Chapter Summaries

Alexander crushed Tom’s Black Python and struck the platform, leaving Ludwig badly wounded while Tom and Margaret used the opening to climb onto the giant. Nelson recognized their plan and transformed Alexander’s arm into a swarm of Mayflies, forcing Ludwig to intervene as the pair tried to reach the Throne.

• Alexander shattered Black Python’s head and drove its spiked iron fist into the platform, leaving the three challengers missing beneath the dust.
• Ludwig emerged with broken wings and a severe abdominal wound, then spoke to Nelson about his upbringing and why he had always stood up for others.
• Metal Soldiers formed a ladder across Alexander’s fist, allowing Tom and Margaret to climb onto its arm while Ludwig kept Nelson’s attention.
• Nelson realized Ludwig was drawing aggro and transformed Alexander’s upper arm into Mayflies that blocked Tom and Margaret’s advance.
• Ludwig rushed through the Mayflies, shielded Tom and Margaret from sound, and flew with them toward the golden gear atop Alexander’s head.

Nelson fought Tom, Margaret, and Ludwig in the Lost Mist, using Margaret’s magic and the mist to turn the battle in his favor. He pierced Ludwig with the Light Spear and faced Tom as the chapter ended.

• Nelson summoned the Lost Mist and challenged Tom, Margaret, and Ludwig, while Tom pulled Ludwig back to recover with Dittany.
• Inside the mist, Nelson attacked Tom and Margaret, then ensnared Margaret and drew her consciousness into Limbo.
• Nelson’s words unsettled Margaret, but a memory of being called a monster destabilized her, and she unleashed indiscriminate attacks after emerging from the mist.
• Ludwig returned to help Tom, and his hurricane dispersed the Lost Mist, revealing Nelson charging the Light Spear with his gear-built arm.
• Nelson hurled the Light Spear through Ludwig, pinning and transforming him, then told Tom that only the two of them remained.

Nelson and Tom battled atop Alexander, using spells, summoned creatures, and the Metal Soldiers against each other. After Nelson survived a staged stabbing, he revealed a gear-built Pointer Sword and redirected Tom’s explosive arc, leaving the duel unresolved.

• Nelson and Tom exchanged spells while Alexander fought Tom’s black smoke snakes, which invaded its pipes and head.
• Tom and Nelson secretly took control of the Metal Soldiers, then used them to trap each other; Nelson survived a sword thrust by transforming the wound into water and healing it.
• Tom escaped the soldiers and launched a red arc at Nelson, who pulled a Pointer Sword from the shrinking Throne.
• Nelson used detachable concave-mirror pieces from the sword to redirect Tom’s arc into the sky, stunning the spectators.

Nelson fought Tom with a transforming magical weapon, Mayflies, and Wands, while Tom unleashed a Basilisk and pressed him with increasingly dangerous magic. Nelson defeated the Basilisk and trapped Tom with Golden Needles, declaring that times had changed.

• Nelson transformed his sword into a spear and hurled it at Tom, but the Basilisk emerged to protect him and took the spear's strike.
• Tom used the Basilisk's lethal gaze and drove Nelson into a tight defensive position as the audience learned about the creature.
• A lightning-charged spear shot from a vortex and struck the Basilisk, allowing Nelson to reclaim it and resume his attack on Tom.
• Nelson and Tom battled through the air and across the ground as Nelson shifted weapons and fired Expelliarmus spells.
• Nelson and Tom separated, with Tom frozen amid Golden Needles as Nelson raised two Wands and said, "My lord, times have changed."

Nelson and Tom fought amid Margaret’s rampage until Margaret struck Nelson from behind, leaving Dumbledore to subdue Alexander and rescue the Champions. The tournament scores were announced for Ludwig and Margaret, and the chapter ended as Tom’s score was about to be revealed.

• Nelson used his magical weapons and Metal Soldiers to immobilize Tom, but Margaret knocked Nelson unconscious after he boasted of his plan.
• Nelson woke on the Audience Stand and learned that Margaret had attacked him, Dumbledore had restrained Alexander, and Tom had survived inside the Basilisk’s mouth.
• Walburga showed Nelson a comic drawing of the battle and told him Dumbledore wanted Alexander displayed by the Black Lake.
• The commentator announced Ludwig Kant’s score of fifty-nine points and Margaret Sagan’s score of eighty-two points.
• The commentator began introducing Tom Riddle’s performance before revealing his final score.

After earning ninety-one points in the first round, Nelson went to the Black Lake to dismantle Alexander and encountered Salazar Slytherin, who revealed the truth about Cuthbert Binns becoming a ghost. Salazar asked Nelson to deliver his portrait to the headmaster and correct the inaccurate illustrations of him in the school history.

• The judges awarded Tom Riddle ninety-one points for his performance, and the first round ended.
• Nelson freed Alexander from Dumbledore's golden chains and began dismantling it in the mist.
• An old man praised Alexander and explained how its separate, rune-linked parts resisted attacks aimed at a single entity.
• The old man revealed that Cuthbert Binns had become a ghost to preserve a detailed record for rebuilding wizard society after its destruction.
• Nelson recognized the old man as Salazar Slytherin, who asked him to take his portrait to the headmaster and correct the school history illustrations.

Nelson returned to a celebratory Slytherin Common Room, where Tom arrived with the golden egg and teased him about being a prophet and a Dark Lord. Nelson delivered a portrait recovered from the Chamber of Secrets to Dumbledore, revealing it belonged to Salazar Slytherin, and the headmaster portraits reacted with astonishment.

• Nelson returned to the Common Room, where his Slytherin classmates celebrated his victory and offered him cake.
• Tom arrived with the golden egg, and Nelson's earlier guess about its clue convinced Tom to call him a prophet and honor their supposed bet.
• Nelson and Tom walked toward the prefects' bathroom, where Tom teased Nelson by calling him the Dark Lord; Nelson warned that the real owner of the title might be at Hogwarts.
• Sigmund confronted Nelson about his guesses, thanked him for identifying the Tournament Committee mole, and watched him hurry into Dumbledore's office.
• Nelson showed Dumbledore the portrait recovered from the Basilisk's scales and identified it as Salazar Slytherin's portrait.
• The headmaster portraits gathered in shock, and Phineas Black suggested that Slytherin's portrait be placed beside his own.

Dumbledore and Nelson uncovered Salazar Slytherin’s portrait and welcomed him back to Hogwarts, while Tom missed the meeting. Later, Nelson and Tom discussed the Tournament, the Golden Egg’s clue, and their guesses about the second task.

• Dumbledore washed his hands before opening Slytherin’s ancient portrait, and the headmasters debated how to address the founder.
• Salazar Slytherin appeared in the portrait, greeted Dumbledore and the other headmasters, and agreed to be called Salazar or Slytherin.
• Nelson told Tom that he had met Slytherin, and Tom regretted missing his ancestor but planned to visit after winning the championship.
• Nelson told Tom he had been offered full marks in one OWL subject, and Tom teased him about choosing Potions.
• Tom described the Golden Egg’s clue as a poem about passing traps and trials, and Nelson said he would listen to it in the Prefects’ Bathroom.
• Nelson and Tom speculated about the second task, joking about rescuing loved ones from the Black Lake and the Giant Squid.

Nelson and Tom began the day with a strange encounter at breakfast before finding a fragment of Nelson’s sword by the Black Lake. In Potions class, Professor Slughorn celebrated Tom’s contest performance by giving him his personal notes and manuscripts, while Alphard tried and failed to win Slughorn’s favor with passed notes.

• Question Mark woke Nelson by sitting on his face, and Nelson accidentally slapped himself while trying to grab it.
• A Durmstrang boy rammed his shoulder into Nelson, then left after Nelson steadied him; Nelson later found a Swooping Evil venom tack hidden on himself.
• Nelson and Tom walked by the Black Lake, where Tom found a fragment of Nelson’s sword that Nelson absorbed back into the blade.
• Professor Slughorn arrived late, praised Tom’s Potions skills, and gave him a box of his notes and manuscripts as a reward.
• Alphard repeatedly passed flattering notes to Nelson, hoping Slughorn would notice them, but Slughorn ignored the attempts.

Tom and Nelson discovered that Professor Slughorn had given Tom an unfinished Philosopher’s Stone and hid it in Nelson’s Limbo city while planning to complete it. Meanwhile, Professor Sakes confronted a Durmstrang student who revealed her family’s past dealings with smugglers and the Second Salemers.

• Tom opened Slughorn’s trunk and found an unfinished Philosopher’s Stone and a notebook explaining Slughorn’s past and his reasons for giving it to him.
• Nelson and Tom locked the Stone in a safe beneath a bank in Nelson’s Limbo city, and Tom vowed to finish making it.
• Tom and Nelson noticed a crew-cut Durmstrang boy waiting outside Professor Sakes’s office as they headed to send a letter.
• The boy entered Professor Sakes’s office, locked the door, and showed her badges associated with smugglers and the Second Salemers.
• The boy, acting on behalf of his mother, demanded to know why the Sakes family had supplied fewer goods, while Professor Sakes insisted she had left that business behind.

Nelson and Tom overheard Professor Sakes dealing with a captive and accidentally blasted Dumbledore into a wall while disguised as mistletoe. Dumbledore covered up the mishap, then sent word for Nelson and Tom to meet him after dinner.

• Nelson and Tom hid outside Professor Sakes's office and discussed evidence that she had supplied Swooping Evil venom to the Second Salemers.
• A mistletoe-transformed Dumbledore appeared beside them, and Nelson and Tom's spells struck him and damaged the corridor wall.
• Professor Sakes pulled Dumbledore from the wall, woke him, and heard him claim he had turned into a shrub and been attacked by aphids.
• Dumbledore acted as if the corridor damage had been a joke, then gave Moaning Myrtle Lemon Mousse and asked her to summon Nelson and Tom to his office after dinner.
• Moaning Myrtle delivered Dumbledore's message to Nelson before Tom and Dwight returned to Divination class with crystal balls.

Nelson saw venomous snakes gathering outside a bank in his crystal ball and pursued Herpo the Foul in Limbo, where he beat him and summoned the Mechanical Giant. At Hogwarts, Dumbledore asked Nelson to introduce him to the new friend his cat had made.

• Mrs. Climance taught the Ravenclaw and Slytherin students about crystal-ball divination, and Moaning Myrtle explained the limits of tea-leaf and tarot readings.
• Nelson’s crystal ball showed Herpo the Foul sending venomous snakes toward a bank, so Nelson left the classroom and Tom covered for him.
• Nelson confronted Herpo the Foul in Limbo, beat him, and summoned the Mechanical Giant after Herpo mentioned the Philosopher’s Stone.
• Nelson visited Dumbledore, who asked him to introduce the new friend his cat had made.

Nelson showed Dumbledore a dagger from Question Mark and explained that Herpo the Foul was awakening in Limbo, while Salazar Slytherin recognized the mark on Nelson’s finger. Nelson then argued that Peeves was Hogwarts’s castle spirit, and Dumbledore invited him to investigate a trap connected to Peeves and the Triwizard Tournament’s second task.

• Nelson compared the dagger brought by Question Mark with the one Dumbledore had given him, and Dumbledore accidentally sliced a corner off his desk with the sharper blade.
• Salazar Slytherin detected Herpo the Foul’s mark on Nelson and demanded that Dumbledore seize him, but Nelson revealed Herpo was awakening in Limbo and said he could suppress him.
• Dumbledore comforted Nelson, then told him Peeves had reappeared and seemed connected to Question Mark.
• Nelson presented evidence that Peeves’s activity followed student emotions and proposed that Peeves was the castle spirit formed from magic absorbed by Hogwarts.
• Dumbledore agreed that Nelson was qualified to help investigate Peeves and offered to take him to Rankorous Carp’s trap, which would also serve as the second Triwizard task’s venue.

Dumbledore and Nelson confronted Peeves in a trapped corridor, where Nelson’s enchanted armor fought through the defenses and Nelson captured Peeves with Lost Mist. Dumbledore waited for Nelson in his office, while Sigmund appeared and criticized him for interfering in his student’s affairs.

• Dumbledore led Nelson and the armor to a locked corridor and warned him to prepare for a fight with Peeves.
• The armor transformed Nelson into a shining suit of plate armor and charged into the corridor, where flying daggers and axes attacked them.
• Nelson and the armor fought through the traps, broke the bell jar, and heard Peeves refuse Dumbledore’s demand to submit to school supervision or leave Hogwarts.
• Dumbledore threatened Peeves, who escaped through a wall, but Nelson seized him with hands of Lost Mist and dragged him into Limbo.
• Dumbledore apologized for losing control and said he would wait in his office, while Sigmund appeared and accused him of meddling in Nelson’s affairs.

Nelson trapped Peeves in a white replica of Hogwarts and used Dumbledore’s spell to probe his memories, discovering that Peeves was formed from the students’ emotions as well as being a lonely child who wanted to protect his home. Nelson’s examination revealed Peeves facing a giant serpent and a green-robed figure in the sewers, whom Nelson recognized as someone he had caught before.

• Nelson brought Peeves to Limbo and showed him a white Hogwarts populated by people harmed or helped by his pranks.
• Nelson confronted Peeves about his pranks, and Peeves said he had only acted for Hogwarts and its students, whom he considered family.
• Nelson used Empathic Resonance on Peeves, and the spell overwhelmed him with students’ memories and emotions.
• Nelson realized Peeves embodied Hogwarts students’ repressed desires and was also a lonely child who had lived in the castle for centuries.
• Nelson’s visions revealed Peeves defending his home from a giant serpent and a green-robed figure seeking young souls, and Nelson recognized the figure.

Dumbledore confronted Grindelwald over Nelson’s use of Limbo and the risks of absorbing Lost Mist, while Nelson helped Peeves question the identity and purpose he had always taken for granted. The chapter ended as Peeves began to form a sense of self and Hogwarts’s staircases spun wildly.

• Dumbledore warned Grindelwald that allowing Nelson to develop Limbo magic could harm him, but Grindelwald defended Nelson’s talent as a prophet.
• Nelson woke in Limbo and spoke with Peeves about his family, his desires, and the choices that shaped their lives.
• Nelson told Peeves that Hogwarts was his home and that protecting it showed Peeves had become more than an aggregation of prankster consciousness.
• Peeves struggled to consider whether his pranks had gone too far as his eyes cleared and his magic shifted.
• Alphard fell from a staircase as the staircases in the corridor began spinning in a goose-step dance.

Hogwarts awakened as Nelson returned from Limbo with Peeves, while the castle’s former residents reacted to its revival. Dumbledore and Grindelwald resumed their uneasy exchange, and the story left them preparing for the Triwizard Tournament as Nelson hurried back to rest.

• Professor Binns felt Hogwarts awaken, studied an old notebook, and toasted time without drinking the wine Nelson had left him.
• Slytherin returned to his portrait, studied a picture of the Four Founders, and sang a folk song that Dilys said recalled both a lost lover and a homeland.
• Grindelwald and Dumbledore dueled until Hogwarts began to tremble, and Dumbledore called it their school.
• Peeves emerged from Limbo with clear skin and dark eyes, mocked Dumbledore, stabbed his shoes with daggers, and fled after insulting Grindelwald.
• Grindelwald pulled Nelson out of Limbo, and Nelson realized that Sigmund was the person behind the competition and his supposed scapegoat.
• Dumbledore sent Nelson back to rest and warned Grindelwald not to make big moves during the Triwizard Tournament, while Grindelwald denied coming to cause trouble.

Grindelwald discussed Durmstrang’s divided loyalties and Dumbledore’s plan to target the Second Salemers, while Tom and Nelson speculated about the second task. The task began in a corridor filled with traps, where the Champions would compete to reach a prize sealed inside a bell jar.

• Grindelwald told Dumbledore that Sigmund was on holiday in Normandy and described Durmstrang’s entourage as a mix of allies, traitors, Ministry moles, and fence-sitters.
• Dumbledore asked Grindelwald to cooperate with the Ministry after the third task to wipe out the Second Salemers, but Grindelwald refused to help and Dumbledore warned him not to sabotage the operation.
• Tom asked Nelson about the second task, and Nelson gave Tom a necklace of small silver balls while explaining his theory that the challenge would involve a maze.
• McGonagall told Tom that Champions could not bring magical items or other extra equipment into the arena, then took him to the headmaster’s office.
• Nelson and Darian led the Slytherin students to an expanded lecture hall overlooking the task corridor through a one-way mirror.
• The Champions faced a corridor of daggers, ballistas, flying axes, trolls, shadows, and other obstacles leading to a bell jar containing the prize.

Tom Riddle cautiously crossed the dagger course while Ludwig Kant used transformations and a risky attack to try to catch him. Tom passed through the twisting grass ahead, and Margaret Jewell started the course as Ludwig recovered behind him.

• Tom stepped carefully across the dagger-covered floor, using magic to keep the blades from piercing his shoes.
• Ludwig transformed his arm into claws and grew bat wings, then flew into the falling daggers before abandoning the wings and turning into a Zubat.
• Tom redirected Ludwig and the flying knives toward each other, but Ludwig returned to human form and blocked the attack with an Iron Armor spell.
• Tom covered himself in flames and safely crossed the twisting grass to face the swinging Flying Axes.
• Margaret put on her glasses and began the race.

Margaret crossed the lethal blade traps by deceiving the daggers into perceiving themselves as ancient and then turning them against one another, while Tom studied the rhythm of the Flying Axes. As Ludwig fought Margaret and Tom prepared to face the axe formation, the match remained unresolved.

• Margaret walked across the blades without a Wand, and Nelson explained that her Confundus Charm had made the daggers perceive time passing at an extraordinary speed.
• Nelson jokingly convinced Moody that he had died of old age, while the judges and spectators discussed Margaret’s magic and Ludwig’s conduct.
• Tom stood before the Flying Axes and sent shadows through the formation as he studied its rhythm, while Ludwig grew stronger and deflected blades with his Shield Charm.
• Margaret walked into Ludwig’s torrent of daggers and emerged unharmed, then used the daggers under her control to defeat the disorganized blades and attack Ludwig.
• Constance recognized Sigmund’s remarks as resembling the views of Gellert Grindelwald, while Tom continued studying the Flying Axes and rejected an inelegant route through them.
• Tom raised his Wand and aimed it at the first Flying Axe that had shattered his phantom.