Chapter 6: Memories

After leaving Professor McGonagall's office, Allen walked toward the Gryffindor Tower, unable to help but recall the various past events at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries...

Although the intensity of Allen's magical outburst a year ago was high, causing severe damage to the orphanage, it resulted in no Muggle deaths, so the Ministry of Magic managed to cover up the incident quite well; since Allen was still a minor, he did not have to pay for this aspect.

The problem was that the magical outburst inflicted severe magical injury upon Allen; after being urgently sent by the Ministry of Magic to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, various potions were used to treat him, saving his life, after which he remained comatose for five months, during which he nearly had to drink potions every day to survive; although after waking up, as his health improved, the dosage and frequency of the potions gradually decreased, the accumulated cost had already become an astronomical figure, a portion of which was advanced by the Ministry of Magic at the time and ultimately became Allen's debt.

Later, many wizards in the Wizarding World became very interested in Allen's mutated talent and wished to promote the development of magic by studying him, so they launched research on Allen; as the sole subject of this research, Allen also received substantial commissions.

At that time, wizards would also collect products from Allen's transformations, such as horns, hair, blood, and so on; although the collection methods were sometimes a bit rough, overall Allen suffered no abuse.

Thinking of this, Allen rubbed his ears through his hat and muttered, "Professor McGonagall's collection technique indeed seems less brutal than those of the previous few people!"

However, the wizards researching Allen made no progress for a long time, so fewer and fewer wizards came to study him; in the end, the commissions from this research portion were used to offset his treatment fees.

By the time Allen was discharged from the hospital, after various deductions, the final treatment fee still amounted to over eleven thousand Galleons; finally, the Ministry of Magic decided to waive the fractional amount and round Allen's debt to a neat integer—ten thousand Galleons; fortunately, this debt was interest-free.

Although the wizards' research yielded no progress and failed to advance the development of magic, Allen summarized several rules regarding his talent-based transformation through their studies:

1. Transfiguration spells would normally take effect on Allen, but after the magic was dispelled, his talent-based transformation would still remain; for instance, if Allen randomly obtained a pig's snout as an organ, when transfigured into a dog he would be a normal dog, but after the magical effect was lifted, Allen would still possess a pig's snout.

2. Collected products of his talent-based transformation would disappear during the second random transformation; for example, if Professor McGonagall collected some hair today, that hair would vanish when Allen underwent transformation while sleeping tonight.

3. The transformation would occur when Allen was in his deepest sleep; if Allen never slept, the transformation from the first day would persist into the second day until his next sleep.

4. The Finite Incantatem spell was ineffective against Allen's talent-based transformation.

5. Other people's human transfiguration spells were ineffective against his talent-based transformation.

Yet these rules offered no help for Allen's condition, and the wizards found no method to suppress Allen's random transformations; Allen had no choice but to undergo dangerous transformations in his sleep every day, which once filled Allen, formerly just an otaku programmer, with fear, but as time passed, Allen gradually became more open-minded about the matter.

The turning point was the visit of Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall; as leading figures in the British field of transfiguration, they were naturally full of interest in Allen's strange talent, and since Allen was approaching the age for school enrollment, the two professors came together to visit him.

After carefully examining Allen's physical condition and communicating fully with the wizards at St. Mungo's, Dumbledore proposed a hypothesis: if Allen himself mastered human transfiguration, or even became an Animagus, could that not solve the problems with his body?

Professor McGonagall, being an Animagus herself, expressed support for Dumbledore's viewpoint, telling Allen that after becoming an Animagus, one's degree of control over their own body becomes extremely high.

This might be the solution to the problems Allen faced; and since becoming an Animagus required an extremely strong foundation in transfiguration, and Hogwarts, as the best magic school in Britain, was the best place to learn transfiguration, they suggested Allen consider attending Hogwarts.

It was precisely because of this that Allen readily accepted Hogwarts' invitation, determined to become a master of transfiguration.

Knowing that he would attend Hogwarts in the future, Allen began preparing for his journey there, but he soon realized that although Hogwarts charged no tuition and provided free room and board, he could not afford the cost of buying textbooks, after all, magic books were very expensive.

Therefore, shortly before his discharge, he accepted an interview with the Daily Prophet; after the interview concluded, he requested that the Daily Prophet initiate a campaign for kind-hearted individuals in the wizarding community to donate some clothing and textbooks to him, which led to the scene in the dormitory.

After Allen was discharged from the hospital, the Ministry of Magic suddenly discovered he had nowhere to go, since in his current state, he certainly could not return to the Muggle World.

Actually, for young wizards orphaned like Allen, there were many in the Wizarding World willing to adopt them; even if ordinary wizarding families were unwilling, there were quite a few Squibs in the Wizarding World who would actually be very happy to adopt an orphan with magical talent as a foster son, but Allen's situation was too special; whoever adopted him would mean assuming a debt of ten thousand Galleons, and Allen's physical condition still required constant maintenance with potions, so even fewer people showed interest.

Poor Allen's guardianship rights were still technically in the hands of the orphanage director, but Allen could never return there, having already become a missing person in the Muggle World.

At this time, there were still four months until Hogwarts opened, and during this period Allen truly had nowhere to go; considering the financial pressure, the Ministry of Magic did not wish to invest more in Allen, so in the end, they had no choice but to grant Allen special permission to become a legal child laborer, working to support himself.

Thus, through the Ministry of Magic's introduction, he became a receptionist at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley; do not ask why he did not go wash dishes or scrub plates, because in this world there is magic, and such tasks are accomplished with a single wave of a wand.

Allen thus settled down, residing in the smallest room in the pub; fortunately, he did not have to worry about three meals a day, but he also did not save any money.

Immediately following this, the biggest problem Allen faced was the lack of a wand, and buying a wand generally required seven Galleons, a sum of money he simply could not produce.

After considerable deliberation, Allen steeled himself to discuss the matter with Ollivander.

Fortunately, Ollivander was a kind old man; after understanding Allen's situation, he expressed his willingness to provide a wand compatible with Allen, but the price was that Allen must serve in his shop for the entire summer vacation after his first year, during which time he would provide food and lodging.

Allen, possessing an adult soul, quickly realized this was Ollivander's kind intention, providing a place to go for himself when he would have nowhere else to go during the summer after his first year; what could a first-year student, who knew only a few spells, possibly do in the precise industry of wand making? Thus, he gratefully accepted Ollivander's arrangement.

"There are still many good people in the Wizarding World!" Allen sighed in his heart.