Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 317 The Conflict Between Vaughn and Dumbledore

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My mind raced.

Harry exchanged glances with Dean and Ron, who seemed even more interested than he was—Ron, needless to say, had made a huge sacrifice tonight and wouldn't object to anything related to the club.

As for Dean—Harry had no idea that his roommate was unexpectedly brave (reckless).

Without hesitation, he said, "Let's go!"

They pushed Harry, trying to force their way through the door.

Fortunately, Harry wasn't completely oblivious and knew that the Invisibility Cloak wasn't actually that safe; at least it couldn't block out sound.

It took a lot of coaxing to calm them down. They huddled together, huddled under the invisibility cloak, and tiptoed toward the half-open door.

When the light leaking from inside the door "penetrated" the thin, transparent Invisibility Cloak like wisps of gold dust, Harry vaguely felt as if he had forgotten something.

Poor Neville, squeezed between him, Seamus, Dean, and Ron:

"——"

As Harry approached the door, his expression grew increasingly tense. He quickly forgot about the strangeness and focused all his attention on quietly making no sound.

After all, behind that door are the deans of four colleges and a possible board of directors. If they were exposed, all five of them would be finished!

The closer they got to the door, the clearer the previously muffled noise inside became. When Harry and the others tiptoed in, it was as if they had passed through some kind of barrier. The sounds that were blurry just a second ago suddenly became louder and filled their ears.

"—Don't try to act all high and mighty and try to build connections. I'm not buying it!"

Harry looked closely and saw that the room, like the corridor outside, had forest paintings on the walls that connected the floor and the ceiling.

Surrounded by countless wildly flamboyant "trees," a round table resembling a giant wooden stump stands in the center of the gloomy and empty room.

Wizards dressed in various styles sat around a round table. On the four chairs facing the door sat the four heads of the house: McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Snape.

Opposite them stood a corpulent witch, her skin as pale and lifeless as an amanita mushroom surrounded by decay in a dark forest. She glared at the headmasters with her swollen eyes: "There are no students or teachers here, only Hogwarts faculty and staff and members of the Board of Governors. If you continue to cause trouble, I will exercise my powers as a member of the Board to revoke your attendance and expel you from this meeting room!"

"oh--"

Professor Sprout seemed frightened; his eyes welled with tears, and he covered his mouth, trembling.

Harry saw that Professor McGonagall, sitting next to Professor Sprout, had her thin lips pressed even tighter on her aged and serious face, as if she were using a cold expression to cover up her anger and humiliation.

Professor Flitwick was on her other side, and because he was too short, Harry couldn't see his expression.

All that could be seen across the round table was Alecto Caro, who raised his chin dismissively: "Tsk tsk, how helpless you look. You weren't like this when you were teaching me. And you, Severus."

She looked at Snape.

Because of the angle, Snape was facing away from the door, so Harry and the others couldn't see his face. They could only hear the vicious Alecto's shrill voice: "I always thought you were a loyal man, but today it seems you've stooped to the level of these old geezers, actually joining them in defending that damned Vaughn Weasley club. It's disgustingly stupid!"

Harry heard Snape grunt.

But that's about it.

Snape said nothing.

Beside Alecto, a middle-aged wizard with long platinum blonde hair tapped the table with his cane: "Ahem, alright, don't get too excited, Alecto—by the way, who brought this?"

He changed the subject gracefully and smoothly.

Harry was startled to notice that his gaze was fixed on him—

Oh, wait a minute!

He was looking at the fruit tea.

Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry and the others, their hearts suddenly clenching, covered their mouths and watched as Fruit Tea swaggered in before Professor McGonagall and squatted down beside her.

"She's Vaughn Weasley's pet, and I'll be looking after her for now."

"What a lovely little creature, but I think you should know, Professor McGonagall, that it shouldn't be in this sacred meeting room."

"Hmph, does the esteemed member of the school board intend to judge a cat's overstepping of its bounds?"

"Alas, you hold too many prejudices against us. I know Alecto's words may not be pleasant, but her intentions are not wrong. The wizarding world has entrusted the Board of Governors with the oversight function, which is both a power and a responsibility. We cannot allow anything that could affect Hogwarts' teaching mission to appear at will, like this cat that shouldn't be here, or that dueling club!"

The middle-aged wizard's voice was soft and elegant, carefully controlling his intonation.

Despite not having much contact with him, his pretentious manner and signature platinum long hair made it easy for the three people besides Harry and Ron to quickly recognize who he was.

Lucius Malfoy!

Malfoy always talked about his father, who was a member of the school board!

Dean couldn't help but open his mouth as if to say something, but the others quickly stopped him. The invisibility cloak draped over his head swayed, reflecting a few barely visible rays of light.

In the distance, Snape, who had been facing away from this direction, suddenly turned around.

The dim indoor lighting cast his face in shadow, and Harry and the other four held their breath, their hearts pounding like drums.

Fortunately, after glancing in this direction for a while, Snape seemed not to notice anything amiss and turned back around.

Harry glared at Dean, mouthing him to stop being foolish. Seeing Dean nod in agreement, Harry gestured for Seamus to keep an eye on him before continuing to focus on the round table.

When Harry left his dorm today, he never expected that Fruit Tea would lead them to the board meeting.

Since he was already there, he wasn't in a hurry to have Fruit Tea summon Fox. On the one hand, the cat was squatting at Professor McGonagall's feet, doing something.

On the other hand, he also wanted to hear what the committee members' attitudes were towards the Duel Club.

Judging from the conversation I just overheard, the four house heads, including Snape, should all be on the side of supporting the Duel Club. Harry wasn't surprised by this; everyone knows how much Snape favors Slytherin, not to mention that the Duel Club was started by Vaughn.

Snape never hid his boundless favoritism towards Vaughn.

Exclude the deans.

Harry's main focus was on the other 12 committee members sitting around the round table. He did not simply assume that these committee members were on the opposite side just because of the attitudes of Alecto Caro and Lucius Malfoy.

Having spent a lot of time with Vaughn, Harry heard many of Vaughn's views on handling C matters, even without specifically studying him.

What impressed him most was Vaughn's analysis of "organization".

An organization is not a whole; it is composed of individuals. As human beings, we have free will, which, in a broader sense, means the protection of our own interests and the resistance to the interests of others.

The essence of an organization is to serve individuals. The whole it embodies is merely the result of compromises between individuals, and compromises are often very fragile!

Of course, Harry didn't fully understand the reasons behind this, but at least he was aware of it.

In the following period, he tried to analyze whether the current board of directors had reached a "compromise" and where the so-called vulnerability lay.

To be frank, he did observe some things.

For example, the school board's stance on the dueling club was far more noisy and complicated than he had imagined—some were outright opposed, like Alecto Caro, while others were more opposed but not so resolutely, such as Lucius Malfoy.

Yes, although Lucius Malfoy didn't say anything nice at first and seemed to be in cahoots with Alecto Caro.

But Harry noticed that whenever the bloated Alecto Caro got a little heated, Lucius Malfoy would naturally step in to ease the tension.

Harry also noticed that two other wizards on the committee, dressed in a dignified manner and with a demeanor similar to Carol and Malfoy, were following their lead.

But these two never took the lead; they always just echoed each other without discussing anything practical.

Besides these four, the other eight are similar; some support the Duel Club, while others are more perfunctory, like fence-sitters.

For example, two of the older wizards whom Professor McGonagall referred to as representatives of the Ministry of Magic were initially thought by Harry to be as unpleasant as Fudge.

But as the meeting intensified and Alector Caro forced the committee members to vote, those two "fence-sitters" actually sided with the professors.

The three wizards whom Harry had observed, who seemed to have a good relationship with the professors and frequently mentioned "Dumbledore" and "Weasley," and who appeared to be quite close to and admired them, actually voted against it along with Carol.

Harry, who had nearly lost his mind over the complicated situation, felt dizzy and had no idea how long the meeting had been going on.

All that is known is that the final result was that the vote ended with 4 people in favor of restoring the Duel Club's functions, 4 people against, and 4 people abstaining.

Lucius Malfoy also abstained from voting!

Harry and the others were speechless.

The bizarre situation made them forget even about fruit tea. They returned to their dorm in silence, still not quite able to process what had happened.

After a long silence, Dean's incredulous exclamation echoed through the dormitory: "Malfoy's father actually abstained?"

Seamus stroked his chin: "Yes, it's unbelievable. And those three old wizards, I always thought they were on Vaughn's side. They said more than once how much their family's young wizards had been taken care of by Vaughn in North America, and how they even helped the professors argue with Carlo a few times—but in the end, they actually voted against it!"

"."

""

Ron opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but he had nothing to say. Only the bewildered expression on his face revealed the blankness of his mind.

Harry was equally at a loss for words.

Unlike Ron, however, he was more perceptive. He was certain that the three old wizards genuinely admired Dumbledore and had a good relationship with Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick.

In particular, when they argued with Carlo, Carlo called them "Dumbledore's lackeys."

He didn't think it was Carlo's angry words, but rather a statement of fact.

"So, they're Dumbledore's men—but why did they vote against it? Why did the Ministry of Magic commissioners support Vaughn instead?"

A deep sense of doubt lingered in Harry's mind. He suddenly felt that contacting Dumbledore, trying to persuade him to return and support Vaughn—seemed rather unreliable.

My thoughts are in a state of confusion.

"Meow!"

A cat's meow startled the group awake.

Fruit Tea followed us back.

The enormous cat had a cloth bag in its mouth, and its huge eyes were staring intently at Ron.

Ron suddenly shuddered.

"You guys are absolutely insane!"

At the Gryffindor long table, Hermione stared wide-eyed, offering her sharp critique of Harry's group of five.

Just now, Hermione learned about the five boys' experience of sneaking into the castle at night wearing invisibility cloaks. Dean, Seamus, and Neville told her this themselves—there are no secrets in the world of 12 or 13-year-old boys, and expecting them to keep quiet is wishful thinking.

Moreover, the events that occurred at the board meeting kept the group tossing and turning for half the night, unable to understand them. They desperately needed a strategist to help them clarify the situation.

Hermione is undoubtedly an excellent choice—she's smart, and she's Vaughn's girlfriend.

To their disappointment, Hermione coldly rejected them: "If I were you, I would abandon my foolish actions before being discovered, and pretend that the so-called night out never happened, and that stumbling upon the Board of Governors was a complete fabrication—especially you, Harry!"

Harry, who was scooping porridge with a spoon, stopped abruptly, stiffly turned his head, and saw the girl's gaze gradually turn serious as she stared at him: "I remember what we said before, no more nighttime outings, no more leaving the tower without permission, no more leaving safe places without permission."

As she spoke, she slammed the notebook in her hand down.

Harry, understanding her implication, scratched his reddened ear somewhat awkwardly, wanting to argue, but seeing his friends openly eavesdropping beside him, he could only swallow his words.

The matter of that strange notebook should not be known to more people.

Yes, Harry didn't trust the little lions' boundless curiosity at all. If Dean, Seamus, and Neville were allowed to—oh, Neville might not try, but if Dean and Seamus knew there was now a diary in the castle that could communicate with people, they would definitely try every means to get their hands on it.

caveat?

Warnings mean no harm to the brave Gryffindors!

Just like him.

After a huffy Hermione left, Harry spread his hands like a handshake among his friends: "See, I told you, Hermione is different from us."

"She's nothing like a Gryffindor," Dean said, scoffing.

"I think listening to her and forgetting about what happened in the early hours of the morning isn't so bad—"

"Navi said weakly."

But everyone ignored his suggestion.

"Perhaps it's because she's too smart," Seamus said, rubbing his chin. "Smart people can always suppress their true nature, but I think she'll eventually understand what the real problem is. As Harry analyzed, it's obvious that our beloved Headmaster and Vaughn seem to have some kind of conflict—"

"Suspected, suspected, Seamus," Harry quickly reminded him.

He glanced at him and Seamus pursed his lips: "Okay, suspected—in any case, our previous plan to contact Dumbledore using Phoenix Fawkes is no longer applicable. Before we understand Dumbledore's intentions, contacting him rashly could disrupt the balance of the Board of Governors. You all saw it yesterday, 4:4:4, a perfect equilibrium."

"Hey guys, don't look so gloomy. This is at least good news. We know who supports Vaughn, who opposes him, who is adamant that we don't need to waste any more time on them, and who is more wavering and there's room for negotiation. And we've done all this with almost nothing—"

Before he could finish speaking, a soft voice interrupted him: "Yes, we didn't contribute anything; all we gave was a disgusting, fat rat!"

It was Ron. He was pale and exuded a low-pressure aura, as if he carried a shadow that could make people depressed.

The dining table fell silent for a moment. The sounds of playing and making noise around them, near and far, could not drown out the faint, muffled sound of the iron cage being pounded, which seemed to be under a spell.

Dean peeked under the table, then crawled back out and reassured Ron, "The cage is very sturdy, Fruit Tea can't be opened, and Scabbers is perfectly safe for now."

"Thank you, Dean, but I think Banban might be safer if there wasn't a cat outside the cage waving its evil claws at it!"

Overwhelmed with worry, Ron, his face pale, instinctively clutched his collar, as if his heart ached so much he couldn't breathe: "Merlin, since you decided not to contact Dumbledore, why did you still succumb to that evil cat, handing Scabbers over to her and satisfying her wicked pleasures?"

Everyone started to speak.

"Not contacting Dumbledore is only temporary. Compared to Lucius Malfoy and those two bastards at the Ministry of Magic, I'd rather trust Dumbledore. So we need PinB, we need to have phoenix feathers, so we can get the headmaster back at any time."

"Yes, the Duel Club is the most important. All the hardships we endured have resulted in us protecting the light and preserving the future."

"Besides, we didn't really sacrifice Banban. At worst, I'll buy a dozen or so female mice to make up for it during the holidays. They can be any kind of mouse, hamster, squirrel, or even beaver if Banban doesn't mind."

Dean's words shocked everyone: "A beaver is a rat?"

Dean shrugged: "This is how I learned Muggle biology."

"The beaver is so big, can Banban handle it?"

"Look how fat and chubby Banban is, maybe it just likes big things?"

The conversation quickly veered off course amidst the confusion, shyness, and longing of adolescence.

Even Ron temporarily forgot about his beloved pet's misfortune. It wasn't until after breakfast, when Guoguocha had played to her heart's content and wagged her tail and walked away, that Ron picked up the battered iron cage, looked at Banban's lifeless eyes inside, and shed tears of heartache.