Chapter 334: Pre-judgment

"We knew before that Hermione had the idea of escaping. She thought she wasn't welcome in the Wizarding World, so she wanted to leave here and say goodbye to her wizard identity completely. This is naturally unfavorable for Tang Tang Nade to carry out his actions, so he needs to make Hermione feel that the Wizarding World actually welcomes her." Zhang Qiu explained, "This is one thing. Another thing is that Hermione has long suppressed her feelings because she felt she wasn't worthy of Tang Tang Nade. If Tang Tang Nade wants to be with Hermione in the end, this issue of being a match is also something he needs to solve."

"This matter of being a match or not," Harry tried hard to understand, "Speaking of which, does Hermione really have any feelings for Tang Tang Nade?"

"This is also one of Tang Tang Nade's great clevernesses." Zhang Qiu nodded, "It's very normal for a little girl to develop worship for a strong person. And if the strong person shows her some ambiguous places that allow for reverie, it's very easy to cause her to fantasize, which is very normal."

"Think about your own popularity at school, many girls don't understand you at all, yet they are very enthusiastic about wanting to attend the ball with you. Think about it, if you agreed to one of them, even if you had no intention of dating her at all, she would still fantasize about dating you." Zhang Qiu gave an example, but her tone when saying the example was weird.

"Then you mean, this kind of fantasy is normal?" Harry followed her logic, sorting out his own thinking.

"That's right, this kind of fantasy is essentially a fantasy about power and fame, not a fantasy about him as a person." Zhang Qiu took a breath, "Tang Tang Nade's cleverness lies in the fact that he lets this fantasy slowly ferment under Hermione's suppression, until he manages to arrange for Hermione to 'coincidentally' obtain the opportunity to talk on equal terms with the object of her childhood worship—at this moment, Hermione will naturally attribute all her emotions to love."

"Sounds a bit far-fetched..." Harry still couldn't quite understand.

"Let's just say a living example, Jin Ni." Zhang Qiu snapped her fingers, "When Jin Ni first entered school in her first year, she sent you a Valentine's card, right? She showed an appearance of having fallen in love with you, but in reality? You and her had almost no intersection."

"Right, logically speaking, it's impossible for Jin Ni to fall in love with someone she doesn't understand." Harry just noticed this point, "Unless she was from Luo En—forget it, unless Luo En lied, but he obviously hadn't learned Rita's articles at that time."

"Jin Ni's understanding of you basically came from newspapers, and the young her couldn't distinguish between worship and true love, so she mistakenly thought she had fallen in love with you." Zhang Qiu held up a finger, "Jin Ni is definitely not an isolated case, but why was she the only one to express her feelings to you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because she discovered you became good friends with her brother. In other words, she thought she was worthy of you." Zhang Qiu's body leaned forward slowly, "And for most ordinary little girls, she wouldn't think she's worthy of a Savior hero."

"Seems that's really the case." Harry frowned, "Then converting to Hermione, Tang Tang Nade established a tall, worship-worthy image in Hermione's heart, so Hermione would mistakenly think she had fallen in love with him; and if Hermione, like Rosa Parks, accidentally obtained a high status, then she might truly turn those hazy feelings of worship into love because she felt she was worthy of Tang Tang Nade?"

"You guessed right, this is Tang Tang Nade's plan, and Elena, undoubtedly, is responsible for supervising and guiding Hermione step by step to become that Rosa according to the plan."

"But what is the plan?" Harry vaguely felt that he also had some inspiration, catching some kind of inspiration, but his brain was too cluttered, and it was hard to notice the ignored detail in the pile of memories labeled 'Dark Lord'.

"You have to ask first, whose plan it is." Zhang Qiu laughed, "Actually, this is a plan of the Ministry of Magic, Tang Tang Nade is just hitching a ride."

Harry suddenly realized that if Snape and McGonagall were both dissatisfied with some plan of Tang Tang Nade's, then why did he feel that this plan could be implemented? In other words, Snape and McGonagall wouldn't compromise with a private rich guy. If there was anyone who could make them reluctantly accept a plan that couldn't be opposed, it could only be the Ministry of Magic.

"But, what does the Ministry of Magic want?" Harry couldn't help but re-examine Arnold's series of actions, "What is their grand strategy? And what are their interests at Hogwarts?"

"Hmm, that's a point I didn't notice. I mean, I assumed the Ministry of Magic sincerely wanted to seek development for Britain, but the facts remain to be verified." Zhang Qiu thought of a loophole in her logic, "Then let's consider this assumption first. For the current Wizarding World, what is more important?"

"The opposition between the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters," Harry said without thinking, but he soon realized this was a surface answer, so he added, "And, if we can solve this problem, we should seriously consider the survival of the Statute of Secrecy."

"Right, the Statute of Secrecy is a shackle that seriously hinders the development of wizards. Previously, there was the suppression of fate, and we didn't dare to break it easily, but now fate no longer exists." Zhang Qiu's fingers tapped on the table rhythmically, "Therefore, for the Ministry of Magic, testing the boundaries of the Statute of Secrecy bit by bit until crossing and breaking it is what they are doing now and in the long run."

"And what Arnold is already doing..." Scenes of memories flashed through Harry's mind.

"I guess the script is like this: first, Elena will induce Hermione to cast spells outside of school, then the Ministry of Magic will forcefully demand severe punishment for her." Zhang Qiu spoke directly, "For example, expulsion, confiscation of wands, expulsion from the Wizarding World, etc."

"And this punishment decision will be left pending by Snape—oh right, now the punishment power has been taken by Arnold."

"Wait," Harry interrupted her, "What do you mean by left pending?"

"It's, how to say, the Ministry of Magic notifies Hogwarts to expel Hermione, Snape receives the notice, but he neither executes it nor rejects it, and doesn't even find anyone to discuss it, as if pretending not to see it." Zhang Qiu suddenly thought of something else, "It's also possible that they will use the newly issued educational decree to kick this punishment resolution back and forth between Snape and Arnold, to drag out the time."

"What's the use of this?"

"This gives the student group time to ferment dissatisfaction." Zhang Qiu looked toward the school, then lowered her voice, "Don't you think this topic has been a bit too hot recently?"

The matter of Muggle-borns casting spells outside of school was the rhythm Arnold brought up in the mock trial. To say he didn't have any small actions behind this would be the opposite of the truth.

"Arnold is doing this because he wants to escalate the situation and lead it to a kind of group resistance." Harry tried hard to recall his limited historical knowledge, "Just like the civil rights movement of black people. It would be best if Hermione went to the trial court or even Azkaban because of this, so the students would be even more indignant."

"Students initiate political protests, write joint letters, sit-in demonstrations, and even strike. Under these circumstances, the Ministry of Magic 'forced by pressure' revokes the punishment for Hermione, which seems very reasonable." Harry deduced, "Immediately after, they go a step further and demand the amendment of the Statute of Secrecy. This kind of protest movement is easy to resonate with people, especially if the person to be supported is such a smart, diligent, and rule-abiding girl—and she doesn't look bad either, she is absolutely a perfect victim. People will easily sympathize with her."

"The Ministry of Magic then goes with the flow to amend the Statute of Secrecy. In this way, they almost completely distance themselves, appearing as if they were forced to test the Statute of Secrecy." Harry said, flowing into a hint of confusion, "This way the Ministry of Magic can avoid the backlash of fate?"

"Or you can just equate fate with Death, giving Him a personified image is easier to understand." Zhang Qiu lowered her volume unconsciously when saying this sentence, "Even if the Soviets claimed to have successfully isolated Death, we don't know if He still has the ability to return—you can see that Yanayev didn't dare to publicly break the Statute of Secrecy either, he was also testing from another angle."

"So, doing this is indeed likely to annoy Death?" Harry suddenly understood why Snape and McGonagall were reluctant, "If Death still has the ability to pay attention to and interfere with the present world, and is angry because of this, He will definitely blame those students or even Hermione herself, rather than the Ministry of Magic that formulated the plan? I personally guess Death is mostly unable to return, but you're right, there's no way to be 100% sure. The Ministry of Magic doing this is undoubtedly wanting students to be scapegoats, this is too much."

"Perhaps, the law doesn't punish the masses." Zhang Qiu shrugged, "And if this step passes, and the law is amended smoothly, and nothing happens, then the Ministry of Magic can know: as long as the nature is not more serious than amending the law, other edge-ball actions are completely feasible."

"When they are not satisfied with these, they will try to do some more excessive tests, and will find a group to be scapegoats? This time it's students, who will it be next time?" Harry's eyebrows were almost twisted together.

"To be precise, it's Muggle-born students." Zhang Qiu raised her eyelids, "But don't worry too much. Think about why Tang Tang Nade dared to put Hermione in this position?"

"Sorry, I made an assumption again, assuming the White House always knows more than Downing Street, so could it be that they have already tested and can determine that this degree won't cause any consequences, or going a step further, have already determined that Death can't return." Zhang Qiu showed a slightly more relaxed expression.

"Perhaps, but the attitude and approach of the Ministry of Magic make me feel very annoyed." Harry said listlessly. ===== CHAPTER 335 =====