Recaps

Andy and Hermione killed the Basilisk, discovered Slytherin’s laboratory, and began translating its research on Magical Transformation. Meanwhile, Andy exposed Lockhart’s crimes, advanced his Patronus research, and watched Snape’s undercover mission grow more uncertain.

• Andy and Hermione entered the Chamber of Secrets, killed the Basilisk with a rooster and Fiendfyre, and stored half its remains for sale.
• Andy and Hermione found Slytherin’s hidden laboratory and discovered that its books and manuscripts concerned Magical Transformation.
• Andy learned that Snape had attacked Azkaban to gain Voldemort’s trust while preventing prisoners from escaping, and Snape warned Dumbledore that he could delay Voldemort for at most two years.
• Andy stunned Lockhart during class, then sent Rita Skeeter evidence that Lockhart had stolen other people’s stories using Memory Charms.
• Rita exposed Lockhart in the Daily Prophet, and Ministry Aurors arrested him after he tried to resist them with a spell.
• Andy sold half the Basilisk through his grandfather Norman and completed a paper on his improved Patronus Charm for Professor Flitwick.
• George and Fred told Andy that Harry and Ron planned to investigate Snape, while Andy wondered whether Snape’s injury was bait.
• Andy found that key documents and transformation results were missing from Slytherin’s research, leaving him unable to judge the methods’ side effects and unwilling to experiment on people.

Andy investigated Magical Transformation and the connection between magic, life, and emotion while his living Fat Cat Patronus brought him widespread attention. After Justin was attacked and drained of life force, Andy and Hermione suspected the Room of Requirement was involved, and Dumbledore and Snape began searching it for Voldemort’s hidden Dark Arts items.

• Andy studied Magical Transformation and told Snape that Voldemort preserved himself with Horcruxes, while Snape explained how Dark Arts Transformation used negative emotions to alter the body and mind.
• Andy demonstrated his living Fat Cat Patronus to Carl Carbone, whose article and the Daily Prophet coverage made Andy’s achievement famous at Hogwarts.
• Andy and Dumbledore discussed how magic, emotion, and life could produce magical beings, and Andy teased Snape by claiming all magical power came from love.
• Filch reported that Justin Fingle-Fletchley had been attacked, and George and Fred confessed that their Mrs. Norris prank had kept Filch away from the Halloween feast.
• Dumbledore and the professors found that Justin had lost much of his life force, while Flitwick warned that the attacker might strike again and Dumbledore ordered a search for Voldemort’s hidden Horcrux.
• Andy and Hermione suspected Justin had discovered a secret in the Room of Requirement, then told Snape how the room appeared on the Eighth Floor.
• Dumbledore summoned the Room of Requirement by asking for a place to hide things, and Snape wondered whether the attacker who had searched for Andy might be hidden there.

Andy and Hermione investigated the attacks and concluded that Voldemort’s Horcrux was manipulating students while seeking a way to escape Hogwarts. After the Horcrux offered Andy a bargain, Andy watched Ron’s strange nightly movements and discovered Harry following him through the castle.

• Dumbledore and Snape concluded that a student had taken Voldemort’s Horcrux, while Andy and Hermione searched for the hidden item and told Dumbledore they suspected it was responsible for the attacks.
• Andy revealed that he could speak Parseltongue and identified Harry as a Horcrux, then accepted Dumbledore’s plan to train Harry while keeping their investigation secret.
• Andy began preparing to become an Animagus and grew suspicious when Ron behaved strangely before a Ravenclaw student was found drained of life force near the abandoned Girls’ Bathroom.
• Dumbledore discovered that Ron had been placed under the Imperius Curse, and Andy and Hermione deduced that the Horcrux had used Ron to distract Andy and influence Harry.
• Andy tested the Imperius Curse on Hermione, while Voldemort’s Horcrux later sent Andy a letter offering Magical Transformation materials in exchange for help with a kidnapping.
• Andy told Dumbledore about the offer, and they reasoned that the Horcrux might be trying to uncover Harry’s secret before Christmas made it more desperate.
• Andy stunned Ron during a nighttime wander and questioned him under Veritaserum, learning Ron did not know who was controlling him.
• Andy watched Ron leave the next night and saw Harry follow him under his Invisibility Cloak, then realized Harry’s chase could alert Filch.

Andy destroyed Ravenclaw’s Diadem and Voldemort’s soul fragment, then focused on strengthening his magic and investigating the founders’ secrets. Over the Christmas holidays, he trained in Apparition and explored how ancient magical abilities and spellcasting worked.

• Andy followed Ron into the Forbidden Forest, exposed the Horcrux controlling him, and destroyed Ravenclaw’s Diadem with Fiendfyre while Harry fought through Voldemort’s attack to reach Ron.
• Dumbledore explained that Percy had been manipulated by the diadem, and Andy considered how Dumbledore guided people while pursuing new ways to strengthen his magic.
• Andy and Hermione practiced Combination Magic, explored Ravenclaw’s original study in the Room of Requirement, and began investigating her magical research and the limits of immortality.
• Snape accepted Andy’s gift of Basilisk blood and gave him his old Potions textbook, while Dumbledore and Snape discussed how to mislead Voldemort and obstruct his resurrection plans.
• Andy returned home, warned his family that Voldemort might still be alive, and received Apparition lessons from Helen, mastering long-distance Apparition by Christmas.
• Andy experimented with Apparition, learned to cast it faster, and tested whether it could evade snowballs before concluding that it transformed the body into an insubstantial phantom.
• Andy visited Madam Bathat, who explained how magical creature ancestry could pass on abilities and described the difficult wandless spellcasting of Ancient Greece.