Cohen arrived outside the greenhouse. The location where he had just seen Voldemort's soul strength was outside the wall to the right of the exit…
Beyond the wall was grass, and beyond that was the Black Lake.
That tag was near the corner of the wall… Could Voldemort have been lying on the ground?
As he was about to see him around the corner, Cohen had already considered many possibilities. It seemed Voldemort had obtained a new temporary body—
"Hmm?"
Cohen frowned as he looked at the empty grass.
The soul strength tag was still there, but he couldn't see anyone—not even a trace of a soul.
The source of this tag must be underground…
Cohen looked at the Black Lake not far away—Hogwarts' sewers led to the Black Lake, because Cohen remembered that crying Myrtle would be flushed into the Black Lake.
In other words, Voldemort crawled in from the lake?
He didn't even dare to take the proper path? So cowardly?
Cohen felt he had to consider whether calling him a "coward" was too kind of him.
This isn't just about exploding at the slightest prick of a needle; it's like it'd self-destruct the moment Dumbledore glances at it…
How can it be the final boss? It feels less like… Grindelwald.
Suddenly, Voldemort's soul stirred—it darted rapidly towards the castle, as if traveling through pipes. Cohen quickened his pace, trying to keep up.
But the closer its soul tag got to the castle, the "further" it seemed to disappear. Cohen watched it gradually sink deeper underground, until finally—
"Ouch!"
Someone cried out in surprise, followed by a thud.
Cohen, preoccupied with Voldemort underground, had accidentally bumped into someone—it was Lockhart, who had also been walking back to the castle from the greenhouse.
"Ah, Professor, are you that fragile?" Cohen "apologized."
"Ha, of course I can protect myself with magic anytime." Lockhart rubbed his sore back and struggled to his feet. "It's just that I'm afraid using defensive magic might hurt you—you know, my powerful magic is usually quite dangerous…"
But Cohen didn't have time to chat with Lockhart. Voldemort's soul tag was penetrating deeper and deeper underground, making it difficult for Cohen to follow it with his eyes alone.
"Wait… weren't you just a student going to Herbology class?" Lockhart noticed Cohen's distracted state and suddenly remembered.
"Sorry—my stomach hurts, I need to go to the toilet!" Cohen said, then continued rushing towards the castle.
Because Voldemort's route was through underground pipes, and Hogwarts' above-ground and underground structures were completely different—Cohen couldn't quickly follow Voldemort's path. After navigating seven or eight classrooms and three moving staircases, Cohen could no longer see the soul tag.
"Damn it! Why are you hiding from me, Voldemort!"
Cohen was annoyed. Hadn't their cooperation gone smoothly enough? Did Voldemort really think Cohen would harm him?
There wasn't even this basic trust between a human and a Dementor!
The pursuit had stalled in a corridor on the third floor. Cohen had lost sight of his target, but not entirely.
This corridor was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets—the very same chamber where Moaning Myrtle had been.
Voldemort likely used the Chamber as his current hideout—as the heir to Slytherin, he had been there fifty years ago and released the Basilisk.
As for why Slytherin had placed the entrance to the Chamber in the girls' restroom… if he ever had the chance to write a historical account, Cohen wanted to write, "Slytherin was too twisted and clashed with the other three First Men, eventually leaving the school in disappointment."
Water stains clung to the floor, and faint sobbing came from the restroom.
Cohen pushed open the door—no one would come here anymore, and he probably wouldn't be called a pervert…
"Waaah…"
Moaning Myrtle sat on the ceiling of a toilet stall, sobbing softly, repeating something.
"A face full of pimples… so ugly… waaah…"
The sound of Cohen opening the door caught her attention.
"Ah!"
Myrtle screamed when she saw Cohen and immediately scurried into the cubicle beneath her—but a few seconds later, she peeked out from the cubicle door again.
"You're the Dementor Nick was talking about…!"
"Has it spread throughout your ghost world?" Cohen closed the bathroom door behind him. "But actually, I don't hurt ghosts—I'm a good person, or rather, a strange one."
"Nick said you bit him that time." Myrtle peeked at Cohen suspiciously, still hiding in the stall, too afraid to come out. "'Like he was going to die again,' that's what Nick said…"
"I suspect he did it on purpose," Cohen clarified. "He suddenly popped out of the plate while I was gnawing on a leg of lamb, clearly wanting me to bite his neck off completely—but he chose a bad spot."
"Ugh…"
Myrtle plunged into the toilet, and Cohen heard the splashing sound—she still seemed afraid to face a creature that could harm ghosts, no matter how melancholy she was, no matter how much she talked about death…
"Wait a minute—oh!"
Cohen had wanted to ask Myrtle if she had seen the drain opened—but she was already gone.
"Fine…"
Since Myrtle had run away at lightning speed, Cohen decided to look around himself first.
In the center of the washroom was a circular sink and basin. Cohen quickly found the faucet leading to the Chamber of Secrets.
A small snake was engraved on the side of the brass faucet—saying "open" in Parseltongue would open the pipe leading to the Chamber.
However, Cohen didn't have Parseltongue as an active skill… perhaps he'd have to pretend to be a snake like Harry?
Cohen wasn't sure, so he decided to try…
"Hiss—"
[Where…]
[Where…]
Cohen's eyes suddenly widened as he tried—he heard another hoarse voice—definitely not his own echo.
The soul strength tag Cohen had initially thought was Voldemort had reappeared, right in the floor pipe beneath Cohen's feet.
That soul… wasn't Voldemort but the Basilisk?
What did the Basilisk want? Wasn't it supposed to start its massacre before the successor appeared? Why was it entering the plot now?
"Hello?"
Cohen asked—but it was still human language, which Cohen could recognize.
Damn it, could he really speak Parseltongue?
The Basilisk was crawling through the pipe beneath Cohen's feet—Cohen actually had a way to see it: he could leave his body and pass through the floor.
However, this was very dangerous.
The Basilisk could harm spirits—Nick, who was nearly headless, turned to stone in the original story after being stared at by the Basilisk.
Thinking of this, Cohen suddenly became unsure if he was immune to the Basilisk's gaze—no one had ever tried using the Basilisk against Dementors.
While he wouldn't die, turning to stone while waiting for the mandrake resurrection potion to be ready would mean wasting half a year of his school life.
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(End of Chapter)