Chapter Summaries

David Mills met psychiatrist Dr. Antony Marcus to discuss his concerns, but Marcus first questioned him about the John Doe case and explained his views on patient confidentiality and body dysmorphic disorder. Marcus invited Mills to dinner, leaving Mills uncertain about the psychiatrist and his unsettling office.

• Mills visited Dr. Antony Marcus, whom he suspected might have ties to an Indonesian black-market boxer.
• Marcus said he had agreed to meet Mills because Mills had killed the Seven Sins Killer, John Doe.
• Mills asked whether Marcus would alert police if a patient threatened to kill someone, and Marcus explained why he usually preserved patient confidentiality.
• Marcus described cases of body dysmorphic disorder among his clients and discussed cultural differences in attitudes toward bodies, food, and seeking psychiatric help.
• Marcus invited Mills to dinner, and Mills accepted because he had no other plans.

Dr. Antony Marcus served Mills beef tartare and questioned him about his work for the Church, including a possessed girl who spoke Latin and a hypnotist she had supposedly hypnotized. Mills left without getting a definitive explanation, while Antony connected the discussion to past cases and their conversation turned to Dante and Botticelli.

• Antony served Mills beef tartare with wasabi, and Mills recoiled after eating a bite before telling Antony why he had returned to Los Angeles.
• Mills described a seventeen-year-old girl who spoke Latin after going to Detroit and said he was now investigating exorcisms for the Church.
• Mills told Antony that an exorcist named Joseph had helped him after Tracy's death by claiming her killer's ghost was urging him to kill again.
• Antony discussed conversion hysteria and instant hypnosis, but Mills asked whether the girl might have been programmed to hypnotize anyone who tried to undo her hypnosis.
• Mills and Antony discussed Dante, Beatrice, and Botticelli as they ate, and Mills complained about reading Dante to investigate the case.

Antony hosted David Mills for an extravagant dinner and used their conversation to challenge Mills about his grief, anger, and reliance on religion. Mills left the exchange skeptical of Antony’s motives, while Antony insisted he wanted to help him as a friend.

• Mills tasted Antony’s pig’s-blood and tomato drink and licorice-smoked salmon, then questioned the dark menu and lavish table setting.
• Antony discussed solitude, relationships, illness, and anxiety, then told Mills that he had anger-management issues and should seek psychotherapy.
• Antony explained his decision to practice psychiatry, described Phineas Gage’s brain injury, and connected the orbitofrontal cortex to impulse control and emotion.
• Antony advised Mills to stop smoking and binge drinking, face his trauma, and rebuild his sense of security after his wife’s death.
• Mills accused Antony of wanting him as a research subject, but Antony called him a friend and urged him to believe in science.

Antony told Mills about Julie’s bulimia and discussed how family and social pressures contributed to eating disorders, while Mills questioned Antony about his motives and morality. Mills revealed that Angela Warren had killed herself and suspected Scott Davis had hypnotized her, leaving Antony confronted with the case and Mills’s accusation that he would not have helped her.

• Antony served Mills Mandi and described Julie’s struggle with bulimia, her suicide attempt, and his decision to leave his work with actresses and models.
• Antony explained how parental control, cultural ideals, and attachment problems could contribute to eating disorders, and asked Mills about a maid’s relationship with her mother.
• Antony questioned Mills about his moral stage, then discussed the cultural spread of eating disorders and whether such forces could be called devils.
• Mills placed an audio cassette on the table and said he suspected Scott Davis had hypnotized Angela Warren and implanted a suggestion.
• Mills told Antony that Angela had killed herself that morning and asked what moral stage the church occupied.

Pomona tried to placate Severus with breakfast in their Venice home, but their banter turned into a kiss and then a passionate moment. She abruptly sent him away to feed the hungry Occamy, leaving herself to calm down.

• Pomona prepared breakfast for Severus and served it to him in bed, but he teased her about the restaurant bill and the cost of their house.
• Pomona remembered Hogwarts, Severus's rise to Slytherin Head of House, and his victory over Slughorn in a Potions duel.
• Pomona tried to strangle Severus in anger, but he restrained her and kissed her.
• As music and memories stirred Pomona's thoughts, she noticed the Occamy watching them and pushed Severus away so he could feed it.
• Severus took the Cockroach Cluster and left the tent, while Pomona lay on the bed and calmed her racing heart.

Veronica reflected on death, loneliness, and her family while speaking with Diego at the monastery. Meanwhile, Mills and Antony Marcus discussed Angela Warren’s recording and whether her apparent voices could be caused by schizophrenia or something supernatural, leaving Mills to consider Antony’s suggestion of a séance.

• Veronica watched the sunrise with her grandfather Diego, who told her his family had died in a car accident and that he regretted losing what mattered most.
• Veronica worried that Monica and Laura would eventually marry and leave her alone, then hurried back to her room after praying.
• Mills listened to Angela Warren’s restored recording with Antony Marcus and asked whether she had schizophrenia.
• Antony explained that a recording alone could not establish a diagnosis and suggested holding a séance to investigate Angela Warren’s soul.
• Mills questioned whether Antony was joking as Antony smiled ominously.

Pomona reflected on the defenses planned for 12 Grimmauld Place, the cost of potion ingredients, and the prejudice facing Werewolves as she spent her last days in Venice. She left the Adriatic coast to go somewhere she had chosen, while Britain and the unfinished work at home awaited her return.

• Orion had protected 12 Grimmauld Place with every spell he knew, but Bellatrix brought Regulus inside to join Voldemort.
• Severus planned to build defensive magical arrays into the house, while Pomona kept the door-opening key safe.
• Pomona considered farming rare potion ingredients to counter Severus's lavish spending and mused on the costs of magical materials.
• Pomona worried about discrimination against Werewolves and hoped Teddy would not suffer for being one.
• Pomona admired the Adriatic Sea, decided she knew where she was going, and Apparated away.

Mills discussed Angela Warren’s possible multiple personalities and the strange brain waves reported after her death with Antony, while O’Sullivan asked him to examine footage from Scott Davis. Mills left to pursue further research with Antony, though the chapter ended without a diagnosis or proof of what happened to Angela.

• O’Sullivan told Mills that Scott Davis had been stopped at the airport and had denied joining the Earth Liberation Front with Angela Warren.
• Mills asked Antony to explain hypnosis and Angela’s behavior, and Antony said Ethan Logan might have pretended to hypnotize her while investigating her condition.
• Antony said there was not enough evidence to diagnose Angela with schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder and described the dangers of misdiagnosis and treatment.
• Mills mentioned theta waves, and Antony suggested someone might have used hypnosis to awaken another of Angela’s personalities.
• Mills invited Antony to the police station to investigate Angela’s brain waves, then went to make a phone call.

Antony and Mills reviewed footage of Angela while discussing memory, fear, and the secrets people hid behind masks. They noticed a necklace had appeared on Angela’s neck in the later footage, leaving them to investigate where it came from.

• The chapter described how public fears of clowns and the pressures of celebrity life shaped people’s behavior.
• O'Sullivan dealt with Scott’s grief over Angela’s death and his angry mother while working late.
• Antony and Mills discussed Zodiac and the difficulty of determining what Angela had done before she died.
• Mills spotted a necklace on Angela in the footage and rewound it, confirming she had not worn it when they first entered the classroom.
• Mills left to investigate the necklace while Antony watched Angela’s unchanged smile on the television.

Pomona explored the Academy Gallery in Venice and reflected on Leonardo da Vinci’s art, the soul, and the nature of artistic perception. She met Nakamura Xue at the Vitruvian Man, and they began talking together as a summer solstice eclipse approached.

• Pomona visited the Academy Gallery with Severus, who showed little interest in the paintings.
• Pomona studied Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical sketches and considered how his idea of a shared center of the senses connected art and the soul.
• Pomona compared Tobias Snape’s shifting interests with Leonardo da Vinci’s many talents and reflected on the limits of human effort.
• Pomona encountered Nakamura Xue while studying the Vitruvian Man, and Nakamura asked to join her.
• Pomona and Nakamura joked about treating their gallery visit like shopping as Pomona thought about the summer solstice eclipse.

Pomona and Nakamura Xue discussed art, advertising, sugar, and Tom Ford, while Pomona reflected on Albus’s opposition to wizarding IVF and the secrets he had kept. She concluded that some human needs should never be created, and wondered whether the children who urged Slytherin to awaken Hogwarts’s dragon understood the danger.

• Pomona compared Raphael’s crowded paintings to Where’s Wally? and described how Veronese’s joyful scenes helped shape Baroque art.
• Pomona explained how tobacco companies benefited when an advertising ban silenced anti-tobacco groups and shifted their own promotions elsewhere.
• Nakamura Xue proposed using Tom Ford in an anti-sugar slogan, and Pomona showed little interest in his looks or fashion brand.
• Pomona recalled the hidden letters Severus had found and considered how Albus’s opposition to wizarding IVF was connected to the danger of creating new needs.
• Pomona thought that the Muggle children who urged Salazar Slytherin to awaken Hogwarts’s dragon might wrongly believe it could be controlled.

At Angela Warren’s body in the morgue, Antony pressed Mills to confront his guilt and doubts about the Seven Sins Killer, Tracy’s death, and Leigh Allen. Mills left the conversation still unsettled, while Antony remained beside Angela’s corpse.

• Mills and Antony bribed the night watchman to show them Angela Warren’s body in the morgue.
• Mills admitted Angela had been innocent, and Antony challenged him about his grief, his suspicions of Scott Davis, and whether he believed Leigh Allen was the killer.
• Antony explained how media coverage of crimes by strangers could influence killers and described how the Seven Sins Killer had exploited Mills’s personal information to reach Tracy.
• Antony revealed that Mills had killed a man who might have been an impostor, leaving Mills to question whether he had killed an innocent person.
• Mills told Antony to go have dinner with his girl, and Antony stayed by Angela, commenting on her bulimia.

Pomona discussed training Severus to fight James Potter, deciding that a Centaur could teach him footwork and positioning. She then spent time with Nakamura Xue in Venice, where they ate and drank in her luxurious suite.

• Pomona sought Flitwick's advice on improving Severus's fighting skills and considered how spatial awareness could help him face James Potter and his friends.
• Pomona arranged for a Centaur to spar with Severus because he needed agile footwork and better positioning.
• Pomona reflected on aristocrats, Sirius, Kreacher, and the overlooked children who had fought to protect Hogwarts from Death Eaters.
• Pomona visited Nakamura Xue's suite at a Venetian palace hotel and joined her on the carpet for devil pizza and strawberry cocktails.

Pomona arranged a romantic date with the Half-Blood Prince at a Venice hotel, dressing up for a grand entrance and hoping to create a happy memory. Their banter continued as they headed to the restaurant, ending when Sirius’s name wiped the professor’s smug smile away.

• Pomona reflected on Dickens and Catherine’s marriage while considering how a new life could offer people hope.
• Pomona descended the hotel stairs in a glittering gown to meet the Leprechaun, who had been summoned by her ring.
• Pomona told the professor she had arranged a date and criticized him for not wearing an evening suit.
• The professor adjusted the dahlia in Pomona’s hair and asked why she had invited him during the day.
• Pomona took the professor’s arm and teased him about girls’ friendships and dueling over Sirius, making his smug smile vanish.

Antony and Mills tested Angela’s corpse for brain activity while discussing faith, death, and Mills’s past. Mills heard a girl’s voice warn him that the world was not real and urge him to pray for the guilty, but it vanished when he turned around.

• Mills learned from O'Sullivan that Angela’s necklace was made of human teeth, then switched off his phone to avoid further questions.
• Antony and Mills brought Angela’s corpse into the testing room, where Mills told Antony about his comatose colleague and his own revenge for his murdered wife and daughter.
• Antony connected Angela to the equipment and saw ripples on the paper, but Angela did not respond to Mills’s questions.
• Mills asked Antony to leave and whispered to Angela that he believed her soul was changing and needed her help.
• A girl’s voice warned Mills that someone dangerous had killed Angela, said the world was not real, and told him to pray for the guilty.
• The voice disappeared when Mills turned around, leaving him with no sign that anyone had been there.

Mills told Antony that he heard a girl's voice warning that someone was in danger, and Antony tried to persuade him to abandon the clergy and trust his help. Antony left Mills weighing whether to accept his offer as he warned him not to make a disastrous choice.

• Antony questioned Mills about Angela and explained that the Book of the Dead's spells could not bring the dead back to life.
• Antony described how people lie and said that persuading someone to change their mind can make him feel powerful, then asked Mills to persuade him.
• Mills revealed that he had heard a girl's voice say, "He's in danger," but did not know whether she meant Scott or Ethan.
• Antony argued that Angela's death had given her life meaning and urged Mills to stay away from clergymen, whom he said offered people a false heaven.
• Antony said he believed demons existed and that Mills would need his help, then left him to consider whether to trust him.

Pomona reflected on genius, trust, and the choices people made as she discussed philosophy with Severus in Venice. She left the conversation unresolved and asked a waiter to take a photograph of them together.

• Pomona considered why brilliant people such as Bernard and Voldemort could fail, and recalled Severus defeating Lockhart and Slughorn.
• Pomona described the choices and outcome of the Golden Balls game between Nick Kerrigan and Abraham Haisen as an example of trust and deception.
• Pomona questioned whether Nietzsche’s saying that gold would always shine was true and wondered whom to vote for as Britain’s most popular philosopher.
• Pomona and Severus discussed their favorite philosophers in Venice while she rubbed her ankle against his leg.
• Pomona called over a waiter to take a commemorative photograph of herself and Severus.

Joseph attended the Mass in Rome and reflected on Cindy’s lack of empathy and the danger she posed. He had left her behind to protect himself and his place in the Church, and remained silent while navigating the company of cardinals.

• Joseph recalled the Christmas truce of 1914 and imagined soldiers kicking empty tins like balls on a battlefield.
• Cardinals praised Ratzinger after he presided over Mass, while Bergoglio was left isolated from the crowd.
• Joseph reflected on how people with personality abnormalities could manipulate others and exercise control without remorse.
• Joseph remembered Cindy’s detached upbringing and concluded that she lacked empathy and could use compromising photographs to threaten him.
• Joseph decided Cindy was beyond saving and left her behind so he could remain in the Church.

Joseph arrived at the Apostolic Palace after learning that the Pope’s friend had returned, while reflecting on free will and whether his world was real. In Los Angeles, Mills and Antony examined Angela Warren’s eyes and discovered that her golden irises held rotating gear-like pupils.

• Juliati told Joseph that the Pope’s friend had arrived and that an American Archbishop and Corrado Balducci were with him.
• Joseph went to the Pope’s reception room, thinking about fate, God, and whether he should leave a world that might be unreal.
• O’Sullivan told Mills that investigators had found a cat’s meow in the audio static and that the driver had seen a cat before the crash.
• Antony revealed that golden irises were more common in animals than in humans.
• Mills looked at Angela Warren and saw golden irises surrounding rotating, gear-like pupils, then asked Antony whether human eyes could look that way.

Veronica struggled with the prospect of becoming a nun after children covered her in cream, while Pomona and Severus enjoyed lunch and a quiet afternoon together in Venice. They wondered whether they wanted to return to Hogwarts and recalled the adventures of their youth.

• Veronica was covered in cream while separating two children, and a nun took her to clean up.
• The nun lent Veronica a black habit, and Veronica felt excited but uncertain about wearing it and becoming a nun.
• Pomona and Severus ate an elaborate lunch in Venice, and Pomona considered how easily her key could bring her back there.
• Severus said he wanted to keep resting instead of returning to Hogwarts, and he complained about the students.
• Pomona and Severus remembered sleeping in the Great Hall and the Room of Requirement, and Pomona recalled Severus as a boy beside Lily.