. After the train arrived at the station, Cohen and Luna's routes diverged.
First-year students would row to school with Hagrid, while second-year and above students would need to take a carriage.
Cohen encountered Hermione on his way to catch the carriage.
"Cohen! Have you seen Harry and Ron?!" Hermione exclaimed anxiously. "I saw a flying car through the window earlier, and I didn't even dare look for them on the train—they couldn't have come to school in that car, could they? That's illegal—cars are Muggle property…"
"You're probably right," Cohen nodded. "That's Mr. Weasley's car—I guess Harry and Ron might be a little late getting to the castle."
"How could they do this!" Hermione said, exasperated. "This will get them expelled—or even jail… I remember the Ministry of Magic has a rule—wait, isn't Mr. Weasley the head of the Office for the Prohibition of the Misuse of Muggle Property? Does this mean…"
"It means Mr. Weasley will be in big trouble," Cohen said. "But driving a flying car to school is really cool—the attention it gets…"
"Boys…" Hermione sighed.
She and Cohen chose a carriage at the intersection.
To most people, Hogwarts' carriages were self-driving.
Hermione clearly thought so too.
"Cohen, what are you looking at?" Hermione asked, somewhat confused, because Cohen was staring into thin air—as if there really were horses in front of the carriage.
Cohen could see the creatures pulling the carriage; they had dragon-like faces and bat-like wings, and were emaciated.
Thestrals—only those who have witnessed death can see them—and Cohen had witnessed far too much death; since he was one year old, he had personally "mouthed" over three hundred people, and at Christmas he had killed two more malicious Aurors.
The Thestrals pulling the carriage saw Cohen, as if recognizing something, and the next second, it recognized him, seemingly certain that Cohen was the person it was looking for.
It lowered its head and moved closer to Cohen—Cohen thought it wanted to speak—because it did speak—but Thestrals shouldn't be able to talk…
"Swoosh—"
It stuck out its tongue at Cohen's cheek—Cohen felt a jolt the moment the sticky black tongue appeared, so he dodged it in time.
"Holy crap!" Cohen quickly moved away from the strange Thestral.
Could it be that Hagrid had successfully paired the Thestral with the unicorn?
Even if a unicorn and a Thestral were together, they wouldn't produce a nightmare like Ari!
Cohen's active distancing made the Thestral uneasily paw at the ground, and it let out a sharp cry. Cohen thought it was courting—it was a female Thestral.
Damn, isn't this a bit too outrageous?
Cohen fled back to the carriage, thankfully the Thestral didn't break free of its reins and rush onto the carriage behind it.
"Did I just hear something calling? What did you see?" Hermione asked, startled.
"Thestrals, magical creatures," Cohen explained. "Like winged horses, they're invisible, and only those who have witnessed death can see them."
"Death—" Hermione was about to ask Cohen how he could see them—but she stopped herself.
Death wasn't a topic to be discussed lightly, and she assumed Cohen had witnessed the death of a loved one—asking about such things would be too hurtful.
The carriage rumbled towards the castle. Their luggage had already been taken to their dormitories by the house-elves. Besides the trunks, Cohen had also labeled his own suitcase containing the dragon with "Cohen Norton" on it.
Harry and Ron showed no sign of appearing until the Sorting Ceremony began—this only deepened Hermione's anxiety. ("They didn't get into a car accident, did they?" Hermione asked worriedly. "Maybe they encountered a plane…")
"Don't worry, they've arrived." Cohen sipped his juice. Not serving food before the Sorting Ceremony was a rather unreasonable rule, as watching others being sorted wasn't exactly interesting.
"Why?" Hermione asked quickly.
"Snape just left—probably to interrogate them. After all, even we saw the car, let alone the Muggles—I suspect the Daily Prophet published another urgent report about it this afternoon." Cohen said unhurriedly.
It was Luna's turn to be Sorted—she was indeed sorted into Ravenclaw. Cohen saw Luna skip and hop to the Ravenclaw table, and she even waved towards Gryffindor.
"Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall have left too!" Hermione whispered. "They weren't really expelled, were they?"
"Expelled Harry Potter?" Cohen looked at Hermione incredulously. "After finding out Voldemort was plotting his resurrection? How senile must Dumbledore be?"
Harry and Ron didn't show up until they returned to their dorm after the banquet.
But the news that they hadn't returned to school as scheduled had already spread among the students—the rumors from Gryffindor were almost certainly true; some said they had arrived at school in that flying car, but they were probably already expelled.
Hermione wanted to wait for them outside the common room—and she did. Harry and Ron rushed back after most people had returned to the common room.
"I almost thought you were expelled!" Hermione scolded Harry and Ron in a motherly tone. "Why did you even try to fly to school? What happened?!"
"You sound just like Professor McGonagall," Ron retorted. "What was the password?"
"The password was Honeybee, but that's not the point—" Hermione said impatiently.
"We weren't expelled," Harry reassured her.
"Otherwise, Hermione would be here waiting for two people who aren't coming back tonight," Cohen joked.
"You know this isn't a small matter, Cohen!" Hermione corrected him. "They might be in trouble—or dead!"
"They're both alive," Ron said wearily. "Excuse me—I drove all afternoon, and Harry and I got punched by a tree… Now I just want to sleep—"
Just as the portrait of the Fat Lady slowly opened, their voices were drowned out by the noise in the common room.
The Gryffindor students ushered Harry and Ron into the common room—like welcoming two heroes.
"That's brilliant!" exclaimed Lee Jordan, the young black man. "Incredible! Driving a flying car into the Whomping Willow, people will talk about it for years!"
"Well done!" chimed in an unnamed upperclassman.
"You should have called us back!" Fred and George complained. "Why didn't we think of that…"
Cohen didn't linger with them for long; getting to bed early was the priority—school started tomorrow, and he needed to quickly transition from holiday mode to school mode.
Hogwarts didn't have an 8 AM start time, but it did have a 9 AM start time.
Before going to sleep, Cohen let the Earl out to keep him quiet at night.
He fell asleep shortly after snuggling into bed.
He had another dream—a very familiar one.
He saw himself traveling through pipes, surrounded by moss and a damp, sticky liquid, and some tiny bones, like rats.
Snakes?
Second year… pipes… Harry Potter…
a basilisk!
Wait a minute—
Cohen woke up with a start the next morning.
Was this dream real?
Damn it, didn't I eat the diary? Why did the Basilisk from Hogwarts still appear?
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(End of Chapter)