Chapter 75 — Human Skin Mask

Chapter 75: Chapter 75 — Human Skin Mask

Chapter 75 — Human Skin Mask

After Snape’s gift, the next-largest package came from Mrs. Weasley.

Vesey had no idea that Mrs. Weasley would prepare a gift for her too.

Inside was a thick, white, hand-knitted sweater with a large W on the front. It looked warm and beautiful.

Vesey immediately put it on and sighed contentedly.

Then she opened the package again and found a packet of Mrs. Weasley’s homemade sweets.

They were surprisingly powerful.

After eating just one, Vesey couldn’t open her mouth properly.

She struggled with the sticky candy for a while before finally swallowing it.

After rubbing her cheeks, Vesey began opening the rest of the presents one by one.

Most of her classmates had given her sweets, books, or strange little toys.

Hermione gave her a copy of Modern History of Wizards.

Harry gave her a brand-new Wizard’s Chess set.

It was obvious that Harry himself was still using Seamus’s old set.

Ron gave Vesey a box of Chocolate Frogs.

Vesey opened two and ate them, only to discover that neither card featured Dumbledore.

She shook her head regretfully.

Looks like Harry and the others will have to wait until school starts again and ask Neville.

Finally, Vesey found a small package with no name written on it.

Her curiosity was immediately piqued.

She opened it with her wand.

Inside was a thin mask.

It radiated an alluring yet vaguely sinister aura, as though it were tempting the wearer to put it on.

Even Vesey felt that something about it was evil.

She inspected it with Energy and discovered that it was a human skin mask.

It was a dark magical artifact created by compressing the faces of numerous wizards together. Once worn, it could fuse with the wearer’s face and alter their appearance.

In other words, it could completely change a person’s facial features without requiring Polyjuice Potion.

The only problem was that wearing it would affect the wizard’s personality, gradually drawing them toward darkness.

Vesey sighed.

The thing was genuinely useful, but she had absolutely no desire to use it.

If she wanted to change her appearance, she could simply use Energy. There was no reason to use something so dangerous and uncontrollable.

Besides, was there anything that could really be hidden from Dumbledore while she was at Hogwarts?

Perhaps by the time Voldemort gave her something like this, Dumbledore would already know about it.

Yes.

Vesey couldn’t think of anyone else who would give her something like this.

Voldemort’s methods were crude.

If she were even slightly greedy or overly curious, she might keep something like this and eventually put it on.

The more often she wore it, the greater its influence would become.

Eventually, she might even turn into Voldemort’s puppet.

Dumbledore was definitely testing her.

Vesey sighed.

She used her wand to put the mask back into its package, then carried it toward Dumbledore’s office with the tip of her wand.

As she walked, she wondered what she should say to Dumbledore.

She couldn’t exactly say:

Voldemort gave this to me, so I’m giving it to you.

Or perhaps:

I picked this as your Christmas present.

She had a feeling Dumbledore might actually turn against her if she said either of those things.

Soon, she arrived outside the Headmaster’s office.

Two ugly stone gargoyles stood guard outside.

The moment they saw Vesey, they moved aside, revealing the staircase behind them without even asking for the password.

Vesey sighed.

Sure enough, Dumbledore already knew I might come.

He must have been informed by the guards outside.

Fortunately, she had come here.

If she hadn’t, Dumbledore’s trust in her would probably have decreased.

"Well, Vesey, why are you here? I thought you were having a wonderful Christmas."

Dumbledore asked with a smile from behind his desk.

Vesey wanted to curse the old man.

How does he even have the nerve to ask that?

But of course, she didn’t show any of that.

Instead, she pursed her lips and put on an expression of nervousness and worry.

"Professor Dumbledore, I received this gift today. I don’t know why, but something about it makes me uncomfortable. Could you take a look and see if there’s anything wrong with it?"

Dumbledore stood up in apparent surprise.

"Is it this?"

He reached out to take it.

Vesey immediately stepped back.

"Professor, don’t touch it with your bare hands. It’s dangerous. I’ve read in books that some objects can be covered in dark magic..."

Dumbledore smiled.

"Yes, yes, Vesey. You’re absolutely right. Severus was right about you. You really are the smartest little witch at Hogwarts!"

Vesey immediately lowered her head shyly.

"No! That’s only because Professor Snape likes me so much that he thinks highly of me. I’m really just an ordinary student like everyone else."

Dumbledore smiled.

He put on a pair of dragon-hide gloves before taking the package from Vesey.

"Child, did you open this package yourself?"

Dumbledore asked as he carefully examined the human skin mask.

Vesey nodded.

Of course I opened it. How was I supposed to know there was something wrong with it before I opened it?

And besides, all the other presents had already been opened.

Doesn’t this old man have eyes?

Of course, she kept those complaints firmly inside her head.

Dumbledore, meanwhile, held the human skin mask close to his nose and carefully examined its scent.

"My child, you must be more careful when you receive packages from unknown sources in the future. You’re still young, and it’s easy to make mistakes."

He paused.

"For example, I made a mistake just now by touching this object directly with my hand."

Vesey nodded with a frightened expression.

"Thank you. I was scared just now too. I even thought about throwing it away.

"But then I thought that I should give it to you instead. If you can find the person who sent it, that would be even better!"

Dumbledore nodded with a smile.

"Don’t worry, child. I’ll do my best to find the person responsible. I won’t let them frighten you again."

He paused, then added,

"I forgot that Vesey is still just a little girl."

Vesey’s mouth twitched.

I told you not to keep bringing up my gender. Can’t you hear me?

She was disgusted internally, but her expression remained completely different.

"I-I wasn’t scared. I just thought that whoever sent this might have some sort of conspiracy.

"My brother and the others said that someone might be trying to steal something from the school. I want to find that person too. I think the person who sent me this could be the bad guy!"

Dumbledore fell silent.

A trace of guilt welled up inside him.

He had been suspicious of this child and was testing her.

Yet Vesey was only thinking about finding the culprit and protecting Hogwarts.

Dumbledore closed his eyes.

After a moment, he sighed.

"Vesey, you’re such a good child."

His guilt became even heavier when he thought about what he was planning to do next.

Then, in a lighter tone, he said,

"Vesey, we’ve been at school for quite some time now. Perhaps it’s time for us to have a proper conversation. I’d like to know how you’ve been doing at Hogwarts.

"I had a very good relationship with your parents, and I have a responsibility to look after you.

"By the way, what would you like to drink? Pumpkin juice? Lemon juice? We can have a little chat over a drink."