Chapter Summaries

Li Weide stalled Grindelwald while trying to protect his allies, but escaped after Grindelwald used Tom as a hostage. Tom appeared to die after detonating Sleeping Potion Dungbombs, and Grindelwald invited Li Weide to join his side.

• Li Weide provoked Grindelwald and used Nightmare Magic and Felix Felicis to evade his attacks while buying time for Dumbledore to return.
• Grindelwald seized Tom and threatened to kill him unless Li Weide surrendered his wand.
• Li Weide pretended to choose Tom's safety, then vanished with an Ancient Magic-enhanced Disillusionment Charm after promising him a grand funeral.
• Tom detonated two Sleeping Potion Dungbombs while clinging to Grindelwald, who mistook the potion for poison and shoved Tom away.
• Tom collapsed after the potion took effect, and Grindelwald believed he had sacrificed himself to protect Li Weide.
• Li Weide reappeared and revealed that Tom's apparent death was caused by a fake-death potion, while Grindelwald invited him to join his camp.

Li Weide blamed Grindelwald for Tom’s apparent death and refused to join him, buying time until Dumbledore returned with a phoenix. After Dumbledore confronted Grindelwald, Li Weide secretly revived Tom, revealing that the supposed poison gas had only been sleeping powder.

• Annie watched Li Weide refuse Grindelwald’s offer and wondered whether Tom had sacrificed himself because he and Li Weide shared a resolve never to surrender.
• Li Weide accused Grindelwald of causing Tom’s death, then challenged him again while claiming he would never stand aside for a Dark Lord.
• Dumbledore arrived at the hidden passage with a phoenix and held Grindelwald responsible for Tom’s apparent death.
• Li Weide secretly applied ointment beneath Tom’s nose, and Tom woke up retching and complaining about the smell.
• Li Weide told Tom through a Whispering Charm that the gas had only been sleeping powder, and Tom pretended his head still hurt.

Li Weide and Tom concealed their use of poison by claiming they had used a sedative, while Dumbledore and Grindelwald fought in the Chamber of Secrets. Dumbledore gained the upper hand, and Grindelwald refused to surrender, insisting that no one could judge him.

• Li Weide told Dumbledore that he and Tom had planned to drug trolls with Slughorn’s sedative, and Dumbledore sent the boys aside before confronting Grindelwald again.
• Dumbledore and Grindelwald resumed their duel, while Li Weide helped Tom and Annie take shelter and gave Tom an antidote.
• The duel escalated into powerful spells and Transfiguration, forcing Li Weide to move Tom and Annie farther away, near the metal sphere and the unconscious Vita.
• Grindelwald realized that Dumbledore had become far stronger than expected, even with the Elder Wand.
• Dumbledore urged Grindelwald to surrender, but Grindelwald refused and declared that no one could judge him.

Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald and took the Elder Wand, but Grindelwald escaped after claiming he would fulfill his prophecy and reclaim it. In the aftermath, Li Weide looted and restrained the unconscious Followers of Grindelwald, then helped Headmaster Dippet awaken so he could treat the other professors.

• Dumbledore overwhelmed Grindelwald's fiery bat, caught the Elder Wand, and urged him to abandon his prophecy.
• Grindelwald insisted his vision would come true, attacked Dumbledore with a shadowy creature, and escaped while Dumbledore pursued him.
• Annie discovered that Vinda Rosier had disappeared, while Li Weide teased Tom about talking too much and began looting the unconscious Followers of Grindelwald.
• Li Weide tied up the Followers, then used a spell he knew from the Somnolence Family's library to awaken Headmaster Dippet.
• Headmaster Dippet learned that Dumbledore had defeated Grindelwald but was pursuing him, then rose to treat the other professors.

Li Weide, Tom, and Annie explained how they helped capture Grindelwald’s followers and summon Dumbledore, and Headmaster Dippet decided they would not be expelled despite breaking over a hundred school rules. Grindelwald escaped with Vita and planned to rebuild his forces in America, while Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts and considered giving the students a Special Contribution Award.

• Li Weide told the professors that he and his friends had discovered hidden magical power, captured Grindelwald’s followers with Sleeping Potion Dungbombs, and summoned Dumbledore.
• Headmaster Dippet spared Li Weide, Tom, and Annie from expulsion, assigned their punishment to Professor Slughorn, and led the professors into the Chamber of Secrets to inspect the metal sphere.
• Professor Slughorn sent the exhausted students to the Hospital Wing, where they were examined and spent the night sleeping.
• Grindelwald escaped with Vita and told her to lie low, move their remaining forces to America, and plan to rescue their captured followers.
• Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts, where Theseus Scamander took the captured followers away, and Dippet told Dumbledore he would not expel the students and might award them for their service.

Li Weide, Tom, and Annie recovered after Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald and escaped with his followers captured. Dumbledore explained the danger of the magical power, rewarded the students, and agreed to conceal their role, while Grindelwald remained at Nurmengard questioning Dumbledore’s sudden strength.

• Dumbledore thanked Li Weide and Tom for thwarting Grindelwald, revoked their punishment, and awarded them Special Contribution Awards.
• Dumbledore said Headmaster Dippet had destroyed the magical power because absorbing too much of it could warp a wizard’s character.
• Li Weide and Tom agreed with Dumbledore to keep their role in Grindelwald’s defeat secret to protect themselves from his supporters.
• At Nurmengard, Vita reported on their forces and Dumbledore’s movements, and Grindelwald refused to expose the students’ hidden achievements.
• Grindelwald wondered why Dumbledore had become so powerful despite apparently doing nothing to pursue the Deathly Hallows.

After Grindelwald’s defeat, his influence dwindled while Li Weide, Tom, and Annie finished the Marauder’s Map. Li Weide argued that Grindelwald’s revolution could never succeed without a coherent ideological program, leaving Annie to consider his criticism.

• Grindelwald lamented his defeat to Vita, who tried to restore his confidence as he withdrew to be alone.
• The Wizarding World celebrated Dumbledore’s victory, and Li Weide, Tom, and Annie gained prestige at Hogwarts for capturing Grindelwald’s followers.
• Annie felt guilty about Grindelwald’s losses and worried that she could no longer persuade Li Weide and Tom to join him.
• Li Weide and Tom completed the Marauder’s Map, which displayed Hogwarts residents and their movements.
• Li Weide guessed that Vinda Rosier was Annie’s aunt and reassured Annie that her family would not be blamed for Vinda’s allegiance.
• Li Weide told Annie that Grindelwald could not win because he had no published ideological program to unite the Wizarding World.

Li Weide explained to Annie why Grindelwald’s movement lacked popular support and how it could recover through political reform, leaving Tom suspicious of Li Weide’s motives. Annie departed shaken by the realization that her aunt and Grindelwald’s followers pursued personal interests, while Tom challenged Li Weide’s claim to be a good person.

• Li Weide told Annie that Grindelwald had failed to spread his ideas systematically and had offered ordinary wizards no immediate benefits.
• Li Weide argued that Grindelwald’s followers pursued personal desires rather than shared ideals, and Annie realized Vinda Rosier had joined to advance the Rosier Family.
• Tom considered how Grindelwald might have gained support by first proposing policies that benefited ordinary wizards.
• Annie admitted that Grindelwald seemed unlikely to succeed, and Li Weide suggested he could recover by blaming scapegoats, entering politics, and winning public support through beneficial policies.
• After Annie left, Tom accused Li Weide of deliberately letting her extract information and doubted his claim to be a good person.

Li Weide’s advice reached Grindelwald, who chose not to rescue his captured Followers and believed their deaths would advance his cause. The next morning, Li Weide learned that twenty-five Followers had been sentenced, and his Merit Points had risen by 50,000.

• Li Weide told Tom he had passed advice to Grindelwald through Annie and would wait to see whether Grindelwald acted on it.
• Li Weide and Tom traveled home on the Hogwarts Express with their friends, while Annie remained unusually quiet and dejected.
• At Nurmengard, Vita told Grindelwald that Olive and the other Followers faced trial, but Grindelwald refused to attempt a rescue and said the people would remember them.
• After Vita left, Grindelwald privately admitted that the convictions would make him safer and said he would remember the condemned Followers.
• Li Weide saw that his Merit Points had increased by 50,000 and read in the Daily Prophet that five Followers received life imprisonment while twenty were given the Dementor’s Kiss.

Li Weide spent Merit Points to upgrade his system shop, while Grindelwald revealed that he had engineered his followers’ deaths to clear himself of past crimes. Grindelwald planned to turn himself in for a trial, and Li Weide discovered the upgraded shop’s improved midnight selection.

• Tom watched Li Weide hurry back to his room and worried that without Toby, he might have to do the housework himself.
• Li Weide spent twenty thousand Merit Points to upgrade the system, unlocking four shop slots and anticipating better products.
• At Nurmengard, Grindelwald told Vita that a juror who exposed his followers’ crimes was secretly one of his own and that he had arranged for the followers to take the blame.
• Grindelwald said he would turn himself in and face a trial, while ordering Vita to remain at Nurmengard until it was over.
• At midnight, Li Weide opened the upgraded shop and found Phoenix Tears, a Unicorn Horn, a Flying Charm, and Magical Creature Affinity.

Li Weide bought the Flying Charm and Magical Creature Affinity, then tested his new talent on Tom Cat and discovered that the cat could write and use magic. He told Tom about the cat’s abilities and offered to test his newly acquired flying spell on him.

• Li Weide spent Merit Points on the Flying Charm and Magical Creature Affinity, and the spell manuscript appeared with his name as its inventor.
• Li Weide read the manuscript and gained an uncanny sense that he had personally researched and written the Flying Charm.
• Li Weide tested his creature affinity on Tom Cat, who sniffed him and wrote, “Master! You smell so good!”
• Li Weide accused Tom Cat of hiding his intelligence and magic, then assigned him some of Toby’s work.
• Li Weide explained Tom Cat’s magical writing to Tom, who worried about the cat’s powers and accused Li Weide of becoming the real menace.
• Li Weide offered to test the Flying Charm on Tom, who protested that Li Weide was risking his life instead.

Li Weide tested a new broomless Flying Charm and showed that he could fly quickly while casting spells. Tom regretted refusing to learn it, but Li Weide tricked him into taking off without teaching him how to land and flew him like a kite.

• Li Weide recruited Toby to help test his Flying Charm, while Tom followed to watch him fall.
• At a secluded lake, Li Weide used an old wand to fly inside black mist and cast spells accurately while airborne.
• Tom asked to learn the spell, and Li Weide taught it to him after teasing him.
• Li Weide tied a rope around Tom, then made him recite the takeoff incantation without teaching him how to land.
• Tom shot into the air, and Li Weide ran along the lakeshore while holding the rope like a kite string.

Tom practiced Li Weide’s Flying Magic and received a Ministry warning after the spell was detected, then feared expulsion when a second letter arrived. Dumbledore examined their wands and discovered Li Weide had developed the spell, leaving open the possibility that Tom’s punishment could be overturned while Li Weide earned an award.

• Li Weide kept Tom floating in the air to test his Flying Magic, and Tom learned his flight limit before plunging into a lake.
• Tom received a warning from Narl Gabriel for using magic outside school, then realized the Ministry might have detected further spells and expelled him.
• Toby offered to take the blame, but Dumbledore checked the wands Tom and Li Weide had used.
• Dumbledore’s Prior Incantato revealed Li Weide’s Flying Charm and prompted him to suggest that Tom’s expulsion could be rescinded and Li Weide might win an award.
• Tom realized Li Weide had used him as a stepping stone to showcase his new spell.

Li Weide taught Tom how to block the Trace and revealed Flying Magic to Dumbledore, who took the research to the Ministry of Magic. Tom guessed that Li Weide planned to use the spell to gain influence over Grindelwald’s followers and ultimately replace Grindelwald, and Li Weide unexpectedly agreed.

• Li Weide explained Flying Magic to Dumbledore, who took the research and practice wands to negotiate on Tom’s behalf and warned them to keep the spell secret.
• Tom refused Li Weide’s spare wands and admitted he was afraid to practice magic until he learned how to block the Trace.
• Li Weide taught Tom to shield the Trace by interfering with its identifying signal, and Tom quickly learned the method.
• Tom selected separate wands for ordinary practice and Dark Arts, then asked why Li Weide had revealed Flying Magic to Dumbledore.
• Li Weide teased Tom into guessing his purpose, and Tom concluded that Li Weide intended to rise within Grindelwald’s movement and eventually replace Grindelwald.
• Li Weide solemnly told Tom that his theory was exactly right.

Li Weide explained to Tom why lasting power depended on allies and institutions, while keeping his true reason for retaining Tom secret. After the Ministry rescinded Tom’s expulsion and the Flying Charm drew public attention, Grindelwald appeared to surrender, but Dumbledore suspected a scheme as Grindelwald demanded a public trial to clear his name.

• Li Weide told Tom that great power alone could not sustain an order, and said enemies could become friends when cooperation benefited both sides.
• Tom questioned why Li Weide kept him around, while Li Weide privately thought of him as a source of Merit Points and left without explaining further.
• The Ministry of Magic rescinded Tom’s expulsion, and the Daily Prophet reported Li Weide’s Flying Charm as the Ministry debated how to regulate it.
• The Daily Prophet announced that Grindelwald had surrendered, prompting public celebration and Dumbledore’s suspicion that his old friend had another plan.
• Grindelwald turned himself in to the Austrian Ministry of Magic, held a press conference, and claimed he had come to correct misunderstandings and face a trial to prove his innocence.

Dumbledore discovered that Grindelwald’s five imprisoned Followers had all gone mad, leaving no witnesses to testify against him at his public trial. At the Safe House, Li Weide told Tom that Grindelwald could likely escape serious charges and hinted that he knew how to undermine the whitewashing, while Tom’s guesses about his role earned him a raised wand.

• Dumbledore visited Azkaban and found that Grindelwald’s five Followers had gone mad, apparently eliminating the witnesses who could prove Grindelwald’s crimes.
• Dumbledore warned Minister Fawley that Grindelwald might clear himself at trial, and Fawley realized his decision to prosecute the Followers had helped remove the witnesses.
• Dumbledore told Fawley that Grindelwald intended to change his identity and methods and continue opposing them through legal means.
• At the Safe House, Tom recognized that Grindelwald’s political strategy matched Li Weide’s earlier predictions, while Li Weide denied teaching Grindelwald anything.
• Li Weide told Tom that Grindelwald would probably escape serious punishment and said he knew ways to turn the whitewashing into a farce, but Dumbledore’s allies would not use them.
• Tom named Li Weide as the person who could outscheme Grindelwald, and Li Weide drew his wand and threatened to use memory-restoration techniques to correct Tom’s thinking.

Grindelwald traveled to a public trial in the United States, insisting that he was innocent of the most serious charges while President Picquery realized the evidence against him was weak. After Dumbledore warned Li Weide and Tom to stay home, Li Weide proposed going to the trial, and Tom fled to avoid the danger.

• President Picquery escorted Grindelwald in chains and accused him of murdering Graves, but Grindelwald admitted only to impersonating Graves and denied the murder.
• President Picquery recognized that dead followers and weak evidence made it difficult to convict Grindelwald of the serious crimes.
• At the Safe House, Tom worried that powerful people might plot against Grindelwald, while Li Weide explained that Grindelwald could turn such a plot into proof that he was being framed.
• Fawkes delivered Dumbledore’s letter warning Li Weide and Tom not to leave the house because Grindelwald might escape conviction.
• Li Weide suggested that he and Tom visit the public trial in the United States, and Tom said goodbye before running off.

Li Weide persuaded Tom to accompany him to Grindelwald’s public trial, and Dumbledore brought them to the Magical Congress of the United States. There, Dumbledore learned that President Picquery planned a risky operation against Grindelwald, but he warned that Grindelwald might have anticipated it.

• Tom tried to avoid going with Li Weide, but Dumbledore agreed to let them attend the trial and came to collect them himself.
• Dumbledore warned Li Weide and Tom to stay beside him, then took them through the Floo Network to the Magical Congress of the United States.
• Dumbledore explained that Grindelwald’s public trial would take place at the Grand Court and that many wizards had gathered to attend.
• President Picquery showed Dumbledore a plan to stop Grindelwald from escaping conviction, but Dumbledore warned that Grindelwald might have planned for it.
• President Picquery asked Dumbledore not to reveal the plan, and he assured her that she could trust him.

Dumbledore realized President Picquery’s distrust had left him unable to intervene openly in her scheme against Grindelwald, so he disguised himself and visited Grindelwald in the dungeon. Grindelwald offered to help keep Picquery in power, challenging Dumbledore to embrace power and become the enemy he wanted.

• After leaving Picquery’s office, Dumbledore worried that her plan to convict Grindelwald would fail and that she might blame him.
• Li Weide warned Dumbledore that Picquery’s distrust meant his attempts to help could make matters worse, but Dumbledore left the quarters anyway.
• Li Weide told Tom that Dumbledore could change his identity and evade the Magical Congress’s surveillance by bending the rules.
• Grindelwald explained that he had removed incriminating memories before interrogation, making Veritaserum useless and the Cruciatus Curse enjoyable to endure.
• Dumbledore entered Grindelwald’s cell disguised as another wizard, and Grindelwald deduced that Picquery distrusted him and had proposed a plot.
• Grindelwald offered to help Dumbledore preserve Picquery’s position, then mocked him for avoiding power and urged him to become a worthy enemy.

Dumbledore refused to help Grindelwald clear his name, while President Picquery prepared to frame him as a fallback if her plan failed. Three days later, Dumbledore brought Li Weide and Tom to Grindelwald’s public trial, where they found the Grand Court packed with seats for thousands.

• Dumbledore rejected Grindelwald’s demand that they stand together and urged him to atone for his past crimes.
• President Picquery arranged to bring prepared witnesses from the Safe House, while her disguised subordinate Abernathy took the documents and was followed by several figures.
• Li Weide told Tom that Picquery was setting Dumbledore up as a scapegoat, and explained that Dumbledore intended to do nothing and accept the blame.
• After three days, Dumbledore took Li Weide and Tom to the Grand Court for Grindelwald’s public trial, where they saw the vast chamber and learned their seats were near the front.