Volume 4: The Sea and the Ship Heading North Chapter 298: The Witch Hunt Launched by the Wizard
It turns out that Jon's face is getting thicker and thicker.
Once, when he was in Grindelwald's headmaster's office and proposed a "win-win" plan to Grindelwald and Dumbledore, he showed a bit of shame.
But now that he had stolen something from someone else's house and had been boasted about by the owner, whether sincerely or sarcastically, he was able to remain calm and clear his throat as if nothing had happened.
"Well, Mr. Slytherin, so does the fact that I can come in through this door mean anything special?"
Slytherin's face was calm, and Jon even felt that it was a kind of unknown indifference.
The one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry spoke expressionlessly.
"This only proves that idiot Godric was wrong. What he thought I chose for my students was not what I wanted at all."
Jon's heart sank slightly when he heard Slytherin's words.
The words of the old man in the portrait were obviously unfriendly, and Jon could actually guess the reason for his unfriendliness very directly.
Salazar Slytherin, who once fell out with his best friend over bloodline issues and left the magic school he founded alone without saying a word, extremely hated Muggle students.
Even if he could push open the bronze door and walk in front of him with the so-called character required of Slytherin, he would not be able to gain his recognition.
Jon was mentally prepared for this in advance, but he thought that the old man would give him some face because he was able to open the door and walk in. However, looking at the current situation, he was just a portrait. If it was a real person, he might not be able to do anything to Jon.
But even though he had already sensed Slytherin's rejection and hostility, Jon had no intention of ending the conversation.
And because there was no possibility for the two sides to get along in a friendly manner, he had no psychological burden about stealing the candlestick.
"Then the person you truly recognize is the descendant of your own bloodline who came here more than ten years ago?"
Jon shrugged, asking the question without any hesitation, and speaking uncertainly in a mock-confused tone.
"But according to the rumors I heard, I don't know whether they are true or not, your descendant doesn't seem to be pure-blood either? Did he tell you that your real last name is Riddle?"
Even though the Slytherins had shown their dislike for Jon, he didn't seem to be planning on keeping quiet.
After all, as a portrait hidden in what is equivalent to a secret room, he may rarely have the opportunity to communicate with others. Even if he doesn't like it, Jon is at least someone who may speak.
"That was his mother's ignorant mistake, and it had nothing to do with him. I never thought that noble blood could be diluted by other things, or in other words, I don't think that people with so-called pure-blood wizard blood are really much better than those without such blood."
Slytherin didn't seem to be angered by Jon's words, nor did he feel the slightest bit of dissatisfaction or provocation. Instead, there was a hint of sarcasm in his words, which seemed like a ridicule of Jon's ignorance.
"The reason why I firmly believe that only pure-blood children are qualified to learn magic is not because I believe that people with pure blood are better, but because only children born by wizards are worthy of the trust of the wizarding community, and Muggles... Heh, history has proven that even if they learn magic, this group of people will never be able to get rid of their inferior roots as ordinary people."
There was obvious disdain in his words, and it didn't seem like he was explaining anything to John. He was simply answering John's question about Voldemort's impure bloodline.
Jon frowned, not that he was offended by the Slytherin's disdain.
No matter how petty he was, he would not go to the extent of arguing with a portrait, but he heard something strange in Slytherin's words.
Jon asked calmly and sincerely, in a tone of inquiry.
"What is the inferiority of ordinary people?"
"The inferiority of ordinary people?" Slytherin looked at Jon, with a somewhat cold smile on his face. "If you were a Muggle, you should know this better than anyone else right now. These children who come from ignorant and ordinary families and have the qualifications to learn magic, even if they successfully master magic, what will they become?"
Jon's frown deepened. He felt as if he couldn't keep up with Slytherin's train of thought.
"Is there any difference between these people learning magic and people from wizard families learning magic?"
"Children from wizarding families will always recognize that they are wizards." Slytherin said coldly, "But Muggles are different. Even if you learn magic, you rarely see yourself as wizards. Compared to magic, you are more inclined to use this method to return to the world of ordinary people in order to gain noble status and wealth for yourself, and even harm people like you for this."
"A fool like Godric never thinks about these issues. He and the two women always believe that as long as magic schools are established and these children are given a good education, the emergence of the Obscurus can be avoided and magic can flourish. But they have never seen the real reason for the emergence of the so-called Obscurus."
"Children with gifts are persecuted and suppress their magic power, which causes extremely negative emotions to erode their power and turn them into horrible monsters. The root of the problem is never that these children have no way to control their own power. Even if there is no one to guide them, as long as they are not persecuted, they can continue to grow healthily and become ordinary people with some special abilities ."
"The fundamental reason for the emergence of Obscurus is the oppression of those ignorant idiots. But how can a group of mortals who can only wield iron swords and shields have the ability to persecute a group of wizards who have wands and can use magic, as well as those children who already have a preliminary talent for magic?"
Slytherin stared into Jon's eyes, the mockery evident in his cloudy pupils.
"Isn't it you Muggles who have learned magic?"
Jon had never listened so carefully to a portrait's speech, even though the portrait's original intention was to deny him and the group of people he represented.
"The bad nature of the Muggles has prevented them from ever considering themselves part of the wizarding world. Before Hogwarts was founded, most of the Muggles who met kind wizards and learned real magic to control their own magic eventually turned to the so-called king and the church."
"There has never even been a tradition of wizards believing in religion. As people who have mastered extraordinary powers, how can we believe in some incomprehensible God? These are the customs of the Muggles. Some of them became court wizards (Jon looked at Nick on his back when he said this), and some transformed themselves into loyal believers of the church. In order to gain more power and wealth, and to suppress those wizards who might threaten their current status in the future after they are in high positions, the Muggles instigated those ignorant ordinary people, prompting and helping them to launch the so-called "witch hunt." "
Jon's face was full of disbelief. He stared at the portrait of Slytherin. For the first time, he heard the truth about the medieval witch hunt from the mouth of a wizard of that era!
"Foolish mortals have no chance of dealing with wizards. The fire they use to burn witches is nothing but a joke to real wizards. But why did so many wizards die in such a long period of time in this turmoil that should not have happened? It's you, the Muggles. You have mastered the magic that belongs to wizards, but you turned around and used this ability to deal with wizards. In that dark era, everything was rooted in your greed."
"The original reason why Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was established was to eliminate this kind of chaos, but idiots like Godric always insisted that as long as young Muggles with magical talents were brought to this school for teaching, things would change."
"There is no more foolish idea than this. Even if they extend the school system of Hogwarts to seven years and let all students live in boarding schools, except for holidays, the students who have just entered school at the age of 11 have already had a clear understanding and intention of the dirty world before coming to Hogwarts."
"Godric and his friends tried to influence these Muggles with the friendship between classmates. They naively believed that as long as people of different bloodlines lived together in the same school for seven years, they would regard wizards as their true identity after graduation. Haha, I can never accept their ridiculous fantasy."
"The bad roots of Muggles will not be changed. Life at Hogwarts may have an effect on a small number of people, but after graduation, the vast majority of them will return to their own world and continue to become guests of the king and loyal believers of the church for power, and then launch witch hunts."
"I can't stay in that castle and watch Muggle students like you study every day. The more outstanding and talented they are, the greater the harm they will cause in the future. Every time they learn a kind of magic, I seem to see a wizard falling under this spell in the future. But I also have no way to stop the three people who founded Hogwarts with me, so I chose to leave. Even if there is no way to change that school, I will not let the knowledge I teach fall into the hands of such people."
Jon listened to Slytherin's story in silence.
His behavior of discriminating against Muggles is fundamentally different from those led by Voldemort. This is not for his own benefit. If what Slytherin said is true, then he is actually on the side of justice.
Later facts proved that his inference was not wrong. After the establishment of Hogwarts, although the living environment of wizards was greatly affected, the witch hunt was not fundamentally stopped.
It was not until the Statute of Secrecy was implemented throughout the world, completely cutting off the normal world's access to wizards and magic, that the living conditions faced by wizards were truly improved.
The two groups have completely become people in parallel worlds with no intersection. Except for the current Muggle head of state and Muggle families with wizards, the memories of all Muggles who know the real existence of magic will be erased.
The implementation of the Statute of Secrecy completely changed the once extremely difficult situation for wizards. It is precisely because of this that magical governments around the world will do their utmost to ensure the stability of this law. Once someone like Grindelwald appears and tries to completely subvert this protection, he will be hostile to everyone.
In comparison, Voldemort, who was more cruel, would not encounter so much resistance because he had never publicly expressed his abolition of or dissatisfaction with the Statute of Secrecy, which gave other magical governments ambiguous reasons.
But today was the first time that Jon heard the true inside story of the witch hunt. There had never been any record of this in the history of magic. Only when he was lurking in Hogwarts Castle and reading the history of "Mudbloods" did he find a lot of information about ancient Muggle wizards and Muggles joining forces to brutally kill pure-bloods and half-bloods.
But John had always believed that these things were made up by people under the instructions of Voldemort, but he didn't expect that they were all true!
Slytherin had no reason to lie to Jon, and only this explanation could explain why the wizards who had mastered such powerful magic at that time were persecuted and became hiding rats in the witch hunt.
Only when Muggles, who are also wizards, have a very large united base, can they inflict such a brutal blow on the wizarding world.
And before the magic school was established, this was entirely possible.
There was no constraint of the Statute of Secrecy at that time. After learning magic, Muggles who showed magical talent would immediately think of using this ability to benefit themselves.
All of this makes sense, which is why the vast majority of people in the Middle Ages firmly believed in the existence of wizards, because the people who launched the witch hunt were wizards themselves!
Even Nick on Jon's back now is the best proof. Nick was a court wizard and a courtier in the palace of King Henry VII during his lifetime. This was at the end of the fifteenth century when Hogwarts had been established for hundreds of years and he had completed seven years of study in the school.
Slytherin's hatred of Muggles was justified, and even the exclusion of people of non-wizard blood from entering the house he founded was justified.
But this limited his cognition in that era, and the situation is completely the opposite now.
Jon heard something strange in his words. If Voldemort had come here more than ten years ago and met his ancestor once, what would he say to Slytherin?
Will he tell the truth about what he is doing and the current situation in the wizarding world?
