains on his hands clanked.

"Why did you come back so suddenly? I didn't have time to prepare..." Herbert said embarrassedly. His situation was exactly the same as last time - everything was the same, even the fact that he "didn't prepare any gifts for his son".

"Oh! Wait a minute—" Herbert's eyes suddenly lit up, "I made you a birthday present—"

He was groping for something under the shabby wooden bed, and finally, he found a small gadget from a pile of debris underneath.

A piece of wooden carving of a little man, it looked a bit crude - but it was the only material Herbert could find.

It was a little boy, though without a face. "I was afraid if I carved it ugly you'd be unhappy..." Herbert handed it to Cohen cautiously, "so I didn't carve a face..."

"It's cute. I'll put it next to my bed."

Cohen happily accepted the gift.

"I came here just to see you—and to share something with you, so that I can feel more like a human being."

"You are a human being," Herbert corrected. "The best child in the world."

"That's what parents say to their kids," Cohen said.

Herbert smiled and looked much younger - he was only forty-nine years old this year, but he had looked like he was in his sixties before.

"Do you want to hear good news or bad news about my life?" Cohen stuffed the wooden carving into his pocket. Compared to stuffing it into a box or the pocket of the camel skin hanging around his waist, stuffing it into his pocket seemed to show that Cohen took it more seriously.

This would have touched Herbert deeply.

Cohen didn't quite like his habit of thinking - it was as if all his actions were calculated against others, as if he was instinctively manipulating people's hearts.

This makes both "love" and "humanity" feel somewhat empty.

"Bad news?" asked Herbert nervously.

"I ran into Voldemort at the end of the term," Coin said. "He asked me to help him steal the Philosopher's Stone. Everyone else knows about it—but since you've been here, I guess you haven't heard."

"!"

After hearing Voldemort's name, Herbert shuddered and didn't even bother to care why the "Philosopher's Stone" was in Hogwarts.

"Did he hurt you?" Herbert anxiously moved closer to see if Cohen was injured or had any traces of black magic - he even forgot that Cohen himself was a creation of black magic.

"Not really. He threw a killing curse at me, but it had no effect on me," said Coin. "You know, Dementors can't die—so you don't have to worry about my safety."

"That's good..." Herbert breathed a sigh of relief, "Then...is there any good news?"

"Yes, I was out of my body," Cohen said. "I was hit by the Killing Curse, and then Dumbledore asked Nicolas Flamel to help me - guess what, the Philosopher's Stone was mine, and Nicolas Flamel was going to teach me some alchemy."

"He also told me something - about the success of the 'Man in the Bottle' and the reason why I am so different from other experimental subjects in history." Cohen looked at Herbert, trying to understand the key factors that Nicolas Flamel mentioned that affected the outcome of the entire experiment.

"He said I had one more thing."

"What's extra?" Herbert's eyes met Cohen's.

"'like'."

Cohen said:
"When that experiment was going on, there was only one person who felt that way about me."

Cohen had not found any memory of any key magic in Herbert's memory before, but Cohen never believed that simple "love" could influence the outcome of alchemy.

Even Lily's love for Harry requires the participation of the "sacrificial protection" spell.

So there is only one possibility, Herbert hid that memory.

"..."

Herbert seemed to know something.

"I just want you to live."

(End of this chapter)