"I want the exact location of Azkaban," Cohen stated his demand.
Originally, he'd planned to squeeze some money out of this, but he wasn't exactly short on pocket change right now—and Quirrell, thanks to that dragon egg incident, had become flat broke.
Cohen really wanted to ask Quirrell why, after turning to the dark side, he hadn't put more effort into things like robbery, theft, or murder for profit…
"Azkaban?" Quirrell didn't understand why Cohen wanted to go there. Did he have someone important locked up there? "What do you need to go there for?"
"Visiting family," Cohen replied curtly.
He wasn't entirely lying. Cohen did intend to test the "familial bond" between himself and the Dementors. Of course, that was only one reason.
There was a more important one: one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, Helga Hufflepuff's Cup.
It was stored in the Lestrange vault at Gringotts.
If Cohen didn't want to risk breaking into the vault himself, his only option was to approach that madwoman Bellatrix Lestrange, find some evidence to use, and then dignified take the cup out in the open.
And Cohen had a condition Bellatrix couldn't refuse.
"Heil Hydra!"—wait, no.
It was, "The Dark Lord isn't dead. Prove your loyalty—his plan requires your devotion."
It was hard to imagine that fanatical Voldemort-obsessed lunatic refusing after all those years of waiting.
"V-visiting family?" Quirrell grew even more confused. "I thought…"
"Experiments need materials too," Cohen said, mildly surprised by Quirrell's lack of comprehension. Wasn't he supposed to be a brilliant Ravenclaw graduate? Had Voldemort messed up his head that badly? "I went back to Borgin Manor a few days ago and found some things there. I need to go to Azkaban to confirm a few details."
"I know where Azkaban is…" Voldemort hissed, his voice faltering as the effects of the last batch of unicorn blood wore off. "I'll put the memory in Quirrell's mind… use Legilimency to see it…"
Cohen watched as Quirrell's face contorted for a moment. Once he calmed down, Cohen used Legilimency on him.
Voldemort had been to Azkaban many times—not as a prisoner, of course, but to recruit the Dementors.
Though the location couldn't be marked on a map, if it existed in memory, the magic preventing it from being charted was useless.
After pinpointing Azkaban's location at sea, Cohen stopped the Legilimency.
Quirrell, having endured two mental intrusions in a row, now looked a bit dazed—Cohen suddenly understood why Quirrell had gotten dumber after following Voldemort.
"Alright, deal's done," Cohen said, satisfied.
Now he wouldn't have to waste time drifting aimlessly at sea looking for Azkaban.
After leaving Quirrell's office, Cohen didn't rush to Hagrid to retrieve Alexia .
It wasn't until after the afternoon Herbology class that Cohen returned to Hagrid's hut.
Alexia , who'd been left to roam behind the hut, had been brought back inside by Hagrid and was now being watched over alongside the dragon egg.
But the indoor environment wasn't much better than outside.
"Hagrid, Alexia looks overheated," Cohen pointed out.
Finding an excuse to take Alexia away was almost too easy.
"I'll take her back to the Room of Requirement—you know, that magical room at school. I've been keeping Alexia there. It's big and safe."
The Room of Requirement was currently dominated by Cohen and Earl. As long as someone was inside, it wouldn't open or change for anyone else.
"Oh—Merlin's beard, I completely forgot about that!" Hagrid exclaimed, smacking his forehead in frustration. "I've been so focused on the dragon egg…"
[*Pfft! Deadbeat!*] Alexia huffed indignantly.
[*My butterbeer supply's been cut off for three days!*]
"You're not allowed to turn into an alcoholic!" Cohen snapped sternly at Alexia .
What was going on? He should've picked something else to feed her back then…
Cohen had never heard of butterbeer being addictive to unicorns.
With Alexia in tow, Cohen smoothly left Hagrid's hut and headed straight into the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid was too busy ensuring the dragon egg's temperature to check if a student was wandering into the forest—he was overly enthusiastic about it. Honestly, there was no need to keep exactly seven logs burning in the fireplace; the temperature difference wasn't that significant.
"Can you find the unicorn herd?" Cohen asked. "Wait, I need to figure out how to dye your coat…"
After casting several coloring charms, Alexia was now essentially a "white" unicorn.
While unicorns couldn't tell the difference between Alexia and themselves, centaurs could.
So some basic disguise was necessary.
[*I can smell them,*] Alexia replied, sniffing the air for the familiar scent of her kin. Beyond Cohen, the air was filled with traces of other unicorns.
Cohen and Alexia ventured deep into the Forbidden Forest until they finally reached a frozen lake where the unicorn herd rested.
The unicorns were gathered around the lake's edge, where they'd drilled a hole in the ice with their horns to access water.
Their snow-white manes blended almost perfectly with the surrounding snow, and the air shimmered with a warm, ethereal mist—unicorns truly were a species that looked sacred.
The lead male unicorn spotted Cohen and Alexia and trotted over to them.
[*You… you're from outside the forest?*] Its voice was deep and resonant, marking it as the herd's leader. Cohen realized he could hear it too, even though it was speaking to Alexia .
[*Yes,*] Alexia answered.
[*And you have a foal…*]
The unicorn leader sniffed around Cohen, seemingly confirming that he was one of them.
[*Come join us. You must be tired. We have food and water here, and it's safe.*]
Cohen didn't believe a single word of the unicorn leader's assurances.
If he hadn't taken on this task, Voldemort would've come here and killed another unicorn.
Still, infiltrating the herd so easily felt absurd. Unicorns might have eyes, but they might as well be blind.
No matter how you looked at it, Cohen didn't resemble a "unicorn foal."
Relying solely on scent and kinship detection to identify their own kind seemed awfully unreliable.
Or perhaps they'd never considered the possibility of a hybrid like Cohen existing… Under normal circumstances, their advanced kinship sense was more than enough.
[*We have new kin!*] the unicorn leader announced to the herd resting by the lake.
[*New kin in the forest?*]
The unicorns, who'd been resting or playfully tussling, immediately surged toward Cohen and Alexia .
A crowd of horse heads sniffed around them, some even nuzzling Cohen's face—
After dodging the eighth horn that nearly poked his eye out, Cohen finally got a moment to breathe.
Every unicorn in the herd had rubbed against him by now—he didn't feel exactly clean anymore…
Their scent was pleasant, though—like vanilla ice cream. No wonder unicorn hair was used in love potions.
[*You can live here. The wizards out there can't hurt you,*] the unicorn leader said reassuringly to Cohen and Alexia .
[*A monster attacked one of our lost kin before. We need to stick together and not scatter again.*]