The birthday party was actually a bit deserted.
Dudley didn't come, and the Dursleys could still be heard quarreling next door. Cohen knew the reason very well.
Because Dudley and Cohen had no friendship at all - especially since Cohen had invited Harry, Dudley thought it was a freak party, and if he attended such a party, he would definitely be laughed at by his best friends.
And Mr. Dursley's roar must be because he didn't want to miss the opportunity to leave a good impression on Cohen's mother, Rose. Public opinion always has a very important impact on the development of a company.
And in Mr. Dursley's opinion, there was only one way to stop Harry from blowing up the Nortons' house, which was to send one of his own family to keep an eye on Harry - obviously he didn't realize that almost every time Harry got into trouble, it was when Dudley bullied Harry first.
For Harry, this "deserted" party might be the only "happy" time in the whole month of July.
But for Cohen, tomorrow is the day to be happy.
Because he can finally find more samples to confirm the soul strength of normal adult wizards, and get his first wand.
The feeling of having a wand is definitely different from the feeling of not having one. When Cohen tried magic before, he always felt that his strength was not used in the right place - wizards who cast spells in the right way will definitely not have this awkward feeling.
After sending Harry home, Cohen went back to his bedroom early to sleep, preparing for tomorrow's trip to Diagon Alley.
Which wand will take a fancy to him? Wait a minute... the wand chooses the wizard, there won't be a soul in it, right? Can the soul be sucked out? Is it the same as the human soul? Does it replenish the body after eating? If I suck all the wands in Ollivander's store, will Ollivander be angry?
The process from waking up to falling asleep is always like this.
Cohen began to snore softly, like an ordinary human child, so that even when Rose opened the door and walked into Cohen's room, Cohen was not "woken up".
Rose placed a large box of beautifully wrapped birthday gifts next to Cohen's bed, then gently gave Cohen a kiss and left quietly.
Outside Cohen's window, a black shadow swooped away from the windowsill. Under the curtain of darkness, the shadow revealed its appearance when it passed the street lamp.
It was a tabby cat, and there seemed to be traces of glasses on its facial hair. It came in front of a white-haired old man.
"Swoosh-"
"Swoosh-"
The light of the street lamp that was originally on seemed to be pulled away from its original place by an invisible hand, and flew into the silver old-fashioned lighter in the old man's hand.
"Albus, I have to admit that it is a good choice to foster Cohen in the Norton family."
The tabby cat's figure suddenly stretched out in the night, and in just one or two seconds it turned into a serious woman.
"Minerva, this was Edward and Rose's choice, not mine," Albus Dumbledore said with a smile. The stars and the moon on his robe matched the starry sky above his head on a summer night. "It's great to see a child thrive in the love of his parents."
"If Harry deserves all this," Minerva McGonagall said somewhat dissatisfiedly, "his living environment is a bit too bad compared to Cohen. I don't understand why you would ask the Nortons to reduce their contact with Harry - even if it's just to allow the poor child to enjoy afternoon tea at his neighbors' house every weekend."
"Different flowers require different methods of cultivation." Dumbledore winked at Professor McGonagall mischievously, "but there is no doubt that they will all bloom the most beautiful flowers."
"Perhaps there is one more thing you need to know, about Cohen."
Professor McGonagall hesitated for a moment and decided to tell Dumbledore what she had seen.
"Oh, Cohen often does good things. I remember the last time I came here, I happened to see him helping an old man cross the street." Dumbledore was very relieved about Cohen. "Although his birth was not so normal, he still grew up to be an active and healthy child."
"He gave another child a lollipop today." Professor McGonagall said.
"This is a good thing. It is very rare for children of this age to be able to share." Dumbledore obviously did not realize the problem.
"But he used magic to get the lollipop back when he turned his back to the child, and the child cried for nearly a quarter of an hour before stopping." Professor McGonagall continued.
"..." Dumbledore was silent.
"And the time you saw him helping an old man cross the street, Cohen even showed the old man the way." Professor McGonagall paused.
Dumbledore seemed to know what the next sentence would be.
"That road requires an extra mile to reach the destination, and Cohen's destination was the same as the old man's, but he took the shorter route - just passing two shops." Professor McGonagall said with a headache, "It's hard to imagine what he would be like after meeting the Weasley brothers."
"Young people always have some novel ideas, and pranks don't mean evil..."
Dumbledore comforted McGonagall, not knowing whether it was to McGonagall or to himself.
"Even adult wizards can easily fall into the vortex of power and lose themselves, but Cohen restrained his evil desires when his will was the most fragile. He is different from Voldemort."
Hearing this name, Professor McGonagall shuddered inadvertently.
"Remember the day we found him?"
"The dark wizard's laboratory?" Professor McGonagall recalled some bad memories. "There were corpses everywhere, more than 300 corpses, with empty eyes, as if they were cursed by someone. I never thought that this would be done by a child under one year old - I would rather believe that it was done by the mysterious man, even if he was already dead at the time."
"The rose is full of thorns to protect itself, Minerva... We can't refuse to appreciate its charming bloom just because it has sharp thorns."
————————
"Cohen!"
"Cohen!"
It was still dawn when Cohen was awakened by a series of hurried shouts outside the door.
"I want to sleep!" Cohen couldn't even open his eyes, let alone get out of bed and open the door. "Children can't get up too early, they will become cattle and horses!"
In his dream, he saw his mother Rose secretly put the birthday present on his bedside in the middle of the night, and kissed him gently on the forehead.
He also dreamed of two people who he had never seen but had seen in the movie in his previous life.
Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore.
The two were chatting about Cohen and Harry on the street at night.
The dream was so real that Cohen felt that it was probably a real situation that he secretly saw while wandering.
"Cohen! Daddy's taking you to Diagon Alley today. Hurry up and get up, or you'll delay my third adventure at the Dungeons & Dragons Club this afternoon!"
Oh my God, how could a middle-aged wizard be so keen on playing a "Sword and Magic" role-playing game with a group of Muggle teenagers!
If you really like Dungeons & Dragons, go to those dragon farms and find a dragon to fight. Those wizards who extract dragon blood must be eager for someone to help them tame the untamed fire dragon.
"Alright, alright, there's really nothing I can do to you..." Cohen changed his pajamas sleepily, and soon found that there seemed to be something extra beside his bed, "Wait until I change my clothes..."
Birthday present?
Cohen's consciousness was instantly clear.
The packaging of this gift was exactly the same as the one in his dream.
If the Rose he saw in the dream was real...
Cohen hurriedly ran to the mirror.
There was still a fading lipstick mark on his forehead.
Could it be that old Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall really visited his home at night?
Is it really good to have no privacy like this? They even saw the child snatching candy!
No, it seems that what is more important is the last few paragraphs Dumbledore said, about Cohen's origin...
the dark wizard's laboratory, more than 300 corpses with empty eyes... It sounds like the young Cohen ate all the souls of those dark wizards.
Was his previous incarnation so powerful? Originally thought to be Xiao Yan who had not started to develop, was it actually Shi Hao who had his Supreme Bone dug out?
However, it seems that Old Dumbledore is still very confident in him. Although it sounds like he still comes to check frequently, Cohen's performance is obviously in line with his goal.
At least he doesn't have to worry about being killed by the positive forces before entering school. Dementors are not "beautiful" creatures.
And the fact that Edward and Rose adopted him... is very strange. Edward just said yesterday that he almost thought Cohen was a Muggle child. It doesn't seem like they knew Cohen's identity as a dark magic experiment.
But Dumbledore also said "This is Edward and Rose's own choice", which means that these two people must know most of the situation and the dangers of adoption, but they still did it.
Cohen felt a little touched in his heart. The love of this adoptive parents for him is real, and it doesn't matter even if there are more lies.
Putting aside these insignificant things, Cohen now just wants to figure out one thing, how did he peek and eavesdrop on the things on the street outside like a soul leaving his body.
And Dumbledore seems to be completely unaware!
There are many magics that can be used to simply peek, but it is very subtle to be able to peek without being discovered by the most powerful wizard of this century.
Of course, Cohen was not planning to spy on whether Dumbledore was hiding a stack of photos of Grindelwald in private, but he could use this method to collect information in an extremely safe way - think about it, a single plug-in with a God's perspective can make the situation of a game one-sided, not to mention the God's perspective in reality!
Or the kind that will not be caught and banned!
But how can I trigger that state again?
Sleep? Is this triggering method a bit too tasteless?
Cohen sat back on the bed and fell back on the pillow.
But now his consciousness is extremely clear and excited, and he can only rely on physical hypnosis to fall asleep again.
However, after closing his eyes, Cohen obviously had a sense of something unusual.
It's like he was... split?
It's almost like this description, the soul is split, and there is only one place that is still tightly connected.
And Cohen can actively control the shape of the two halves of the soul, and observe everything around him from the perspective of the soul - including Cohen's body lying on the bed now.
However, when all of Cohen's souls leave his body, this body will also enter a state of suspended animation without any life activities, and will not recover until Cohen's soul returns.
The soul can be stretched, flattened, or made into a cloak-like thing like rolling dough-
wait...
"Isn't this a Dementor?"
After Cohen squeezed himself into a cloak-like thing, he examined the appearance of his soul.
My goodness, the black, rag-like appearance, plus two rotten hands, I guess it can go to Azkaban for a civil service interview.
After studying for a while, Cohen also found a way to play.
You can put half of the soul on the body and the other half of the soul outside, so that you can control your body and see more things through the soul - but because the two halves of the soul have a place that is closely connected, the distance that the two halves of the soul can act separately is limited.
Although this part of the connection can be manipulated at will, the length of the stretch is still limited, about 15 meters, which is exactly the distance from Cohen's room to the other end of Privet Drive.
No wonder I was able to secretly overhear the conversation between Dumbledore and McGonagall on Privet Drive last night.
[Ding! Special ability unlocked: Spirit Shaping (1/10)]
So this is how the special ability column is unlocked? !
Cohen originally thought that the system did not provide a novice gift package, which was already simple enough, but it turned out that this special ability had to be discovered by himself before it could be unlocked.
"It's hard to hold it. I feel like I'm losing at the starting line compared to the time travelers in the online novels..."
Now that the new trick has been figured out, the next thing to do is to wash up, eat, and then follow Edward to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies.
Before going downstairs, Cohen opened the gift from Rose.
It was a snow globe that required two hands to hold up. There lived three living clay figures in it, living happily together in a small village with snow falling - "happy" because Cohen could even hear the cheerful laughter coming from the house that the family of three had just walked into.
This thing will sleep at night, right? Otherwise, it would be a bit too creepy to put a ball that makes a giggling sound in the dormitory.
But in general, Rose's gift is great. Cohen has always liked such warm gifts. After all, he rarely received such straightforward "love" on Earth in his previous life - Cohen didn't want to admit that he was indeed an orphan in his previous life.
However, the clay figurine driven by the solidification spell has no soul, so Cohen can't store this snow globe as an emergency dessert.
"How will we get to Diagon Alley later?"
At the dining table, Cohen successfully swallowed the last piece of bread spread with butter with milk, and asked Edward, who had already started counting the gold Galleons and silver Sickles.
Floo powder? Apparition with a follower?
"Driving, how else can we go, magic carpet?" Edward rubbed his hands, estimating the remaining amount, maybe there will be a lot of money left, so he can pick a pet for Cohen to take to school.