Chapter Summaries

Dumbledore brought Li Weide and Tom to the impoverished Gaunt home, where Tom’s hopes for his Slytherin relatives collapsed. Morfin Gaunt attacked Tom and insulted Merope, but Dumbledore subdued him and forced him to apologize.

• Dumbledore led Li Weide and Tom through a tavern fireplace to Great Hangleton and explained that the Gaunt family had fallen into decline.
• Tom saw the Gaunts’ dilapidated shack and grew ashamed and furious at its condition.
• Dumbledore removed the malicious curses around the house and introduced Tom to Morfin Gaunt as Merope’s son.
• Morfin insulted Merope and charged at Tom, who blasted him before Li Weide restrained him from attacking again.
• Dumbledore took responsibility for striking Morfin, disarmed him, and forced him to apologize to Tom.

Tom challenged Morfin Gaunt to a duel over the Slytherin family Ring and his claim to be a Slytherin Heir. After defeating Morfin, Tom took the Ring, paid five hundred Galleons to sever Merope Gaunt’s ties with the family, and left with Dumbledore and Li Weide.

• Tom condemned Morfin for disgracing the Gaunt family and challenged him to a duel for the Ring.
• Dumbledore returned Morfin’s wand and agreed to witness the duel without interfering.
• Tom disarmed Morfin before he could finish casting the Killing Curse, then defeated him again when Morfin picked up his wand.
• Tom took the Ring, declared himself the true Slytherin Heir, and left five hundred Galleons as payment for Merope Gaunt severing ties with the family.
• Tom thanked Dumbledore for letting the duel proceed, then argued with Li Weide about taking his Galleons as a loan.

Tom learned that his father, Old Tom, had been forced into marrying his mother and went with Li Weide and Dumbledore to visit the Riddle estate in Little Hangleton. Senior Riddle recognized Tom as his grandson and revealed that Old Tom was hiding because he feared Tom's mother had returned.

• Li Weide persuaded Tom to search for the Riddle family despite his disappointment at learning he was half-blood.
• Tom, Li Weide, and Dumbledore learned that Old Tom had once vanished for a year and returned shaken, muttering about witches and magic.
• Tom decided to visit his father, and Dumbledore accompanied the group to the Riddle estate.
• Senior Riddle came to meet them and recognized Tom as his grandson.
• Tom learned that Old Tom had hidden because he mistook their arrival for his dead wife coming back, and Tom called him a coward.

Senior Riddle explained how a witch had enchanted his son, Tom Riddle, and Tom learned more about the circumstances of his birth and his father’s lasting fear. Senior Riddle offered Tom a place at Riddle Manor and a chance to build a family bond, and Tom asked whether he was very rich.

• Senior Riddle demonstrated that magic was real, then recounted how Tom Riddle had fallen under a witch’s spell and returned home changed and afraid.
• At Riddle Manor, Tom said his mother had died after leaving him at the orphanage, and he gave his name as Tom Marvolo Riddle.
• Tom’s father refused to come downstairs, but Senior Riddle stopped Tom from leaving and offered him a home at Riddle Manor.
• Senior Riddle admitted he wanted Tom to inherit the estate, while Tom said he only wanted to experience family affection.
• Tom asked Senior Riddle, “You said just now that you're very rich, right?”

Tom accepted Senior Riddle’s offer of family affection and money, then returned to Godric’s Hollow with Li Weide and considered building his own laboratory. Meanwhile, Annie concealed her secret absorption of magical power from Grindelwald, who studied her manuscripts and began planning a careful operation to seize the power hidden beneath Hogwarts.

• Tom accepted Senior Riddle’s proposal, earned Dumbledore’s approval, and received a large check as the Riddle Family’s legitimate heir.
• Tom and Li Weide joked about Tom learning from Li Weide, and Tom considered building a laboratory at Riddle Manor before lending Li Weide his Ring to study.
• Annie returned to Nurmengard and told Grindelwald she had absorbed magical power and obtained manuscripts while investigating the ruins.
• Vinda suspected Annie was acting strangely, but Grindelwald dismissed her concern and studied the manuscripts describing magical power hidden beneath Hogwarts.
• Grindelwald and Vinda discussed attacking during Christmas, but Grindelwald insisted they first locate the power and arrange a major distraction to draw Dumbledore away.

Li Weide tested the Gaunt family ring and revealed that its black gemstone was the Resurrection Stone, then tried to use it and found it could not conjure his deceased relatives. He handed the stone to Tom to try, leaving Li Weide curious about what Tom would see.

• Li Weide tested the Gaunt family ring with a potion, which turned nearly black-red, and explained that powerful magic did not have to be Dark Magic.
• Li Weide removed the gemstone from the ring and identified it as the Resurrection Stone, while Tom began imagining founding a new family under his own name.
• Li Weide turned the stone three times, but the mist and figures it began to form dispersed before he could see his deceased relatives.
• Li Weide handed the Resurrection Stone to Tom and told him to hold it and turn it at least three times.

Tom used the Resurrection Stone and saw his mother, Merope, whose words and explanations deepened his anger over being left at an orphanage. He rejected the stone and went upstairs, leaving Li Weide with it; after Li Weide sent Dumbledore a letter about the stone, Dumbledore rushed to his Safe House.

• Tom held the Resurrection Stone and saw Merope appear, though he had not turned it three times.
• Merope said she had been close to death and had arranged for Tom to stay at an orphanage, while Tom accused her of abandoning him and resented his childhood there.
• Tom avoided Merope’s touch, ended their conversation, and left the Resurrection Stone with Li Weide before going upstairs.
• Li Weide examined the stone, consulted The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and sent a letter to Dumbledore through Toby.
• Dumbledore read Li Weide’s letter and hurried from Hogwarts Castle to Li Weide’s Safe House because it concerned the Resurrection Stone.

Li Weide showed Dumbledore the Resurrection Stone, and Dumbledore used it to reunite with his deceased family. After they comforted him and disappeared, Tom borrowed the Stone again to speak with his mother.

• Li Weide told Dumbledore that Tom had used the Resurrection Stone to see Merope and had been upset by their encounter.
• Dumbledore examined the Stone, then used it in the yard while Li Weide watched through his Nightmare Magic.
• Dumbledore saw Ariana and his parents, confessed his guilt, and heard them urge him to stop blaming himself and live on.
• Dumbledore’s family vanished into the mist, leaving him grief-stricken; he returned the Stone to Li Weide and asked to be alone.
• Tom asked Li Weide to borrow the Stone again, saw Merope, and returned to his room to try to talk with her properly.

Li Weide helped Dumbledore confront his guilt over his family, and Dumbledore gained a deeper understanding of love that strengthened his magic. Tom spoke with his mother using the Resurrection Stone, then brought Li Weide to Woods Orphanage, where he had grown up.

• Dumbledore told Li Weide that his family had encouraged him to live well and forgiven his past mistakes, and Li Weide urged him to imagine whether he would blame a loved one in the same situation.
• Dumbledore accepted that his family would not condemn him and experienced a magical increase in strength through his deeper understanding of love.
• The system rewarded Li Weide with 10,000 Merit Points, bringing his balance to 18,000 and prompting him to plan an upgrade.
• Tom emerged from his room, returned the Resurrection Stone to Li Weide, and asked whether he planned to go back for Christmas.
• Three days later, Li Weide and Tom arrived at Woods Orphanage in fine clothes, where someone called out that Tom looked almost unrecognizable.

After Tom donated supplies to the orphanage, Li Weide suspected that his apparent change of heart was only a disguise, though he kept the suspicion to himself. At Christmas, both received matching Goblin Metal balls from Grindelwald, and Li Weide wondered what Grindelwald wanted from them.

• Professor Hicks's Memory Charm made Mrs. Cole and the other children forget Li Weide and Tom, while Tom's donation left the orphanage with supplies for Christmas.
• Li Weide told Tom he did not believe his good deeds proved he had changed, and Tom privately admitted that he had fooled Dumbledore but not Li Weide.
• Li Weide kept Tom's suspected deception from Dumbledore, and the two continued researching spells together at the Safe House.
• On Christmas morning, Fawkes delivered their presents, and Li Weide teased Tom that maintaining his good behavior could earn him more gifts next year.
• Li Weide and Tom each found a Goblin Metal ball from Mr. G, and Li Weide suggested Grindelwald might be trying to enlist or win them over.

Li Weide and Tom received magical spheres from Grindelwald, and their argument over whether to use them revealed Li Weide’s caution and Tom’s struggle to resist power. While Li Weide sorted through his Christmas gifts and the relationships they represented, Tom waited to find out whether Li Weide had remembered his gift.

• Li Weide and Tom realized Grindelwald had taken the bait and sent them magical power, while Tom accused Li Weide of having given Annie real power instead of fakes.
• Tom suspected the spheres had side effects and ultimately returned them rather than risk using them, while Li Weide praised his restraint.
• Li Weide unwrapped valuable gifts from the Malfoy Family, other Pure-blood families, Dumbledore, Slughorn, and members of his club, sending Christmas cards to families that had pledged allegiance.
• Li Weide gave Nagini a pink bow and Toby a gold Ring made from the Gaunt family heirloom, making Toby faint with happiness.
• Tom asked Li Weide where his Christmas gift was and wondered if Li Weide had forgotten it.

Grindelwald tried to use gifts of magical power to draw Li Weide and Tom into his influence, while Li Weide recruited Tom to help cultivate fast-growing magical plants at their safe house. After discovering how effective his nutrient solution was, Li Weide began searching for a formula to raise magical animals as well.

• Grindelwald told Vinda to have Annie reassure Li Weide and Tom, then ordered the plan targeting the Magical Congress of the United States of America to begin.
• At the safe house in Godric's Hollow, Li Weide made Tom help plant magical seeds and explained how plants such as Biting Cabbages could be used in battle.
• Li Weide used an advanced Undetectable Extension Charm to make a pouch, prompting Tom to admit he could not cast the Patronus Charm; Li Weide suggested this was because Tom was a Dark Wizard.
• Li Weide had Toby buy dangerous-looking seeds in Knockturn Alley, built greenhouses, and spent the following week tending the plants while studying magic.
• Li Weide found that his Nutrient Solution grew Chinese Chomping Cabbages to half a meter with buds in one week and began searching his formula collection for a way to cultivate magical animals.

Li Weide brewed a potion that made Magical Animals smarter and stronger, but only Tom Cat underwent a dramatic transformation because the Senior female student’s Ancient Magic and Nightmare Magic had already altered him. The chapter ended with Tom Cat brewing the potion himself, leaving Tom stunned by the sight.

• Li Weide gave Tom Cat the potion, and Tom Cat drank it before falling asleep.
• After waking, Tom Cat walked upright, understood Li Weide, and helped himself to dried fish, while other potion-fed Magical Animals showed only modest improvements.
• The Senior female student explained that her repeated possessions had strengthened Tom Cat’s brain and soul, and that her magic had amplified the potion’s effects.
• Li Weide realized Tom Cat’s transformation could not easily be reproduced, then watched him brew the potion on his own.
• Tom entered Li Weide’s room, saw Tom Cat brewing, and asked Li Weide whether he had done something to him again.

Li Weide, Tom, and Annie discussed Grindelwald’s gift and the power they had been seeking, while Annie failed to persuade the boys to pursue him. At Hogwarts, Dumbledore agreed to travel to the United States after an Auror reported disappearances inside the Wizarding Congress.

• Li Weide left Toby to tend the plants and teased Tom about asking him to enchant his trunk before they departed for school.
• On the Hogwarts Express, Li Weide explained that Tom Cat’s increasingly human behavior had resulted from an experiment that had gone slightly wrong.
• Annie suggested Grindelwald might have taken the magical power they had been searching for, but Li Weide and Tom rejected the idea of seeking him out at Nurmengard.
• Auror Achilles Torliver told Dumbledore that Wizarding Congress members had been disappearing since Christmas Eve and that President Picquery suspected Grindelwald.
• Dumbledore agreed to go to the United States, while Torliver warned that another disappearance had occurred inside the sealed Congress building.

Li Weide explained how Grindelwald used the disappearances in the United States to draw Dumbledore away while infiltrating the Magical Congress. As Annie began asking Hogwarts ghosts for information, Li Weide warned Tom that Grindelwald could act soon and aimed to seize power and magical resources.

• Headmaster Dippet announced that Dumbledore had gone to the United States and Professor Hicks would temporarily teach Defense Against the Dark Arts.
• Li Weide and Tom discussed Grindelwald’s growing crisis in the United States and how Annie might locate a hidden place by questioning Hogwarts ghosts.
• Tom noticed Annie speaking with ghosts and told Li Weide, who said Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s reported near-clashes were a trap keeping Dumbledore occupied.
• Li Weide explained that Grindelwald’s disappearances and replacements could help Wizarding Supremacists infiltrate the Magical Congress regardless of whether Dumbledore returned.
• Li Weide told Tom to prepare, saying Grindelwald wanted both control of the Magical Congress and access to its magical power.

Annie discovered a hidden chamber beneath Hogwarts that might contain the magical power she had been searching for and told Li Weide and Tom about it. Li Weide suspected Grindelwald had arranged for them to learn its location, and he planned to join the expedition despite the risks.

• Annie repeatedly entered the Room of Requirement, where she saw Tom Cat brewing a potion and learned that the sight was real.
• Annie told Li Weide and Tom that magical power remained hidden beyond Grindelwald’s discoveries, and explained that ghosts had helped her map Hogwarts’s secret passages and chambers.
• Annie showed them a hidden chamber beneath the castle that the Bloody Baron said had once held a powerful force and hosted a battle.
• Li Weide agreed to investigate the chamber with Annie, who said she would gather more information before arranging a time to enter.
• After Annie left, Li Weide told Tom he suspected Grindelwald wanted them present when the operation began, and admitted that his plan involved some gambling.

After Dumbledore and the Magical Congress of the United States of America rescued hostages from Wizarding Supremacist hideouts, President Picquery worried that some might be compromised. Li Weide predicted Grindelwald would attack Hogwarts that night, and he and Tom waited in the Common Room after taking Felix Felicis.

• Dumbledore and the Aurors rescued hostages from several hideouts, but the Wizarding Supremacists escaped after a staged resistance.
• President Picquery ordered the hostages to go home and admitted to Dumbledore that she could not trust them; Dumbledore offered to identify anyone lying without using Veritaserum.
• Tom told Li Weide that the newspaper confirmed Dumbledore would question the hostages, and Li Weide predicted Grindelwald would attack Hogwarts that night.
• Annie told Tom and Li Weide to meet in the Common Room at nine o'clock, and Tom said he had made preparations.
• Li Weide and Tom drank Felix Felicis while they waited in the Common Room, and Li Weide conjured tea that Tom reluctantly gulped.

Tom drank Felix Felicis and practiced controlling his emotions while Li Weide and Annie prepared for a night excursion. Meanwhile, Grindelwald’s forces infiltrated Hogwarts to reach the Secret Chamber, where Headmaster Dippet confronted them as professors arrived.

• Tom used Felix Felicis’s guidance to calm himself, and Li Weide praised his growing patience.
• Annie appeared wearing an Invisibility Cloak and argued with Tom before agreeing to wait until after nine to leave with Li Weide.
• Grindelwald led Wizarding Supremacists through a Secret Passage into Hogwarts, following Annie’s map toward the Secret Chamber.
• Grindelwald’s group cleared the collapsed passage and sensed powerful magic beyond it, then split up when they discovered guests approaching.
• Headmaster Dippet confronted Grindelwald at the passage exit, and their battle began as Hogwarts professors arrived to face the Wizarding Supremacists.

Vinda and the Wizarding Supremacists entered the Secret Chamber but were knocked unconscious by a sleeping drug, while Grindelwald defeated Headmaster Dippet and made his way inside. There, he found Tom and Annie and was confronted from behind by Li Weide, who began to cast a curse.

• Vinda led the Wizarding Supremacists toward the metal sphere, but a sleeping drug put them all to sleep.
• Grindelwald defeated the Hogwarts professors and Headmaster Dippet, then entered the Secret Passage.
• Grindelwald found his unconscious followers in the Secret Chamber and blew away the Invisibility Cloak hiding Tom and Annie.
• Li Weide appeared behind Grindelwald and pressed his wand to his back.
• Grindelwald guessed that Li Weide had used a Disillusionment Charm, but Li Weide told him he was wrong and began to cast Avada Kedavra.

Li Weide rejected Grindelwald’s offer to share the strange magical power and continued fighting him in the Secret Chamber. As Grindelwald struggled to understand why the duel was dragging on, he suspected Li Weide was waiting for Dumbledore to return.

• Grindelwald blocked Li Weide’s Killing Curse with his coat, then dodged and countered as Li Weide attacked with Dark Magic.
• Grindelwald offered Li Weide and Tom half of the magical power if they secretly joined his cause, but Li Weide refused and said he would take it all by defeating him.
• Tom stayed quiet, while Annie hoped Grindelwald would reward her with some of the magical power.
• Li Weide and Grindelwald exchanged spells, with Grindelwald using nonlethal attacks as he tried to capture Li Weide.
• Grindelwald realized the fight was lasting unusually long and wondered whether Li Weide was stalling until Dumbledore returned.