Those eyes hadn't spotted Dudley. They were focused on Harry's bedroom window.
"Whip of Pain!" Without hesitation, Dudley directly activated the Interrogator's beyonder ability.
Strike first. Regardless of whether this creature had malicious intent, since it had infiltrated his property secretly, Dudley wouldn't show mercy.
Not using Mental Piercing immediately was already Dudley exercising restraint.
The next moment, the creature's body trembled violently and tumbled out from the hedge. Its eyes filled with terror, its features somewhat twisted with pain.
"Who are you?" Dudley looked down at the magical creature and asked with cold authority.
However, the intruder didn't give Dudley a chance to continue his attack. It snapped its right fingers and vanished completely.
"Escaped?" Dudley's eyes narrowed with focus.
He immediately left his room and entered the yard, carefully examining the spot where the magical creature had been hiding.
"No magical traces or traps detected. So what was its purpose in infiltrating my home?" Dudley frowned with growing concern.
Suddenly, Dudley turned back to look at Harry's window. Just moments ago, that magical creature's attention hadn't been directed at Dudley's side, but at Harry.
"From the appearance of that thing, it seems to be a house-elf mentioned in the books. Only pure-blood magical families possess these creatures, right?" Dudley thought to himself.
He had roughly identified the magical creature, but regarding its purpose, Dudley had no clear answers.
Surely Voldemort wouldn't send a house-elf to assassinate Harry?
"Wait, I remember when the Aurors investigated the missing letters before, they found it was caused by some magical creature, but they never caught it. Could it be..." Thinking of this connection, Dudley could basically confirm that the one who had intercepted his and Harry's correspondence was very likely this same house-elf.
"What was its purpose in doing this?" Dudley couldn't quite figure it out.
However, Dudley had some understanding of house-elves. These creatures were a race conquered by wizards in ancient wars. Each one was trained in servility from birth and had to serve their masters as slaves for generations.
They handled all household duties, bound by their masters, unable to disobey their masters' commands at will. If they disobeyed, they had to punish themselves. For them, their highest privilege was to obey their master's orders. They had to work tirelessly their entire lives unless their master gave them a piece of clothing, which would grant them freedom.
From this perspective, this house-elf was very likely following its master's orders to intercept their letters and monitor their activities.
But such behavior really didn't seem like something a wizard with a functioning brain would do. It was more like a childish prank.
"This thing couldn't be from the Malfoy family, could it? Sent to steal mine and Harry's letters, monitor us, trying to discover our secrets, and then continue being obnoxious at school?" Dudley frowned with suspicion.
Among all his theories, this seemed to be the most reasonable explanation. Mainly because he felt Malfoy could genuinely do something this petty.
After gaining no other insights, Dudley returned to his room and temporarily set this matter aside.
Evening arrived, and the dinner party they had rehearsed countless times was finally about to begin.
Dudley dressed appropriately and waited at the door.
Vernon's boisterous laughter rang out from the yard, along with his greeting: "Mr. Mason, Madam, please come in."
Hearing the voices, Dudley opened the door.
"May I help you with your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?" Dudley said with a charming smile to the two people before him.
"Is this your son, Mr. Dursley? What a bright and handsome young man," Mrs. Mason immediately said upon seeing Dudley.
Dudley had striking features, well-groomed golden hair, wore formal attire, and possessed an excellent physique. If he didn't look somewhat similar to Vernon, ordinary people wouldn't associate Dudley with his father at all.
The couple smiled and handed their coats to Dudley.
After hanging up the coats, Dudley quickly retrieved the candy he had prepared beforehand and offered it to them.
This wasn't any carefully selected gift, just ordinary candy, but for Dudley, this was sufficient.
"Mr. and Mrs. Mason, would you like some candy? I specially selected this for you," Dudley said with practiced charm.
"Oh? Candy?" Mrs. Mason said with mild surprise.
Vernon and Petunia, standing in the living room nearly gasped when they witnessed this scene.
Dudley had previously told them he had carefully prepared gifts. But they never expected that Dudley's so-called carefully prepared gifts were just candy casually taken from the table.
Mr. Mason was obviously not interested in candy, his brow furrowing slightly with obvious displeasure.
Mrs. Mason didn't comment further and, out of politeness, accepted the candy Dudley offered.
At that instant, she suddenly felt the boy before her was incredibly handsome, feeling inexplicably drawn to him. Closer than she felt to her own son.
"Oh, dear, how did you know I adore this kind of candy? Thank you so much," Mrs. Mason's face lit up with joy, almost ready to embrace Dudley.
"Mr. Mason, would you like one as well?" Dudley offered one to Mr. Mason again.
This time, Mr. Mason didn't refuse. He wanted to see what was special about this candy.
The next moment, his face also displayed a delighted expression.
"Thank you, Dudley. This is the finest gift I've received today."
From that moment on, they became extremely enthusiastic toward Dudley, treating him like their own son and liking him immensely.
This scene left Vernon and Petunia completely bewildered.
Everything that followed proceeded extraordinarily smoothly, with the entire dinner party filled with a joyful atmosphere.
The Masons developed an excellent impression of Dudley. Beyond the original business deal, under Dudley's verbal persuasion, the Masons finally decided to invest money to help Vernon start a company. As for clients, there was no need to worry at all. They would be the biggest customers.
Harry also smiled happily, seeming to already envision the villa in Majorca beckoning to them.
After the dinner party ended, Vernon and Petunia couldn't stop praising Dudley's performance. If it weren't for Dudley, their business tonight definitely wouldn't have gone so smoothly, let alone getting the Masons to invest money for Vernon to start a company. That would have been nearly impossible.
The couple was genuinely proud of their son.
After this day concluded, it also meant August had arrived, and the end of summer vacation was drawing closer.
Before that, they had already arranged with Ron to visit his house early and enjoy themselves for a while, then travel to Hogwarts together.
Neither Vernon nor Petunia had any objections to this plan. They were currently busy with starting the company and didn't have much energy to supervise Dudley and Harry, so it was perfect to let them go out and have fun.