Chapter 1236: Holiday Homework

Chapter 1236 -52: Holiday Homework

The red train rattled along in a steady rhythm. The scenery outside the window slowly changed—at first you could see a Church with red-brick spires, and then it was replaced by a vast stretch of white snow.

With Michael and Theo both sunk in silence, the compartment was rarely quiet. Leian took out his holiday homework and lowered his voice to ask Vid for advice.

“‘On the Impact of the Seventeenth-Century Goblin Rebellions on Wizard–Goblin Relations’—holiday homework. Professor Bin wants three feet, but I only wrote an introduction.”

Leian said, a little troubled, “I don’t know how to go on from there.”

Vid knew his friend well; he knew that this kind of Magic History assignment wasn’t actually difficult for him.

Even for a first-year student, when faced with a topic like this, all you have to do is copy out what’s in the textbook, then find two other books related to Magic History and copy a couple of passages, and you can get the homework done.

So Vid thought for a moment, then said, “I’m guessing it’s not that you can’t write, it’s that there’s too much you want to say, so you don’t know where to start?”

Leian looked like someone whose long-suppressed concern had just been hit on. He immediately nodded and said:

“Yes, that’s it!”

He turned and pulled a thin Notebook out from a gap in his trunk, and said quietly:

“You know I have quite a few Muggle relatives. Over the holidays we went to visit an uncle, and I… I saw a few books in his study.”

Vid asked, “Books on what?”

Leian said haltingly, “They were about… about their… wars without Magic.”

Vid raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Leian went on, “After I finished them, when I tried to write my Magic History essay, my head was full of the things from those books.”

Vid: “For example?”

Leian said, “For example—Goblin productivity, and their relations of production with Wizards; and the Magic World’s reliance on Goblin craft. Isn’t that exactly what the book calls Goblins having an economic base?”

He lifted his eyes to look at Vid.

“And the things Goblins produce all belong to Wizards, but the Goblins don’t accept that—doesn’t that mean a conflict in how property rights are defined?”

He lowered his head and looked at the messy words in the Notebook, as if he could see again the turmoil in his own mind back then.

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to write it like that.”

Leian said, eyes downcast, “This isn’t the same as what Professor Bin taught us. I’m having trouble telling what’s right and what’s wrong…”

“Or are these thoughts of mine not supposed to appear in the homework at all?”

“Of course they shouldn’t!” Michael cut in, having at some point started listening.

He frowned slightly. “I didn’t really understand all that, but Leian, are you kind of sympathising with Goblins? They’re not human!”

“I know.” Leian said gently, “I know what they are, Michael. I also know that in the rebellions and wars in the past, plenty of humans died at Goblin hands.”

“Goblins have killed Wizards, and Wizards have killed Goblins. Both sides have the other’s blood on their hands. That’s a fact that can’t be denied and can’t be changed.”

“I just want…”

He turned his gaze to Vid and said softly:

“If the Goblin rebellions were crushed but the root of the problem wasn’t resolved, then after the rebellion wars there are bound to be new wars, and more people will die for it.”

“So I think… I think…”

Vid understood the words he was struggling not to say: “You think the reason the Goblin rebellion wars happened in the first place lies in one race exploiting and oppressing another?”

Leian let out a breath and nodded lightly.

Theo looked at him, worried. “Leian, you never told me you thought about it like this.”

“Sorry.” Leian said, lowering his head. “I didn’t know how to talk about these things with you.”

Theo was Pure-Blood. He didn’t know much about Muggle books, and might not even be able to grasp what Leian was talking about.

But Leian knew Vid definitely understood.

“Good thing you didn’t put all that in your essay.” Michael grumbled. “Otherwise Professor Bin would definitely give you a big fat ‘T’.”

At Hogwarts, T stands for “Troll,” the lowest mark a professor can give a student.

Vid didn’t speak right away. He reached out and pulled the Notebook in front of him, flipped through it, then pushed it back and smiled.

“I actually think your ideas make a lot of sense—but this isn’t something a three-foot essay can explain clearly. Even a hundred feet might not be enough.”

He encouraged him: “You can absolutely treat it as a long-term project to study slowly. It might take ten, twenty years before you can explain the issue clearly to others, and even tell us how to truly resolve the conflict between the two races.”

“But for now, you can think about it from these angles—”

He pulled out a sheet of parchment and wrote three lines:

[Mismatch between contribution and compensation]

[Spirit of contract and craftsmen’s rights]

[Financial monopoly and distribution of interests]

Leian leaned over to look. His eyes flickered slightly, as if he understood something, yet a greater fog still hung over his heart.

“Wow, Vid!” Michael said in an exaggerated tone. “Is he really going to fit all that into three feet?”

“Obviously the homework can’t be written like that.”

Vid said calmly to Leian, “Before you’ve clarified your own ideas, you might as well stick to the existing rules a little. For instance—write an essay Professor Bin will approve of.”

“Don’t interpret the Goblin rebellions as Muggle wars. The two may look similar, but their nature is different.”

“Take the question of who weapons belong to. In essence that’s Wizards and Goblins having different understandings of trade. What seems like a reasonable, fair exchange to us is, to them, a kind of seizure.”

“As for the economic base, in the essay you only need to list the facts in simple terms. For example, in the late seventeenth century Wizards tried three times to limit Goblin power in Gringotts, and all three attempts failed. Why was that?”

“I know this one!” Theo said quickly. “Because only Goblins can maintain the vault system. Whenever Wizards try to move against them, they find they can’t get their money out safely!”

“See!” Vid said with a smile. “If you start from that angle—list the facts first, then analyse the causes, and finally make a prediction about the future—doesn’t the essay become much easier to write?”

Leian nodded. “I know how to write it now… Thank you, Vid.”

He took the parchment, fixed his eyes on those three lines, and stayed silent for a long time.

Michael nudged Vid with his elbow and asked under his breath, “Honestly, you just rattled off such a long string the moment you opened your mouth… You’ve thought about the same questions Leian’s thinking about, haven’t you?”

Vid raised his eyebrows and smiled. “I’ve got the same holiday homework as you. Remember?”

“Of course I remember.” Michael glanced at his expression and said, “But I think the reason you think about all this definitely isn’t the same as Leian’s.”

“Maybe.” Vid rested his arm on the window ledge and looked into the distance. “But our worries about the future should be the same.”

Michael withdrew his gaze and muttered, “…Maybe I should find a couple of Muggle books to read too?”