Chapter Summaries

Rowena identified Herpo the Foul’s plan to use Nagini’s blood curse and a hidden woman to seize freedom, then guided Nelson and Tom in dismantling the giant snake and rescuing the woman. Herpo was trapped as the woman emerged, and he began appealing to Nelson as his master.

• Herpo the Foul accelerated Nagini’s transformation while Nelson, Rowena, and Tom waited for an opening.
• Nagini changed into a giant snake whose green-eyed face spoke with Herpo the Foul’s will and taunted Nelson and Tom.
• Nelson wounded and restrained the snake, exposing a woman inside its body who was being drained of magic and soul fragments.
• Herpo the Foul threatened to make the woman explode if the group injured his pet, but Rowena anticipated his moves and directed Nelson and Tom to attack the snake’s soul.
• Nelson and Tom aged and corroded the snake with their spells, leaving its spine behind as the woman emerged from the shrinking tumor.
• Herpo the Foul remained trapped before taking control of the woman and began addressing Nelson as his master.

Nelson and Tom trapped Herpo the Foul’s soul fragment in the Basilisk’s bones, then destroyed it after Nagini woke. Nagini approached Tom, but Nelson learned Tom had not told her the news that was supposed to wake her.

• Nelson used the Lost Mist to erode the runes holding Herpo inside the Basilisk’s skull, while Rowena directed Tom to restrain the soul with Basilisk fangs and a Mind Lock.
• Rowena explained that the Basilisk’s venom could devastate Herpo’s soul and that Nagini needed to wake before they could save her.
• Tom tried to rouse Nagini, and she awakened after Herpo angrily reacted to what Tom said.
• Tom destroyed the Basilisk’s skeleton with a spell and venomous fangs, and Nelson used the Lost Mist to consume Herpo’s weakened soul fragment.
• Rowena brought the unsteady Nagini to Tom, who told Nelson he had not shared the news that Nelson thought had awakened her.

Nelson and Rowena planned to use Animagus transformation to help Nagini's human soul adapt to her snake body, while Nagini learned that Credence might still be alive. Nelson and Nagini began training without speaking, but Tom's return interrupted Nelson's written explanation.

• Nagini thanked Tom, Nelson, and Rowena for breaking her Blood Malediction, and Tom reminded her that she was a person, not a snake.
• Rowena explained that Nagini's soul and body no longer matched, so Nelson proposed using Animagus transformation to help her regain a human form.
• Nelson told Nagini that Newt Scamander had been searching for Credence and that Credence might still be alive.
• Nelson explained his Animagus plan to Rowena, who agreed to teach him and Nagini the necessary precautions.
• Tom and Nelson struggled through a day of silent Animagus training, with Tom frustrated that he could neither speak nor watch Nelson hold the leaf in his mouth.
• Nelson wrote jokes on a blackboard about his improved state of being, then realized Tom had returned and was glaring at him.

Tom and Nelson learned how Rowena Ravenclaw’s memories shaped the yew that became the Dryad, and Rowena offered Tom the diadem if he could find a way to preserve the Dryad’s identity. After Rowena vanished, Tom considered how to imitate her magic, while Troka confronted Borgin Burke at the edge of the Albanian forest.

• Tom silenced Nelson to protect his Animagus preparations, and Nelson explained that he had sent the Dryad’s false soul into Limbo, awakening Rowena Ravenclaw within it.
• Nelson suggested that Tom consider whether Rowena would give him the diadem, and Rowena returned in human form to discuss the Dryad’s origins.
• Rowena explained that the Dryad had grown from Helena’s dead yew stump and absorbed Rowena’s memories through the diadem’s magic, leaving her no choice in becoming like Rowena.
• Rowena warned that stripping away those memories would be like killing the Dryad and promised Tom the diadem if he devised a reasonable way to preserve her independent identity.
• Rowena transformed into a yew and vanished, leaving the diadem behind; Tom asked Nelson whether he could learn the magic.
• At the forest’s edge, Troka introduced himself to Borgin Burke, and the two revealed that they had each come looking for a relative.

Rowena held an intensive Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson for Nelson and Tom in the forest, then the three prepared food at the cabin. A tremor interrupted them, and Rowena explained that she had driven away two strangers who had been fighting outside the forest.

• Rowena turned the clearing behind the cabin into a classroom and taught Nelson and Tom about thirty-five combat charms.
• Tom told Rowena that Nagini remained stable but was still suffering phantom limb pain, and Rowena said pain could help her remember she was human.
• After class, Nelson wrote a letter to Professor Binns about ideas inspired by Rowena's lesson, while Tom gathered mushrooms and small animals for a meal.
• Nelson and Tom cooked at the cabin, and Nelson wrote that Tom should bring Nagini over so she could move around.
• A tremor shook the ground, and Tom and Nelson rushed outside with the pot, bread, and Dittany.
• Rowena returned and told Tom that she had driven away two strangers, whom she described as a fool and a mute.

Nelson read Professor Binns’s letters, which explained the Word Spirit Art and discussed the Ravenclaw memory tutoring Tom. Dumbledore arrived to examine the gravely injured Nagini and asked Nelson to help him.

• Professor Binns explained that Salazar created the Word Spirit Art, and he believed Tom’s magic had caused Nelson’s Patronus to change rather than fail.
• Professor Binns said the Ravenclaw Nelson had encountered was probably a memory preserved in the Diadem and urged him to learn from her.
• Tom fed the Hogwarts owl Tomatoes, then learned from Rowena that Nelson’s Animagus training required at least twenty-three more days and a storm.
• Nelson opened the acorn sent by Professor Binns, and Dumbledore emerged to help Nagini, whose injuries he said were too severe and urgent.
• Dumbledore unzipped his suitcase and asked Nelson to help him treat Nagini.

Dumbledore brought Nelson into Limbo to treat Nagini’s wounded soul, where he discovered that she was hiding severe facial injuries and revealed that Credence Barebone had sought a way to slow her Blood Malediction. The chapter ended with Dumbledore searching for the mythical treasure he believed could help Nagini, only to find it missing.

• Dumbledore summoned Fawkes to care for Nagini’s body, then entered Limbo with Nelson to find her soul.
• Nelson led Dumbledore to Nagini beneath the Yew, where she trembled and recoiled from the professor.
• Dumbledore borrowed Nelson’s wand and began treating Nagini while Nelson noticed bloodstains and asked what had happened to her face.
• Dumbledore persuaded Nagini to raise her head and revealed that Credence Barebone had once entrusted him with something meant to help her.
• Dumbledore explained that Credence had found a treasure that could fool the monster parasitizing Nagini’s soul and help deceive her body, then discovered he could not find it where he had left it.

Nelson retrieved the Invisibility Cloak from Limbo, and Dumbledore discovered that it hid Nagini from spiritual detection and calmed her Blood Malediction symptoms. Nagini regained hope of facing the coming full moon in better health, while Dumbledore departed and Nelson remained with the cloak and a bottle of dew.

• Dumbledore reassured Nagini that Credence had spoken about her and wanted to return, while treating the wound on her face.
• Nelson left Limbo and heard Fawkes sing before finding the Invisibility Cloak on the ground.
• Nelson brought the cloak back to Dumbledore, who found that Lost Mist revealed its outline.
• Dumbledore draped the cloak over Nagini, calming her symptoms and concealing her soul from the Lost Mist and ghost-detection magic.
• Dumbledore explained that the cloak might help Nagini remain healthy until the full moon, and Nagini praised Nelson as the greatest Transfiguration master in the world.
• Dumbledore left Nelson a bottle of dew and departed in the phoenix's firelight.

Tom discovered that Nelson could speak and had pretended to be mute for a week, then caught him in a snake net. Meanwhile, Rowena captured Troka and Borgin Burke in the forest, and a strange wand formed from spilled dew and revealed a promising place to collect more.

• Tom realized Nelson had been able to speak all week and used a snake net to catch him.
• Tom freed Nelson and recognized that his ability to read people’s eyes had returned as a form of Legilimency.
• Rowena watched Tom and Nelson walk toward the cottage, then reflected on her strained relationship with Helena.
• Rowena caught Troka and Borgin Burke fighting in a vine net and carried them into the canopy.
• Tom and Nelson discussed collecting dew, and a shattered bottle’s liquid formed a wand that identified a good dew-collecting spot near a cave.

Nelson and Tom prepared Animagus Potions for Nagini, who drank hers during a storm and endured a painful transformation. She emerged with a human hand, while Tom rushed down the mountain and appeared before her as a small cat.

• Nelson and Tom brewed two Animagus Potions beneath the full moon and stored them in a cave for Nagini and Tom.
• Rowena warned that a storm was approaching, and Tom waited through the night for the transformation to begin.
• Nagini retrieved her Potion and wand, reached the prepared clearing, and cast the Animagus spell in Parseltongue.
• Nagini drank the Potion and endured intense pain as she repeatedly declared that she wanted to be human.
• Nagini’s heartbeat synchronized with another rhythm, and she transformed enough to see a human hand and hear her own female voice.
• Tom descended from the mountaintop in his cat form and landed before Nagini.

Nelson and Nagini completed their Animagus transformations, and Nelson revealed that Nagini was alive and human again. As Nagini began adjusting to her body, Nelson went to fetch Tom and then set off with him to gather food for her first meal.

• Nagini mistook Nelson, transformed into a silver kitten, for a messenger of death, but he told her she was not dead.
• Nelson explained that he had transformed into a cat and used magic to dry Nagini’s clothes and hair.
• Nagini struggled to walk again as she returned toward the cottage, while Nelson encouraged her and promised to prepare a lavish meal.
• Nelson found Tom at the mountaintop, where Tom tried to trap him, but Nelson swiftly pinned him down.
• Nelson pushed Tom off the cliff to gather mushrooms and food, then leaped into the moonlit sky.

Tom and Nelson celebrated Nagini’s birthday, and Rowena gave her a wand that revealed a connection to the wand’s former owner. Rowena brought in the captured Troka, who asked Tom and Nelson to tell Albus that he had been harassed and captured.

• Tom and Rowena welcomed Nagini as family and celebrated her birthday with Longevity Noodles and a feast.
• Rowena gave Nagini a wand, and Nagini accidentally fired a powerful spell into the distance.
• Tom recognized the wand as having belonged to a nephew of Caractacus Burke, who he remembered being blown to pieces.
• Rowena returned with two people bound in thorns and revealed Troka, who asked Tom and Nelson to tell Albus he had been harassed and captured.

Troka recovered from his hunger and identified the bound man as an impostor using Borgin Burke’s name, though the man claimed to recognize Nelson and Tom. When the impostor tried to bargain for his azure eye and threatened to reveal their identities, Nelson exposed his attempt to escape and send messages through soul fragments.

• Troka ate the food Nelson provided and explained that Borgin Burke’s poisoned blood had nearly killed him.
• Nelson and Tom questioned the bound man and confirmed his voice and manner matched the Borgin Burke they knew, though his face was different.
• Tom opened a lead box containing an azure eye, and the bound man struggled violently to get it.
• The bound man identified Nelson and Tom by their real names and offered cooperation in exchange for the eye and other help.
• Nelson revealed that Mayflies had caught the man’s soul fragments carrying translucent eyeballs, exposing his attempt to escape and pass on messages.

After Borgin Burke’s body collapsed, Tom extracted a final memory revealing that Bruce Rosier had been used as Borgin’s host and sent as a disposable eye for Caractacus’s ancestor. Nelson concluded that the ancestor was Herpo the Foul, but before they could discuss a prophecy, a cloaked creature emerged from the corpse’s right eye.

• Borgin Burke appeared to die, but his left eye opened, and Tom captured the dying consciousness’s memory in a glass bottle.
• Nelson released the memory into a cloud, showing Bruce Rosier’s unremarkable life and how Borgin took control of his body and made him an Inferius.
• The memory revealed Caractacus had sent Bruce to witness Herpo the Foul’s attempted rebirth, expecting Bruce to die if anyone obstructed it.
• Nelson identified Herpo the Foul as the Borgin ancestor and chose to leave his Horcruxes intact while events remained within his influence.
• The corpse’s right eye opened, and a huge black-cloaked creature forced its way out as Rowena called Bruce unfortunate and Tom raised his wand.

Tom confronted Rowena about whether she was truly the memory of Rowena Ravenclaw, and argued that she deserved the right to choose who she wanted to be. The chapter ended with Rowena thanking him and saying she liked the name Lady Rowena.

• A new Dementor emerged from Bruce's corpse, spreading despair until Tom's black snake dragged it and the corpse underground.
• Tom erased Troka's memories of what had happened, then took him away for treatment after the spell left him dazed.
• Tom told Rowena that her behavior suggested she was more than a memory preserved in the Diadem, and Rowena acknowledged that she had grown into a living being with her own body and magic.
• Tom said Rowena deserved the right to choose for herself and left the Diadem's fate in her hands.
• Rowena called Tom back and thanked him, saying she liked the name Lady Rowena.

After Nagini regained her human form, Nelson and Tom took her to the Mediterranean coast and discussed how she could spend the next school year, including possibly joining Durmstrang for the Triwizard Tournament. Nelson then transported them to Nurmengard, where Wizards mistook Nagini for Lord Wiltening and searched for Grindelwald at the Black Tower; at a restaurant, Nelson warned Tom that they were surrounded.

• Nagini enjoyed walking barefoot on the beach and thanked the dead Collared Owlet in her thoughts for bringing her to Nelson and Tom.
• Tom caught fish in the sea while Nelson conjured shade and a beach chair for Nagini, then discussed her options for staying out of the Chamber of Secrets during the school year.
• Nelson remembered the Triwizard Tournament and proposed asking at Nurmengard whether Nagini could travel with the Durmstrang team.
• Nelson called Pythia and transported himself, Tom, Nagini, and two fish from the beach to Nurmengard, where Wizards recognized Tom from a newspaper clipping and mistook Nagini for Lord Wiltening.
• Nelson pointed the Wizards toward Grindelwald's Black Tower, then joined Tom and Nagini at a restaurant, where he told Tom that they were surrounded.

Nelson was tricked into meeting Zweig in Kraków, where he learned that Grindelwald was waiting to discuss his Patronus and Barry’s Obscurus. Meanwhile, Barry took Tom and Nagini on a tour of Nurmengard’s industrial zone and explained Nelson’s important role in its operation.

• Barry gave Nelson Zweig’s note, which transported Nelson to his former office in The Hub in Kraków, and revealed that he had arranged it to make Nelson meet Zweig.
• Nelson reunited with Zweig, who said he had finished receiving the British Wizards Nelson had brought and praised Nelson’s work in Kraków.
• Nelson told Zweig that his Patronus had malfunctioned and that he had learned things about Patronuses that might help Barry; Zweig said Grindelwald was waiting for him.
• Barry reassured Tom and Nagini that Zweig meant Nelson no harm and described how Nelson improved The Hub’s efficiency while behaving strangely toward Muggles.
• Barry brought Tom and Nagini to Nurmengard’s raw materials distribution center and explained how Nelson had planned the facility, which more than tripled daily production efficiency.

Tom toured Nurmengard’s enormous Distribution Center and saw how its Alchemical Automatons and teleportation arrays enabled mass production and worldwide shipping. Meanwhile, Nelson told Grindelwald that Dementors might be made from human souls and asked Nurmengard to help him investigate them and find Herpo the Foul.

• Barry guided Tom, Nagini, and White through the massive gate and explained how simple Alchemical Automatons handled the Distribution Center’s work.
• Tom watched goods, including Sneakoscopes from Griffin Alchemy Factory, being packed and shipped through teleportation arrays connected to The Hub in Kraków.
• Barry described how Nelson’s ideas had integrated small workshops into a larger production system, leaving Tom impressed by Nurmengard’s industrial capacity.
• Nelson showed Grindelwald a photograph of Bruce’s final moment and argued that the souls taken by Dementors’ Kiss might become new Dementors.
• Nelson asked for Nurmengard’s support in studying Dementors and tracking Herpo the Foul, then requested a Dementor more than a thousand years old.
• Grindelwald agreed that Azkaban should have an ancient Dementor and encouraged Nelson to be ready for something exciting.

Little Jack sailed the Blaney back through the English Channel after escorting Allied troops to Normandy, where the fighting had become a stalemate. Meanwhile, Nelson explained to Andre that he was using magic and the war to steer events toward an end that would benefit Nurmengard; he left Kraków for London with his plan still in motion.

• Little Jack reflected on his service aboard the Icarus and captained the Blaney as it returned from its Normandy escort mission.
• Little Jack watched the marines clean the ship, ordered them to hurry, and shared their oysters while thinking about the girl in his photograph.
• The chapter revealed that Nurmengard had strengthened German resistance in Normandy by allowing Wizards to use magic to influence battles.
• Andre questioned why Nelson had given the Muggle allies access to magic, and Nelson said he was directing the war toward an early end and Nurmengard's advantage.
• Nelson departed Kraków for London after telling Andre that the plan could limit civilian casualties and give the losing side a chance to live.

Jonas Nicklaus’s delayed letter to Teacher Andre revealed his life as a reporter, his marriage to Bella, and the losses war brought him; years later, Nelson uncovered Andre’s quiet care for Jonas and learned Jonas had also helped him. As Andre watched Nelson return to war, Nelson extinguished the German officers’ lights on the eastern front from The Hub.

• Jonas Nicklaus wrote to Teacher Andre about leaving literature for reporting, his life in Paris, and his move to England with Bella after her father died in the war.
• Jonas’s letter remained hidden in an abandoned postbox for twenty years before it was delivered to Andre, and Nelson later connected Andre to Jonas through a university student register.
• Andre had secretly supported Jonas’s work and attended his funeral, while Jonas had quietly helped and guided Nelson.
• Andre watched Nelson depart by ship and worried that Nelson’s sharing of magic with Muggles and support for Germany’s army could aid an invasion.
• In the present, Nelson Apparated to the top of The Hub and extinguished the lights held by German officers charging on the eastern front.