Chapter Summaries

Severus and Gong Saiyi explored the Church of Saint Francis Xavier in Paris, where Severus studied its religious displays and listened as Gong Saiyi explained Bernadette Soubirous’s story. The visit ended when Severus noticed the wax figure Napoleon had brought from Florence was missing from its coffin.

• Severus opened the Church of Saint Francis Xavier’s side door and entered with Gong Saiyi.
• Severus discussed the church and Saint Francis Xavier with Gong Saiyi as they examined its interior.
• Gong Saiyi read the plaque recounting Bernadette Soubirous’s visions, the spring at Lourdes, and her incorrupt body.
• Gong Saiyi suggested Bernadette’s apparent preservation might be explained by saponification and a wax mask.
• Severus found the coffin empty and clarified that he was looking for the wax figure Napoleon had brought back from Florence.

Severus and Gong Saiyi investigated the wax figures connected to Napoleon, while Severus realized someone planned to replace a church crypt’s figures with real people and bury Pomona there. Gong Saiyi went to find another wax figure, leaving Severus at Bernadette’s cenotaph to think.

• The chapter described Florence and Siena’s churches, Napoleon’s arrival in Florence, and his visit to the city’s art collections and La Specola Museum.
• Gong Saiyi shouted at a street performer outside the church, then asked Severus where he had heard that Napoleon brought wax figures back from Florence.
• Severus said the figures they sought were not Florence’s anatomical models, and Gong Saiyi realized there were other figures to investigate.
• Severus warned that the church basement was intended as a crypt and that someone planned to replace its wax figures with real people so Pomona could be buried with him.
• Severus refused to follow Gong Saiyi, calling the search a trap, and told him to find the wax figure while he waited.
• Gong Saiyi complained to the Son of God and left the church, Apparating at its entrance.

Severus confronted Eugene Beauharnais at Napoleon’s tomb, demanding answers about Napoleon’s remains and what happened in 1870. Their argument left Eugene questioning his past choices while Severus insisted that his wife had been abducted and his plans obstructed.

• Severus spoke to Napoleon’s sarcophagus, wondering whether Napoleon was really buried there and accusing the dead emperor of valuing power and victory.
• Eugene Beauharnais appeared and challenged Severus, who threatened to destroy the coffin unless Eugene answered his questions.
• Severus and Eugene argued over Napoleon’s legacy, the abolition of the Inquisition, and whether Napoleon’s soul was in Hell.
• Severus used a dagger from the Pensieve to press Eugene for information about Napoleon, then criticized Eugene for caring for struggling soldiers instead of building a future for them.
• Severus said his wife had been abducted and his plans obstructed, then asked Eugene whether he saw Severus as a threat or a victim.

Gong Saiyi encountered a well-dressed witch in the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy and Paleontology while searching for a mysterious “score.” Elsewhere, Eugene refused to tell Severus where the person he sought was hiding, and the two prepared to fight.

• Gong Saiyi recalled his childhood and his mother as he stood before the blood-red wax figure and Cuvier’s bust.
• A woman confronted Gong Saiyi, attacked him with spells, and animated skeletons in the museum.
• Gong Saiyi shattered the skeleton sent after him and questioned the woman about Napoleon and the hidden “score,” but she gave no clear answer.
• Severus questioned Eugene about the Northern Lights, the Church, and the empty Bonaparte tomb, then demanded to know where the person he sought was.
• Eugene refused to reveal the hiding place and challenged Severus to fight, while Severus questioned how they could settle the outcome.

Eugene recalled the suffering and defeats of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, from the desert march and the executions at Jaffa to the retreat from Acre and the return to Cairo. He told Severus that the ruins they had taken for Abydos were not the real site, then seemed to need a moment to recover.

• Eugene remembered his childhood and Josephine’s troubled history before describing Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition and the soldiers’ hardships.
• Napoleon’s forces lost track of Kléber’s vanguard, reunited after a dangerous desert search, and marched through relentless rain toward Jaffa.
• Eugene and Crewe guarded prisoners and refugees, and the French decided to execute the prisoners while sparing peaceful civilians.
• Napoleon’s army captured Jaffa, failed to take Acre, and retreated after losing men, supplies, and heavy artillery.
• Eugene recalled the mirage-filled return to Cairo and Napoleon’s staged triumph before learning that the Turks had landed at Aboukir.
• Eugene told Severus that the ruins they had visited were not Abydos, and Severus sensed that Eugene needed time to recover.

Eugene told Severus that ancient spirits had been sealed in vessels and pointed him toward the hospital built on the former Place de Grève as a possible place to find the one he sought. Severus left the catacombs without destroying the coffin, while Eugene remained beside Hufflepuff's Cup containing the King of Rome's ashes.

• Eugene recalled the French expedition in Egypt and Syria, including the plague at Jaffa and Napoleon's efforts to restore the soldiers' morale.
• Years later, an impoverished veteran guided explorers to ancient ruins, then left them behind after they failed to return and heard a Bedouin's account of Cambyses II's vanished army.
• Eugene recounted his later life, Josephine's fears, and his return to the Louvre after his sudden death, where he met the dead Champollion.
• Severus asked Eugene where the sealed spirit was, and Eugene explained the ancient vessels and identified Osiris as one of Egypt's nine gods.
• Eugene directed Severus to the hospital across from Paris City Hall, built on the former Place de Grève, and cautioned him against destroying the coffin.
• Severus said he still had a choice and walked out of the catacombs, leaving Eugene beside the cup holding the King of Rome's ashes.

Severus searched Paris for clues tied to Nicolas Flamel and Napoleon before Lucius Malfoy told him Monica’s mother had disappeared. Meanwhile, Gong Saiyi confronted Grace in a wrecked Paris museum while looking for a wax figure connected to Napoleon and the entrance to another world.

• Severus traced Paris landmarks and historical references to Nicolas Flamel, Napoleon, and the alchemists who pursued Flamel’s secrets.
• Lucius Malfoy told Severus that Monica’s mother had disappeared, and Severus thanked him before Apparating away.
• Gong Saiyi fought with Grace in the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy as magical creatures and specimens were damaged around them.
• Gong Saiyi told Grace that he was seeking an entrance to another world to help Severus rescue his wife’s trapped soul, and Grace identified the wife as Lily.
• Gong Saiyi said he was searching for the wax figure Napoleon had brought back from Florence, but admitted he did not know what he would do after finding it.

Monica waited with Bruny while Severus searched for Sonny and asked Gianluca to investigate a clue connected to the Paris catacombs. Meanwhile, Alessandro, Felix, and Haji uncovered an ancient onyx cup underground, then fled as floodwaters surged through the tunnels.

• Monica could not reach Sonny, and Severus arrived as she prepared to go with Bruny into the catacombs.
• Severus questioned Bruny about carved symbols and Nicolas Flamel's keystone, then called Gianluca to investigate Place de Grève.
• Severus left Monica with money, told her that a guardian angel would protect her, and went to search for Sonny near Saint-Sulpice.
• Alessandro, Felix, Haji, and Mrs Norris found a sandy chamber where Alessandro triggered a hidden mechanism that revealed a box containing an onyx cup.
• Mrs Norris ran off, and Haji heard danger approaching before floodwaters rushed into the tunnels.
• Alessandro and the others fled through the rising water, with Alessandro forced to run across a mass of rats.

Severus followed clues from Victor Hugo’s diary to identify the goblet Haji recovered and concluded that it belonged at the Innocence Fountain. After learning Alessandro may have disappeared from the world, Severus left Felix and Haji to rest and prepared to handle the threat himself.

• Severus searched near the Saint-Sulpice Seminary for Alessandro, then followed a message to Luxembourg Gardens, where he found Felix, Haji, and Mrs Norris drenched.
• Felix explained that he had blasted open an underground waterway, and Haji gave Severus the box and goblet they had recovered.
• Severus connected the goblet to a cup described in Victor Hugo’s diary and concluded that it had been meant for the Innocence Fountain.
• Felix led Severus to the tunnel exit, where Severus saw the current still showing a daytime scene.
• Felix said the Egyptians wanted to make Paris’s drinking water unusable, and Severus told him to rest because Alessandro might no longer be in this world.

The chapter describes Paris’s overcrowding, inequality, and dangerous underground conditions before turning to Severus and Gianluca’s search for the missing Alessandro. Severus proposes using the Polyjuice Potion to determine whether Alessandro is alive, and asks Gianluca where his hacker friend is so they can get through the night.

• The chapter recounts how Haussmann-era redevelopment and rising rents pushed native Parisians into the suburbs while wealthy outsiders occupied luxury districts.
• The 1890 influenza outbreak and unsafe, overcrowded buildings exposed Paris’s severe sanitary and structural dangers.
• Parisian vagrants organized to find vacant homes, while others used underground passages to steal and evade the police.
• After handing the items to Severus, Haji left the dangerous area with Felix.
• Gianluca told Severus that Alessandro had disappeared and worried Monica would blame him for bringing the others to help.
• Severus said the Polyjuice Potion would lose its effect if Alessandro were dead, then asked Gianluca where his hacker friend was.

Severus brought Lucius to the Innocence Fountain and used Polyjuice Potion to turn him into Alessandro, seeking his help in determining whether a boy was alive. Their conversation turned to the Dark Lords, Draco’s future, and Severus’s belief that someone might bring Napoleon back to life, leaving Lucius unconvinced and Severus considering who else could take on the task.

• Severus met Lucius at the Innocence Fountain and asked him to drink Polyjuice Potion so they could determine whether a boy was dead or alive.
• Lucius transformed into Alessandro, and Severus warned him about Muggles who could strip wizards of their magic.
• Severus and Lucius argued about the Dark Lord, Albus Dumbledore, and the choices that had led them to their present situation.
• Severus explained that he wanted Lucius’s help to protect Draco and the Malfoy family, and defended Draco’s marriage to Astoria.
• Severus argued that political upheaval could threaten Europe and suggested that someone might bring Napoleon back to life to save France.
• Lucius dismissed Severus’s ideas, and Severus wondered who else could shoulder the burden.

Severus and Lucius waited at the Expiatory Chapel to meet a young man and exchange information without leaving a written record. After the young man dismissed magic as a trick, Lucius used a Stinging Jinx on him.

• Severus and Lucius, disguised as Alessandro, waited at the Expiatory Chapel while discussing Napoleon and the dangers surrounding wizards.
• A young man in a van arrived and gave Severus the password, “The eagle spreads its wings.”
• Severus answered with the counterphrase, “It sings triumphantly on its return,” and the young man asked for the documents.
• Severus said nothing would be recorded on paper or digitally and demonstrated magic by levitating a trash can.
• The young man dismissed the display as a trick, and Lucius asked Severus whether he could teach him a lesson.
• Severus suggested a Stinging Jinx, and Lucius cast it, making the young man scream.

Severus and Baldwin searched for witnesses to the aurora of November 20, 1870, while the chapter reflected on war, social hardship, and France's security concerns. They drove through Paris toward a hospital, where Severus remarked that the city had changed except for Notre-Dame Cathedral.

• Severus assigned young people, through “Baldwin,” to search records from November 20, 1870, for witnesses to the aurora besides Victor Hugo.
• Baldwin drove Severus and Lucius past a metro station where a singer performed a song protesting the transit strike.
• Baldwin said the strike harmed ordinary commuters more than wealthy people, and Severus ignored him.
• Baldwin told Severus and Lucius that they were nearing the Paris hospital.
• Severus said Paris had changed greatly except for Notre-Dame Cathedral, prompting Baldwin to ask if he was a vampire and Lucius to laugh.

Severus and Lucius investigated a public relief institution, where Baldwin explained how homeless and poor people struggled to access medical care and survive. After seeing a battered mother and her calm young son, Severus confronted Lucius about his father, then continued to the next location.

• Severus and Lucius visited the public medical assistance center as Baldwin explained the hardships facing homeless people and the role of its services.
• Baldwin discussed how poverty, illness, and unemployment could leave people vulnerable to injury, exploitation, and despair.
• Severus saw a bruised woman speaking with a social worker while her son watched from behind her.
• Baldwin said that the Nun took in mothers fleeing domestic violence with their children.
• Lucius asked Severus whether he still hated his father, and Severus criticized Lucius's decision to make him disguise himself with Polyjuice Potion.
• Lucius said they only needed to get through the night, and Severus continued toward the next location.

Severus, Lucius, and Baldwin ate at a Paris medical aid center while Lucius speculated that the mute security guard Alette might be connected to a secret order guarding books or graves. When Alette hurried away, Severus turned invisible and followed him.

• Pomona asked Severus whether he would give Harry Potter a birthday present, and Severus dismissed the idea.
• Baldwin served Severus and Lucius dinner at the medical aid center, where they noticed Alette, the mute security guard.
• Lucius described a rumor about an altar found during Metro construction and proposed that the site might once have hosted secret book transactions.
• Lucius suggested Alette could be a gatekeeper linked to a silent monastic order or a sect of gravekeepers, while Baldwin defended him as an ordinary employee.
• Alette hurried out, and Severus cast a Disillusionment Charm and followed him.

Severus and Lucius confronted Alette at the medical center, believing he knew where the man who had kidnapped Severus’s wife was hiding. Alette stayed silent, and the chapter ended with Severus reflecting on love, regret, and the home he shared with his wife.

• Alette received a call warning him that people were searching the medical center and telling him not to raise suspicion.
• Severus revealed himself and demanded that Alette tell him where the kidnapper was, but Alette refused to cooperate.
• Severus and Lucius discussed using Legilimency, while Baldwin objected to torturing Alette.
• Alette questioned Severus about regret and suffering, and Severus said he regretted helping someone die.
• Lucius explained that Severus was Draco’s godfather, and Severus and Lucius both denied that Draco had been baptized.
• Severus thought of the love and support he and his wife shared, even through hardship.

Severus, Lucius, and Baldwin followed Alette through underground passages to a hidden shrine beneath Les Invalides, where Severus identified a missing prophecy sphere. He argued that the prophecy might concern someone besides Harry Potter and asked Lucius to investigate the sphere while he prepared to go to Monsuri.

• Alette led the group through a drainage channel and a narrow gap into a hidden shrine beneath Les Invalides.
• Severus examined the shrine’s repainted pagan murals and asked about a missing glass sphere from its dome.
• Severus said that only someone connected to the prophecy could touch the spheres and declared that he would test them all.
• Severus reminded Lucius that the prophecy did not specify only one boy born at the end of July and asked who had killed Nagini.
• Severus asked Lucius to investigate the missing sphere as he went to Monsuri, while Baldwin and Alette questioned his destination.

Severus and Lucius discussed how Niger’s planned refinery could disrupt France’s control of the CFA franc and destabilize Europe. Their conversation was interrupted when an alchemical scorpion fell from the dome, and they turned to consult Baldwin and Alette.

• Lucius explained that Niger’s planned refinery could let the country trade oil directly and weaken France’s influence over the CFA franc region.
• Severus questioned Lucius about the consequences for France, and Lucius predicted unrest spreading across Europe.
• A glass sphere fell from the dome and released a silver-white alchemical scorpion.
• Lucius tried Depulso and Severus tried Diffindo, but neither spell affected the scorpion.
• Severus immobilized the scorpion and, seeing the other spheres as possible eggs, lifted Muffliato so they could talk to Baldwin and Alette.

Severus investigated the mysteries surrounding the church, Napoleon, and the statue while considering the historical and political forces behind the clues. A spiral of cigarette smoke reminded Alette of an earlier ritual, and Severus weighed whether to use suspicious grease and a censer despite the danger of awakening the scorpions above.

• The chapter described France’s colonial exploitation of West Africa and the political pressures surrounding Europe, refugees, and the eurozone.
• Severus connected conflicting information about the church and Mr. Grey to Napoleon, the statue, and the memory of falling stars.
• Severus lit a cigarette, and its smoke spiraled upward before dispersing as Alette and Baldwin watched in surprise.
• Alette recalled that smoke from incense burners had spiraled when the SS moved away King of Rome’s remains.
• Severus considered lighting suspicious grease in his censer, warning Lucius and Baldwin that it might awaken the scorpions embedded in the dome.

Lucius, Severus, Alette, and Baldwin discussed a stolen libation dish and used incense in the Chamber of Secrets to reveal a vision. The vision showed a politician calling for a purge, and Lucius recognized him as a man whose words would help plunge Europe into war.

• The chapter discussed the 2004 Ukrainian election, the departure of talent from Ukraine, and the economic forces behind the American Dream.
• Lucius and Severus argued over whether Severus had made a decision, while Baldwin reported that a libation dish had been stolen from the Naples Museum.
• Alette offered to fetch frankincense, but Severus transfigured a golden rose into a censer and lit a piece of red fat.
• Smoke rose through the Chamber of Secrets and shattered a crystal ball, revealing a man calling for a severe purge of society's outcasts.
• Lucius recognized the man as a politician who was now imprisoned alongside the people he had denounced, and said Europe would be plunged into war.