Nico's reminder gave Cohen more to think about.

Saturday dawned with heavy clouds hanging over Hogwarts, as if even the weather knew what was going to happen today.

But the students of Hogwarts were clueless.

Even with the sky looking like it was about to pour, it did nothing to dampen the students' spirits for a bit of fun.

There just weren't that many interesting shops at school.

"Without the Hogwarts students, wouldn't Hogsmeade's overall income take a nosedive of like, 99%?" Cohen said with a touch of emotion, watching "a huge group of students buzzing into Honeydukes like bees to honey."

"I really envy them, having money to go on a shopping spree every week…" Ron said longingly. "When's Harry supposed to get here? Or has he been here all along—oof!"

Ron suddenly rubbed his stomach.

Harry, obviously, had already arrived and was waiting for them under his Invisibility Cloak.

"Let's go." Hermione double-checked that there weren't any suspicious people around before urging them to hurry.

"Harry… easy on the jabs next time…" Ron whispered to the air on his right.

"I'm over here…" Harry said quietly from Ron's left, sounding helpless.

"Oh, right—"

Ron awkwardly turned his head back.

The spot Harry and Ron had agreed to meet Sirius at was the Shrieking Shack—a place most people only ever glanced at the first time they came to Hogsmeade.

No one would repeatedly go to look at an old, wooden shack with no door that was rumored to be haunted but didn't actually have anything special about it.

Reaching the shadowy side of the Shrieking Shack that faced away from Hogsmeade village, Harry whipped off the Invisibility Cloak and took a deep breath.

"How are we going to get in?" Hermione asked.

"Vanish a few of the boards?" Cohen pulled out his wand.

"Wait a sec—" Harry said.

Then, Harry went over to the wall and gently tapped on a wooden plank.

A rustling sound came from inside.

Harry tapped again.

This time, a bark echoed from within.

"Sirius, we've got Peter," Harry said in a low voice through the wooden planks.

"Disillusionment Charm."

In the next second, the two long planks in front of them vanished.

The walls inside were covered in mildew and cobwebs, the floorboards warped from years of dampness, and the windows were boarded up, making their current spot the only slightly brighter area.

But it still looked like nighttime inside.

The place was filled with broken furniture; a toppled sofa revealed its springs and moldy stuffing, with claw marks tearing through the surface.

"You… lost your temper in here?" Ron said, his face pale.

Even though Sirius now looked much cleaner (wanting to make a good impression on Harry) and more human-like, Ron still felt uneasy facing a tall, convicted murderer.

"It wasn't me, it was…" Sirius hesitated for a moment. "An old friend of mine—but that's not important right now—come on in…"

Once the four of them had squeezed through the gap where the planks had been, Sirius put the boards back in place.

"You caught Peter? Where is he?" he said urgently. "Let me see him—"

Cohen took the cage out of his mokeskin pouch and placed it on a tea table that was lying sideways on the floor.

Sirius immediately grabbed the iron cage, his fingernails digging into the bars until blood seeped out.

The fake Scabbers was inside, frantically scrambling around in a panic.

Sirius recognized the rat he hated with every fiber of his being at a single glance—a cruel smile now spread across his face.

"Long time no see… Wormtail," Sirius's voice sounded like it was being squeezed out from the gnarled trunk of the Whomping Willow.

He opened the cage and grabbed the rat roughly—with a grip so tight it looked like he was about to crush it, causing Hermione to gasp.

"Wait—don't kill him—" Harry quickly reminded him. "You said—you wanted him alive to confess…"

"Right… right…" Sirius regained a bit of his senses after hearing Harry's voice, which stopped him from crushing Peter.

Cohen wasn't worried about that though—blood puppets weren't actually alive, so as long as Sirius didn't squeeze it until it exploded, it would be fine.

If it exploded, it wouldn't be able to convincingly be "alive" in front of everyone.

"How do we force him to turn back into a human?" Hermione moved a little closer to Ron and Harry.

"I know the spell…" Sirius held the rat in his left hand, his right hand trembling as he gripped his wand.

"Soon… soon…" he muttered, then suddenly said the spell sharply:

"Appare Vestigium!" (This is a literal translation of the Chinese, the actual spell is "Animagus Revelo")

A flash of bright blue light erupted, and the rat in Sirius's hand began to expand rapidly, so much so that he had to let go.

The rat transformed into a short, wrinkled man within seconds.

"S-Sirius…" the fake Peter said in a high-pitched voice.

Cohen felt his imitation skills were getting better and better.

"Oh my gosh…" Hermione covered her mouth—even after being sure that Peter was Scabbers, she still couldn't help but gasp.

"Bloody hell…" Ron's face twitched as he took a step back, terrified that this Peter thing would get close to him. "I even—you—ugh…"

"So ugly," Cohen commented without any mercy, though he had secretly lowered his speaking frequency.

Voldemort was attached to the cage Peter had been in, watching the show and waiting for Peter to succeed—Cohen had to put more effort into Peter's act to avoid blowing their cover in front of Voldemort.

"Sirius—" the fake Peter shrank down onto all fours, crawling towards Sirius in fear. "Please—I couldn't help it—what could I do? The Dark Lord… you don't know what kind of things he can do… I was scared—"

"Shut your bloody mouth!" Sirius kicked Peter away, roaring, "You were already passing him information for a year before Lily and James were killed!"

"He was gaining power everywhere!" Peter shrieked. "What good would it have done to defy him? You don't know—he would have killed me!"

"Then you should have died!" Sirius roared, lunging at Peter like a big dog about to bite. "Death is better than betraying your friends!"

Peter hurriedly dodged Sirius's attack, his eyes darting among the four kids, as if trying to find a "good person" who would protect him.

"Kind children…" Peter crawled towards Ron. "You won't let them do this—I was a good pet…"

"Get away from me, you perverted rat!"

Ron shrieked,

"You even—even—get lost! Or I'll—"

Under Cohen's control, Peter shrank back in fear.

"Lovely girl… clever girl…" Peter's next target was Hermione.

But Hermione pursed her lips, said nothing, and took several steps back, away from Peter.

"Harry… Harry… you look exactly like your father…"

Peter started to move towards Harry—Cohen controlled him to make a very obvious motion of reaching into his waist pouch.

Inside was the Portkey, the Portkey Cohen had made.

This was the plan Voldemort and Cohen had discussed beforehand: as long as Peter could get close to Harry and use the Portkey to kidnap him, everything would be a success.

"Ssss—" Harry suddenly felt a searing pain in his forehead scar.

Cohen noticed this—Harry's scar hurting so suddenly and intensely could only mean that Voldemort was too excited right now.

After all, the plan was about to succeed.

"What are you doing!" Sirius, who had been keeping an eye on Peter, noticed Peter's small movement.

The way Peter was pretending to beg for mercy while approaching Harry and reaching into his pocket clearly showed he was up to no good.

A jet of red light shot from the tip of Sirius's wand towards Peter.

"Fool!" Voldemort's voice echoed through the Shrieking Shack, causing everyone except Cohen to gasp in shock.

Why was Voldemort here?!

But they couldn't see any sign of Voldemort—

"Protego!" Cohen used a Shield Charm to deflect Sirius's spell—

"What are you—" Sirius stared at Cohen with wide eyes, questioning him—but Cohen didn't respond.

Voldemort's spirit was extremely pleased with Cohen's action of helping him at the risk of exposing himself—this showed that Cohen was completely on his side.

Much better than that idiot Peter.

"Stupefy!" Hermione sent a Stunning Spell towards Peter Pettigrew—since Cohen's back was to them, he "theoretically" wouldn't have had time to stop Hermione.

Cohen breathed a sigh of relief in his mind.

Darn it, he had already made Peter's movements so slow, yet Harry and Ron were just standing there like wooden stakes, not moving at all.

If Peter still didn't act in this situation, it wouldn't just be a matter of being "careless" in Voldemort's eyes.

Thankfully, Hermione reacted quickly.

The fake Peter fell to the ground as Cohen controlled him, and Voldemort's spirit came to Cohen—it seemed he was finally willing to believe that Cohen would help him at this crucial moment.

And Cohen's actions did exactly that—he immediately rushed towards Peter Pettigrew, snatched the pouch from him, and then lunged towards Harry.

Voldemort's heart was filled with anticipation, hoping Cohen would succeed.

Harry's heart was filled with confusion as to why Cohen was helping Voldemort again.

Cohen's heart was a little anxious as to why Hermione hadn't attacked him yet—she had been building up to this for so long, she should just use the spell she had just learned…

"Expecto Patronum!" Finally, Hermione said the Patronus Charm in a trembling voice.

A large mass of silvery mist enveloped Cohen, forcing him to stop his attack and cough.

"Bang!"

Just as the scene was in complete chaos, the door inside the Shrieking Shack was flung open, and a greasy-haired, sallow-faced man with a hooked nose stood in the doorway.

Voldemort considered for a second whether to stay and wait for Cohen to get away or to flee immediately—after all, Snape used to be one of his people.

But it seemed unlikely that Snape was still one of his people…

Every extra second Voldemort hesitated was a disrespect to his own suspicious nature; no one knew if Dumbledore would be following Snape.

He left again—just like that, abandoning Cohen who was "painfully" coughing in the Patronus mist.

It didn't even take him five seconds to float away from there.

And the moment Voldemort left, Cohen also stopped coughing.

"Azkaban will have one more resident tonight."

Snape stared at Sirius Black's face with a fanatical gaze.