"Brilliant!"
Ethan actually cheered.
"Brilliant my ass—coo, coo, coo—"
The Count was so horrified he could barely speak properly anymore. His bulging eyes looked moments away from falling straight out of their sockets.
Above the Room of Requirement, the silver Dementor drifted soundlessly through the air.
Aside from its shimmering silver colour, it looked almost identical to a real Dementor.
"I must've passed out from excitement," the Count declared firmly as he trembled inside his nest. "This is definitely a hallucination. You evil little Dementor, stop tampering with my romantic dreams. There'll be owls arriving any second now…"
He turned his back toward Ethan entirely, refusing to look at either him or the floating silver nightmare overhead.
Curled into a miserable ball of brown feathers, he continued muttering nonsense about ruined fantasies and emotional trauma.
No matter how Ethan looked at it, the whole scene felt absurdly wrong.
It was like watching Satan peel off his own skin only for Jesus to climb out from underneath.
But Ethan couldn't care less about the Count's feelings.
An Animagus's Patronus took the form of their Animagus transformation. By that logic, since Ethan was half-Dementor, having a Dementor Patronus made perfect sense.
Unfortunately, he had no creatures around that feared Patronuses, so he couldn't test whether this thing worked properly against Dementors or Voldemort's followers.
Maybe he should visit Azkaban and drag a few Dementors back for experiments.
That thought immediately led to several new problems.
Since Ethan wasn't a pure Dementor, would the others discriminate against him? Would they see him as one of their own or merely as a human?
Or perhaps, among Dementors, he counted as some kind of filthy half-blood.
Another issue bothered him even more.
Could he actually eat them?
Nobody really knew whether Dementors possessed souls. Very few people had ever studied the creatures deeply enough to answer that question.
There were simply too many uncertainties.
Ethan silently added sneaking into Azkaban to this year's schedule.
"Do you know where Azkaban is?" he asked casually.
"Are you talking to your Dementor Patronus?" the Count replied without turning around.
"I'm talking to you," Ethan corrected flatly. "At least I'm not insane enough to hold conversations with something I created myself."
With a flick of his wand, the silver Dementor dissolved into drifting mist.
This successful casting proved something extremely important.
Ethan could bypass his soul's instinctive resistance toward the Patronus Charm by using unconventional methods—such as stealing someone else's positive emotions and using them as fuel.
Of course, the resulting Patronus was still horrifying enough to give normal people lifelong trauma.
Most Patronuses took the form of animals people felt close to. Deer, dogs, rabbits, horses.
Not soul-sucking monsters wrapped in funeral rags.
Which meant Ethan currently couldn't use this spell to convince anyone he possessed kindness, justice, or emotional warmth.
Still, Patronus forms could supposedly change over time.
Maybe there was hope.
"What are you plotting now?" the Count finally asked as he slowly turned back around. The moment he confirmed the Dementor Patronus had vanished, his expression visibly relaxed.
"Your Patronus almost sucked away the happiest memory of my entire life just now. From today onward, I absolutely refuse to—"
"The Patronus itself didn't drain you," Ethan interrupted calmly. "I did. But that's not important right now."
He leaned forward slightly.
"I have a much more important plan. Do you know where Azkaban is?"
The Count narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Are you planning a rebellion now? Or a coup? You've only been at Hogwarts for half a year."
"I plan to begin the 'Minister Norton' project after graduation," Ethan replied seriously. "This trip to Azkaban is purely for Dementor-related business."
"Why are you looking for Dementors?" the Count asked cautiously.
His thoughts immediately drifted toward the horrifying black unicorn still hidden inside the Room of Requirement.
"You can't possibly…"
"I want to keep a few."
"You want a Dementor girlfriend?!"
The two of them spoke at almost the exact same time.
Ethan stared at him blankly.
"Is lust the only thing rattling around inside your head?"
"Then why else would you raise Dementors?" the Count shot back immediately. "Do you think the happiness of a single lonely bird is enough to feed both of you forever? Don't push me too far. Once I officially join the Owl Moon Landing Project, you'll never catch me again."
"Not just two," Ethan said thoughtfully while raising a finger. "I'm considering several. Assuming they can communicate peacefully."
The Count gave a dry, exhausted laugh.
"Oh, I'm sure they'll adore you. You're basically a baby Dementor already. They'll probably save you the freshest happiness in Azkaban so you don't starve to death. Every species takes care of its young."
"That would make things much easier," Ethan admitted with a satisfied nod.
"Please understand," the Count continued seriously, "that I absolutely do not support this Dementor-raising plan. One day they'll murder me, and you'll lose something extremely valuable."
"Such as?"
"My loyalty. My friendship. My emotional companionship. My beautiful singing voice—"
"I truly don't care whether you approve or not," Ethan interrupted bluntly. "You can't stop me anyway. So where exactly is Azkaban?"
"If Dumbledore finds out you're keeping Dementors inside Hogwarts, you're doomed," the Count warned again.
"I don't necessarily need to raise one immediately," Ethan replied. "But I do need to visit Azkaban. So where is it?"
"I can't exactly fly to that cursed place myself—"
"So where is Azkaban?"
Ethan continued staring at him patiently. After a brief pause, he added:
"Just tell me the location. I'll handle the rest."
The Count sighed heavily, clearly defeated by Ethan's persistence.
"You really do want to return home," he muttered helplessly. "Fine. Azkaban is located on a small island somewhere in the North Sea, northwest of England. But I can't give you an exact location. The entire area is magically concealed and impossible to map."
"No precise coordinates?" Ethan frowned.
"The Ministry transports prisoners there using Portkeys," the Count explained. "I've seen it happen before. If you want to locate the island yourself, you'll probably have to drift around the sea for a very long time. So my advice is—"
"We'll find it eventually," Ethan said dismissively.
As long as he knew the general region, that was enough.
Still, it also meant he would need to disappear from home or school for several days at minimum. There probably wouldn't be any opportunities this semester.
He'd likely need to invent excuses during summer break so Rose and Edward would allow him enough freedom to leave for extended periods.
And to avoid being stranded at sea forever, Ethan realised he absolutely had to learn Apparition soon. Otherwise, simply travelling back and forth would waste enormous amounts of time.
There were too many long-term goals waiting to be completed.
The Dementor breeding plan.
The future Minister Norton project.
The ongoing issue of repairing his fractured soul.
And, of course, the much more immediate objective—
Stealing the Philosopher's Stone.
Quirrell would likely obtain the information tonight.
That also meant Ethan could finally visit Hagrid's hut later and take a look at the newly hatched dragon.
He was suddenly very curious about one thing.
How powerful was the soul of a dragon?
....
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