Cohen had actually already thought of it.
Harry still found the Mirror of Erised as Dumbledore planned; the old man was playing a very novel game.
"Advanced age... South of England... an eleven-year-old boy... it just seems a bit too strange!"
Cohen felt his lips twitching.
"Huh? Cohen, what are you saying?" Harry didn't hear what Cohen muttered, but he had something more important to say, "But you have to hear this—I saw my parents last night!"
But Cohen, who had just killed two people, didn't seem to be doing much better than Dumbledore.
"I feel like I've suddenly come to terms with it." Cohen sighed.
"What did you just say?"
"I—I saw my parents! In a mirror!" Harry immediately lowered his voice after the first "I" was out of control, even though no other students were awake at this time.
"Things in the mirror are all fake, Harry," Cohen reminded him. "Face reality. No matter how handsome you are in the mirror, you're still the same in real life."
[Sin Value +1]
[Note: The evil Dementors have resorted to even dirtier methods to torment the Savior]
"But I've never seen my mom and dad." Harry seemed to be desperately searching for proof that the mirror wasn't an illusion. "Maybe the mirror is foreshadowing the future?"
"…"
Cohen really didn't want to shatter Harry's fantasy—especially after being moved by Herbert for three seconds just yesterday.
"Are you coming with me tonight?" Harry asked eagerly. "Maybe you can see them too—I mean Mr. and Mrs. Norton…"
"Aren't you afraid of getting caught?" Cohen knew Harry had the Invisibility Cloak, but still pretended to be completely unaware. "Sneaking out at night costs fifty points—Gryffindor points are running low."
"How could I forget to tell you that—" Harry slapped his forehead and quickly pulled a thin, silvery liquid-like thing from his robe pocket. "Someone gave me an Invisibility Cloak—look."
Harry showed Cohen the gift he had received yesterday.
"An invisibility cloak?" Cohen's envious look wasn't fake—with that, he'd have no problem ambushing enemies.
Damn it, anyone who dared mess with him, he'd just put on the cloak, instantly Apparate behind them, and then *smack* swallow their soul whole, the kind that wouldn't even come out after a stomach pump.
Actually, he probably wouldn't need to get that close; Cohen had never actually sucked the soul out of any creature mouth-to-mouth before—that was too disgusting.
Normally, Dementors need to aim their "Dementor's Kiss" at their target's lips, but Cohen didn't seem to follow that rule.
Perhaps it was some magical alchemy, or maybe some other biological trait in his bloodline.
"Alright, I'll go with you."
Cohen agreed so he could study the mirror up close, preparing for getting the Philosopher's Stone later.
Ideally, he'd get the Philosopher's Stone in front of Harry when he was the villain, thus completing both the good quest (preventing Voldemort from getting the Philosopher's Stone) and the evil quest (preventing Harry Potter from getting the Philosopher's Stone).
Losing to both sides is the same as not losing to either side; this is another great achievement in promoting peace in the wizarding world.
I suggest the system add 10,000 points.
Dealing with Quirrell Cohen is quite promising. Quirrell's soul has become extremely fragile due to Voldemort's possession and erosion, and Cohen could absorb it back when he enrolled.
While Cohen can't absorb Voldemort's 40-point soul fragment now, the Avada Kedavra curse can't seriously affect him either. Therefore, the evil side is deemed no threat.
The only issue now is to legitimately pocket the Philosopher's Stone, which was supposed to be destroyed in the future.
After receiving Cohen's agreement to go for a night stroll, Harry seemed very happy—if Cohen could also see his parents, would that mean he also had a chance to see his parents again in reality?
This inference is actually baseless, because Cohen's adoptive parents are still alive, making it irrelevant.
But excessive hope can cloud judgment.
As Dumbledore said, "It is no use to be so engrossed in dreams that you forget life. With the sunshine outside the castle and the calls of your friends, you will eventually wake up from your reverie."
According to Ron, Harry had been listless all day, even skipping lunch and dinner.
However, Cohen had another thing to do during the day—he hadn't yet thoroughly reviewed all the books he'd brought from the basement, nor had he studied Ari's species abilities.
Ari was still fast asleep.
Cohen chose to curl up in the armchair in the Room of Requirement and read—starting with "The Origin of Evil Life" from the pile of books.
This book was clearly one of the experimental materials selected for the entire project—Cohen found two chapters circled and heavily annotated in this almost worn-out book.
The first point is about "Dementors." These non-beings are the most troublesome dark magic creatures in the wizarding world because they are not material entities, so they cannot be killed, only driven away. They are also extremely dangerous, with attacks almost impossible to defend against. Only a few spells can deal with them, among which the "Patron Saint Charm" is the most effective, but extremely difficult to cast; even the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic rarely manage to summon a physical Patronus.
Several long paragraphs of handwritten text in this chapter caught Cohen's attention. The sentence,
"[Dementors, as non-beings, are difficult to use as incremental material for the person in the bottle; removal is recommended]
," was "negated" by a red underline. The experimental procedure should have been the result of repeated discussions, not a decision made by a single leader.
[Rejected; although Dementors cannot be added later, they can serve as base material. Their immortality and direct attack on the soul are the most important aspects of the entire experiment.]
From here, the following annotations began to argue.
Unknown Researcher #1: [You can add a basilisk and a phoenix; the effect is the same.]
Unknown Researcher #2: [The only known phoenix with a confirmed location in Britain is with Dumbledore. If you disagree, go and steal Dumbledore's bird.]
Researcher Number One: [Huh? Me? Fight Dumbledore? Really?]
...
The rest is all nonsense. The experimental results show that they ultimately chose Dementors as the base. It's roughly 60% Dementors for Cohen, with the remaining 10% each from humans, Nightmares, and two strange creatures of unknown race.
"Won't the other Dementors call me Mudblood when they see me?" Cohen asked warily.
"Then you'll use 'Azkaban seems a bit too urbanized' as an excuse to eliminate them, right?"
the Earl said, stealing Cohen's candy.
"I won't be surprised by anything you do now."
Cohen ignored the Earl and flipped to the next marked point.
The second point was "Nightmare," the kind described in *Demystifying Black Magic*.
Nightmares are evil creatures created by the despicable Helpo. The pure unicorn should never fall, but when a thick, liquefied curse floods the corpse of a unicorn embryo, even a messenger from heaven is dragged into hell—
"This passage doesn't sound right," Cohen frowned. "Corruption, viscous liquid, chastity…"
"What?! Let me see!" The usually lazy count excitedly squeezed in.
After shooing away the excited brown-feathered bird, Cohen continued reading.
Although called "Nightmare," it was clearly just Helpo's twisted sense of humor.
These creatures possessed no abilities related to "dreams." Aside from their unicorn-like form and the curse flowing through their bodies, they had almost nothing in common with unicorns.
Nightmares didn't possess any of the benevolent magic of unicorns.
But Nightmares were natural curse masters; they could unleash dense curse magic through their spiraling silver horns, or inject curses directly into their opponents through physical penetration.
Their blood is a liquid curse—but once it leaves the body, the nightmare's blood evaporates quickly.
Cohen tentatively made a small cut on his hand.
"Holy crap!"
Cohen watched helplessly as his blood turned into black curse smoke—those who were close to Cohen in the past ten years were truly lucky; thankfully, Cohen had hardly been injured, otherwise, a single touch would have been fatal!
[Ding! Special Ability Unlocked: Liquid Curse (1/10)]
The system also appeared at this moment.
The unlock rate of the special ability is (1/10), indicating that Cohen's current blood is probably not the fully formed liquid curse.
But this also made Cohen realize a terrible problem.
Blood is a curse, then is bodily fluids?
If he grows up and wants to have a partner in the future…
"Is there poison in my body?"
Cohen took a deep breath.
Scary, if he doesn't solve this, it seems like he's sentenced to a life without a wife…
But he's only eleven years old now, so he shouldn't worry about that for the time being.
However, judging by the rate at which this blood evaporates, Cohen felt that if he were to use it as an attack method, he'd probably have to smear the blood face-to-face.
Shaking his head, Cohen continued reading.
Nightmares could blend into the unicorn herd—because unicorns couldn't distinguish between curses; their own blood flowed with curses, and to them, Nightmares were merely other creatures of the same kind, albeit of a different color.
It seemed unicorns were quite tolerant.
But Cohen didn't intend to put Ari in the Forbidden Forest. Just because unicorns couldn't distinguish them didn't mean Hagrid and the other creatures in the forest couldn't.
Black unicorns didn't look normal at all, and besides, Ari's eyes, with only the whites, were truly terrifying.
The Dementors' racial traits allowed Cohen to absorb souls and emotions, as well as immortality in a soul state, while Nightmares gave Cohen a talent for dark magic curses and poisonous blood as a backup weapon…
This book only listed these two creatures; Cohen's other two unknown bloodlines were definitely not the other species mentioned in the book.
The remaining pile of books consisted mainly of technical texts on alchemy, runes, and mechanics, with no content on evil creatures.
This meant that Cohen would likely need to retrieve his original experimental reports to understand the origins and abilities of his remaining two bloodlines.
It seemed he'd have to have a serious "talk" with Mundungus during the holidays.
After a day of research in the Room of Requirement, Cohen met Harry in the common room that evening.
The Invisibility Cloak easily concealed the two eleven-year-old boys, making their first nighttime adventure a success.
However, the second step was less smooth.
Harry discovered he couldn't remember the way to the empty classroom with the Mirror of Erised.
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(End of Chapter)