An Inheritance Two Years Later.
Cohen put the key into his system inventory to avoid losing it—if he lost it, Dumbledore would have to ask Nicolas Flamel for another key, and there was no guarantee that Nicolas would still be alive.
With the Philosopher's Stone matter settled, Cohen also had to face the final exams he had tried to avoid but couldn't escape…
"But you don't seem to be in a hurry at all."
Inside the Always-Know-It-All room, the Earl looked at Cohen, who was still replaying the Dungeons & Dragons sandbox game, and was a little puzzled by Cohen's completely unhurried appearance.
After Edward's guidance, Cohen had begun to explore other branches of the game—such as a dating simulator.
Putting aside the fact that the races of these little people were of no interest to Cohen, it was quite interesting to romance the NPCs one by one, with a kind of satisfying feeling of manipulating people's hearts.
"Hogwarts won't expel first-year students who don't pass," Cohen replied without turning his head. "Besides, I have my own way of passing the exams—memorizing is a waste of time."
After realizing he couldn't use the excuse of "hospitalization" to stay in the hospital for two weeks, Cohen devised a plan in just ten minutes. (Madam Pomfrey: "You're completely healed, you have to go back to class!")
During the exams, Cohen only needed to curl his soul into a long strip and peek out to pass—he only needed to copy 70% of Hermione's answers to pass with certainty; there was no need to spend time memorizing the knowledge points himself.
"By the way, take a look at my textbooks when you have time," Cohen abruptly reminded the Earl. "They'll be useful during the summer."
"Coo coo coo?" The Earl tilted his head, making a puzzled sound.
—Two
weeks passed in a flash. For Cohen, those fourteen days went by quickly, but for the other students, it was a different story.
The entire school was filled with people cramming into their books, even Harry and Ron had to suppress their usual playfulness, anxiously counting down the days until the final exams.
Finally, the exams were coming to an end, their last exam being History of Magic.
"Unbelievable, after something this big, the school still has to hold exams!"
In the Gryffindor common room, Ron rubbed his fiery red hair, dejectedly flipping through his History of Magic notes, which he had copied from Hermione, so to him it was a brand new "textbook."
"It's already good that the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam was canceled because of Quirrell," Cohen squeezed into the common room, just in time to hear Ron's complaints, "You only need to memorize a few key dates and names, the rest about effects and impacts, you can just make it up, as long as your answers are full of bluffing, the teacher will definitely give you some sympathy points."
"Really?" Harry's eyes lit up—those effects and impacts of various key events in the wizarding world were too hard to remember, tedious and boring, and very repetitive.
"That's how I used to get by on history exams, all instinct," Cohen kindly offered. Whether it would work at Hogwarts… well, that was up to Harry's luck.
Harry and Ron wholeheartedly agreed with Cohen's emergency solution and successfully filled out the entire exam paper the next day using Cohen's method.
After the exam, the pent-up emotions of the young wizards, suppressed for two weeks, exploded the moment they handed in their papers. The cheers almost lifted the ceiling—Professor Binns, floating in the air, nearly thought there had been an attack.
"It's finally over! I swear I'll study hard from now on and never memorize things at the last minute again…" Ron vowed after a long sigh.
"I bet you'll say that every year after that," Cohen didn't believe a word of Ron's vow. "Ten Galleons, I bet you'll still be putting it off until the exam in your second year."
"But I don't have ten Galleons," Ron said dejectedly.
"The exam was much easier than I expected," Hermione said casually. "I didn't actually have to memorize the 'Wolverine Code of Conduct of 1637' or the details of the goblin rebellion…"
She seemed to enjoy reviewing the exam content afterward, but Ron suggested that doing so would disgust him.
So they decided to go for a walk outside the castle.
"How about we go see Hagrid?" Cohen suggested. "We can also check on my trunk and Norbert."
"I hope it hasn't grown as big as the house…" Harry said worriedly. "Is Hagrid still alive?"
They hadn't been to Hagrid's for two weeks.
Crossing the grounds, they arrived at the door of Hagrid's hut.
Cohen had assumed Hagrid was in the trunk taking care of Norbert, but knocked politely—
"Who is it? Coming…"
Hagrid's voice sounded dejected. The door
creaked
open, and Hagrid saw Cohen, Harry, and the others, but instead of welcoming them warmly as usual, he hesitated for a moment.
Harry noticed that Hagrid's eyes were red, and he seemed very nervous.
"Are we going to stand here like this all day?" Cohen tried to lighten the mood.
Hagrid belatedly led them into the house; the air was thick with the salty smell of tears.
Once inside, they quickly realized where the salty smell was coming from—
"Waaah—it's all my fault—this—idiot!" Hagrid sat back on his bed, pounding his head in self-reproach, and sobbing, covering his face with his hands. "I told that villain how to get past Fluffy! I told him! He knew everything except this, and I had to tell him! Cohen almost died! All because of a dragon egg! I'll never drink again! I should be kicked out and be a Muggle for life!"
Hagrid trembled, large tears seeping into his beard.
"Hagrid..." Hermione tried to comfort him with some heartache, but couldn't think of anything to say.
"It's alright, Hagrid, I'm alive now." Cohen, as the one who "almost died," said magnanimously, "And even if you hadn't told him, he would have found out eventually—"
"You and Harry almost got killed by him! It's all my fault—you should have distanced yourselves from me—I'm no good…I should have been kicked out long ago…" Hagrid cried even louder.
"Alright, Hagrid, to be honest, even if you didn't tell him, I'd have to eventually." Cohen thought of a way to make Hagrid feel better. "Because I've looked up information on Cerberus."
"We won't blame you, Hagrid," Harry chimed in, trying to comfort him. "Professor Dumbledore won't blame you either, we're still good friends…and—and—"
Harry couldn't think of anything else to say to make Hagrid feel better.
"And we have several big projects to complete together." Cohen continued, "Hagrid, how's Norbert?"
"Really—oh! Norbert!" Hagrid stopped crying, slapped his forehead; Norbert had brought him back to his senses.
"I built you a house! And I made Norbert a very comfortable den—he should be very happy now…"
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(End of Chapter)