"Caroline," the Earl said, "my... ummm..."
"Girlfriend?" Edward quipped.
"Daughter," the Earl said dryly, "Adopted daughter..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Edward clucked sympathetically.
Cohen closed the phone book, planning to head downstairs for some powdered donuts. Edward also noticed the phone book Cohen had just been flipping through.
"What's with the phone book...?"
"Checking out your network," Cohen said, turning his head after reaching the door. "Seeing who might rat us out."
"Arnold will figure it out," Edward said, picking up the phone book and following Cohen out of the bedroom. "Leave this to the grown-ups; you just need to focus on eating, drinking, and having fun..."
Cohen didn't say much, which made Edward even more curious—he couldn't shake the feeling that Cohen seemed really cold today...
Could it be because they got investigated twice over Christmas and he's not happy about it? --
After breakfast, Cohen retreated back to his room and locked the door.
"You don't look right," the Earl said, cocking his head at Cohen. "Why are you suddenly being so cold to your dad?"
"Am I?" Cohen asked. "Doesn't feel like anything..."
"This isn't good," the Earl said, unusually serious without a joke in sight. "What happened last night?"
"Killed two people, that's it," Cohen said. "I don't like anyone just wandering onto my property—first Sirius Black, and then these two Muggle lowlifes..."
As he spoke, Cohen flicked his wand, leaving some shielding charms in the room—but his brow was still slightly furrowed.
"I'm asking about your state of mind," the Earl said. "What made you suddenly so... Wait, how do you see your family right now?"
"Living beings who offer me shelter," Cohen said in a steady tone. "Is there a problem?"
"Are you out of your mind?" the Earl exclaimed, eyes wide.
"Say that again and I'll gouge your eyeballs out," Cohen said coldly. "Just be a good owl and don't go sticking your beak into my business."
"..." The Earl shut his mouth.
"I'm going to go check if those two have been eaten clean."
Cohen left the desk and went to the suitcase next to the wardrobe, turning his head towards the Earl.
"Come on in. Go learn from Sissoko and the others how to attack humans."
"Is that an order?" the Earl asked.
"That's an order," Cohen said calmly.
Inside the wooden cabin within the suitcase:
"Whew..."
Cohen let out a deep breath and plopped down on the sofa.
[What's wrong, kiddo?] Sissoko nudged closer. [Unhappy?]
[Daddy's not happy...] The little basilisk, carrying a bloodied lamb leg, offered it to Cohen. [Eat something!]
"Just ate, not hungry," Cohen said. "You keep it for yourself..."
"You almost made me think you'd gone completely bonkers!" the Earl said, annoyed. "'Say that again and I'll gouge your eyeballs out'—you know my heart skipped a beat there?"
"Well, what else? That's the most evil thing I could think of!" Cohen retorted. "Or I could have said, 'Say that again and I'll seal your butt shut with concrete.'"
"Why the tough guy act?" the Earl asked. "Your dad looks a little worried about you—because you just suddenly seemed like some heartless bad dude..."
[I am indeed quite worried about Cohen's situation.] Sissoko rubbed his head against Cohen's shoulder. [But I feel Cohen's doing just fine right now—]
"The Earl's talking about Edward," Cohen said, lying sprawled on the sofa in a "what can you do?" kind of way. "But there's no choice... If I seem like I care too much about my family, those guys watching me might get new ideas."
"Someone was watching you outside the house just now?" the Earl asked, alert.
"If only they were really outside the house," Cohen said. "Then I could just jump out and off them. The problem is, the person watching me isn't around. They're watching me with a magic I've never seen before—I felt the magical fluctuations, but it's weird, regular shielding charms can't even block that spell."
[I'll help you go kill that person.] Sissoko said with great responsibility. [Is there a scent? I can find him by the smell—]
"No, this has nothing to do with you. You just stay here and look after the little one," Cohen said. "What I'm more curious about is what kind of surveillance charm can get past my shielding charms, but can't get past this box made with an Undetectable Extension Charm?"
"Why not ask the magical goat head?" the Earl suggested.
"The one who makes potions knows what this spell is?" Cohen said with some doubt.
When Cohen found the Chimera and asked the black goat a few questions about this type of magic, the black goat gave a vague answer.
"I know a little bit."
The goat said.
"What does 'a little bit' mean?" Cohen asked.
"It means I only know seventeen types of similar tracking spells," the goat said slowly. "After all, I haven't flipped through all the wizards' spell books... The Greek spell books still aren't very complete..."
"Roar..." The lion pawed at the yarn on the ground that had already become a tangled mess, letting out a sad low growl because it was no longer a ball.
"Do these spells all have counter-curses?" Cohen asked.
"Yes," the goat said. "Most spells have counter-curses, except for those spells that wizards have named the 'Unforgivable Curses'—do you still remember that feeling of being watched?"
"Yeah," Cohen said. "Use them on me one by one, and I'll see if I can figure out exactly which spell it is."
"With the greatest pleasure," the black goat said.
It began testing Cohen with one spell after another.
"Not this one..."
"Nor this one..."
"A bit like it—but I didn't have such a big eyeball floating in the air in my room..."
...
Finally—
"Ah, yeah, yeah—that's the one!" Cohen's eyes lit up.
When the goat used the seventh spell, Cohen felt a very similar sensation of being watched.
"Oculus Specula," the goat recalled. "A somewhat old spell that can project the image of the surveillance target onto the material plane..."
"Is there a counter-curse?"
"Oculus Daemonium," the goat said. "The hand movements and incantation are the same... but this is something I researched and developed—in theory, it should allow you to observe the monitor in reverse..."
"Isn't it easy enough to test if the spell works?" Cohen said. "Oculus Daemonium."
As he spoke, Cohen waved his wand according to the hand movements the black goat described—a phantom eye covered in bloody cracks appeared above the black goat's head.
Cohen's vision also changed slightly, and an image from another perspective appeared in his mind: the top of the black goat's head.
The target of the surveillance was reversed—it's just that this eye that appeared from the counter-curse was a bit...
"Isn't that a little too edgy?" Cohen asked, looking at the blood-red eyeball under his control, trying not to crack a smile.