Speaking of intelligence...
Harry Potter and Ron both turned to look at Hermione simultaneously.
Gathering intelligence was a technical skill.
First, you needed a reliable source of information, then you had to distinguish truth from falsehood.
Even if it were true, one had to consider if it was a lure set by the cunning Voldemort.
With all of that, Harry Potter and Ron's brains simply couldn't handle complex intelligence reconnaissance.
And Hermione, as the third-in-command of the resistance, actually held a status higher than the first-in-command, Harry Potter.
If it hadn't been for the fact that the resistance had initially gathered under the Savior's name, the leader's seat would never have gone to Harry Potter.
At this moment, the brilliant Hermione had long realized Harvey was once again using grand philosophies to fool people, and was deliberately avoiding the subject of his two-month disappearance.
But in public, Hermione would at least give her man some face and wouldn't expose his lies to his face.
However, once they got back, she was going to have a serious talk with this bastard about where he had been for two months.
For now, Hermione carefully recalled all the intelligence she had recently received.
Most of the resistance's intelligence was sent voluntarily by ordinary wizards in the wizarding world.
After all, no matter how smart Hermione was, she couldn't possibly build a perfect and tight intelligence system like a Muggle government.
You have to realize that the entire British wizarding world only consisted of about 3,000 people; she couldn't even find enough people to recruit as intelligence agents.
Therefore, the resistance's intelligence system was actually very fragile.
If it weren't for the fact that wizards possessed multiple secretive channels for transmitting information, the resistance, hunkered down in Hogwarts, would have had a very hard time getting intel from the outside world.
Hermione finished analyzing the recent reports and spoke slowly: "After You-Know-Who captured the Ministry of Magic, he turned it into the Death Eaters' lair, though he rarely appears there himself."
"As far as I know, the Death Eaters have likely set their sights on Hogsmeade Village again recently."
"Because Hogsmeade is close to the school, making reinforcement easier, You-Know-Who's previous few attacks were all repelled by the school's professors."
"But lately, more and more Death Eaters who aren't afraid to die have been appearing in Hogsmeade, frequently testing the waters."
"So, I believe we can lie in wait in Hogsmeade for You-Know-Who to appear."
"If he doesn't show, we go to the Ministry to find him."
"And if we can't find him at the Death Eaters' lair either, then we look in the few locations where You-Know-Who has previously appeared."
Ron suddenly blurted out, "And what if we still can't find You-Know-Who?"
A cold glint flashed in Harvey's eyes, and he said, "Then we start a massacre. We slaughter every single Death Eater rampaging in the wizarding world and force him out!"
Previously, the number of Death Eaters under Voldemort wasn't large—only a few dozen. He wouldn't have cared if they all died.
But now, after two months of chaos in the wizarding world, the vast majority of Pure-blood families were fence-sitters who had already declared their loyalty to Voldemort.
Besides the Pure-blood families, there were Half-blood wizards, werewolves, and goblins who had also been forced or driven by ambition to join the Death Eater army.
The Death Eater army grew like a snowball, now numbering nearly a thousand.
You have to realize that as Voldemort frequently committed massacres, the number of wizards in the British wizarding world had sharply declined, with fewer than two thousand remaining.
If Harvey executed a strategy of meeting violence with violence and wiped out all the Death Eaters...
Unless Voldemort wanted to become a leader without a single follower, he would definitely be unable to stop himself from coming out.
But when Harry Potter heard this brutal idea of using slaughter to stop slaughter, his face was filled with disapproval.
"The Death Eaters aren't all bad people. Many wizards were coerced into joining the Death Eater army."
"For example, Ron's parents, the Weasley family—they were also forced to become Death Eaters. We can't just paint all Death Eaters with the same brush..."
Good lord. In just two short months, even Ron's parents had joined the Death Eater army?
This made things a bit tricky for Harvey.
A regular member of the resistance nearby also spoke up weakly, "Because there are so few wizards in the wizarding world, almost every wizard is related to one another in some way."
"So many of our members have relatives who have become Death Eaters."
Seeing Harvey fall silent, Hermione sighed and said, "It's our own fault for being useless. Because the resistance couldn't stop Voldemort, we could only keep retreating."
"From the moment the Ministry fell, the situation has been almost entirely one-sided."
"So many wizards who saw no hope for victory chose to join the Death Eaters rather than be persecuted."
"It's just human nature; we couldn't stop it."
Ron cautiously suggested: "Actually, we can distinguish between the good ones and the bad ones."
"If we eliminate the Death Eaters who love doing evil the most first, it should also be enough to force Voldemort out."
"Heh~" Harvey sneered and said, "Voldemort isn't an idiot. Do you think joining the Death Eaters doesn't require a blood sacrifice as a show of loyalty?"
"While I don't know the specifics, I'm certain that the hands of every Death Eater are stained with the blood of innocents."
Ron was momentarily speechless; even as dense as he was, he could tell whether that statement was correct or not.
Everyone present fell into an eerie silence.
The surroundings were so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
After struggling with it for a while, Hermione was still the one to break the silence, saying:
"Let's first try to see if we can catch You-Know-Who. If we deal with You-Know-Who, the Death Eater army can be dealt with slowly over time."
Harvey actually preferred the simple and brutal method of ending the war through slaughter, but that idea was destined not to gain the approval of the others.
These waters were difficult to navigate.
At this point, the food on the table hadn't been touched for a long time and had already grown cold.
Harvey silently took a sip of fruit tea and summarized: "We'll do as Hermione suggests. Let's see if Voldemort will jump out to seek his own death."
"If that doesn't work, I'll have no choice but to follow my own ideas."
Everyone remained silent.
After a full two months of being baptized by a brutal war, the thought of sacrificing relatives for the greater good had definitely crossed their minds more than once.
They were only remaining silent out of concern for their family and friends.
Afterward, everyone's expression was heavy, and they didn't have much of an appetite for eating.
After a hasty meal, Harvey took Hermione and left the Room of Requirement.
...
As the night grew thicker, Hogsmeade Village was deathly quiet.
The hazy moonlight spilled across the entire Scottish Highlands, yet it could hardly disperse the thick darkness surrounding the village.
Most areas of Hogsmeade were dark, with only a scattered dozen or so houses still showing light from their windows.
The originally bustling village had become sparsely populated due to the war.
Some wizards, terrified by the Death Eaters' death threats, had long since moved to other countries.
Others had joined the resistance, staying behind to guard the place where they had lived their entire lives.
It was worth mentioning that there were no Death Eaters in Hogsmeade.
Because any wizards who wanted to defect had all been killed by Hermione, who had struck first to gain the advantage.