It was the same old stone sentinel, but the young wizards atop it were a completely different batch.
This time, the lineup for the exchange was entirely different, almost none of the students Allen was familiar with had made it onto the list.
And that wasn't the only thing he noticed.
Only now did Allen realize something critical, Slytherin's presence in this exchange was way too overwhelming.
Though Slytherin had always had fewer students overall, they now made up a full third of the participants, and that's including the extra Hufflepuff reserve team that had been slotted in!
Unlike the friendly atmosphere of the last exchange, this time the Slytherins clearly had no interest in mingling with students from the other houses. Most of them were upper-year students, and the long-standing house rivalries of Hogwarts were now more visible than ever. The older the student, the deeper the division, and for many, that rivalry had grown into outright hostility.
Even the house prefects, who were supposed to act as mediators, had little influence over the seniors. It was the older students who had the real sway over the younger ones, and from the very first day, a heavy atmosphere of alienation had already taken hold.
Not even the professors could break the tension. The heads of house, three professors in total, personally stepped in to try and calm everyone down, but it made no difference. The Slytherins had banded tightly together, and some were even beginning to turn on their own prefects.
That night's dinner ended on a distinctly sour note, made worse by Professor Snape's thunderous expression.
After reminding Annie to get some rest, she, too, had been ostracized, Allen quickly left the Slytherin common room and headed toward his own house's quarters.
At a nearby corner, he suddenly heard voices. Years of experience as the "Widowmaker" had trained him to walk silently without even realizing it, and so he heard the conversation clearly before anyone noticed him.
One of the voices was very familiar.
It was their Potions professor, Severus Snape.
"What do you think you're doing?! This is not something you students should be meddling in!"
"Oh, but we can, Professor. In fact, we are meddling. Even Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, has had to rely on our support," replied another voice, one Allen didn't recognize. It radiated confidence, almost arrogance.
"Fools! You're only making everything worse! You haven't even done the bare minimum, you can't even win a basic Quidditch match!" Snape snapped, his voice rising.
"That proves nothing," the unfamiliar voice scoffed. "Those filthy Mudbloods only managed to grab the Golden Snitch by dumb luck. They didn't even see it until the last second. We were the reigning Quidditch champions, and then those backwater peasants managed to slap together a new team out of nowhere. How poor must they have been to do something so desperate?"
"Enough, Norris!" Snape barked. "You'll ruin everything Dumbledore has carefully planned!"
The Headmaster's name caused a noticeable pause. Allen heard a moment of silence.
But whatever influence Dumbledore had built over the years, something had changed. The Slytherin student's voice returned, now with an unmistakable resolve.
"Even Dumbledore can't stop us. We have the full backing of the Board of Governors. You know what kind of power they wield when united, Professor."
"Stop this, Norris, if you continue, I'll be forced to take action!"
"And what will you do? Take points from your own house? Detention, maybe?" The sneer in his voice was impossible to miss. "Go ahead. I promise you, if you actually do that, even Dumbledore won't be able to protect you. You'll be finished at Hogwarts."
At that moment, footsteps rang out. Allen quickly pressed himself against the wall opposite the corner, no one would expect someone to be walking that close to the edge.
He saw the speaker step out, a tall Slytherin boy with short blond hair and an ambitious gleam in his eyes.
As he passed, he tossed one final remark over his shoulder:
"Watch yourself... Professor Severus Snape."
A pause.
"Two-faced coward. Dumbledore's old lapdog."
Allen swore he saw a flicker of light from Snape's wand, but in the end, the professor held himself back.
After a long, heavy pause, Severus Snape turned in silence and walked off toward his quarters.
••┈┈┈┈┈༓┈┈┈┈┈•••
Meanwhile, in the largest room of the Hufflepuff quarters, the students were still celebrating, loudly and joyfully. Before the trip to the moving castle had even begun, each of them had brought enough food to throw a proper party.
They hadn't even had time to enjoy their recent Quidditch victory before they were all suddenly whisked away on this exchange, practically forced into it without warning.
And so the victory feast had to be held inside the moving castle instead.
Even though the younger wizards knew this exchange wasn't going to be all fun and games, they couldn't stop themselves from celebrating. After all, there was no time to "cram" anything new on this journey, real success would come from what they had already learned and prepared.
Cramming? That doesn't work in the wizarding world.
Just look at the fourteen brand-new broomsticks, every one of them a top-of-the-line Nimbus 1999! Clearly, the Ministry of Magic had more galleons than sense.
And those uniforms? Sure, they had the Ministry's seal... but come on, the Hufflepuff house crest looked way better.
Even the Hogwarts crest would've been better than the Ministry's logo. In the end, most of them decided to just wear their old uniforms instead.
The celebration was only cut short when Professor Sprout walked in, causing the entire room to settle down at once.
"I know this isn't the right time... but I must warn you all, be careful during this exchange."
She paused for a moment, then looked around at the older students.
"Whether I agree with it or not... the Ministry has announced that students who perform exceptionally well during this program—"
She hesitated. Clearly, she didn't want to finish that sentence.
"—will be granted a top-grade pass in any N.E.W.T. subject of their choosing, even without passing the corresponding O.W.L."
The announcement hit like a thunderclap.
The already cramped common room nearly exploded with cheers and shrieks of disbelief.
A top-grade N.E.W.T. pass, for any subject?
That meant anyone who did well here could graduate with scores far better than most ordinary students. For many of the young wizards who were about to leave Hogwarts, it was the perfect reward.
But the cheering didn't last long.
Professor Sprout said nothing more. Without a single follow-up word, she simply turned and walked out as if she had only been reading an announcement.
The room fell quiet again. The Hufflepuffs glanced at one another, unsure of what to make of it. They didn't understand what had just happened, but many were already imagining the glorious future that reward could bring them.
Truthfully, most of them were still far too young, barely adults by wizarding standards, and had no real resistance to a temptation that great.
Still, a few of the sharper ones already sensed something was wrong. This exchange... might be far more dangerous than anyone imagined.
Yet none of them said a word.
Even they were tempted, who wouldn't be? And if they did speak up, wouldn't others just think they were trying to keep the rewards all to themselves?
In that strange and uneasy atmosphere, the party dispersed quickly, leaving behind a chaotic mess of half-eaten snacks and crumpled decorations.
And so, the first day of the exchange came to a close, off to an ominous start.
==========
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