Chapter Summaries

Pomona and Severus investigated the history of Venetian military funds and debated who was responsible for the arsenal's destruction. Their discussion turned to the Sussex wreck and its rumored treasure, leaving Pomona eager to pursue it despite the problem of where to store the haul.

• Pomona explained that Marcantonio Giustinian's diverted military funds had gone to the Holy See to support the Polish Winged Hussars, and Severus revealed he had chosen Venice to transfer Malfoy's assets.
• Severus asked about Pomona's preparations for South America, then kissed her in the library as they discussed Portugal's role in the naval struggle against the Ottoman Empire.
• Severus suggested the arsenal had been blown up after the only witness who could prove the Contarini family's innocence died, and he challenged Pomona to bet on who was responsible.
• Pomona wondered whether the Sussex's ship log might preserve evidence about the arsenal explosion and proposed asking the Mermaids to help steal the shipwreck and its rumored treasure.
• Severus objected that they had nowhere to store the treasure, and Pomona denied having said the Italian people would oppose his plan as he stormed away.

Pomona and Severus spent the evening in Venice with Monica, Alessandro, and Gianluca, reflecting on wealth, duty, and Draco before visiting Gianluca’s lavish island home. There, a servant called un'ombra recognized Severus as a snake and attacked him with a palette knife.

• Pomona decided the captured gold should become a gift to the Venetians and reflected on Draco’s redemption and the value of an ordinary, peaceful life.
• Alessandro returned by motorboat with Monica and Gianluca, and the group set off with Gianluca to dine at his island home.
• Pomona and Severus explored Gianluca’s grand Neoclassical residence, where a servant introduced himself as un'ombra.
• Severus challenged un'ombra over loyalty and asked what he was, and un'ombra identified Severus as a snake before thrusting his palette knife at him.

Pomona watched a shadow warrior overwhelm Severus and reflected on the discipline behind his fighting, then offered Alessandro gold from a sunken pirate ship in exchange for protecting her family if they had to flee Britain. She evaded Monica’s questions about a London gas explosion, while the chapter ended with a cryptic encrypted address and a clue to its key.

• A shadow warrior pressed Severus in close combat, forcing him to rely on widening the distance while Pomona considered the warrior’s skills and possible historical origins.
• Pomona asked Alessandro whether he wanted to learn the shadow’s techniques and offered him gold from a sunken pirate ship to fund a bank in return for sheltering her family.
• Monica questioned Pomona about a gas explosion in London’s Chinatown, but Pomona denied involvement and slipped away toward Gianluca.
• Pomona left an encrypted address, giving a clue that its key was connected to Potions and the Chamber of Secrets.

Pomona and her companions shared a leisurely Venetian dinner and discussed Galileo’s teaching, research, and the mysteries surrounding his manuscripts. They left his reputation as a teacher open to debate, while the chapter ended with the narrator asking readers to decipher an address and comment.

• Ombra served dinner to Pomona, Severus, Myrtle, Gianluca, and the others, then joined them at the table.
• The diners discussed Venice’s history, the University of Padua, and Galileo’s practical, unconventional teaching methods.
• The conversation traced Galileo’s research, his lectures about the 1604 new star, and his efforts to build a telescope with his student Cali.
• The diners speculated about Galileo’s missing manuscript pages and Cali’s possible role in preserving them.
• The narrator asked readers to judge whether Galileo was a good teacher and to decipher an address in the comments.

Gianluca and Severus discussed Torricelli’s experiments and Galileo’s legacy while Pomona watched Monica grow absorbed in the conversation. Pomona left them together, and the chapter ended by explaining how Galileo’s Dialogue defended the Copernican system and provoked the Church.

• The narrator described Galileo’s trial, house arrest, blindness, and final years with his disciples Viviani and Torricelli.
• Gianluca and Severus examined blueprints after dinner and discussed rebuilding Galileo’s water pump using mercury and gravity.
• The chapter recounted Torricelli’s experiments on air pressure and vacuum, culminating in his mercury barometer with Viviani.
• Pomona noticed that it was nearly nine and that Monica was still listening to Gianluca and Severus discuss their experiments.
• Pomona left the room, while the narrator explained that Galileo’s Dialogue supported the Copernican system and was banned by the Church.

Pomona explored Gianluca’s collection before Severus confronted her about her feelings for him and his rivalry with Black. Severus kissed her, and she recognized that their attraction had become physical, leaving her caught in a betrayal she did not want to name.

• Pomona toured Gianluca’s unusual exhibition hall while Alessandro rode a jet ski in the indoor marina.
• Severus told Pomona that Black would never entrust her to him and explained his resentment toward Black and their unresolved conflict.
• Pomona argued that Severus should ask Black’s permission to date her, but Severus insisted Black would never accept him.
• Severus kissed Pomona, and she tried to push him away as his desire grew more intense.
• Pomona reflected on Judas’s kiss and on the role Severus had built for himself, while Alessandro continued riding outside.

Pomona reflected on the hidden meanings in Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, linking its food and figures to religious hypocrisy, poverty, and power. She then met Monica, Alessandro, and Gianluca in St. Mark’s Square as the group prepared to travel to the mainland.

• Pomona examined the grilled eel, Judas’s empty plate, and the disciples in Last Supper as clues to Leonardo da Vinci’s criticism of the Church and the powerful.
• She recounted how Leonardo da Vinci secured Ludovico Sforza’s patronage by presenting himself as an engineer, and how that employment supported him while he painted Last Supper.
• Pomona considered Matthew’s role as a tax collector among Jesus’s disciples and John’s place in the painting.
• Monica waved to Linda in St. Mark’s Square while Alessandro followed her, dispirited, and Gianluca stood with them.
• Pomona arrived holding the gloomy old bat’s hand, and the group prepared to cross Liberty Bridge to the mainland before she stopped for coffee at Caffè Florian.

Pomona and Severus toured Padua after leaving Venice, and their conversation turned to education, privilege, scientific responsibility, and the threat of rising waters. The chapter ended with Pomona walking beside Severus while imagining the alarms that would signal Venice’s coming flood.

• Pomona reflected on Gianluca’s gift of a Salvator Mundi counterfeit to Rosa and on the fate of artists whose work was valued after death.
• Shadow drove Pomona and Severus in an ordinary Fiat van, and Severus Apparated in front of the Muggles.
• Pomona and Severus explored Prato della Valle, where Pomona bought a tourist map and excitedly noticed a botanical garden.
• Severus teased Pomona about gaining weight, then admitted that he might not have been able to afford a university like Padua.
• Pomona linked arms with Severus as she thought about flood alarms, rising sea levels, and the possibility that Venice and Padua would eventually be submerged.

Pomona and Severus toured Padua’s botanical garden, where they discussed its history and the city’s struggles with tourism, industry, and cultural preservation. They ended together beneath Goethe’s Palm, wondering who had planted a fig tree in the greenhouse.

• Pomona and Severus teased each other about their different approaches to gardening as they toured the botanical garden.
• Pomona and Severus viewed the garden’s wartime resistance history and the photographs of people who had escaped Auschwitz or joined the resistance.
• Severus reflected on Venice’s tourism pressures and considered how art, luxury retail, and Chinese porcelain exhibitions could attract visitors and support business.
• Pomona quoted a saying about the tree of knowledge, and Severus asked who had planted a fig tree in the greenhouse.
• Pomona and Severus decided not to investigate and looked together at Goethe’s Palm.

Pomona and Severus struggled to find their way through Padua before Severus carried her across the rooftops with magic. They arrived at the University of Padua alongside Monica and the others, where Pomona eagerly asked to repeat the thrilling journey.

• Pomona reflected on freedom, truth, politics, and Venice’s disputes over industry, pollution, and advertising.
• Pomona and Severus got lost in Padua, and Severus refused to use the Thought Reception Charm to find directions.
• After Pomona found their location on a map, she panicked about being late and cried while blaming Severus for not knowing how to ride a bicycle.
• Severus transformed into black smoke, swept Pomona onto the rooftops, and Apparated from roof to roof until they reached the school gates with Monica and the others.
• Pomona asked Severus to do it again, then admitted she no longer thought his inability to ride a bicycle was a terrible fault.

Pomona and Severus visited the University of Padua with Gianluca, while Pomona reflected on law, social privilege, and the consequences of bad choices. The chapter ended with her considering the Debtor’s Stone and how a debt of blood could be repaid.

• Pomona glared at the wooden horse and called it a pig, while Severus corrected her.
• Gianluca guided Pomona and Severus through the University of Padua, while Alessandro rested in the business van after catching a cold.
• Pomona reflected on Socrates, the rule of law in Venice, and how people without privilege were left to bear the consequences of others’ choices.
• Pomona questioned the Moses Project’s enormous cost and looked at the Debtor’s Stone, wondering how a debt of blood should be calculated.

Pomona and the old bat shared an intense, secret romance in Padua while three young people discussed the Guggenheim collection dispute. The pair recognized the students as guardians of Venice, though what they would do remained unclear.

• The narration described Gianluca's university life in Padua and Professor Oparo's need for wealthy support for Venice's hydraulic projects.
• Pomona and the old bat kissed on a balcony and exchanged teasing remarks before returning to the coffee table.
• Monica and Gianluca debated the Guggenheim Museum dispute over Peggy Guggenheim's collection, while Alessandro nearly fell asleep and Pomona admitted she did not understand the argument.
• Pomona secretly stroked the old bat's thigh beneath the table, and he called her naughty.
• The old bat said they had become guardian angels again, and Pomona identified the three young people as Venice's guardian angels.

She reflected on love, sacrifice, and the history surrounding Padua’s Basilica of Saint Anthony while visiting the city with Severus. When Severus proposed playing the cursed violin in the music pavilion, she dragged him out of the church, still troubled by an unremembered mistake.

• She considered Giuseppe Tartini’s thwarted marriage, Werther’s doomed love, Albus’s concealed heartbreak, and Cecilia’s exclusion from the Lion Palace.
• She and Severus visited the Basilica of Saint Anthony, where she reflected on the saint, his relics, and the church’s grandeur.
• Severus wrapped her in his cloak and challenged her to stop meddling in others’ affairs, saying she loved the city more than him.
• She guessed that Severus wanted to play the violin that had sealed away six Muggles in the music pavilion.
• Severus revealed that he had brought the violin, and she hurriedly dragged him and the pale vampire out of the church.
• She wondered why she kept meddling in others’ business and remained confused about a mistake she could not remember.

Pomona and Severus visited Padua’s anatomical theater and learned about its history and the Church’s limits on dissection. Later, Severus attempted to play the violin alone in a deserted music pavilion, beginning the Devil’s Trill for Pomona.

• Gianluca took Pomona and the others to Padua’s anatomical theater, where they learned how Andreas Vesalius’s public dissections had challenged traditional medical teaching.
• The narration described how the Church forbade corpse mutilation and how Saint Photina’s martyr’s well became part of the Church of Saint Anthony.
• Severus arrived at a deserted music pavilion with a Guarneri violin, and Pomona asked whether he could play.
• Severus admitted he could not play, joked that the violin might take his soul, and asked Pomona to wish him luck.
• Severus began playing the Devil’s Trill, while Pomona listened as the only audience member.

Pomona reflected on Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia’s barriers as a brilliant woman and connected her own deduction about Venice’s diverted naval funds to the need for proof. After Severus performed a violin serenade at a place where the dead spirits helped the living, Pomona spotted a frightening middle-aged man in a monk’s robe and clung to Severus.

• Pomona recalled Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia’s education, university achievements, rejected suitors, and limited prospects as a woman.
• Pomona considered the suspected diversion of Venice’s naval funds and identified Giambattista as a key link between Venice and the Holy See, but recognized that she still needed proof.
• Severus played a violin serenade so skillfully that the Muggle spectators applauded.
• Severus explained that he had chosen the location for the experiment because its spirits helped the living.
• Pomona saw a middle-aged man in a monk’s robe make a frightening face at her, then ran to Severus and looped her arm through his.

Pomona and Hermione studied historical anatomy and the Jack the Ripper murders, and Pomona theorized that different killers committed the crimes, including a local man who dissected Catherine Eddowes. A thought about violin strings led Severus to reconsider how many fingers Peter Pettigrew had and whether that could prove Black’s innocence.

• Pomona and Hermione visited Padua’s libraries, where Pomona examined Vesalius’s anatomy book and the wax Anatomical Venus.
• Pomona connected the treatment of female bodies in anatomy with the Jack the Ripper murders and considered why women’s knowledge had been dismissed.
• Pomona theorized that the murders were committed by more than one killer and that a local man used the police distraction to kill and dissect Catherine Eddowes.
• Pomona speculated that the killer took victims’ body parts home as specimens and suggested that Mary’s heart had been taken to study women’s feelings.
• Severus asked Pomona about a violin with five strings, then wondered whether Peter Pettigrew had grown an extra finger and whether that could clear Black.

Pomona and Severus discussed the allure of serial killers, the Death Eaters, and the choices people made between cruelty and kindness. Their conversation ended with Pomona praising Severus, who left her with a faint smile.

• The narration described how people were drawn to serial killers and compared the Death Eaters’ appeal to the thrill of committing evil without judgment.
• The narration recounted how Henry Howard Holmes built a hotel designed to trap and kill women, then was sentenced to hanging in 1896.
• The narration contrasted cruel people who chose the Devil’s Trill with Battista and Zanetti, who helped others and passed kindness on.
• Pomona asked Severus why he had not told her about the seven Horcruxes, and Severus said witches should be protected and men had to grow up.
• Pomona teased Severus about how he treated Harry, Ron, and Hermione, then embraced him and left a lipstick mark on his face.
• Severus wiped away the lipstick mark and left after Pomona called him cute, briefly smiling as he turned away.

Pomona reflected on Catherine Eddowes and the mystery of Jack the Ripper, wondering whether Catherine had been targeted for insulting him and whether the killer had escaped justice. She shared her speculation with Severus and invited him to take her to a tavern in Padua, leaving him puzzled about her comparison between him and Catherine’s poet husband.

• Pomona considered Catherine Eddowes’s life and questioned whether Jack the Ripper had followed her and chosen his moment to strike.
• She speculated that Jack may have escaped punishment by disappearing into an ordinary life, and wondered whether his arrogance had made him careless.
• Severus asked Pomona what she was thinking, and she said she was thinking about Jack the Ripper and whether Severus wanted to be a poet or a prince.
• Pomona asked Severus to buy her a drink at a tavern frequented by Padua’s professors and described the evening dress she wanted to wear.
• Pomona compared Catherine’s poet husband to Severus, the Half-Blood Prince, and explained her theory while Severus struggled to follow her logic.

Pomona connected the Jack the Ripper murders to George Chapman, Annie Chapman's disabled son, and suspected that his exposure to anatomical Venus figures in Padua had triggered his crimes. She realized that proving the connection would be difficult because few records would identify an obscure victim's son.

• Pomona examined the murders of Anne, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Kelly, and considered how leaked police information and social conditions had obstructed the investigation.
• Pomona recounted how George Abberline came to suspect George Chapman after Chapman's arrest for poisoning his wife.
• Pomona explained her theory that George Chapman had been the disabled surviving child of Annie Chapman and had imitated Jack's methods after killing his mother.
• Pomona stopped her account and told Severus that evidence linking Chapman to the murders would be difficult to find.
• Pomona connected the Morsmordre spell's name to the phrase “mother killer” and considered whether anatomical Venus figures in Padua had triggered George Chapman.

In Padua, Pomona and Severus discussed serial killers and Jack the Ripper before their conversation turned to Severus’s lingering fears and Pomona’s habit of trying to arrange other people’s lives. Severus said he sympathized with Sirius Black, then led Pomona back to Alessandro, Monica, and Gianluca.

• Pomona reflected on Jack the Ripper, Henry Howard Holmes, and other killers while studying in Padua.
• Pomona cried out after Severus bit her lip, and she told him she had been thinking about Jack the Ripper.
• Pomona and Severus debated why Jack mutilated his victims, and Severus suggested he had joined the investigation as part of a risky game.
• Pomona asked Severus whether he was still afraid, and he looked toward the sunlit forest while recalling Albania.
• Pomona told Severus she was thinking about Jane Austen’s Emma, and he accused her of arrogantly trying to arrange people’s fates.
• Severus said he sympathized with Sirius Black, then led Pomona to find Alessandro, Monica, and Gianluca.