The same thing had happened this time. When Vaughn proposed magical proteins in his paper, Damocles Belby, the editor responsible for reviewing it, had specifically published an article supporting and promoting it. Within two days, the Daily Prophet had run an article devoted to criticizing it.
It seemed that no one doubted whether Vaughn Weasley could actually accomplish it.
Even Fred and George believed Vaughn could do it. Their joking around was an effort to mitigate the harmful impact of that Daily Prophet article.
Harry looked around the room.
At the Gryffindor table, the Hufflepuff table—throughout the entire Great Hall, aside from the strange silence among the Slytherins, students from the other three Houses were gathered around newspapers, arguing.
The hall was filled with noise.
Harry could not even tell which of those red-faced arguers supported Vaughn and which agreed with the article.
Even Harry himself did not know which side he ought to take.
In theory, having grown up in Muggle society, he should have leaned toward the Muggle side. But in truth, none of his memories of Muggle society were pleasant. Magic had changed the course of his fate, while wizards had pulled him out of the mire.
Whenever he thought of the peaceful wizarding world possibly being plunged into conflict because of Vaughn's research, Harry could not help feeling resistant.
But if he leaned toward the wizards—or rather, toward the pure-blood ideology faintly revealed in the article, with its strong wizard-supremacist undertones—it felt wrong too—
Harry felt as though his head were about to split apart. Even after the meal ended, his thoughts were still battling back and forth.
"This world really is as complicated as Vaughn said!"
he thought.
During last year's special training, Vaughn had often discussed many principles with him in their spare moments.