Chapter 305: Children's Horcrux

"In today's meeting, I want to say an important thing." At night, in front of the Torchwood crowd, Draco started his speech calmly.

"Three hundred years ago, the International Statute of Secrecy was signed and took effect, and wizards have since bid farewell to the life of exile and have been able to live openly and honestly in our own community; one hundred and ninety years ago, the Ministry of Magic was established, and the wizards of our British wizarding world began to have a brand new order, moving toward an era of harmony and friendship. Today, we can always proudly say that we do not live in a wizarding community or a wizarding country, but live in the wizarding world, possessing a brilliant wizarding civilization.

However, just today, shortly after the greatest wizard of this century passed away, shortly after the river of time decided to stop for the great power of wizards, and at the moment when the wizarding world is about to flourish, prosper, and carefully but boldly step into the next era, we must face the tense situation in the country, must notice that adults are dividing into two factions to spread hostility for their own ambitions and unnecessary interests, and many people standing on the opposite side, who happen to be about to blurt out the Killing Curse, unfortunately, will be us, or the parents of one of our classmates.

In a certain sense, we should have chosen hostility for the stance of our own families, each shouting slogans and fighting into a group. This is the part that adults should have seen. But we won't do this. Each of us, as a free individual, has the right to choose friends and stances. We are not willing to be born into a world where the enemy is already divided, and then follow the hatred and prejudice inherited from generation to generation by our ancestors, and draw swords against peers who could have become confidants; of course, we are not willing to see our parents and the parents of our close friends fight each other, and even cause life-threatening trouble.

First of all, we must thank Mr. Tom. It is his diary that created the opportunity for the first gathering of Torchwood. It was in the gatherings again and again that we understood each other, exchanged views, realized that the theories our parents regarded as the golden rule might only be one family's words, realized that the two identities that were originally incompatible were actually no different in essence, realized that people could cast aside prejudices and enjoy a beautiful life of mutual benefit and mutual help in a materially abundant wizarding society. If we hadn't become friends who could talk on an equal footing in advance, hadn't set the tone that all contradictions and conflicts should be resolved through negotiation, if Torchwood had never been established, I am afraid we would have fallen into endless scolding and quarreling because of the different stances of our parents and relatives, I am afraid we would have used bad words against each other today, and fought to the death tomorrow, just as the adults who have already divided into two factions are about to do.

Originally, we couldn't use pale theories and powerless shouts to persuade adults to return to the negotiating table, and then could only sadly watch all this happen, and also couldn't persuade the children who were about to reach adulthood, or even ourselves. We couldn't let a person put down the full hatred and anger brought by the murder of relatives and choose reconciliation. But we must thank Mr. Tom again. His diary is something that both sides are determined to get, and it happens to be in our hands. This gives us the power to stand up, no longer in the identity of a child who doesn't understand things, but in the identity of another force that holds chips, and before the situation becomes irreparable, to make our voices heard by adults who are deeply trapped in the entanglement of desire.

Torchwood is a group of students who love their school and love campus life gathering together. This means that Torchwood members should always believe in ideals, believe that communication can become a bridge for reconciliation, believe that interests are not all of the stance, believe that human greed can be controlled, believe that some kind of harmonious utopian society still exists in theory and it is by no means impossible to realize. This is exactly what adults have abandoned, what they sneer at, and what they call 'naive' and 'childish'.

However, we instead feel fortunate. Adults deny this naivety so extremely, precisely because they know deeply how precious it is for a person to still be willing to believe that the world is beautiful, and they sadly abandoned this quality, and now they regret it. Then, since we have the power to speak loudly, we must tell them this point, tell them that today's cruelty and laziness are because they lost the naive ideals of their student days; today's greed and arrogance are because they are trying in vain to use other things to fill this void in their hearts; today's jealousy and lust are just wrong substitutes. We must force them to admit that the naivety of the student days is an important quality that makes the world better, and for all the differences between the adult world and campus life, it is not that our ignorance and maladjustment will be ridiculed, but that they should feel ashamed for making the world worse.

We are going to take advantage of the opportunity of gathering together to cast a more powerful protection spell on Mr. Tom's diary: unless everyone among us agrees to take it out, no one can get this diary.

In this way, we can proudly stand in front of adults and state an self-evident fact: at no time should violent means be used to achieve one's goals.

We are going to show them that parents cannot decide who we choose as our friends or even lovers. We choose to become confidants with a peer or become strangers, which only depends on our own personality.

We are going to show them that even between the children of pure-blood Muggles and the children of pure-blood wizards, resonance can still be produced, happily sitting together and imagining a beautiful future.

We are going to show them that facing a world full of misunderstandings, prejudices, hatred, and conflicts, we can't wait for the handover of the older generation. Now, immediately, we must start building bridges, communicating friendly, eliminating hatred, and resolving conflicts; now, immediately, we must let the world develop in the appearance of harmony, friendship, common development, and prosperity, and force the greedy and hateful older generation to accept and start to jointly build the more beautiful future in our hearts."

To be fair, Malfoy's speech was not bad, and the words had been modified to a certain extent. If one didn't count the sharp problems he avoided, it was acceptable to the several students present and the forces behind them.

Except for Mr. Lu Xiusi, who was obviously being targeted in the speech, other figures should not find it difficult to accept this point. But the problem is, if Bellatrix really wants to sit down and negotiate with the Order of the Phoenix, there are irreconcilable contradictions between them, and they will break down sooner or later.

Thinking more deeply, Draco's act of holding the diary in Torchwood's hands actually couldn't really have a deterrent effect, because he couldn't threaten the Order of the Phoenix with this. The Order of the Phoenix originally only needed to ensure that the Horcruxes were not collected by the Death Eaters. If they were held by Torchwood, they would instead be happy to see it.

Conversely, if the Order of the Phoenix starts to push forward, what should Torchwood do if they want to mediate in the middle? Threaten to hand the diary to the Death Eaters? If they really did this, it would only induce them to go to war in an all-out way. Unless the Order of the Phoenix is willing to hand over the ring, or admit to the Death Eaters that the ring has been destroyed, Torchwood cannot equally restrain the two forces. But the Order of the Phoenix wouldn't be willing. They would rather believe that this is a trick of the Death Eaters to cheat the Horcruxes.

Setting aside whether Draco had considered this point, even if he thought this was an overture of goodwill toward Harry, Harry wouldn't truly take it as such. The reason was that Harry and the Order of the Phoenix really couldn't be equated entirely.

On the surface, it looked like the Order of the Phoenix would listen to Harry's opinions. However, in reality, Harry also found the noisy, simple-minded young radicals in the Order to be a real headache: because they firmly believed they were doing the right thing, they appeared reckless and even disregarded the consequences.

Moreover, if the decision-making power were really handed over to the Order of the Phoenix, there would be no talk of so-called decency. Resolving hatred didn't mean indulging one side to completely crush the other. Besides, Harry believed that if this natural opposition and rallying power could be utilized well, it could actually guide the British Wizarding World to start healthy competition and promote wizards to improve their magical levels.

Although this plan obviously still had many loopholes, Harry still clapped in cooperation. It didn't matter where the diary was, and it didn't matter what attitude Torchwood held; what mattered was that Draco took the diary to confront Lu Xiusi, causing his prestige to plummet.

At the same time, once the diary surfaced and Bellatrix learned the whereabouts of all the Horcruxes, she would immediately want to start an all-out war. Lu Xiusi, whose prestige had already diminished, would have to seek help from Regulus and Hoffa; otherwise, it would be difficult for him alone to restrain Lestrange. As long as he was willing to give up some assets, the small families up and down the industrial chain would naturally start considering switching allegiances.

Therefore, no matter how naive Draco's ideas were, Harry had to express support, and it had to be strong support. Only in this way could he stand confidently in the Death Eater meeting. Of course, perhaps the one actually standing there at that time would be Pan Xi.

"Then, let's begin," Draco said. "First, let's ask Tom for advice on whether there is a powerful protective spell that can be formed by multiple people casting together."

The protective spells they had been using weren't actually difficult; it was just that everyone had cast a protective spell, so breaking the spell also required everyone to take turns casting to undo all the protections. Doing this was enough to prevent students from privately accessing the diary, but if an adult's magic was powerful enough to break a student's protective spell, he only needed to break it a few more times in succession to complete the unsealing.

The new protective spell was one obtained by modifying the Fidelius Charm under Tom's guidance, which greatly enhanced the power of the spell. It required Harry, Ernie, Pan Xi, and Luna to tell the secret to one person simultaneously to unlock it; otherwise, even if Dumbledore were alive again, he would be unable to force a break.

After this day ended, Harry couldn't wait to sit at the long table in Malfoy Manor in the guise of Hoffa, to be present on the scene and witness the comedy of Lu Xiusi's shock.