Chapter Summaries

Draco Malfoy defeated Mike in the losers' bracket match, but Mike surrendered after Draco deliberately spared him when he fell. The match ended with the two recognizing each other's qualities and Draco saying Slytherin had changed.

• Madam Pomfrey examined Draco Malfoy, healed his minor injuries, and ordered him to visit the infirmary after the match.
• Jordan started the losers' bracket match between Draco Malfoy and Mike, who traded taunts as the arena transformed into a dense forest.
• Mike's fast spell struck Draco Malfoy's robe, and Snape recognized Draco's defensive posture as a move associated with Voldemort.
• Draco Malfoy gained the upper hand with attacks from his robe, but when Mike tripped, Draco dispersed the spikes instead of striking him.
• Mike surrendered, saying Draco had held back, and the two exchanged apologies and comments about Slytherin and what it meant to be a gentleman.

Harry and Hermione faced off in the dueling tournament on a storm-tossed ship, where Hermione confronted Harry about treating her as a friend and proved her skill in battle. The fight continued with Hermione concealed atop the ship’s mast, while Mu En revealed her position to the spectators.

• Draco Malfoy bet one Galleon on Harry with Fred and George as the duel’s arena transformed into a rough sea and a battered sailing ship.
• Harry recognized the ship from a vision he had experienced at Christmas, while Mu En confirmed it was his ship.
• Hermione asked Harry whether he looked down on her and reminded him that they were friends; Harry recalled her support and reconsidered their friendship.
• Hermione struck Harry with lightning, but he used a Shield Charm to redirect it toward her, and she dodged beneath the mast before vanishing into fog with a Disillusionment Charm.
• Harry used an Exploding Charm against the mast, then noticed signs of static electricity and water as Hermione’s wind and lightning filled the field.
• Mu En connected to the Transfiguration formation and revealed Hermione atop the foremost mast, where she had positioned herself using Levitation and Weather Charms.

Harry won the second-year dueling tournament after Hermione conceded, and he received the Second-year Gold Belt while Draco placed third. Hermione confronted Harry about keeping his troubles from her, leaving their friendship strained as she questioned whether she could help him.

• Hermione used an Aguamenti charm to evade Harry's Flame Serpent, but accused him of holding back and conceded the final.
• Mu En awarded Harry the Second-year Gold Belt and an undiluted Rage Potion, while Professor Flitwick gave Hermione a vial of Felix Felicis and Snape praised Draco.
• After the ceremony, Harry searched for Hermione and caught up with her outside the castle.
• Hermione asked Harry whether they were friends and told him she wanted to help carry his burdens, but feared her loss proved she could not.

Harry apologized to Hermione for excluding her from dangerous plans, and they agreed to face risks together as friends. As the school year approached its end, Harry, Hermione, and Draco prepared for Harry to attempt becoming an Animagus in the rain, with Hermione and Draco accompanying him.

• Harry apologized to Hermione for shutting her out, and she said she wanted to share the dangers and help him as a friend.
• Hermione agreed to learn the Patronus Charm, while Jemma Farley won the dueling contest and Hellenred claimed the seventh-year title.
• Harry caught the Snitch in a private match, and Slytherin defeated Gryffindor; McCleary and Wood shook hands as Colin photographed them.
• As revision intensified, Harry, Hermione, and Draco went out in the rain for Harry's Animagus attempt, and Draco said he simply liked getting rained on.

At the Hog's Head Inn, Dumbledore agreed to let Ariana's Enchanted Painting stay with Ab Foras, easing some of his regret. When Nagini revealed that her old illness seemed to be returning, she refused Dumbledore's offer to examine her mind and asked Mu En not to spend more time on her.

• Harry, Draco Malfoy, and their companion headed toward the Forbidden Forest as rain fell.
• Ab Foras urged Dumbledore to let Ariana's Enchanted Painting leave his side and make friends.
• Dumbledore agreed that Ariana could stay with Ab Foras and told her she was free to speak with others.
• Nagini told Mu En and Dumbledore that her old illness seemed to be returning, and Mu En found that her venom glands were developing.
• Dumbledore asked to examine Nagini's mind, but she refused and told Mu En he did not need to trouble himself over her anymore.

Mu En left to investigate the Forbidden Forest as Harry prepared to become an Animagus during a storm. Thestrals gathered around Harry, drawn by the old Thestral heartstring inside him, while his transformation began.

• Mu En told Dumbledore that Nagini’s blood curse could be managed but had no known permanent cure, and Dumbledore said Nagini seemed to be hiding something.
• Mu En flew toward the Forbidden Forest as Dumbledore returned to the castle to keep his promise to Ariana.
• Harry retrieved his blood-red Animagus potion and went with Hermione and Draco to the clearing near Norbert’s territory.
• As lightning flashed, Harry recited the Animagus incantation and drank the potion.
• Draco and Hermione noticed movement in the dark, and Hermione realized Thestrals had come for the old Thestral heartstring inside Harry.

Harry completed his Animagus transformation and discovered he had become a black cat, while Mu En explained the limits of magic in Animagus form and the Thestrals’ apparent connection to him. The chapter ended with Snape learning Harry’s form and privately reflecting that Harry seemed to have taken Mu En as a father figure.

• Harry transformed into a black cat as the Thestrals surrounded him, and Hermione recognized him while Mu En explained that he could not yet cast spells in animal form.
• Harry sensed that he could communicate with the Thestrals, and Mu En sent the herd away before wondering whether Animagi could communicate with similar creatures.
• Professor McGonagall told Mu En that some Animagi could communicate with animals, then eagerly planned to see Harry’s black cat form.
• In Potions class, Harry explained Lily’s faster method for brewing the potion, and Snape awarded Slytherin five points before assigning Harry detention.
• Harry told Snape that his Animagus form was a black cat, and Snape dismissed him before privately remarking that Harry seemed to have taken someone else as his father.

Harry celebrated his team’s Quidditch victory, received a new black cat mask from Fred and George, and showed Mu En his progress with the Patronus Charm. Mu En said the upcoming OWLs and NEWTs would draw the Ministry’s attention and that Harry’s operation needed to begin.

• Harry’s team defeated Ravenclaw and finished third in the Quidditch season.
• Fred and George surprised Harry with a black cat mask they had made, then told him they knew about his visits to the Hog’s Head Inn.
• Harry returned the mask to Hermione, and the group continued practicing magic.
• Harry cast a weak, unstable silver cat Patronus for Mu En, who said his progress was good for someone who had never faced a Dementor.
• Mu En told Harry that the upcoming OWLs and NEWTs would focus the Ministry’s attention on Hogwarts and that their operation had to begin.

As Hogwarts students worried about their exams, Professor Griselda Marchbanks arrived to discuss the Defense Against the Dark Arts examination with Mu En Jones. Mu En asked for practical work to carry more weight and for the exam to be harder, leaving Marchbanks stunned.

• Garrard asked Harry how he managed to revise so much, and Harry gave him the Energy Potion instructions to share with the Slytherins.
• Hermione worried about the importance of exams while Draco Malfoy claimed that connections could matter to the Wizarding World Examinations Authority.
• The students spotted Professor Marchbanks’s carriage arriving and moved closer to watch the Hogwarts staff greet her.
• Dumbledore introduced Mu En Jones to Marchbanks, who recalled examining Dumbledore for his NEWTs.
• Mu En asked Marchbanks to emphasize practical work and increase the difficulty of the Defense Against the Dark Arts examination.

Muen confronted Ministry official Wilbert Slinka over restrictions on teaching practical defense, then used a show of force to win his agreement. After the officials finalized the examination arrangements at Hogwarts, Muen told the students that their OWLs would last two weeks and be unusually difficult.

• Wilbert Slinka objected to Muen's teaching methods and insisted that the Ministry's Department of Magical Education had to approve teaching materials.
• Muen dismissed Slinka's claims that the Wizarding World was at peace and said he cared about preparing students for the coming crisis.
• Professor Marchbanks greeted Neville and the other young wizards while the professors gathered at the castle gates.
• Muen briefly intimidated Slinka by asking what he would do if Muen himself were the crisis, and Slinka conceded that Muen's proposal was reasonable.
• Dumbledore led the group inside to discuss the examination details, and officials and professors spent the next day or two finalizing them.
• Muen announced that the OWLs would run for two weeks, with written exams in the mornings and practical exams in the afternoons, except for Astronomy, which would take place at night.

Mu En read Scrimgeour’s report on the Ministry and trade agreement, then finished Harry’s snake staff and discussed Harry’s planned operation. Harry left with Mu En’s support, revealing that he and Hermione and Draco Malfoy would go with a dragon, a Thestral, and a thousand-year-old Basilisk.

• Cendrillon delivered Scrimgeour’s letter, which said he was urging an internal review of the Ministry’s Department of Magical Education.
• Mu En read a report about Fudge’s trade agreement with the United States Magical Congress and sent Scrimgeour a recommendation for Loreton.
• Harry showed Mu En the snake staff he had made, and Mu En enchanted it and explained its properties.
• Harry told Mu En that he planned to set out with Hermione and Draco Malfoy, keeping the operation from Neville, Ron, and others for now.
• Mu En told Harry to trust his decision, and Harry added that a dragon, a Thestral, and a thousand-year-old Basilisk would accompany them.

During Hogwarts exams, Harry, Hermione, and Draco traveled across the North Sea toward an isolated island while Mu En refused to monitor their journey. The trio reached the island at evening, but their mission there had not yet begun.

• Dumbledore told Mu En that Fudge would visit Hogwarts during the weekend, and Fudge later arrived with Rita from the Daily Prophet to cover the exams.
• Black Cat, Orange Cat, and Draco traveled through the Hog's Head Inn fireplace to Pirrovol, where Draco asked Ab Foras for a drink before departing.
• Harry summoned Norbert and a Thestral, then flew with Hermione toward the North Sea while Draco followed on the Thestral and insisted he would support them from outside.
• Mu En refused Rita's request to interview Harry and told Lucifer he would not watch the students, though he remained sure Harry would survive.
• After a long flight through the cold, Harry pointed out an isolated island below, and the group began descending toward it.

Harry infiltrated Azkaban to investigate its wards and find Sirius Black, while Hermione and Draco tested the island’s defenses from above. He reached the inner section and found Sirius imprisoned there, but the chapter ended before Harry approached him.

• Harry, Hermione, and Draco calibrated their Gold Coins, then Harry used the Basilisk to reach Azkaban’s wooded cliffs while Hermione and Draco tested the island’s anti-air wards with enchanted birds.
• Harry climbed the cliff as a black cat, and a new Hit Wizard shift arrived by boat, exchanged protective badges, and discussed Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange.
• Harry’s Gold Coin linked successfully with the others, but a Dementor appeared, forcing him to escape through the trees before following the Hit Wizards into Azkaban.
• Harry watched the Hit Wizards distribute magically duplicated porridge to prisoners in the outer cells, then followed them into the ruined inner section.
• An Auror taunted Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius Black while serving them porridge, and Harry recognized Sirius’s name and moved toward his cell.

Harry infiltrated the manor to confront Sirius Black and investigate the claim that he killed Harry’s parents, then destroyed the anti-air ward and triggered a response from Azkaban. Hermione and Draco moved to support him as the Hit Wizards mobilized, and Draco drew the pursuing attackers into an explosive aerial fight.

• Harry found Sirius Black in his cell, demanded the truth about the Potters, and left after Sirius admitted that he had killed them, though Harry suspected the man was grieving and the case still had unanswered questions.
• Harry searched the manor for the anti-air ward’s core, while a Dementor’s report about a black four-legged animal alerted the Hit Wizards to possible intruders.
• Harry slipped into the ward chamber, fought two Hit Wizards, and destroyed the ward before escaping as the squad captain sent out an alarm.
• Hermione and Draco received warnings that the ward had been broken and Harry was in trouble, so Hermione flew down to support him while Draco prepared to distract the incoming Hit Wizards.
• Draco used enlarged sparrows to disrupt the Hit Wizards’ formation, then turned to face his pursuers on a Thestral and made the birds explode with Bombarda.

Harry and his allies attacked Azkaban to free Sirius Black, while Hermione fought off the Dementors and Draco Malfoy confronted his aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange. Hermione escaped with a fully formed Patronus, Harry prepared to fight the Hit Wizards, and Draco left Bellatrix alive but warned her to stay imprisoned.

• Harry blasted open Sirius Black's cell, bound him, and pulled him out as the Hit Wizards rushed in.
• Hermione’s Patronus failed at first, but memories of meeting Harry helped her summon a solid otter Patronus that cleared a path for her and Norbert to escape the Dementors.
• Draco Malfoy kicked a Hit Wizard from his broom, was hit by an Exploding Charm, and survived after Harry caught him with a spell.
• Harry summoned the Basilisk and tried to drive off the Hit Wizards, then spread flames across the ground and challenged them to fight.
• Draco learned that Bellatrix Lestrange, his aunt, had tortured the Longbottoms; he grabbed her through the bars but released her and warned that a friend would get her if she ever escaped.

Harry, Hermione, and Draco rescued Sirius Black from Azkaban and brought him to Hogwarts, where Dumbledore and Uncle Mu En questioned him. Sirius revealed how Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Potters, then learned Harry was James’s son and that Pettigrew was already dead.

• Harry used Norbert and a Thestral to help extract Sirius Black from Azkaban while a prisoner escaped on a broom and Harry blasted him from the sky.
• Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Sirius reached Hogwarts before dawn, where Sirius was locked in a prepared cell and Harry sent word that they had returned safely.
• Dumbledore and Uncle Mu En arrived, lifted Sirius’s Tongue-Tying Curse, and asked why he feared Hogwarts and why he had admitted to killing the Potters.
• Sirius explained that he had persuaded James to make Peter Pettigrew the Potters’ Secret Keeper while claiming publicly that he held the secret himself.
• Harry told Sirius that Pettigrew had died shortly before Christmas, then revealed his identity by removing his mask and showing his lightning-shaped scar.
• Sirius recognized Harry as James’s son and learned that the changed Hogwarts had Snape as Head of Slytherin and Harry as an outstanding Slytherin student.

Harry learned that Sirius Black was his father’s friend and that he had been sorted into Slytherin, while Dumbledore arranged for them to rest. Fudge confronted Mu En at Hogwarts over suspected ties to the Moonlight Pirates, but Mu En rejected the accusations and left the Minister humiliated before the students.

• Harry told Sirius Black he was in Slytherin, then asked Dumbledore about Sirius and his father before Dumbledore sent everyone to rest.
• Dumbledore warned Mu En that Fudge was likely to focus on him, and Mu En said there was no evidence to arrest him.
• Fudge and Kingsley met Mu En in his office, where Fudge accused him of links to the Moonlight Pirates, citing his title of Captain, the duelling tournament, a Basilisk, and Parseltongue.
• Mu En explained why he used the title Captain, dismissed Fudge’s accusations, and challenged him to produce evidence before arresting him.
• Mu En’s presence drew a crowd of students outside the office, who mocked Umbridge as she cursed at them.
• Fudge hurried out of the office, accidentally kicked Umbridge, and awkwardly greeted the students.

Harry visited Sirius Black and learned about Sirius’s school days with James, Lupin, and Peter, including their history with Snape. Sirius admitted that James and his friends had bullied Snape, then revealed that Snape had liked Harry’s mother, Lily.

• Fudge grew furious as the Wizarding World questioned how prisoners escaped Azkaban after his supposed security changes.
• Harry brought food to Sirius Black and asked him about Snape’s history with James and their friends.
• Sirius explained how the Marauders became Animagi to accompany Lupin during his transformations and created a map of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.
• Sirius described how he misled Snape into entering the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, where James saved Snape from Lupin.
• Sirius admitted that James and the others had bullied Snape, and Harry refused to judge the old conflict from only Sirius’s account.
• Sirius told Harry that Snape had liked Lily, leaving Harry stunned.

Sirius Black took Harry on a walk through Hogwarts, where they encountered Hermione, the Weasley boys, Draco, and Neville. After seeing the children’s unusual maturity, Sirius wondered what had shaped them, then asked Harry to tell him about his life and revealed that he was Harry’s godfather.

• Sirius Black transformed into a dog and walked with Harry, who agreed to challenge Hellenred in the Exhibition Match.
• Hermione mentioned her own planned challenges, and the Weasley boys told Harry that rumors about him and Hermione had spread while students challenged her.
• Harry learned Draco was apologizing to Neville over his aunt, and Neville forgave him while explaining that he considered Draco a friend.
• Sirius watched Draco and Neville make peace and suspected that someone had placed undue pressure on the students.
• At the Black Lake, Sirius returned to human form, asked Harry about his life at Hogwarts, and revealed that he was Harry’s godfather.

Harry told Sirius Black about his bleak childhood and explained that his life had improved through his magical apprenticeship with Mr. Jones. Meanwhile, Mu'en advised Dumbledore against appointing Hagrid as the next Magical Creatures Protection professor, and Lupin reunited with Harry after coming to Hogwarts to help protect him.

• Harry described how his aunt's family had mistreated him, and Sirius Black invited him to live at his home, but Harry explained that Dumbledore required him to stay with his aunt until he came of age.
• Harry told Sirius Black that he now spent his days with Mr. Jones as his magical apprentice, and Sirius recognized this as the source of Harry's maturity.
• Dumbledore asked Mu'en and the other professors whether Mu'en could continue teaching and discussed finding a replacement for Celticburn as Magical Creatures Protection professor.
• Mu'en warned Dumbledore that Hagrid's approach to Magical Creatures would clash with ordinary wizards and hurt both him and his students, so Dumbledore dropped the idea.
• After his final exam, Harry went to the fifth floor and reunited with Lupin, who had contacted Dumbledore and come to help because rumors claimed Sirius Black would target Harry.