Chapter Summaries

Li Weide welcomed Hagrid into the compartment and helped him feel at ease among the Hogwarts students. After the train departed, Annie told Li Weide that Grindelwald had investigated his supposed family, leaving him to consider how to use the resulting misunderstanding to his advantage.

• Li Weide watched Flitwick and the other members welcome Hagrid, who worried he was too inept to learn magic, and Flitwick reassured him.
• Li Weide bought all the trolley snacks for the compartment, while the snack witch quickly restocked and continued to seem mysteriously familiar to him.
• Annie traded Tom two Galleons for a Dumbledore card, and the Hogwarts Express departed as students waved goodbye to their families.
• Annie used the Whispering Charm to tell Li Weide that Grindelwald had sent Abernathy to investigate his family, but the Li family had barred him from entering.
• Li Weide told Annie to let Grindelwald see information about the vast Li family, then realized Grindelwald's wariness could make the false assumption that Li Weide belonged to it a useful way to profit from Pure-blood families.

Li Weide protected the Hogwarts Express students after a giant attacked the train, then confronted a masked group of wizards who seemed to have come for him. He devastated their ranks with rock giants and lightning, leaving just over twenty enemies standing.

• The Hogwarts Express stopped violently, and Li Weide used magic to keep his carriage’s students from being injured.
• Li Weide discovered that a giant had smashed the locomotive, ordered the students to evacuate, and used a rock giant to knock the attacker unconscious.
• Masked wizards emerged from the fog, and one asked whether Li Weide was Weide Li.
• Li Weide raised rock giants to block the attackers, then struck their formation with his Weather Charm, bringing down more than a dozen wizards.
• Li Weide unleashed a powerful Ancient Magic lightning bolt that reduced most of the remaining attackers to ash, leaving a little over twenty standing.

Li Weide faced more than twenty powerful masked wizards while the Mutual Aid Club gathered behind him, and an Old Witch raised a protective shield to support them. As the attackers tried to capture Li Weide, he used the metal shards from his watch to block their spells and called down a massive bolt of lightning.

• Li Weide realized the masked wizards had evaded his ultimate spell and suspected they were testing him rather than trying to kill him.
• Flitwick, Tom, Annie, and the other Mutual Aid Club members joined Li Weide, while Andre brought more students and Li Weide told them to protect the others.
• Li Weide stepped forward alone as five metal shards emerged from his watch, and an Old Witch cast a powerful Protective Shield over the students.
• The masked wizards attacked Li Weide with a rapid volley of spells, and he knocked aside their first strike, realizing they might want to take him alive.
• Li Weide stopped defending with his wand as the metal shards blocked the incoming spells, then swung his wand and summoned a massive bolt of lightning.

Li Weide fought the hostile wizards, killing several while using Apparition, enchanted weapons, invisibility, and illusions to evade their attacks. He trapped the survivors in a hallucination and left them questioning whether their battle with him had even been real.

• Li Weide Apparated behind one wizard repeatedly, shattered his Shield Charm with metal shards, and wounded him while the other shards blocked incoming spells.
• Li Weide shot through another wizard’s Transfigured shields with a modified bullet, then used an Ancient Magic-enhanced Disillusionment Charm to kill a third wizard with Sectumsempra.
• When the hostile wizards tried to retreat, their leader found Li Weide through the mist and the group attacked him with Killing Curses.
• Li Weide used a phantom duplicate and lightning cast from behind the wizards to scatter them and make their attacks miss.
• The surviving wizards tried to Apparate away but remained in place, and Li Weide told them he had manipulated their perceptions and questioned whether their battle had been an illusion.

Li Weide outwitted the fleeing wizards and brought them back into his trap, capturing the entire group. Dumbledore, Headmaster Dippet, the Aurors, healers, and Grindelwald’s Wizarding Supremacists arrived after the battle was over, while the mysterious Old Witch vanished.

• The lead wizard recognized limits to Li Weide’s magic and ordered the group to flee on Flying Broomsticks.
• Two wizards stayed behind to attack Li Weide, but he defeated them with a Stunning Spell while the others escaped through the sky.
• Tom and the others speculated that Li Weide fought using illusions, and the Old Witch kept the Protective Shield in place as Li Weide waited.
• The fleeing wizards Apparated back in front of Li Weide, who struck them down with a spell and captured the group.
• The Old Witch removed the Protective Shield and disappeared as the Mutual Aid Club bound the prisoners.
• Dumbledore, Headmaster Dippet, Ministry Aurors, St. Mungo’s healers, and Grindelwald’s Wizarding Supremacists arrived after the fight, prompting Li Weide to remark that Aurors always showed up after it was over.

Li Weide reflected on how the train attack had changed others’ view of him, while Dumbledore and Grindelwald arrived to investigate the coordinated assault. When they went to question the captured attackers, they discovered the prisoners had been removed on Minister Fawley’s orders, prompting Li Weide to suspect something was wrong.

• Li Weide told Tom that he had deliberately prolonged the fight so people would fear and respect his strength.
• Dumbledore, Headmaster Dippet, and Grindelwald arrived, and Dumbledore checked that Li Weide was unharmed.
• Dumbledore explained that the attackers had also struck Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, delaying their response to the train.
• Grindelwald led the group to interrogate the captured attackers, but found the tent empty because Minister Fawley had ordered the prisoners taken to the Ministry.
• Li Weide questioned which person had conveyed Fawley’s order to the Aurors.

After the Hogwarts Express attack, Li Weide and Dumbledore concluded that a powerful alliance, likely including Pure-blood families, had targeted Li Weide for his valuable knowledge. Li Weide returned to Slytherin with his friends, secretly pleased that the attackers’ actions had created an opportunity for his plans.

• Grindelwald and Dumbledore pursued the people who had taken a passenger, while Li Weide learned that the mysterious witch Helora Paris had healed the injured students.
• Li Weide and Tom discussed why attackers might target him, and Li Weide insisted he would still go to Hogwarts to advance their cause.
• The students reached Hogwarts by Thestral carriage, where the Sorting Ceremony proceeded and Ilena joined Slytherin.
• Dumbledore told Li Weide that Captain Boursted claimed to have been under the Imperius Curse, and Li Weide argued the attackers had been testing and targeting him.
• Dumbledore warned Li Weide that a coalition might be seeking his secrets and urged him to trust no one; Li Weide concealed his own role in attracting attention and considered exploiting the resulting chaos.
• In the Slytherin Common Room, Li Weide told Tom and the others about the threat, and Tom remarked that being Li Weide’s friend seemed more dangerous than being Li Weide.

After the attack on the Hogwarts Express, Li Weide met the Senior female student in her dream, where she demanded that he search the world for Ancient Magic Hotspots so she could escape. She had prepared a detector and maps, and invited Dumbledore into the dream to discuss the plan, leaving him confronting her in the pavilion.

• The Senior female student told Li Weide she had accepted her body from another world and that her magic had grown stronger.
• She said she had watched Li Weide fight and criticized his Ancient Magic progress, so he explained that he had found no more Hotspots nearby.
• The Senior female student gave Li Weide a detector and maps of locations she had already identified, then insisted he leave the next day to search them.
• Li Weide agreed to go and considered how to leave Hogwarts without Dumbledore noticing, but the Senior female student said she would speak to Dumbledore herself.
• The Senior female student summoned Dumbledore into the Dreamscape, and he walked over to confront her while Li Weide watched.

Li Weide, Dumbledore, and the senior female student discussed a plan to free her by having Li Weide absorb the Residue and transfer it into new vessels. They arranged for Li Weide to leave Hogwarts unnoticed using Nightmare Magic, with Dumbledore gathering the school for an award ceremony so Li Weide could cast the spell on everyone.

• The senior female student revealed to Dumbledore that she had taught Li Weide Ancient Magic and told him her story.
• The senior female student explained that Li Weide would absorb the Residue in her body so she could escape, while Dumbledore warned that the plan could put Li Weide in grave danger.
• Li Weide said he could use Nightmare Magic to make Hogwarts residents believe he had stayed at school while he was away.
• Dumbledore agreed to gather everyone at an award ceremony and said he would keep Grindelwald away from Hogwarts.
• Li Weide reassured the senior female student that he could handle the plan himself.

After recovering from a strange, exhausting dream, Li Weide basked in the acclaim for saving the Hogwarts Express while Tom envied his fame and reflected on becoming stronger. At the evening award ceremony, Li Weide told Headmaster Dippet he was already finished, then began to turn illusory.

• Li Weide learned that Hagrid had been sorted into Gryffindor, Eileen Prince into Slytherin, and The Daily Prophet had concealed the attackers’ motive.
• Tom urged Li Weide to use the crowd’s admiration to promote the Mutual Aid Club, but Li Weide decided to accept the cheers without speaking.
• The Slytherin students applauded Li Weide, while Professor Slughorn comforted the envious Tom by pointing out his own achievements.
• At the Great Hall ceremony, Headmaster Dippet handed Li Weide the Special Award for Services to the School trophy.
• Li Weide told Headmaster Dippet, “Begin? But I'm already finished...,” and his figure began to turn illusory.

Li Weide left Hogwarts through a hidden Floo route with Slytherin to begin a journey, while Tom remained at school, unable to remember what he had forgotten. The chapter ended with Tom realizing that something was wrong but still not recalling Li Weide’s absence.

• Dumbledore praised Li Weide’s Nightmare Magic, warned him not to trust the senior female student completely, and arranged for Slytherin to accompany him.
• Li Weide used the fireplace to travel to the Transfer Station, where he met Slytherin and learned Dumbledore had prepared the hidden Wooden House for his return.
• Li Weide and Slytherin flew out of the Forbidden Forest, following the senior female student’s map and the direction shown by her watch.
• Flitwick asked Tom to invite Li Weide to teach dueling at the club, but neither noticed that Li Weide had already left Hogwarts.
• Tom repeatedly felt he had forgotten something, returned to the dormitory, and finally sat up with the realization that something was wrong.

Li Weide and Slytherin finished exploring Ancient Magic Hotspots, but a masked group delivered a new map that delayed their return. At Hogwarts, Tom sought Dumbledore’s help for a nagging sense that he had forgotten something, then realized his Course Selection Form was blank.

• Li Weide escaped an ancient wizard’s tomb with Slytherin, absorbed its Ancient Magic Hotspot, and copied an unfamiliar rune into his Notebook.
• Li Weide prepared to return after their half-month journey, but masked wizards delivered another map, sending him toward a new location instead.
• Tom told Dumbledore he kept feeling that he had forgotten important things, and Dumbledore examined him but blamed stress from schoolwork.
• Tom left Dumbledore’s office and, after Little Lantern asked why Li Weide was not with him, found a blank Course Selection Form in his schoolbag.

Tom discovered that thinking about Li Weide caused his memories to blur, and he used Occlumency to temporarily replace Li Weide’s name with “Friend W.” Meanwhile, Li Weide tested whether incense could affect Slytherin, ending with Slytherin noticing that the incense smoke behaved strangely as it passed through him.

• Tom realized that thoughts of Li Weide triggered a strange loss of memory and used Occlumency to make himself think of him as “Friend W.”
• Thinking of Friend W caused Tom to leap up in History of Magic, and he explained that he had dreamed a Horned Beast rammed him.
• Tom later woke after collapsing and could not remember what he had been thinking about, then wondered where Li Weide had gone.
• Li Weide researched on the Flying Carpet while Slytherin guided it above the clouds and explained that ghosts could only conjure illusory food and objects.
• Li Weide lit incense and placed it before Slytherin as a test, and Slytherin noticed that a wisp of smoke passing through him seemed unusual.

Li Weide discovered that incense let Slytherin enjoy food as a ghost, while Tom found that everyone and everything seemed to have forgotten Li Weide. The chapter ended with Dumbledore asking Tom who Li Weide was.

• Li Weide gave Slytherin incense and instructions for making more, and Slytherin used its smoke to create food he could taste.
• After History of Magic, Tom showed Annie a Daily Prophet that no longer mentioned Li Weide, but Annie did not recognize the name or remember that he founded the Mutual Aid Club.
• Tom found Li Weide’s bed and cabinet empty and learned from Henry that the dormitory had always been one person short.
• Tom saw the Lantern Monster outside Dumbledore’s office, but it denied knowing Li Weide and addressed Tom as Great Lord Riddle.
• Tom asked Dumbledore where Li Weide had gone, and Dumbledore asked him who Li Weide was.

Tom questioned whether Li Weide had ever existed after Dumbledore and the world seemed to remember Tom’s accomplishments as Li Weide’s. A strange newspaper clue and altered Pensieve memories convinced Tom that reality had changed, and he left determined to bring Li Weide back.

• Tom told Dumbledore about Li Weide, but Dumbledore said he knew no such student and remembered many of the deeds as Tom’s own.
• Tom suspected a curse had filled his mind with false memories after he fainted in History of Magic, then realized he remembered how to make the Puppet Armor and Lantern Monsters.
• Dumbledore examined Tom, found no sign of a curse, and agreed to review Tom’s September 1st memories in the Pensieve.
• Tom noticed Dumbledore had kept a September 1st newspaper and questioned why, suggesting that something important had happened that reality no longer showed.
• Tom’s Pensieve memories displayed an ordinary train journey instead of Li Weide fighting Dark Wizards, and Tom left Dumbledore’s office vowing to bring Li Weide back.

Tom became convinced that his memories and everyone else’s had been altered, then disappeared from Hogwarts during the night. After Dumbledore preserved his changing memories and discovered Li Weide in the newspaper, he warned Li Weide, who began investigating the magic affecting Tom.

• Tom questioned the Slytherin students and Ilena, then hid his concerns and went to sleep.
• At three in the morning, Tom used a Disillusionment Charm, took his backpack, and left the dormitory.
• Dumbledore resisted a wave of altered memories with Occlumency and saw Li Weide appear in the newspaper photograph.
• Fawkes delivered Dumbledore’s letter to Li Weide, informing him that Tom was missing.
• Slytherin demanded that Li Weide find Tom, and Li Weide concluded that people near Tom were having their memories and senses altered.

Li Weide prepared to find Tom despite the danger posed by the altered Nightmare Magic, while Tom left Hogwarts to investigate and encountered Dumbledore at a wizarding inn. Dumbledore’s forgotten purpose and the newspaper he brought led Tom to suspect that the magic affected people who came near him.

• Li Weide told Slytherin that he was only fifty percent sure he could undo the Nightmare Magic and acknowledged it might threaten him, but he resolved to find Tom.
• Li Weide told Fawkes to wait and take him to Tom later, then said he would first consult someone who understood Nightmare Magic.
• Tom left Riddle Manor and went to a wizarding inn, intending to travel to the Safe House and find out whether Toby remembered Li Weide.
• Dumbledore met Tom at the inn, assured him he would not force him back to Hogwarts, and said he had come for two reasons.
• Dumbledore forgot his second reason after a surge of magic, and Tom concluded that the curse affected people who approached him and was connected to the newspaper Dumbledore carried.

Li Weide learned from the senior female student that emotions and Tom’s deep attachment to him had caused the Nightmare Magic accident. He realized he had underestimated his importance to Tom and was left with the answer to how he could save him.

• Li Weide questioned the senior female student about the magical accident, and she explained that Dumbledore’s attempt to approach Tom with Occlumency had failed.
• The senior female student pointed out that Li Weide’s analysis overlooked emotions, which could amplify magic and had changed the Nightmare Magic around Tom as he resisted it.
• She listed the ways Li Weide had helped Tom and explained that Tom’s deep feelings for him had made him the only affected person to notice something was wrong.
• Li Weide admitted that he would see someone who had helped him so much as a close friend and realized he had underestimated his place in Tom’s heart.
• The senior female student urged Li Weide to trust Tom and save him, then told him to return and release her from the chamber.

Tom went to the North Sea to investigate the curse affecting people near him, then fled when he feared Li Weide would be caught in it too. Li Weide tracked him down, briefly seemed to lose his memories, then recovered and claimed he was Tom’s godfather.

• Li Weide returned to the Goblin Workshop after the Senior female student offered it and her servants to him in exchange for helping her gain freedom.
• Tom reasoned that the curse affected people within roughly five meters and worried that Li Weide might be harmed if he approached.
• Li Weide found Tom at an inn, but Tom Apparated away before he could reach him.
• Li Weide followed Tom to a reef by the North Sea and was affected by the curse, briefly appearing confused about who he was.
• Li Weide recovered his memories, identified himself as Tom’s godfather, and told Tom to call him Dad.

Li Weide explained that his Nightmare Magic had spiraled out of control and made the school believe he was still there while he left to rescue a senior student. After Li Weide lifted the curse and Dumbledore confirmed it, Tom learned why his memories had been altered, then bristled at Li Weide calling their bond a father-son relationship.

• Li Weide told Tom that he had removed the curse, and Tom waited for Dumbledore to verify it.
• Tom confronted Li Weide about secretly using magic on him, and Li Weide admitted his Nightmare Magic had gone out of control with Dumbledore's knowledge.
• Dumbledore arrived with Fawkes and explained that Li Weide had concealed his absence because he was being targeted after the Hogwarts Express attack and the release of the Dragon Pox Potion formula.
• Dumbledore described the senior female student's situation, and Li Weide said he had left to help her repay a favor.
• Li Weide explained that Tom's emotional resistance had amplified the Nightmare Magic, causing it to alter memories and spread to Dumbledore and others.
• Li Weide claimed that his father-son bond with Tom let him overpower the magic, provoking Tom with the joke.