Chapter 322

After several hours of pointless bickering, Doge announced the meeting was adjourned. Then Harry, Doge, and the Ministry's envoy Frank found a quiet little room to continue discussing the terms of the peace talks.

"So we can basically agree on one key point: that the painting must be placed under the Order of the Phoenix's control," Frank concluded after several rounds of statements. "If any Death Eater commits an illegal act, you can immediately burn the painting and resurrect Dumbledore. Meanwhile, the Death Eaters, bound by the Ring Horcrux, cannot resurrect the Dark Lord—that would terrify them."

"Yes, yes," Doge agreed, though his face showed no hint of amusement.

"And under normal circumstances, you'd rather not resurrect Dumbledore at all than allow the Dark Lord to return," Frank continued. "So the Death Eaters needn't fear you'll immediately bring Dumbledore back."

"Exactly," Doge conceded.

"I think…" Harry had felt uneasy, but realized his concern wasn't about this. "Let's leave it at that."

He thought one step further: How would the Death Eaters react to this decision?

Clearly, they wouldn't sit still. Someone like Bellatrix, who wanted Voldemort resurrected, would try to steal the Horcrux—but more covertly. And Lucius—

Harry remembered an overlooked detail: the idea that "Dumbledore had a Horcrux" wasn't Snape's; it was Lucius's. In other words, even if the Order proposed the condition, Lucius knew their deterrent was meaningless.

Lucius could unilaterally tear up the agreement at any time—that was the core of his strategy.

Harry pushed further: Lucius, knowing the deterrent was fake, only wanted to keep Bellatrix in check. If he felt confident controlling her—or if something else had changed—he'd naturally begin ignoring the Order's oversight.

Then, would the Order burn the painting? If they burned it, Dumbledore wouldn't return, but Voldemort could—worse, if Voldemort actually tried, the British deterrent would collapse. Better not to burn it. If they didn't burn it, they couldn't scare Lucius, and whether the painting was in their hands or not made no difference.

So they needed a way to truly intimidate Lucius—not let him lead them by the nose.

Harry quickly considered: What did Lucius fear most? Someone like him, who played politics and power, feared only those with absolute strength. So he feared Voldemort and Dumbledore.

Now that he knew Dumbledore couldn't return, only Voldemort could truly intimidate him. But for Lucius, Voldemort's return wasn't entirely unacceptable—he still considered himself one of Voldemort's own.

To make Voldemort a credible threat to Lucius, it had to be certain: that after his resurrection, Voldemort would kill Lucius.

If that could be achieved, Lucius would join the ranks of those who feared burning the painting. If they burned it, Voldemort returned—and killed Lucius. That would be his ruin.

To make both Lucius and Bellatrix fear burning the painting, they needed a cognitive misalignment: Lucius must believe that burning the painting would resurrect Voldemort but not Dumbledore. Bellatrix must believe that burning it wouldn't resurrect Voldemort—but would bring Dumbledore back first.

The difference between these two beliefs centered on the Ring Horcrux. To achieve this, they had to do something reckless: make Lucius believe the Ring had been destroyed.

It was dangerous, but Harry felt his judgment was correct: Lucius was a selfish ambitionist who wouldn't dare let Bellatrix know. This would restore the delicate balance of deterrence.

Now the question was: how to ensure Voldemort would definitely kill Lucius after his resurrection—or at least make Lucius believe he would?

True, Voldemort was cruel and murderous—he might kill on a whim, but he didn't make deliberate, unwavering decisions to kill. Perhaps Dumbledore had once been a target Voldemort was determined to eliminate, because he saw him as a threat. But Lucius posed no such threat.

So they had to fabricate a fixed fact: evidence that Lucius had betrayed Voldemort. Even if Voldemort might temporarily spare him for some reason (as he had with Harry when he discovered Harry was a Horcrux), Lucius himself would live in terror.

Lucius would never, after committing an act of betrayal, foolishly agree to resurrect Voldemort and hand his own life over to someone else.

To accomplish this, two elements were indispensable: first, Voldemort must view the act as betrayal—or the Death Eaters must universally recognize it as such; second, once resurrected, Voldemort must be able to easily discover Lucius's betrayal, with no room for denial.

Achieving the first point wasn't hard: inciting Lucius to steal or destroy a Horcrux would work. But then he could still plead justification—claiming coercion or Polyjuice Potion impersonation. When the moment came to resurrect Voldemort, Lucius would surely cling to hope and do nothing to stop it.

Achieving the second point also seemed simple: if Lucius personally captured Bellatrix and delivered her to Azkaban, and the Ministry awarded him a Medal of Merlin, it would be undeniable betrayal to Voldemort. But the difficulty lay here: Lucius was clever. He knew fully aligning with the Order meant being at their mercy, facing total annihilation. He could only avoid being controlled by the Order if he clung to the Dark Lord.

As for impersonating Lucius to capture Bellatrix—Harry found the idea too low, and even if they did, Lucius could still prove his innocence with Veritaserum or similar means, defeating the purpose of making him believe Voldemort would kill him.

"Harry? Harry?" Doge spoke up beside him.

"Oh, sorry," Harry realized he'd been lost in thought.

"Did Dumbledore really…?" Doge asked cautiously, "leave it to you?"

Harry wasn't sure if anyone was eavesdropping, nor was he sure he could tell Doge the truth.

So he answered ambiguously: "The Snitch. He left me the Snitch."

Doge's face instantly paled.

"It's empty," Harry said.

Doge's expression brightened slightly.

Harry wanted to hint that Dumbledore hadn't left a Horcrux—but they could make the Death Eaters suspect the Snitch was the Horcrux.

Before leaving, Doge sat silently in his seat. Harry sincerely hoped he'd understood the hint.

"You want Lucius to believe Voldemort will kill him after resurrection?" Sirius mused over Harry's new idea, baffled. "Impossible. Lucius is one of Voldemort's main financial pillars. If he has even a shred of plausible deniability, he'll survive."

"So we need to make him do something irreversible—like personally capturing Bellatrix. I think he hates her," Harry said, voicing the half-formed conclusion he'd reached earlier.

"No, no, no," Sirius quickly dismissed it. "Bellatrix is Narcissa's elder sister—she's his aunt by marriage. No matter how much they feud, they won't go that far."

"Uh… I didn't notice that," Harry scratched his head. "Any other options?"

"Of course you didn't. Pure-blood families are cold by nature," Sirius chuckled bitterly.

"So he could still capture Bellatrix? Or even 'Hoffa'…" Harry pondered.

"Impossible—he's not stupid," Sirius frowned, clearly struggling to find an answer.

"Never mind," Sirius shook his head. "Even if our plan falters, if we can just stall for a year—until the Rainbow of Focus is complete—all problems will resolve themselves."

"You can't put everything on the Rainbow of Focus!" Harry stretched his hands out dramatically. "You told me last year that Tang Nade is an American—you can't put all your hopes on him!"

"Relax," Sirius replied with a dismissive tone. "Last year's experience proved he's a reliable American. Isn't that how Muggle defense works too? Bet everything on the invincible Trident and ignore everything else."

Under Harry's glaring disapproval, Sirius promised, "I'll think about it when I get back," but his tone carried a hint of dismissal.

Carrying a troubling question, Harry returned to school. He'd planned to finish his Muggle Studies essay before dinner, but now his mind was a mess.

"Oh, you seem troubled?" Zhang Qiu paused her writing, watching him with a faint, knowing smile.

After a brief hesitation, Harry blurted out the question: "How can we make Lucius believe Voldemort will kill him after resurrection?"

Zhang Qiu was initially stumped, but her brow soon smoothed.

"Voldemort is a tyrant—but a tyrant is still a king," she said confidently. "What is something a monarch can never tolerate?"

"Someone trying to assassinate him?" Harry immediately thought. "But we can't circularly argue—"

"No, no," Zhang Qiu interrupted. "Let me rephrase: what is something an emperor can never tolerate?"

Harry, unfamiliar with the concept of "emperor," blinked blankly until Zhang Qiu finally gave the answer.

"He can never tolerate someone coveting his throne."