Hogwarts, i am Dementor

On the first day of school, Cohen gained a fresh understanding of just how deeply humans could sleep.

Because Harry and Ron were completely impossible to wake up—even when Cohen slipped his icy hands into their blankets, it didn't help one bit.

Harry and Ron were like Sleeping Beauties waiting for Ginny and Hermione to sneak into the boys' dorm and kiss them awake.

"You guys really not getting up?"

Cohen looked pityingly at the two kids who were definitely going to oversleep and miss their first class.

"Zzz—"

"Zzz—snort!" Ron even let out a little grunt from his nose.

"We tried, Cohen," Seamus said, shaking his head. "If we don't head to the Great Hall soon, we'll miss breakfast."

Cohen shrugged helplessly.

"Fine, they'll probably wake up before class starts—Earl, make sure to try waking them later…"

"Alright, alright, owl wake-up service comes with an extra fee—" Earl mumbled lazily, his head tucked under his wing.

"Merlin's pants!" Seamus's eyes widened again. "Last night wasn't a dream?!"

"Once you accept that an owl can talk—" Cohen raised an eyebrow.

"Then what?" Seamus hurried after Cohen as he left the dorm, eager to know where you could buy a talking owl. "Did you get your owl from some special owl shop? Is it expensive? I want to ask my mom—"

"Then you'll realize having a foul-mouthed owl is a real headache," Cohen finished. "He spent half the summer cursing out all my relatives."

Seamus shivered as he recalled the owl's brutally crude language.

"On second thought… my owl's fine as it is—at least it doesn't suddenly point at my nose and yell insults…"

By the time the two reached the Great Hall, breakfast was already halfway over.

Picking a spot to sit, Cohen made himself a bowl of oatmeal, paired with two sausages and a fried egg.

Hermione Granger sat across from him, reading a textbook even while eating—bringing back some less-than-pleasant memories from Cohen's past life.

Overachievers really made slackers feel guilty!

But Cohen didn't care.

Eating was for eating—he refused to touch anything school-related—unless he hadn't finished some homework and needed to cram it in over breakfast.

"Cohen? What are you doing?"

After finishing her meal, Hermione looked puzzled as Cohen carefully wrapped two sausages in wax paper and tucked them into the outer pocket of his robe.

"You know, Hogwarts randomly spawns little animals. Feeding them boosts your favor with them," Cohen said with utmost seriousness. "Sometimes you even get extra credit."

"You've got to be kidding," Hermione raised an eyebrow, tilting her head confidently. "Animals don't give us points—I asked a prefect. Only good performance in class—"

"Just call it an act of kindness then, whatever—" Cohen shrugged. "I heard the professors really put effort into their first lessons for new students."

After packing up, Cohen headed off to their first class—Transfiguration.

As one of the first students to arrive, Hermione predictably claimed a front-row seat.

She noticed a quiet tabby cat on the teacher's desk but, eager to be a model student, just sat quietly and reviewed her textbook.

Cohen, however, pulled out his pre-prepared snack as he passed the desk.

He placed the packet of sausages next to the cat.

[*Ding! Kindness Points +1*]

That's the reward for kindness!

He even earned an appreciative glance from the cat, as if it was touched by his generosity…

[*Ding! Sin Points +1*]

Cohen's rough petting technique earned him a stern glare instead. The cat leapt to a spot on the desk farther from him.

"Isn't it supposed to be petting against the fur…?"

"Cohen!" Hermione hissed from below, urging him to come down. She had a nagging feeling someone was watching them.

But when Cohen stepped down, Hermione still scooted over to make room for him in the front row—

Not that it mattered. That wasn't his goal.

"Back row by the window—the king's domain!"

Cohen plopped down contentedly in the farthest corner of the room, ignoring Hermione's exasperated "you're hopeless" look from the front.

Students trickled into the classroom until, just before the bell, Harry and Ron stumbled in late. They even griped about not seeing Professor McGonagall—only to jump when she transformed from the cat into herself, sending them slinking to the only open seats left: the back row with Cohen.

For some reason, all the little wizards seemed desperate to sit up front. Cohen chalked it up to "kid excitement."

[*Latest novels first on 69 Book Bar!*]

He was sure it wouldn't take long for these kids to be scared off by complex, headache-inducing magical theory and three-dimensional mana functions, scrambling for the back seats instead.

"Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous subjects you'll study at Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said sternly. "Anyone who fools around in my class will be asked to leave and never return—I've warned you."

A strict teacher could turn even the rowdiest kids into angels in an instant. The classroom, buzzing with whispers moments ago, fell silent.

Then, McGonagall demonstrated advanced Transfiguration—turning the desk into a pig and back again. Cohen's eyes lit up.

The transformation itself wasn't surprising, but McGonagall's spell was… different.

Cohen saw it with his own eyes: the pig that had been a desk had a label above its head.

[*Soul Strength: 3*]

And when McGonagall turned it back into a desk, that soul strength label vanished.

So, McGonagall's Transfiguration had given the inanimate desk a soul.

Did all Transfiguration do that? Or… was it just McGonagall's?

Cohen decided he'd ask her sometime—just about the differences between Transfiguration types, of course.

Then came the part of the lesson the first-years liked least: Transfiguration theory.

McGonagall hadn't been kidding—it was the most complex subject at Hogwarts. If Charms was a simple *y = a + bx + cx + dx…*, Transfiguration was about making *a' + b'x' + c'x' + d'x'…* equal *a'' + b''x'' + c''x'' + d''x''…*. And to adjust the mana input *x*, you'd need to analyze the target's structure with an Existence Charm…

Of course, as first-years, they didn't need to learn advanced spells like the Existence Charm. They just had to cast on specific objects using pre-set formulas.

Their first Transfiguration experiment was a simple two-variable switch.

McGonagall handed each student a matchstick and had them try turning it into a needle.

Most of the little wizards failed miserably. They hadn't listened to McGonagall, relying on brute force and hoping for a miracle—too bad Transfiguration didn't work that way. They were lucky not to fling the needle into the kid in front of them.

Cohen successfully turned his match into a sharp silver needle, earning Gryffindor five points from McGonagall.

Next, Hermione's magic worked too. Her match changed material, and though McGonagall awarded her points and a compliment, Hermione didn't look pleased.

"Cohen, how did you do it?"

After class, Hermione rushed over to Cohen's spot.

"That needle—I followed the textbook and my notes too…"

(*End of Chapter*)