Chapter 166 - 165 — Cassandra’s Hair

Chapter 166: Chapter 165 — Cassandra’s Hair

The semester had finally come to an end.

It was time for the students to go home.

The castle had suddenly become quiet. One could even hear the snow falling outside and the cold wind blowing against the windows.

Harry didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. In fact, he rather enjoyed the silence.

After all, he could still play wizard’s chess, Exploding Snap, and practice dueling with Vesey and the others, even if Vesey beat him every single time.

During this period, Vesey had finally grown tired of her usual games and was willing to join Harry and the others in these more realistic activities.

The reason she gave them was that she had almost finished developing her potion formula and was now brewing it in her dormitory.

If everything went well, she could give the potion to the professors after Christmas and ask them to submit it for official approval. Alternatively, they could test it on vampires first.

"I’ve always lacked a genuine vampire wizard to help me test the medicine, so all the potions I’ve made so far have been little more than empty promises.

"I really hope I’ll live to see the day when this potion is proven effective. I want to make up for my past mistakes!"

[Ding! Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

Hermione and the others could only smile helplessly.

Vesey was always like this. She constantly thought she was insignificant, completely unaware of the importance of the things she had accomplished.

Hermione, especially, knew that Vesey would succeed.

This potion would eventually make its way into textbooks and become a compulsory subject of study for students.

Vesey was a genius, and her achievements were admirable. Yet she never seemed to realize it herself.

"All right, whatever happens, this is something worth celebrating. How about we play some Quidditch instead?" Ron suggested, changing the subject.

So everyone bundled themselves up in thick winter clothes and spent the entire afternoon playing on the Quidditch pitch.

Vesey had a wonderful time too. However, when they returned that evening, Harry specially obtained a bottle of Pepperup Potion for her and poured it into her hands.

"This is to prevent you from catching a cold. There, it’s done. Let’s go back!"

Harry tossed the empty bottle aside, glanced at the steam rising from Vesey’s ears, and chuckled.

Vesey was utterly exasperated. She immediately covered her ears and hurried back to the Slytherin dormitory.

Christmas morning had finally arrived.

Vesey awoke from her sleep.

She opened her eyes abruptly and discovered that there wasn’t a single present on her bed. She was rather startled.

Could it be that, because of all the suspicion surrounding Harry, the students at Hogwarts had decided not to give her presents anymore?

But she soon discovered the truth.

The presents had been piled up on the other side of the room. Perhaps because she’d complained about the gifts last year, the students had decided not to leave them on her bed this time.

Instead, they’d placed them beside the window.

There were so many that the pile almost covered the entire floor. Apart from the space occupied by Vesey’s bed, there was barely anywhere left to put her feet.

Vesey simply sat down on the floor and began opening the packages.

Most of the gifts were sweets, along with brooches, necklaces, hair accessories, and other trinkets. Although they were all beautiful, Vesey couldn’t help thinking that giving such expensive things to her was a waste of money.

Still, she didn’t sell any of them. She planned to give them to her future wives instead.

That would be a good way to recycle the gifts.

Besides those presents, Dumbledore had given her a large tub of ice cream from Honeydukes. It was both delicious and beautifully presented.

Vesey immediately and generously increased his favorability score by two points.

Snape had given her a large bottle of Felix Felicis. Vesey suspected that it might have been almost his entire stock accumulated over the years.

As for Mr. Nicolas Flamel, he had given her a house.

However, he had transformed the property deed into a music box bearing Vesey’s likeness.

The beautiful little girl on the music box had bright, sparkling eyes. Vesey found herself reluctant to transform it back into a property deed.

She decided to keep the music box beside her bed.

Although that might make her seem a little narcissistic, her face perfectly matched all her aesthetic preferences.

But that was fine. She could simply say she appreciated the thought her teacher had put into the gift.

After all, she was face-blind!

Mrs. Weasley had also given her a present. Perhaps she’d realized that Vesey might eventually end up with Ginny and that there was little she could do to stop it, so she’d begun to take Vesey into genuine consideration.

She’d given Vesey a large assortment of homemade snacks and a knitted sweater dress she’d made herself.

Even when Vesey examined the dress from a man’s perspective, she had to admit that it looked quite nice.

Nevertheless, she still had no intention of wearing it and immediately set it aside.

Instead, she put on the sweater Mrs. Weasley had knitted for her, just like the ones she’d made for the other Weasley family members. That way, she could show her appreciation without compromising her own aesthetic preferences.

Hopefully, Mrs. Weasley wouldn’t discover her peculiar tastes.

After opening all her presents, Vesey went to spend time with Harry and the others.

They played together until evening before heading to the Christmas feast.

The Christmas dinner was incredibly lavish, and everyone ate to their heart’s content.

Even though Vesey had already eaten the ice cream Dumbledore had given her, she still managed to stuff herself with plenty of food.

The Great Hall was beautifully decorated, too. Delicate snowflakes drifted down from the enchanted ceiling, making the entire room look like something out of a dream.

The only thing that left Vesey utterly helpless was that Dumbledore led everyone in singing several Christmas carols at the top of their lungs.

As someone who couldn’t carry a tune, Vesey wanted nothing more than to crawl into a crack in the floor.

At long last, the meal ended.

Harry mentioned that he was extremely sleepy and wanted to go back to bed.

Hermione also said that she hadn’t slept well the previous night and needed to catch up on her rest.

Vesey knew that the three of them were preparing to use the Polyjuice Potion, so she didn’t interfere. She simply said that she would return to her dormitory and continue studying her potion formula.

Harry and the others immediately felt relieved, but they also felt a little guilty.

Still, their desire to uncover the truth won out over their guilt. They decided that they could tell Vesey everything after they’d caught Malfoy red-handed.

They escorted Vesey back to the Slytherin common room, then immediately returned to the Great Hall, which was only a short distance away.

Hermione was holding two pieces of chocolate cake.

"I’m ready. I’ll leave these two pieces of chocolate cake somewhere in the castle.

"Once Crabbe and Goyle eat them, they’ll fall asleep. You two can then carry them into a broom cupboard and hide them there. Oh, and we’ll need a few strands of hair from each of them."

Harry and Ron stared at her in astonishment.

They thought Hermione had gone mad. How could Crabbe and Goyle possibly be stupid enough to eat suspicious cakes they’d found lying around?

But what happened next left them speechless.

Crabbe and Goyle really did eat the little cakes Hermione had left floating around the castle, behaving like a pair of complete idiots.

Harry and Ron hid in a corner, watching with disbelief as though they were witnessing a dream.

Fortunately, they acted quickly.

They carried Crabbe and Goyle into a broom cupboard and plucked a few strands of hair from each of them.

Ron stared at the hairs in disgust.

"Do we really have to use the ’essence’ of those two blokes? That’s disgusting. And Hermione, whose hair are you going to use?"

Hermione ignored Ron’s childish complaint about the hair. Instead, she smugly took two strands out of her bag.

"Miss Worley’s hair. I managed to get it loose during the Dueling Club that day!

"Cassandra is incredibly arrogant. Vesey told me that she hardly ever speaks in the common room, and nobody dares approach her. We won’t have any trouble!"

Holding the hair, Hermione hurried toward the Polyjuice Potion.

Harry and Ron could only follow behind her, looking as though they were marching toward their doom.

"I have a bad feeling about this. If I go into Slytherin today, I might never make it out again. I really hope that’s just my imagination!"

Ron muttered miserably.