"You should be grateful that France bans guns." Severus looked at the streetlamps lining the streets of Paris. "And that no one has been hanged from them."
"Could you stop talking?" Gong Saiyi said distractedly. "Don't you find that sort of scene terrifying?"
"Halloween ought to have a bit of a frightening atmosphere." Severus spoke in a low, mocking voice. "Don't so many people enjoy frightening others for fun?"
"This isn't funny at all," Gong Saiyi complained.
"Napoleon believed that the French Revolution happened not because the French longed for freedom, but because they demanded equality. The equality he understood was equality of civil rights under the law, not equality of economic conditions. So he consolidated that 'equality' and codified it into law," Severus continued. "But when a person has lived in poverty for too long, they will try every possible means to escape that life and become less law-abiding. Fortunately, France bans guns."
"You've said that before," Klimian said.
"Then do you think the current government would, like Napoleon, order cannons aimed at civilians?" Severus asked.
No one spoke.
"No one wants to bear that kind of stigma," Severus continued. "Everyone knows it is more advantageous to be loved than hated, which is why people with terrible reputations can sometimes be more worth relying on."
"You admire him?" Gong Saiyi asked.
Severus shrugged smugly. "I'm the one with the terrible reputation, the one who likes Dark magic. Compared to members of the Order of the Phoenix, white wizards rely on me more."
Both Gong Saiyi and Klimian laughed.
"I have an enemy. He taught me something."
"What?" Felix asked.
"What gets us into trouble isn't ignorance, but mistaken judgments that seem correct. Mark Twain wrote that. Remember it," Severus told Felix. "A good intelligence officer does not gather intelligence