Of course, Cohen wasn't foolish enough to confront his adoptive father about his inhumanity, especially since neither of his parents had any suspicions.
Do you know how rare it is for a protagonist to have living parents? Adoptive parents are still parents!
Edward, using his spontaneous explanations, successfully helped Cohen "understand" what the wizarding world was like.
He also mentioned Dumbledore's instructions to his wife, "Never reveal your wizarding identity to Harry Potter.
" "You know, you haven't had any magical outbursts in all these years, so your mother and I thought you were just a normal kid," Edward sighed. "I didn't even dare pull out my wand in the house, afraid you'd see magic and..."
"So that's why you've been relying on your mother's work to support you?"
Cohen asked his first question earnestly.
Edward, who was waiting to answer his son's questions about the wizarding world and trying to rebuild his father's image, was stunned.
"Well... you know, the wizarding world has very strict rules. It's best not to use too much magic in the Muggle world—especially if Muggles see you. I mean—wait, aren't you curious about magic at all? Like, let me show you how to conjure a bouquet of flowers or make pears tap dance?"
Edward frantically pulled his wand from his pocket, and the entire living room was instantly thrown into chaos by the escaping fruits and fluttering golden birds. His perfect wand-swinging gestures and silent spellcasting proved that Edward was no third-rate wizard. [Image:Cohen's confusion.jpg]
Is it true that the average level of a wizard's soul is only in the teens?
It seemed to Edward that his magic had stunned Cohen.
"So, do you want to learn these spells?" Edward stroked Cohen's hair, trying to ruffle the smooth strands.
"You'll learn about this in school, right?" Coin couldn't feign interest. He preferred learning something more practical to fancy, decorative magic. "You know, I prefer reading. Maybe you could just give me the textbook and I'll learn on my own."
While the possibility of their parents being Muggles had been completely ruled out, that didn't mean Edward and Rose would be safe for the next seven years.
The Happy Childhood Plan had ended prematurely, and the "First Three-Year Plan to Completely Eliminate Voldemort and His Remnants" had begun. Cohen
needed to quickly accumulate more Goodwill and Sin during the first three years of relative peace to improve his magical prowess and soul integrity. After all, if Cohen didn't intervene, Voldemort would be resurrected in the fourth year. Of course
, Cohen wouldn't let the story continue this way. If that happened, Harry and the others, the protagonists, would be safe, but he and his parents, three bystanders who shouldn't have existed, would be in trouble.
He hoped that Voldemort, whose soul was shattered like paper in a shredder, could slurp Cohen's soul to death.
There was also the matter of collecting Horcruxes. After all, Voldemort's soul fragments were an extremely destabilizing factor, and Cohen could devour them like dessert without any emotional burden.
"Of course we have textbooks. Your mother and I both have old textbooks left at home—" Edward breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Cohen explanation. Cohen truly loved reading, and wanting to learn about magic from books was a sound choice. It was indeed unsafe for a young wizard to immediately begin practicing magic.
After all, no young wizard would react as calmly to hearing that beef would be replaced with lamb for dinner upon their first encounter with magic.
"What are you looking at? Of course we won't let you use old textbooks..."
Edward quickly explained, noticing Cohen demeanor gradually moving closer to Rose.
Since the wizarding education session was over, and Coin remained remarkably calm and had no questions to answer, Edward handed the letter to Cohen.
"Keep the letter. I'll take you to Diagon Alley tomorrow to buy a wand and school supplies—maybe you should also get some friends over for your birthday party tonight?" Edward stood up with satisfaction and put his wand back in his pocket. "Dad has to go get the ingredients and the birthday cake."
"By the way, don't mention anything about magic to your friends, especially Harry next door."
—The
good news: Harry and "Cohen" knew each other before Cohen arrived.
The bad news: Harry hadn't been let out by the Dursleys for over a month since Cohen arrived, so Cohen had no way of seeing the true level of the Voldemort fragment in Harry.
"I have to consider if this is my only chance to see a Voldemort fragment in July."
Cohen stood at the door of number 4 Privet Drive, thinking about how to get Harry out from the Dursleys under the guise of a birthday party—probably including Dudley, otherwise the Dursleys would think "the Cohens are also a family of freaks."
Even when they were dealing with the Dursleys as a Muggle family, these two pure Muggles weren't exactly the kind of neighbors you'd want to socialize with. Petunia, in particular, would often spy on Edward mowing his lawn over the fence and spread dark and troubling rumors about it—though Edward's oddly shaped lawn was certainly somewhat unsociable.
Cohen attributed this to the bad impression Lily had left on Petunia after she'd transformed the family's teacups into mice.
"Hello, Mr. Dursley, I'm Cohen from the Norton family!"
After the door opened, Cohen politely bowed to Vernon Dursley, who opened it, and watched Dursley's liver-colored face turn from red to white and then back again.
It was clear that the Dursleys' discussion of the Nortons had progressed to confirming their wizarding identity—perhaps even a unilateral confirmation. The Dursleys were terrified of "magic and wizards," as if even the slightest contact with magic would destroy their family.
But Cohen's mother, Rose, was the business editor of The Times, so Dursley obviously didn't dare to openly neglect the family—otherwise, his drilling company might receive some bad reviews.
"Hmm—hmm?"
Dursley's complex thoughts finally morphed into a strange, incomprehensible cry.
"Today's my birthday, and I'd like to invite a few friends here to our house. My father has prepared a lavish dinner." Cohen assumed Mr. Dursley had agreed and continued.
"Dally can go. I heard you're going to Smeltings, too. As future classmates, we really need to strengthen our relationship—" Mr. Dursley breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing it was a birthday invitation and agreed immediately. But then, a thought struck him, his often inactive mind. "Wait, you said 'a few friends'?"
Harry wasn't really a Dursley child.
"I remember there was a kid named Harry here. Why not let him come to the party?" Cohen demanded.
"We don't have any kids named Harry here!" Mr. Dursley said angrily. "He moved away!"
"But I've seen him. He's not being abused, is he? My mother loves children. If—" Cohen made his "threat" seriously.
"Okay... but I have to warn you, he's clumsy and could easily get into trouble, and he's dangerous. If you still don't... well," Mr. Dursley muttered. Seeing Cohen showed no sign of regret, he could only shout down the stairwell behind him:
"Harry! Go to the birthday party! Damn it, hurry up!"
With a stumbling sound, a thin, bespectacled little boy ran out of the broom closet at the bottom of the stairs.
"Cohen?!" Harry exclaimed delightedly.
This was clearly something Mr. Dursley didn't want to see; Harry's happiness would only make him unhappy.
"You follow him first. Dudley will be there at dinner," Mr. Dursley said to Harry in a grouchy tone. "Don't get into trouble."
The tone of his last sentence sounded as if he was expecting Harry to get into trouble, as if he was certain that Cohen's invitation to the dinner party was a mistake.
"I promise I won't get into trouble," Harry said to Cohen after leaving the Dursleys' house.
But Cohen's mind was clearly not on Harry's promise.
[Soul Strength: 7 (Sacrificial Protection)]
[Soul Strength: 40]
Harry bore two distinct labels.
It was obvious that the one labeled "Sacrificial Protection" was Harry's own soul, an ancient spell cast with Lily's life.
And the one with a full 40 points of Soul Strength was Voldemort's soul fragment.
What a tough nut to crack!
But even if it couldn't be absorbed, this powerful soul fragment still exuded a sweet aroma, a delicacy to the Dementors.
"Co... Cohen... why are you looking at me like that..."
Harry swallowed and involuntarily took a step back.
"Brother, you smell so good—no, I was just daydreaming, thinking about dinner." Cohen was only briefly captivated by the alluring Voldemort fragment before he quickly relinquished his desire and acted normally. It
was annoying. Forty points meant at least twenty-nine more soul fragments had to be purchased from the Sin Shop, which meant twenty-nine thousand Sin Points. That was like robbing twenty-nine thousand kids of their lollipops!
The road ahead is long and arduous, and I hope the teachers and students at Hogwarts are ready.
"Cohen, thank you for rescuing me. I've been locked up at home by the Dursleys for a month..."
At Cohen's house, Harry madly devoured the apple pie that Edward had made himself, which was obviously too sweet, and thanked Cohen repeatedly.
"Thank my dad. If he had set my birthday in October, you might have been locked up until the end of the vacation."
Harry's mood obviously dropped when he mentioned the end of the vacation.
Cohen was the only one who was willing to talk to Harry without caring about the title of "freak", but at the end of this vacation, Cohen would go to the same school as Dudley - Smelting School, while Harry would go to another public school, Stonewall School. Dudley teased Harry for this for a long time.
"Cheer up, it's not like we won't see each other anymore." Cohen, who knew what would happen in the future, waved his hand nonchalantly. "Pay attention, there's dinner tonight, don't overeat on the apple pie."
(End of this chapter)