Lester's Speech

At that moment, every prisoner serving a light sentence in Azkaban joined the revelry of insulting Pure-bloods.

The prisoners finally understood completely. It was not that Lester had broken out of prison and been caught by Aurors—it was that Lester had subdued the Aurors guarding Azkaban!

Seeing the prisoners growing increasingly agitated, Lester raised a hand in the air and pressed it down, signaling for silence.

Then something miraculous happened. The prisoners who had been passionately discussing matters in their cells all fell quiet involuntarily when they saw Lester's gesture.

Every one of them looked eagerly at Lester in the center of the prison.

They had to admit that Lester had already stirred their emotions with just the first sentence of his speech!

Under the earnest gazes of hundreds of prisoners, Lester continued without changing expression. "Are we really prisoners? Are we really criminals?"

"Those nobles who lived without a care in the world took pleasure in killing people every day. Did the Ministry of Magic ever sentence them?"

"And us Muggle-born wizards, excluded by Pure-blood wizards and unable to find decent work in the Wizarding World, had no choice but to do illegal things to survive. Were we born bad people?!"

Lester's words rang out with force, his sharp remarks piercing deeply into every prisoner's heart.

Yeah! Who was born a bad person? Hadn't the rotten Wizarding World forced them into becoming bad people?

Did they not know that becoming a Dark wizard was against the law?

Did they not want to find respectable work after graduating from Hogwarts?

Did anyone truly enjoy living a life where tomorrow was never guaranteed?

Did they not envy those wizarding families gathered happily around the table?

They wanted that too, but reality would not allow them to live the lives they wanted!

Gradually, all the imprisoned Dark wizards fell silent, their expressions shifting constantly with Lester's words.

Over the years, who had ever cared about Muggle-born wizards like them?

Who knew just how absurd the Secrecy Statute issued by the Ministry of Magic was?

They were forbidden from using magic in the Muggle World, yet they were not given jobs in the Wizarding World...

Wasn't Britain's Ministry of Magic driving Muggle-born wizards like them straight to their deaths?

These prisoners might now be ruthless Dark wizards, but when they had first stepped out of Hogwarts, which one of them had not been filled with endless yearning and hope for the Wizarding World?

But what was reality? The moment they walked out of Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic gave them two choices.

The first was to remain in the Wizarding World and toil like oxen and horses for Pure-blood wizards, working jobs such as waiters or train vendors.

Or, if they had done well in school and possessed a bit more strength, they could only become dogs for the Pure-bloods—Dark wizard enforcers summoned at a word and dismissed at a whim.

What did that mean? They had studied magic painstakingly at Hogwarts for seven years, only for their job to be nothing more than waiting tables!

It was as absurd as a university graduate who mastered eight languages, yet instead of being valued, could only work as a waiter in a small hotel.

The second choice was even more absurd: they were supposed to give up magic and return to the Muggle World to live.

How laughable. They had spent seven years of their lives, only to receive a warning from the Ministry of Magic that they could not use magic in the Muggle World.

What did people like them have besides magic?

Do not forget that before coming to the Wizarding World, they had only received elementary-school educations in Muggle society.

What jobs could an elementary-school education get them in the Muggle World? Waiting tables and the like, except they would be waiters who could not use magic.

Naturally, these capable Muggle wizards would not allow the Ministry of Magic to manipulate them as it pleased.

And so, they ended up here after breaking the law.

At once, every Muggle-born wizard in the prison, including Hafiz and the other two standing behind Lester like guardian statues, fell into deep thought.

Though Lester did not receive an enthusiastic response this time, he knew that these Muggle wizards, long oppressed for so many years, had taken every word he said to heart.

Inside his cell, Scarface covered his scarred face in anguish, recalling how he had been mercilessly beaten by Pure-bloods shortly after entering society.

He hated those Pure-bloods in power. He hated this Wizarding World, rotten to its very core!

Who knew that Scarface's original dream had been to become a renowned Potions master, rather than a fake medicine peddler who could only brew inferior potions from trash ingredients?

At the same time, Scarface was not the only one who gained insight from Lester's speech. Sang Biao, lying there like a heap of mud, had been affected the most.

If anyone in the entire prison had suffered the deepest oppression from Pure-blood nobles, Sang Biao felt that he had to step forward and say something.

Back when Sang Biao had first entered Hogwarts, he had displayed exceptional magical talent. He had mastered Dark magic without a teacher, wielding it with astonishing skill.

But what did that matter? After graduation, those Pure-bloods who were less talented than him relied on their family resources to learn more advanced Dark magic, while he could only remain stuck in place.

He was unwilling to accept that, so he became an enforcer for the Khalifa Lineage.

Though he was a powerful Muggle wizard, the Khalifa Lineage had never regarded him as worthy of notice.

He was simply a dog of the Khalifa Lineage, with every dirty and exhausting task dumped on him.

Take the mission to enter Azkaban and assassinate Lester. It was clearly a trivial matter, something that could have been accomplished by instructing the guards, yet they insisted on sending him into Azkaban to do it.

Why? Wasn't it so that his record would show that he had once been imprisoned in Azkaban, allowing them to control him even more easily?!

As for Hafiz, there was even less need to mention him. He had suffered more grievances at the hands of Pure-blood nobles than anyone else!

At that moment, the tragic experiences of Scarface and the other two were not isolated cases, but a common phenomenon among Azkaban's prisoners.

After all, who could be locked up in Azkaban without having some sort of story?

Of course, there were also some genuine scum among them, such as Lester's Chinese class representative, the lecherous old man Leona.

"Why do you all look so grim?"

Feeling the heavy atmosphere in the prison, the lecherous old man felt so stifled that he could barely breathe.

Since his youth had been an era when rogue wizards ran rampant, he could not truly relate to the oppression suffered by these younger wizards.

But the other prisoners were different. Before, they had merely viewed Lester as a ruthless big brother with formidable strength.

But after hearing Lester's speech, they felt that in the entire Wizarding World, only Lester truly understood them!

And only Lester, also Muggle-born, would care about all the injustices Muggle wizards faced in the Wizarding World!