v4 Chapter 177： It's not possible, it can't be

"Tom, why do you think it is?" Hermione thought for a few minutes, and came to a faint conclusion in her heart. But she is not so confident now, and she needs Tom's testimony.

"My darling, the reason is very simple. It's impossible, it's impossible. Does Dumbledore have the power to release all the house-elves? Of course he does, but can he release them? Of course not."

"Because no one has washed, cooked, and cleaned up for the Hogwarts students since they were free?" Hermione's voice choked again. Because she realized that she seemed to have been enjoying the sacrifice of slaves with peace of mind.

As she slept peacefully at night, the house-elf was washing her day-stained clothes, adding a handful of firewood to the fireplace in her bedroom, and keeping the hallway spotless. While enjoying those delicacies by herself, countless house-elves are hungry in the dark kitchen to provide her with various dishes, and they can't eat two leftovers until they are full...

Thinking of this, Hermione felt like she was being pinched by her throat, and she couldn't breathe in pain.

"Of course not, Professor Dumbledore may choose to employ them - if feasible."

Hermione felt a little better, because Tom said that the house-elves being enslaved had little to do with him.

"Actually, I admit that the wizard's behavior towards the house-elves is enslavement, but it is unreliable to rashly terminate the master-servant relationship and give the elves their freedom."

"Why?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Because house-elves don't want to be free, they really need a master, and that's what's imprinted in their soul."

Seeing that Hermione was lost in thought, Tom said helplessly: "Many times it is necessary to combine actions with reality. Once upon a time, there was an emperor who felt that the servants in the tyrannical family were too pitiful, so he hoped that the tyrants could release the servants in the family. —Do you see that his orders and your thoughts are similar in purpose?"

Abolition? Hermione suddenly became interested, the emperor's thoughts really appealed to her. In her opinion, this emperor has done a great thing, and he will definitely create a great dynasty!

"what's next?"

"The emperor's prestige is extremely high, so many tyrants have released their servants, but those servants who have no survival skills other than serving others, even if they are free, what can they do? Many of them are hungry. Dying on the street, more people choose to sell themselves again."

Hermione: !

This was something she could never have imagined.

"But house-elves are very powerful..."

"It doesn't stop them from selling themselves to other wizarding families."

"So, do you understand?" Tom tapped Hermione's white forehead with his index finger, "You can't take things too hastily, or you will really do bad things with good intentions, just like the emperor I told you, he also A lot of absurd orders were issued, and in the end his country fell apart."

Listening to Tom's preaching, Hermione opened her mouth and said: Don't listen, don't listen, **** chanting.

But after a while, she still looked at Tom awkwardly, trying to get some useful advice from him.

"Actually, Professor Dumbledore has already realized this problem, and he is already improving the relationship between house-elves and wizards." Tom didn't lie, Dumbledore must have noticed the twisted relationship between house-elves and wizards.

As a kind person, he also does not want to see a group of beings with intelligence no less than human beings enslaved in this way, but he also understands the difficulty and risk of reform.

If you don't get it right, house-elves are more harmful than Grindelwald.

So instead of liberating all the house-elves, he gave them the best treatment within his power.

The house-elves at Hogwarts have no clothes, but the tea towels on them are the closest thing to clothes, much better than the pitiful pieces of cloth other house-elves have. Although there are no holidays for house-elves here, students will return to their homes during summer vacation and Christmas, and house-elves will also get a substantial vacation - their workload will be greatly reduced, and only daily activities in the castle will be required. maintenance can be done.

Even during the usual school days, house-elves have a chance to rest. Because the Hogwarts school didn't want them to be discovered by the little wizards. Therefore, in the daytime when the little wizards often come out, the house-elves have to stay in the kitchen on standby. During this time, they have no other work, only need to prepare three meals in the morning, noon and evening. In the dead of night, they will come out to clean the castle. This makes them not in a 24/7 state.

It can be said that Hogwarts keeps the house-elves in a more relaxed state by using the rules reasonably, which is almost the best solution in the magic world at present.

After listening to Tom finish talking about Dumbledore's strategy, Hermione was amazed that she could still do it.

"We can push forward legislation in the future to protect the basic rights of house-elves through the legal provisions of the Ministry of Magic." What Tom did not say is that he believes that the house-elves problem will be solved naturally in the next few decades, because When he and Hermione grew up, it was unknown how many wizarding families still had house-elves in the wizarding world.

At that time, there might not have been a fraction of the house-elves in the Hogwarts kitchens combined in wizarding families across the wizarding world.

This is directly related to the decline of pure blood families. The wizarding families known to have house-elves are: the Blakes, the Crouchs, and the Malfoys.

Of the three families, only the Malfoys had direct heirs.

Kreacher of the Blakes is too old to live past Sirius. The Crouch family's Wink is young, but the Crouch family has no heir. When the old Crouch dies, she should also join Hogwarts. In other words, it is very likely that only the Malfoys will have house-elves in the future.

Given the single-generation fertility rate of the Malfoy family, it's likely that this problem will go away on its own in the future.

So in fact, as long as you take care of the house-elves at Hogwarts, it's not a big problem.

"If there is a legal guarantee, it is estimated that the relationship between Sirius and Kreacher can also be eased, right?" Hermione said optimistically.

In the end, the topic returned to the master and servant of Sirius and Kreacher.

"Sirius is still kind, but he's a bit more ruthless. It is estimated that Kreacher will go down to serve the old master with his ancestors." Tom sighed a little. If it was a villain, how could Kreacher be like this? A servant who knows too much to live?

Seeing Tom's serious look, Hermione was stunned for a moment, and she asked cautiously, "Then if you were Sirius, would you kill Kreacher?"

Her heart beat fast, and she was looking forward to getting the answer from Tom, but she was afraid of getting the answer she didn't want to hear.

She was afraid that the boy she liked had changed.

After the question was asked, she regretted it a little. She was even thinking: Tom, even if you lied to me...

"Me, personally, I should choose to kill Kreacher." Tom weighed the pros and cons, and he thought it would be unwise to leave such a hidden danger.

The light in Hermione's eyes faded, and she heard the answer she least wanted. She understood Tom, and he did have his reasons, but...

"But I will definitely discuss it with you. If you don't agree, I will change the method. There is always a way."

Tom's next sentence caught Hermione's attention, and she didn't expect such an unfolding.

"Will you discuss with me?"

"Of course, house-elves should also be considered the joint property of the husband and wife. We must listen to the opinions of the other half on how to deal with the property." Tom said solemnly.

Hermione: ? !

Two wisps of Feixia quickly climbed up Hermione's cheeks. She didn't expect Tom to suddenly say such a thing! Her mind was broken, and she didn't even correct Tom's thought of Kreacher as property.

"I, I,, we—" She was almost at a loss for words, not knowing what to say, "Don't suddenly say such strange things, we just, we just..."

"Just what?" Tom looked into Hermione's eyes, and the lovely girl looked away.

"You want to be beautiful. If you want to marry me, you still need to work hard - I also have to observe you carefully!" Hermione said hard, but her heartbeat was extraordinarily fast.

marry? Just thinking about the word made her face heat. It seems like a very distant thing, but it doesn't seem that far. When the two of them are adults, can this matter be put on the agenda?

Getting married is a lifetime thing, and having a lifetime with Tom...hehe. Thinking of this, Hermione seemed to be filled with the sweetness of happiness.

She pressed the thoughts in her heart and forcibly turned the subject back.

"Then what would you do if I wasn't there?"

"Wait until you come back to make a decision."

"Then what if I don't come back--if, I mean if, you'll think I'm dead." Hermione chased after him, trying to get an answer from Tom.

Tom patted Hermione's head, but did not reply to Hermione.

"Arrived at the station." He took Hermione's arm, and the two walked out of the subway station hand in hand like an ordinary couple, and came to the Leaky Cauldron.

The Leaky Cauldron is still the same, but here Tom and Hermione meet an acquaintance: Ludo Bagman.

At this time, there were several fairies around him. It can be seen that the face of the Minister of Magic is not very good.

"Yordle?" Ludo was taken aback when he saw Tom, and then he broke free from the encirclement of the goblins with vigorous movements and came to Tom's side.

"If I remember correctly, Hogwarts hasn't had a holiday yet?" He said quickly as if he had caught a life-saving straw: "This is not good, truancy is not a good boy, let me take you two. Back to school!"

As he spoke, he grabbed Tom's arm like a dean who went to the woods at night to catch people.

Tom, who was suddenly attacked, was stunned, and Hermione quickly explained: "Mr. Bagman, it's not what you think, we have asked Principal Dumbledore for leave..."

Bagman shook his head and firmly stated that he wanted to send these two "incapable" children back to school. This is his duty, and his conscience will be condemned if it is not fulfilled.

Ludo Bagman became so serious and responsible, not because of his sudden conscience, but because of the goblins behind him.

He has met a creditor!

Bagman was also unlucky. He thought that his debts would be eliminated because of the arrest of the Gringotts executives. As a result, the goblin executive resolutely spit out a lot of wealth in order to obtain leniency in prison and regain his freedom as soon as possible. including this debt.

It sold the debt for an almost free price to a Ministry of Magic official, who is notorious and has a certain status, he is the current Director of the Ministry of Magic Law Enforcement Pierce Sink Nice.

In front of him, Ludo Bagman is really nothing, and isn't it only natural to pay debts? So, at his behest, the goblins reopened the collection of Bagman's debts. Now Bagman is having a hard time.

In order to avoid his debts, he didn't even dare to go home, so he could only hide in the Leaky Cauldron. But even so, it was blocked by goblins in the end, and then the scene Tom saw happened. At this point, the goblins were planning to take Bagman to Gringotts and squeeze out the last of his savings.

Of course Bagman didn't want to.

His savings won't fill the debt hole. If he chooses to pay back the money, he will go bankrupt, but if he is an old man, he can live very well. Then how to choose still need to think? Bagman, of course, chose to write off the debt.

Bagman, who saw Tom, planned to use this as an excuse to go to Hogwarts first, and then get rid of the goblins, but he didn't think that Tom and Hermione didn't want to cooperate.

Seeing the goblins seem to be about to react Bagman was in a hurry, he shook Tom's arm, winked frantically at the two of them, and asked them to return to Hogwar with him in an almost pleading tone. tz.

Faced with Bagman's request, of course Tom is...

Refused!

Please, bet a dog can't have a house!

Why should he pull Bagman? Because he is very good at gambling?

So he stood there and pretended to be stunned until Bagman was controlled by the fairies who had come to his senses again.

At this point in time, the goblins did not dare to offend the wizard, so when they saw Bagman and Tom "talking", they did not dare to interrupt rashly.

After seeing that Tom had no interest in Bagman, they immediately changed their faces.

"Dear sir and miss, I'm so sorry to bother you, we'll go now." The goblin headed to Tom bowed respectfully, then waved his hand around Bagman and left the Leaky Cauldron.

With Bagman's desperate cries, the strange combination disappeared into the backyard of the bar, and Tom and Hermione returned to Hogwarts from the Leaky Cauldron.

——

Four thousand words two in one chapter, good night~

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