Chapter Summaries

Student Tierra handed the returning students over to Professor Tierra at Hogwarts, where Professor Tierra explained his new Dark Arts course and the required class choices. He sent the students to unpack and make their own beds while the House-elves prepared for the feast.

• Student Tierra passed the students through The Gate to Professor Tierra, then returned with Hermione and her luggage.
• Hermione reunited with Harry and Ron and told them she had completed Tierra's workbook and learned several spells with Professor Tierra's help.
• Professor Tierra asked whether Harry, Ron, and the others had completed their summer workbooks and warned them that his classes would involve demanding exercises and spell practice.
• Professor Tierra told Neville, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny that Hogwarts had divided Defense Against the Dark Arts into his Dark Arts class and Snape's Defense Class, and that fourth-years and above had to take at least one.
• Professor Tierra explained that the students would need to unpack and make their own beds because most House-elves were working elsewhere or preparing dinner.
• Luna arrived through The Gate, greeted Professor Tierra, and went into the castle to unpack.

Tierra expanded Hogwarts to accommodate 1,734 new students and helped launch an international education reform, while Dumbledore announced changes to the school’s courses and staff. As the new students arrived, Harry, Ron, and Hermione spotted Draco Malfoy among the Durmstrang exchange students and wondered why he was there after being expelled.

• Tierra explained that Hogwarts would admit exchange students and Muggle-born students from several countries, bringing 1,734 new students to the school.
• Tierra told Hermione, Ron, and Harry that Hogwarts would address communication with magic and introduce mathematical calculation and magical configuration alongside regular Charms classes.
• Dumbledore announced an international effort to reform magical education, divided Defense Against the Dark Arts into Dark Arts and Defense Class, and introduced Tierra, Snape, and Slughorn as teachers.
• Dumbledore welcomed the exchange students and new students from around the world as they entered the Great Hall behind Tierra.
• Ron spotted Draco Malfoy among the Durmstrang students, and Harry and Hermione questioned why he had returned after being expelled.

Tierra told Hermione and Harry about the dangerous histories of the Durmstrang students, including Sergei Ivanov and Bachkala Adenauer, whom Durmstrang had sent to Hogwarts. Hermione worried they might threaten the students, while Tierra insisted Hogwarts could handle them; Sergei quietly restrained Avdey from commenting on Tierra.

• Tierra explained that Narcissa Malfoy had arranged for Draco Malfoy to transfer to Durmstrang, which had recalled expelled students and accepted transfers.
• Tierra described Sergei Ivanov’s ambition to rule Russia and how his clique murdered heirs of the Ostrovsky and Kuragin Families before being exposed and expelled.
• Tierra identified Avdey Grunya and Lomonosov Kuragin as Sergei’s loyal followers and explained that Sergei had retaliated against informants.
• Tierra revealed that Bachkala Adenauer had killed his Muggle mother, turned her into an Inferius, and been imprisoned for controlling his father and trying to steal from the German Ministry of Magic.
• Hermione challenged Tierra over allowing the dangerous students into Hogwarts, but Tierra said the students could learn to face them under her and Dumbledore’s protection.
• Avdey whispered in Russian that Tierra did not look impressive, and Sergei silently signaled him to stop talking.

Tierra assigned the international exchange students to Hogwarts Houses at random, then explained that Mercedes Amisitia had been placed in Slytherin despite preferring Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. He warned Hermione that Mercedes was a formidable witch known as Mother Fire Dragon, leaving Hermione to question whether the assignments had really been random.

• After the exhausting sorting of the first-years, Tierra gave the exchange students House badges and explained that the badges granted access to their dormitories.
• Mercedes Amisitia questioned her Slytherin assignment and asked to join Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, prompting cheers from both Houses.
• Tierra refused to change her assignment, saying that anyone unhappy with his decision could try threatening him.
• Hermione sympathized with Mercedes, but Tierra explained that she was unpopular at Ilvermorny and had been sent to Hogwarts after another student manipulated her exam results.
• Tierra revealed that Mercedes was called Mother Fire Dragon and excelled at spells, curses, Potions, and curse-breaking, then warned that Slytherin would face chaos if it plotted against her.
• Hermione asked Tierra whether the exchange students' House assignments had truly been random.

Tierra placed the four dangerous Durmstrang transfers in Gryffindor and arranged to share their dormitory so he could watch them. After Dumbledore warned the students about Voldemort and urged them to follow safety rules, the transfers arrived at their room and found Tierra waiting inside.

• Tierra assigned Sergei Ivanov, Avdey Grunya, Lomonosov Kuragin, and Bachkala Adenauer to Gryffindor and said they would share his dormitory.
• The students ate the feast, and Dumbledore welcomed everyone back and announced rules and opportunities for the school year.
• Dumbledore warned that Voldemort and his followers were growing stronger and urged students to obey the rules and report anything suspicious.
• Hermione and Ron led the Gryffindor students, including the transfers, to their dormitories.
• Ron showed the four transfer students to their room, where Sergei found Tierra waiting and his smile froze.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined the different Tierras for breakfast, where Student Tierra said the people in his dormitory had caused no trouble overnight. Sergei Ivanov, Avdey Grunya, and Lomonosov Kuragin later appeared and quietly joined a girl, while Bachkala Adenauer was seen wandering the fourth-floor library.

• Harry and Ron met Hermione in the Common Room before breakfast.
• Student Tierra and Investigator Tierra greeted Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Dining Hall, while Professor Tierra greeted them from the teachers' table.
• Hermione asked whether the people in Tierra's dormitory had caused trouble, and Tierra replied that they had been quiet.
• Tierra sampled cured raw salmon and ordered another serving from the House-elves.
• Sergei Ivanov, Avdey Grunya, and Lomonosov Kuragin entered the Great Hall, avoided the Tierras' gaze, and sat beside a girl to speak quietly.
• Tierra spotted Bachkala Adenauer wandering in the fourth-floor library and stopped paying attention to him.

Tierra, Hermione, and Ron discussed their course choices before Professor McGonagall distributed the selection forms. Tierra chose every available course, Hermione focused on a smaller set while preparing for the Magic University entrance exam, and McGonagall helped Neville choose N.E.W.T.-level Charms instead of Transfiguration.

• Hermione confiscated a Fanged Frisbee, but Ron took it from her and kept it.
• Tierra offered to continue Care of Magical Creatures so Hermione, Harry, and Ron could stop taking Hagrid’s class without upsetting him.
• Professor McGonagall rejected Neville’s request to take N.E.W.T.-level Transfiguration and encouraged him to take Charms instead.
• Tierra selected every available course and showed McGonagall and Hermione the hourglass hidden in his right eye.
• Hermione selected a limited set of courses and began studying Ancient Runes while planning to prepare for the Magic University entrance exam.
• Professor McGonagall asked Harry which courses he would choose.

Harry added Potions to his course schedule, then joined the students gathering for Professor Tierra’s Dark Magic class. Tierra expanded the classroom and began a placement exam that would sort students by their magical knowledge.

• Professor McGonagall told Harry that Professor Slughorn would accept him into Potions and gave him his timetable and the Gryffindor Quidditch tryout list.
• Harry, Ron, and Tierra returned to the Gryffindor Common Room, where Harry discussed tryouts with Katie Bell while Tierra worked on calculations.
• Harry, Ron, and Tierra arrived at Tierra’s Dark Magic Classroom, which expanded to seat the many students attending.
• Tierra explained that the course would be divided into four ability-based classes and gave each student a four-hour placement exam.
• Tierra accelerated time in the classroom so students would experience only fifteen minutes outside it while taking the exam.

Tierra ended the four-hour Dark Magic placement exam and explained how students would be grouped into classes and advance through monthly tests. He reassured Ron, Hermione, and Harry that they had the right mindset for the Fast Class, while warning them that studying Dark Magic would demand patience and rigorous thought.

• Tierra collected the students’ papers and explained that the exam would not affect their grades, then outlined the four class levels and monthly opportunities to move up.
• Ron and Hermione worried about being placed in the Slow Class, but Tierra told them that all of them would qualify for the Fast Class.
• Tierra explained that many exam questions were intentionally too advanced or unsolvable, because he was testing students’ mindset as well as their foundational knowledge.
• Tierra praised Ron for leaving contradictory questions alone, advised Harry to use better methods, and noted that Hermione had resisted forcing answers to questions she could not solve.
• Hermione complained about the length and difficulty of the exam, and Tierra said enduring that pressure prepared students for the greater strain of studying Dark Magic.

Harry and Ron attended Slughorn’s first N.E.W.T. Potions lesson, where Hermione identified several advanced potions and earned Gryffindor points. The class ended on Tierra’s unsettling question about whether Amortentia could affect a child conceived after a witch used it on a Muggle.

• Harry told Jack that he had not yet scheduled Quidditch tryouts and would announce the time later.
• Tierra arrived in class as a Hogwarts investigator and asked Slughorn to let him observe the lesson.
• Slughorn lent Harry and Ron old copies of Advanced Potion Making and sets of scales because they had not bought their supplies.
• Hermione identified Veritaserum, Polyjuice Potion, and Amortentia, and Slughorn awarded Gryffindor twenty points for her knowledge.
• Tierra asked Slughorn whether Amortentia could affect a child conceived after a witch used the potion on a male Muggle.

Tierra revealed Voldemort’s origins and used them to explain why painful, unforgettable memories could serve as anchor points for his return. He then turned the lesson to the final potion, Felix Felicis, as Slughorn asked Hermione to identify it.

• Tierra told the class how Merope Gaunt used Amortentia on Tom Riddle Sr., gave birth to Tom Riddle Jr., and died after Riddle abandoned her.
• Tierra questioned Slughorn about Tom Riddle Jr.’s behavior at school, then compared Riddle’s supposed normality with his own admitted cruelty and disregard for rules.
• Tierra warned the students against using Amortentia on someone who did not love them and said he had once been Voldemort himself.
• Tierra explained that Voldemort’s return required painful and unforgettable anchor points, and that he had concealed his origins while promoting his greatness and power.
• Slughorn introduced the final potion as Felix Felicis, and Hermione identified it as liquid luck.

During Horace Slughorn’s lesson on Felix Felicis, Tierra questioned how the potion produced good luck and whether it affected the drinker, the outside world, or fate itself. Tierra recorded the unanswered questions and said he planned to support further magical research through projects and a Research Fund.

• Horace Slughorn explained Felix Felicis’s effects, risks, and the two times he had taken it.
• Tierra asked whether Felix Felicis influenced the drinker, the surrounding world, or the drinker’s entire thread of fate.
• Horace Slughorn admitted he was unsure how the potion worked.
• Investigator Tierra recorded the questions and announced plans for research projects and a Research Fund.

Tierra questioned Horace Slughorn about how Felix Felicis worked, how its use could be detected, and whether it altered people’s emotions. The chapter ended as Tierra began asking whether the potion could make a prophecy come true, invoking Harry and the prophecy about the Dark Lord.

• Slughorn explained that a small bottle of Felix Felicis could bring twelve hours of good luck, but warned that it was banned in competitions, examinations, and elections.
• Tierra challenged Slughorn on how authorities could detect the potion’s use during an examination or election, and Slughorn admitted there was no reliable method during an exam.
• Slughorn said Felix Felicis could cause excitement, arrogance, and excessive talkativeness, but could not answer whether it magnified each drinker’s individual emotions.
• Tierra asked whether Felix Felicis could bring a prophecy to pass, then began reciting the prophecy about the one destined to vanquish the Dark Lord and Harry.

Horace Slughorn challenged the class to brew a Living Hell Potion for a bottle of Felix Felicis, and Tierra quickly prepared a nearly finished potion while Harry struggled with the annotated textbook. Seamus Finnigan’s cauldron exploded, and Slughorn ended the lesson before announcing a winner.

• Horace Slughorn offered Felix Felicis to the student who brewed the best Living Hell Potion before time ran out.
• Tierra brewed smoothly without a textbook and helped Harry extract juice from a Soporific Bean, bringing Harry’s potion to the textbook’s pale-purple stage.
• Hermione objected that Harry and Tierra were supposed to work independently, while Tierra pointed out the class was ignoring safety precautions.
• Seamus Finnigan’s cauldron exploded, singeing his eyebrows, and Horace Slughorn hurried to clear up the mess.
• Horace Slughorn announced that time was up and ordered the students to stop stirring.

Tierra won the Potions lesson’s Felix Felicis reward, and after class he approached Horace Slughorn to ask him a private question. The chapter left Slughorn wary as Tierra began the conversation.

• Tierra brewed a flawless Living Hell Potion, while Harry’s potion was unfinished when Horace Slughorn called time.
• Horace Slughorn awarded Tierra a vial of Felix Felicis and advised him to use it wisely.
• After the students left for dinner, Tierra startled Horace Slughorn as he cleared away the potions.
• Tierra praised Horace Slughorn’s lesson and said he had a question to ask him in private.

Tierra confronted Horace Slughorn about Voldemort’s Horcruxes, then assured him the past would stay buried. He left Slughorn startled and delighted by an invitation to join the Golden Books Conference.

• Tierra told Slughorn he had found information about Horcruxes in the Restricted Section and named the magic aloud.
• Slughorn suspected Dumbledore had sent Tierra to question him and reached for an antidote to Veritaserum.
• Tierra said he already knew about Voldemort’s seven Horcruxes and had destroyed several of them.
• Tierra promised Slughorn that no one would bring up the past again.
• Tierra invited Slughorn to join the Golden Books Conference, and Slughorn reacted with shock and delight.

Tierra invited Horace Slughorn to join the Golden Books Conference, offering him Nicolas Flamel’s research notes and a chance to qualify by creating a Philosopher’s Stone. The next day, Tierra interrupted Snape’s fourth-year Defense Class by arriving late and sitting in as an observer.

• Tierra explained the Golden Books Conference’s admission requirements and told Horace Slughorn he had to become long-lived to qualify.
• Tierra forbade Horace Slughorn from using Horcruxes and set creating a Philosopher’s Stone as his entrance examination.
• Tierra gave Horace Slughorn Nicolas Flamel’s records and experimental notes, then left him studying them in the Potions basement.
• Snape began teaching his fourth-year Defense Class in a darkened classroom decorated with disturbing paintings.
• Tierra arrived late to Snape’s class, took a seat in the back, and said his visit would be a major topic at the faculty meeting.

Snape demonstrated the dangers of Dark Magic and ordered the students to duel, but Tierra got them fighting by exploiting their secrets. Afterward, Tierra privately told Snape to inform Voldemort that Horace Slughorn was refining the Philosopher’s Stone and was close to success.

• Snape explained that Defense lessons had to adapt constantly and showed the class images of Dark Magic’s victims.
• Snape cleared the classroom and ordered the students to pair off and attack one another, but they hesitated.
• Tierra provoked Niels Rosen into stunning Adama Mariko by claiming Adama had betrayed his romantic feelings for Jennifer Bell.
• Tierra revealed that Adama actually liked Niels, then threatened to expose other students’ secrets until they began dueling.
• Tierra told Snape to let Voldemort know that Horace Slughorn was refining the Philosopher’s Stone and nearly finished.

Tierra investigated Mercedes Amisitia’s arson and used Time Magic to reveal that her roommates had burned her bag and stolen her essays. He punished the students involved and left their belongings reduced to charcoal.

• Mercedes Amisitia set her Slytherin dormitory on fire after her roommates hid her essay, and Tierra restored the dormitory while deducting points from Slytherin.
• Tierra gave Mercedes a month of probation and school service for illegally using Legilimency, then questioned her about what had happened.
• Tierra used his golden eye to rewind the scene to 7:13 and showed the four girls breaking into Mercedes’s bag and stealing her essays.
• Tierra returned everyone to the present and set the four girls’ beds and belongings on fire, leaving Sarah Palmer to protest that Mercedes was also at fault.

Tierra confronted Sarah Palmer over her defense of Slytherin and assigned Mercedes Amisitia a school service task, while Harry continued using the Half-Blood Prince’s potions notes. The chapter ended with Hermione questioning whether the Prince might have been a girl.

• Tierra accused Sarah Palmer and Slytherin House of hypocrisy, prejudice, and ties to the Death Eaters, and claimed their founder Salazar Slytherin despised them.
• Tierra dismissed the gathering and told Mercedes Amisitia to meet him after the next Dark Arts class to choose a school service assignment.
• Sergei Ivanov, Avdey Grunya, and Lomonosov Kuragin asked Tierra about Dark Magic, and he answered while remaining wary of their motives.
• Harry followed the Half-Blood Prince’s potion instructions, earning praise from Horace Slughorn, while Ron struggled with the notes and Hermione stuck to the textbook.
• Harry showed Tierra spells written in the book, and Tierra said they were safe to learn but warned him not to use them on classmates.
• Hermione speculated that the Half-Blood Prince might have been a girl, and Harry questioned how a girl could be called a prince.