Chapter 348: Difference Between Allies

Chapter 348: Difference Between Allies
As early as after Grandma Druella's funeral and the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, Sherin had already established a clear banner in the British wizarding world, attracting many moderates from pure-blood families to join him.

There are also some families that are not pure-blood families, but they have keenly sensed opportunities in this changing situation and choose to join the Malfoy family's camp in order to gain benefits.

These families are big and small, strong and weak, including high-ranking politicians and business elites. So far, according to the report Daphne gave to Schelling, the total number is no less than 40 families - this is already an astonishing number.

How many families can be called families in the whole of Great Britain?
If we don't count the reclusive families who live in seclusion, according to the data in the Wizarding Registration Archives of the Ministry of Magic, there are probably between 100 and 150.

Xie Ling naturally welcomed these families who came to him for refuge and accepted all of them.

However, in Sherin's mind, they can only be regarded as peripheral figures. The role they play is to gather around the Malfoy family, cheer for the Malfoy family and create momentum.

In Xie Ling's mind, there are actually only a few families that he can call allies.

The five families, the Greengrass family, the Nott family, the Vankanda family, the Crouch family, and the Hohenheim family, are considered Schelling's "core allies". Some of them have formed an alliance with Schelling at a very early stage, while others have deeply entangled interests with Schelling and are allies that Schelling absolutely trusts.

Ali Bashir, the Medieval Wizards' Union, Horace Slughorn and his Slug Club can be regarded as his "strategic partners". There are no complicated family interests behind these people or organizations, and there are not too many scruples and shackles in their ideas and actions. Schelling's interests are basically the same as theirs, and it is a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship.

As for the Carrows, Runcorns, Bones, and McLaggens, they could only be classified by Schelling as "special allies" - these families were either traditional powerful families or families with high positions and real power in the Ministry of Magic. They had some friendship with Schelling, and even the eldest daughters of the Carrows, Runcorns, and Bones were members of the Sleeping Dragon Society, but their actions were not controlled or directed by Schelling.

Schelling has some reservations about them - their relationship with Schelling is currently in the honeymoon period, so the relationship seems very close, and the two sides are constantly carrying out mutually beneficial exchanges, but Schelling has no doubt that once there is a conflict of interest between the two sides, or differences in goals and concepts, the possibility of parting ways is still not small.

Of course, for the sake of the Carol sisters, Susan, and Tracy, Sherin still cherishes his alliance with them and has plans to further win them over and deepen the cooperation and interests between the two sides.

Regardless of whether they are core allies, special allies, or strategic partners, their cooperative relationship and status with Schelling are relatively equal - while Schelling takes benefits from them, he will also return equal benefits according to the circumstances.

At this moment, the families that Schelling had conquered were not allies of equal status to him, but "vassal families" whose actions and resources were completely under his control and who had to obey Schelling's command and orders unconditionally at all times.

The Malfoy family itself has three vassal families, namely Goyle, Crabbe, and Osbert.

The Osbert family had been dependent on the Malfoy family as early as the time of Sethimos Malfoy, the tenth generation head of the Malfoy family. Although the head of the family at that time, Axos Osbert, was the Minister of Magic of Great Britain, he was actually a puppet of Sethimos.

Goyle and Crabbe were classmates of Lucius Malfoy. With the defeat of Voldemort in the First Wizarding War and the demise of pure-blood families, the Goyle and Crabbe families declined greatly, and eventually chose to become vassals of the Malfoy family, trying to gain protection under the wings of the Malfoy family and linger on to continue the family bloodline and glory.

However, Schelling did not intend to treat them all equally.

In Schelling's mind, Goyle, Crabbe and Osbert were actually loyal to the Malfoy family, not themselves.

Schelling had a plan in mind - he cherished the affection between him and his family, especially the brotherhood with Draco. He sincerely intended to abide by the promise between him and Draco and support Draco to become the head of the Malfoy family. However, in this way, it would be best not to involve his own plans and the reform of the wizarding world too deeply with the Malfoy family - the enemies he was facing now were all powerful and fierce, and the reforms would also require facing the hostility and obstruction of Dumbledore and the pure-blood traitors. In case something unexpected happened, Schelling hoped that at least the foundation of the Malfoy family would not be affected.

Well, the three vassal families of Goyle, Crabbe and Osbert will be left to Draco after he becomes the head. They will become his power and hopefully he can use them!

Before tonight, he actually already had three vassal families, namely Higgs, Warrington and Montague. Among these three families, except for Bertie Higgs who was somewhat useful as the Director of the Alien Branch of the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures in the Ministry of Magic, the other two were weak half-blood families.

What Schelling values ​​is actually the potential of the younger generation of these families - Terence Higgs and Cassius Warrington are both Slytherin prefects, which is enough to prove their academic ability, and Graham Montague is the Quidditch captain in the original book, which shows that his own Quidditch level and reputation on the field are also recognized by Professor Snape.

(In this work, Montague will not become the Quidditch captain, because Draco's rapid growth has made him the new generation captain)

Now he has conquered the three families of Yaxley, Quigley and Cadwallader. The number of vassal families under him has reached 6, which is twice as many as the Malfoy family.

Xie Ling was almost certain that in the future, the number of vassal families under his command would increase.

Therefore, he had to establish a class structure, responsibilities and powers for the vassal families under his command so that it would be easier for him to manage them.

Thinking of this, Xie Ling secretly sighed. It seemed that he still needed a trustworthy person to manage the vassal families for him. In the Malfoy family, these internal affairs were actually handled by a dedicated person, and that person was the Malfoy family's butler, Cakaro.

Kakaro is a talent to be left to Draco, so Schelling also needs a butler who is loyal to him and obeys his orders. This person must also be proficient in management, internal affairs, negotiation and other skills, and must have an extremely trusting relationship with Schelling.

Well, it seems that this matter also needs to be included in Xie Ling’s plan.

As for class structure, Schelling already had a rough idea of ​​it.

First, divide the vassal families into three levels according to their political and business power - senior, intermediate and junior; senior vassal families can get priority in the allocation of more resources, while intermediate and junior vassal families need to make contributions to Xie Ling to upgrade.

Yaxley was evidently of a high-ranking client family.

Higgs, Warrington, Montague, Quigley, and Cadwallader are temporarily classified as intermediate families.

Xie Ling only had a rough idea now. As for the detailed distribution of responsibilities and authority setting, he still had to discuss it with Daphne. After all, as the eldest daughter of the Greengrass family, Daphne had been trained and influenced in this area since she was a child. Xie Ling believed that she could definitely help him in this regard.

As for why Daphne was not allowed to take on the responsibility of housekeeper, it was because Daphne was now the leader of the Dragon Team and Xie Lin's personal assistant. Moreover, she was still a student and had academic pressure. Xie Lin really couldn't add more responsibilities to her.