After seeing Edward and Herbert off, Cohen made his way to Hagrid's hut.

Only one Blast-Ended Skrewt was left, looking as if it were experiencing some kind of "last of its species" loneliness. It lay sprawled across one of Hagrid's pumpkins, seemingly deep in thought about its Skrewt existence—

Though Cohen wasn't entirely sure it was capable of such profound reflection. It might just be dead.

"You did a great job in the tournament, Cohen!" Hagrid beamed. "First place! You did better than all those students from the other schools—I'd wager Beauxbatons and Durmstrang aren't too pleased about it… Madame Maxime's hardly been out and about lately…"

"Just lucky, that's all," Cohen said humbly. "So… what are you planning to teach in your next class? The Skrewt project failed?"

"Eh… guess you could say that," Hagrid sighed. "I was actually planning on introducing something new for you lot—but Hermione and Harry gave me a bit of advice. Seems like… well… quite a few students find my lessons a bit… scary…"

"Has nothing to do with last week's student-wide class boycott, I'm sure," Cohen said, skeptical.

"Could be…" Hagrid mumbled. "Hermione suggested I teach about some gentler, cuter magical creatures. Thought I'd ask what you think—fancy coming with me? I've got a few creatures I'm thinking of showing. They're quite interesting."

Cohen nodded, and Hagrid led him into the Forbidden Forest, stopping at the edge of a fenced-in area.

Inside were dozens of skeletal, winged black horses—every Thestral in Hogwarts seemed to be gathered there.

"Thestrals are alright," Cohen nodded. "But I'm not sure they're the best pick if you're trying to transition from 'terrifying' to 'adorable.'"

"Aren't they beautiful?" Hagrid said, gazing fondly at the herd.

One Thestral spotted Cohen and came trotting over, trying to lick his face—

"Still haven't learned any manners, have you…" Cohen said, pushing the creature's head away. He'd just seen it chewing on a bloody hunk of meat hanging from a tree—its tongue was still slick with blood.

"They're friendly and beautiful," Hagrid said proudly. "No one could not like them—"

"Looks aside, they're still symbols of bad luck and death in students' eyes," Cohen said. "Not exactly the best 'gateway creature.' Try something else."

"A Graphorn?" Hagrid suggested.

"Kinda Lovecraftian. Next."

"Hippogriff? They're fluffy—"

"…"

Cohen pressed his lips together.

"Sure, they're fluffy to look at, but they also look like they want to claw your face off. Let's just go with unicorns. I can help bring a few out for a stroll tomorrow—assuming they're not too groggy."

Hagrid looked disappointed—clearly, unicorns didn't excite him the way Graphorns or Hippogriffs did.

But in the end, he agreed, and Cohen promised to bring some unicorns around for a spin through the forest—so long as they were awake enough.

"Wait a second… Hogwarts has a Hippogriff?" Cohen suddenly realized something important.

Technically, the Forbidden Forest shouldn't have that species.

"I found it when I was tracking down what had been attacking the Thestrals," Hagrid said. "Might've seen the herd as a threat—but I fed it a little something, and it calmed right down…"

Hippogriffs were another magical species native to Greece.

Cohen had a bad feeling he didn't want to dig too deep into...

"Wanna go see it?" Hagrid asked eagerly. "Maybe you'll get along with it like you did with Aragog—"

"Actually, I just remembered—I've got homework to do. Rain check, Hagrid. Gotta get back and finish an assignment…"

"But it's Monday…"

—

Cohen, of course, did not go back to the common room to do homework—in fact, Professor Flitwick hadn't assigned any charms work at all that morning.

Instead, he returned to the Room of Requirement and made a beeline for the trunk.

\\["Stealing snake eggs is definitely unforgivable. I remember I had a clutch once—someone tried to pry the gems off my babies' heads, so they tried to snatch the eggs. Not a single one of them succeeded, though. Guess what I did—"]

The old sea serpent was in the middle of telling Chimaera and the others all about its egg-protection methods, which included (but were not limited to) summoning a Chimaera. Repeatedly.

\\["You really sound proud of your incompetence…"] the long-horned water snake said with an exasperated flick of its tail.

\\["If only I'd had a kid as awesome as this back then…"] the sea serpent sighed dramatically.

\\["Sorry to interrupt,"] Cohen cut in, \\["but I've got a question."]

\\["What is it, my dear grand-snake?"] the old serpent cooed fondly.

\\["Why am I always someone's snake-son?"] muttered Chimaera. \\["First it was the old snake, now it's you—"]

\\["Let's forget the family tree for a sec,"] Cohen waved it off. \\["Old snake, and the rest of you—do you have any relatives still in Greece?"]

\\["Relatives? Oh, loads…"] the old serpent reminisced. \\["I had a whole bunch of siblings—but no idea if they're still alive or not…"]

"Technically speaking, only the serpent side has known family," the goat explained to Cohen. "But we can't rule out a few bloodline overlaps…"

"You're not gonna tell me you're somehow related to a Hippogriff, are you…" Cohen muttered, feeling like this was heading straight into a suspiciously familiar storyline.

"Hippogriff?" The goat tilted its head. "I don't think so… Is there one from Greece looking for us?"

While Chimaera seemed clueless, the old sea serpent suddenly looked very, very familiar with the idea of a Hippogriff.

It began curling into what could only be described as a steaming pile of nerves—serpents, apparently, all tend to coil up like that when anxious or upset.

\\["What did you do this time…"] Cohen sighed.

No wonder every Chimaera head was done with this snake's nonsense—Cohen was starting to feel the same way.

\\["Might've been that fight I had with it,"] the old serpent said sheepishly. \\["It tried to steal a ribbonfish I'd been chasing for days—how could I let that slide? So I threw down with it—"]

\\["You managed to fight a Hippogriff?"] the long-horned one sounded doubtful.

\\["Didn't go all out."] The old serpent turned away smugly. \\["That little pup's only a few decades old. You think it can beat me?"]

\\["Then why's it coming all the way out here to find you?"] Cohen asked. \\["If you really won… it wouldn't fly halfway across the continent just to pick a fight again, would it?"]

\\["Might be 'cause I spooked its kid a bit…"] the old serpent muttered. \\["It scratched me—real nasty, too. Hurt for days…"]