Chapter Summaries

Nelson faced The Old Wizard’s attempt to provoke him while the battle in Berlin grew increasingly desperate. As Tom and the others fought to hold back the Aurors and Inferi, Nelson moved to confront the enemy, leaving the conflict poised for another escalation.

• The Old Wizard accused Nelson of abandoning Moody and called him a Dark Lord, hoping to turn Nelson’s supporters against him.
• Ivy offered to rescue Moody, but Nelson refused to leave the task undone and explained that The Old Wizard had tied his life to Moody’s.
• Tom freed Credence from the Aurors’ golden chains, then told Ivy and Nagini to hold the line while he dealt with other threats.
• Tom explained that Nelson’s strongest allies were protecting Muggle outposts from a larger Auror force, while the remaining fighters were being encircled in Berlin.
• Borgin Burke used the battlefield’s corpses and magic to build a giant Inferi, but Alexander attacked him and shattered his confidence.
• Tom charged toward Borgin Burke, while Nelson threw gloves at The Old Wizard and advanced in the opposite direction.

Nelson defeated The Old Wizard’s Aurors and tried to save Moody, whose soul had been damaged by Borgin Burke’s stolen Magic Eye. He gave Moody the eye and a message about defeating his enemy, then returned to the battlefield as Moody woke and begged him to save Ludwig Kant’s widow.

• Alexander sliced apart Borgin Burke’s Inferi giant, and Tom charged into the exposed swarm as the wizards retreated under attack.
• Nelson struck down the Aurors surrounding The Old Wizard, borrowed his heart to keep Moody alive, and reached Moody as his soul began to escape.
• Zweig explained that Moody’s soul had been refined by the voodoo ritual, while Nelson gathered its fragments and Tom handed him Borgin Burke’s blue Magic Eye.
• Nelson placed the eye over Moody’s ruined socket, showed him memories, and heard Moody promise to defeat his enemy before he passed out.
• Nelson sealed Moody and the two crosses behind stone walls, then returned to the battlefield with Tom, Nagini, and Moaning Myrtle.
• Moody later woke in pain beside Ludwig Kant’s widow and pleaded with Nelson to save her.

Nelson returned to Berlin’s battlefield after admitting he could not save Nina, and gave Moaning Myrtle the Gaunt Ring before resuming his fight. As dawn broke and he faced defeat, he called on the lives he had created to share magic with humanity, while Nina woke and received the ring.

• Nelson told Moaning Myrtle he could not save Nina, then gave Myrtle the Gaunt Ring and returned to the battlefield.
• Nelson fought through the chaotic melee as Aurors and Muggles waited for reinforcements to arrive in Berlin.
• Wizards and Muggles converged on Nelson, surrounding him as Dumbledore watched and Grindelwald announced that dawn had come.
• At sunrise, Nelson pleaded for the lives he had created to become spirits that would share magic with humanity.
• A vast torrent of newborn lives surged from above Auschwitz and scattered over Berlin as light fell on every Missionary.
• Nina sat up with Nagini’s help while Moaning Myrtle slipped the Gaunt Ring onto her finger, and Nina wept.

Nelson used the collected magical remnants of his enemies to awaken magic in Muggles wearing Missionaries, while Mayflies surged from the depths of Auschwitz into a deadly vortex. As Tom and the newly empowered Muggles faced the Aurors, Nina and Ludwig encountered a fresh disturbance in Limbo.

• A Wizard at The Hub watched a vast vortex tear Nelson's hill from the ground and reveal a mechanical shaft that released a torrent of Mayflies into the sky.
• Nelson prayed to souls beyond the world and used the emotional traces preserved in magical eyes to awaken Muggles' ability to wield magic.
• Tom defended Nelson from the Aurors until a human wall of newly empowered Muggles blocked the gathered spell, prompting Tom to wonder if it was the ultimate protection.
• Nina embraced the absent figure of a fighter with magic fueled by her emotions, while fragments of her soul poured from her eyes.
• Ludwig struggled with the fading colors as he stepped through the door, and a death-laden wind swept across Limbo toward the black arch, lifting The Veil and stirring the Lost Mist.

The narrator waited for a typhoon while enduring the heat from a broken electric fan.

• The electric fan was broken.
• The narrator found it too hot to sit still.
• The narrator waited for the typhoon to arrive.

Herpo the Foul returned from Limbo as the prophecy’s unprecedented death unfolded, while Ludwig Kant escaped the Veil and Moody learned the truth about his Magic Eye. Herpo reached Nelson’s city and attacked it, declaring his return inevitable.

• Nina’s final call joined the Lost Mist, and Moody recalled Nelson’s revelation that Borgin Burke had used the Imperius Curse on his parents and made his Magic Eye a Horcrux.
• Ludwig abandoned his resolve to walk toward death, returned for Nina, and was pushed out of the Veil by a hidden creature.
• Herpo the Foul absorbed the black magic buried beneath Limbo and regained his youthful form as he sensed a mass death brewing in Auschwitz.
• Grindelwald read the prophecy from Nelson’s drawer while Herpo found himself chained to the black door, then crossed Limbo toward Nelson’s city.
• Herpo fashioned a Wand from his own rib, declared himself returned as king, and struck Nelson’s city with a spell called Destruction.

As a phantom modern city appeared over Berlin and wands stopped obeying, Grindelwald explained to Dumbledore how Herpo the Foul, ancient curses, and Nelson’s choices had driven the prophecy toward fulfillment. He ended by recounting Nelson’s efforts to prevent the Auschwitz tragedy and the ideals that shaped his struggle, while Nelson fought in the distance.

• A phantom city appeared above Berlin, and the wands that had been used for Dark Magic refused to obey as Grindelwald warned Dumbledore that a great darkness was returning.
• Dumbledore accused Grindelwald of cultivating Nelson and allowing a disaster to grow, while Grindelwald argued that the prophecy’s fulfillment could not be avoided.
• Grindelwald told Dumbledore that curses in the mountains led him to Limbo and that he had learned Herpo the Foul survived for millennia through Horcruxes.
• Grindelwald recalled how Nelson defeated Herpo at the gates of death during the Triwizard Tournament, but said the prophecy continued beyond that victory.
• Grindelwald described Nelson’s work in Kraków, his attempts to prevent the Auschwitz tragedy, and the belief in peace that led him to seek an end to the divide between Muggles and Wizards.

As Nelson’s prayer brought a vision of a future Berlin into being, Herpo the Foul returned and unleashed a devastating attack powered by Dark Magic. Grindelwald explained to Dumbledore how Nelson’s Mayflies and the abuse of the Veil had enabled Herpo’s return, while the battle’s outcome remained uncertain as two unlikely allies appeared to block the destruction.

• Nelson’s prayer made a vision of a vast future Berlin rise over the ruined city, while Aurors charged toward him and their Dark Magic formed a giant serpent.
• Herpo the Foul appeared at the edge of the city and sliced through the vision with a destructive spell that raced toward the battlefield.
• Grindelwald told Dumbledore that the International Confederation’s research into the Veil and the deaths of Nelson’s Mayflies had weakened the barrier between life and death, allowing Herpo to return.
• Grindelwald argued that Herpo had to be released and confronted now because every use of Dark Magic had been strengthening him, and he revealed Nelson had given him a Time-Turner that sharpened his prophecies.
• Herpo’s crescent of destruction advanced across Berlin as Dark Magic drained from its users, leaving the Aurors unable to resist.
• Two wizards whom everyone believed could never stand together appeared side by side and blocked the world-destroying spell.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald combined their magic to stop Herpo the Foul’s devastating crescent curse, though the spell flattened much of Berlin and left Herpo facing them through the Lost Mist. Dumbledore ordered the surviving wizards to protect Nelson Williams and keep his ritual going as he prepared to confront Herpo.

• Herpo the Foul unleashed a crescent of Dark Magic and recognized Dumbledore as his first intended sacrifice.
• Dumbledore met the crescent with his Wand while Grindelwald used his pocket watch and a second Wand to support him, triggering a shockwave that devastated Berlin and stopped the curse.
• Tom trapped Herpo’s venomous Dark Magic serpent in a pit with his Giant Python, whose body shielded the battlefield’s center from the shockwave.
• Dumbledore and Grindelwald reunited in their old fighting rhythm, then faced Herpo as he emerged through the thinning Lost Mist.
• Grindelwald borrowed an Auror’s Wand, and Dumbledore ordered the surviving Confederation wizards to hold their ground, avoid Dark Magic, and protect Nelson Williams while his ritual continued.

As Herpo the Foul neared a full return to the living world, Grindelwald and Dumbledore attacked him while the rescued Aurors joined the battlefield. Herpo survived their assault, consumed the souls of nearby Aurors, and appeared behind Dumbledore.

• Nelson woke, recognized Herpo the Foul, and collapsed into Zweig's arms before Tom helped him stand.
• Ogden rallied the Aurors arriving on Broomsticks, and they flew toward the battlefield to join the fight.
• Grindelwald struck Herpo the Foul with Fiendfyre while the Mayflies' silver chain shackled Herpo and hindered his escape from Limbo.
• Dumbledore and Grindelwald discovered that Fiendfyre could injure Herpo, but Herpo recovered and explained how he had created the Killing Curse.
• Herpo drained the souls of nearby Aurors to restore his strength, then appeared behind Dumbledore.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald fought Herpo the Foul while Nelson organized newly armed Muggles to strike at him and the Venomous Serpent. Nelson’s Thunder Spear wounded Herpo and forced him into physical form, but Herpo turned to attack the rescuers.

• Dumbledore used a Phoenix Patronus to wound Herpo, but Herpo exploited the Dark Magic in Dumbledore’s past and trapped him in a vision of his family.
• Dumbledore’s Patronus relayed the battle and his warning to Nelson, who promised he would not be corrupted by Herpo’s magic.
• Nelson coordinated the warriors wearing Missionaries, directing their synchronized attacks toward Herpo and the Venomous Serpent.
• Grindelwald broke free and cut off Herpo’s fingers, while Fawkes distracted Herpo long enough for Grindelwald to carry Dumbledore away.
• Nelson’s Thunder Spear pierced Herpo’s shoulder and pinned him down, making his physical form fully real.
• Herpo tore himself free and sent spells toward Grindelwald and Dumbledore, but a frosted mirror and an abstract painting absorbed them.

Aberforth arrived with a magical painting that could absorb Herpo the Foul’s spells and wound him, giving Dumbledore and Grindelwald a chance to escape his attack. Meanwhile, Nelson searched the distant past for a way to defeat Herpo and asked Tom for help.

• Herpo the Foul’s spells vanished as an unseen intruder protected Dumbledore and Grindelwald, then Aberforth revealed himself with a painting borrowed from Anna.
• Aberforth explained that Nelson had sent him from Ilvermorny with the painting and a Portkey, and he joined Dumbledore and Grindelwald against Herpo.
• Aberforth struck Herpo with the frame and provoked him while the painting swallowed his spells, then its magic trapped Herpo’s hand and turned his arm to bone.
• Dumbledore recognized the woman in the painting as Melissa, and Grindelwald identified her as Professor Sakes.
• Nelson searched through the years in his misty library for a way to fight Herpo, then summoned the Black Box and asked Tom for help.

Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Aberforth wounded Herpo the Foul and tried to contain him, while Nelson’s forces fought the monstrous serpents born from Herpo’s blood. As Herpo broke free and the battlefield split apart, Nelson and Tom entered the Black Box, traveling through a passage of shattered mirrors and unfolding time.

• Grindelwald’s time-powered Wind Blade severed Herpo the Foul’s head, while Herpo’s curse poisoned and gravely wounded Aberforth.
• Zweig knocked Aberforth unconscious and carried him away after Grindelwald ordered him saved, and Dumbledore sealed Herpo’s body inside an airtight prison.
• Nelson’s Thunder Spear pierced Herpo’s flying head, and the Elder Wand arrived in Grindelwald’s hand.
• Herpo’s blood spawned Venomous Serpents, while the assembled Wizards and Muggles used Nelson’s planned spells to attack the breeding ground beneath the carapace.
• Herpo broke out of the earth and split the battlefield with fissures that swallowed people whose magic he had devoured.
• A Silver Falcon interrupted Herpo’s taunt as Nelson and Tom opened the Black Box and entered its passage through time.

Tom and Nelson traveled backward through their own lives and forced their way across time into an ancient era. They arrived above a city near the Temple of Apollo, where the citizens mistook their burning silver sphere for the Sun God.

• Tom recovered from the mirror passage’s effects with a potion from Professor Sakes, and Nelson prepared to take him through time.
• Nelson tested their journey by briefly leaving Tom behind, then built a Mayfly time submersible and accelerated them through their past.
• Tom watched their shared history flash by as Nelson mourned beside visions of a grave and corrected a past event involving Herpo the Foul.
• As they reached the time before their lives began, Tom helped Nelson cast the new spell “Bygone days return manifest,” breaking through time’s resistance.
• Nelson guided the submersible into an ancient era, where their flaming silver sphere passed a grand theater and flew toward the Temple of Apollo as the citizens worshipped them.

Professor Binns discovered that an ancient book was writing itself, revealing a scene in Ancient Greece. Tom and Nelson arrived near Delphi after crashing their vessel and were escorted toward the temple by men who believed they were divine envoys.

• Peeves noticed Professor Binns spending unusually long hours in the library and teased him about keeping a secret.
• Professor Binns froze when he read the title of a book about Herpo the Foul, then watched its pages begin recording an ancient scene.
• The written account described Delphi, its Oracle Theatre, and the apparent absence of magic in the city-state.
• Tom and Nelson climbed out of the wrecked Great Silver Sphere on a mountain above a prosperous city and spotted a golden temple.
• Nelson understood that the men who approached them believed they were Apollo's messengers, and he ordered them to bring the High Priestess to meet the visitors barefoot.

Nelson and Tom met Pythia, who had foreseen their arrival and brought them to her temple. There, Pythia revealed that Herpo the Foul had spared the magicless city-state for now, but Nelson and Tom had already exposed themselves to him.

• Pythia emerged from a mist, approached Nelson, and identified him as the traveler of fate she had been waiting for.
• Pythia asked to ride the Sun God's chariot, and Nelson and Tom carried her through the sky to the temple as the citizens watched and prayed.
• Pythia glimpsed Tom's altered fate and discovered that his future had branched away from the path leading to his destiny as the Demon King.
• At the temple, Pythia explained that Herpo the Foul had promised not to conquer the magicless city-state, where refugees with magic hid from him.
• Nelson and Tom realized that Herpo the Foul had likely detected them when they fell from the sky in a burning sphere.

Nelson and Tom questioned Pythia about her history with Herpo the Foul and learned that she had once lived in a vanished community of magic-users. When Herpo’s monsters attacked, Pythia said an oracle had promised travelers from the future would help her, but she offered no plan before Tom whisked Nelson away to the Open-air Theater.

• Nelson asked Pythia whether she could prophesy about Herpo the Foul, and she explained that his power and past were beyond her sight.
• Pythia recounted meeting Herpo as a boy, drifting at sea with him after her father died, and following her prophetic dreams to an isolated settlement of people with magical powers.
• Nelson and Tom recognized that the vanished settlement resembled Hogwarts, and Pythia noted that their Wands and spellcasting reflected practices developed from her people’s efforts.
• A swarm of gaunt, crow-like monsters approached the temple, so Nelson and Tom raised their Wands while Pythia said she would hold them off.
• Pythia revealed that an oracle had told her to wait for travelers from the future, and Tom transported Nelson to the Open-air Theater before she explained what help she expected.

Nelson and Tom witnessed Herpo the Foul’s Dementors terrorizing the city-state, then faced a Dragon-riding enforcer who hunted the hidden wizards. Tom revealed the Patronus Charm to draw attention away from Nelson and asked whether Herpo knew him, preparing to act on a new plan.

• Nelson proposed freezing himself and Tom until Herpo the Foul had been defeated, but Tom dismissed the idea and took him to buy flatbread.
• Tom sensed that disguised wizards were watching them, while Nelson recognized that the approaching Dementors had left the city-state helpless and terrified.
• A Dragon descended on the city-state carrying a crow-feather-robed man, who condemned the wizards for defying Herpo the Foul and demanded they surrender.
• A Dementor lunged at Nelson and Tom, but Tom blasted it away with a spell and urged Nelson to preserve his secret ability to cast the Patronus Charm.
• Tom told Nelson he had a brilliant idea and asked whether Herpo the Foul knew him.

Tom resisted a mind-reading spell from Herpo the Foul’s subordinate and, with Nelson’s help, uncovered the man’s fear and disloyalty. As Tom battled the chained Dragon, Nelson prepared a Mayfly to shield him from Herpo’s soul-related magic and revealed he had contacted Limbo.

• A man in Little Sun demanded Tom surrender his Wand and reveal his magic, then tried to probe his mind with Legilimency.
• Tom’s Occlumency repelled the spell and forced the man to expose his own memories, while Nelson listened through a gold coin and learned Herpo the Foul controlled him.
• The man pulled the chain piercing the Dragon, causing it to attack Tom, while nearby Wizards fled and left Tom to face it.
• Nelson told Tom that Herpo’s subordinate feared losing his position and explained that Herpo’s supposed name-sensing magic did not appear to exist.
• Tom blinded the Dragon with a Conjunctivitis Curse and grappled it as Nelson promised to create a Mayfly to bear soul-related curses for him.
• A Basilisk appeared on the horizon as Nelson said he had made contact with Limbo and told Tom to take care.

Nelson captured and dissected a strange Dementor, uncovering Herpo the Foul’s runes and a hairy heart at its core. He told Pythia that the future would not save her era for her and gave her what he knew, while Tom went to confront Herpo.

• Nelson brought a captured Dementor into the Temple of Apollo and pinned it to a stone bed with the Silver Falcon’s feathers.
• Nelson examined the Dementor and discovered it was a cursed, living shell whose runes and magic were unlike those of later Dementors.
• While dissecting the creature, Nelson challenged Pythia’s reliance on prophecy and asked whether she would hear what he knew about the future.
• Pythia agreed, and Nelson revealed that she would become the hero who opposed Herpo by inventing a spell and sealing away his Horcruxes.
• Nelson gave Pythia a booklet of his knowledge and urged her to help save her own era as Tom went to find Herpo.