Gambit and Misdirection, the Psychological Warfare Between the Master and the Witch

Harley's expression did not change in the slightest, but she recalled that letter from earlier.

The moment she had touched that letter, it had changed; the address on it shifted from "Mr. Harry Potter" to "Ms. Harley Potter."

In other words, had Hogwarts been monitoring her all this time? Or was there some special extraordinary power attached to that letter, such as what they called magic?

"Respected Headmaster Dumbledore, thank you very much for your concern for me." Harley replied in a tone that carried a girl's innocence without losing its politeness.

"By the way, may I remind you that staring so intently at a beautiful young lady is quite impolite behavior."

Dumbledore said with interest, "Thank you for the reminder, Ms. Potter. May I ask, may I call you Harley?"

"Of course you may." Harley answered with a smile, while naturally shifting her hand slightly to cross it over her lower abdomen once more.

In reality, Harley was doing this to make it easier for her arm to quietly make contact with the box containing the soul fragment.

The Dumbledore before her clearly possessed the strength of a demigod; it would be disastrous if he had abilities similar to the Visionary pathway and could read her memories.

Harley knew that she had traveled across worlds, and since this phenomenon should be extremely rare, even powerful figures like Amon and Mr. Door wanted to study her.

Therefore, Harley would absolutely not allow her secrets to be exposed in this world again.

Amon and Mr. Door were big shots; she couldn't afford to provoke them, nor did she have the ability to stop them from seeing through everything.

However, this old man before her likely only had strength between Sequence 3 and Sequence 4, so Harley was confident she could prevent him from peering into her memories.

The secret lay in that box; inside it were fragmented soul shards, and they were soul shards that had fallen into a state of loss of control and madness.

Although most of Harley's strength was temporarily sealed, through specific curses and black magic, combined with direct physical contact with the box, she could force this soul fragment to accept the memory probe in her stead.

If the old man before her tried to forcibly probe her soul, it would certainly be very interesting.

However, there was a small flaw in her plan, but Harley was gambling—betting that this flaw would not be discovered.

The nature of a Witch is madness; for a small gamble that might concern life and death, Harley believed she could win.

Harley thought happily, the corners of her mouth curling into a polite smile.

However, Dumbledore did not seem prepared to read Harley's memories, instead starting to chat as if they were just making small talk:

"Harley, you were admitted to our Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry because you actually possess this talent.

Both of your parents were students at our school, so from the moment you were born, your name was automatically recorded on our school's list."

Dumbledore chatted with Harley as if it were casual, first introducing the school's background, then slowly guiding the topic in the direction he wanted.

"That is truly magical; I would love to see the list that can automatically record our names with my own eyes." Harley had already put on white gloves when she arrived in the living room.

At this moment, she covered her mouth with her white-gloved hand and said with a light laugh.

"Indeed!" Dumbledore nodded, "It is quite wonderful, isn't it? The names of every child qualified to attend our school appear on it automatically.

What is even more wonderful, Harley, do you know? The name that first appeared on that list was Mr. Harry Potter, not Ms. Harley Potter.

It was only this morning that the name on that list automatically changed back to Ms. Harley Potter."

Dumbledore's eagle-like gaze looked at Harley through his half-moon spectacles: "A truly interesting error, wouldn't you say?"

Harley nodded in agreement: "It is indeed very interesting. For such an important magical item to make such a low-level mistake, it really does need to be repaired."

Harley had already heard it; there was definitely someone or some magic at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry monitoring her.

Therefore, under the premise of not exposing the secret that she had traveled through worlds, she would have to use a little lie.

Someone once said that beautiful girls are the best at lying, so Harley had automatically mastered this skill.

Coupled with the linguistic ability brought to her by the Sequence 8 Instigator, Harley was very good at disguising herself, using words and actions to lead people in the wrong direction.

Thus, from the moment she met Dumbledore, Harley brought out the etiquette she had learned in the high society of the Loen Kingdom and the Feysac Kingdom.

Moreover, Harley used this etiquette with great proficiency; every move she made seemed to have integrated elegance into her very bones.

After all, even a powerful demigod, or even an angel, would likely never guess the truth out of thin air.

Who would randomly guess that a child had traveled through time, spent many years in other worlds, and returned without any time having passed in this world?

In this way, the skillful etiquette and flawless demeanor Harley displayed were highly misleading.

Especially since the white-haired old man before her had the appearance of a wise man; perhaps such a wise man was even more easily misled into the wrong direction because he thought too much.

Sure enough, Dumbledore began to have his doubts. From the way Harley greeted him, to every movement she made while sitting down, to the way she covered her mouth and laughed lightly.

The actions of the girl before him were incredibly natural, as if she were truly a girl. Her movements combined etiquette with the unique vitality of a young girl, seemingly repeated countless times.

Coupled with the girl's natural reaction and innocent eyes after hearing his words, it was difficult for Dumbledore to have even half a doubt.

Dumbledore thought for a moment, and based on the fact that Harley's name had changed this morning according to the Book of Admittance, he asked from a different angle:

"After learning today that you could go to Hogwarts to study magic, did you feel very happy? Did you have a feeling that you were different from usual?"

Harley nodded and said in a cheerful tone: "Yes! I woke up very early today, much earlier than usual.

As a result, after I woke up, I heard the mailbox make a sound, and then I received this letter.

At the same time, I felt like my whole person was much lighter, as if some burden had been lifted from my soul."

"Oh?" Dumbledore asked in an interested tone, "Then may I take the liberty of asking you, Harley?

This feeling of being much lighter, as if some burden had been lifted from your soul—what exactly is that about?"

Harley keenly captured the undisguised gravity in Dumbledore's eyes and immediately judged that this was useful information; she could continue to mislead him in this direction while probing for more details.

Thus, Harley pondered for a moment before replying, "Headmaster Dumbledore, this all goes back to last night. Last night, I had a truly terrifying nightmare."

As she spoke, Harley furrowed her brows, revealing an expression intertwined with pain and fear.

"I... I dreamed..." Harley's expression grew increasingly fearful, as if she were subconsciously resisting the act of recalling everything from the dream.

Dumbledore continued to smile, but he quietly cast a Calming Charm.

Harley felt a power similar to the abilities of the Spectator Pathway soothing her mind, so she cooperatively adjusted her expression.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, you might not believe it, but last night I dreamed of a man without a nose, constantly wailing inside my brain."

Harley feigned an appearance of struggling to recall, "But in the end, the wailing stopped, and that man without a nose vanished into thin air."

"At the same time, he left a pile of incomprehensible text in my brain, chaotic and disordered, making my head ache so much."

"Only one of the characters barely formed a word, and that word was Avada Kedavra." As she said this, Harley's body gave a slight shiver.

"Then, this morning, I felt much lighter, as if something had been missing from my soul."