Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 334 The World is in Prosperity

Dumbledore had been a little distracted just now.

For some reason, looking at these noisy wizards, he suddenly felt a little tired.

According to Grindelwald, at his age, wouldn't it be better to enjoy his final days? Why should he get himself stuck in this mess, worrying and working hard for wizards he doesn't actually like? Is it really worth it?

Grindelwald said he was power-hungry, but Dumbledore didn't think so. He didn't actually have much of an obsession with power. When he looked at these wizards, what came to mind was... pity, compassion, mercy, and care.

They were all too young, like the wizards who clamored to exterminate Murphy's people. Dumbledore saw his younger self and Grindelwald in them, while in the moderate opponents he saw his middle-aged self, or those silent, serious, and rarely speaking neutrals—how much they resembled Aberforth.

From the perspective of an elder who has lived for over a hundred years, he can see his former self in almost everyone. He can understand them, sympathize with them, and therefore he can be tolerant of them.

He could accept their mistakes because he had made mistakes himself; he could accept their ambitions for power because he had also felt the fatal attraction of power; and he even had deep sympathy and pity for some Death Eaters, and even Voldemort.

He deeply understands the fragility of human nature, the insignificance of humanity, and the selfishness and fickleness of the mind. Therefore, he understands the complexity of others and their inability to control their own destiny.

He saw everyone struggling in their own battlefield, and he wanted to lend a helping hand as much as possible, but too much experience told him that he was better off standing by.

However, he cannot do nothing.

As the individual with the most information and the greatest ability, he must shoulder more responsibility than others; at the very least, he must avoid the worst possible outcomes.

"Yes, if you mean whether Murphy Darkholm is that powerful, then yes, he is already one of the most powerful wizards in the world."

If Gellert were here, he would surely laugh at himself for telling the truth again.

This truth will only bring pressure, fear, and a sense of threat to the wizards, causing them to make decisions that are detrimental to the direction they want to guide.

However, honesty is one of the few admirable qualities he can uphold, and he cannot sacrifice these "small principles" for the "greater good."

Sure enough, the wizards started to riot again.

"If even you can't defeat him, who can?" someone asked in a panic.

"Perhaps we should avoid a direct confrontation with Murphy, which would be suicide." Someone backed down.

But some people wanted something else: "We've heard the prisoners of Nurmengard have been released. Some even say that there were others present during the battle between you and Murphy."

"The Chairman isn't answering your question, sir!" an American Auror stood up and snapped. "Let's get back to the most important question, Chairman: what are your thoughts on how to handle the Murphy Darkholm affair?"

"I don't believe all of Murphy's followers are absolutely loyal to him, and we don't need to exterminate them all. Narrow the scope, reduce the number of enemies, punish only the ringleaders, and let bygones be bygones," Dumbledore said.

This was an idealistic initiative, but he preferred an even more idealistic proposal. However, as the president of the federation, he could not act according to his own preferences; he had to come up with a feasible solution to prevent people from continuing to argue about this issue.

"I second that!"

"I second that!"

Before long, the moderates raised their hands in agreement.

However, half of the people in the audience still did not raise their hands.

"Those British Aurors and Watchmen won't think we're innocent. If we want to stop Murphy, we'll inevitably have to fight them. Do you think we can just make them surrender with a few words?"

"It is certainly right to use force to defend oneself when necessary," Dumbledore said.

As soon as he finished speaking, that feeling of exhaustion returned. He knew that someone would take this as an excuse to wage a full-scale war against British wizards.

There will also be people who will use the pretext of attacking Murphy to try to take over Murphy's businesses.

Murphy's enormous wealth and the methods he used to accumulate it fueled their greed; every ambitious person felt they could become the next Murphy.

Murphy really set a very bad precedent.

……

The meeting ultimately convicted Murphy of 56 counts, making him the world's most wanted criminal, with a reward of 30,000 Galleons.

But apart from that, no substantial decisions were made.

International pressure? Even the British Ministry of Magic has withdrawn from the agreement.

Using Muggle society to crack down on those protecting them? The Muggles won't listen.

So the only option left is force, but the chairman clearly doesn't want to start a war in Britain.

As for attacking Murphy's Muggle factory—is it something a proper wizard would do to attack a group of Muggles who are unaware of their crimes? Of course, some people would think that in private, but no one would say it openly.

The meeting ended hastily without making any effective decisions.

But this clearly does not meet the expectations of some people.

After the meeting, many wizards rallied together in small groups, and eventually, in another castle, a small joint meeting was secretly held, excluding Dumbledore and the moderates.

There were only seventeen or eighteen people present, but each of them held a high position of power in their respective countries' Ministries of Magic.

"Dumbledore's really senile!" someone immediately bombarded the guild master. "At a time like this, he's still thinking about reducing the enemy? How is that possible? Does anyone in Britain listen to him anymore?!"

"I heard some of his men are still active," a wizard said, "but they're barely alive."

"Alright, enough of that. Are you all here to discuss how to protect the peace of the wizarding world?" one wizard scoffed.

The others fell silent.

Another bald American wizard stood up. "Gentlemen," he said, "you are all prominent figures in your respective countries' wizarding communities, some even holding hereditary noble titles for hundreds of years. I would like to ask you all, how many gold coins do you have in your vaults?"

No one spoke, so the American wizard asked again, "Do you know how many gold coins Murphy has in his vault?"

"Ha, they don't need to hoard gold coins in the vault anymore. Gringotts—oh, it's now called the Central Bank of British Wizarding—the entire bank belongs to them. They can just say whatever they want in the British wizarding world, and money will just fall into their laps."

“That’s right,” said the American wizard, “and the origin of all this is the Umbrella Corporation. To be honest, I don’t care about secrecy laws or anything like that, and I don’t think there’s any big problem selling a little watered-down potion to Muggles. If there’s a way to bypass the Ministry of Magic and make money off Muggles, I’d be happy to do it. This Murphy is clearly one of us.”

"But he's made a huge fuss, and now he's attracting attention. Murphy wants to get rid of him, but what about his protectors?"

"You want to swallow the protective umbrella whole?" someone scoffed. "Aren't you afraid of bursting?"

(End of this chapter)