But after all, it was the only wand in the entire store that dared to face Cohen directly. Not buying it felt like letting Mr. Ollivander down after he had run back and forth so much.
After paying Mr. Ollivander seven Galleons, Cohen and Edward left Ollivander's wand shop.
Cohen pondered this wand for a long time before realizing that the soul within the wand seemed to only have simple emotions, such as “I like this Wizard so I’ll stay with him for life” or “I hate this Wizard so I won’t help him.”
Now, a new emotion needed to be added: the fear of “running away quickly when encountering a Dementor picking a wand to avoid harm.”
Considering the setting that “wands can change their allegiance if their owner is defeated,” Cohen felt these wands were like somewhat intelligent door locks, but if they saw their owner being beaten at the door, they would immediately open the door for the person who beat their owner—
In short, they were fence-sitters, with some intelligence, but not much.
The subsequent process of buying textbooks, Wizard robes, cauldrons, and medicinal ingredients went smoothly, as books, robes, cauldrons, and medicinal ingredients wouldn't panic and scatter everywhere for fear of Cohen sucking out their souls—perhaps the monster book of monsters in the corner of Flourish and Blotts was an exception.
It had originally been tearing at its own pages alone in an iron cage, but the moment Cohen entered the shop, the book instantly quieted down, hiding in the corner and trembling.
【Soul Strength: 5】
“What a weak book,” Cohen thought to himself at the time.
The shop assistant, who was helping Cohen collect textbooks, happened to see the book suddenly quiet down and decided that Cohen was his lucky star. He secretly slipped Cohen two Galleons and seven Sickles, begging Cohen to take the strange book, worth two Galleons, away.
The shop assistant even showed off his already healed scars on his hand.
“This book is too terrifying… I can’t believe why the shop owner would keep such a book in the store… They’re just as bad as Cornish Pixies—no, those Pixies at least don’t bite people…”
Amidst the shop assistant’s curse that “this thing will become a Hogwarts textbook later, and we’ll have to stock thousands of them, and all the books will have to be managed by the owner alone—because all the shop assistants will have resigned by then,” Edward pushed a cart full of books and study supplies out of the bookstore for Cohen.
“Ah~ Alright, next up is buying you a pet.”
Edward let out a groan of completion, glancing at the monster book of monsters lying quietly in the cart, seemingly wondering why this book was as quiet as if it had died.
“I finally understand why your grandmother was so unwilling to take me shopping back then. The school supplies for young Wizards are a bit too cumbersome…”
“I hope the small animals aren’t as timid as the wands…”
Cohen, who had just absorbed the soul of the monster book, suddenly had a bad premonition.
In the memories Cohen inherited from his predecessor, normal small animals were not afraid of Cohen—as long as Cohen didn't actively start absorbing their souls.
But whether magical creatures would have any special reaction to a Dementor's aura was unknown…
This question was answered when Cohen walked into the dark Eeylops Owl Emporium.
The originally noisy owl shop also quieted down the moment Cohen entered.
“Hmm?” The female shop owner was confused by the owls’ sudden silence, then she saw Cohen entering alone with his money pouch.
Edward stayed outside with the fully loaded cart, as the cart couldn't be pushed into this small shop that only allowed one person to enter or exit at a time, and there were pickpockets in Diagon Alley from time to time—even in the magic world, there would always be greedy people attempting to gain without effort. Perhaps the only place those people wouldn't dare to steal from was Gringotts.
“Hello, I’d like to buy an owl,” Cohen said to the curly-haired middle-aged woman, pretending to be oblivious.
No, these birds trembling in their cages had nothing to do with him; Cohen hadn't sucked their souls dry…
“Hmm… All the owls here are very… lively…”
The shop owner’s prepared promotional speech got stuck in her throat.
Because almost all the owls were now stiffly pretending to be stone statues.
“May I pick one myself?” Cohen asked politely.
Given the situation, Cohen actually didn't want to continue buying an owl—if the owls were so afraid of him, it seemed like buying one would be akin to “animal abuse.”
The owls only had two or three points of soul strength, and Cohen had just absorbed the monster book of monsters, which had a full five points of soul strength, but it only increased his soul completeness by 0.5%…
In other words, killing a normal owl would give Cohen even less of a boost than stealing lollipops from a few children.
What made Cohen change his mind wasn't finishing the toffee in his mouth, but two rather different presences among these owls.
One was a pure white snowy owl, which had seven points of soul strength, and Cohen immediately suspected that this was the “Hedwig” that Harry would later own.
And the other one…
It was a largely brown mottled Scops Owl, with white eyebrows and black “feathered ear tufts.”
Of course, an owl’s ears are not pointed at the top of its head; their real ears are under the feathers on the sides of their head, and if you part the feathers, you can even see their enormous eyeballs through the ear holes.
【Soul Strength: 10】
Is this the soul strength a normal owl can have???
Cohen was full of curiosity about this owl, and of course, this owl was curious about Cohen too.
Its eyes fixed on Cohen, and its head rotated 90 degrees clockwise, as if it were examining something strange.
Somehow, Cohen kept feeling like this thing would extend a black stick-like arm from under its wing and then pull out potato chips from a nearby chip bag to eat—wait, why would there be a half-eaten bag of potato chips in a bird’s cage?
Are there potato chips in the Wizarding World???
“What’s this one called? How much is it?”
—
“This owl looks a bit old, doesn’t it?”
Edward frowned, looking at Cohen holding a Scops Owl that was several times larger than the other younger owls.
“It’s called Earl. The shop owner said it’s been in the shop for three years, and if it doesn’t sell, it might be sent to the Owl Post Office to do odd jobs…”
Cohen explained to Edward.
“Oh…” Edward nodded thoughtfully, “Sounds pitiful, it almost makes me feel a little sorry for it—is that why you bought it?”
“No,” Cohen shook his head as a matter of course, “Because it only cost ten Sickles, and other owls cost at least two Galleons.”
Buying an owl with such an extraordinary soul strength for ten Sickles was an absolute steal. Even if he couldn’t research anything from it, Cohen could tearfully eat it when it got old, in both a spiritual and physical sense.
