Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 181 Capital
“Exploitation…” Xenophius repeated the word, then his eyes suddenly lit up—

He seemed to have grasped something, yet also seemed to have grasped nothing at all, as if he had found the answers to all his past confusions.

“Exploitation refers to the forced deprivation of the labor and personal property of social members or groups who have no or lack property by virtue of their possession or monopoly of wealth and unfair income distribution. In other words, it is the rich seizing the property of the poor,” Gilderoy Lockhart explained. “The purebloods, led by the Malfoy family, enslaved house-elves by winning that war hundreds of years ago, divided the work of goblins, and arrogantly defined the distinction between magical creatures and wizards.”

“Through that war, the Malfoy and other pure-blood families completed their initial accumulation of capital,” Gilderoy Lockhart continued. “After that, those pure-blood families intermarried to strengthen their alliances, while externally promoting their pure-blood theory, using it to exclude, discriminate against, divide, and exploit other wizards.”

“I understand, I understand, Mr. Lockhart, you, you are truly amazing, you actually thought of this…” Xenophilius said, his whole body trembling with excitement.

“How could I not have thought of that? I knew it, I knew there must be a huge conspiracy involved,” Xenophilius said.

“But Mr. Lockhart, I still don’t understand,” Xenophilius asked again. “Those pure-blood families have already obtained everything they wanted, they have already earned more money than they could in several lifetimes, so why do they still follow the mysterious man to continue slaughtering other wizards?”

“Because the nature of capital is exploitation and greed,” Gilderoy Lockhart said.

"You think everything's fine once you've defeated Voldemort?" Gilderoy Lockhart retorted. "Do you think Voldemort is controlling those pure-blood families?"

“No, you’re wrong, it’s not Voldemort,” Gilderoy Lockhart said. “What controls those pure-blood families is called capital. It’s a pure monster made up of money, power, bloodshed, and violence. It has no physical form, but it exists in everyone’s heart at all times. It’s like a coward, and like a demon king, hiding behind those pure-blood wizarding families and manipulating them.”

"Voldemort is merely the concrete manifestation of capitalism at its extreme. The reign of terror he implemented is the ultimate embodiment of capitalism," Gilderoy Lockhart continued. "The nature of capitalism is exploitation, it is greed. Today it enslaves house-elves, tomorrow it enslaves magical creatures, the day after it enslaves half-blood wizards, and then step by step, it enslaves Muggles, enslaves Muggle wizards, enslaves the poor who restrict pure-blood wizards, enslaves the middle-class pure-blood wizards, and further still, enslaves all wizards except those from pure-blood families."

"In the face of capital, we are no different; we are all commodities, all objects to be exploited."

After taking a sip of red wine to moisten his throat, Gilderoy Lohart continued to ask:

"Think about it carefully. Throughout the thousands of years of wizarding history, so many brilliant dark wizards have emerged, but none of them have ever been known to become the Dark Lord. So why have two appeared in the last hundred years?"

"Why, why?" Xenophilius leaned forward, staring excitedly at Gilderoy Lohart, like a studious student.

“Because capital can’t continue to exploit,” Gilderoy Lockhart said. “Because our wizarding class is too small, this has led to severe involution in capital, which has limited the speed at which capital can make money. Only capital that keeps accumulating interest and growing and developing is living capital; otherwise, it’s just a pile of rotten money in a vault. So it has to turn to more intense and violent means of exploitation.”

"So it started the war; it chose to continue its exploitation through war," Gilderoy Lockhart said. "The two sufferings the magical world has endured, the two wars it has fought, and the various injustices it faces now are all because of capitalism pulling the strings behind the scenes! So we must eliminate it!"

“But… but I don’t understand, Mr. Lockhart,” Xenophilius said timidly. “How can you continue to exploit us with this capital you’re talking about?” “If all of us wizards were to disperse and build a house in some remote wilderness… we could live very well even if we were completely cut off from the magical world. We could return to the way ancient wizards lived, tribe by tribe,” Xenophilius said.

“Heh.” Gilderoy Lockhart chuckled. “You’re still too naive, Mr. Lovegood. Have you forgotten? The nature of capital is greed and plunder. In the end, capital will commodify everything. Once capital has exploited everything external that it can exploit, it will turn its attention to our bodies and our dignity. From the moment capital was born into this world, it was destined that we could only move forward. There is no turning back. We either defeat capital and move towards a more perfect social system, or we become slaves to capital.”

"Excuse my bluntness, Mr. Lovegood, although you are not listed among the twenty-eight sacred clans in the Pureblood Register, your Lovegood family should be a pureblood family, right?" Gilderoy Lockhart asked.

“Yes…yes, our family is a pure-blood family in the traditional sense. As far as I know, only my great-aunt married a Muggle, and Luna’s mother’s maiden name was Hephaestus, a well-known pure-blood family in the Greek wizarding world,” Xenophilius said.

"So that means Miss Lovegood is a pure-blood witch, right?" Gilderoy Lockhart said.

“What…what do you mean?” Xenophilius asked.

“Well, Mr. Lovegood, have you considered this possibility?” Gilderoy Lockhart glanced at Luna, paused, and then said, “Tiera, cover Miss Lovegood’s ears.”

Tierra put down her cutlery, wiped her hands on a napkin, and covered Luna's ears with her hands.

Luna did not resist, but obediently allowed Tiera's hands to cover her ears.

Luna also put down her cutlery and looked at "Gidro Lockhart" with some curiosity.

"So, Mr. Lovegood, when those families and wizards who so strongly advocate the pure-blood theory die out, do you think they might try to abduct a pure-blood witch to continue their lineage?" Gilderoy Lockhart asked in a low voice.

Xenophilius's face turned deathly pale instantly.

"Then guess again, what are the chances that you and your daughter will hide deep in the mountains and forests and they won't be found?"

The second update went surprisingly smoothly, so I might as well post it all at once.
By the way, I'm asking for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets!

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(End of this chapter)