Cohen waited and waited for ages after returning to his dormitory, but Voldemort never came to Gryffindor Tower.
Damn it, Voldemort, you're not in Gryffindor Tower at all! Where did you go?!
If Voldemort didn't come looking for Cohen…
where would he go?
Maybe to find the Basilisk?
No…
Cohen felt that this guess seemed plausible, but it was actually very illogical.
If Voldemort could safely possess the Basilisk right now—he wouldn't need to go through all that trouble to have Lockhart launch an attack; he could just possess the Basilisk himself.
The Basilisk can even harm ghosts, and Voldemort's fragmented soul would most likely be accidentally injured as well. Moreover, as one of the top dark magic creatures, the Basilisk itself possesses very strong magic power; Voldemort couldn't possess the Basilisk like he possessed the small animals in the Albanian forest or Quirrell.
Furthermore, Voldemort, in his spirit form, couldn't prove his status as "Slytherin's heir," making it difficult for him to avoid the Basilisk's indiscriminate petrifying gaze.
It seems... Voldemort only has two choices: run away like last term—or choose a student with fascination for the Dark Arts and then lure that student into helping him.
Even then, he's unwilling to cooperate directly with Cohen? Don't waste your remaining brains on strange things, Mr. Riddle!
Cohen was puzzled by Voldemort's persistent, roundabout attempt to frame him and his stubborn refusal to admit his mistakes and reconcile.
Since Voldemort had begun his sneak attack, Cohen had to steadfastly adhere to the "follow Harry principle." As long as he stayed close to Harry, he would have no time or motive to commit the crime.
By dragging Harry into the mess, Dumbledore wouldn't suspect Cohen of any involvement, and Voldemort's attack would only be a desperate attempt to expose himself.
Voldemort simply didn't understand Dumbledore.
Harry was Dumbledore's current favorite student.
A comprehensive, three-dimensional defense; Voldemort posed no threat.
This setup would at most slightly damage Cohen's reputation among his classmates, but Cohen didn't care. The students' negative opinions were useless; Cohen didn't usually associate with students from other houses, and for the sake of sin points, he had already offended most of them last semester.
However, Voldemort's ungratefulness… Cohen felt he needed to teach Voldemort a lesson—although both cooperating with and refusing to cooperate with Cohen would result in failure, Cohen could give him the illusion of near success!
But in the following days, Cohen became even more disappointed in Voldemort.
He seemed to have vanished, not even bothering to monitor Cohen—leading Cohen to suspect that Voldemort had already escaped.
On Saturday morning, Harry planned to go chat with Hagrid along with Cohen and the others, but he was woken up early by Wood, who barged into their dormitory. Cohen and Ron, his roommates, were also awakened.
"Quidditch practice!" Wood exclaimed. "Get up!"
The sky outside was just beginning to lighten, a thin mist shrouding the pinkish-golden sky.
"Oliver..." Harry complained, "It's barely dawn..."
"That's right!" Wood said enthusiastically. "It's part of our new training program! Hurry up, grab your broomsticks, the other teams haven't practiced yet, we all have to be on our toes and compete for first place!"
"What about us?" Cohen asked grumpyly. "Are we part of the training too?"
"Or are we broomsticks that need training too..." Ron yawned, his eyes barely open. "You just need to steal Harry away—with all this noise... I want to sleep a little longer..."
Harry was dragged away by Wood.
Cohen and Ron wanted to go back to sleep—but it turned out that being woken up so early and with the sunlight outside the window becoming increasingly intense made it difficult to fall back asleep.
So the two of them went to have breakfast.
When they arrived at the Great Hall, they ran into Hermione, who had already finished eating and seemed to be waiting for Cohen and Ron.
"You two are up so early today." Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Are you going to see Hagrid later?"
"Harry was dragged by Wood to training." Cohen didn't see Harry. "Looks like he didn't have time to eat."
"That's so tiring." Hermione said with concern. "I can't understand..."
She packed some bread and jam for Harry, as well as two sausages.
After Cohen and Ron finished breakfast, they went to the Quidditch pitch together—and happened to see the Slytherin and Gryffindor teams locked in a battle.
"Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" Fred was speaking to a small player on the Slytherin team, his tone disdainful.
"You actually mentioned Draco's father, interesting." The Slytherin team laughed even more smugly. "Then please take a look at the gift he generously gave to the Slytherin team."
The seven Slytherins simultaneously displayed their new brooms.
"Something's wrong?" Ron rushed over with Cohen and Hermione after seeing this scene from afar. "Why aren't you playing—what's he doing here?"
Ron saw Malfoy wearing the Slytherin Quidditch team uniform.
"I'm the new Seeker for Slytherin, Weasley—" Malfoy was about to boast smugly—but when he saw Cohen, he immediately became much more "normal."
"You paid to join, didn't you?" Ron said bluntly, with considerable disdain.
"Nobody said I couldn't do that." Malfoy said coldly, trying to avoid meeting Cohen's gaze, which made him feel very…awkward.
"Seven Nimbus 2001s are far more useful than your Weasleys' two Sweeping Stars," Slytherin captain Marcus retorted fiercely. "Money can buy anything. I bet your family had to save up every single twig to buy those two brooms for your two brothers."
The entire Slytherin team, except for Malfoy, burst into laughter. Malfoy tugged at Marcus's robes, trying to calm him down.
To Malfoy's relief, Cohen remained silent.
Cohen didn't intend to either—because the next second Fred and George rushed in, angrily wrestling with Flint, and the small brawl quickly escalated into a full-blown fight (Ron joined in too).
Colin Creevey, who had been following the Gryffindor group, had taken a few photos before being accidentally punched in the chaos—he was terrified and ran frantically towards the castle to find the professor to stop the fight.
"Harry!" Hermione urged anxiously to Harry in the crowd, "Hurry up and get out! The professors are coming! You don't want to be put in solitary confinement three times in a row, do you?!"
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