Chapter 57: Thanks for the invitation, I'm currently in the Forbidden Forest, and I'm a unicorn

"I want the exact location of Azkaban."

Cohen stated his demand.

Originally, Cohen had intended to extort a sum of money, but right now he didn't seem to be all that short on pocket change—and Quirrell had already been reduced to absolute poverty because of that dragon egg.

Cohen really wanted to ask Quirrell: since you've already reclassed into a dark wizard, why aren't you working hard on robbing, stealing, murdering, and pillaging?

"Azkaban?" Quirrell couldn't understand why Cohen would want to go to that place. Did he have some important person locked up in there? "What are you going to do there?"

"Family visit," Cohen replied briefly.

Actually, it wasn't a lie. Cohen was indeed going to test the "familial bond" between himself and the Dementors. Of course, that was only one of the reasons.

There was another, much more important reason:

One of Voldemort's Horcruxes, Helga Hufflepuff's cup.

It was in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts.

Unless Cohen intended to take the risk of breaking into the vault to steal it, his only option was to find that madwoman, Bellatrix Lestrange, get some kind of proof of identity, and then go proudly waltz in to take the cup out.

And Cohen had a condition that Bellatrix simply could not refuse.

"Heil Hydra"—

No, wait, it was: "The Dark Lord is not dead. Prove your loyalty; his plan requires your devotion."

It was hard to imagine why that woman, who was utterly obsessed with Voldemort, would have any reason to refuse after experiencing such a long wait.

"A—a family visit?" Quirrell was even more confused. "I thought..."

"Even experimental subjects require experimental materials." Cohen was somewhat surprised by Quirrell's lack of comprehension. Wasn't he a rather distinguished graduate of Ravenclaw? Had his brain been scrambled into abnormality by Voldemort?

"I went back to Burke Manor a few days ago and found some things there." Cohen didn't plan on revealing too much of his personal business to Quirrell and Voldemort. "I'm going to Azkaban to find someone and confirm the situation."

"I know the location of Azkaban..." Voldemort hissed intermittently, his voice stuttering, likely because the effects of the last unicorn blood were wearing off. "I will put the memory into Quirrell's mind... use Legilimency to see it..."

Cohen watched as Quirrell's expression twisted for a moment, and once Quirrell had calmed down, he cast Legilimency on him.

Voldemort had been to Azkaban many times—not as an inmate, of course, but to recruit the Dementors.

Although that location could not be charted or mapped, if its coordinates existed within a memory, the anti-mapping magic would become useless.

After figuring out Azkaban's location in the sea, Cohen stopped the Legilimency.

Having suffered two consecutive mental intrusions, Quirrell now looked a bit slow-witted—Cohen suddenly understood why Quirrell had gotten dumber after attaching himself to Voldemort.

"Alright, deal's done."

Cohen wrapped things up with satisfaction.

This way, he wouldn't have to drift aimlessly across the ocean and waste time searching for Azkaban.

After leaving Quirrell's office, Cohen was not in a hurry to find Hagrid and get Allie back.

It wasn't until after the Herbology class in the afternoon that Cohen returned to Hagrid's hut.

"Hagrid, Allie looks really hot." Cohen pointed out.

Finding an excuse to take Allie away was simply effortless.

"I think I'll take her back to the Room of Requirement—you know, there's that magical room at the school, and I've always kept Allie living in there. It's huge and very safe."

The Room of Requirement was currently monopolized by Cohen and the Count. As long as there were "people" inside, it would not open its doors or transform for anyone else.

"Oh—blimey, I completely forgot about that!" Hagrid smacked his forehead in vexation. "I was too busy looking at the dragon egg..."

[Bah! What a scumbag,]

Allie grumbled indignantly.

[My butterbeer has been cut off for three days.]

"You are not allowed to become a drunkard!"

Cohen sternly demanded of Allie.

What was going on? If he had known, he would have chosen some other food in the beginning...

Cohen had genuinely never heard of butterbeer being able to get a unicorn addicted.

Successfully taking Allie away from Hagrid's hut, Cohen plunged straight into the Forbidden Forest.

Hagrid was busy trying to maintain the temperature of the dragon egg and had no time to check on students entering the Forbidden Forest—he was a bit overly enthusiastic about the dragon egg, though in reality, there was no need to maintain the rigid requirement of keeping seven logs in the hearth at all times, since the temperature was more or less consistent anyway.

"Can you find the unicorn herd?" Cohen asked. "Wait, I need to figure out a way to dye your coat..."

After Cohen cast several dyeing spells, Allie now basically looked like a completely "white" unicorn.

While unicorns might not be able to tell the difference between Allie and themselves, centaurs certainly could.

So the necessary disguise still had to be put on.

[I can smell them.]

Allie searched the air for the sense of familial affinity deeply rooted in her bloodline—besides Cohen, there were lingering scent traces left behind by numerous unicorns drifting in the air.

Cohen and the unicorn walked a long way deep into the Forbidden Forest until, finally, they found the unicorn herd by a frozen lake.

They were resting around the lake, and a hole had been drilled through the edge of the ice so they could drink water.

The surrounding snow melted seamlessly into their snow-white manes, and the air was filled with a warm, fairy-tale-like mist—unicorns truly were a species that looked inherently sacred.

The leading male unicorn spotted Cohen and Allie, and it trotted over to them on cloven hooves.

[You are... from outside the forest?]

The male unicorn's voice was deep and resonant. It seemed to be the leader of this herd, and Cohen found that he could actually hear its voice—even though it was speaking directly to Allie.

[Yes,] Allie replied.

[You even have a child with you...]

The unicorn patriarch stretched out its head and sniffed near Cohen, seemingly confirming that Cohen was also one of their own.

[Come quickly, you must be exhausted. We have food and water here, and it is safe.]

Safe, my foot.

Cohen didn't believe a single word of what the unicorn leader was saying.

If Cohen hadn't taken on this task, Voldemort would have come here again to slaughter another unicorn.

Still, it was somewhat absurd how smoothly he had infiltrated the ranks of the unicorns. Although unicorns had eyes, they might as well not have had any at all.

No matter how Cohen looked, he didn't resemble a "unicorn foal."

Wasn't relying entirely on aura and kindred resonance to confirm identity a little too unreliable?

Or rather, they simply hadn't considered the possibility of a hybrid creature like Cohen existing... because under normal circumstances, that high-end identification method of kindred resonance was already more than enough.

[A new clansman has arrived!]

The unicorn patriarch announced to the unicorns resting by the lake.

[A new kinsman has come to the forest?]

[Where? Where?]

[Let me sniff them.]

...

Hearing the news, the unicorns that had been resting, playing, or frolicking immediately swarmed toward Cohen's direction.

A flurry of horse-like heads sniffed left and right around Cohen and Allie, and from time to time, a few would affectionately rub their muzzles against Cohen's face—

"Phew..."

After dodging an eighth horn that had almost poked him in the eye, Cohen was finally able to rest for a moment.

He had been rubbed from head to toe by every single unicorn in the herd—he felt somewhat defiled...

The scent coming off the unicorns was quite pleasant, though; to Cohen, it smelled like vanilla ice cream—no wonder the base ingredient for Amortentia used unicorn hair.

[You can live here; those wizards outside cannot hurt you,]

The unicorn patriarch reassured Cohen and Allie.

[Some monster previously harmed one of our stray brethren, so we must stick together and not scatter apart again.]