Chapter 443: Prince (2 in 1)

Chapter 443: Prince (2 in 1)

As to how exactly this public trial (show trial) should be conducted, Jon had actually discussed it clearly with Dumbledore before he had followed Lily to Britain.

Aside from the intervening executions and how the trial would be conducted, the most certain thing he and Dumbledore agreed on was that this public trial must not leave everyone with the impression that it was just a bloodline confrontation, that muggle wizards were judging purebloods, that all purebloods were guilty as long as they existed, and that all oppressed muggle wizards were good as long as they were oppressed.

This is clearly wrong, for there is actually no shortage of pureblood wizards in the ranks of either the Order of the Phoenix or the Witching Horizon; and although they are only a minority, their sentiments still have to be taken into account.

If the trial solely focused on purebloods, or if the trial only focused on bloodline issues, then perhaps the purebloods in the Order of the Phoenix wouldn't say anything while watching the trial, but if something like "all purebloodline people are villains" was circulated afterwards, it would certainly chill their hearts.

And through this public trial, Dumbledore and the others were going to make sure of one thing for all the students and even the wizards in the Witching Horizon out there.

It was the bloodline theory that they were prepared to overthrow and destroy, not the pureblood wizards exclusively!

This was important because if the goal was wrong, then even if they won the final victory later on, there was a high risk of setting off another confrontation.

At that time, the purebloods would become the bottom of society, and the muggle-borns would become the top, and history would repeat itself in an upside-down way until maybe one day it would be the other way around in turn.

And the muggle-borns like Henderson, who were clearly aiding and abetting the bloodline theory from the bottom of their hearts for their benefit are also guilty; because, for the most part, the muggle-borns living in the basement of Hogwarts Castle don't have much contact with the pureblood students, and these high lords are ashamed to even breathe the same air as them, and a lot of their oppression and management is achieved through grooming second-raters, like Henderson.

So some of the things judged against purebloods are not as mind-blowing as pulling someone like Henderson out of the closet.

Naturally, Slughorn, sitting in the audience, was able to think all these things through, and after all the charges had been established, Henderson naturally did not escape death.

In a wave of fury, he became the second subject of this gallows to be executed.

As Slughorn looked at Henderson's still swaying body, it suddenly occurred to him for some reason that he had been wrong in all his previous thoughts.

He had thought that if Voldemort was really defeated in the future, then the magical world would return to the same state it had been in before he had started to rule over a decade or so ago, but now he felt that if the situation did continue in this way, then the magical world would be moving in a completely new direction.

A direction that no one had ever seen, no one could have predicted, a whole new direction!

This public trial certainly didn't end after just two people had been judged, there were many more lined up behind them, being pulled up onto the raised platform one by one.

There were purebloods, half-bloods and muggle-borns, most of whom were guilty of heinous crimes, and the gallows, erected on the high platform, served its purpose to the fullest, hanging eight former students of the castle one by one!

The oldest of these individuals, were like Henderson and Flint, already 18 years old, while the youngest was only 15.

That was a young lady of a pureblood family and one of the worst-natured of the group of 8 who were hanged, with the lives of two muggle slaves already on her hands!

It wasn't even at the behest of her parents, just out of jealous hatred towards the two muggle girls who were prettier than her, they had their faces burned with a spell and their families killed in front of them, on the grounds that she wanted to experiment on how to drive a normal person crazy.

Although 17 is not considered an adult among wizards, there has never been a So-and-So Protection Act in the magical world, let alone the fact that this was in wartime, and such actions are extremely offensive to human morality.

Those that have been brought to the high platform since then have not been as anti-human as the first eight.

The two pureblood witches who had been witnesses to Flint's crimes, who had tried to harm Assia, and who had been Floyd's accomplices, were at least spared of death because they were not the masterminds and were willing to testify later to make up for their mistakes.

But it was clear that after the first eight public trials, all the students below the stage were emotionally stirred up, and they looked at everyone brought up on stage as if they were the worst of the worst, like those two pureblood witches, and there was a chorus of "hang them" before McGonagall had even finished telling them what they were guilty of.

They both nearly fainted on the spot and were paralysed on the high platform, unable to stand up straight.

It was a good thing that McGonagall, Flitwick and Lupin, the three of them on the stage, were there to avoid such a situation, and in the end, the two witches were not sentenced to death by hanging, on the contrary, they were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

That is because they had just been following Floyd as her followers, and although they had brutalised the muggle-borns, they really hadn't killed anyone, and Assia hadn't really died in the end, otherwise, it wouldn't have been only 15 years.

"After Snape was brought to France, weren't we supposed to feed him the Truth Potion for interrogation? Why didn't we ask about this potion?"

Jon asked suspiciously as he walked along the river near Spinner's End.

He didn't think Dumbledore could foresee it then even if he wanted to do something fishy.

"He's very skilled in Occlumency, which was verified by our people after we brought him back from Britain, with that ability not only the Legilimency could be circumvented if he wanted to, but so could the Truth Potion, by answering some false information."

Jon nodded thoughtfully.

He himself had a high level of attainment in Occlumency, but only knew that magic was resistant to Legilimency, and had never yet made any experiments with the Truth Potion, so he wasn't sure about that.

"So Professor what makes you so sure that Snape is still in this city and hasn't gone anywhere else?" Jon asked.

Lily didn't answer Jon's question directly, but instead asked rhetorically.

"Do you know why Snape took the pseudonym, Prince?"

Jon shook his head, he obviously didn't know much about Snape's past, except that Snape had once given himself the title of "Half-Blood Prince" when he was younger, and the word Prince meant Prince as a first or last name.

When he first heard the pseudonym, Prince, he had thought that the old bat was still in his middle school phase and still wanted people to call him Prince.

"His mother's name is Eileen Prince, and that name is his mother's family name."

It was at Lily's words that a look of realization came over Jon's face.

Lily, on the other hand, showed little to no avoidance of what had once been her childhood past and continued.

"I've known him since we were kids, he even told me about magic, wizards and the existence of Hogwarts at the time, right near this Spinner's End, where once there was a lawn."

"His mother was a pureblood witch and a very gentle woman, but his father didn't have a good upbringing, his father loathed everything about wizards and was violent, so at that time he actually carried a hatred for his father and didn't like his last name being Snape, secretly calling himself Prince in private."

Jon blinked.

"So?"

"So he actually still has feelings for his mother, and that didn't dissipate just because he joined the Death Eaters, or he wouldn't still be using the name Prince even to this day while choosing a pseudonym."

Lily said softly as she looked at the large chimney in the distance that was still spewing black mist into the sky.

"So, I concluded that if he did stay in Britain and didn't go back to his lord, Snape would still be in this city. The most dangerous places are rather the safest, and besides this is still his and his mother's home."

Her analysis was sound and Jon thought it made sense.

"But this isn't a small city, so where do we start looking?"

"No need to be in such a hurry because you're concerned about me, I've waited all these years, and I'm not going to be impatient for a few days, it's too late, let's just find a place to stay."

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