Chapter 533: Step by step

Finally, Ivan accepted Hermione's proposal and agreed to become the president of the Elven Platform for the Defense of Workers' Rights.

Although it seemed almost impossible for him to succeed, come to think of it, Ivan seemed to have been doing the impossible and taking what seemed to most to be nonsense all along.

Whether it was Voldemort or the evil spirits, it was much harder to defeat them than it was to defend the rights and interests of the house elves.

If the results were to be judged directly by simple comparison of forces, it was better for Ivan to give up quickly and not resist.

It was enough to work and strive. Not everything had to be done with the end result in mind from a practical point of view.

Ivan and Hermione argued for a while. Unlike Hermione's anxious approach, he thought that the matter should be dealt with step by step. After all, these were concepts that had been handed down for centuries in the wizarding world, and it was impractical to change them all in a short time.

Fortunately, as the proportion of Muggle-born and half-blood wizards gradually increased, many of the inherent concepts were changing.

Hermione's point of view was not without supporters. On the contrary, it could represent the voice of some wizards.

What the Society for the Promotion of Elven Welfare needed to do now was to develop its membership base. Ivan helped her revise her articles to gain the understanding and approval of more people.

Judging by Hermione's thoughts, she seemed to have other plans to do something for the house elves with her own efforts.

The next morning, the uneasiness between Ron and Hermione was quickly resolved. They both apologized to each other and thought they had been too agitated the night before.

Finally, Harry and Ron, as well as Ivan, paid two Sickles as admission fees.

Boring school life continued to progress, but the development of other wizards' participation in the Elven Platform for the Defense of Workers' Rights did not go smoothly.

Just to curb Hermione's constant persuasion and sullen anger, Colin, Ginny and Neville had also paid, but were reluctant to take a more active role in the campaign. Instead, they regarded the whole thing as a joke.

Everyone's negative attitude had done nothing to dampen Hermione's determination to do the house elves justice.

It was true that they had paid two Sickles for a S.P.E.W. badge, but they had only done so to keep her quiet. However, their Sickles had been wasted; if anything, they seemed to have made Hermione more vociferous.

Since then, she had been badgering Ivan, Harry, and Ron, first to get them to wear the badges and then to convince the others to do the same.

She also took to walking around the Gryffindor common room every afternoon, cornering people and waving the collection tin in their faces, asking them to pay for the badge and join the Society for the Promotion of Elven Welfare.

Despite Hermione's hard work, there was little interest in the matter. Several meetings were held to hear Hermione read the Society's bylaws.

Soon after, Hogwarts magic began to publish its articles on protecting the rights of House Elves.

This seemed to have an influence, and readers were constantly writing to Hermione.

Many thought she was crazy for having this absurd idea of paying house elves, but there were still some people who supported her.

They thought Hermione's approach was ethically correct, which gave Hermione great encouragement and motivation to continue.

As she often told Ivan, this was enough to get her started. Her badges and the Society for the Promotion of Elven Welfare were no longer limited to Hogwarts.

As for the school curriculum, Moody had begun using the Imperius Curse on all the young wizards in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Currently, only Ivan at the school could completely break the curse and defeat it.

After many attempts, Harry and a small number of seniors were able to successfully resist and were not easily controlled by the dark wizard.

Ron was the worst performer in this regard, and had no resistance to the Imperius Curse. It was probably due to the impact of his previous experiences.

He had much more difficulty than the others in dealing with this curse, and was the easiest to control.

In Professor Moody's words, Ron lacked great willpower.

This made Ron very unsatisfied, and every Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson became a torment.

He complained that Moody was like a paranoid, and no wonder people wanted to kick him out of the Ministry of Magic.

Moody talked as if someone could walk into the school and attack them at any moment.

But Ivan believed it was necessary for everyone to learn how to resist the Imperius Curse as soon as possible.

So far, he had found no trace of Bartemius Crouch Jr. hiding in the darkness.

Either Barty Crouch Jr. had not yet arrived at Hogwarts, or the Marauder's Map was not working. The first assumption was very likely. As Caresius had said, Crouch planned to start with the Triwizard Tournament.

By then, Hogwarts Castle would have eliminated most of the protective magic and its defense would be at its weakest. In addition, there would be many outsiders entering.

Bartemius Crouch, Jr. might be among them, waiting for the opportunity to act.

After confirming that it was impossible to quickly discover Barty Crouch through the Marauder's Map, Ivan put this matter aside.

He now devoted most of his energy to the study of ancient magical texts and had also begun trying to learn the language of the Water People.

Evidently, the pressure of the third-year curriculum was much greater than that of the second year, and Ivan was now busy every day.

As for Harry, Ron and Hermione, they were even busier, and the amount of homework they had to do in fourth year overwhelmed them. This was because, entering fifth year the following year, they would be taking Ordinary Levels in Magic.

In the words of Professor McGonagall, this was the most important phase of a wizard's magical education, and due attention had to be paid to it.

However, it was evident that everyone's performance could not satisfy the teachers.

The homework was becoming more and more difficult and demanding, which made Harry and Ron's dissatisfaction grow.

The only thing that made them feel happy was that they had received top marks for their homework in Divination class. Although this sounded a bit ironic, it was one of the few pieces of good news they received.

In fact, Ivan was also praised.

Professor Trelawney even read aloud much of his predictions, praising him for his unwavering acceptance of the horrors that awaited him.

Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures was still a disaster, especially since part of his "project" suggested that they go down to his hut on alternate afternoons to observe the Scraggles and take notes on their extraordinary behavior.

These spiky Scripps were growing at a remarkable rate, given that no one had yet figured out what they ate.

Hagrid had placed them in separate boxes, and a hundred wooden crates kept rattling in front of his hut.

It wouldn't be long before these exploding-tailed Skinks would emerge from their boxes.

It was foreseeable that no one would dare approach them, except Hagrid.