Now fully recovered emotionally, Hagrid proudly led everyone back into Cohen's trunk dimension while carrying an entire dead sheep for Norbert's lunch.
Compared to before, two new "buildings" had appeared within the once-empty wilderness.
Near the entrance stood a massive two-storey wooden house.
Calling it a cabin would have been insulting.
"Hagrid..." Harry swallowed nervously while staring upward at the structure. "How many trees did you cut down to build this?"
Constructing something this large would normally require hundreds of tree trunks.
"Ah—well, Professor Sprout helped me with some rapid-growth fertiliser," Hagrid explained while scratching his beard awkwardly. "I'll get even more wood in a few days. I was worried Cohen might think the place was too small..."
"It's bigger than my actual house," Cohen said sincerely while admiring the craftsmanship. "Hagrid, you're basically a god of architecture."
Hagrid immediately looked delighted by the praise.
The evil little Dementor gained additional experience in social interaction.jpg
Originally, Cohen only wanted this place to function as a backup base. As long as it had somewhere to sleep, he would have been satisfied.
Instead, Hagrid built something far beyond expectations.
The structure itself was excellent too. Hagrid had prepared multiple bedrooms upstairs for Cohen while also furnishing the ground floor with a study, kitchen, tool room, toilet, and a massive living room.
"Since I had ter come inside ter decorate anyway, I made all the doors bigger fer meself," Hagrid admitted nervously.
"I genuinely love it," Cohen replied seriously.
Harry looked around enviously.
"You're taking this trunk home during summer holidays, right? Honestly, I'd rather live here than at the Dursleys'."
"That's amazing..." Ron muttered sadly. "My room at home barely has space to breathe, and there's a ghoul screaming above it all night."
Most of the interior had already been completed by Hagrid. Tables, beds, chairs, cabinets—everything was ready for Cohen to move in immediately.
The only missing elements were plumbing and sewage systems.
Fortunately, magic existed.
Between water-conjuring charms and Vanishing Spells, those problems barely mattered.
Cohen felt extremely satisfied.
Hagrid felt equally satisfied knowing he had helped.
A perfect win-win situation.
Harry desperately wanted to escape summer holidays here, while Hermione immediately suggested placing fireproofing enchantments around the house before Norbert accidentally burned everything down.
"And speaking of Norbert..." Cohen asked, "how big is he now?"
More importantly, the dragon had not immediately tackled Cohen upon arrival, which felt slightly suspicious.
Especially considering Hagrid carried an entire bloody sheep.
Norbert's nest lay deeper inside the trunk. Using magic earlier, Cohen had raised a small hill complete with an artificial cave, and Hagrid transformed it into an impressive dragon den.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione wisely remained outside.
None of them particularly wanted to enter the cave of a rapidly growing dragon.
Only Cohen and Hagrid went inside.
"Lumos."
Light appeared at the tip of Cohen's wand.
To create a proper "dragon cave" atmosphere, Cohen deliberately designed the tunnel longer than necessary with several twists and turns. The entire place felt like the entrance to some legendary dungeon boss chamber.
"Snrrrhhh..."
The deeper they travelled, the louder the dragon's snoring became.
Eventually, they reached the innermost chamber.
Gold and silver coins covered the floor in enormous piles while Norbert slept curled atop them like a proper dragon from mythology.
He was already roughly the size of a small car.
"Hagrid..." Cohen stared at the treasure pile in disbelief. "Where did you get all this money?"
There was enough treasure here to carpet the entire cave floor.
"I found most of it near some Niffler burrows in the forest," Hagrid explained proudly. "Probably dropped by old students over the years. I read in a book that dragons like sleepin' on treasure piles, so I figured maybe they've got habits similar ter Nifflers."
The smell of blood from the dead sheep finally reached Norbert.
The dragon sniffed loudly before slowly opening his glowing orange-red eyes.
First, he saw Hagrid.
Food provider.
Then he saw the sheep.
Smaller than yesterday's cow, but still acceptable.
Then—
He saw Cohen.
Norbert's pupils contracted instantly.
Ancestral trauma activated.
Some buried memory from shortly after hatching violently resurfaced in his tiny dragon brain.
The dragon immediately leapt upright and began wagging his tail frantically from pure instinct while attempting to climb into Cohen's arms like before.
Unfortunately, Norbert's head alone was now nearly the size of Cohen's torso.
"Calm down."
Cohen released a faint trace of soul pressure instantly.
Norbert wisely retreated several steps.
"It really likes yeh," Hagrid said emotionally.
"Good lad! Here yeh go!"
Hagrid tossed the sheep forward.
Norbert caught it expertly and immediately began tearing into the carcass with horrifying enthusiasm. Blood splattered everywhere across the treasure pile.
The scene became slightly too graphic.
Cohen quietly decided he had seen enough.
The purpose of visiting was simply to confirm Norbert remained healthy, not admire dragon feeding habits alongside Hagrid.
Interestingly, despite Norbert's absurd physical growth speed, his soul barely changed at all. Cohen checked carefully and discovered the dragon's soul strength still hovered around twenty.
Perhaps soul growth correlated with lifespan.
Cohen suspected creatures only fully developed spiritually near the end of their natural lives.
Considering both Nicolas Flamel and Dumbledore believed death was merely "the next great adventure," perhaps souls truly travelled elsewhere afterward.
After all, Cohen himself technically arrived in this world after death.
Overall, the visit proved extremely successful.
The trunk project had progressed far beyond expectations, saving Cohen enormous amounts of future effort.
Eventually, Harry and the others returned to the castle.
Cohen remained behind.
Before summer holidays officially began, he still needed to retrieve Ali from the unicorn herd.
Naturally, Hagrid insisted on accompanying him.
"You absolutely cannot wander into the Forbidden Forest alone," Hagrid declared seriously. "Far too dangerous."
Cohen strongly suspected Hagrid would regret this decision very soon.
Because long before they reached the unicorn settlement, they could already smell alcohol drifting through the forest.
"Oh, Merlin's beard..."
The moment they arrived beside the lakeside clearing where the unicorns usually rested, Hagrid froze in horror.
The scene resembled a massacre.
Ali's fur had already returned from white back to its natural black colour. She stood unsteadily beside several empty barrels while drinking directly from another container of butterbeer.
All around her lay "corpses."
Dozens of unicorns sprawled across the ground motionless.
[Hah... not one of them could handle their drink...]
Even Ali herself looked slightly unstable.
"Hagrid," Cohen said slowly while checking the nearest unconscious unicorn, "exactly how much butterbeer did you give them?"
Fortunately, every unicorn still breathed normally.
They were simply catastrophically drunk.
Still, Ali standing proudly among fallen unicorn bodies while rambling nonsense genuinely made it appear as though she massacred the entire herd personally.
"I thought Ali was th' only one who liked butterbeer..." Hagrid whispered weakly.
He looked spiritually devastated.
"How did the entire unicorn herd become alcoholics?"
....
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