Chapter 55 - Fifty-Five: I’ll Be Watching You!

Chapter 55: Chapter Fifty-Five: I’ll Be Watching You!

Chapter Fifty-Five: I’ll Be Watching You!

At the same time.

Underground classroom.

Snape’s wand suddenly made a loud noise, but he didn’t notice it at all.

He stared at the final words in the diary, his expression becoming increasingly furious.

He clenched his fists and rushed straight to Dumbledore’s office.

When he arrived, he stood before Dumbledore and asked with a ferocious expression,

"Why did you want to kill her?"

Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Severus, calm down. In fact, even now, I have no idea why I would want Vesey to die. I don’t understand why I made that decision."

Snape didn’t care.

"You didn’t even leave a portrait of her. You didn’t even let her have peace during her final days. Do you know how much pain she must have been in when she died?"

He clenched his fists and growled through red-rimmed eyes.

Dumbledore didn’t know.

But he could understand Snape’s pain.

If Ariana had been tortured to death like that, he wouldn’t have simply accepted it either. He would have sought revenge.

But...

He had no idea what he had done.

He didn’t even know why he had told Vesey to block Harry’s Killing Curse.

He rummaged through a drawer, pulled out several magical artifacts, and placed them in front of Snape.

"Look. I still have several of these life-saving artifacts. If I wanted to protect Harry, I could simply have him wear one of them. But Harry doesn’t seem to know about them."

Snape looked at him coldly.

"Then you simply wanted the brother and sister to die together!"

"You never intended to protect them at all. You’re lying to me!"

Dumbledore felt guilty for a moment.

Because he knew Harry’s situation and knew that Harry would probably die.

But Vesey...

"I don’t know either. Maybe she really has something to do with Voldemort. Or perhaps she misunderstood what I meant..."

Dumbledore explained sadly.

Although he couldn’t understand why the diary said he had acted that way, he knew one thing very clearly.

He really had wanted Vesey to die.

In other words, he hadn’t wanted her to remain in this world at all.

Why was he so hostile toward that child?

If Voldemort were still alive, it would at least be understandable for him to distrust Vesey.

But according to the diary’s writer, ten years had already passed.

So why would he still want Vesey dead?

Dumbledore suddenly thought of a possibility.

His eyes narrowed.

What if he had realized that Vesey’s survival could somehow lead to Voldemort’s resurrection?

He couldn’t help shuddering.

He had no way to explain this possibility to Snape, so he could only try to calm him down.

"Calm down, Severus. That’s not the future we’re living in. Now that we know what might happen, you can protect Vesey, can’t you?"

"Think about your Vesey. You probably don’t want her to hear that you’ve been attacking the Headmaster in the middle of the night, do you?"

Dumbledore chuckled.

Snape’s expression finally softened.

He looked at Dumbledore impassively.

"I’ll be watching you!"

He turned around and left.

Dumbledore’s expression became solemn as he watched Snape’s back disappear.

"What exactly is Vesey?"

...

At the same time.

Gryffindor girls’ dormitory.

Hermione was secretly excited as she read the words in the diary.

After Halloween, I’ll become good friends with Vesey and the others?

So she really had had a bad relationship with Vesey before.

She had thought that she had lost any chance of becoming friends with Vesey after obtaining the diary!

Hermione blushed slightly at the thought.

She actually didn’t know exactly how she felt about Vesey, but she knew that she wanted to be friends with her.

She really wanted to study and do homework with Vesey.

If we really become friends after Halloween, then I’ll keep the diary from now on!

---

Transfiguration classroom.

Professor McGonagall was carefully reading the diary, her expression growing increasingly unpleasant.

For a moment, she even wondered whether Dumbledore was actually a good person.

How could he treat a girl like Vesey that way?

Thinking about how seriously ill Vesey had been at the time, and how Dumbledore hadn’t even left a portrait of her, McGonagall couldn’t help imagining how desperate the poor child must have been.

She truly couldn’t understand where Dumbledore’s suspicions had come from.

Vesey was such a sweet and well-behaved child.

McGonagall didn’t even want to raise her voice at her.

Yet Dumbledore had apparently driven her to her death.

She let out a long breath.

Then she suddenly stood up.

That night, she went straight to Dumbledore’s office.

Seeing Dumbledore sitting behind his desk, deep in thought, she couldn’t help saying,

"Albus, sometimes you shouldn’t be so suspicious. We’re both getting old. To put it mildly, neither of us knows how much longer we have.

"The future belongs to the children.

"If you really feel uncomfortable, you can always find something else to occupy yourself with. Or you could go and work for the Ministry of Magic. That might actually be the best place for you!"

She had never seen such a suspicious Headmaster.

She admitted that she had always believed Gryffindors were good children, and that there were plenty of troublesome children in Slytherin.

But she would never use the worst possible intentions to interpret everything those children did.

As far as she was concerned, Hogwarts was a place of learning.

As long as the children concentrated on their studies and didn’t do anything truly wrong, that was enough.

Why bring politics into it?

Professor McGonagall said everything she had to say.

Then, seeing Dumbledore’s thoughtful expression, she blushed slightly.

"I’m finished. Sweet dreams, Albus!"

With that, she turned around and walked out, closing the door behind her.

Dumbledore rubbed his forehead.

He smiled bitterly.

Minerva’s words were as thought-provoking as ever.

What she said was right.

He shouldn’t be so suspicious of a child.

He just... couldn’t seem to control himself.

As for going to work at the Ministry of Magic, that was even more impossible.

Dumbledore closed his eyes.

He was afraid that if he went to the Ministry of Magic, he might become an even more extreme supremacist than Voldemort.

His sister Ariana had become an Obscurial because of those Muggle boys.

His father had attacked those Muggles and been sent to Azkaban.

And in the past, he had even gone on to pursue grand ambitions alongside his lover, Grindelwald.

With a past like his, even Dumbledore himself didn’t completely trust himself.

"Minerva has read it too, hasn’t she?"

He sighed.

"Things are becoming more and more complicated."