Chapter 329: Election Plan

"Do you really want to use a Qilin?" Dorothy's complexion became very strange. "I just, I mean, it's also very hard to find a Qilin now, unless you mean letting the Heavenly Dynasty people intervene."

"Not at all, this is just a reference; my meaning is, we Death Eaters also have a kind of magical animal that understands human hearts, and it just happens to be able to be used to select the Dark Lord." Lu Xiusi smiled confidently. "That is Nagini."

"What do you mean by this?" Bella questioned dissatisfiedly. "Everyone knows that Nagini is raised by you, she will naturally be closer to you."

"No, Lu Xiusi is right; Nagini and the Dark Lord are connected in heart and mind, she knows the Dark Lord's will better than all of us." Snape looked quite approving of this proposal. "If she can understand our current dilemma of having to elect a successor, then, she might be able to decide on a suitable successor according to the Dark Lord's will."

"You hit the nail on the head." Sirius was a bit gloating. "According to the Dark Lord's will, of course, it's still hoped that you will resurrect him as soon as possible."

"In fact, just like the Qilin doesn't understand that we are electing a wizard leader, Nagini also doesn't necessarily know the current complex situation." Bella's eyes lit up again. "Let her elect someone the Dark Lord likes and trusts the most, I think that's enough."

"For everyone present, this is not a very clever method." Dorothy praised sincerely. "After all, you are just using the Dark Lord as a banner, whoever does it is about the same. And if you use this method, you can also truly use the Dark Lord as a trump card."

Harry realized this, and it turned out that Lu Xiusi had also thought of a way to avoid Voldemort's anger. If Nagini made the decision, making Lu Xiusi elected as the Dark Lord's successor, then Voldemort wouldn't be angry at him because of this, or rather, even if he had anger, he wouldn't want to kill Lu Xiusi, and even in order to buy people's hearts, Voldemort would have to give him some preferential treatment.

However, when he noticed this point, Harry felt powerless again: in reason and emotion, Hoffa shouldn't, and couldn't stand up to oppose Lu Xiusi. In terms of the meeting agenda, Lu Xiusi put forward a reasonable suggestion, and Hoffa had no reason to refute it based on his persona and position; in terms of private feelings, Hoffa and Lu Xiusi had just reached a deal, and Lu Xiusi's proposal was even very tempting to Hoffa and even Harry.

Even Bella, who had always been at odds with Lu Xiusi, seemed to be eager to try this proposal. Perhaps, she had some unknown way to help her obtain Nagini's favor.

Just when Harry was considering how to deal with it, Snape's voice interrupted his train of thought.

"Now, we almost all agree to choose a suitable successor through Nagini." Snape said indifferently. "But obviously, most of the time, it has been you, Lu Xiusi, who has been serving as Nagini's keeper, which for the election we are about to conduct... perhaps a bit unfair."

"Right." Bella immediately followed up. "I propose that everyone takes turns keeping Nagini for a period of time, which is convenient for us to better show ourselves to her."

"Of course, one week, how about that?" Lu Xiusi maintained his composure.

"I think it's a fairly fair proposal, but in this way, how should the order of keeping be decided?" Snape raised his eyebrows.

Harry realized that this was a very interesting question.

On the surface, everyone present was qualified to succeed the Dark Lord, and therefore, everyone was qualified to keep Nagini for a period of time. This created a problem: logically speaking, everyone hoped to conduct the election as soon as possible so that he could enjoy the power of the Dark Lord as soon as possible; and everyone hoped to spend more time with Nagini so as to increase his probability of being elected.

Although, in reality, the only ones who were truly moved by the position of the Dark Lord were Lu Xiusi and Bella. However, when drafting the procedure, Sirius and Snape wouldn't abstain immediately; they had to show a wavering attitude so that they could better fight for interests from those two people.

In this way, even if everyone only kept it for one week, it would take more than half a month for three people to add up. For an election, a preparation time of nearly a month was not too long, but for Bella, the time to get along for a week was indeed a bit short. Then, Bella had to pay some price, conduct private transactions with Sirius and Snape, and set up a way to exchange for more time to get along with Nagini.

"The formulation of this order, I think, will also be a big problem." Lu Xiusi pondered. "The last person to get along with Nagini will undoubtedly obtain some advantages..."

"If this is the case, then I have another suggestion." Dorothy suddenly spoke. "After you have taken turns keeping that animal, you can send it to the Ministry of Magic. We will act as a relatively fair third party to keep it for one to two weeks, which can make the election process more fair."

"It's a not-bad idea, but how can we guarantee that the Ministry of Magic itself is indeed impartial?" Lu Xiusi's face was full of distrust. "You know, when the Qilin was used for the election, there was a quite terrible dark curtain."

"I think the election that year had no problems," Dorothy shrugged. "Don't you think Deng Buliduo happened to be that 'relatively fair third party'?"

"We don't have Deng Buliduo now, and we can't invite him to supervise the Dark Lord's election." Lu Xiusi retorted seriously. "This is too absurd."

"Perhaps, we are not without Deng Buliduo." Sirius said with a suppressed laugh. "Have you forgotten Aberforth Deng Buliduo?"

"No no, let's not make jokes anymore." Lu Xiusi reached out and pressed. "Still need to confirm a charter properly. I'm not saying I don't trust the Ministry of Magic at all, I just instinctively feel that it's better to find someone closer, someone of our own."

"Right, he needs to take care of Nagini carefully, not let her be harmed; and, he has no interest relationship with us, won't favor anyone because of this..." Lu Xiusi concluded, and Bella suddenly interrupted

Four pairs of eyes gradually focused on Harry, and then other gazes followed suit and landed on him.

"Are you talking about that William?" Harry asked casually, thinking they were asking for Hoffa's opinion.

After a brief silence.

"You are talking about that William, right?" Harry said in a low voice, "Or someone else?"

"It sounds like Mr. Hoffa is not very willing to preside over this matter," Snape said coldly. "Then we can find another third party, or it could simply be fostered at the Ministry of Magic."

"Actually, the Ministry of Magic is a good idea," Bella said, glancing at Snape. "However, I think one week is a bit too short for that."

Harry was certain he saw Lu Xiusi wink at him, but he pretended not to notice.

"Then let's calculate it by the month," Snape proposed, appearing very impartial. "The final month will be spent being raised by the Ministry of Magic."

"Those intending to participate should be Mr. Snape, Ms. Lestrange, and Mr. Black," Dorothy said, making notes in her notebook. "The three of you will take turns interacting with Nagini, after which she will be sent to the Ministry of Magic for a one-month period of free-range care to eliminate the unfairness brought about by the order. In this way, it is expected to take four months, and finally, in July, we will use an animal selection method to determine the new leader of the Death Eater community."

"Fine." "I have no objections." "Very fair."

With all three parties already in agreement, Lu Xiusi could only manage to squeeze out a few smiles and reluctantly accepted the resolution.

Immediately following this, Dorothy proposed another seemingly very fair suggestion: Hoffa, who was not participating in the election, would use a drawing of lots to randomly determine the order of adoption. This resolution had no downsides for anyone, so they settled on the order of Black-Lestrange-Snape.

After the Death Eater meeting ended, Harry scratched his head in hindsight; he didn't quite understand how it had come to this, from initially discussing the theft of Horcruxes to now having Death Eaters competing to be the Dark Lord.

"I don't feel right about this," Sirius said. "The Ministry of Magic created a false premise: we aren't actually required to elect a Dark Lord."

"But we needed a way to intimidate Lu Xiusi, to stir up his ambition and make him attempt to run for Dark Lord." As he spoke, Harry frowned. "But I didn't expect him to have a way to evade Voldemort's wrath."

"I feel," Sirius shook his head, "that even the matter of 'intimidating Lu Xiusi' was likely within the Ministry of Magic's expectations."

"Yes, they were fully aware of the fake Horcrux trick," Harry said, feeling somewhat uneasy. "Perhaps this was just to get us to cooperate in proposing the idea of electing a Dark Lord."

"This election—it feels like we've been led by the nose by Dorothy all day," Sirius recalled. "She also controlled Bella's thoughts very well."

Just then, a knock at the door interrupted their secret conversation. It was one of Sirius's subordinates.

"Reporting to Boss, Headmaster Snape is here to visit and wants to have a secret talk with you, Boss," the man said.

"Oh?" Sirius looked very surprised. "Bring him over."

"Ha, big shots coming one after another; they must be wanting to ask Boss for favors. Boss's prestige is truly unparalleled!" The subordinate left happily.

And Harry realized in hindsight: from the moment Snape took the position of Headmaster, he had already been in cahoots with the Ministry of Magic.