Recruiting Soldiers and Buying Fathers

It was only then that he should have said, "I'm sorry to have made you laugh, Edmund." But Lucius had completely lost the will to pretend. The Slytherin Major, with his peacock-like white face, was ashen, his gaze sweeping over Harrison devoid of emotion.

Edmund knew what Lucius was thinking.

Lucius wanted to continue teaching Harrison a lesson, to leave him with a truly profound one. But to be honest, finding the right balance was quite difficult.

If Lucius were alert enough and valued his life enough, he would have realized what Harrison's actions just now meant:

Harrison had one thing in common, maybe only one... he wanted Lucius dead.

Or perhaps he didn't care whether that last move had killed his prefect.

If Lucius had died, that would have been fine; but if Lucius had survived? Well, things would have turned out the way they are now.

It seems that Harrison is the most valuable person in the world, and perhaps his situation is no different from now.

This judgment was based on the fact that the elderly mixed-race man had not panicked until now. He stared at Lucius from below with an unbelievably cold expression, his eyes vacant.

Instead, the latter refused to look him in the eye and refused to stop his bleeding.

If he had to say, Edmund even thought the two men looked somewhat alike at that moment. Without a doubt, the culprit who turned Harrison into what he is today is Lucius himself.

That's why Edmund felt Lucius had a hard time finding the right balance in "teaching a lesson".

How would you punish a servant who barely cares about your life?

If Lucius were truly a nobleman, he could have simply hanged Harrison and displayed his body on the city walls.

But what is the reality? In reality, both Lucius and Harrison are Hogwarts students. Not to mention Dumbledore, if Lucius's behavior were truly outrageous, even Professor Slughorn would not tolerate him.

...This is ridiculous. The pure-blood theory, this carefully crafted ideology, can be shaken to this extent with just a powerful spell from a blood pack.

If Lucius doesn't make Harrison suffer, how will he maintain the hierarchical system he painstakingly built? If Lucius really leaves Harrison with a lifelong disability... does he not want a diploma and is preparing to study in Azkaban?

However, the Malfoy family might not actually care about this.

But the adorable Democracy was not about to let this opportunity slip by.

"A great teacher produces a great student, Prefect!" Edmund said with bright eyes and unprecedented respect.

"Even such an unassuming student possesses such talent—I'm truly impressed with our college!"

At this moment, he seemed more like a child of his age than ever before. It was as if he had received an early birthday present.

Lucius felt a strange dizziness as Edmund gazed at him with reverence into his eyes, which resembled Dumbledore's.

He had long wanted to gain Soman's trust and favor, and he had made many efforts to do so.

But had this ungrateful little thing ever looked at him with such admiration before? No! That hateful little German, he really is stubborn and only worships wizards who can subdue people with force!

...However, in any case, his efforts had finally paid off. Thinking of this, Lucius instinctively smiled.

He was, of course, unaware that he had been influenced by the genie. Edmund intensified his desire to "befriend Soman the Younger" in order to divert his anger.

"Oh, Edmund."

Lucius paused, his intimacy seemingly without a trace of pretense. He complained:

"If you hold others to today's standards, haha, you'll probably have a hard time making any new friends."

Edmund wore a proud expression, as if he believed only Lucius was worthy of being his friend. The young German even pulled out his wand and waved it around with a smile, clearly imitating Lucius's gestures.

Then he paused, as if he had thought of something.

"Are all our activities this exciting, Class Leader? What if, well, someone else gets injured like him? What then?"

Edmund's face held a cruel excitement, yet he forced a nonchalant smile.

Lucius could sense his closeness from his tone. This pleased him.

"Oh, you're interested? Why don't you take a guess?" Lucius said, teasing a child. "Here's a hint: if Mrs. Pomfrey from the university hospital finds out this idiot has gotten himself into this mess, you're in big trouble!"

Edmund scoffed inwardly, his expression remaining innocent. He narrowed his eyes, as if he had truly pondered for a moment before arriving at his answer.

"It seems the Malfoy family is covering all the costs, from the healing potions to other damages incurred here?"

"Wow, that's a lot of money!" Edmund said with a laugh. "It must have taken a lot of favors to get so many potions—did you run this all yourself, Prefect?"

Lucius couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Only then did Lucius finally calm down after being flattered by Edmund. He gestured with his chin toward Harrison, and a tall, strong upperclassman walked over, waved his wand three times, and then cast a spell to stop Harrison's bleeding.

"Don't try to fool me, Edmund," Lucius said, half-jokingly. "Do you think we care about such a small amount of money?"

"Others may not know... but how could they not know? Edmund, Edmund—if you were studying at Durmstrang, you would have done even more outrageous things than I have."

Tsk.

Here we go again! This is such a boring exchange. Does this person just have to beat around the bush to speak?!

But for the sake of his beautiful vision, Edmund still forced himself to exchange a few more pleasantries with Lucius.

Putting aside Lucius's roundabout nonsense, his meaning was quite simple.

This guy was still flattering old Mr. Soman, implying that given old Mr. Soman's status, his only son would only care more about his influence among young wizards.

This is actually quite subtle. Lucius's words seem to be comparing the Malfoys to the Somans—which, to Edmund, sounds rather presumptuous.

Let's set aside the existence of the magic lamp for now. Just consider Oscar Soman's current official position as the Deputy Minister of Magic in Germany, practically considered Grindelwald's successor;

As far as Edmund knew, Lucius's father, Abraxas Malfoy, did not hold a position in the core departments of the British Ministry of Magic; in fact, his family's position as a school board member was more valuable than his father's.

However, the Malfoys are indeed older than the Somans, and can be considered "old money." The Somans, on the other hand, can only be described as newly rich.

Edmund's father was of pure blood, but that was all. The Soman surname only became so famous in the generation of old Mr. Soman.

Therefore, as a newly emerging force, and if we exclude the mixed political legacy left by Grindelwald, old Soman certainly needed talent. He lacked a core group completely loyal to him.

If Lucius hadn't been without sisters, Edmund would almost have thought that Lucius was after his body and wanted to use marriage or some other means to get in touch with the Somans.

Just as this thought crossed Edmund's mind, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he vaguely touched upon another possibility.

Why would the Malfoy family, who are just "old money" and have had setbacks in their careers, reopen the "Duel Club" at the school, making it seem like they are recruiting and trying to win people over?

Edmund's expression changed strangely.

Unfortunately, Lucius didn't turn around and couldn't see the sinister look on Edmund's face.

……

Five years ago, old Mr. Soman still held the three magical artifacts of the genie.

Because of some mishaps at work, he offended someone he couldn't afford to offend, so Oscar Soman had to hand over the mask symbolizing "life" to his wife, and let her and their son go abroad first... to Dumbledore's territory to avoid trouble.

But he never imagined that the beast he had enraged was also from England. The pale wizard killed six-year-old Edmund and stole the mask the genie used to deceive Death.

Old Soman wasn't really a good-for-nothing after all. He regretted it, he hated it—he cursed that beast to a terrible death—and he rushed home as soon as he found out the man's name.

Old Soman spoke tenderly to his son's corpse, the genie's body:

The killer's name was Voldemort, and he had already started a new business in England, where he fanatically promoted the theory of pure blood and kept recruiting pure-blood families into his ranks.

The old man's unspoken message was that he hoped the Genie would hurry over and kill Voldemort. He refused to accept that the current Edmund was his son.

At that time, Edmund was simply flipping through the children's picture books his mother had bought. He replied to her with annoyance:

"Oh, then he's doomed."

……

Therefore, at this very moment.

Edmund stared at Lucius with a strange look in his eyes.

Guessing the other person, uh.

He guessed that Lucius wanted to recruit him.