Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 94: Unique Soul

"So what did you do then?"

Cohen asked,
"Why are you hiding it from me all this time? Even if you killed a few people, it's okay. I've killed a lot of people too..."

"But—" Herbert didn't dare to look into Cohen's eyes.

"Friendly reminder," Cohen reminded, "There are actually very few people I hate. Besides the madmen who kill people indiscriminately and the fools who want to kill me, the one I dislike most is the Riddler who keeps dragging his feet and not telling the truth."

"..."

Herbert was struggling inside - Cohen didn't understand why he was so resistant to telling the truth. All the facts were clear. Herbert's son "Cohen Bock" had been completely resurrected. Even in the laboratory, "Cohen" even let Herbert go.

No matter how evil this experiment was, at least it was successful - and Cohen showed his low moral standards from his actions to his words. So what if Herbert did a lot of dirty things for this experiment?
Wait a minute...

What could possibly be so uttered that Herbert would refuse to speak it out—and make it seem as though the truth were causing him great pain?
Suddenly, Cohen recalled his first meeting with Herbert on Christmas Day and the first question he asked about Cohen.

Are they good to you?

Originally, Cohen thought that this was just Herbert's concern for his son who had been separated from him for a long time - now it seems that it could be another kind of emotion?
That jealousy that Edward and Rose could have Coin—and he couldn't?
At that time, Cohen already felt that Herbert was afraid and frightened of something.

But Cohen didn't say it directly at the time. He thought Herbert was being so nice to Cohen because he still believed that part of his soul was his son...

Now it seems that Herbert actually knew that his son had died a long time ago? He just couldn't accept this fact?
A lie that he told himself has allowed him to live with hope until now.

"You knew Cohen Bock was dead, didn't you? Both physically and spiritually?" Cohen asked. "So what did you do then? Why were you so sure that Cohen's soul was dead?"

Herbert could not go on—he began to cry, and, covering his eyes, he sat hunched over on the edge of the bed, sobbing like a child.

"I... I'm sorry... I couldn't save... me—Rose—and..."

"Rose?" Cohen frowned. "What does this have to do with Rose?"

Why is the adoptive mother suddenly mentioned? Didn’t she sever ties with the Burke family long ago when she married Edward?
There should be no reason for Herbert to have anything to do with her anymore...

"Wait a minute--" Cohen suddenly discovered his blind spot--Herbert said that Rose was his favorite sister, which meant that he had a good relationship with Rose.

If he and Rose were close...why hadn't Rose ever brought Cohen to see him during his time in prison? Just leaving Herbert, "Cohen's biological father," alone for the rest of his life?

Even Rose and Edward had never mentioned Herbert in front of Cohen. They knew about the content of the experiment - and Cohen did not think that they were the kind of people who were extremely possessive and did not want their adopted son to meet his biological father.

A married couple who hadn't had a child for ten years, lovingly adopting a dangerous half-Dementor, and Edward's shockingly low soul strength...

Cohen's thoughts suddenly became clear.

Rose and Edward didn't adopt Cohen because he was Rose's nephew, or because their maternal and paternal love was overflowing...

"Rose and Edward...had a child..."

Herbert used up all his strength and after telling the truth, he looked at Cohen with red eyes, as if begging for Cohen's forgiveness.

"What happened to that kid?" Cohen asked calmly.

"me……"

"Legilimency."

Cohen pointed his wand at him - this time Cohen did not care about Herbert's feelings, and grabbed the memory that Herbert wanted to hide deep in his mind in an extremely rough manner.

He was too soft-hearted last time—so he only saw what Herbert wanted Cohen to see.

Rose and Edward did have a child, and Rose happened to name the child "Cohen".

At that time, the experiment was developing in a pessimistic direction - the soul of the little man in the bottle was becoming weaker and weaker, and the curse failed to trap the complete soul of "Cohen Bock", it was broken.

Cohen knew why this was happening. The little Dementor he kept in his pocket had taken away part of Cohen Bock's soul.

The group of lunatics in the laboratory had a new plan - they wanted to find a new soul as a filler - the experiment was not allowed to fail, even if it had to be patched up a million times.

So their target turned to another soul that met the requirements.

Rose's child.

"I tried to stop it..." Herbert's tears flowed into his beard, "I couldn't...save you—" "That's not the point." Cohen frowned, "You were so stubborn that I thought you were a human trafficker."

"I could have stopped it... In fact, if I had just made up my mind to destroy the half-finished jar, everything would have been over..." Herbert never forgave himself, "But I hesitated, for a second or two - I raised my wand - they discovered my little move - locked me up - I couldn't..."

Cohen did not continue to listen to Herbert's intermittent regrets, but continued to look through his memories.

The researchers stole Rose's baby, broke Herbert's legs and locked him in a secret room because Herbert tried to destroy the experiment to protect his sister's child, but they did not kill Herbert - Cohen speculated that it was because "the father's blood and soul" could cope with the unexpected situations in the experiment.

The experiment was successful, but not completely.

"Cohen", who survived with a new soul, relied on instinct to kill all the wizards and Muggle experiments in the manor (they were once consumables for studying the relationship between Dementors and souls, and they were all dying), and let go of those creatures that made him feel familiar, including Ali, the unknown giant snake, another giant beast, and Herbert.

Herbert knew better than anyone that "Cohen" let him go not because of any remaining memories or family affection, but simply because of the familiarity of the flesh.

His son died long ago, physically in 1980 and spiritually in 1981.

The person living in that body at that time was Rose and Edward's son, "Cohen Norton", or perhaps only a small part of him.

It's all "Cohen", but not all Cohen.

It's like a joke played by fate, it's very "magical".

"This study is probably no different from the previous 'Man in a Bottle' study," Cohen said. "The key reason lies with Rose and Edward."

"After you destroyed the entire manor, Rose and Edward also came..."

Herbert murmured, and the sound matched what Cohen had seen in his memory—it looked like a movie with narration.

"You were very unstable at the time, like a stitched-up rag doll, with your soul's blood bleeding from the stitches... I told them that their child had been stolen by those researchers—but their soul was still alive... still living in this new experimental subject..."

"They hugged you and cried—you were dying. I knew my Cohen had long since left this world... but I still wanted to save you..."

Herbert lowered his voice.

"How did you save me?" Cohen asked, the memory scene was being transmitted from the tip of the wand to Cohen's mind.

"A spell—an evil spell that harms one's own soul—I want to mend you…" Herbert stared at Cohen blankly, as if he were looking at his former child. "One mistake will inevitably lead to more mistakes… I tore my soul apart—I wanted to mend you, but it wasn't enough—far from enough… You…"

"It's broken too badly." Cohen said solemnly, "You told Edward and Rose about the spell, right?"

"..."

Herbert nodded, as if with all his strength.

"I didn't tell Rose the truth—I think I deserved it. If I had refused to hand over your body... If I hadn't helped them complete the previous experiment... If I had been ruthless and not hesitated before they planned to harm Rose's child..."

Everything made sense.

Why were there so many soul fragments in the ruins of Bock Manor? Why was Edward's soul strength only ten points? Why did Rose and Edward love Cohen so much? Why had they never brought Cohen to see Herbert in all these years?

A patched-up soul will eventually fall apart, just like a broken mirror can never be put back together perfectly.

The soul that was put together by Edward and Rose was shattered last year, so the current Cohen, the stowaway who came from another world, took over.

Although the soul from the other world was not strong enough, it was stable, which allowed "Cohen" to survive.

Nicolas Flamel was wrong; love could not keep the man in the bottle alive.

But he was also right, "love" allowed the little man in the bottle to live to the age of eleven, otherwise "Cohen" would have died before the time traveler came to take over.

Suddenly, a voice sounded in Cohen's mind - it was "his" voice, but he definitely did not say these words.

I feel like I’m going to die…

[I know I am an evil monster——]

[Fairy tales say that evil monsters will eventually die... But I'm not afraid...]

[But my parents love me very much... I don't want them to see me die... If possible, I hope another soul can replace me and accompany them...]

(End of this chapter)