Chapter Summaries

After Sean survived a battle with Max Dawson and the Dementors, Daisy drove them away with a powerful silver Fire Dragon Patronus and rushed to his side. The professors escorted Sean back to Hogwarts as his friends gathered around him, while Snape watched him in a fury and Hermione finally ran toward him.

• Daisy summoned a silver Fire Dragon Patronus that drove the Dementors away from Sean and shielded him on the shattered covered bridge.
• Daisy stumbled into Sean’s arms, and Professor McGonagall examined him before he reassured them that he was only magically exhausted.
• Sean told the professors that Max Dawson had summoned the Dementors and died at their hands, while withholding details of the battle.
• Professor McGonagall arranged for Sean to be examined by Madam Pomfrey and led him back to the students after Daisy dismissed her Patronus.
• Sean’s friends gathered around him, and he learned that students including Malfoy had come to help; Snape watched him with barely contained rage.
• Hermione, visibly worried and conflicted, ran toward Sean after Stephanie asked whether she would go to him.

After Sean and Daisy survived the attack on Hogwarts, the professors investigated the intruder and secured a mysterious box in Professor McGonagall’s office. The next morning, while students inspected the damaged bridge, an intruder entered the office and was confronted by Professor McGonagall and another hidden person.

• Sean reassured his friends, and Hermione scolded Daisy for rushing into danger before the two girls made up.
• Students spread exaggerated stories about Sean’s fight and Daisy’s enormous Patronus while Fred and George encouraged the rumors.
• Madam Pomfrey found Sean unharmed, and he quietly asked Professor McGonagall to secure something in her office.
• Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick placed a spell-covered black box in her office for safekeeping.
• Professor McGonagall awarded Ravenclaw one hundred points for Sean and fifty for Daisy, then the students went to see the ruined bridge.
• A concealed visitor entered Professor McGonagall’s office, where Professor McGonagall and another invisible person revealed themselves and noted there was another intruder.

Sean and Professor McGonagall tried to use the black crystal as bait to uncover Dawson’s accomplice, but the suspect escaped after leading them to an empty classroom. Sean returned to Hogwarts amid exaggerated rumors about his battle, only to face an angry Snape.

• Sean explained that Isabelle Petty was likely under the Imperius Curse and that the hidden accomplice would report back after searching McGonagall’s office.
• Sean and Professor McGonagall followed Isabelle through the castle, but warning spells alerted the accomplice, who escaped from an empty classroom through a window.
• Professor McGonagall found that Isabelle had broken free of the Imperius Curse and had no memory of who controlled her.
• Sean returned to the Great Hall, where exaggerated stories about his fight with Dawson and Daisy Potter’s Patronus drew cheers and embarrassed Daisy.
• Snape confronted Sean in a corridor and addressed him as “Mr.—Wallop—”.

Sean encountered Snape, who reprimanded him for recklessly putting himself and others in danger, then questioned him about Daisy Potter and her Patronus. Snape sent Sean away with emergency potions, poisons, and an almost-expired Felix Felicis, warning him not to make Daisy worry or get hurt again.

• Sean tried to avoid Snape, but Snape intercepted him and revealed that he had collected a cloud of Mist Particle Floating Poison from the air.
• Snape brought Sean to an empty classroom and warned him to think carefully before acting because others could be endangered trying to save him.
• Snape asked whether Sean had feelings for Daisy Potter, and Sean accidentally answered yes before trying to explain himself.
• Snape asked about Daisy's Patronus and grew visibly distressed when Sean said he could guess the memory behind it.
• Snape told Sean to study Blood Curses and not make Daisy worry or get hurt, then gave him a case of emergency potions and poisons along with an almost-expired Felix Felicis.

Sean received potions and poisons from Snape, then searched the Restricted Section for information about the Black Rhombus Crystal. A clue in the library’s borrowing records pointed to Hogwarts Library as a possible place where the Imperius-controlled students had been targeted, though the infiltrator remained unidentified.

• Snape gave Sean an assortment of powerful potions and poisons, including Felix Felicis intended for Daisy, and told him to research the potion with a skilled Potions student.
• Sean searched the Restricted Section for information about the Black Rhombus Crystal but found nothing useful.
• Padma told Sean that Parvati was recovering and mentioned that she had returned books borrowed by Parvati and Lavender.
• Sean realized the books had been borrowed on the day Parvati and Lavender were controlled, then checked the records and found that Isabelle Petty had also borrowed a book that day.
• Sean asked Madam Pince whether anyone else had been in the library when Isabelle visited, and Madam Pince said no one else had entered.

Sean suspected that Lockhart was the infiltrator and searched Madam Pince’s Rest Room, where he found Lockhart’s hidden letters, memory bottles, and contact information. Meanwhile, Voldemort visited the imprisoned Barty Crouch Jr., who mistook his captors for enemies and insisted he would never betray his master.

• Sean questioned Madam Pince about places to hide in the library, and she identified her locked Rest Room as the only possibility.
• Sean told Stephanie that he suspected Lockhart and asked her to alert the professors and keep watch on him.
• Sean entered Madam Pince’s Rest Room with Naja and discovered a hidden stash of Lockhart’s letters, empty memory bottles, and an organization’s contact details.
• Sean decided it was time to confront Lockhart after finding the evidence.
• Voldemort entered Barty Crouch Jr.’s cell, and Barty insisted he would never betray his master before Voldemort revealed himself.

Voldemort visited Barty Crouch Jr. in the Returners’ dungeon and tried to persuade him that Sean Wallop had impersonated him. Barty revealed he knew the truth and remained loyal to Sean, leaving Voldemort to order his memories forcibly read.

• Voldemort confronted Barty Crouch Jr. while a black-robed Returner recounted how Barty had resisted capture and mistaken the Returners for enemies.
• Voldemort offered Barty another chance to serve him and asked him to open his mind so he could inspect his memories.
• Barty blocked Voldemort’s Legilimency, spat in his face, and declared that Sean Wallop was his true master and the real Voldemort had already changed bodies.
• Voldemort tried to kill Barty, but the black-robed man stopped him because Barty might know useful information about Sean.
• After leaving the dungeon, Voldemort ordered the Returners to forcibly read Barty’s memories.

Sean and the professors exposed Lockhart as a mole trying to help send a prophecy memory out of Hogwarts. They stopped his accomplice, Madam Puddifoot, but she destroyed the memory before they could recover it.

• Stephanie told Sean that Lockhart was pretending to pack while stalling for someone else to send away the prophecy memory.
• Professor McGonagall and the others stormed Lockhart’s office, stunned him, and searched for the missing memory without finding it.
• Snape used Veritaserum, and Lockhart revealed that Madam Puddifoot was under the Imperius Curse and tasked with sending out the item.
• Sean explained how Nick’s account had led him to suspect Madam Puddifoot, and Professor Flitwick confirmed she had been caught in Hogsmeade.
• Professor Flitwick reported that Madam Puddifoot had destroyed the prophecy memory, leaving only a shattered bottle and traces of silver wisps.

Voldemort forced Barty Crouch Jr.'s memories from him and watched Sean Wallerup win Barty's devotion by posing as a trusted friend. The memory revealed Sean knew Voldemort's past and claimed Voldemort had deliberately separated a piece of his soul, leaving Voldemort furious and shaken.

• Voldemort ordered the bulbous-nosed wizard to extract Barty Crouch Jr.'s memories, and the wizard tortured Barty until he obtained them.
• Wormtail poured the extracted memory into the Pensieve, and Voldemort entered it to watch Barty pledge loyalty to Sean Wallerup at the Malfoy Family manor.
• Sean told Barty he considered him a friend and confided that he had once shared Voldemort's unhappy past and ambitions.
• Sean explained that he had succeeded in taking Wallerup's body but had deliberately separated a piece of his soul as an impurity.
• Voldemort recognized that Sean knew secrets from his past and roared Wallerup's name in rage.

Sean’s memory revealed how he had deceived Barty Jr. into guarding against a false version of Voldemort, enraging the real Voldemort. Back at Hogwarts, Sean explained Lockhart’s infiltration to Hermione and Daisy while worrying about the Returners’ plans and his missed Potions class.

• In the memory, Sean convinced Barty Jr. that a dangerous Soul Fragment might impersonate Voldemort during his coming seclusion and warned him not to be fooled.
• Voldemort watched the memory, ordered Wormtail out, and blasted the room while vowing to kill Sean Wallop.
• Hermione confronted Sean for missing Snape’s Potions class, and Sean explained that Lockhart had been the final infiltrator.
• Daisy offered to plead with Snape for Sean, but Sean refused and resigned himself to being punished in the next class.
• Sean considered the Returners’ interest in Trelawney’s prophecy, Lockhart’s Memory Charm expertise, and Dawson’s Black Rhombus Crystal, but found no trusted person available to discuss them with.

Sean learned that the Returners had called the Black Rhombus Crystal an Obsession Entity, but he could not discover how it worked. Stephanie connected it to Ancient Runes and offered to help Sean investigate.

• Snape assigned the class a Potions essay and gave Sean an extra ten inches for skipping a lesson.
• Sean learned that the professors had failed to extract useful information from Lockhart, but had discovered the Returners called the Black Rhombus Crystal an Obsession Entity.
• Sean examined the Obsession Entity and found that spells, touch, and magical sensing produced no reaction.
• Stephanie told Sean that she and Professor Babbling believed the Obsession Entity was connected to Ancient Runes and Ancient Magic.
• Stephanie offered to help Sean, explaining that her accumulated knowledge surpassed even Madam Pince's.

Sean asked Stephanie to help identify the Obsession Entity, and she used her extraordinary memory and knowledge of Hogwarts books to search the Restricted Section with him. They found a dark fairy tale whose illustration showed a black rhombus crystal almost identical to the Obsession Entity.

• Stephanie demonstrated her inherited ability to memorize everything she saw and offered to help Sean search Hogwarts books for information.
• Sean showed Stephanie the Obsession Entity, and she recalled seven Restricted Section books that mentioned Black Rhombus Crystals.
• Sean and Stephanie entered the library at night and checked several books, but their descriptions did not match the Obsession Entity.
• After discovering Madam Pince had rearranged the shelves, Stephanie found Collection of Greedy Poet's Stories on an outer bookshelf.
• Sean read the story's title and saw an illustration of a Bard holding a black rhombus crystal nearly identical to the Obsession Entity.

Sean identified the strange Bard’s gemstone in the story as the Obsession Entity he sought, and Stephanie read the tale aloud. The story ended with the Bard killing both the robin and the Wisdom Snake, while Sean and Stephanie’s investigation remained unresolved.

• Sean recognized the gemstone in the illustration as the Obsession Entity stored in his ring.
• Sean told Stephanie that the story seemed to describe the entity he was seeking and handed her the book.
• Stephanie read the tale of a Bard who rejected the Wisdom Snake’s temptations throughout his journey.
• The Bard tricked the Wisdom Snake into surrendering its fangs and carried it to the robin’s home.
• The Bard stabbed the robin with the snake’s fang, then crushed the snake in its sack.

Sean and Stephanie interpreted the dark fairy tale as a possible account of the Bard causing the Realm of Illusion to collapse, and they wondered whether he still lived and might lead the Returners. They ended with a new question about the birds’ role and the identity of the book’s author.

• Stephanie read that the Bard took a fragment of the black gemstone, used it to create a dark duplicate, and escaped the collapsing world after singing of Robin’s death.
• Sean and Stephanie connected the story’s trials to the seven deadly sins and suspected the Bard might have survived to become the Returners’ leader.
• Sean explained the Realm of Illusion, and they considered whether its collapse had sent its dead fleeing as Half-Ghost Returners.
• Stephanie pointed out that Sparrow faced another Bird Court trial despite having already been tried, and Sean suspected the birds were accomplices.
• Stephanie hurriedly searched the book and asked who had written it.

Sean and Stephanie examined the authorless Collection of Greedy Poet's Stories and theorized that its tales concealed the Bard's role in the Realm of Illusion. Their search for answers remained unresolved, and Sean discovered that Stephanie had written a parchment listing Hogwarts' secret rooms before quietly leaving her to rest.

• Sean and Stephanie read the Collection of Greedy Poet's Stories and noticed that its stories shared the Bard but lacked a clear connection.
• Stephanie proposed that the stories chronicled the Bard's corruption and that their author may have been an observer from the Realm of Illusion.
• Sean and Stephanie theorized that the Bard had killed the Wisdom Snake and Robin, gained their authority, and been watched by the collection's author.
• Sean considered ways to reach the ruined Realm of Illusion and wondered whether Dumbledore or Grindelwald knew its secrets.
• Stephanie fell asleep in a chair, so Sean carried her to bed and found a parchment in her handwriting listing Hogwarts' secret rooms and ways to enter them.

Sean taught his first-year Transfiguration students to sense their magic through exercise, helping them improve their spell control. He left after awarding Campbell Axston potions and an original spell, while Fiora asked Axston for his home telephone number.

• Sean made the students exercise while sensing their magic, then explained how physical exertion made it more active and easier to control.
• Fiora used her heightened awareness to turn a mouse into a patterned snuffbox without a tail, and the other students tested their improved Transfiguration.
• Sean awarded Campbell Axston ten bottles of Transfiguration Solidification Potion and a parchment containing one of his original spells.
• After Sean left, Fiora offered Axston advice about the potion and asked for his home telephone number.

Fiora confronted Axston about his inability to refuse his classmates, befriended him, and offered to stand up for him in exchange for his Transfiguration insights. After final exams ended, Sean, Hermione, and Daisy investigated a nursery rhyme that seemed connected to the poet’s experiences in the Realm of Illusion, then heard a knock at the Room of Requirement door.

• Fiora led Axston aside, criticized how classmates took advantage of him, and persuaded him to exchange contact information so she could help him refuse them.
• Sean and Stephanie watched Fiora and Axston leave together, then discussed Sean’s long-running effort to build his own faction.
• The students completed their unusually demanding exams, and Dumbledore returned with news that restrictions outside Hogwarts had been eased somewhat.
• Sean, Hermione, and Daisy studied Collection of Greedy Poet's Stories and searched for links between the Realm of Illusion and the real world.
• Hermione noticed that a nursery rhyme resembled the poet’s experiences in the Realm of Illusion, and someone knocked on the Room of Requirement door.

Sean spent an awkward evening in the Room of Requirement with Hermione, Daisy, and Stephanie after Stephanie brought them a cake. The gathering ended with Stephanie asking Sean once again for his home telephone number.

• Stephanie entered the Room of Requirement intending to ask Sean for his home telephone number, then noticed Hermione and Daisy and offered to share the cake she had brought.
• Hermione and Daisy persuaded Stephanie to stay, and Hermione divided the cake into portions while Stephanie demonstrated the enchanted miniature unicorn decoration.
• Sean tried to use Dave to learn what the girls were thinking, but Dave could only smell their brains and could not read minds.
• The four ate cake and chatted about Hogwarts gossip and classmates’ relationships until midnight, while Sean remained uncomfortable.
• Sean used spells to help the girls stand after their legs went numb, and Stephanie again asked him for his home telephone number.

Stephanie asked Sean for his home phone number so she could share clues from her family’s books about the story and nursery rhyme, while Hermione and Daisy reacted with quiet jealousy. After the school year ended with Ravenclaw winning the House Cup, Sean reunited with his family and Hermione’s, and Stephanie approached his parents to introduce herself before the summer.

• Stephanie offered to search her family’s books for clues about the story and nursery rhyme, and Sean gave her his contact information.
• Hermione and Daisy left the Room of Requirement after Stephanie departed, while Sean dealt with Dave and the Aero-Wing Bird.
• Sean topped Hermione in the year’s results, Daisy excelled in every subject, and Percy passed his N.E.W.T.s but reconsidered his career plans.
• Ravenclaw won the House Cup at the end-of-term feast, and the students boarded the Hogwarts Express the next day.
• Sean reunited with Ayla and his parents at the station, while Hermione reunited with Mr. and Mrs. Granger.
• Stephanie approached Sean’s family, asked him to keep in touch over the summer, and introduced herself to his parents.

After returning home, Sean relaxed with his family and found that his Magic Power Source was growing faster. Stephanie called with information about the mysterious story and a new lead, and Sean offered to visit her, unaware that she already had permission for him to enter Diagon Alley.

• Mr. and Mrs. Wallop asked Sean about Stephanie, while Ayla asked whether Stephanie would call and whether she could answer.
• Sean checked the Wallop family's defenses, gave gifts to the wizards protecting them, and enjoyed a restful summer at home as his Magic Power Source grew more quickly.
• Ayla answered Stephanie's call and chatted with her before passing the phone to Sean.
• Sean called Stephanie cute, and the system announced that he had completed the task to increase five girls' favorability toward him.
• Stephanie told Sean she had found useful information about the earlier story and discovered a new one, then agreed that he should come visit her despite the strict checks at the Leaky Cauldron.