Chapter Summaries

Pomona and Severus searched Ma Qingchen’s belongings and found a moving photograph of her with Zhang Tao at Mount Wushan, along with a poem invoking the Wushan Goddess. The search left them with questions about Ma Qingchen’s connection to the goddess as they prepared for a great battle the next day.

• Severus urged Pomona to help search the theater’s storage cabinets, accusing her and other wizards of hypocrisy over privacy and rules.
• Pomona and Severus searched Ma Qingchen’s belongings, and Pomona found a moving photograph of Zhang Tao and Ma Qingchen among mountains and clouds.
• Pomona recognized the landscape as Mount Wushan and read the poem on the photograph, which described the Yan Emperor’s daughter becoming a goddess.
• Pomona suggested Ma Qingchen had identified with the Goddess of Wushan, while Severus wondered about the goddess who appeared in King Xiang’s dream.
• Severus left, and Pomona continued searching as a great battle loomed the next day.

Pomona reflected on Chinese history, stolen artifacts, wizarding relations with Muggles, and the difficult choices people made for love and duty as she considered whether Ma Qingchen had helped steal items from the British Museum. She ended uncertain what Severus would do if Ma Qingchen’s involvement came to light and worried that Chinese-British cultural exchange could suffer.

• Pomona considered how Qing rulers and foreign powers had shaped China’s history, including the burning of the Old Summer Palace and the Boxer Protocol.
• She read Chinese-language clippings in Ma Qingchen’s notebook and suspected Ma Qingchen might have been involved in stealing artifacts from the British Museum.
• Pomona weighed whether stolen Chinese artifacts should be reclaimed by force and worried that Ma Qingchen could be exploited or made a scapegoat.
• She reflected on Chinese wizards’ cooperation with foreign wizards and Muggles, and on the risks that a prosecution could pose to cultural exchange.
• Pomona considered how women’s choices and ideas about love shaped people’s lives, drawing comparisons between Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Mrs Zabini, and Molly Weasley.

Pomona followed Ma Qingchen after a theater rehearsal and confronted her about the stolen vase, warning her not to get involved in the theft. Ma Qingchen denied taking it and left after Pomona urged her to avoid Chinatown, while Pomona Apparated away.

• Pomona spotted Ma Qingchen leaving the theater with the performers and followed her through the streets.
• Ma Qingchen confronted Pomona, who asked whether she had been involved in stealing the vase from Gallery 95.
• Ma Qingchen argued that she would not risk such a theft and challenged Pomona's assumptions, though Pomona sensed she knew something about it.
• Pomona warned Ma Qingchen about the dangers of being used and spoke with her about her dancing and freedom.
• Pomona told Ma Qingchen to stay away from Chinatown for the next few days, and Ma Qingchen walked off before Pomona Apparated away.

Pomona returned to Severus after speaking with Ma Qingchen, and Severus confronted her with jealous accusations and passages from Albus and Grindelwald’s letters. He shifted from pressuring her to focus on him toward proposing that they travel north to find a way to destroy Dementors, while a memory of Albus and Grindelwald seeking the Resurrection Stone surfaced.

• Pomona returned to the apartment and told Severus that Ma Qingchen had been nervous when questioned.
• Severus accused Pomona of protecting Ma Qingchen and pressed her about Zhang Tao and Dumbledore.
• Severus quoted Albus and Grindelwald’s letters, and Pomona shoved him away when he spoke of loving someone who was already dead.
• Pomona agreed that they would stay away from the Chinese people once their current business was finished.
• Severus proposed traveling to the North Pole to investigate how to destroy Dementors and summoned a bouquet of dancing lady orchids for Pomona.
• Pomona recalled Albus and Grindelwald discussing the Resurrection Stone beside a river as Severus kissed her neck.

Pomona and Severus discussed Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s past, including their Blood Pact and experiments with extracting life, while teasing each other in bed. As they wondered whether spring would bring change, they left their own wintery relationship unresolved but intimate.

• Pomona read Gellert’s letters about Albus and listened as Severus explained how their experiments with blood magic had influenced Voldemort’s work.
• Pomona and Severus discussed Scarlett and Rhett Butler, then talked about having another child and whether Ilmarinen’s legendary Sampo could destroy Dementors.
• Severus teased Pomona about Dumbledore’s clothes and Grindelwald’s tastes, and she scolded him for ruining the mood.
• Pomona and Severus tussled playfully before falling silent together, and Pomona reflected that spring had already begun.

Pomona searched Severus’s pouch and read Dumbledore’s letters to Grindelwald, discovering Dumbledore’s anguish over Harry’s fate and his role in the war. Severus explained the prophecy of the twin serpents and urged Pomona to help him prepare Wakefulness Potion.

• While Severus bathed, Pomona used a protective charm to summon letters from his pouch.
• Pomona read Grindelwald’s 1989 letter and Dumbledore’s 1995 letter, which revealed that Harry carried a fragment of Voldemort’s soul and had been sent toward death as part of the prophecy.
• Severus caught Pomona reading the letters and teased her for opening other people’s mail.
• Severus told Pomona that another prophecy described Harry and Voldemort as twin serpents, and that Dumbledore believed Harry should have been sorted into Slytherin.
• Severus asked Pomona for powdered Crumple-Horned Snorkack horn so he could prepare Wakefulness Potion.

Pomona worried over Severus’s exhaustion and the dangerous potion he was developing while reading Grindelwald’s letter and arguing with Severus about love, duty, and her choices. Severus decided Neville would test the new stimulant, while Voldemort’s Parseltongue continued to reach Pomona without controlling her.

• Pomona reflected on the Death Eaters’ breakout, the House-elf refuge, and Tonks’s determination to marry Remus despite his poverty and costly Wolfsbane Potion.
• Pomona read Grindelwald’s letter about losing track of time in prison, and Severus asked whether she had found what he needed.
• Pomona questioned Severus about the life-sharing spell and Dumbledore’s knowledge of Horcruxes, while Severus accused her of ignoring her own wishes and his feelings.
• Severus said he wanted to finish Dumbledore’s task and leave Hogwarts, then criticized Pomona for protecting Neville from the burdens of his work.
• Severus decided Neville would test the new stimulant once it was ready, and he disappeared into the darkness as Voldemort’s Parseltongue echoed without controlling Pomona.

Pomona challenged Severus to reconsider Voldemort’s Horcruxes and search for Peter Pettigrew, whom she suspected was linked to the last one. After Severus listened and complimented her appearance, their conversation ended with Pomona holding a flower as piano music rose from downstairs.

• Pomona reasoned that Voldemort might have made a seventh Horcrux after accidentally turning Harry into one, and suspected Wormtail’s silver hand was connected to it.
• Pomona entered Severus’s laboratory and urged him to find Peter Pettigrew.
• Severus asked why she believed the silver hand was a Horcrux, and Pomona cited Cedric’s death and Harry’s account of the duel as evidence.
• Severus complimented Pomona’s clothes and suggested she put a flower in her hair.
• Pomona held a white dahlia in place as canon music drifted up from downstairs.

Pomona remembered her secluded years with Severus before returning to the present to recruit Hannah into a plan to stop werewolves from attacking Chinatown. Hannah resisted Pomona’s order to give Neville a Strong Invigoration Draught and help him take part in the ambush, leaving their conflict unresolved.

• Pomona recalled her happy years living in seclusion with Severus and their intimate life in London.
• Pomona went to the Leaky Cauldron and gave Hannah a bottle of Strong Invigoration Draught intended for Neville.
• Pomona explained that werewolves would attack Chinatown on the full moon and said Neville needed to help ambush them and pursue Wormtail.
• Pomona pressured Hannah to support Neville and pretend to be his girlfriend, but Hannah refused and accused Pomona of being cold-hearted.
• Pomona ordered Hannah to deliver the potion and keep the plan secret, then left the pub after Hannah challenged her authority.

Albus’s reflections on magic, old grudges, and the rift between Lily and Severus led her to consider how her own volatile relationship with Severus had affected Cedric. She concealed herself beneath an Invisibility Cloak and headed to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes to meet Hermione and George, now regarded as Mrs. Prince.

• Albus considered whether the washerwoman in the Babbitty the Rabbit tale had been an Animagus and recalled the legend of Lisette de Lapin, who escaped execution and later became an adviser to King Henry VI.
• Albus reflected on Hogwarts students’ conflicts and on how Severus’s Dark Arts associates and his insult toward Lily widened the divide between them.
• She thought about Severus’s unstable nature, her own entanglement with him, and whether Cedric had witnessed their late-night trysts.
• She put on her Invisibility Cloak and went through the crowd toward Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes to meet Hermione, with George also expected to be there.

Pomona bargained with Kingsley for fairer treatment of people with the Dark Mark and warned him that Peter Pettigrew might possess the seventh Horcrux. She also shared intelligence about the Werewolves’ likely targets and helped Hermione prepare to speak publicly, while leaving the Ministry to decide how to respond.

• Pomona arrived at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and demanded that Kingsley stop discriminating against people with the Dark Mark and stop targeting the Malfoy family in exchange for her intelligence.
• Pomona told Kingsley, George, Hermione, and Percy that Peter Pettigrew might be alive and carrying the seventh Horcrux, and Percy suggested Pettigrew could be hidden among the corpses at Zombie Alley.
• Kingsley ordered Percy to send Aurors to search Zombie Alley, and Pomona suggested Ron and Harry handle the Horcrux.
• Pomona warned Kingsley that Werewolves might attack Liverpool or London Chinatown before the full moon, and she gave him Zhang Tao's business card to help contact Liverpool's Chinese community.
• Pomona gave Hermione a revised speech and suggested she work with Lee Jordan on a radio program about improving House-elves' treatment.
• When Kingsley asked Pomona to recruit help, she refused and continued discussing Hermione's plans with her.

Pomona discussed the possibility of more Horcruxes and Voldemort’s return with Kingsley and the others, then used clues about Bathilda Bagshot and Sirius’s letter to explain how the Potters’ location may have been exposed. She agreed to help Kingsley under conditions, while he hinted that Severus Snape’s presence at Grimmauld Place had been part of a deliberate bargain.

• Pomona told Kingsley that Voldemort might have made more than seven Horcruxes, and the group considered whether Bathilda Bagshot had moved Voldemort’s body.
• Hermione recalled Lily’s letter to Sirius and raised the possibility that the Resurrection Stone had been inside the Gaunt family ring; Pomona suggested investigating the letter and Bagshot’s role.
• Pomona reasoned that Peter Pettigrew may have betrayed the Potters’ location after the Order’s members were hunted, and she asked Kingsley whether he knew Pyrites.
• Kingsley trusted Pomona’s information and sent Percy to investigate Zombie Alley, then asked Pomona to help him; she agreed on the condition that she teach Hermione to stand on her own.
• Kingsley questioned Pomona about Severus Snape and the Resurrection Stone, then suggested Snape’s Christmas visit to Grimmauld Place had been a conditional bargain; George said they would work together more often.

Pomona confronted Severus about his past choices, the Horcruxes, and the danger surrounding their lives. She asked him to erase Hermione’s scar and warned him to contain Goblin unrest, then left him to clean up the wrecked pub.

• Pomona returned home and attacked Severus at the pub, accusing him of abandoning her and asking why he had not destroyed Hufflepuff’s Cup or taken the chance to destroy it in the Lestrange vault.
• Pomona and Severus argued about Sirius, the Horcruxes, and whether Severus had entered vault 713; he denied touching anything there.
• Pomona told Severus that Peter had become a zombie and ambushed her after Severus had gone drinking, and asked him to find a way to erase the Dark-magic scar Bella had carved into Hermione’s arm.
• Severus embraced Pomona and said he wanted them to leave once his oath was fulfilled; Pomona asked whether Muggles and wizards could eventually live together peacefully.
• Pomona speculated that a Lethifold might have eaten Voldemort and warned Severus that Goblins had become restless since news of Voldemort’s death spread.
• Pomona abruptly recovered from her emotional outburst, told Severus to clean up the broken bottles, and left the pub.

Pomona visited Narcissa at Malfoy Manor and learned that Narcissa feared Draco’s fiancée, Astoria Greengrass, would die from a blood curse and leave Draco heartbroken. Pomona reassured Narcissa that the situation was under control and promised to help protect Draco.

• Pomona arrived at Malfoy Manor and found Narcissa drinking alone among photographs of Draco.
• Narcissa blamed Pomona for bringing misfortune to her home and accused her of encouraging Draco’s relationship with Astoria despite knowing about Astoria’s blood curse.
• Pomona said she had not known about the curse when she brought Draco and Astoria together, and Narcissa explained that Lucius wanted to end their engagement while Severus supported Draco.
• Narcissa feared Draco would be devastated if Astoria died, and Pomona told her that everything was under control.
• Pomona hugged Narcissa and promised that she and the others had returned to help Draco.

Pomona reflected on poverty, privilege, social collapse, and the lessons readers drew from Dream of the Red Chamber. She ended by wondering what ordinary women understood from the novel and why she herself seemed so abnormal.

• Pomona contrasted Granny Liu’s hardship and Wang Xifeng’s household management with Jia Mansion’s eventual decline.
• Pomona compared conflicts between traditional and modern women, citing Consort Zhen and Empress Dowager Cixi.
• Pomona discussed how privileged families and pure-blood aristocrats retained wealth and influence despite political upheaval.
• Pomona linked consumer debt, Social Darwinism, and the collapse of social welfare to the suffering of ordinary people.
• Pomona considered who was deemed useful or unfit in times of crisis and wondered what ordinary women took from Dream of the Red Chamber.

Pomona waited alone in a Hong Kong-style teahouse while reflecting on loyalty, survival, and the Werewolves’ plight. Ma Youjiang visited, flirted with her, and offered his help, leaving her unsettled after he departed.

• Pomona sat in the teahouse, drank milk tea, and thought about Mongolia, wolfish societies, and the Werewolves driven into desperate circumstances.
• Ma Youjiang arrived and asked Pomona about a song from a Wong Kar-wai film and the dance she had shared with her husband.
• Ma Youjiang discussed the film’s married lovers and made suggestive remarks that angered Pomona.
• Pomona refused to dance with Ma Youjiang, who asked how the Werewolves had been driven to their current situation.
• Ma Youjiang dropped his cigarette into Pomona’s milk tea, offered to help if anyone mistreated her, and greeted her cheek to cheek before leaving.
• Pomona destroyed the music-playing machine with her wand, and the teahouse fell silent.

Pomona prepared legal lessons for Harry while reflecting on the need to fight back and arranging remedial shooting practice for London’s Chinatown shopkeepers. Severus revealed that Kingsley wanted Harry to replace the head of the Auror Office, but he insisted Harry first needed to learn leadership.

• Severus took the London Chinatown shopkeepers target shooting, and Pomona agreed to help restore the bar after her destruction of it left Mr. Wen smoking.
• Pomona decided to prepare legal teaching materials for Harry because he had become head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and she had promised Lily to protect him.
• Pomona told Severus that Kingsley had said not to let Galvin’s people investigate the Horcruxes, and Severus concluded Kingsley suspected Galvin.
• Severus said Kingsley wanted to replace the head of the Auror Office and saw Harry as the best candidate, but argued that Harry needed to learn leadership.
• Pomona asked when they would tutor Harry in law, and Severus postponed it until the busy period ended before taking her to get a drink.

Pomona reflected on the danger posed by Werewolves at the Lantern Festival and the need to offer them a way out before resorting to force. Later, Severus teased her over drinks named for graves and pressed her about Cedric Diggory and Riddle Cemetery, leaving Pomona shaken by the memories.

• Pomona considered how captured Werewolves could undergo labor reform, while warning that tourists at the Lantern Festival might become bait and that the coming violence could cause heavy casualties.
• Pomona reflected on the dangers of street fighting, the limits of public awareness, and how Aurors needed courage, wisdom, and knowledge.
• Pomona examined a Chocolate Frog Card of Zou Yan and lamented that the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought had not returned.
• Severus offered Pomona drinks called Demon Graveyard and Emperor's Tomb, then toasted Albus Dumbledore as the white wizard he had killed.
• Severus asked Pomona whether she had mourned Cedric Diggory or visited Riddle Cemetery, and Pomona drank her cocktail while remembering the graveyard.
• Severus told Pomona that the drink contained Crumple-Horned Snorkack horn powder and invited her to taste his, joking that he knew what dying felt like.

Pomona argued with Severus over her assignment to work near Dolores Umbridge, then discussed leaving their troubles behind to investigate Salazar Slytherin’s later life and burial place. The chapter ended with Pomona and Severus teasing each other at the bar.

• Charlie took the Ministry’s dragon-blood funds away after returning from Romania.
• Pomona reflected on Zhang Jingjiang’s efforts to redeem the Zhaoling stone carvings and the British plan to use others against America.
• Pomona refused to guard the block near Dolores Umbridge, while Severus urged her to leave with him and said he had not meant to agree to a divorce.
• Pomona changed the subject to Matagots and proposed following Salazar Slytherin’s story during their holiday.
• Pomona and Severus kissed, discussed their hopes for the future, and playfully pinched each other’s cheeks.

Pomona reflected on grief, loss, and the ways people sought comfort as Chinatown prepared for the Lantern Festival. When dense fog swept over London, she wondered whether the dead truly existed and whether the fog resembled the white King's Cross Station.

• Pomona remembered George's lasting grief over Fred and Angelina's decision to leave if she could not find someone to rely on.
• Pomona recalled taking shelter with Severus in a cave and finding comfort in his presence and the dreamlike scents of his potions.
• Pomona joined the others in preparing Chinatown's defenses while the district was sealed off ahead of the Lantern Festival.
• Pomona considered beliefs about the afterlife and wondered where Lily's soul might be.
• Pomona held the Dream-Recall Grass seed as a cold fog rolled through London and reminded her of King's Cross Station.