By the time Allen returned, the Hufflepuff common room had already erupted into a second celebration, a party in honor of his victory in the Halloween Adventure Game.
Even though the event was filled with mischief and questionable fairness, a win was still a win. And Allen's triumph was nothing short of honorable. Despite the game being divided into separate tracks by year, the fact that a first-year student had emerged victorious over the entire student body left no room for dispute.
The party was a roaring success, especially with the added buzz around the upcoming exchange program. However, with the influence of some magical alcohol, it quickly devolved into a full-blown bragging contest.
Allen briefly considered using a spell to record all the drunken nonsense and play it back the next day, but after some thought, he wisely decided against it. Too many people's blackmail-worthy moments would be preserved forever. He wasn't ready to be chased down with a kitchen knife.
The next day, the buzz continued throughout the school. Even in the library, Allen could hear hushed discussions and wild speculations about the adventure.
That was until Madam Pince, the Hogwarts librarian, swiftly reminded everyone what the term "library authority" truly meant.
Once the noisy students were chased out, Allen could finally breathe and begin researching the mysterious magic school called Uagadou.
As a seasoned foodie, Allen simply couldn't imagine going on a trip without first investigating the local cuisine. It would be a disgrace to the culinary arts!
Sure, eating whatever came your way could lead to pleasant surprises, but nothing compared to a well-planned food hunt. Dumbledore might've cried if he knew one of his nine model students had fallen so far.
Unfortunately, there was nothing, no food, no basic school information, not even a half-decent introduction. Even when Allen turned to Madam Pince, she couldn't offer a single scrap of knowledge.
No wonder they needed an exchange program. The two schools were practically strangers to each other. Aside from Dumbledore's famously recognizable face, the only thing either side probably knew was that Harry Potter would enroll in the future.
In fact, even Professor Sprout, Allen's head of house, knew nothing about Uagadou. But she did kindly share the list of Hogwarts professors selected for the exchange delegation, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Professor Sigma.
Just as Allen had predicted. Hopefully the kids at Uagadou liked long, emotional speeches, especially of the chicken-soup variety.
After Allen solemnly promised to uphold the values of Hogwarts and represent the unique virtues of Hufflepuff, Professor Sprout smiled in satisfaction and gifted him a set of formal wizard robes.
Allen had to force a smile. Honestly, he would've preferred a pouch of Galleons. He'd once asked about robes in Diagon Alley out of curiosity, and the prices had nearly made him think he was getting robbed.
Actually, no, being robbed might've been cheaper than buying those robes!
But Professor Sprout, ever the kindly elder, insisted the new robes would help him stand out during the exchange.
What could Allen do? He could only accept the unnecessary gift with an awkward smile and a heartfelt "thank you."
In an empty classroom, Allen met up with the excited Weasley twins and their two older brothers, Charlie and Percy.
Even though the Weasley family couldn't afford the expenses for all four boys to participate in the exchange, that didn't dampen their enthusiasm. Charlie, after all, was the current prefect of Gryffindor.
Fun fact: Bill had been the previous prefect, Percy would be the next, and after him, well, nobody knew yet. But eventually, Ron would follow. Truly, a 'prefect' family legacy.
Sadly, Percy wasn't a prefect yet, so he was automatically out of the running for the program.
In front of the twins was a huge pile of documents, all suspiciously written in the same handwriting. Clearly, the twins had gathered this "intel" on Uagadou themselves.
Allen seriously doubted the accuracy of any of it.
Still, he appreciated the gesture and began scanning the documents. Sure enough, it was basically a magical encyclopedia of nonsense.
If everything in those papers were true, Uagadou would have to stretch from Antarctica to the North Pole, since the school supposedly encompassed customs and landscapes from nearly every part of the world.
Allen even found a description of a dessert: a green, lettuce-wrapped dish made of dates and glutinous rice, supposedly invented to honor a famous wizard.
Lettuce? Dessert? That strange combo lingered in Allen's mind until he realized this was almost certainly a Jell-O salad.
Of course, not the kind that jumps out and blows out candles, but the traditional ones eaten on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
Yeah… Allen gave up on that stack of "research." The lesson was clear, if he followed those guides, he was guaranteed to make a fool of himself.
Charlie, however, was reading with great interest, which made the twins beam with pride… until he asked one simple question
"Do they play Quidditch over there? And if they do, how are the rules different?"
All around Hogwarts, students were desperately searching for information. But just like Allen, they came up nearly empty-handed.
Soon, everyone turned to the professors, anyone who seemed even remotely approachable, for answers.
Eventually, Madam Pince hung a massive wooden sign in the library. Whenever someone asked about Uagadou, magical words would flash across its surface:
"No, there are no books about it!"
"No, there are no cultural records either!"
Yet, this lack of information only made the school all the more alluring. Nearly every house submitted a long list of eager candidates for the exchange program, giving the heads of house serious headaches.
Eventually, the most knowledge-hungry students came up with a bold plan: they would ask the most old-fashioned, most boring professor at Hogwarts.
The History of Magic teacher, infamously dull, but universally acknowledged as one of the most knowledgeable minds in the school.
Surely he would know something!
The students psyched themselves up. After all, in Professor Binns' class, even raising your hand was a challenge, let alone asking a question.
The next morning, a group of determined young wizards sat nervously in their seats, waiting to strike.
But the moment the professor entered the classroom, the entire class gasped in shock.
A pale, translucent ghost floated through the door, identical in appearance to the elderly man they knew.
Professor Binns… was dead!
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