Oh, boy, Dumbledore's gonna have a cow...
"Harry!!!" Hermione shrieked in terror.
This time, Hermione didn't need to repeat herself; everyone else could hear it too. Because as the dark mass of Dementors flew down over the pitch, the once noisy stands fell into an eerie silence.
All that could be heard was the biting wind and rain, and the rumbling thunder from the clouds. For Cohen, there was also the noisy clamor of the Dementors calling out for food.
The Dementors had a much stronger effect on Harry than on anyone else. Cohen saw Harry fall straight off his broom.
Dumbledore stood up in the faculty box. Harry, who was falling rapidly, was magically levitated by Dumbledore to prevent him from plummeting to his death.
The group of Dementors clearly hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation; they wanted to swoop down on Harry and suck out his soul.
That was practically like smacking Grindelwald on the butt right in front of Dumbledore.
The next second, a huge phoenix with a light as bright as dayburst forth from the tip of Dumbledore's wand, gracefully flying towards the group of Dementors. Even from a distance, Cohen still felt a sense of unease.
Cohen instinctively moved back, feeling like if that Patronus hit him, his soul energy would be knocked miles away.
The Dementors were driven out of the stadium by Dumbledore's phoenix Patronus. The fast ones had already disappeared back into the clouds, but the slower ones...
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!" A round-faced boy was thrown towards Cohen by a Dementor—like it was giving Cohen a packed lunch before leaving.
"Neville?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Cushioning Charm! Slow Down!" Cohen quickly drew his wand and sent a slowing charm towards Neville to avoid being bump into by him.
"Sorry—those Dementors—they grabbed me—" Neville scrambled up next to Cohen, apologizing quickly, his body still trembling uncontrollably. "That was terrifying..."
But Cohen's attention wasn't on Neville at all. Dumbledore had definitely seen what just happened; the Dementors' embarrassing display was quite eye-catching.
The young wizards might not suspect Cohen, because Neville hadn't fallen in an area where Cohen was the only student. But Dumbledore was different, especially since the Dementors had just acted up.
"We need to go check on Harry!" Ron shivered, but still intended to pull Cohen and Hermione down to see how Harry was. "Did he just...?"
"That was at least fifty feet..." Hermione choked out.
"Dumbledore caught him," Cohen said.
Going down there would definitely mean being taken away by Dumbledore, but Cohen didn't plan to hide from him. Hiding would just imply that he really was involved in the Dementors' attack.
By the time they reached the pitch, Dumbledore had already gotten Harry onto a stretcher and was preparing to take him to the hospital wing.
Ron and Hermione were stopped by Professor McGonagall, but Cohen was called over by Dumbledore.
"Cohen, come with me for a moment," Dumbledore said, but his tone was normal.
Cohen followed behind Dumbledore, the stretcher with Harry floating beside them. Not a single drop of rain fell on them during their walk, and the mud on Harry had somehow disappeared.
Dumbledore was uncharacteristically silent the entire way, not saying a word.
After entering the castle and arriving at the hospital wing on the second floor, Dumbledore handed Harry over to Madam Pomfrey, who had rushed out.
"I've said it before, Dumbledore, the school should cut back on these dangerous matches in extreme weather!" Madam Pomfrey said indignantly, worriedly transferring Harry from the stretcher to a bed. "What happened to him—"
"He was affected by the Dementors, Poppy. Could you please take care of him?" Dumbledore said. "There are some things I need to discuss."
"Of course, of course..." After learning the reason for Harry's unconsciousness, Madam Pomfrey's attention was completely off Dumbledore. She began to give Harry a thorough examination.
"Come with me, Cohen." Dumbledore led Cohen further up, all the way to the gargoyle outside the Headmaster's office.
Cohen noticed that Dumbledore didn't need a password to enter. The gargoyle simply grumbled and hopped aside after seeing Dumbledore.
After entering the Headmaster's office, the door was closed with a flick of Dumbledore's wand. Cohen could even see a ripple of magic—like some kind of soundproofing charm.
"Pop!" A chair landed in front of Dumbledore's desk, prepared for Cohen. Cohen naturally sat down in it—he came here every year, so he was used to it.
"Let's get straight to the point, Cohen," Dumbledore said calmly. "Can you communicate with Dementors?"
"Straight to the point, huh?" Cohen thought Dumbledore was going to start with some riddles. It seemed like Dumbledore was genuinely annoyed by the Dementors—he never liked those creatures made purely of negative emotions.
"The Dementors are here near Hogwarts at the Ministry's insistence, and I've always been against it," Dumbledore said. "Because there's so much happiness in the school, it's an irresistible feast for them."
"And today's incident has proven that my concerns were not unfounded."
"Indeed," Cohen nodded. "They're a bit hard to keep in line..."
"If I may assume that you're willing to trust me, Cohen..." Dumbledore peered over the top of his half-moon spectacles at Cohen's glasses. "Can you tell me what kind of relationship you have with those Dementors?"
"..."
"..."
"Are they... like, elders?" Cohen couldn't immediately figure out how to describe his relationship with the Dementors.
"'Elders' is a very broad term," Dumbledore said. "But I'm more concerned with what they are in your eyes."
"Noisy and stupid living black cloaks," Cohen assessed. "They're always craving happiness and souls, but they don't actually need those to survive."
"Yes, Dementors are creatures that cannot be destroyed," Dumbledore said. "They feed on human emotions and souls, but they don't depend on them to survive—that's precisely what makes this species so abhorrent to wizards."
Although what he said was correct, Cohen couldn't shake the feeling that he was being indirectly criticized.
"Of course, I'm talking about pure Dementors, which doesn't include you, Cohen," Dumbledore said. "Those Dementors are drawn to you only because that experiment forced you to merge with a part of a Dementor's soul—and it's precisely this part, which shouldn't exist, that has made your original soul extremely unstable. These are things Nicolas and I have discussed."
Cohen wasn't sure how to evaluate his current soul state. After merging with the Sorcerer's Stone, his soul had become almost purely Dementor.
"This is where my concern lies," Dumbledore said worriedly. "I shouldn't be telling you this right now—but after those Dementors showed you such unexpected tolerance and 'care,' I don't think this should be a topic we both avoid."
"When we're all afraid of something happening and try our best to ignore the signs, that thing often arrives much sooner than we expect."
"Like what?" Cohen remembered the last time Dumbledore had this expression was when he had "died."
"There's something I've been worried about," Dumbledore said slowly. "I'm afraid that because of that unstable soul, you'll become more and more like a Dementor, and less like 'Cohen,' the child Edward and Rose loved so dearly."
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