Chapter Summaries

Pomona and Severus argued about rights, responsibility, and how neighbors should treat one another while passing Hagrid’s chicken coop. The chapter ended with Pomona trying to calm herself after Severus questioned her account of the Arnold Mill Case.

• Severus told Pomona about a Queen’s land lease and the family archives at Windsor Castle.
• Pomona accused Severus of mocking the Queen, and he denied it while teasing her.
• Severus asked about relations between the Centaurs and Trolls and said the Ministry would handle the matter.
• Pomona cited the Arnold Mill Case to explain that exercising one’s rights must not harm another’s interests.
• Severus told Pomona not to frighten the chickens, and she closed her eyes and recited Buddhist scriptures to calm down.

Pomona read about medieval land tenure and a legal dispute over a mill, then wondered why Severus had referred to the Queen and whether he could safely enter the palace. The chapter ended with Severus provoking Pomona to admit she was afraid to bet against him.

• Pomona read about trusts, copyhold leases, and a dispute in which a dam cut off Millowner Arnold’s mill water and left him unable to pay rent.
• Pomona questioned Severus’s mention of the Queen and worried that his records and criminal history could prevent him from entering the palace.
• Severus asked whether Pomona had finished reading, and she told him he would never get into the palace.
• Severus challenged Pomona to bet, but she said she did not gamble.
• Severus called Pomona a coward, and she replied that he had once called her a freak before admitting she was timid and afraid.

Pomona and Severus discussed the Queen’s jewelry exhibition and the fifty-year secrecy rule, while their conversation wandered through history and law. Severus teased Pomona about remembering events from childhood, and he left her suspicious that he knew more than he was saying.

• The chapter recounted Major Townsend’s wartime service and how the King recruited him as an attendant at Buckingham Palace.
• It explained Roman restitution law, medieval copyholders’ rights, and the limits of property and exclusive rights.
• Pomona questioned how a steward could have discussed estate matters with the Queen when she was ten, and Severus reminded her that George V had died fifty years earlier.
• Severus said the exhibition featured the Queen’s inherited jewelry but not George V’s stamp collection, and Pomona wondered where he had learned that.
• After roosters fought in the coop, Severus teased Pomona for remembering childhood matters, then admitted her memory was true and smiled as if he knew something she did not.

Pomona reflected on marriage, parental duties, and sacrifice before confronting Severus about the people he associated with and the danger he faced. Severus pressed her to explain what she meant by calling him different, but Hagrid interrupted and Pomona left the chicken coop.

• Pomona considered how mutual respect and responsibility shaped marriage, custody, and the obligations of a stepfather, comparing Severus's duty to Harry with Lily's sacrifices.
• Pomona grew upset at Severus's knowing smile and refused to explain her feelings, while Severus apologized for calling her a freak and for yelling.
• Pomona urged Severus to be responsible, warned him not to let his associates influence him, and asked whether any of Karkaroff's unnamed associates had been present.
• Severus asked whether he was special to Pomona, then blocked her way and accused her of playing with him.
• Hagrid arrived and asked if Pomona was all right, and Pomona left the chicken coop after telling him the chickens were doing well.

Pomona explained the history of charitable bequests and inheritance before telling Snape that the Centaurs and Trolls were living peacefully together, though only temporarily. Snape led her back toward the castle while Firenze remained in the Forbidden Forest.

• Pomona reflected on how Hogwarts could shelter families of those killed in war, including James, Lily, the Longbottoms, and the Weasleys.
• Snape appeared on the path and demanded that Pomona answer his question.
• Pomona reported that the Centaurs and Trolls were living peacefully together and that the Trolls had found a new water source for their crops.
• Pomona called for Firenze, who said the peace was only temporary and that he could not judge whether she was right.
• Snape ordered Firenze to go back, then turned toward the castle with Pomona after noticing she had not followed.
• Pomona waved goodbye to Firenze as she and Snape headed in the same direction.

Pomona reflected on friendship, honesty, and moral judgment after Lily lied to protect Jessica, then walked with Snape toward the greenhouses while thinking about pain and survival. The chapter ended with Pomona running from a Black Hogwarts ghost, her racing heartbeat reminding her she was alive.

• Jessica climbed through Lily’s window and hid under the bed while Mrs. Vincent searched for her, and Lily and Pomona denied seeing her.
• Petunia questioned Lily and Pomona about Jessica, and Pomona lied before Lily invited Petunia to join their card game.
• Pomona later studied moral particularism and considered when loyalty or protecting others could justify lying.
• Pomona reflected on Lily, James, Severus, pain, and the need to learn from suffering while walking with Snape.
• Pomona left Snape and headed toward the greenhouses, but he followed her, and she ran from a Hogwarts ghost who appeared to be a Black.

Pomona and Severus Snape confronted Auror Office head Rufus Scrimgeour, who questioned them about Venomous Tentacula leaves and a dangerous creature linked to a legend. As Snape argued with Scrimgeour, Pomona slipped away to the greenhouse and went to bed after wishing for a proper bath.

• Pomona met a limping stranger outside the greenhouse who asked to see her Venomous Tentacula leaves.
• Severus Snape identified the stranger as Scrimgeour, who said the headmaster had let him onto school grounds as an exam proctor.
• Scrimgeour questioned Pomona about where the leaves had come from and asked how she and Snape knew the dangerous creature was a moose.
• Snape and Scrimgeour argued over whether animals in the Forbidden Forest were school property and whether the school was responsible for them.
• Pomona watched ghosts play in Hagrid's pumpkin patch, then quietly returned to the greenhouse and prepared to sleep.

Pomona dreamed of Roman marriage and inheritance customs while she slept in the greenhouse, then woke to find Snape watching her from outside. She hurried to stop him from entering while wrapped in a blanket over her lace nightgown.

• Pomona put on the spider-silk nightgown and returned to the preparation room to read while the ghosts made noise outside.
• Pomona fell asleep and dreamed that Romans forced her into a Mancipation marriage, then reflected on Roman law, inheritance, and Caesar's debts and legacy.
• Pomona connected Caesar's adoption and Octavian's inheritance to the werewolf registry, then considered that Spark was naturally free and belonged to neither Ruse nor anyone else.
• A tremendous force knocked Pomona down and ended her dream, returning her to the greenhouse.
• Pomona saw Snape watching her through the window, wrapped herself in a blanket, and hurried to keep him outside the entrance.

Mrs. Evans gave Pomona her first underwear, and Pomona spotted Snape watching Lily’s house. Later, Snape searched Pomona’s greenhouse for someone he thought was there, helped free her from a magical plant, and left her reflecting on choices and the paths people take.

• Mrs. Evans gave Pomona underwear as a belated birthday gift and taught her how to wear it.
• Pomona saw Snape staring at Lily’s house from outside Mrs. Evans’s window.
• Snape entered Pomona’s greenhouse and searched for someone while Pomona followed him.
• Pomona snagged her nightgown on a magical plant, and Snape tore the fabric to free her.
• Snape demanded to know whether anyone else was there, then asked for a drink and went to Pomona’s office.
• Pomona followed Snape and thought about how choices shaped the paths people lived.

Pomona recalled Lily’s questions about dark wizards and Severus while visiting the Evans family, then later faced Severus in her office after he demanded an answer. She gave him the chance Dumbledore had asked her to offer, but left him reading alone and shut herself in her room.

• Mr. Evans took Pomona and Lily to see swans, where Lily asked whether Dumbledore and Severus could be evil.
• Pomona warned Lily not to accept easy judgments about dark magic and urged her to investigate for herself, while Lily decided she rejected Severus because of his ties to Death Eaters.
• Severus visited Pomona’s office late at night, drank several glasses of water, and asked why ghosts gathered in the pumpkin patches.
• Severus demanded Pomona’s answer, and she calmly told him that Dumbledore had asked her to give him a chance and that she thought he deserved one.
• Pomona offered Severus a place in the greenhouses if he did not want to return to the castle, then went to her room and shut the door.

Pomona struggled to understand truth, morality, and the choices Grindelwald and Dumbledore had made while discussing Spark’s safety with Severus. The chapter ended with Severus staying beside her as she pretended a nightmare had made her afraid to sleep alone.

• James pursued Lily through the corridor and traded insults with Snape until Malfoy intervened and the groups parted on bad terms.
• Pomona wondered whether Severus had been led astray by Lucius and returned to bed, where she reflected on Grindelwald, Dumbledore, honesty, and morality.
• Pomona asked whether the Ministry would harm Spark, and Severus said they could register it as a newly discovered species to prevent its arbitrary execution.
• Pomona questioned Severus about the Greater Good and whether Grindelwald would sacrifice one innocent person so others could live happily.
• Severus told Pomona she was prettier than Lily, then recited a poem as he prepared to leave her bedside.
• Pomona claimed she had dreamed of being forced into a Roman marriage, and Severus lay down beside her instead of leaving.

Pomona reflected on loyalty, power, and personal boundaries while helping keep Hogwarts running, then learned that Miss Walton had disappeared and the Ministry was questioning Severus Snape. Dumbledore took Snape and the officials away to investigate, leaving Pomona to maintain order as classes continued.

• In a flashback, Lily helped James with a first-year’s spell, and Pomona learned that Lily had applied to remain at school.
• Pomona woke in the greenhouse, checked on the potion-coated Mandrakes, and met Hagrid, who worried about finding Spark and protecting his brother.
• Pomona and Hagrid entered the Great Hall and found Ministry officials questioning Snape about his absence after Miss Walton went missing.
• Snape urged Dumbledore to focus on finding Miss Walton, and Dumbledore led him and the officials to his office.
• Minerva stopped Pomona from following them and told her to maintain order, so Pomona kept the students in the Great Hall and sent them to class.

Pomona reflected on Lily’s regrets about Severus and on the duties people owed one another as Hogwarts dealt with Kelly Walton’s disappearance. A Ministry official summoned Pomona from the Great Hall, leaving Bill to keep the students orderly.

• Lily told Pomona that Severus had not been grateful when James saved his life, then wondered whether she could have kept Severus from joining the Dark crowd.
• Lily said she planned to give birth in a hospital, despite disagreements with James about where she should deliver the baby.
• Pomona considered how Severus’s pursuit of revenge and Dark magic conflicted with justice and duty.
• Kelly Walton was reported missing, and Snape’s conspicuous presence at Hogwarts drew attention from Pius Thicknesse and the students.
• With the other House heads occupied in the headmaster’s office, Pomona supervised self-study in the Great Hall while students discussed the disappearance.
• A Ministry official ordered Pomona to join the others, and she left Bill to maintain order in the Great Hall.

Pomona shared dinner with Sirius, then spoke with Olive Hornby's nephew about Myrtle and the restriction keeping her confined. She later reached Dumbledore's office, where Thicknesse and Snape were facing each other.

• Pomona discovered that James and Lily had gone home, then shared a beef pie with Sirius, who admitted he did not want to be alone.
• Pomona asked Sirius whether he had taken James to places married men should avoid, but they ate in silence.
• Olive Hornby's nephew told Pomona he had tried to reconcile with Myrtle and wanted to revoke the restriction once Myrtle returned to normal.
• Pomona reassured the nephew that Myrtle would come around, then continued upstairs.
• Pomona entered Dumbledore's office and saw Thicknesse and Snape standing face to face at the desk.

Pomona defended Snape’s whereabouts during an inquiry into a missing student, claiming they had spent the night with Scrimgeour studying Mandrakes. The inquiry ended with Thicknesse challenging Dumbledore over another student’s disappearance, while Pomona worried about what might happen next.

• Sirius complained to Pomona and James that his family had confined him after the Dark Lord’s visit, then showed Pomona the Marauder’s Map.
• Pomona recalled urging Dumbledore to find Lily a female friend, but learned that Dumbledore had meant Bathilda Shabat.
• Thicknesse and Dumbledore questioned Pomona about her whereabouts, and she named Hagrid, Snape, and Scrimgeour as witnesses to her account.
• Pomona said she and Snape had returned to her greenhouse with Scrimgeour and studied Mandrakes through the night, prompting Thicknesse to send someone to inspect the special plants.
• Thicknesse raised the disappearance of Miss Walton and challenged Dumbledore to resign, while Pomona watched the young man who had escorted her and felt uneasy.

Pomona questioned Kelly Walton’s roommates and learned that Kelly had recently worn a silver feather-shaped hairpin and stayed out late. The search remained unresolved as Pomona suspected the hairpin might be connected to the quill found on the Big-Headed Hairy Monster.

• Pomona asked Flitwick to find the last people who had seen Kelly Walton and her roommates while time was running short.
• Flitwick brought Kelly’s three roommates in to describe her recent behavior.
• Kelly’s roommates said she had become fascinated with mirrors after getting a silver feather-shaped hairpin and had started returning to the dormitory late.
• Pomona connected the hairpin to the quill Severus had seen on the Big-Headed Hairy Monster and realized it might have escaped notice during the schoolwide quill checks.
• After the roommates left, Pomona worried that the investigation could cost Hogwarts’ leaders their jobs and leave the school under Ministry control.

Pomona reflected on moral responsibility, the Ministry’s potential control of Hogwarts, and the limits of forcing people and creatures into obedience. After Snape confronted her about her first principle, they discussed James saving Snape from Lupin, and Snape shared a secret before they went to find Kelly Walton.

• Pomona considered how the Ministry might deal with Hogwarts’s Centaurs, Mermaids, and other creatures if it regained control of the school.
• Pomona remembered Sirius and worried about how he was doing in Azkaban as she came to the tiered music classroom to calm herself before finding Kelly Walton.
• Snape confronted Pomona and asked whether she had upheld her first principle; she said she could not watch an innocent person be wronged.
• Pomona asked whether James had been an illegal Animagus when he saved Snape from Lupin, and Snape confirmed that he had transformed into a stag.
• Snape whispered a secret to Pomona after she promised not to tell anyone, then led her out to find Kelly Walton.

Minerva and Flitwick searched Kelly Walton’s dormitory and the professors investigated the library, but they found no clue to her disappearance. Pomona and Severus considered the Chamber of Secrets and the possibility that Harry’s marked enemy would return; Severus then invited Pomona to work with him, and led her away to make it rain.

• Minerva and Flitwick searched Kelly Walton’s dormitory and found love poems but no sign of a lover or useful clues.
• Pomona and Severus searched the library and discussed whether Kelly had been taken to the Chamber of Secrets or a hidden passage.
• Pomona warned Severus that the Centaur had said Voldemort would return and pointed out that Harry had been marked by him.
• Pomona recalled the rain in the Great Hall when they found the Big-Headed Hairy Monster, and she and Severus left the library to try making it rain elsewhere.
• Pomona asked why Albus Dumbledore had not taken revenge, and Severus explained blood vengeance and why Bella could kill Sirius without provoking the Black family to avenge him.
• Severus asked Pomona to consider working with him if Dumbledore fell, then took her hand and led her onward.

Pomona reflected on blood feuds, Roman law, and the limits of political power as she considered Severus’s ambition and loyalty. When Severus hurried her along, she pulled free and stopped, unable to decide what to say or do.

• Pomona recalled how blood-based justice persisted among the Germanic peoples and how Grindelwald had challenged whom the International Statute of Secrecy protected.
• Pomona contrasted Sirius’s isolation with the Weasleys’ family support and considered how Roman law and citizenship had changed from bloodline to property.
• Pomona reflected on Voldemort’s ambition, Bella’s loyalty, and Severus’s ability to survive among fanatical Death Eaters.
• Pomona remembered the risks Crups posed to Muggles and the historical famine caused by Sextus Pompey’s blockade of Rome.
• Pomona shook off Severus’s hand and stopped, leaving both of them facing each other as she struggled to find words.

Pomona reflected on how family and community shaped identity, contrasting Remus and Sirius’s different natures and Dumbledore’s acceptance of flawed people. She argued with Severus about her dream of opening a restaurant, and they continued searching for Miss Walton without resolving whether he would join her afterward.

• Pomona considered Remus’s reluctance to harm others, Sirius’s rebellion against his family, and the communities and identities that shaped them.
• Pomona reflected that Dumbledore had given Remus, Hagrid, and Severus places at Hogwarts, and reconsidered her assumptions about Severus’s feelings.
• Pomona told Severus she had never agreed to his goal for her and said she wanted to open a restaurant using food magic.
• Severus said he liked her cooking but warned that others might not, prompting Pomona to accuse him of insulting her food.
• Pomona asked whether Severus would still invite her along if she opened a restaurant without working with him, but he evaded the question and suggested they find Miss Walton.
• Pomona remained dissatisfied with Severus’s answer but continued searching with him through the school.