Chapter 22: You Are Being a Bit Too Extreme

"Dumbledore won't let you succeed..."

Voldemort never imagined these words would come out of his own mouth.

But all he wanted now was the Sorcerer's Stone. Even this inherently evil, foul-smelling piece of dark magic experimentation surely couldn't defeat Dumbledore; otherwise, Dumbledore would never have allowed such a thing to enroll at the school.

If he could just get his hands on that damned stone, he could easily construct a body and make a comeback. If he made too much of a scene and was discovered by Dumbledore, the entire plan would be ruined.

"Actually... my requirements are not high..." Voldemort replied to Cohen in a wispy, thread-like voice. "I need a stone. It is hidden in the fourth-floor corridor of Hogwarts..."

"Ooh, ooh, ooh..." Cohen made a KFC-like sound. "So, how do you plan to steal it?"

Voldemort revealed a bit of his situation to Cohen: as Voldemort's current vessel, Quirrell couldn't actually go to the fourth-floor corridor. He had to be in specific places at almost every moment—attending classes, eating, preparing lessons in his office—otherwise, he would be noticed by others.

"What if we put a monster into the school?" Cohen suggested. "How about a dragon? If that thing ran a lap around the school, it would surely bite quite a few students to death. Dumbledore would be so panicked that—"

"You are a bit too extreme..."

Voldemort shot down Cohen's idea immediately. Setting aside the difficulty of acquiring an adult dragon, the mere logistics of smuggling one into the school were impossible; the creature was larger than the main gates of Hogwarts Castle. Furthermore, if students actually died, Voldemort felt certain that an enraged Dumbledore would find a way to hunt him down.

*Clang—*

The Hogwarts bell rang. Quirrell wasn't as free as Cohen in the afternoon—he had classes to teach.

"Weekend afternoon... meet here again..." Voldemort proposed the time for their next meeting.

Subsequently, Quirrell hurriedly waved his wand, wrapped the scarf back around his head, adjusted his facial expression, and reverted to his stuttering, nervous persona.

"N-n-n-mr. Norton, I hope you will not... speak of this."

Before leaving, Quirrell cast a spell on Cohen and issued a warning. If Quirrell ever discovered he had been exposed, a Killing Curse held in reserve for Cohen would be unleashed instantly.

Cohen nodded with extreme obedience. *Wow, so scary. It's the Killing Curse. I'm going to die, I'm going to die. I definitely won't tell anyone about this.*

***

"I'm going to help a Dark Wizard blow up Hogwarts on Halloween. Do you know where I can find a dragon?"

In the Room of Requirement, Cohen asked the Earl.

"Hm? What kind of mischief are you plotting now—wait, what did you just say?!" The Earl’s pupils suddenly constricted.

A Dark Wizard, blowing up the school, a dragon... were these things a young wizard should be messing with? No, wait—which Dark Wizard? And when did Cohen get mixed up with one?!

The Earl had just been entrusted by Dumbledore a few days ago with the heavy responsibility of "teaching Cohen well." How could the mission be over before it even began? As expected of a naturally evil little Dementor, it didn't need dark influence to become wicked and cruel; it was born that way.

"Blowing up the school and helping a Dark Wizard are secondary. The main thing is that I've never seen a live dragon." Cohen rubbed his hands together. "It's a pity that the Dark Wizard said I was a bit too extreme—"

"You are indeed a bit too fucking extreme," the Earl remarked. He realized Cohen was joking, but the "Dark Wizard" and "causing trouble" parts were likely true.

"There are no wild dragons around here. There aren't any in the entire Scottish Highlands."

"Sigh..." Cohen sighed. The chance to see a dragon was gone. Perhaps at Christmas, he could beg Rose and Edward to take him to Romania; they had the world's largest dragon sanctuary.

"How did you end up getting involved with a Dark Wizard?" the Earl asked, tilting his head. "Haven't you been at school the whole time?"

"He's right here in the school. You know Voldemort, right?" Cohen told the Earl about the noseless old geezer stuck to the back of Quirrell's head.

"Don't you plan on telling the other hairless fellow?" the Earl asked. "Like that old man with the white beard?"

"No, I don't want to die." Cohen immediately rejected the Earl's suggestion and said pitifully, "That guy put a curse on me. If I talk, I'll be rewarded with a Killing Curse—"

After hearing this, the Earl stared at Cohen with a cold, "Do you think I believe you?" look. If Cohen hadn't cast a Killing Curse at him the day before yesterday, this claim might have been more convincing.

"You just want to find some fun, right?"

"But bringing a dragon into the school would be really cool."

"There are no dragons in the Scottish Highlands!" the Earl roared in frustration. "Find something else to play with. I'm done with you; I'm going to London to take refuge—"

"What about a troll?"

Cohen remembered that Quirrell's original program for Halloween was exactly that. If he brought the troll in himself, he should gain quite a bit of Sin Value, right?

Then, he could make a heroic entrance just as the troll was about to hurt someone, consume the troll's soul, and gain a bounty of Virtue Value. Perfect!

"At least that's better than a dragon..." the Earl clicked his tongue in response. "There should be some in the mountains—I saw a troll cave when I was out catching field mice."

He was relieved Cohen wasn't obsessed with a dragon. A troll was at least easier to control than a dragon; any professor in the school could subdue it. Damn it, he was just a bird, yet he had to worry about this school! It was all that old man with the white beard's fault; he made the Earl feel like if Cohen caused trouble, it would be because he hadn't taught him well.

For the rest of the time, Cohen enjoyed a perfect, if incomplete, weekend. No library study, no battle of wits with Voldemort, and no sneaking into the Forbidden Forest to consume souls behind the backs of the centaurs. Whenever Cohen wanted, he could lie by the common room fire until the world turned dark, or follow the Weasley twins around to cause trouble and rediscover the original joy and wonder of student life.

Just on Saturday morning alone, Cohen, Fred, and George pulled off no fewer than five major feats, including but not limited to shaving Mrs. Norris, dropping seven Dungbombs at the entrance to the Slytherin common room, and peddling "Hiccup Sweets" that looked normal on the surface to their classmates (due to the Weasley twins' infamous reputation, Cohen did almost all the selling, as no one was wary of a first-year student)...

While harvesting joy, Cohen also raked in nearly a hundred points of Sin Value. Cohen had been adhering to the spirit of "do not neglect small evils," and with dozens of points gained daily, his Sin Value had reached the threshold to purchase Soul Shards.

[Current Virtue Value: 1207]
[Current Sin Value: 1077]

Cohen had a harvesting plan for the Forbidden Forest next week, so he wasn't in a rush to buy Soul Shards. Besides the shards, there were other interesting items in the system shop...

[Primary Dementor Disguise]
[A magical necklace that transforms the wearer's appearance into a Dementor. Now you can float around on Halloween and trick-or-treat for more candy (Please note: this item cannot turn a human into a real Dementor)]
[Value: 500 Sin Points]