Chapter 354: Voldemort Seems to Have Grown Stronger
Regulus knew better than to ask the wrong questions, better than to let slip knowledge he shouldn't have.
He adopted the tone of a student seeking guidance, threaded with curiosity and a touch of deference.
"Professor, a physical transformation of that degree... aside from prolonged exposure to Dark Magic or deliberate bodily modification, could there be other causes?"
Slughorn studied the boy. Something complicated moved behind his eyes. Regulus kept his expression steady, open, earnest, a student asking to learn.
A long silence passed before Slughorn finally spoke, falling back on the cadence of a lecturer.
"The causes of physical transformation, viewed through the lenses of potions theory and magical pathology..." His tone steadied, finding its footing on familiar ground. "There are several possibilities."
"The first: prolonged exposure to high-concentration Dark magical artifacts. Cursed vessels, for instance. Over months and years, they erode the body from the outside in, starting with the skin and hair, working deeper. There was a Hungarian dark wizard last century who crafted a suit of armour from human skin. Living skin. It could absorb a Killing Curse, shedding one layer per hit. But the cost was that the wearer's own skin slowly fused with it. After a few years, you couldn't remove it anymore. And the man beneath had stopped looking human."
Regulus listened, filing it away. Chronic external erosion, outside-in, measured in years.
An interesting line of thinking, too. One worth remembering.