"Alright then..." Cohen said, a bit disappointed, but relieved that Nicolas said it wouldn't pose any life-threatening danger to Edward and Rose.
"Oh, right, I have a way to keep you from getting bored while I'm at school," Cohen suddenly thought of something and climbed into his trunk with Nicolas's book.
"I look forward to it," Nicolas said kindly.
"Ta-da!" Cohen held the book containing Nicolas's portrait towards the Chimera, who was playing with a ball of yarn – only the lion's head was playing, while the goat head was reading a book, and the horned serpent was sleeping.
"Roar?" The lion looked up and saw Cohen holding a book towards it – it would normally try to bite it, but whenever it had the urge to bite these square wooden objects, the goat head would butt it in the back of the head.
Over time, it learned not to be foolish anymore.
"A Chimera?" Nicolas looked at the giant beast with interest. "I only knew that the goat head in the middle represents wisdom, but I've never seen one that reads books..."
"That's because human civilization is much richer and more complex than that of beasts," the goat head politely greeted the book in Cohen's hand. "Hello."
"This is my..." Cohen wanted to introduce the Chimera to Nicolas but hadn't figured out how to describe its identity. "Uh... my parents combined?"
Cohen wouldn't admit that the childish lion's head was his "father." The goat was slightly more acceptable, and the horned serpent didn't talk much, but with Siscok around, the snake tail was also...
"This is a memory portrait left by an alchemist, Nicolas Flamel. I thought you guys could chat from time to time to relieve boredom," Cohen introduced Nicolas to the goat head as well.
"Oh, it's an honor to meet you," the goat head said politely. "I'm also very interested in alchemy and have considered meeting you in person in the past, but considering the lion's issue..."
"Roar!" The lion roared in dissatisfaction.
"It could cause a lot of inconvenience," the goat head said. "But now there's no such concern. If you don't mind, I can place you on the back of the lion's head so that the lion can't cause trouble."
Nicolas looked very interested – he had seen Chimeras before, but never one as amazing as this.
With the formal launch of the Hermes's Bottle plan, Cohen's holiday plans were now fully completed.
Cohen would take Nicolas to Dumbledore after returning to school so that he could say goodbye to Dumbledore – although this farewell was a bit delayed.
And Nicolas told Cohen not to mention the "pure gold" to Dumbledore, to prevent Dumbledore from having too many unnecessary worries and suspicions about Cohen's situation.
On the day of returning to school, Cohen met Hermione on the train.
But Hermione seemed even more off than usual – this time she didn't even dare to look Cohen in the eye.
Last year she said that even a monster could be a good friend!
Fairy tales are all lies...
But Cohen could understand. It was like how a lamb chop wouldn't believe human sweet talk.
Besides, Dementors did "hurt" Harry – this species had always been dangerous to humans. No matter how silly a Dementor's inner thoughts were, as soon as they came into contact with a human, the human would feel a chill all over and their heart and lungs would seize up.
"Hello! Merry Christmas!" Luna also entered the compartment.
"Christmas is over, Luna," Hermione corrected her.
"Our Christmas at home was delayed last year," Luna said cheerfully.
"So?" Hermione asked, not understanding.
"My dad and I wanted to adjust our time difference, but it seems our merman calendar was short by a lot of days," Luna said in a dreamy tone, as if she hadn't noticed Hermione's strange tone at all. "From July to January is quite a long time, isn't it?"
"Time travel must be exhausting," Hermione said bluntly, feeling that Luna was becoming a bit like Professor Trelawney.
"Time travel is heavy and painful," Luna said. "It makes people age very quickly – you look like you've aged quite a bit since the beginning of the term..."
Theoretically, no one else should have discovered that Hermione was using a Time-Turner – but Luna was clearly not "anyone else." Her observational skills had always been sharp.
"Fight! Fight!" Cohen held a box of Fizzing Whizbees, eating them while cheering.
"..."
Hermione helplessly buried her face in her book. Her terrifying speculations about Cohen over the holiday instantly vanished after Cohen said that.
During the journey back to school, Luna enthusiastically shared her Christmas holiday experiences with Cohen and Hermione, including but not limited to finding the footprints of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack near her house, freshwater rainbow fish appearing in winter, which was very rare, and a Thunderbird tail feather Rolf sent her (Luna had made these feathers into an extravagant hat that was still crackling with electricity).
"He must have suffered a lot," Cohen clicked his tongue. "I remember Thunderbirds are quite fierce."
Rolf was a good guy, really went all out with his gifts.
"Rolf's grandfather helped him get it. Rolf said the Thunderbird is in its molting season now," Luna said.
"Are he and the Thunderbird in the Southern Hemisphere now?" Cohen said, trying not to laugh.
"I also think it doesn't seem quite right, but these feathers look very happy, not like they were rudely and maliciously plucked," Luna said. "So I made this happy hat. Wearing it gives you a tingly feeling, like the first time I went to find Nargles with Rolf."
"That's an electric shock, isn't it? It's a bit dangerous," Hermione peeked out from her pile of books. "Didn't you put an isolation charm on the hat?"
"You and Rolf got tingly heads back then because you inhaled a bit of venom. That Sneezewort protection mask was a bit leaky. A little more and you would have died," Cohen said rationally. "But Rolf is a good guy, he really steps up when something happens."
"So we're friends," Luna said happily.
Hermione mumbled a few inaudible words and continued reading – she had way too many classes.
By the time they arrived at school, it was almost dinner time. Their luggage was sent to the dormitories by the house-elves. Cohen and Hermione met Harry and Ron, who were whispering to each other in the Great Hall.
"What's going on? Feels like you guys are about to go steal Dumbledore's Gringotts vault," Cohen sat down next to the two secretive figures.
"Did anything happen over the Christmas holidays?" Hermione also sat down and asked eagerly.
"We encountered..." Harry and Ron looked at each other, mysteriously stopping their conversation. "Let's find a safe place to talk after dinner. There are too many people here."
"Did you guys switch careers to become secret agents?" Cohen pulled over a plate of smoked meat, intending to fill his stomach first. "Or..."
Suddenly, Cohen thought of the most likely reason.
Had these two already met Sirius Black?
Wait, wasn't Sirius supposed to be completely against following the script?!