We Need Allies; Harry Potter Is the Key to Unity

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone exchanged glances.

They could not deny that Aaron made a great deal of sense, but Hogwarts was a shared memory for all of them. No one wanted to see it turned into a battlefield.

"Can't we choose somewhere else?" Harry asked, conflicted.

"I know you can't bear to. You see Hogwarts as your real home.

"I can't bear to either. This is where I decided long ago to retire and spend my old age. Once Professor Snape steps down, I was even planning to become headmaster!

"But you need to understand: if the school is gone, it can be rebuilt. If people are gone, nothing remains." Aaron spoke meaningfully, then changed tack. "Of course, I'm not unreasonable.

"As long as you—or all of you—can provide a better battlefield. But can you?"

Harry was left speechless, and the others fell silent as well.

"Hogwarts was built together by Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw to protect and educate wizards.

"In peacetime, it can be a school. In wartime, it can be a fortress—capable of both attack and defense."

"All right, enough." Moody took a deep breath and looked at the others. "Whether we want to admit it or not, there really is no place more suitable than Hogwarts."

Aaron shrugged and put a checkmark beside "terrain advantage."

"Finally, the most important part." Aaron waved his wand, moving "favorable timing" and "terrain advantage" to the upper-left corner of the blackboard. Then he wrote "unity" in the center.

"Favorable timing is inferior to terrain advantage, and terrain advantage is inferior to unity.

"Without unity, even with favorable timing and terrain advantage combined, we would have less than a thirty percent chance of winning."

"You're that certain?" Frank asked in surprise.

"Very certain." Aaron smiled mysteriously. "This part