Recaps

Pomona investigated the Zodiac Killer’s letters and crimes while traveling through Venice with Severus and their companions, where the inquiry intertwined with questions of evil, faith, and persecution. The group’s pursuit led them to a confrontation with the Church’s secretary-general, while the thieves’ escape left a giant serpent loose in the city.

• Pomona and her companions rearranged the Zodiac cipher, debated whether its author was seeking help or acting under evil influence, and Pomona concluded that an older “coach” might have guided a less capable killer.
• Pomona investigated Zodiac’s letters, victims, and possible patterns, then planned to send her notes to the FBI while promising Severus she would take time off with him.
• Pomona and Monica visited a costume studio and a theater party, where Pomona challenged François about his interest in Eastern culture and reflected on the price of status and luxury.
• Pomona pursued a thief who had snatched her bag, and Monica helped her chase the thieves through Venice by speedboat.
• Veronica reported her suspicions about Pomona to Father Constantine, then saw Pomona vanish and reappear at the DFS store and called to tell him what she had witnessed.
• Pomona used magic to trap the thieves’ motorcycle in a courtyard, but the bag opened and an Occamy Cockroach Cluster grew into a fifty-foot serpent.
• Alessandro, Gianluca, and Edgar Smith went to St. Mark’s Basilica, where Edgar argued with a Church official about persecution and used magic to remove Alessandro from the room.
• Severus and the secretary-general debated witch hunts, social cruelty, and dark wizards, and the secretary-general said the bishop had gone to the Vatican, leaving them to deal with the situation until a new Pope was chosen.

Severus and Gianluca investigated Zodiac and the Church’s troubled history while seeking evidence of Venice’s past support for the Church. In Venice, Pomona and Severus uncovered a cavern linked to Herpo the Foul, then attended a lavish gathering where they encountered Giovanni and reflected on the tensions surrounding wizarding society.

• The secretary-general urged Snape to investigate a nobles’ spiritualist gathering and discussed mysterious deaths, missing people, and Doctor Paul’s possible possession.
• Snape and Gianluca debated Zodiac’s cipher, witch hunts, Church history, and the Devil with the secretary-general, while Snape asked him to protect his godson and revealed Lorraine of Hesse’s cursed violin.
• Snape and Gianluca offered the Church money from Venice and sought evidence of Venice’s past support, while Snape warned of Voldemort’s possession of his wife and kept the violin from the secretary-general.
• Pomona and Severus followed Cockroach Cluster through a well into an underground cavern, where they found Herpo’s treasure and a Basilisk skeleton, and Severus left the cursed violin behind.
• Pomona and Severus discussed the cavern’s altar and its possible sacrifice, then Pomona saw Dumbledore praise Severus for choosing Leprechaun gold over sacrificing people.
• Pomona and Severus debated fear, witch-hunting, and Muggle-born students before joining Gianluca, Alessandro, and their companions at a masked palace ball.
• At the gathering, Pomona considered social collapse and the risks of public opinion, while Severus led her to meet Giovanni, who angrily rejected comparisons to another suffering vampire.
• Pomona watched Severus and Giovanni talk, noticed people’s reactions to Giovanni, and interpreted Gianluca’s infant sculpture as an image of spiritual conception through union with the anima.

Pomona and Severus explored Venice, considered buying historic properties, and settled into a new residence while discussing history, power, and their own complicated loyalties. Their search for unusual goods led them to stolen furniture from a ruined Irish estate, which Severus claimed before Pomona continued browsing the shop.

• Giovanni recounted the storming of the Bastille to Severus, then left Venice with Severus and Pomona for Linderhof Palace, where his piano music moved Pomona to tears.
• Pomona and Severus returned to Venice, where she reflected on Madame de Pompadour, political upheaval, and her own place in Severus’s life as they attended a concert and ordered custom leather goods.
• Pomona and Severus toured historic villas along the Brenta River, chose the Villa of Sighs despite its dark history, and inspected its ruined rooms and Fascist-era interior.
• Pomona commissioned a mermaid chandelier, moved into the St Helena residence, and discussed with Severus adapting Villa Foscari as a wedding venue and retreat.
• Severus told Pomona about the abuses on Poveglia Island, then completed an Extension Charm on her travel bag, which she entered and illuminated with an ever-burning candle.
• Pomona and Severus visited an Eastern goods shop, where Severus used Veritaserum on the proprietress and learned that stolen furniture came from an Irish castle once owned by the Salter family.
• The proprietress showed Pomona a painting signed by Van Gogh, and Severus claimed the stolen furniture while Pomona returned the painting and asked about more unusual tea ware.

Pomona and Severus pursued the cause of a young man’s hallucinations while encountering histories of persecution, exploitation, and forgotten suffering. In Rome, Joseph confronted Pope John Paul II about possession and faith, then warned the steward that the Pope might be a target and continued discussing supernatural danger.

• Joseph reflected on Christian persecution in Japan as Pomona and Severus encountered a shop, a strange typewriter, and its visions of wartime deaths.
• Pomona met Nakamura Xue, discussed sugar’s effects and social obedience, and later joined Severus in moving a hallucinating young man to a monastery.
• Severus and Pomona asked Monk Stein to investigate the powder that had affected the young man, but Stein refused and admitted he feared causing them trouble.
• Pomona and Draco Malfoy completed the purchase of a house on Saint Helena Island as she considered the harms caused by financial schemes.
• Joseph entered the palace and weighed the possessed girl’s prophecy against her suffering, then warned staff about occult rituals and Ouija boards.
• Joseph met Pope John Paul II, urged him to pursue reconciliation, and accused him of harboring feelings for a woman before leaving without kissing the Fisherman’s Ring.
• Joseph told the steward that the Pope might be a target for possession, recounted cases involving spirits and trauma, and declined lunch because he was fasting.