Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 585 Contradictions
"Very well, this is my final decision. If any of you disobey the goalkeeper's orders, I will cast a spell on him!" Hari roared forcefully, trying his best to look fierce.

Katie, Robbins, Ginny, and dropout Avjegrunia, who have already joined the team, watched from the stands as their team members were finally selected.

Harry deliberately put the goalkeepers' assessment last, thinking that the somewhat empty stadium and lighter pressure would be more conducive to their performance.

Unfortunately, all the eliminated contestants and some young wizards who had finished their classes joined the crowd, making the audience even larger.

The crowd jeered and mocked each goalkeeper as he flew toward the goal.

Harry glanced at Ron; he knew Ron was often nervous.

Harry had hoped that the victory in the last game of the previous term had cured his ailment, but clearly it hadn't—

Ron was deathly pale and trembling all over. He hadn't looked this nervous when they faced Voldemort just a few months ago.

None of the first five players saved more than two free throws, much to Harry's disappointment, as McKlain saved four out of five.

On the last ball, he completely went in the wrong direction, and the crowd booed and laughed. McLean gritted his teeth and landed back on the ground.

When Ron came on, he looked like he was about to faint.

"Good luck!" a voice shouted from the crowd.

Harry looked around and spotted Lavender Brown with his tousled hair in the stands.

He was so embarrassed he wanted to bury his head in his hands, but as a captain, he should appear more capable, so he looked up at Ron.

However, his worries were clearly unnecessary.

Ron saved one ball, two, three, four, five!
Harry was delighted and tried hard not to join the cheering crowd. He turned back to tell McLean that, unfortunately, Ron had defeated him.

But then he noticed that McLean's face was flushed, which made Harry abandon his plan to comfort him and rush over to join the crowd celebrating Ron.

……

“Speaking of which…” In the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin, Horace Slughorn, who was familiarizing himself with the Philosopher’s Stone crafting process with Tyella, suddenly looked up and asked in confusion, “I remember today was the Gryffindor Quidditch team selection test… Don’t you need to participate?”

“Why should I participate?” Tierra asked rhetorically.

"Uh, because, because... never mind, it's nothing," Horace Slughorn stammered, then buried his head and continued to look through the alchemy notes that Tiera had given him.

“What you’re wondering is that Harry and I are good friends. At a time like this, whether it’s to support Harry or to further solidify our bond, I should be at the Quidditch pitch, even if I don’t care about Quidditch at all or know nothing about it,” Tyella said calmly.

“Hmm…yes, that’s what I mean…” Horace Slughorn said. “And you also believe that this is something a mature politician should do,” Tiera added, “not passing up any opportunity to showcase himself and promote his reputation.”

Horace Slughorn nodded again.

“Oh, Professor Slughorn, that’s just appearances,” Tierra said with a smile. “There’s only one thing that determines a politician’s true influence—”

“His control over the military, politics, and economics,” Tiera said. “Having achieved this, whether he puts on a show or not, his influence will not change. To be more precise, at this point, whatever he does will be right. If he uses diplomatic language, people will say he is refined, knowledgeable, and of high quality and refinement; if he uses vulgar language, people will think he is straightforward, genuine, and not hypocritical.”

“And if we apply this to wizards, then the so-called control over military, political, and economic affairs means power,” Tiera said. “Or, to go a step further, superior magical skill, exquisite magical techniques, and profound magical knowledge.”

“I have all of those,” Tiera said with a shrug. “Power will come to me.”

Horace Slughorn gave Tyella a strange look after hearing this.

“Sometimes, I almost forget you’re still just a sixteen-year-old boy,” Horace Slughorn said awkwardly. “More often than not, you remind me of Volthom Riddle.”

Tiera smiled and said nothing more.

Tiera does not deny that he harmed many lives and changed the fate of many characters in the original story in the process of plotting and seizing power, but Tiera does not regret it.

Whether you call it clear self-awareness or call it inhumanly cold-blooded extravagance, Tiera has always possessed a subtle sense of alienation and fear since she first arrived in this world.

Just like the uncanny valley theory, when robots reach a level that is "close to humans", human liking for them drops precipitously. Humans will have an uncontrollable fear of some species and images that are similar to humans but have obvious differences from humans, such as clowns, half-humans, zombies, and overly anthropomorphic robots.

Tiera felt this way when she first came into this world—

This world is very similar to his original world, but under the similar background, it is vastly different from his original world. This difference far exceeds Tiera's imagination and logic. Even his most terrifying nightmares in his previous life would not have imagined this difference.

This makes the entire world seem like a giant uncanny valley to Tiera.

Tiera's existence in this world is like being in a brief, peaceful horror game. On one hand, he despises this world and is terrified of everything about it, but at the same time, he has no choice but to rely on the knowledge that brings him terror and survive in this world.

So it was like he was playing a horror game, recklessly and without any psychological burden exploiting Harry's tragic past to make a fortune, taking advantage of Hagrid's sympathy to steal the Philosopher's Stone, betraying his promise to kill the unicorn, harming the Malfoy family, controlling Dobby, using Gilderoy Lockhart as a human sacrifice, and constantly skirting Dumbledore's bottom line.
Because in Tiera's eyes, these actions were similar to choosing a dictatorial system in Paradox Interactive games in order to gain a greater advantage or benefit in the game, or periodically releasing floods to maintain the city's vitality...

Because only these behaviors can bring Tiera a sense of security.

But at the same time, when she puts herself in their shoes, Tyrell unconsciously treats them as real, living people. She is contradictory in that she is polite to everyone, carefully helps Harry avoid all tragedies, shares her knowledge and magical skills with Hermione, and creates a perfect and magical Christmas Eve for Dumbledore...

(End of this chapter)