Chapter 352: Selling badges, inexplicably entering the pit
"None at all," Aaron said, shaking his head as a matter of course.
"What?" Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. "Your family actually has slave labor too."
"You shouldn't say that carelessly," Aaron whispered. "Many Wizarding families have House-elves. If the words'slave labor' get out..."
"Will I offend a lot of people?" Hermione said dismissively.
"You're overthinking it. You'll just be seen as an idiot. While I don't want to discourage you, no one cares about such things, not even the House-elves themselves. You want to fight for their rights, but what if they don't want those rights?"
"That's impossible. No one wants a bad life."
"But that's how House-elves are," Aaron said, exasperated. "Their greatest pursuit is to provide better service to Wizards unconditionally. What you want to fight for them is nothing short of an insult to them. Of course, I don't deny there might be one or two oddballs in that group who might, under the scornful and indifferent gaze of their own kind, fight for those trivial rights..."
Mid-sentence, Aaron's voice stopped abruptly, because a pair of angry eyes appeared opposite him.
Gollum!
"That... what I said is true. What you're doing is meaningless."
Hermione was unmoved, simply pushing the box of badges a dozen centimeters forward. "Want to join the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare?"
"That would make me look very silly, very... cruel," Aaronsaid with a troubled expression. "I once thought about giving my House-elves some preferential treatment, but when I brought it up, they were as heartbroken as if their parents had died, even thinking they had done something wrong and started punishing themselves."
"And then?" Hermione asked, interested.
"Then I gave up. I can't force them to accept welfare benefits, can I? Actually, my House-elves are already quite lucky. At least my family and I wouldn't punish them casually. Besides not having wages, they are given necessary respect." Aaron said, counting on his fingers, "Clean and decent clothes, warm rooms, and healthy three meals a day have never been withheld from them. To some extent, their treatment is already much better than those who are poor and destitute."
Hearing this, Hermione smiled happily and picked a silver badge from the box. "Now I want you to join the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare even more."
Aaron paused, then said with an unnatural expression, "Was what I just said not clear enough?"
"Very clear, but precisely because of that, I want to invite you to join," Hermione said decisively. "I specifically looked it up, the House-elves' slave status can be traced back several centuries. To this day, many Wizards still abuse House-elves, but the Gaius Family's way of treating House-elves can be our short-term goal. The long-term goal is to give House-elves the right to use wands and to qualify them to work in the Magical Creature Management Control Division."
"Excuse me, just interrupting," Aaron waved his hand. "Remove the 'us' part. Don't include me."
Hermione, however, shoved the badge into Aaron's hand without explanation. "Two sickles, that's for the badge."
"Uh... if you're short on money, I can lend it to you, no interest. No need to sell this stuff."
"Where are you going with that?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "This is membership dues, for printing leaflets."
"Sorry, I'm very busy," Aaron pushed the badge back, subtly refusing.
Hermione hesitated, "You're just an honorary Vice President, you don't have to do anything."
Aaron sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I've said it this clearly. Are you not understanding or pretending not to understand?"
"There's no loss for you to join either," Hermione smiled.
"But no benefit either," Aaron said very directly. "Past experience tells me that less is more. My intuition tells me that this Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare is meaningless. My twitching right eyelid tells me it's a minor trouble, and I don't want to get involved with it."
"Alright!" Hermione sighed slightly. "You guessed right, I actually just came to sell badges."
Poof!
Aaron burst out laughing and gave her a big thumbs up. "You're good, you're really good."
"Buy or not?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow proudly.
"Give me the money," Aaron said helplessly.
Abey turned its face away unhappily, rummaging in its pockets for a while with its two paws, then pulled out two silver sickles.
"As Vice President..."
"Hmm?" Aaron glared at Hermione. "I'll give you one more chance to rephrase that."
"Cough cough! For the sake of our friendship of over three years, shouldn't you support me a little more?"
Aaron rolled his eyes helplessly. Abey also painfully pulled out two Galleons and two silver sickles from its pocket and placed them together.
If it was buying something with money, it would accept it, but now it felt like throwing money away.
"Thank you very much, you definitely won't regret it later."
"Heh heh! May I ask, how many members does this so-called Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare have?"
"Two, but there will be four soon," Hermione said confidently. "I plan to have Ron manage the dues, as Treasurer, and Harry as Secretary, responsible for record-keeping."
Aaron's mouth twitched, feeling like he had foolishly jumped into a deep pit.
Just as he was about to say something, Hermione, clutching several books, hurried out of the Library, leaving only a silver badge on the table.
"It seems it won't be so easy to climb out of this pit," Aaronsighed, putting away the silver SPEW badge.
Abey squatted in front of Aaron. It could feel its master's helpless mood, wanting to comfort him but not knowing what to say.
"It's alright, just an honorary Vice President! Nothing will happen... probably!"
Having inexplicably joined a club with no prospects, Aaronwas no longer in the mood to practice magic circles. He picked up Abey and returned to the Slytherin common room... Inside Shenming Hall, the thought form was testing the performance of the flintlock pistol.
As for the target, it was a giant rock made with earth-element magic, and he had even carved an advanced defensive magic circle on it.
As magic power continuously poured into the gun body, the golden patterns on both sides became increasingly brilliant.
Bang!
The bullet shot out from the muzzle, and the spherical projectile instantly hit the giant rock.
The yellow defensive magic circle immediately appeared, resisting the strong impact of the bullet.
Crack!
Shards of rock flew, an explosion followed, the magic circle disintegrated at an extremely fast speed, and a large gap was blasted into the giant rock.
After penetrating the giant rock, the bullet did not stop, hitting the wall of Shenming Hall directly.
A more complex magic circle emerged, but after only a moment's stalemate, the spherical bullet was crushed into dust by this magic power.
"My marksmanship is still very good," Aaron said proudly.
"This is the highest power this gun can currently achieve, somewhere between advanced and ultimate elemental magic. Each shot consumes about one-tenth of my magicenergy, but if we combine, the consumption will be much less. Ancestor Algol's evaluation was spot on: it can injure a dragon, but it's difficult to kill one."
Abey turned its face away unhappily, seemingly very annoyed by its master comparing it to a dragon.
"I wasn't talking about you, we're just talking about ordinary dragons. You're only a juvenile now, this gun can still pierce your dragon scales, but once you're an adult, this gun will pose no threat to you."
Abey rubbed its paws together, feeling wronged. That's what he said, but it would be a long time until it became an adult. Its potential far exceeded that of ordinary dragons, but its growth rate was exceptionally slow. Even with its master's occasional 'force-feeding,' it was still only in its juvenile stage.
Aaron picked up Abey. "Don't overthink it, there's a long life ahead. With me, your growth rate will be much faster."
Abey nodded repeatedly, not doubting this at all.
"You've tested it too. Do you have any suggestions for modifications?"
"Hmm... I don't have any suggestions for modifications. Ancestor Algol's craftsmanship leaves nothing to be desired," the thought form said after a moment of thought. "But the gun isn't the problem, the bullets are different. Ordinary bullets can barely be replaced by Transfiguration, after all, this is a magical firearm. But special bullets require special materials and need to be made with special methods, which consumes a lot of resources."
"I'll find materials for the bullets when I have time," Aaronsaid. He wasn't in a hurry for this; he didn't need this gun at this stage.
"That's good. I'll dedicate some energy to learning enchanting knowledge and firearm maintenance. But there's still one small problem," the thought form said with a hesitant smile. "This gun needs a resounding name. It's our first weapon, after all, it can't not even have a name!"
"That's true!" Aaron scratched his head. "The name needs careful consideration. How about this, you think of some suitable ones, and then let me know so I can choose."
The thought form's face immediately darkened. "Why do you think I told you this? Isn't it because names are hard to come up with? Besides, we have the same personality and thoughts. Do I really need to notify you if I find a suitable name?"
"Uh... don't be so formal. Maybe there will be some that make you indecisive! In the end, it'll still be up to me to make the final decision."
"I know myself pretty well," the thought form said impatiently. "When I'm indecisive, I just flip a coin."
"Just notify me," Aaron said with an awkward smile, then asked, "How's Professor Trelawney's homework coming along?"
"It's done," the thought form said easily, taking a roll of parchment from a nearby shelf.
"How did you get it done?"
The thought form didn't speak, only pointed to a crystal ball on a table.
Aaron's mouth twitched slightly. "As expected of me, using divination to predict the future planetary movements. You didn't divine anything else, did you? Like the Goblet of Fire."
"No, this time was very successful, extremely successful. And the divination result shows that we will have a very stable month."