Chapter Summaries

Severus and Pomona visited St. Mark’s Basilica during their honeymoon and found monks restraining a young man who had explored Poveglia Island. Severus challenged the priest over the apparent possession, but Pomona left them arguing and went to Caffè Florian.

• Severus and Pomona discussed their plans to visit a priest before their real estate appointment, and Severus led them into an annex of St. Mark’s Basilica.
• Severus and Pomona heard screams and found monks surrounding a straitjacketed young man whose mouth was gagged.
• Severus asked whether the young man had explored Poveglia Island, and the priest led Severus and Pomona away from the crowd.
• Severus offered to help exorcise the young man, while the priest suspected Severus of using dark magic and Severus called the explorer unlucky.
• Pomona left Severus and the priest glaring at each other and went to Caffè Florian.

Pomona went to the Officers' Café in Venice and shared a table with Nakamura Xue, an American writer campaigning against sugar. Their conversation touched on sugar-industry influence, public health, and how powerful interests distorted debate, while Pomona reflected on historical betrayals and conflicts between authority, elites, and ordinary people.

• Pomona found Caffè Florian full and asked Nakamura Xue if she could share her table at the Officers' Café.
• Pomona noticed Nakamura Xue's article arguing that excessive sugar intake was linked to obesity and watched her type amid the café's noise.
• Pomona told Nakamura Xue that she agreed the calorie theory was a sugar-industry conspiracy and described the industry's influence as killing people with invisible bullets.
• Nakamura Xue said she had written in public on purpose to draw attention to how much sugar had been added, then introduced herself as an American.
• Pomona introduced herself to Nakamura Xue as Linda Smith and shook hands with her.

Nakamura Xue described Japanese American exclusion, racial discrimination, and experiments showing how people obey authority, then explained why she had left America. She and Pomona ended their conversation with teasing remarks about cleavage and male attention.

• The chapter recounted Saburo Matsutoyo’s arrest and failed Supreme Court challenge to the exclusion order, as well as the wartime confinement and later discrimination faced by Japanese Americans.
• Nakamura Xue explained how racial barriers affected Asian students and professionals in America, including the Bamboo ceiling.
• Nakamura Xue described Milgram’s obedience experiment and a study in which nurses obeyed an unfamiliar doctor’s dangerous order.
• Nakamura Xue recounted a fast-food manager’s abuse of young employees after a caller posing as a police officer gave orders, while a delivery driver refused to participate.
• Nakamura Xue told Pomona that she had left America after her independent opinions were dismissed as neurosis, and introduced herself as Yuki.
• Pomona questioned whether Xue’s remarks about cleavage could help her doctoral thesis, and Xue smiled suggestively.

Pomona and Nakamura Xue discussed perfectionism, workplace pressure, and the dangers of sugar as Nakamura worked on a paper opposing the sugar industry. The conversation ended with Pomona telling Nakamura that she taught at Hogwarts, a school of magic.

• The narration described how perfectionism and obsessive-compulsive tendencies harmed people and their relationships, while Nakamura Xue dealt with a demanding cosmetic-surgery client.
• Pomona questioned whether Albus Dumbledore showed signs of neurosis, and Nakamura Xue explained her argument that excessive sugar harmed health.
• Nakamura Xue warned Pomona that medicine had limits and that illness could be fatal even when people wanted to survive.
• Pomona wished Nakamura Xue good luck with her campaign against the powerful sugar industry, and Nakamura thanked her for listening.
• Nakamura Xue asked what Pomona did, and Pomona said she taught at Hogwarts, a school of magic.

The narrator reflected on parenting, social pressure, sugar-related health risks, and the way ambition and control could harm children, connecting these ideas to figures such as Hermione, Barty Crouch Jr., and Tobias. The chapter ended with her recalling a possibly possessed young man at St. Mark's Basilica and admitting that she hated reading about demons.

• Nakamura Xue's mother raised her alone and pursued her career, while Nakamura Xue's grandmother pressured them to arrange a marriage for her.
• The narrator connected sugar consumption and corporate interests to chronic illness, arguing that authorities ignored risks until disaster struck.
• The narrator described how controlling parents and comparisons with other children could drive rebellion, citing Hermione's treatment by Draco and Barty Crouch Jr.'s estrangement from his father.
• The narrator explained that Tobias was intelligent but lacked Severus's focus, then recounted the biblical tale of Tobias, Sarah, and the demon Asmodeus.
• The narrator wondered whether the young man at St. Mark's Basilica was possessed or merely terrified and said she disliked demonology.

Pomona and Severus moved a young man who had hallucinated after encountering ghosts, while Pomona gave a priest Gaap’s key to take him somewhere safe. The chapter ended by reflecting on wisdom and how a powerful minority could control public opinion.

• Pomona returned to the church and found Severus and a priest watching over a sedated young man in a straitjacket.
• Severus explained that the young man had hallucinated doctors trying to remove his brain, and he insisted that they move him elsewhere.
• Severus levitated the young man, and Pomona cast a Disillusionment Charm as they followed the priest toward a secret passage.
• Pomona gave the priest Gaap’s key and explained that it could take him wherever he wished.
• The priest used the key to open a door to a simple church where several ascetics were praying.

Pomona and Severus followed a priest through a mountain monastery, where its bells rang continuously and the monks recoiled at Pomona’s presence. The priest led them to meet a retired priest, though the chapter ended before they reached him.

• The chapter described Protestant reforms and the arguments of Luther and Galvin about religious authority, indulgences, and wealth.
• The chapter recounted Rabelais’s education and the story of Gargantua, who caused an uproar in Paris by taking Notre-Dame’s bells.
• Pomona linked arms with Severus and strode through the monastery without wearing her hood, startling the monks.
• Severus asked the priest where they were going, and the priest said they were going to see a retired priest.
• After Pomona and Severus left the courtyard, the monks resumed their activities, while the monastery bells continued ringing.

Pomona and Severus visited Monk Stein to ask for help with a young man’s strange experience on Poveglia Island, but Stein refused because he believed the devil still influenced him. Severus left the man with Stein, and the secretary-general followed, leaving the situation in the monastery’s hands.

• The secretary-general brought Pomona and Severus to meet Monk Stein, who was gathering tomatoes and insisted he was retired.
• Monk Stein refused to investigate the powder that caused the young man’s hallucinations, explaining that he had been possessed and feared he might cause them trouble.
• Severus and Pomona proposed working with Stein as partners, and Stein admitted that the devil had driven him to streak in public.
• Pomona reflected on religious persecution, justice, free will, and the unequal power struggle between Muggles and wizards.
• Severus left the man with Monk Stein, and the secretary-general hesitated before following them.

The chapter recounted Irena Sendler’s rescue of Jewish children and the Kansas students who brought her story back to public attention. It then introduced a young man whom the papal chamberlain asked to protect samples from being misused in research on Pope John Paul II.

• Irena Sendler rescued more than 2,500 Jewish children, hid records of their identities in jars, and kept her work secret for decades.
• Four Kansas students uncovered Irena Sendler’s story, turned it into the play “Life in a Jar,” and received sponsorship from John Schuchardt to visit her in Poland.
• The papal chamberlain read a letter from five-year-old Erica Esposito, who asked Pope John Paul II to help bring pandas to Italy, and wondered how to answer her.
• The chapter described Marthe Gautier’s role in discovering the extra chromosome behind Down syndrome and how Jérôme Lejeune took credit for her work.
• The papal chamberlain asked a young man to enter the hospital and ensure that samples used to treat Pope John Paul II would not become someone else’s research material.

The chapter explained how predatory mortgage lending and the collapse of the housing market could strip a Costa Rican nurse of her home and expose the risks behind American immigration investments. Pomona and Draco completed the purchase of a house on Saint Helena Island, while Pomona reflected on financial exploitation and the consequences of unchecked profit-seeking.

• The chapter described Costa Rica’s appeal to American retirees and recounted how a Costa Rican nurse who had kept up her mortgage payments faced foreclosure after her debt was transferred to Steen National Bank.
• It explained how private collateral agreements could conceal immigration fraud in EB-5 real-estate investments and leave applicants unable to seek legal recourse.
• The chapter traced government mortgage programs and mortgage-backed securities, then described how rising delinquencies signaled a coming housing-market collapse that Lucius Malfoy's American friend had warned him about.
• The real estate agent handed Pomona the Portkey to the house on Saint Helena Island after she and Draco Malfoy completed the purchase in full.
• Pomona considered how financial schemes harmed ordinary people and urged Draco to use his intelligence to address problems such as Venice sinking.

The papal chamberlain reviewed Paul II’s papers and reports on the Fatima Apparitions, considering the Pope’s legacy and the prophecy that had foretold an attempt on his life. He wondered whether Paul II would want his remains buried in Fatima, the place he held dear.

• The chamberlain considered the Pope’s controversial views and set aside his manuscripts until Paul II was discharged and could decide what to preserve.
• The chamberlain read a briefing about a Russian boy who claimed to be from Mars and another about the Fatima Apparitions.
• The Fatima report recounted how Lucia, Francis, and Jacinta described encounters with Our Lady of the Rosary and a public miracle witnessed by thousands.
• The report noted that a secret Vatican dossier said the 1917 apparitions had predicted an attempt to assassinate the Pope.
• The chamberlain reflected that Paul II credited the Virgin Mary with saving him and wondered whether he would want his remains placed in Fatima.

Pomona reflected on American “zombie” culture, addiction, immigration, and the costs of pushing people beyond their limits as she followed Severus through a Muggle hospital. His presence recalled the choices surrounding the prophecy, and she worried about how Neville’s magic could be awakened without putting him in danger.

• Pomona watched a tourist scream at a zombie in the entrance of Saint Sebastian Hospital and considered the difference between movie monsters and living people damaged by drugs or illness.
• Pomona connected damaged self-control and emotional reactions to abusive relationships, disillusionment among immigrants, and America’s financial excesses.
• Pomona reflected on the exhaustion caused by overstimulation and the safety that homes and restful sleep offered, especially compared with the lives of homeless people and feral cats.
• Severus strode through the hospital, and the crowd parted around him as Pomona followed.
• Pomona recalled that Severus’s prophecy had contributed to Lily’s death and wondered whether Neville could awaken his magic without another life-threatening ordeal.

Pomona and her companions investigated the doctors who treated a young man after his expedition to Death Island while the chapter recounted the history of Silent Hill and the fraud that cost foreign investors millions. The chapter left Pomona reflecting on stories of salvation and the strange contrast between the world’s hopeful legends and its deceptions.

• The chapter described how Ackerman persuaded 199 foreign investors to fund a Silent Hill resort, then used contract loopholes to block them from recovering their investments or obtaining green cards.
• Only 78 investors joined a lawsuit against Ackerman, while the other 121 accepted their $500,000 losses as the price of pursuing green cards.
• Pomona and her companions found the two Muggle doctors who had treated the young man who had explored Death Island, drinking coffee and telling jokes in a church-funded hospital.
• Pomona watched a television report about Pope John Paul II before its screen briefly flickered and returned to normal.
• Pomona considered the Maya legend of the Rainbow Warriors, who supposedly united people to protect the Earth through nonviolent struggle.

Veronica visited her dying grandfather, whom her family had long treated as a forbidden subject, but refused to see him. Father Constantine encouraged her to reflect on forgiveness, freedom, and mortality, and the chapter left her preparing for Mass while hoping the Pope would recover.

• Father Constantine told Veronica about the Pope forgiving the assassin who shot him, then revealed that the dying man behind the door was Veronica’s grandfather.
• Veronica refused to visit her grandfather and left the nursing home, but stayed outside thinking about his past and her family’s suffering.
• Father Constantine joined Veronica on the steps, shared monastery beer and cookies with her, and invited her to intern at the nursing home.
• Veronica asked about her grandfather’s later life and discussed faith, dating, and the secular world with Father Constantine.
• Father Constantine received an email and told Veronica they should greet the director and prepare for Mass, while Veronica said she wanted to pray for the Pope.

Detroit's acting head of the diocese sought help for Nancy Jones, whose involvement in WAVE Dream Journey left her at risk of losing her home. After his old friend refused to come from the Vatican, he turned to someone named Constantine.

• The acting head learned that Nancy had mortgaged her home to pay for WAVE travel memberships and feared that she would lose it.
• Nancy recruited relatives into the scheme, traveled extensively, and then told her neighbors about the bank's seizure of her husband's urn to resist eviction.
• The acting head considered Detroit's economic decline and worried that many other parishioners might have taken out travel loans.
• His old friend at the Vatican refused to perform an exorcism, saying the girl might be acting and would need to believe in God.
• The acting head searched his inbox for the right Constantine and began writing to him.

Joseph entered the Apostolic Palace after a pigeon soiled his shoulder, while the chapter recounted Rome’s sack, the Fatima prophecies, and the Pope’s vulnerability to the devil. The chapter left Joseph prioritizing the possessed girl’s ominous prophecy, despite the historical and artistic digressions.

• Joseph cursed after a pigeon dropped its mess on his shoulder, then entered the palace to check on the recovering Pope.
• The chapter described the 1527 Sack of Rome, when German mercenaries looted the city and killed its defenders despite orders to stop.
• The chapter recounted Vincenzo Peruggia’s theft of the Mona Lisa and the Fatima prophecies, including a vision of a slain Pope and other martyrs.
• Joseph judged the possessed girl’s prophecy more urgent than her plight because it might be real.
• The chapter recalled Michelangelo’s clashes with the Pope and his portrayal of his critics in the Sistine Chapel.

Joseph watched a reception where Cardinal Saint Robert Bellarmine danced tango with Sister Tobiana and learned about Bergoglio’s love of music, his first love, and his concern for the poor. Reflecting on faith, greed, surveillance, and occult practices, he finally lost his temper and shouted at the Apostolic Palace staff to stop playing with Ouija boards.

• Joseph watched Sister Tobiana dance with Cardinal Saint Robert Bellarmine and was startled by the cardinal’s tango and electric-guitar-playing persona.
• Joseph recalled Bergoglio’s childhood love for Amalia, his work in Buenos Aires, and his commitment to the poor and vulnerable.
• Joseph reflected that exorcism required the possessed to reject dark thoughts and return their hearts to Jesus.
• Joseph considered American wealth, citizenship renunciation, surveillance, and the decline of traditional religious customs.
• Joseph blamed occult rituals and Ouija boards for inviting danger, then shouted at the Apostolic Palace staff to stop playing with them.

Joseph waited in the Vatican before meeting the ailing Pope John Paul II, while discussing exorcism, demons, and the Pope’s survival with the papal steward. He entered the Pope’s bedroom, and the chapter ended with background on Ephesus and its ancient worship of Artemis.

• Joseph waited in the private audience room while the Dean of the College of Cardinals and the Acting Cardinal of Vatican City spoke with Pope John Paul II.
• Joseph told the papal steward about the ghostlike companion who had haunted him as a child and explained that demons tempted people to profane what was sacred.
• Joseph joked with the steward, sprayed him with a holy-water toy gun, and discussed the Pope’s assassination, recovery, and possible miraculous survival.
• Joseph followed the steward into the Pope’s bedroom after the two cardinals left, while the steward warned him to keep the visit brief and put away his toy gun.
• The narration described Ephesus’s ancient temple to Artemis and the silversmiths who profited from selling her shrines to visitors.

Joseph visited the recovering Pope to urge him to reunite Catholics and Protestants through the sacraments, then challenged him about his feelings for a married woman and warned him to guard against demonic influence. Joseph left without kissing the Fisherman’s Ring, while the closing reflection turned to ritual and ambition.

• Joseph went to the Pope’s hospital room and introduced himself as an exorcist who had come to test the Pope’s faith.
• Joseph urged the Pope to restore the sacraments to Protestants and argued that reconciliation could unite them in form.
• The Pope asked what would unite their hearts, and Joseph answered that repentance and reconciliation could help overcome greed and conflict.
• Joseph accused the Pope of having feelings for a woman and warned that self-deception could invite demons into his heart.
• The Pope ordered Joseph to leave, and Joseph bowed and departed without kissing the Fisherman’s Ring.
• The narrator reflected on the deaths of Pope Adrian IV and Frederick Redbeard, then contrasted women’s sense of ritual with men’s grand ambitions.

Joseph explained to the Pope’s steward why he believed the Pope might become possessed and described his failed attempts to help an Afghanistan veteran and a troubled high school girl. The steward invited Joseph to lunch to discuss the cases, and Joseph learned they would be eating caviar during a fast.

• Joseph told the steward that the Pope was a likely target for possession and that a trustworthy person needed to perform the sacrament supporting him.
• Joseph described Matt, a Canadian soldier whose wartime trauma and fear of an evil spirit in his shadow ended with him shooting himself.
• Joseph recounted how a high school girl claimed she had hit a deer and later heard strange noises, while stories of the Deer Woman suggested a supernatural curse.
• The steward asked Joseph whether revenge could be innocent and proposed discussing the Deer Woman over lunch.
• Joseph said he was fasting, and the steward announced that they would have caviar.