Volume 6: Summer at Spider's End Alley Chapter 442 Prince
As to how the public trial would be conducted, John had actually discussed it with Dumbledore before he left England with Lily.
Apart from the execution and how to conduct the trial, the most certain consensus between him and Dumbledore was that this public trial must not leave the impression on everyone that it was just a blood conflict, with Muggles judging purebloods, and all purebloods were guilty, while all oppressed Muggles were kind.
This is obviously wrong, because there is no shortage of pure-blood wizards in both the Order of the Phoenix and the Wizarding Horizon. Although they are only a minority, their emotions still need to be taken into consideration.
If it is just a pure-blood trial, or if the trial focuses only on bloodline, then perhaps the pure-bloods in the Order of the Phoenix will not say anything when watching the trial, but if some words like "all pure-bloods are villains" are spread afterwards, they will definitely feel disheartened.
And through this public trial, Dumbledore and others also want to make one thing clear to all students and even wizards in the outside wizarding world.
What they are preparing to overthrow and defeat is the theory of bloodline, not just pure-blood wizards!
This is very important because once the target is wrong, even if they win the final victory, there is a high possibility that another confrontation will be triggered.
At that time, the pure-bloods would become the lower class of society, while the Muggles would become the upper class, and history would repeat itself in an inverted way, until one day it might be reversed again.
Muggles like Henderson are obviously accomplices in the bloodline theory, and in Hogwarts Castle, the Muggles living in the basements actually do n't have much contact with pure-blood students in most cases. These high-ranking masters even feel ashamed to breathe the same air with them. A lot of their oppression and management are achieved by training traitors, that is, people like Henderson.
Therefore, it is better to bring out people like Henderson to judge the purebloods for some things, which will have a greater impact on the hearts of the punks.
Slughorn, who was sitting in the audience, could naturally think of all these things very clearly. After all the charges were confirmed, Henderson naturally could not escape the fate of death.
In the midst of the fury, he became the second person to be hanged on the gallows.
Slughorn looked at Henderson's still swaying body, and for some reason he suddenly realized that his previous thoughts were wrong.
He thought that if Voldemort was really defeated in the future, the wizarding world would return to the state . But now he felt that if the situation continued in this way, the wizarding world would move in a completely new direction.
A completely new direction that no one has ever seen and no one can predict!
Of course, this public trial would not end just after the trial of two people. There were still many people queuing up behind them, and they were pulled onto the platform one by one.
Among these people there were pure-bloods, half-bloods, and hemp-bloods, and most of them had committed heinous crimes. The gallows erected on the high platform also played its maximum role, hanging eight former students of the castle in a row!
The oldest of these people, like Henderson and Flint, are already 18 years old, while the youngest is only 15 years old.
She was the eldest daughter of a pure-blood family, and one of the worst among the eight people hanged. She had already killed two hemp-blooded slaves!
This was not instigated by her parents. They were just jealous and hated that the two Muggle girls were prettier than her, so they had their faces burned with a spell and their families killed in front of them. The reason was that they wanted to experiment how to drive a normal person crazy.
Although 17 years old is considered an adult among wizards, there has never been a "XXX Protection Act" in the wizarding world, not to mention that this is during wartime, and this kind of behavior extremely touches the moral bottom line of mankind.
None of those who were brought to the platform later were as anti-human as the first eight.
Although the nature of their crimes was equally bad, for example, the two pure-blood witches who had previously served as witnesses to testify against Flint, persecuted Asia, and served as Floyd's accomplices, could at least be spared from death because they were not the masterminds and were willing to testify later to make amends.
But after the first eight public trials, the emotions of all the students in the audience were obviously aroused. They looked at everyone brought up on the stage as if they were evil villains with heinous crimes. Take the two pure-blood witches. Before McGonagall had even finished reading out the charges against them, there was a chorus of "Hang them!" from the audience.
They were both so frightened that they nearly fainted on the spot, and they collapsed on the platform, unable to stand up straight.
Fortunately, the role of McGonagall, Flitwick and Lupin on the stage was to prevent such a situation from happening. In the end, the two witches were not sentenced to hanging, but to 15 years in prison.
This is why, although they followed Floyd to harm the punks, they did not kill anyone, and Asia did not really die in the end, otherwise it would not have been only 15 years.
Draco also watched all the public trials.
He was not chosen for public trial. In the final analysis, he was arrogant and had a bad personality, but he had not or did not have the courage to do so many evil things.
Lucius' own hands were dirty, but out of protection for his family, he did not let his son touch those things. Also, because of the existence of the house-elf Dobby, the Malfoy family did not accept Muggles as slaves, which left him little room to make mistakes.
Therefore, after being brought to France, he confessed everything he had done in Hogwarts Castle in a panic without any threats. In fact, he just occasionally mocked and insulted some half-bloods, and nothing more serious happened.
In his case, there was no need for a public trial. He only had to write a self-criticism in private and then be assigned to labor reform for a period of time.
But after watching the public trial today, Draco was still greatly affected, especially when he saw those faces, which were not unfamiliar to him, being hung on the gallows, kicking their legs weakly, and finally completely stopping breathing. Even when he was sitting in the chair, he felt his legs go weak and his body couldn't help but tremble.
Unlike the original novel, when Britain was completely ruled by Voldemort, Draco was exposed to a more complete education on the theory of bloodline since childhood.
Just like the Muggles who were brought to Hogwarts Castle were taught from childhood that they were inferior people and slaves, the new generation of noble pure-bloods were also taught from childhood that they were superior and naturally stronger and nobler than others.
Before meeting John, Draco firmly believed in this theory. Even after meeting John, he always comforted himself in his heart that John was just an outlier among the Pimps.
But today, when five familiar pure-blood corpses among the eight hanged people were wandering before his eyes, the concepts that had been shaped in his mind over the past fifteen years were truly shattered!
What is born noble?
On that gallows, bloodline, identity, status, everything is false. It makes no difference whether one has bloodline or not, one will be hanged amid public anger and condemnation!
Of course Draco had no recollection of Voldemort taking over his body that day in the castle. The only memory left in his mind was what John had said to him before he fell into a coma. He said that if the wizarding world won, his father would definitely die, but he still had a chance .
He was very angry at that time, extremely angry, but after hearing the charges of those who were hanged today, he knew that what Jon said was right.
Just because Lucius's men were stained with the blood of Order of the Phoenix members, there was no way he could still be alive.
Unless he made a great contribution to assassinate Voldemort and liberate the whole of Britain, Dumbledore would not be able to keep him even if he wanted to, not to mention that Dumbledore had no reason to keep him at all.
Draco himself knew clearly that with his father's fence-sitter personality, he would never do anything risky before the situation became clear, which meant that as long as Dumbledore's side won, he would be dead for sure!
Draco thought of this, and at the same time he saw the Mach students who were sitting on their chairs, covering their faces and crying after each public trial.
He looked at the students who were about his age and felt a certain complexity in his mood.
He had never considered the so-called "Mudbloods" to be normal people before, because that was the education he had received since childhood.
But only today did he truly realize that these people who were buried in the ground due to the theory of bloodline could also cry and laugh, and apart from their different births, they were not inherently inferior to anyone else.
…
Jon and Lily returned to the Spider's Tail Alley.
Even if they had a list of ingredients, they would not be able to find out more information about what medicine Snape was making for Voldemort.
Sometimes the magic of potions is even more magical than magic. Not to mention vague ingredients, even if there is a specific list of ingredients, no potion master would dare to confirm a certain potion based on this list.
Because in addition to the potion formulas that have been explored and discovered over thousands of years, new potions appear in the wizarding world almost every once in a while.
Not to mention that the potion Voldemort needed must be extraordinary, otherwise it would not be so hidden, even hiding it from the second Voldemort in his body.
Therefore, it was obviously unwise to check what the potion was in this situation. They only needed to catch Snape again, and then they could ask any questions.
Besides, regardless of whether there was the potion clue or not, Lily would definitely only follow Snape.
"When Snape was brought to France, shouldn't we have fed him Veritaserum and interrogated him? Why didn't we find out about the potion?"
Jon asked confusedly as they walked along the river near Spider's Tail Alley.
He felt that even if Dumbledore wanted to do something, he wouldn't have been able to plan it out at that time.
Lily just said calmly.
"He has made great achievements in Occlumency. Our people have verified this after bringing him back from England. With this ability, if he wants, he can circumvent not only Legilimency but also Veritaserum and give some false information."
Jon nodded thoughtfully.
He himself was well versed in Occlumency, but knew only that it was resistant to Legilimency, and had never experimented with Veritaserum, so he was not clear on that point.
"Then professor, how can you be sure that Snape is most likely still in this city and not going anywhere else?" Jon asked.
Lily did not directly answer Jon's question, but asked back.
"Do you know why Snape chose the pseudonym Prince?"
Jon shook his head. He obviously didn't know much about Snape's past. He only knew that Snape had given himself the childish title of "Half-Blood Prince" when he was young, and that the word "Prince" if used as a name or surname would be Prince.
When he first heard the pseudonym Prince, he thought that this old bat man was still a middle-aged man and still wanted others to call him Prince.
"His mother's name is Irene Prince, and this last name is her mother's last name."
After hearing Lily's words, Jon showed an expression of realization on his face.
However, Lily showed no shyness about her childhood past and continued.
"I have known him since childhood. He was the one who first told me about magic, wizards, and Hogwarts. It was near Spinner's End Alley, where there used to be a lawn."
"His mother was a pure-blood wizard and a very gentle woman, but his family was not good. His father hated everything about wizards and had a tendency to violence. So at that time he actually hated his father and did not like his last name Snape. He secretly called himself Prince."
Jon blinked.
"so?"
"So he actually still has feelings for his mother, and this has not disappeared because he joined the Death Eaters. Otherwise, he would not have been using the name Prince until now when choosing a pseudonym."
Lily looked at the huge chimney in the distance that was still spewing black smoke into the sky, and spoke softly.
"So, I conclude that if he really stays in England and does not return to his master, Snape will definitely stay in this city. The most dangerous place is actually the safest, and this is his and his mother's home."
Her analysis was well-reasoned and Jon also thought it made sense.
"But this city is not small. Where should we start looking?"
"You don't have to be so anxious just because you care about me. I've waited for so many years, and I won't be impatient just for a few days. It's so late now , let's find a place to stay first."
