Chapter 366: The Game of Factions

Just as the eulogy had stated, some of those present had no desire to see the others ever again. As soon as the funeral ended, Bellatrix left by Apparition, unable to wait a moment longer. Lucius nodded slightly toward the group on his left, murmured a few polite pleasantries, and then vanished with his wife.

Harry turned around, curious, and looked toward Zhang Qiu and the adult beside her; Snape stood up immediately after.

"Sorry, this isn't very polite," Zhang Qiu said with a hint of apology. "But this happens to be a very important node of fate, and we just came to witness it."

"A node of fate?" Harry recalled her various nonsensical divinations.

"Yes... we'll talk about it when we get back." Zhang Qiu bowed to him, looking a bit embarrassed.

"No matter, I think we will have many more opportunities to meet in the future," the adult beside her said. "Well then, excuse us."

After the two of them left, the others departed one after another. Finally, Lupin and Tonks left as well, leaving only Harry and Sirius at the scene.

"Let's go too," Sirius sighed. "So, Bella didn't come up to take a look after all. I reckon she won't be coming to the election either."

"We still have to bury him, right?" Harry scratched his head, puzzled.

"Leaving it here is fine; the coffin is empty," Sirius said. "Regulus would likely still prefer to be buried with the Black family ancestors. I left him at Grimmauld Place."

"Er." Harry glanced at the tombstone not far away. "Then this—"

"Bury me here in the future," Sirius shrugged. "I'd be happy to be closer to James."

"Just consider it two brothers swapping funerals," he said, grabbing Harry's shoulder and leading him away. "To be honest, Regulus was much braver than me and deserves a better funeral. So, when I die, just handle it under Regulus's name."

"It's too early to talk about this!" Harry retorted urgently.

"I don't think it's too early. Actually, Sirius should have died in Azkaban long ago; I only found the meaning of life again because I was playing Regulus," Sirius shook his head with a bitter smile. "This name, or rather this identity, allows me to temporarily forget the mistakes I've made. After all, it wasn't Regulus who was foolish enough to get James killed, nor was it Regulus who threw you into the Muggle World out of self-abandonment. And the one who is about to make great strides in the future can only be Regulus."

"That wasn't your fault either—"

"It's fine, Harry, a name is just a code," Sirius said. "If you find it strange, just ignore the name. Just call me Padfoot, or Godfather."

"That's true, you'll always be my godfather anyway," Harry decided not to dwell on it anymore. "Mr. Padfoot."

This messy account between brothers was temporarily set aside, and Harry returned to school; he still had a belly full of questions he wanted to ask Zhang Qiu.

"According to the divination," Zhang Qiu answered hesitantly at the library table, "don't get angry when I say this."

"Sirius is expected to die at the hands of Bellatrix in the near future," she said, pointing to a line of text.

"That's nonsense!" Harry retorted instinctively. "It was clearly Bellatrix who almost died at the hands of Sirius!"

"But the funeral for 'Sirius' was indeed held," Zhang Qiu shrugged.

"Well, yes... the reason we couldn't hold a funeral directly for Regulus is that Snape wanted to use it to lure Bellatrix, making her think she had found our loophole. And Padfoot still needs to continue his undercover work; his identity cannot be known to other Death Eaters... well, this 'other' mainly refers to Bellatrix's subordinates." Harry calmed his emotions and finally said with a bit of helplessness, "However, I actually feel the main reason is that Padfoot prefers to use Regulus's name and identity to continue doing what he has to do next. It feels like this might not be very good for Regulus himself, but er, maybe their brotherly relationship wasn't that great to begin with..."

"Alright, the primary reason the funeral was held as Sirius's was indeed related to Bellatrix," Harry spread his hands.

"Hmm, that's the reason my Master Uncle and I came to witness it. We didn't expect that actually—" Zhang Qiu scratched her head. "The divination that seemed least likely to come true was realized in such a strange way."

"You said that person is your Master Uncle?" Harry asked.

"Yes, we have a plan—I'll introduce you to him another day," Zhang Qiu said. "Do you remember what I told you that day..."

"Harry!" Ivy ran over in a hurry. "Where did you go this morning? Have you seen the newspaper?"

"What?" Harry was stunned for a moment.

"The newspaper didn't say anything, did it?" Zhang Qiu took a copy of the *Daily Prophet* from a shelf nearby and scanned it at a glance. "Still the same old three things: Hack makes an important speech, Harry Potter shines brilliantly, and the people of the European continent live in dire straits."

"No, it's the *Daily Mail*," Ivy pulled him toward the exit. "Hack is running for office."

"What running for office?" Harry suddenly realized that in some aspect he hadn't been paying attention to, a beautiful thing was about to happen.

"The Muggle government decided to reopen the general election in September, and the Labour Party's candidate leader is Jim Hack. This is too outrageous," Ivy said hurriedly as they walked. "Anna sent me the *Daily Mail* this morning; this is yesterday's news!"

"But the *Daily Prophet* didn't mention a word about it," Zhang Qiu also followed them out in a hurry, trying hard to find clues in the Wizarding World's newspaper. "The front page is Hack visiting a farm, the second page is the introduction of the Magical Artifact Management Act, and the third page is Harry Potter casting a Patronus during the OWL exams..."

They bumped into Hermione head-on.

"Oh, you're here?" Hermione said hurriedly. "Harry, have you seen the newspaper?"

"Yes, I was just about to look," Harry scratched his head. "Ivy left it in the dormitory."

"Looking at this one is fine too," Hermione handed over a copy of *The Guardian*, and a face Harry was very familiar with was shoved right into his face.

"Is it really him?" Harry read with some surprise. "The long-discordant Deputy Eric and Deng Ken have reached a reconciliation and elected Jim Hack as leader... taking economic issues as the main topic, proposing a 'Third Way' to solve the unemployment rate... showing independence on major international issues, launching new plans for the Cold War situation... launching new plans for immigration, crime, anti-terrorism, and other issues..."

"There's more on the back," Hermione reminded him.

"In contrast, the Conservative Party continues to be conservative... internal party differences between the Euro-skeptics and the pro-Europeans... leader changed again... auctioning off Thatcher's portrait?"

"Their finances are in trouble," Hermione said. "The Chancellor of the Exchequer ran away."

"This newspaper writes as if the Labour Party is sure to win," Harry said, puzzled. "Is it that certain?"

"Newspapers are paid too, you know. This at least shows the Labour Party is very rich now," Zhang Qiu commented.

"Of course they're rich, the Ministry of Magic is the richest department," Ivy interjected. "Galleons are using the exchange rate from ten years ago, one to six for Rubles; you tell me if that's not scary."

"Is this what Arnold was plotting?" Harry muttered. "To bring the Ministry of Magic back into the Cabinet?"

"Perhaps Arnold's own focus isn't here," Zhang Qiu patted Harry on the shoulder. "But the Ministry of Magic must have been plotting this for a long time."

"A long time? Not long ago Hack was still asking me whether he should support Eric or Deng Ken," Harry scratched his head.

"I warned you long ago!" Hermione shrieked. "I didn't know, could it be that you instigated him to run himself!"

"Calm down, calm down," Zhang Qiu touched her back. "Objectively speaking, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, is it?"

"But, it's shocking, isn't it?" Ivy said seriously. "I never thought the Minister for Magic would become the Muggle Prime Minister. According to our life in the Wizarding World, I always thought wizards were a vulnerable group."

"As for that, even if Hack becomes Prime Minister, it won't change," Zhang Qiu explained. "The population gap is right there; he can't change the Statute of Secrecy."

"The Statute of Secrecy hasn't been changed before," Hermione said gloomily. "I'm just thinking about this: what if Hack really wants to start some reforms and expose wizards to the public? What would that situation be like?"

"Not necessarily," Harry said, both to comfort her and to convince himself. "Look at Yanayev, how long has he been the Muggle Prime Minister, and he hasn't done anything either."

"That's really hard to say," Zhang Qiu said.

Several people fell into silence. Harry thought of that great explosion. Perhaps Yanayev only dared not touch the Statute of Secrecy under the gaze of Death? What would happen now?

"I mean, it was already like this when Hack was the Minister for Magic," Zhang Qiu said, pointing to the *Daily Prophet* in her hand. "He feels uncomfortable if he doesn't engage in some reform."

"Objectively speaking," Harry used the words she had said, "perhaps changing the Statute of Secrecy isn't necessarily a bad thing."

After another silence, Hermione said "I hope so" and turned into the library.

"Er, are we still going back to the dormitory?" Harry looked at Ivy. "We don't have to look at your newspaper again, do we?"

"I think you'd better go back," Zhang Qiu flipped through the *Daily Prophet* in her hand. "The problem now is, if Hack is sure to ascend to the position of Prime Minister, then who will be the Minister for Magic?"

Harry looked at the large photo of Arthur Wei Silai on the third page of the newspaper and suddenly understood what Zhang Qiu meant. ===== CHAPTER 367 =====