After leaving Professor McGonagall's office, Allen walked towards the Gryffindor Tower, recalling his past experiences at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries...
Although Allen's magical outburst a year ago was intense, causing severe damage to the orphanage, it did not result in any Muggle deaths. Therefore, the Ministry of Magic was able to cover up the incident. Since Allen was not yet an adult, he wasn't liable for the damages.
The problem was that the magical outburst caused Allen significant magical harm. After being emergency-transported to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries by the Ministry of Magic, he was treated with various potions, which saved his life. He then remained in a coma for five months, requiring daily doses of potions to sustain him. Although the dosage and frequency of the potions gradually decreased as his health improved after he woke up, the accumulated cost was astronomical. This portion of the expense was initially advanced by the Ministry of Magic and eventually became Allen's debt.
Later, many wizards in the magical world became very interested in Allen's mutated talent and wanted to study him to advance magic. They began researching Allen, and as the sole subject of their research, Allen also received a considerable commission.
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 crude, Allen was not subjected to any abuse overall.
Thinking of this, Allen rubbed his ear through his hat and muttered, "Professor McGonagall's collection method doesn't seem as rough as those previous people's!"
However, the wizards who later studied Allen made no progress, and fewer and fewer wizards came to research him. Eventually, the commission from this research was used to offset his treatment costs.
By the time Allen was discharged, after various deductions, the final treatment cost was still over eleven thousand Galleons. Finally, the Ministry of Magic decided to round down the odd amount, giving Allen a round debt of ten thousand Galleons. Fortunately, this debt was interest-free.
Although the wizards' research yielded no progress and did not advance magic, Allen summarized several rules of his innate transformation through their studies:
1. Transformation spells will work normally on Allen, but after the magic is dispelled, the innate transformation will remain; for example, if Allen's randomly assigned organ is a pig nose, he will be a normal dog when transformed into one, but after the magical effect is dispelled, Allen will still have a pig nose.
2. Innate transformation products collected disappear during the second random transformation. For example, if Professor McGonagall collected some hair today, this hair will disappear when Allen undergoes transformation in his sleep tonight.
3. Transformation occurs when Allen is in his deepest sleep. If Allen does not sleep, the first day's transformation will remain until the second day, until he falls asleep again.
4. The Finite Incantatem spell has no effect on Allen's innate transformation.
5. Other people's human transfiguration spells have no effect on innate transformation.
However, these rules were of no help to Allen's condition, and the wizards also failed to find a way to inhibit Allen's random transformations. Allen had no choice but to continue undergoing dangerous transformations in his sleep every day. This once filled Allen, who was previously just a homebody programmer, with fear, but as time passed, Allen gradually came to terms with the situation.
The turning point came with the visit of Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. As leading figures in British transfiguration, they were naturally intrigued by Allen's peculiar talent. Moreover, Allen was nearing school age, so the two professors came together to visit him.
After carefully examining Allen's physical condition and having a thorough discussion with the wizards at St. Mungo's, Dumbledore proposed a hypothesis: If Allen could master human transfiguration himself, or even become an Animagus, could it solve his physical problems?
Professor McGonagall, as an Animagus herself, supported Dumbledore's view, telling Allen that becoming an Animagus grants a very high degree of control over one's body.
This might be a solution to the problems Allen faced. And to become an Animagus, one needs an extremely strong foundation in transfiguration. Hogwarts, as the best magical school in Britain, was the best place to learn transfiguration, so they suggested Allen consider attending Hogwarts.
It was because of this that Allen readily accepted Hogwarts' invitation, determined to become a master of transfiguration.
Knowing that he would be attending Hogwarts in the future, Allen began preparing for it. He quickly realized that although Hogwarts didn't charge tuition and provided free room and board, he couldn't afford the cost of textbooks, as magic books were quite expensive.
So, just before his discharge, he accepted an interview with the Daily Prophet. After the interview, he asked the Daily Prophet to advocate for kind-hearted individuals in the wizarding world to donate some clothes and textbooks to him. This then led to the scene in the dormitory.
After Allen was discharged, the Ministry of Magic suddenly realized he had nowhere to go, as he certainly couldn't return to the Muggle world in his current state.
In fact, there were many people in the wizarding world willing to adopt young wizards from orphanages like Allen. Even if ordinary wizarding families were unwilling, there were quite a few Squibs in the magical world who would be very happy to adopt an orphaned child with magical talent. However, Allen's situation was too special; whoever adopted him would inherit a debt of ten thousand Galleons, and Allen's physical condition still required continuous maintenance with potions, so no one was interested.
Poor Allen's guardianship was still with the orphanage director, but Allen could never go back; he had become a missing person in the Muggle world.
At this point, there were still four months until Hogwarts started, and Allen truly had nowhere to go during this period. The Ministry of Magic, considering financial pressure, also didn't want to invest more in Allen. Finally, 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 front desk clerk at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. Don't ask why he didn't go wash dishes, because in this world, there's magic, and those tasks are just a flick of a wand away.
Allen settled down like this, living in the smallest room in the pub. Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about three meals, but he didn't save much money either.
The biggest problem Allen faced next was not having a wand, and buying a wand usually cost 10 Galleons, a sum he simply couldn't afford.
After much consideration, Allen bit the bullet and went 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 that resonated with Allen, but the condition was that Allen would work for him in his shop for a summer during his first year, during which time Ollivander would provide food and lodging.
Allen, with an adult soul, quickly realized that this was Ollivander's kindness, providing a place for him to go during the first-year summer when he would have nowhere else. What could a first-year student, who hadn't mastered many spells, do in the precise industry of wand-making? So, he gratefully accepted Ollivander's deal.
"There are still many good people in the wizarding world!" Allen sighed inwardly.