Chapter 299: Turning Point

After a period of contact, he also had a general idea about what kind of ending he should give these Death Eaters.

Lu Xiusi is a selfish capitalist, attempting to use the Dark Lord to engage in political speculation and obtain power. Therefore, even without considering his fragile friendship with Draco, simply from the perspective of feasibility, defeating him politically and forcing him to give up his ambition and stay in his manor to retire is the most effortless and appropriate way.

Bellatrix is different. She is a fanatical terrorist, bent on resurrecting her paramour who is also a terrorist. If the resurrection fails, she will mostly inherit his will and continue to organize terrorist attacks. Therefore, she must be put into prison so that she can never rise again.

And the cards Harry had in his hand happened to connect to form a complete logical chain: first, ask Sirius to establish a new, relatively neutral faction among the Death Eaters in the name of Regulus; second, use Pan Xi's defection to strike at Lu Xiusi's reputation and further force small and medium-sized families following him to stand in line again; immediately after, use the news of the Horcruxes to organize a commando team in the Order of the Phoenix to subdue and arrest Bellatrix and her followers with thunderous means, while forming a deterrent to Lu Xiusi; finally, through the pressure and appropriate showdown of Sirius and Snape (perhaps plus Hoffa), force Lu Xiusi to withdraw from the center of power and go home to retire.

At this time, Sirius could take over the last batch of Death Eaters who did not obey him and start to gradually transform them.

This is not necessarily the best plan, but having a plan first is better than drifting with the tide. Harry suddenly felt that life seemed to have hope—although he was still busy every day.

After two weeks of discussion, Harry and Sirius had a general direction for the so-called "new neutral faction," and also prepared a very useful recruitment method, which was to give money.

To be precise, Sirius was prepared to use the Gilneas cannery to provide a series of well-paid job positions for the Death Eaters, which was very attractive to bottom-level wizards; at the same time, he also considered that some wizards always wanted to show their superiority in front of Muggles, so he formulated different work requirements for wizards and Muggles.

"I mean, Regulus," in a meeting, Lu Xiusi said with some confusion, "you specifically invited all Death Eater families to observe today, what exactly do you intend to say?"

"I want to talk to you about the views on Muggles." Sirius said confidently. "For a long time, we have always taken pleasure in killing Muggles, but in fact, this is a quite wasteful behavior. I am currently exploring a new way of torture."

"Let me show you my ruthless torture of Muggles." He began. "First, I hire them to work in the cannery, doing some boring repetitive labor. Haha, this way they fall into the trap."

"I require them to work for a full eight hours every day, and lunch breaks cannot be counted. No breakfast or dinner is provided, snacks and coffee must be purchased at the original price, and many people will die of exhaustion because of this." Sirius moved his neck proudly. "Unless someone can survive such terrifying slavery, then he will see even more cruel torture."

"At most ten days of overtime pay are issued per month, team building and psychological counseling are all arranged after work, and every holiday must be adjusted. The most vicious thing is that performance bonuses are only issued once every three months." He sneered. "I will also buy medical insurance for them, which can squeeze out every drop of surplus value from Muggles."

"It sounds like this is even more terrifying than killing them directly." Lu Xiusi said as if supporting the scene. "Wasting life day after day on mechanical labor, and the vast majority of labor results will be taken away by wizards. I guess you must be prepared to use the Killing Curse to threaten and force them."

"That's right. On this basis, I will hire a large number of Death Eaters to serve as workshop directors, technical supervisors, and other positions, enjoying welfare treatment exclusive to those above others, and also appoint core members to form a human resources department to supervise and stop any Muggle who intends to resign." Sirius said with certainty. "This is also the purpose of my inviting everyone to listen to my speech. I hope some friends among you who are tired of slaughter can join this cause and become my help."

Harry nodded slightly as Hoffa to show approval. He knew this move was quite targeted: giving Death Eaters a high-level executive salary might not necessarily be better than Lu Xiusi directly dividing market share, but it was definitely more than what Bellatrix and Voldemort gave.

Voldemort never paid his subordinates, or rather, the salary was your own life.

Sure enough, Harry could see several Death Eaters who were originally sitting behind Bellatrix reveal looks of being moved. They discussed in low voices, and suddenly one of them raised his hand and said: "I want to introduce my cousin to work here first, is that okay?"

"Of course, you can send the resume directly to this address..."

After the meeting, Sirius was truly busy for a while, but it seemed that there was no intuitive change. Most of those who came to apply were Death Eaters not within the Sacred Twenty-Eight families, and they couldn't be considered loyal to Sirius. And the Parkinson family, which Harry really cared about, still stood firmly behind Bellatrix, not moved by the high salary at all.

After going back, when Luo En asked, Harry explained half-heartedly and half-comforted himself: "In Zhang Qiu's words, this is just a casual move in the midst of busyness. When I am calculating Pan Xi, maybe this will come in handy at some point."

"I'm just a bit curious, does this count as violating the Statute of Secrecy?" Luo En had almost never heard of this mode.

"It shouldn't count, as long as the wizards in the factory don't use magic in front of Muggles—the Statute of Secrecy doesn't stipulate that wizards cannot hold Muggle positions, right?" Harry thought, Yanayev could even be a Muggle president, so what was Sirius asking someone to be a workshop supervisor in a Muggle factory?

"Alright, no matter what, having progress is a good thing after all. This is more interesting than soaking in Dumbledore's Army all day waving wands." Luo En sighed helplessly.

Life started to continue in a bland way, until after Halloween, when they were about to welcome the first Quidditch match, Harry had to pull himself together again.

"Slytherin is all big guys, Jin Ni will suffer." Angelina said with some worry. "Harry, you and Ma Erfu are old rivals, you should be able to hold steady, right?"

"To be honest, you also know that the number of times I participate in training is far less than Jin Ni." Harry scratched his head with some distress. "However, if it's Ma Erfu, I have faced him several times after all, and based on experience, it's not impossible to fight."

"Is there another possibility, I mean," Alicia said suddenly from the side, "Slytherin team might not necessarily use Ma Erfu?"

"What?"

"I saw them helping a girl train last time, it looks like a seeker." Alicia said with some uncertainty.

"In that case, why don't I go ask Ma Erfu directly." Harry thought about it. From another angle, Draco himself also needed to worry about a lot of things, and it was normal for him to prepare a substitute.

However, before Harry saw Ma Erfu on Sunday, he had already used the break in Potions class to find him.

"Oh, Harry, we are about to play the first Quidditch match, you know." Draco also looked a bit nervous. "However, I have been thinking, that Horcrux you mentioned last time, you said there was one Horcrux left outside, right?"

"Ah right, indeed there is one less after counting, I guess the Dark Lord should have made seven." Harry said in a low voice.

"Right, right, look, I have been thinking about this problem lately. I think if we can get that seventh Horcrux, we can have the confidence to stand up and speak loudly. I have been thinking, I didn't even notice, in the blink of an eye we are about to play the match." Draco held his chin, revealing a very deep expression.

"You are right, it's worth thinking about, I have also been pondering this matter lately." Harry blinked. "Followed the Order of the Phoenix to a few places, didn't gain anything, but instead missed several training sessions."

"Ah, what a coincidence, me too." Draco breathed a sigh of relief. "I mean, we are all old hands, the team always has to give newcomers some opportunities, right?"

"I guess you want to reach some kind of agreement with me, for example," Harry's mouth corners started to rise unconsciously, "after all, we faced off on the court so many times, and we are a bit tired of it, eh?"

The two pursed their lips, revealing strange smiles, doing inexplicable movements with their hands, and suddenly burst into laughter together.

"Then it's settled, neither of us will play, let the substitutes play." Draco said. "You have Jin Ni there, right? I can tell you, the one we are going to use is Astoria Greengrass."

"Is it her? I didn't expect her to have this talent." Harry was a bit surprised, but he had full confidence in Jin Ni, so he didn't take it to heart.

Until he told the news to the team, they said the doubt Harry had forgotten: "But isn't the Greengrass family physically weak because of the Blood Curse?"

"Perhaps it's... oh, it's The Quibbler that said she was physically weak." Harry didn't think Ma Erfu would lie about this kind of thing, "So maybe she is actually as strong as an ox?"

"I think this might be a conspiracy," Angelina frowned. "If it's Ma Erfu who plays when the time comes, Jin Ni, you just say you suddenly feel unwell and switch Harry in."

Jin Ni looked a bit unhappy, but she still agreed.

However, when the official match started that day, Harry saw Draco wearing a normal school uniform, and the thin, weak (but very beautiful) little girl at the end of the Slytherin team. Like all Gryffindor players, he fell into deep doubt.

"But, what is he plotting?" Harry couldn't help but say. "I really can't imagine this child can have any seeker talent. She looks like she can't even hold the broom handle steady."

"Very strange, Astoria's body definitely can't support her to carry out high-intensity confrontation, the seeker's maneuver needs to withstand great acceleration..." Zhang Qiu was also full of doubt, flipping through her divination book.

"Very simple," Eve, who came with them, interrupted, "Ma Erfu is plotting something outside the court." ===== CHAPTER 300 =====