Chapter 280: Neutral Declaration

"Harry, you're here?" As soon as he entered, Pan Xi took the initiative to greet him. "But why are you holding parchment?"

"I..." Harry hesitated, deciding to listen to what they had to say first and finish his homework during the idle chatter. "It's nothing, just brought it along."

"Alright, I just happened to think of a new proposal," Pan Xi said. "It could help us further establish prestige among the students."

"That sounds good, do tell," Ivy said happily.

"For many students with average grades, they don't have heavy academic pressure, but they still need to complete their assignments on time and in full. I think this is something worth focusing on," she paused. "I mean, perhaps we could provide them with one or several copies for 'reference'."

"Provided by excellent students?" Lu Na asked.

Harry keenly noticed that at the start of the meeting, the girls were very proactive in opening topics, while the boys hung their brows in indifference.

"Not necessarily very excellent, but they must be diligent enough. Of course, diligence and excellence often go hand in hand," Pan Xi said.

"I think you must be talking about Hermione," Harry joined the conversation at the right moment. "But I don't think Hermione would agree to this proposal."

"Oh, yes, she's always so serious," Ivy said with slight dissatisfaction.

"And always clinging to school rules," Hannah also revealed a trace of hostility.

Before the meeting's theme turned into disparaging Hermione, Ma Erfu rounded off the topic in time. "On this kind of issue, perhaps we don't need to be restricted to houses. If you ask me, Abbas from Slytherin is a very diligent student."

"Fenley from Hufflepuff is too," Ernie echoed.

"I don't really approve of this motion," Cui Ge said. "A secret gathering to protect Hogwarts turning into an organization for cross-house homework copying? That's too lame."

After a moment of silence, Crabbe whispered, "Can I just copy?"

"Me too, Crabbe," Gao Er muttered. "Does the boss need it?"

"We'd better skip this topic," Ma Erfu rubbed his temples. "Let's talk about the increasingly intense conflicts between houses."

"I've been thinking about this too. Is it appropriate for us to do this?" Ernie said quietly. "Especially since the conflicts between Lions, Snakes, and Eagles are growing, and it seems everyone refuses to communicate."

"And this has caused a bad phenomenon," Hannah said loudly. "To support their friends in different houses, some divisions have appeared within Hufflepuff. I might understand that you intend to use fictional external conflicts to unite your own houses, but we don't want to see Hufflepuff shattered into pieces."

"That's a problem I hadn't considered," Harry apologized sincerely. He could imagine that being caught between Neville and the house, Hannah wasn't having an easy time.

"Even without doing this, 'Muggle-born' and 'LGBT' are dividing the student body," Cui Ge said. "I don't think introducing these ideologies is a good idea. I regret it now."

"Without these things to check them, feminism will spiral out of control," Ginny said. "And without feminism, there would be no girls' clubs, and we would lose a lot of our voice."

"Why is it that our attempt to unite the student body ended up causing division?" Ma Erfu spread his hands, questioning.

"Ask if it is first, then ask why," Harry countered him. "It's not that our attempt to unite failed, but that we united them too well—so well that the Sorting Hat issued a warning."

"Intensifying conflicts between houses is precisely to prevent students from getting too close, isn't it?" Harry said.

"I know, Neville also said this was your idea, but what good does it actually do?" Hannah asked with slight dissatisfaction.

"Of course, it's to maintain your prestige within your own houses," Harry recalled the planning at the time. "If there's no fighting between houses and the school has no external enemies, the Dueling Club would soon be cast aside by people."

"Right, doing this is to maintain Torchwood's position as an opinion leader," Ma Erfu added. "But the problem now is that we must find a way to bridge the internal divisions in Hufflepuff."

"Actually, Hufflepuff's problem isn't hard to solve," Lu Na suggested. "You need a distinct stance of your own."

"If we really had one, we wouldn't be Hufflepuff," Ernie shrugged. "We're used to supporting others."

"Then give them a different topic," Harry thought of a way. "Let them join Deng Buliduo's Army and follow the Auror to learn more in-depth defensive spell techniques. As far as I know, your Defense Association doesn't have techniques as advanced as other houses."

"That's great, why not call it the Potter Salvation Army?" Ma Erfu's tone was sincere, but Harry still felt he was being sarcastic.

"If the main purpose of Deng Buliduo's Army is to protect Hogwarts," Pan Xi said in a low voice, "I wouldn't mind using this name, and would even be very happy to join."

Harry suddenly remembered that when Bellatrix wanted to start a war, Sirius explicitly stated he wouldn't send troops, which immediately dampened her desire for war. So, if in the future the young radicals in the Order of the Phoenix clamored to raid Ma Erfu Manor, and Harry stood up to say Deng Buliduo's Army only fights for Hogwarts, couldn't that also cool them down?

"I think you've put forward an excellent suggestion," Harry said slowly. "The original intention of our forming Torchwood was to protect Hogwarts from any infringement. So if we need to form an army for Torchwood, its purpose should also be to protect Hogwarts from any political coercion."

"Right, the situation outside is quite tense," Ernie looked at Harry and Ma Erfu respectively, then nodded tremblingly.

Pan Xi sat up straight, while Ma Erfu seemed to be lost in thought.

"It's cool. We have an army. Although we might not use it, it's cool enough," Cui Ge said. "Do other schools have one? I'm afraid not!"

"An army composed entirely of students, held in the hands of a student organization, with the platform of protecting the school from infringement and maintaining campus life from interference," Pan Xi said slowly. "We act as leaders together, cooperating while also supervising each other. The student body needs to express its attitude and make its voice heard."

If he agreed to this, the nature of Deng Buliduo's Army would change instantly. Harry hesitated. He began to recall why he had formed Deng Buliduo's Army.

Even from the simplest perspective of preparing for war, he didn't want to take underage children to the battlefield. And if it was to attract the Ministry of Magic's attention, then an Order of the Phoenix project that didn't look particularly important, compared to a completely independent student coalition, clearly the latter was more eye-catching.

Moreover, by taking a stand at Hogwarts and clearly raising a banner of neutrality, he could better protect these children, ensuring they wouldn't be dragged into the adults' wars—even though Harry would also try his best from the adults' perspective to avoid war. And just like the point that moved him at the very beginning, once the adults realized the students wouldn't stand on their side, they would also worry about troop shortages and not dare to start a war lightly.

Another thing of great significance was that at a time when everyone felt the tension and war was on the verge of breaking out, if after the Gringotts refuge and the werewolves building walls to isolate themselves, the students also planned to rely on Hogwarts to issue a declaration of non-participation in war, then other wizarding groups in society might also huddle together to express their unwillingness to participate in the war. This way, the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters would be unable to start a war due to a lack of troops, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to achieve the scale that Yanayev expected to sweep across Europe.

Harry pondered in silence until Gao Er's clever question caught his attention: "But if that's the case, won't the students have to unite again? Will the house conflicts still continue?"

"If Deng Buliduo's Army is formed in the form of a coalition," Lu Na said softly, "then we can still guarantee our influence within our own houses, and we won't need to provoke conflicts between houses anymore."

"Houses can still maintain a competitive relationship, or even conduct exercises," Cui Ge excitedly put forward a new idea. "If conditions permit, we can group by house, or mix them up, two teams simulating a battle. That would be very interesting—and also very meaningful."

Hannah and Ernie looked at each other. This didn't mean much to them. After a year or more of experience in presiding over work, whether the Defense Association was united and friendly or split into several factions wouldn't actually affect their status, especially now that they were Prefects. However, what truly puzzled the two of them was that they didn't really want to be leaders, nor did they really want to fight.

Harry hadn't forgotten his plan to use Pan Xi to backstab Lu Xiusi, and now it seemed that the more independent Torchwood appeared, the more confidence she would have in speaking, and the further the diary would be from Lu Xiusi. If Pan Xi, as the independent seventh person, used the diary to bargain with Lu Xiusi, it would certainly cause him to lose a great deal of prestige.

This plan was a very good help and opportunity for Sirius, who intended to seize the discourse power of the Death Eater group. Even though the details still needed careful planning, strengthening Pan Xi now was a natural progression, and it also happened to serve as a good paving stone for subsequent operations.

Harry analyzed the pros and cons seriously. The only thing that made him feel uneasy was that, out of respect for the late Headmaster, he instinctively didn't want Deng Buliduo's Army to break away from the Order of the Phoenix. But according to the current situation, it seemed that the "de-Deng Buliduo-ization" of Deng Buliduo's Army was a move with great benefits.