A match is a match, and an exchange is an exchange, those two things are not the same.
Allen understood this very well. After all, the wizards here weren't just playing Quidditch to suppress Ilvermorny; their real purpose was to investigate Ilvermorny's secrets.
Adult wizards, equipped with mature magical knowledge and a complete Hogwarts imprint, treated this exchange as a raid for knowledge resources, yes, a raid. Even if those older students never said this was their mission outright, Allen was sure that some seniors were tasked with copying certain documents.
Though these exchange students didn't have the right to check books out of the library, no one could take away the knowledge stored in their minds. And with their magical quick-writing quills, these notes would soon be returned as neatly transcribed books. On that point, Allen had no doubts.
As for the younger students who hadn't yet reached sixth year, they were more like accessories, at their current skill level, trying to dig out Ilvermorny's best knowledge from the library was like a novice at an antique market trying to find treasures, at best, it would only help Ilvermorny win.
Allen remained curious why the Ministry had spent so much funding on this Quidditch exchange, but right now the real event at hand wasn't investigating that mystery, it was studying.
Yes, studying. Learning.
Magic books all share one common problem: they're ridiculously expensive.
Though the great thinker Bacon, whose name sounds a lot like "roast pork", said "knowledge is power," in the magical world this phrase manifests even more plainly.
In the long history of Muggles, barbarism often trumped civilization, but in the wizarding world, knowledge truly is power, in every sense.
Even the power of love that Dumbledore constantly preached was mastered through understanding the knowledge of sacrifice. Harry, for example, became the top potions student in Hogwarts thanks to Snape's heavily annotated old textbook, and even learned the deadly curse Avada Kedavra that nearly killed Malfoy.
This proves how invaluable a magical book is to a person, it is the carrier of knowledge.
There is a saying: "True transmission is one word; false transmission is ten thousand books."
Not every book will teach you truly valuable knowledge. Look at how many copies of Lockhart's books were sold, yet they are essentially worthless. His only effective spell is for pest control.
Valuable knowledge is never sold easily. Even Hermione, who read almost every book she could find, couldn't become a top-level warrior, why? Because most of those books were fake.
Before the Tang dynasty, Eastern aristocrats controlled the flow of knowledge; in the Middle Ages, Western churches did. Now, pureblood aristocrats do the same, they control knowledge through controlling books.
Common, harmless spells are mass-printed into textbooks, allowed for widespread learning by regular wizards or even Muggle-borns, forming the basis of magical education. Meanwhile, advanced, powerful spells are tightly held by pureblood families, becoming their secret treasures.
The Malfoys possess a variety of magical tools; the Black family has all sorts of exotic magical items; even the humble Weasleys have modified Muggle objects. But Hogwarts itself does not even offer a course on magical tools.
Hogwarts does not recruit from the Muggle world, and it is tuition-free.
So what's the role of the Board of Governors if the school doesn't charge tuition? The answer is simple, the Board isn't about making money, but donating it.
Indeed, every year the Board donates huge sums to keep Hogwarts running, giving each member strong influence. "A penny breaks a hero" after all, those controlling Hogwarts's finances also have significant say in the curriculum.
Similarly, the publication of magical books is tightly controlled by pureblood families. Not every book can be published; many are worthless like Lockhart's. If you learn even one powerful spell from a book, you've hit the jackpot. Snape's annotated textbook, for instance, is so rare and valuable it could be compared to winning a lottery jackpot. Otherwise, why would it make him Harry's "magical grandpa"?
For Allen, nothing was more precious than the right to read during this exchange.
The sea of banned books in Hogwarts' library had tempted him countless times. But before the arrival of the pure, terrifying Lockhart, he knew his chances of getting a library pass were slim. Two whole years! Two professors, each harder to please than the last!
Although the professors' lessons were pure gold, the permission to read what he wanted seemed far off. Whether it was Professor Sigma's sly smirk or Professor Chen's all-knowing gaze, both told Allen the Board definitely wouldn't hand him any passes easily.
Though Allen had legacy knowledge to study and was sometimes overwhelmed by how much he wanted to learn, it was still clear that studying magic knowledge was very helpful for his strength. Legacy power was great, but very difficult. Thanks to legacy, he could quickly reach the limits of his heroic inheritance when buying skills, but later progress relied completely on time.
If the difficulty of inheritance within the legacy was like a middle school student copying math problems with answers, then going beyond legacy was like copying and finding the word "omit" written instead of answers, how insane is that?
As for magical knowledge, it was more like middle school math, hard, but just a time-consuming problem that could be solved. Therefore, for Allen right now, unless he had enough accumulation or a new inheritance, he still had to learn normal spells. It's not that advanced math isn't powerful, it's just insanely difficult!
So from now on, Allen decided:
He would become addicted to studying, unable to stop!
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