Chapter 323: Institutional Exploration

"Imagine, what would happen if Lu Xiusi set himself up as the new Dark Lord." Zhang Qiu put down her pen and said with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

"Would Voldemort want to kill him? Perhaps not necessarily? But one thing is certain, Lu Xiusi definitely wouldn't refuse to do so; he is willing to take this risk." Harry felt his train of thought suddenly open up. "And, we can easily make Lu Xiusi believe that Voldemort would kill him for this matter."

"And, I think this perhaps doesn't necessarily need you to do anything; Lu Xiusi was already planning to do so." Zhang Qiu shook her head and laughed. "The matter is just this matter, the situation is just this situation."

"You said it very well, we just need to express some agreement." Harry nodded.

Zhang Qiu started writing things again; Harry noticed that she was writing long, long paragraphs in Chinese. The last time she did this, she was plotting a complex time travel, which made Harry vaguely feel a bit uneasy. However, he still chose to trust Zhang Qiu and turned to start thinking about Lu Xiusi's matter.

Harry soon recalled a detail: during the duel on the tower, Deng Buliduo once said this: "Who will be the next person to become the Dark Lord? Is it Lu Xiusi? Or Regulus? Do you think they would kill Delphini, just like you tried to kill Harry Potter fourteen years ago?"

This sentence greatly enraged Voldemort, making him almost lose his mind. So, which part of this sentence enraged Voldemort?

After a slight analysis, Harry felt that Lu Xiusi and Regulus (Sirius) harboring ulterior motives perhaps didn't surprise Voldemort, and he wasn't very worried about Delphini's safety; what truly made Voldemort furious was the fact that he was defeated by Harry Potter.

Harry's understanding of Voldemort was limited to some meetings he overheard and a few face-to-face confrontations. Then, as Lu Xiusi, who knew Voldemort better, would he also notice that Voldemort actually didn't care about his subordinates having a few small thoughts? Would he also harbor this fluke mentality, thinking that even if Voldemort was resurrected, he only needed to give up the throne to save his life, or even continue to serve as a high-level Death Eater?

This was indeed a problem that had to be considered, but at the current stage, these factors would instead become a help. Before Lu Xiusi made the decision to usurp the throne, these factors could push him to usurp the throne boldly. And to make him fear Voldemort's resurrection, one must wait until he completed the usurpation, and then throw out some key information to make him completely terrified.

This required an information gap; what fact about Voldemort did Harry know that Lu Xiusi didn't? Obviously, that was Hoffa's identity and the truth about the seventh Horcrux.

After Lu Xiusi usurped the throne, would this fact make him realize (or be enough to trick him into believing) that Voldemort must kill him? Perhaps not necessarily.

Then how should this fact be used? Harry brought a new question and ended further thinking, because he had to get up to go to dinner.

After dinner, Harry didn't spend much more thought on Lu Xiusi's matter; he felt he couldn't think of any ideas and needed to discuss it with Sirius, or find an opportunity to cast an Inspiration Charm on himself.

Of course, more importantly, he needed to seriously spend some time finishing his homework; this was his duty as a student.

On Sunday morning, Harry and Sirius met in advance. Facing Harry's new question, Sirius said in a "let it rot" manner: "It's fine, Harry, you thought of a brilliant plan in one night, I believe if you are given more time, you can also perfect this plan."

"As for me," his tone was very relaxed, "I am responsible for supervising the construction of the Focused Rainbow, giving you a trump card and a way out."

Harry sighed helplessly; he knew that his godfather might also think about things occasionally, but expecting him to make a delicate plan was a bit difficult.

After drinking the coffee-flavored Polyjuice Potion again, Harry changed his identity and came to the venue where the Death Eaters held meetings. Unsurprisingly, Snape didn't come, and Slughorn naturally didn't come up. The focus of this meeting became the special envoy of the Ministry of Magic.

That was a beautiful witch with golden fluffy curly hair; she didn't follow the custom of wearing dark clothes that the Death Eaters liked, but wore a white lace-trimmed ladies' shirt and a floral seven-point skirt, looking very bright and moving in the gloomy Death Eater meeting.

"Alright, let me introduce everyone." Lu Xiusi opened his mouth very naturally. "This is the political consultant sent by the Ministry of Magic, Ms. Dorothy Wainwright. She will help us organize our views, express opinions, and maintain the rights we deserve."

"Very good," Bellatrix said lazily, "setting aside business, at least you are very beautiful, which makes me feel happy."

Sirius glanced at the others, and then immediately said back to the point: "I am more concerned about the organizing views you just mentioned; what views do we have to organize?"

"We all know that our ultimate goal is to resurrect the Dark Lord." Lu Xiusi seemed a bit perfunctory when saying this sentence. "But we have to consider, when the Dark Lord has not yet been resurrected, how should we deal with things? Even, in case the Dark Lord cannot be resurrected for a long time, we must also seek a foothold for ourselves."

"We should find the Horcruxes as soon as possible!" Bellatrix said dissatisfiedly. "I don't have the time to talk about these random things."

"But we still have to solve Deng Buliduo's problem." Harry added seemingly objectively, but actually, it was pouring a basin of cold water on Bellatrix.

"Yes, if we can't solve Deng Buliduo's problem, we can't rashly resurrect the Dark Lord." Lu Xiusi revealed a satisfied smile. "And if we need to be in a state of subtle balance and secret competition with the Order of the Phoenix for a long time, then we really need to have some conventional things, or rather, we at least have to make our personal property guaranteed, right?"

"We can adopt a two-party system." Dorothy suddenly said.

"Two-party system?" Bellatrix blinked. "A very novel way of saying it."

"It's not anything new; the Muggle world has been using this system for hundreds of years." Dorothy said. "I think, you and the Order of the Phoenix happen to be able to form two political parties."

"You might not know, the Order of the Phoenix has already formed a quite formal system; of course, this system refers to that set of the Soviet Union in many places, but no matter what, they are already a quite formal organization... or it can be admitted that it is a quite formal political party, and Doge is obviously the leader among them."

"If they have already done so, I think everyone present can also gather to form a political party, so that not only can you continue to compete with the Order of the Phoenix in the same field, but your most concerned personal property can also be guaranteed." Dorothy concluded.

"But the Dark Lord..." Bellatrix muttered.

"I just put forward a suggestion." Dorothy immediately leaned back irresponsibly. "I will not interfere in any of your internal affairs; if necessary, I can also recuse myself."

Lu Xiusi's eyes moved left and right cunningly, and the Death Eaters present were all a bit silent. So he said: "Yes, we will discuss this matter internally; you can go drink some afternoon tea."

Dorothy pushed open the door and walked out without any nostalgia, and Crabbe the Great tried hard to make it look like he was guiding her.

"Then we can discuss well, about Ms. Wainwright's proposal." Lu Xiusi said unhurriedly. "First of all, one thing is beyond doubt; no matter what strategy we are prepared to adopt, we must all remain united."

"Do you really want to resurrect the Dark Lord?" Bellatrix questioned. "If our goals are not the same, how can we remain united?"

"That's enough." Lu Xiusi sneered. "Do you really want to resurrect the Dark Lord? You just want to continue living the life of bullying others as before."

Bella glared at him.

"Our goals are consistent; we just want more power, a better life. You shouting about resurrecting the Dark Lord is just wanting to fight for the right to speak..." Lu Xiusi said while shaking his head. "Let's lay it out: we are all just using the Dark Lord to seize interests, it's just that your means are not as clever as mine; you have to have him alive."

"I have already thought of a very suitable system, and that is oligarchy." Lu Xiusi said coldly. "The Dark Lord is our trump card, but we don't have to try to resurrect him by any means and at any cost. Outside of this, we might as well really perfect the organizational system, so that we can continue to do the things we want to do in his name, and there won't be much resistance."

Harry felt a trace of something wrong; Lu Xiusi didn't seem to have thought about being the next Dark Lord; he still planned to maintain this meeting. Indeed, Lu Xiusi wasn't stupid; if he was the host of the meeting, he could both enjoy all the rights and interests of the Dark Lord and avoid his own loyalty problem to Voldemort.

However, as Hoffa, he himself could only shout the slogan of "resurrecting Voldemort," and Harry felt a bit anxious for a while.

At this time, Sirius touched Harry's foot under the table.

Harry hesitated slightly, and then immediately said: "You are doing this wrong; are you going to completely abandon the Dark Lord?"

After a brief silence, Sirius started to express his opinion: "I don't insist on whether to resurrect Voldemort, but don't you think it's very funny? We gathered in the name of the Dark Lord, but now you want to abandon the Dark Lord?"

"Bella, if you abandon the Dark Lord, how many Death Eaters will follow you?" Sirius hit Bellatrix's soft spot in one word. "And you, Lu Xiusi, if it weren't for the Dark Lord, I wouldn't even want to see you."

"If you insist on playing those political tricks, then let's break up." Sirius said, pushing his chair back directly, and then put his two feet on the table. "Hoffa, you can study the matter of stealing Horcruxes yourself; as for me, I'll go run a cannery with Greymane, which is also not bad."

"Once we break up, we will face the liquidation of the Order of the Phoenix!" Lu Xiusi's tone was vaguely angry. "If you have any plans, you can put them forward directly, you don't have to say it like this." ===== CHAPTER 324 =====