Chapter 366: Partisan Play

Just as the eulogy had stated, some of those present had absolutely no desire to see the others ever again. As soon as the funeral ended, Bellatrix couldn't wait to Apparate away. Lucius gave a slight nod to 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."

"Node of fate?" Harry recalled her various messy divinations.

"Yes... we'll talk about it when we get back." Zhang Qiu bowed to him with some embarrassment.

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

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, Bellatrix didn't come up to take a look after all. I guess she probably won't come to participate in the election either."

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

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

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

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

"Just consider it as 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 eagerly.

"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 stupid enough to get James killed, nor was it Regulus who abandoned you in the Muggle World because of self-abandonment. And the one who is about to make a big splash 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, don't worry about the name; just call me Padfoot, or Godfather."

"That's true, you'll always be my godfather anyway," Harry stopped dwelling on it. "Mr. Padfoot."

This muddled account between brothers was temporarily put 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 likely to die at the hands of Bellatrix in the near future." She pointed to a line of text.

"Nonsense!" Harry retorted subconsciously. "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 this 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 some helplessness, "However, I actually feel the main reason is that Padfoot is more willing to use Regulus's name and identity to continue doing what he needs to do next. It feels like doing this might not be very good for Regulus himself, but uh, maybe their brotherly relationship wasn't that great to begin with..."

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

"Hmm, that's why my Master and I came to witness it; we didn't expect that—" Zhang Qiu scratched her head. "The divination that was least likely to be fulfilled was fulfilled in such a strange way."

"You said that person is your Master?" 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!" Eve 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 doesn't say anything, right?" Zhang Qiu took a copy of the *Daily Prophet* from the shelf nearby and scanned it ten lines at a time. "Still the same old three things: Hacker makes an important speech, Harry Potter shines, and the people of the European continent are living in dire straits."

"No, it's the *Daily Mail*." Eve pulled him away. "Hacker is running for office."

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

"The Muggle government has decided to reopen the general election in September, and the Labour Party's candidate leader is Jim Hacker; this is too outrageous." Eve 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 out in a hurry, trying to find traces in the Wizarding World's newspaper. "The front page is Hacker 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 in 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. "Eve left it in the dormitory."

"Look at this one 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-feuding Deputy Eric and Duncan have reached a reconciliation and elected Jim Hacker 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 a new plan 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 Eurosceptics and the pro-Europeans... leader changed again... auctioning 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 bound to win." Harry said with some doubt. "Can't be, right?"

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

"Of course they're rich, the Ministry of Magic is the richest department." Eve interjected. "Galleons are using the exchange rate from ten years ago; isn't it scary to exchange one for six rubles?"

"Is this what Arnold is plotting?" Harry muttered. "Letting the Ministry of Magic return to 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 for a long time."

"A long time? Not long ago Hacker was still asking me whether he should support Eric or Duncan." Harry scratched his head.

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

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

"But it's shocking, isn't it?" Eve said seriously. "I never thought the Minister of 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 this, even if Hacker becomes Prime Minister, it won't change." Zhang Qiu explained. "The population gap is there; he can't change the Statute of Secrecy."

"The Statute of Secrecy hasn't been modified before, has it?" Hermione said gloomily. "I'm just thinking about this. What if Hacker really wants to launch 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 big explosion. Perhaps Yanayev didn't dare to touch the Statute of Secrecy under the gaze of Death? What would happen now?

"I mean, it was already like this when Hacker was the Minister of Magic," Zhang Qiu pointed to the *Daily Prophet* in her hand. "He feels uncomfortable if he doesn't engage in some reforms."

"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.

"Uh, are we still going back to the dormitory?" Harry looked at Eve. "No need to look at your newspaper again, right?"

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

Harry looked at the big photo of Arthur Weasley on the third page of the newspaper and suddenly understood what Zhang Qiu meant.