Chapter Summaries

Abraxas searched for Tom after he left to travel, while Tom enjoyed making him wait and settled into a new life abroad. By 1948, Tom had become a professor at Ilvermorny and told his students about the handsome white peacock back home.

• Abraxas repeatedly questioned Carcattacus about Tom's whereabouts, disrupting his shop until he returned to Malfoy Manor without answers.
• Abraxas worried over Tom and rejected the possible explanations he imagined while waiting for news.
• Months later, Tom arrived by ship and planned to delay writing to Abraxas as a bit of revenge.
• In 1948, Tom became a professor at Ilvermorny, where his harsh teaching left students questioning their abilities.
• Tom told a student that the white peacock who was an Animagus was handsome and that he could not compare.

Tom read Keban’s letters about upheaval in Britain and grew suspicious of the platinum-haired Abraxas’s influence on the Ministry. Fawkes’s sudden arrival reminded him of Dumbledore’s years of harassment and his frustration with the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.

• Tom learned that Abraxas had helped reduce the Nott family’s status and send Randolph Nott to Azkaban.
• Tom read that Minister Wilhelmina Taft had died from an allergic reaction to fudge and that her son Ignatius Tuft had taken office.
• Tom suspected Abraxas was behind the Ministry’s turmoil and wondered what he was trying to accomplish.
• Fawkes suddenly appeared, prompting Tom to recall that Dumbledore had become Hogwarts headmaster after Armando resigned.
• Tom angrily blamed Dumbledore for using Fawkes to harass him and for driving away Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.

Tom refused Albus’s summons and stayed away from Britain because Olivia was pregnant, while Olivia’s health continued to fail. At Malfoy Manor, Olivia awaited her twin brother Leander as Abraxas prepared for his return.

• Tom blamed Albus for rumors about the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors and sent Fawkes away with an angry message.
• Tom decided not to return to Britain, despite knowing where Slytherin’s wand was buried, because Olivia was pregnant.
• Abraxas returned to the manor after his father went to Albania to seek rare potion ingredients for Olivia.
• Olivia told Abraxas that she had already stolen time from Death and joked about his unhappiness over Riddle’s absence.
• Olivia became excited when Abraxas said Leander would arrive soon and asked what dress she should wear to see her twin.

Olivia reminisced with her brother Leander at Malfoy Manor while Abraxas promised to help her make it home alive. Later, Tom pressed the goblin William for an explanation of the healing properties of Slytherin’s wand, and William began to explain its contradictions.

• Leander visited Olivia at Malfoy Manor and walked with her through the garden as she asked about their family and said she wanted to go home.
• Olivia asked Leander what he thought of Abraxas naming their child Lucius, and she reflected that Dumbledore was a half-blood and the greatest White Wizard.
• Leander carried the sleeping Olivia to her bedroom and begged Abraxas to ensure she made it home alive; Abraxas promised he would.
• Tom found William among a group of goblins and asked him why the snakewood wand had powerful healing properties.
• William said Slytherin was deeply contradictory and that Isolde, who was not a Parselmouth, could not awaken his wand.

Tom left Ilvermorny and set out through the damp forest, remembering that he could use the founders’ relics to bargain for a Hogwarts professorship. He encountered Brutus Malfoy, who recognized him and rushed to embrace him.

• Tom learned that the special wand was waiting for its true master, while the serpentwood tree was a legacy of Slytherin and would remain indestructible.
• William angrily threw mud at Tom and insisted that he was Tom’s grandfather and ancestor, telling him to return to Britain.
• Tom spoke with Ilvermorny’s headmaster, and the students later lamented the charming professor’s resignation.
• Tom found the golden cup in his trunk and decided he might collect all four founders’ relics, offering to return as a professor in exchange for the Sword of Gryffindor.
• Tom found Brutus Malfoy in the forest, and Brutus recognized him as Little Tom and charged forward to hug him.

Tom met Brutus Malfoy while searching for something in the jungle, and agreed to return with him to Malfoy Manor. In Surrey, Aileen Prince met Tobia Snape, but a sudden headache brought back her grandfather’s warning to leave and never return.

• Brutus embraced Tom enthusiastically, introduced himself, and asked him to call him Father.
• Tom apologized over Olivia’s condition, and Brutus reassured him before inviting him back to Malfoy Manor to see Abou.
• Tom accepted Brutus’s offer, and the two set off through the jungle to search for herbs.
• Tobia Snape approached Aileen Prince at an outdoor café and introduced himself.
• Aileen suffered a sudden headache, spilled coffee on her dress, and accepted Tobia’s offer to take her home.
• Aileen remembered her grandfather’s warning to leave and never return, along with her belief that she had failed House of Prince.

Tom recovered Ravenclaw's diadem and returned to Hogwarts, where Dumbledore tried to recruit him as a professor. Tom agreed to return in August, while hinting that he had his own reasons for staying and leaving Dumbledore irritated by their exchange.

• Tom found Ravenclaw's diadem in a hollow tree and told Brutus he needed to return to Hogwarts for something important.
• Brutus decided to return to his family and planned to visit Malfoy Manor to seek a way to delay Olivia's death.
• Dumbledore lamented his past choices to Fawkes, who suddenly turned to ashes and began rebirth.
• Tom met Dumbledore in the Headmaster's office, where Dumbledore offered him a teaching position and pressured him by mentioning the basilisk and Malfoy Manor.
• Tom agreed to return to Hogwarts in mid-August, then asked whether the Sword of Gryffindor was with the Sorting Hat and taunted Dumbledore when he confirmed it.

Tom entered the Chamber of Secrets with the basilisk, which led him to an ancient hidden room and claimed someone was inside. Before Tom could enter, he confronted Dumbledore, who had been following him.

• Tom brushed off Myrtle in the second-floor bathroom, and she fled into a toilet stall after he insulted her.
• Tom used the sink entrance to enter the Chamber of Secrets and summoned the basilisk with Salazar Slytherin's wand.
• The basilisk guided Tom through an old passage and explained that the crude writing on the walls had been left by young wizards.
• The basilisk revealed a hidden picture frame and told Tom that someone was inside.
• Tom refused to enter at once and accused Dumbledore of stalking him.

Tom and Dumbledore entered the portrait’s hidden space to meet Salazar Slytherin, who welcomed his descendant and questioned Dumbledore about Godric’s sword. The chapter ended with Salazar revealing he knew what had happened at the castle and objecting to the plan to make Tom create inferior Horcruxes.

• Dumbledore canceled his Disillusionment Charm and tried to accompany Tom into the portrait, but Tom rebuffed him.
• Tom and Dumbledore entered the space behind the frame and followed a pebble path through a forest to a wooden house.
• Salazar Slytherin opened the door after speaking in Parseltongue and welcomed Tom and Dumbledore inside.
• Salazar asked Dumbledore whether he had ever drawn Godric’s sword, embarrassing Dumbledore.
• Salazar revealed that he knew what had happened at the castle and thought it audacious to expect Tom to make inferior Horcruxes.

Salazar counseled Tom about his pride and dismissed Dumbledore before Tom asked whether a Horcrux could erase its side effects. Tom then returned to Abraxas, who welcomed him with an embrace and a kiss.

• Salazar urged Tom to cast off his inferiority and remember his pride, then sent Dumbledore to the Black Lake.
• Salazar told Tom that the squid would protect Dumbledore and that a Gryffindor would only teach him a lesson.
• Tom asked Salazar whether a Horcrux could erase its side effects so he could learn something, and Salazar left in exasperation.
• Tom returned from his dream to the Leaky Cauldron and traveled to Abraxas's bedroom using his cufflink.
• Abraxas ran to Tom, embraced him, and kissed him as Tom apologized and said he had returned.

Tom reflected on his encounter with Abraxas before Salazar explained why he had remained bound to Hogwarts and asked Tom to kill the basilisk. The basilisk accepted its end and asked Tom to take its fangs and skin and bury its body in the Forbidden Forest.

• Tom calmed himself with repeated Legilimency and went to find Salazar by the lakeshore.
• Salazar told Tom that the other founders had each sacrificed themselves to protect what they cherished, and that he had merged with Hogwarts.
• Salazar gave Tom his snakewood wand and told him to stay with the basilisk before asking him to kill it after leaving.
• Tom emerged from the Chamber of Secrets and found the basilisk coiled quietly, as it asked him to take its fangs and skin and bury its body in the Forbidden Forest.

Tom buried the basilisk in the Forbidden Forest, then rescued Dumbledore from the Black Lake and heard how Godric Gryffindor had beaten him. Godric began explaining his old conflict with Salazar and the dangers facing young wizards.

• Tom buried the basilisk in the Forbidden Forest and reflected on death and the friends he had lost.
• Tom found Dumbledore soaked and bruised at the Black Lake, dried him, and asked what had happened.
• Dumbledore recounted how Salazar sent him into the lake, where a giant squid dragged him to an underwater space and drained his magic.
• Godric Gryffindor confronted Dumbledore, criticized him for mistreating Salazar's descendant, and beat him before beginning to explain his past.
• Godric told Dumbledore that wizards had faced danger even after Hogwarts was founded, as some Muggle-born students fled home and tried to tell the church about magic.

Godric Gryffindor told Dumbledore how his trust led to Rowena’s death, the founders’ sacrifices, and his own binding himself to the Black Lake. After Salazar’s final mote of light vanished, Dumbledore returned to Tom and introduced Minerva McGonagall, whose childhood and family history he described.

• Godric explained that a Muggle-born wizard poisoned Rowena, prompting him to kill the traitor and deepening his rift with Salazar.
• Godric recounted how Salazar created the Chamber of Secrets, Helga sacrificed her soul in a magic array, and he bound himself to the Black Lake in his Animagus form.
• A golden mote of light reached Godric and faded after circling his wrist, and Godric wondered whether Salazar had left him alone again.
• Dumbledore told Tom that Godric was still alive, and Tom joked about throwing Dumbledore into the Black Lake to communicate with Gryffindor.
• Dumbledore introduced Minerva McGonagall and described her mother Isabelle Rose, her Muggle father Robert, and her early ability to command the family cat.
• Tom teased Dumbledore that Mrs. Cole had suspected him and cursed him, leaving Dumbledore dejected.

Tom returned from meeting Dumbledore and regrouped with his followers at The Hog's Head, where they discussed his plans and support among wizarding families. The gathering ended with Tom rejecting Radolphus's proposed title of Dark Lord and the name Death Eaters for his followers.

• Tom left Dumbledore's office after hinting that he might visit Bathilda Bagshot to learn about ancient history.
• Corban and the others waited at The Hog's Head while discussing the growing support for Tom and the resistance of old pure-blood families.
• Tom arrived, ordered his followers to sit down, and thanked them for waiting.
• Tom implied that becoming a professor at Hogwarts would help shape the wizarding world's future more effectively than going directly to the Ministry of Magic.
• Radolphus proposed calling Tom the Dark Lord and his followers Death Eaters, but Tom angrily forbade the title.

Tom returned to Riddle Manor and read his father's diary, learning about his father's earlier encounters with Merope Gaunt and his refusal to accept her and their child. He left the diary hidden away, feeling unexpectedly calmer.

• Tom erupted in anger when someone called him the Dark Lord, then left the bar under the weight of painful memories.
• Tom went to Riddle Manor in Little Hangleton and imagined the life he might have had if his father had accepted him.
• Tom found a diary in a hidden compartment in the study and read entries describing his father's past with Merope Gaunt.
• Tom learned that his father believed Merope had altered his thoughts and rejected her and the child she said she was carrying.
• Tom returned the diary to its compartment and felt more at ease as he reflected on people trapped in arranged marriages.

Tom returned to Malfoy Manor and reunited with Abraxas, then found Olivia gravely ill and used his wand to pour life force into her. The spell nearly exhausted him, and the chapter ended with Olivia’s condition still unresolved.

• Tom visited the grave of the person who shared his name before leaving for Wiltshire.
• Tom arrived at Malfoy Manor and embraced Abraxas, who welcomed him home.
• Tom asked Abraxas to take him to Olivia, whose health had declined as her due date approached.
• Olivia spoke briefly with Tom before losing consciousness again.
• Tom learned Olivia had been deteriorating for seven months and began a healing spell that filled her with life force.
• Tom froze Abraxas and Brutus when they tried to stop him, then halted the spell as his strength and magic nearly ran out.

Tom helped Olivia return to the Greengrass family and cared for her as her health improved, while he and Abraxas grew closer. Olivia unexpectedly went into labor, leaving Tom shaken by memories of his mother's death as Abraxas comforted him; the chapter ended before Lucius's birth.

• Tom explained that he could not stop Olivia's death and wanted her to return to the Greengrass family as their little princess.
• Tom and Abraxas spent the night together, and Abraxas woke late, realizing he had lost their bet and would have to prepare a dowry.
• Brutus teased Abraxas, then asked Tom to look after him and pleaded with Lucius not to grow up foolish.
• Olivia joked with Tom and enjoyed pastries before sudden pains revealed that she was going into labor.
• Tom panicked as Olivia's labor pains brought back memories of his mother dying after childbirth, and Abraxas held his hand and told him he loved him.

After Lucius was born, Abraxas and Brutus fussed over the baby while Tom became his godfather and gave him Slytherin’s locket. Tom then told Abraxas that he could not stay idle, despite having obtained what he wanted, as many of his followers had become heads of their houses.

• Tom stopped Brutus from rushing into Olivia’s room while they waited for Lucius to be born.
• Tom, Abraxas, and Brutus met newborn Lucius, but Olivia chased them out when their excitement made the baby cry.
• Brutus planned to buy Lucius the finest toys and supplies, while Tom agreed to be his godfather and gave him Slytherin’s locket.
• Abraxas asked what Tom planned to do, and Tom said he could not do nothing, noting that nearly half of the Sacred Twenty-Eight were now his followers.

Abraxas told Tom that the Prince family had hidden its traces, while Eileen struggled to conceal her magic from her Muggle husband, Tobia. Tobia discovered her using magic but pretended to sleep, and the chapter ended with Tom carrying Lucius while two eager Malfoys competed to hold him.

• Abraxas told Tom that the Prince family had concealed its whereabouts and that he could not confirm whether Scarber Prince was dead.
• Eileen struggled with cooking in the Muggle world and avoided telling Tobia that she was a witch.
• Eileen asked Tobia whether he believed in magic, and he reassured her that he would always love and protect her.
• Tobia saw Eileen use her wand to dry her hair, but he pretended to be asleep because he feared what magic might do.
• Tom carried Lucius through the garden and warned him not to grow up like the two Malfoys who rushed to hold him.

At a Malfoy family banquet, Tom and Abraxas presented a united front to the wizarding aristocrats while Tom reflected on protecting his family and the peace they had found. Olivia left with Leander, and months later he buried her.

• Rosier told Avery that Tom’s purge of old pure-blood family heads was a warning, and that they needed to stay in House of Malfoy’s good graces.
• Olivia left her sleeping son Luke with Tom and Abraxas, then accompanied Abraxas downstairs to the banquet.
• Tom carried Lucius through the gathering of family heads until Brutus asked him to take the tired child to rest.
• Tom put Lucius to bed, then joined Abraxas in the garden beside the Night Queen flowers and vowed to protect his loved ones.
• Olivia asked Leander to take her home, and several months later Leander buried his sister.