Chapter 341: The Lie of Fate

After Hermione returned, the children held a celebration party very happily. All the students who participated in the parade expressed that standing up and participating in maintaining justice was a very unforgettable and proud beautiful memory.

Hermione realized that actually many people were concerned about her, and the newspapers also began to praise her. She should be very happy, but perhaps because she was a bit shy, this happiness was not directly expressed on her face.

Actually, setting aside strategy and plans, Harry was also quite happy. Finally, the Daily Prophet stopped reporting on him alone.

During the second half of the Easter holiday, the whole of Hogwarts was filled with a happy atmosphere, except for one person who always looked full of worries, and that was Elena.

"I just came back from Elena's place." Zhang Qiu said while rubbing her temples, sitting down beside Harry, "Tang Tang Nade is preparing to come in person next week to see the situation. He booked a guest public lecture for the first week of school, so he can enter and leave the school at will."

"Is this the reason she came to find you?"

"If you want to use Elena to oppose Tang Tang Nade, then we should always give her some support, right? Can't just watch her be easily suppressed by Tang Tang Nade." Zhang Qiu pursed her lips, "And this time, she panicked, she has no way to face Tang Tang Nade independently."

"There is one thing we misjudged about Elena. She didn't design to come here specifically to approach Hermione, or use Luo En or anything... The main reason she came here was still for the Rosa Parks plan."

"In other words." She sighed, "This was also a very hasty thing for Elena. She didn't realize we changed the plan, which made her little thoughts almost immediately exposed."

"If Tang Tang Nade doesn't come, he won't care much about how Elena executes the mission, but now the person originally planned to lead the student movement has changed from Trig to Luo En, he will definitely come to check the situation. And once he comes to inspect on the spot..."

"He will find Elena and Luo En broke up," Harry suddenly realized, "This is something Elena cannot explain."

"Eh, strictly speaking, they haven't officially broken up yet, let's call it a cold war." Zhang Qiu added a patch, "But in short, Elena doing this is very unusual, she must come up with a reason."

"What reason?"

"Tang Tang Nade gave Elena two missions, seducing Luo En and monitoring Hermione. Now she messed up one of the missions, and it was messed up actively. How can she make Tang Tang Nade believe she didn't betray him?" Zhang Qiu explained step by step, "She can only say it's because the other mission was more urgent, and the two conflicted, so she had to do this."

"What if Elena says she just doesn't like Luo En anymore?" Harry said, "It can't be considered betrayal, just a child's temper, what will happen? Tang Tang Nade wouldn't kill his subordinate like Voldemort, would he?"

"But in that case, she loses Tang Tang Nade's trust, how can she continue to stay by Hermione's side?"

"Uh, that's true, so how does she plan to explain?"

"I said, it's because monitoring Hermione's mission was more urgent, and it conflicted with seducing Luo En, which means Hermione's mental state has changed." Zhang Qiu looked straight at Harry, "It must be that Hermione likes someone else, and if Elena continues to seduce Luo En, it will instead deepen the feelings between Hermione and that person."

"Then who is that person?"

"That can only be you." Zhang Qiu said helplessly, "Hermione and Harry are secretly together, she can only tell Tang Tang Nade this."

Harry broke out in a cold sweat. Hearing this sentence coming out of Zhang Qiu's mouth was more terrifying than receiving a direct confession from Hermione.

"No, no, but," Harry said incoherently, "There must be evidence, right? How can she prove that you and Hermione are together? There is no reason at all."

"Right, this is another problem. Elena is a smart enough person, and Tang Tang Nade also knows she is smart enough." Zhang Qiu tapped the table, "What is obvious is that you and Hermione are not together, and it's unlikely you will be together. So Tang Tang Nade will see through it, noticing Elena is lying to him. Unless, Elena lists some evidence, these evidences, although they cannot prove you and Hermione are together, only need to make Tang Tang Nade believe that these evidences are enough to cause Elena to make a misjudgment, that's enough."

"In other words, Elena is preparing to explain it like this: she found Hermione and I were secretly dating, so to avoid further contact between us, she hurriedly broke up with Luo En, and watched Hermione not to let her continue to come to find me and Luo En." Harry summarized

"Right, that's exactly how it is. And if it involves you, she can't bypass me; that is the reason for our conversation this time."

"Uh, that's true too. If Ailina suspects that Hermione and I are secretly dating, you have the ability to debunk it for her." Harry scratched his head, "And if we want to make her misjudgment look more credible, it would be best if both you and Ailina simultaneously made a misjudgment, but you know more than she does and are smarter. What kind of reason could make you both simultaneously misjudge?"

"More importantly, it must make Tang Tang Nade feel at a glance that this is a misjudgment." Zhang Qiu said solemnly, "We cannot let him truly feel that you and Hermione are having an affair, otherwise it would be hard to say what he might do."

"Even if Tang Tang Nade really thought so, it shouldn't be serious, right?" Harry said, "You are just worried that his subsequent actions will be unexpected, causing the situation to spiral out of control."

"Yes, you could say that." Zhang Qiu raised an eyebrow, "However, Tang Tang Nade has a very obvious trait, and this point also happens to create an information gap between him and Ailina: he knows the trajectory of fate and believes in that trajectory very much."

"What?"

"That is, these results of divination." Zhang Qiu flipped through her notebook, "After the TARDIS exploded, almost all of them stopped matching, but in some places, the influence of fate still remains. The reason why Luo En and Hermione, no matter how distant they become, still cannot forget each other lies here; they are a fated pair."

"This..."

"So Tang Tang Nade will go to great lengths to guard against Luo En because he has read fate." Zhang Qiu said, "But we don't need to take it too seriously; fate no longer exists."

"Then, in the trajectory of fate..." Harry hesitated, "Hermione and I, we didn't end up together, right?"

"Yes, this is the first point that makes Tang Tang Nade lower his guard." Zhang Qiu said, "The second is that we must use the lies of fate to deceive Tang Tang Nade."

"What do you mean?"

"The divination mentioned that you would abandon me on Valentine's Day to go on a date with Hermione." Zhang Qiu flipped to that specific page, "But in fact, Hermione had scheduled an interview for you."

"But I was with you the whole time on Valentine's Day, and Hermione didn't schedule any interview for me." Harry said confusedly.

"Who can testify to what happened on Valentine's Day? We will just tell Tang Tang Nade that you abandoned me to find Hermione that day; after all, there's no way I could know whether Hermione scheduled an interview for you or not."

Harry recalled the trajectory of that Valentine's Day: Ailina had been with Luo En the whole time, and Hermione had returned to school by herself later. If Zhang Qiu's testimony was "Harry went to find Hermione halfway through," and Hermione's testimony was "I was doing homework in the library by myself," then the itinerary of Harry and Hermione was indeed quite suspicious.

"But that's not right either." Harry shook his head, "Tang Tang Nade should know that you also know fate, didn't you two have an argument about it in your second year? If you know fate, shouldn't you debunk it for Ailina, saying that I just went to accept an interview?"

"The divination Master gave me is often vague and unclear; I can say I didn't know the ins and outs of this interview." Zhang Qiu said slowly, "And, according to fate, during that Dumbledore's Army activity before Christmas..."

"We should have kissed long ago."

After a moment of silence, Harry felt he should apologize.

But Zhang Qiu didn't seem to care and continued, "Then in Tang Tang Nade's eyes, things are very clear."

"What caused Ailina to misjudge was the date between Harry and Hermione on Valentine's Day, as well as my suspicion and testimony; what caused me to misjudge was that date and the fact that the kiss failed to happen." Zhang Qiu listed two lines, "Ailina mistakenly thought Harry and Hermione were together; I mistakenly thought fate had gone wrong and suspected that Harry and Hermione were really together."

"Under the condition that Tang Tang Nade himself believes in fate, he will default to a stance, which is to think that both Ailina and I have misjudged. He will first explain that the date was just an interview, and since the Daily Prophet fabricates some of Harry's quotes every day, he will think the interview is mostly true and use those quotes to prove this point to us."

"Next, Tang Tang Nade will think about what happened around Christmas; he will only think that it was he himself who sent Ailina, disrupting the trajectory of fate and causing us to miss the kiss." Zhang Qiu said flatly, "He will first provide an explanation for me, making me believe Harry didn't fall in love with Hermione, and then I can join him in explaining to Ailina that there is no possibility Hermione could fall in love with Harry either."

"In this way, in Tang Tang Nade's eyes, the matter is resolved. Ailina and Luo En falling out was a farce caused by a misjudgment; next, as long as Ailina and Luo En are reconciled, the budding spark between Luo En and Hermione can be extinguished." Zhang Qiu touched the tips of her hair, "The strike leader being changed to Luo En is the natural result of this farce, and Cui Ge was just being overly kind and only needs a slight reprimand. All these things happen to be exactly the development Ailina expects."

"Can this really deceive Tang Tang Nade..." Harry still felt a bit uneasy.

"It won't work on others, but it can work on Tang Tang Nade. We can deceive him precisely because he knows fate." Zhang Qiu sighed, "But the plan is still missing the final link. Tang Tang Nade will also take one more measure, and we need to pass that as well."

"What?" Harry asked.

"We'll see when the time comes." Zhang Qiu closed her small notebook, got up, and left.