Chapter Summaries

Regulus investigated a Dark Mark sighting and told the Death Eaters, including Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy, that their missing master might have returned. Sean realized Lestrange had contacted the Dark Mark he had created and, after consulting Grindelwald, prepared to use it to control the Death Eaters.

• Old Man Aiken warned Regulus that the association expected the Death Eaters to honor their promises and threatened consequences if they had harmed his son.
• Regulus returned to his childhood room, examined the Dark Mark on his arm, and Apparated to Malfoy Manor.
• Lestrange urged the Malfoys to investigate the unfamiliar Death Eater's mark, while Lucius worried it might be a trap.
• Regulus convinced Lestrange and the Malfoys to try contacting their missing master through their Dark Marks.
• Sean received Lestrange's call through the Dark Mark he had once planted on himself and recognized her voice.
• Grindelwald told Sean that a force needed cannon fodder, so Sean replanted the Dark Mark and waited for another message.

Sean used Riddle’s wand and reputation to pose as a messenger and gather the Death Eaters without alerting Riddle through their Dark Marks. Three days later, he and Grindelwald prepared to carry out the next stage of the plan outside Hogwarts.

• Sean realized he needed to alter the Death Eaters’ Dark Marks and devised a way to rally them without using the marks.
• At Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix Lestrange accused Lucius Malfoy of abandoning Riddle, while Lucius urged the group to preserve their strength and wait.
• Sean arrived disguised as a masked messenger, showed Riddle’s wand, praised Bellatrix’s loyalty, and ordered the Malfoys and Regulus to summon the Death Eaters without using the Dark Mark.
• After the messenger left, Regulus reported Riddle’s apparent return through a mirror, while Sean returned to Newmontgard Castle and reflected on the Death Eaters’ fear of Riddle.
• Three days later, Sean met Grindelwald outside Hogwarts with his own face and a wand prepared for the plan.

Sean arrived at Malfoy Manor and impersonated Riddle before the assembled Death Eaters, using Bella’s loyalty and his magic to persuade most of them to unmask. The chapter ended as Sean seized a masked holdout with an unseen force.

• Grindelwald Apparated with Sean to the outskirts of Malfoy Manor, then vanished after discussing Sean’s eventual grand entrance.
• Lucius, Bella, Regulus, and the Malfoy couple gathered Death Eaters at the manor while the guests argued and speculated about Riddle’s return.
• Sean entered the drawing room, calmed its trembling lights and flames, and let Bella identify him as their master.
• Sean took Bella’s parchment, ordered the Death Eaters to remove their masks, and used a spell to frighten them into complying.
• Five Death Eaters kept their masks on, so Sean spun his wand to select one and then clenched his hand, making everyone sense an imminent threat.

Sean used a terrifying display of magic to convince the Death Eaters that he was Voldemort in Sean Wallop’s body, then replaced their Dark Marks with his own. He left the gathering in control of the assembled followers and cut them off from Voldemort’s summons.

• Antonin Dolohov questioned the Dark Lord’s identity and power, so Sean killed him instantly with a wandless, silent burst of flames.
• The Death Eaters bowed to Sean, and four masked followers begged for forgiveness; Sean spared them and told Bella to deal with them after the gathering.
• Sean identified the Death Eaters present, explained how Voldemort had taken over Sean Wallop’s body, and claimed someone among them had betrayed him.
• Sean reassured Barty Crouch Jr. that Severus’s loyalty was beyond question, then ordered everyone to reveal their Dark Marks.
• Sean erased Voldemort’s marks and replaced them with new marks of his own, preventing the attending Death Eaters from receiving Voldemort’s calls.

Sean posed as Voldemort while directing the Death Eaters’ Ministry infiltration and investigating their French connections. He left Bella and Barty Jr. to root out potential traitors and offered Lucius a chance to redeem himself by invoking Draco.

• Sean questioned the Death Eaters about their activities, and Barty Jr. described his father’s campaign to become Minister and proposed ways to strengthen their Ministry influence.
• Sean ordered Regulus and Lucius to investigate the French Wizarding Rights Protection Association without revealing that he had returned.
• Sean dismissed most of the Death Eaters, then told Bella and Barty Jr. that he trusted them and tasked them with finding possible traitors.
• Sean implied that the Malfoy couple had disappointed him, and Lucius feared that their earlier reluctance had been noticed.
• Sean offered Lucius a chance to redeem himself by asking about Draco, and Lucius pleaded that his son was only a child.

Sean used his disguise as Voldemort to frighten the Malfoys into creating an inclusive student organization, while steering Bella toward gaining power and binding her loyalty with a fabricated story about his soul. Bella revealed that she still held items Voldemort had entrusted to her, and Sean asked her to retrieve them.

• Sean spared Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco after Bella pleaded for them, then ordered Lucius to have Draco form a Hogwarts organization called Wizards' Mutual Aid that recruited students regardless of blood status.
• Sean told Bella that her intervention had made the Malfoys indebted to her and urged her to take power within the family.
• Sean fabricated a story about losing part of his soul and gave Bella access to the Dark Mark as a way to contact him.
• Sean told Bella he would remain hidden at Hogwarts as Sean Wallop and asked her to manage matters among the Death Eaters.
• Sean ambiguously asked about storing things, and Bella offered to retrieve the items Voldemort had left in her vault.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald confirmed that Hufflepuff's Golden Cup was a Horcrux, and Grindelwald destroyed it. Meanwhile, Voldemort sensed the loss and vowed revenge, while Sean struggled to learn Apparition until he noticed Voldemort's Flying Charm on his spell panel.

• Dumbledore and Grindelwald argued over Sean's role in retrieving Hufflepuff's Golden Cup and the danger of his actions.
• Grindelwald used a sharp tooth to destroy the Horcrux inside Hufflepuff's Golden Cup as Dumbledore watched.
• In Albania, Voldemort sensed that a Horcrux had been found and destroyed, then blamed a loyal servant and swore revenge.
• Sean began studying Apparition but learned that his ongoing growth could make the spell dangerous and difficult to maintain.
• Sean searched his system panel for a solution and noticed Voldemort's Flying Charm among the spells he had acquired.

Sean mastered Voldemort’s Flying Charm after a week of practice, then faced Fabian Aiken at a Golden Dawn meeting. Aiken accused Sean of kidnapping him, and Sean inferred that a Death Eater had betrayed him to the French Wizarding Rights Protection Association.

• Sean studied Voldemort’s Flying Charm and spent a week practicing until he could fly quickly as smoke and return safely to human form.
• Sean tested the charm outside Newmontgard Castle and assessed its speed, duration, and remaining areas for improvement.
• Sean arrived at the Golden Dawn meeting with Hermione and Daisy and found Fabian Aiken waiting in a wheelchair with several lackeys.
• Aiken told Sean that he knew Sean had kidnapped him, but Sean denied the accusation and concluded that a Death Eater had passed the information to outside forces.
• Aiken threatened to make Sean and his family pay for his injuries and his father’s injured hand.

Fabian Aiken confronted Sean after learning he had been responsible for Aiken’s kidnapping, prompting Hermione to warn that the powerful family might retaliate. Later, Sean read about plans for a Wizarding United Guard and suspected the proposal might be connected to Voldemort, though he concluded the Ministries of Magic would likely block it.

• Fabian Aiken confronted Sean, revealed that he knew Sean had kidnapped him, and left after making threats.
• Hermione warned Sean that Fabian and the Aiken Family were powerful and might retaliate, while Sean argued Newmontgard and Grindelwald offered protection.
• Sean and the Golden Dawn members practiced dueling, with Ian using trick spells and Harry trying to counter him.
• Hermione showed Sean a newspaper report about the proposed Wizarding United Guard, which Leif Coronel had helped launch.
• Sean predicted that the Ministries of Magic would resist the Guard because it would undermine their authority, then wondered whether the plan was connected to Voldemort.

James Potter and Jones discovered that a Parasitic Maw had infected Bertrand Barnes and learned that a second creature was missing, prompting the Auror Office to search the hospital and Barnes’s contacts. At the Wallop villa, Frank Longbottom detected the missing Maw as James and his colleagues met Allen Wallop.

• Bertrand Barnes collapsed at a London hospital after bluish-purple veins spread across his chest, and an X-ray revealed a huge mass in his abdomen.
• James and Jones used magic to take Barnes to St. Mungo’s, where a Healer removed one Parasitic Maw but reported that a second was missing.
• James told Kingsley that the missing Maw had likely infected someone else, and Kingsley sent Aurors to search Barnes’s home, workplace, and hospital.
• James and Frank arrived at the Wallop villa, where Allen learned that his bodyguard Geller Jennings was a wizard and had been protecting the family.
• Frank Longbottom detected the second Parasitic Maw near the Wallop family.

Sean investigated whether the Parasitic Maw incident involving Allen was deliberate, then grew suspicious as Pure-blood officials across Europe were arrested and praised for enforcing the law. At a Death Eater gathering, Barty Jr. revealed that Herbert Burke had smuggled a Parasitic Maw into London, while anonymous informants had exposed his other crimes.

• Sean learned that Allen had recovered, but he and Hermione found no clear evidence that the Parasitic Maw incident had targeted his family.
• Sean noticed that Herbert Burke and other Pure-blood officials across Europe were being arrested, while public support grew for the officials who prosecuted them.
• Grindelwald told Sean that public outrage limited the Pure-blood families’ ability to interfere and urged him to learn to direct the course of events.
• Sean summoned the Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor and asked them to discuss the recent events.
• Barty Jr. explained that Aurors traced the Parasitic Maw to Burke and that anonymous informants had reported Burke’s genuine abuses of office.

Sean questioned Regulus and Lucius about a leak to France and gave them half a month to explain it, then listened as the Death Eaters discussed infiltrating the Ministry. When Evan Rosier proposed murdering the Prewett brothers during the Ministerial election, Sean punished him and forced Barty Jr. to realize the murder would draw Dumbledore’s attention.

• Barty Jr. told Sean that Herbert Burke had been arrested after reporters exposed the matter, and Sean ordered him to eliminate unstable factors before the Ministry takeover.
• Sean questioned Regulus and Lucius about their loyalty and their mission to contact the Aiken Family, then gave them half a month to provide a satisfactory explanation.
• The Death Eaters discussed infiltrating the Ministry and investigating wizards who opposed Voldemort.
• Evan Rosier proposed murdering Gideon Prewett and Fabian Prewett during the Ministerial election to help Old Barty Crouch gain public support.
• Sean tortured Evan, condemned the plan, and asked Barty Jr. whose attention a murder during the election would attract; Barty Jr. realized Sean meant Dumbledore.

Sean disciplined the Death Eaters while posing as Voldemort, and Dumbledore and Grindelwald investigated the forces behind the Wizarding United Guard. As reports and arrests fueled calls for the Guard, Sean and Hermione recognized that its supporters were driving the growing wave of public opinion.

• Sean warned Barty Jr., Evan Rosier, and the other Death Eaters to stop acting carelessly, then left Malfoy Manor as black mist.
• Bella threatened the Death Eaters who questioned Voldemort, warning that she would send them to Dolohov.
• Dumbledore and Grindelwald linked Herbert Burke's conviction and Fudge's political maneuvering to efforts to establish the Wizarding United Guard.
• Grindelwald proposed that the Guard's backers intended to use it to suppress dissent and infiltrate Ministries of Magic, while Dumbledore worried about deeper forces behind them.
• At Hogwarts, Fabian Aiken glared at Sean, while Sean and Hermione identified the Wizarding United Guard as the instigator behind the growing reports and calls for its establishment.

As the Wizarding United Guard gained support across Europe, Sean continued training at Newmontgard and received his first lesson in Grindelwald’s Human Transfiguration. Grindelwald explained how he developed the dangerous branch of magic and began teaching Sean to observe a target as a whole before attempting to transform.

• Officials and wizarding groups publicly backed the proposed Wizarding United Guard, while the International Confederation of Wizards remained ambiguous about it.
• Sean mastered the spells Grindelwald had assigned and became so difficult to challenge that he trained by sparring with Golden Dawn members.
• Grindelwald told Sean that Human Transfiguration could reduce damage in combat and described how his Seer abilities helped him avoid dangerous experiments.
• Grindelwald explained that his transformation magic was a branch of Transfiguration rather than a Metamorphmagus’s bloodline ability.
• Grindelwald had Sean study his appearance in a mirror, then transformed into an unfamiliar wizard and gave Sean one minute to observe him.

Sean completed a week of intensive training under Grindelwald and mastered Grindelwald’s advanced form of Human Transfiguration. Grindelwald gave Sean a book of spells and an enchanted key, then offered the Golden Dawn access to the Vanishing Cabinet; the next morning, Sean read news about the establishment of the Wizarding United Guard.

• Grindelwald put Sean through five hours of demanding lessons, using a jinx to sharpen his focus whenever he fell short.
• After a week of training, Sean transformed into Gilderoy Lockhart in a gale, and Grindelwald identified flaws in his speed, eyes, and imitation of Lockhart’s mannerisms.
• Grindelwald praised Sean’s progress and said he had mastered the advanced Transfiguration form in a week, then challenged him to improve it before their next meeting in six months.
• Grindelwald gave Sean a book of spells and a key enchanted with a permanent Unlocking Charm, and let the Golden Dawn use the Vanishing Cabinet.
• The next morning, Sean read a news report announcing the establishment of the Wizarding United Guard.

Sean and Hermione questioned the motives behind the newly established Wizarding United Guard, while its leaders secretly plotted their next moves. James Potter was appointed head of the British office, leaving Sean puzzled about the Guard’s intentions until it arrested a powerful French wizard.

• Hermione and Sean discussed the Wizarding United Guard’s creation and doubted its leaders’ motives, while Daisy wondered whether it would be like her father.
• Cyril Marshall and the Guard’s leaders met in Switzerland, planned to build public trust by targeting a powerful figure, and agreed to eliminate unstable factors.
• Cornelius Fudge appointed James Potter to lead the British office, and James began organizing its staff before sending a Patronus message.
• Sean learned of James’s appointment through Bella and struggled to understand why the Guard’s suspected conspirators had placed one of Dumbledore’s allies in charge.
• The Guard announced that Jobs Aiken, the paternal uncle of France’s Aiken Family head, had been arrested for illegal acts committed fifteen years earlier.

Sean learned that Jobs Aiken’s arrest was part of a sweeping Wizarding United Guard crackdown on old crimes, while Fabian Aiken plotted to expose Sean as a Death Eater. The Guard’s actions continued with little resistance from Pure-blood families elsewhere in Europe, but England remained conspicuously quiet.

• Sean asked Hugo about the Aiken Family, and Hugo said Jobs Aiken was notorious for attacking Muggles and Half-blood Wizards while Old Man Aiken covered for him.
• Fabian Aiken blocked Sean at the Owlery, threatened him, and later spoke with Old Man Aiken through a brazier about a plan to bring Sean and the Death Eaters into the open.
• The Wizarding United Guard arrested Pure-blood Wizards across Europe for crimes ranging from attacks on Muggles to Dark Arts experiments, winning support from ordinary wizards.
• Sean questioned why Pure-blood families were not resisting the Guard’s actions, while Bella and Barty Jr. reported that few families had intervened.
• Sean noted that Britain remained an exception, with few significant arrests and no secret contact from the Malfoy Family, Lestrange Family, or Black Family.

Sean suspected the Wizarding United Guard’s crackdown was a staged effort to establish its authority, so he sent Bellatrix Lestrange to infiltrate the arrested prisoners and report what she learned. Two days later, the Guard raided the Lestrange manor, where a battle broke out and Sirius appeared to expose himself to three incoming spells.

• Sean rejected using the Imperius Curse on Old Barty before the election and ordered Bella to get arrested with the Lestranges so she could spy on the prisoners.
• Sean reasoned that the Guard’s arrests were proceeding too smoothly and suspected some pure-blood wizards had made an agreement with it.
• James Potter and Sirius Black led the Guard to the Lestrange manor to arrest Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Bellatrix over an attack on Muggles.
• Rodolphus refused to leave the manor, and the Lestranges fought back when the Guards attacked.
• Sirius deliberately staggered into the path of three spells as the newspaper on the ground began to tremble.

James and Sirius arrested the Lestrange brothers, while Sean used Bella’s imprisonment to investigate the Wizarding United Guard’s treatment of pure-blood prisoners. Sean began to suspect the Guard was pursuing a broader plan, as Grindelwald and Dumbledore discussed the courage of those challenging wizarding society.

• James and Sirius captured Rodolphus Lestrange and his two companions with a modified Devil’s Snare net, then sent them to the authorities.
• James and Sirius discussed Sirius’s estrangement from Regulus and joked about their work and family lives.
• The three Lestranges were transferred from the British Ministry of Magic to Wizarding United Guard headquarters to await punishment for torturing Muggles.
• Sean contacted Bella in prison, where she reported that several pure-blood prisoners were held in ordinary cells and seemed unusually calm.
• Sean concluded that the Guard might be cooperating with pure-blood wizards and instructed Bella to conceal her identity and gather more information.
• Sean suspected the Guard’s efforts to hold people accountable pointed to a bold plan, while Grindelwald and Dumbledore reflected on the courage of those challenging wizarding society.

At Malfoy Manor, Sean identified Evan Rosier as a traitor and had Barty Jr. bring him back dead, while leaving Regulus under suspicion. After speaking with Grindelwald on a hill, Sean asked about his mentor’s thoughts, and Grindelwald revealed he had once considered unleashing Sin to cleanse the world.

• Sean used the Sneakoscope to assess the Death Eaters and found that Evan Rosier triggered a strong warning, while Regulus appeared to intend harm against Voldemort.
• Sean sent Barty Jr. to take several Death Eaters outside, then questioned Regulus about how traitors should be punished.
• Barty Jr. and the others returned with Evan Rosier’s corpse, and Sean ordered the Death Eaters not to act until he gave further instructions.
• Sean met Grindelwald on a hill, began calling him Teacher, and told him he trusted him as an elder.
• Grindelwald told Sean he had once considered setting off the bomb inside him to let Sin descend and cleanse the world.