Chapter Summaries

Nelson survived Herpo the Foul’s Killing Curses by transferring their damage to Pythia, whom he brought out of a wooden box and revealed to Herpo. As Pythia confronted Herpo over the ruined city, Dumbledore and Grindelwald discussed her connection to him and split up to explore history.

• Herpo the Foul’s Dark Wizards attacked Nelson with Killing Curses, but Nelson survived and mocked Herpo.
• Nelson opened the wooden box and helped Pythia out, revealing that the curses’ damage had been transferred to her.
• Dumbledore and Grindelwald deduced that Pythia was sustained by magic connected to Herpo, noticed Tom Riddle on the city wall, and agreed to explore history in opposite directions.
• Pythia stopped Nelson from provoking Herpo and asked him whether the ruined city was what he had wanted to see.
• Pythia recalled how Nelson had told her she was dead, explained that Herpo had shaped her soul and altered her memories, and insisted she was the one who could create history.
• Herpo tried to reclaim Pythia, but Nelson turned a dead root into steel and deflected Herpo’s Snake Whip.

Pythia delivered a prophecy named “Shadow of the Hero” as Nelson and Herpo the Foul’s clashing magic spiraled out of control. The resulting explosion tore open a passage between worlds, and a figure emerged from the Black Tower.

• Herpo the Foul attacked Nelson with the Killing Curse, but Nelson used Transfiguration to split the spell.
• Pythia knelt in the puddle and prophesied that Nelson and Herpo the Foul were bound in a thousand-year war called “Shadow of the Hero.”
• Herpo the Foul sacrificed a servant to create a soul fragment, then harvested his followers’ souls to amplify his power and overwhelm Nelson.
• Herpo the Foul’s attack triggered a catastrophic explosion that swallowed Nelson, while Pythia pulled Tom into Limbo.
• The explosion cracked Limbo and opened a passage beneath a towering Black Tower, from which a familiar but unfamiliar figure emerged.

A future version of Nelson arrived through a time fissure, burned Herpo the Foul with Fiendfyre, and left him to the souls he had enslaved. After speaking with Tom and Pythia about time and their plan to shape Herpo’s weakness, the man departed as the fissure closed, leaving Tom to decide to save Herpo and Pythia to take Nelson away.

• The man beneath the Black Tower struck Herpo the Foul with Fiendfyre, then crushed the giant serpent summoned by Herpo’s Killing Curse with his metal hand.
• Herpo the Foul sent his enslaved souls against the man, but the man killed him with a Wind Blade, and the freed souls began devouring him.
• The man entered Limbo and told Tom that killing Herpo in this era could erase their existence, while Tom said Nal had sought Herpo’s fatal weakness.
• The man handed Tom a preserved tomato, thanked Pythia, and vanished with the closing fissure and Black Tower.
• Tom told Pythia to take Nelson away, then returned to reality to save Herpo the Foul and gave Pythia the tomato to plant.

Herpo the Foul awoke from a two-month coma in Alexandria, where Tom nursed his injuries and described the defeat by the man calling himself Hermes. Tom revealed that he had fashioned Herpo a new heart from the souls caught in Herpo’s storm, and Herpo thanked him.

• Herpo awoke badly injured, and Tom gave him Potion while explaining that he had survived the lightning and that the mysterious opponent had left.
• Herpo recalled his childhood as a slave, his first encounter with snakes, and the path that led him to create the Basilisk and build his power.
• Tom told Herpo that he had brought him to Alexandria in Egypt, where he had been unconscious for two months and was recovering in a Pharaoh’s burial shroud.
• Herpo discovered that his original heart no longer beat and asked Tom what had happened to it.
• Tom showed Herpo a new heart formed from the dead souls caught in Herpo’s storm, explaining that the souls had become part of him in an eternal loop.
• Herpo stared at the heart and thanked Tom.

Tom reached Egypt with the unconscious Herpo the Foul and settled in Alexander, where he met a deaf, blind fishergirl and drew the attention of an Egyptian Wizard. He told the Wizard that a Dark Wizard was ravaging Greece, and Herpo recognized the name Karkaroff in Tom’s story.

• Thirteen years after Egypt lost contact with Greece, Tom’s ship broke through the seabed and ran aground near Alexander, and he escaped the cabin with Herpo the Foul.
• Tom encountered a deaf and blind fishergirl, read her memories with Legilimency, and fled when she sensed his presence.
• Tom settled in Alexander, learned Egyptian, and spent two months treating Herpo, who briefly regained consciousness before fainting again.
• A bird-headed Egyptian Wizard questioned Tom about Greece, but Tom captured him and used magic to make him forget their first conversation.
• Tom told the Wizard that a Dark Wizard had devastated the Balkan Peninsula and that he had become separated from Greek refugees at sea.
• After the Wizard left to report Tom’s account, Herpo identified the supposed evil Wizard as Karkaroff.

Tom watched a mute, blind girl named Kenttanka suffer the townspeople’s cruelty, while Herpo used Legilimency on an old woman to uncover the girl’s history. Herpo revealed that he had perfected a spell and, after making the street faint, declared that Tom’s wager meant he would transform Kenttanka into a healthy, powerful person.

• Tom learned that Kenttanka’s father had left her to mind a fish stall, and an old woman mocked her while trying to cheat Tom with broken charcoal.
• Tom punished the old woman’s greed with a burning silver coin, and Herpo suggested using her to learn about Kenttanka.
• Herpo cast Legilimency on the old woman and discovered that Kenttanka was the younger sister of a witch who had been murdered by jealous townspeople.
• Herpo learned that the old woman had blinded Kenttanka as a child, while the fisherman had taught her to write the name her sister left her.
• Herpo’s wounds reopened as his magic surged, knocking out everyone in the street except Kenttanka, and he told Tom he would make her healthy and powerful as the wager Tom had won.

Tom watched Herpo the Foul use a silver coin to expose the townspeople’s cruelty toward Kenttanka and create a set of scales to judge their actions. After Herpo departed, Tom tried to touch Kenttanka and encountered a mysterious spell that felt tied to his own death.

• Tom hesitated as the townspeople reached for Herpo the Foul’s melting silver coin and unknowingly made contracts with the devil-like apparition.
• Herpo the Foul questioned Tom about the townspeople’s persecution of Kenttanka and explained his belief that true evil came from desires that brought no gain.
• Herpo the Foul transformed, then summoned silver scales and declared that the townspeople’s kindness and cruelty toward Kenttanka would determine what they deserved.
• Herpo the Foul destroyed approaching bird-headed figures with lightning and returned to the house, while the crowd woke and fled.
• Tom protected Kenttanka from the fleeing crowd and reached toward her, but a mysterious spell in her eyes struck him with pain and a sense of future death.

A young Egyptian Wizard’s account revealed how Herpo the Foul used The Scales to turn Alexander’s inhabitants against one another, while a servant helped the Wizard resist him. In the present, Egypt’s officials prepared to unveil the sealed ruins as the ancient barrier around Alexander broke and the city’s frozen clock began moving again.

• The Wizard found his father and the other coastal Wizards dead, then entered the dark clouds over Alexander to investigate.
• He reached a town where enchanted inhabitants devoured one another, and Herpo the Foul explained that their violence would create a victim powerful enough to help a sufferer be reborn.
• Herpo placed the Wizard’s heart on The Scales, but his servant returned it; White City then ordered the Wizard to hold Herpo back while it sealed off Alexander.
• Mustafa announced the discovery of pyramids and ruins hidden by an ancient barrier, while Howard and Alphard discussed Egypt and the war.
• A reporter questioned Mustafa about Egypt’s Aurors being sent to Germany, and Mustafa redirected the press toward the archaeological discovery.
• The barrier cracked open, releasing fresh air into Alexander and setting the city’s long-stopped clock in motion.

Tom followed Kenttanka through the collapsing harbor town and uncovered how Herpo the Foul’s magic was trying to reshape his mind. He resisted the magic by asking Kenttanka for help, but she lost the last trace of her sister as Tom collapsed in the rain.

• Herpo the Foul proposed a wager to Tom, naming the mute girl both the wager’s subject and its stake.
• Tom followed Kenttanka along her daily route and explained the protective magic left by her dead sister, whose name was Kenttanka.
• Tom realized Herpo the Foul was using his magic and the chaos in Alexander to corrupt him and steer him into a trap.
• Tom endured the protection’s painful resistance and tried to persuade the dead sister’s magic to let him protect her younger sister.
• Tom collapsed after pleading for help, and a tear from the mute girl extinguished the symbol in her eye and erased her sister’s presence.

Tom’s cover as Igor Karkaroff was exposed when Herpo read his mind, but Tom later escaped and faced a choice between fleeing and using Kenttanka’s spell. He destroyed the tear and created a Horcrux that made Chamberlain a real, independent person, setting him up to deceive Herpo from within.

• Tom told Herpo about the three Wizards who shared the name Hermes Trismegistus and warned that one of them would die in their coming battle.
• Herpo read Tom’s mind, discovered his true identity as Chamberlain, and confronted him as Tom’s potion boiled over.
• Tom awoke in a storm with Kenttanka’s tear and realized Herpo had bound his heart with the Venomous Serpent, while the Small Silver Ball could not reach Nelson.
• Tom considered fleeing Egypt but chose to use Kenttanka’s spell, crushing the tear and abandoning his vow against Horcruxes.
• Tom’s magic intertwined with the spell and created a Horcrux that gave Chamberlain a real past and identity, and Chamberlain appeared before him.

McGonagall struggled with guilt and fear while Professor Binns explained why he had brought her into Limbo and urged her to study the changing history. She read how Herpo the Foul rebuilt his power in Egypt with the help of the mysterious adviser called Karkaroff, leaving Greece under threat of a counterattack.

• McGonagall panicked over the worsening war and blamed herself for being away from the battlefield and failing to find what Professor Binns needed.
• Professor Binns gave McGonagall his daughter’s handkerchief and confessed that his cowardice had kept him from reconciling with her before her death.
• Professor Binns revealed that Dumbledore had sent him an Emerald to delay McGonagall’s self-destructive attempt at redemption, but warned that Limbo was more dangerous than the battlefield.
• McGonagall calmed down and read a history book while Professor Binns explained that her presence made the changing past unfamiliar to her.
• McGonagall learned that Herpo the Foul had fled Greece for Alexandria, conquered Egypt’s Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and rebuilt his forces through policies devised by the mysterious Karkaroff.

Professor Binns and McGonagall deduced that Nelson and Tom had used the aliases Hermes and Karkaroff in ancient Greece, and that Tom later posed as Chamberlain to buy Nelson time. As Nelson and his companions reached Alexandria, the ancient barrier collapsed and revealed a lost city beneath modern Alexandria.

• Professor Binns explained that the names Karkaroff and Chamberlain pointed to Tom, while Hermes Trismegistus was likely Nelson's alias among the Greeks.
• Professor Binns theorized that Tom had joined Herpo the Foul's camp as a supposed seer, using information from Nelson to help delay Herpo while Nelson pursued a crucial task.
• McGonagall and Professor Binns wondered where Pythia had gone as Nelson's group approached Alexandria by boat.
• Nelson checked his Pocket Watch as a Dragon's roar triggered an avalanche on a snow-covered mountain.
• The ancient barrier around Alexandria collapsed, revealing a vast lost city that overlapped with and shattered modern Alexandria, while a broken pocket watch struck Dwight in the chest.

Nelson returned from Northern Europe after finding no powerful magic or reinforcements, but he revealed a plan to use its silver and coal to build a Steel Kingdom. Pythia watched as a buried city-state arrived and its people began constructing a giant, while a new power awakened within her.

• Pythia waited at camp for Nelson, who returned in the form of a Red Cat covered in Dragon blood and said he had persuaded Dragons to attack Herpo the Foul.
• Nelson told Pythia that Northern Europe had no powerful magic or strong reinforcements, but he had found silver mines and coal.
• Nelson opened the cliff with magic, revealing silver ore and a growing network of Floaters that spread into a Steel Kingdom across Northern Europe.
• A steel-covered city-state surfaced and opened into a factory where Wizards, Muggles, Greeks, and other displaced people worked together to build a giant.
• As Pythia watched the workers unite in hope, something shattered within her and silver warmth transformed under Herpo the Foul's runes into a new kind of greatness.

Pythia’s dance brought sunlight and spring to Northern Europe as Nelson used Peeves’s magic and the Resurrection Stone to free her from Herpo the Foul’s curses and give her soul a path toward life. Pythia manifested the first Patronus Charm, while Nelson absorbed Herpo’s dark magic and left Andros ready to learn the spell.

• Pythia’s dance raised a warm sun over Northern Europe, melting the snow and drawing animals around Nelson and Andros.
• Nelson gave Pythia the Resurrection Stone and used his magic to draw Herpo the Foul’s collapsing curses into the streams, binding their power to himself.
• Peeves’s magic replaced Herpo’s hold on Pythia’s broken soul, and Pythia defied fate as she continued her dance.
• Nelson allowed Herpo’s curse to become part of him, gaining insight into the foundations of Herpo’s power.
• Nelson told Andros that Pythia had created the Patronus Charm and would teach it to them as a weapon against Herpo.
• Pythia cast “Expecto Patronum,” forming a white snake Patronus, while Nelson walked toward the vines at the city-state’s center.

Pythia revived and freed the souls bound within her, then briefly brought sunlight and hope to the people of Northern Europe before collapsing. After spring arrived, Andros rallied the crowd to learn the Patronus Charm, and Nelson returned with steel forces as the sun stopped setting farther.

• Pythia used her Patronus and the Resurrection Stone to rise from the dead, release the wronged souls within her, and help the gathered people summon their own Patronuses.
• Pythia exhausted her strength and fell, while the sunlight she had brought faded and the land returned to darkness.
• A brief sunrise on the southern horizon showed that winter had passed and spring had arrived in Northern Europe.
• Andros urged the crowd to fight for their homeland and led Wizards and Muggles in practicing the Patronus Charm, inspiring several silver animals to appear.
• Nelson returned and teased Andros about failing to produce a Patronus, then said the sun would not set any farther as steel forces marched out of the forest.

Herpo the Foul showed Tom how Alexandria had become a purgatory of monsters driven by desire, then revealed that the city’s blood-soaked magic was feeding a monstrous heart balanced against a feather on The Scales. As lightning announced approaching guests, Herpo promised that they would create a being beyond imagination after returning.

• Herpo the Foul led Tom through emptied Alexandria, where Tom killed a monster eating a child’s skull and saw the river filled with corpses.
• Herpo explained that the residents’ desperate desires had overcome their fear of death and turned them into monsters, while Tom rejected his comparison between Alexandria and the rise of city-states.
• Herpo showed Tom a vision of Alexandria’s blood and desire forming a beating heart, and challenged him to recognize his own insatiable desire.
• Tom spotted The Mute Girl’s fish stall and The Scales, where a feather was outweighed by a heart assembled from flesh and fed by the city’s magic.
• Herpo said The Mute Girl would soon return and that Tom was about to win his wager, then noticed approaching guests amid the lightning and proposed they go meet them.

Tom secretly inhabited Kenttanka’s soul and began teaching her language and helping her form an independent self while Herpo the Foul waited for his ritual in Alexandria City to finish. Tom shared his memories with her, and Kenttanka emerged with a voice, a sense of identity, and gratitude for Tom, Nal, her father, and her sister.

• Herpo the Foul admitted to Tom that he had planted magical seeds in Alexandria City and was waiting for the ritual of mutual slaughter to complete before his creature could be born.
• After Herpo and Tom left, Tom used his hidden presence in Kenttanka’s soul to hold the Feather against the monstrous Heart and began teaching her tense and words.
• Tom realized that Kenttanka’s lack of speech came from being unable to hear and imitate others, and she murmured the word “Love” before collapsing.
• Tom decided to help Kenttanka develop a self by sharing his entire life’s memories with her, despite the cost to himself.
• Kenttanka took shape, spoke her name, thanked Tom, Nal, her father, and her sister, and hummed a tune from her sister’s memories.

Tom helped Kenttanka recover her magic and accept his memories, then linked their sight as she confronted the storm at the shore. Her spell broke through Herpo the Foul’s magical defenses, revealing the approaching Giant, Silver Fleet, Mayflies, Nelson, and Pythia while Herpo remained unaware.

• Tom told Kenttanka that she was herself and her sister, and asked her to help with his mission in exchange for restoring what she had lost.
• Kenttanka accepted Tom’s blackthorn Wand, but her fear that she was not a Wizard interrupted her magic and made her drop it.
• Tom described the Wand and urged Kenttanka to choose for herself whether to face their enemies; she recalled her sister and father taking her to the sea as a child.
• Tom used the Wand to link their magic and let Kenttanka see through his eyes, and she cast a spell that sent a giant black serpent through the storm’s lightning and scattered the tsunami.
• Herpo the Foul missed the disturbance as the Egyptian wizards’ barrier fell, and Tom saw the Giant, Silver Fleet, Mayflies, Nelson, and Pythia approaching.

Herpo the Foul completed his ritual, turning Alexandria’s victims into a monster and preparing to combine it with Kenttanka. As Tom and Kenttanka’s divided souls met again, the barrier around Alexandria broke and an earthquake erupted.

• The monster that had devoured Alexandria’s residents hunted Egyptian Wizards and raced toward Herpo the Foul and Tom in the fishing-port town.
• Herpo the Foul completed the final sacrifice, taking the heart of the nameless Egyptian Wizard after the man died without stating his wish.
• The monster attacked Herpo the Foul, who froze it and reshaped it to supply the parts Kenttanka was missing.
• Herpo the Foul drew Kenttanka down beside the monster and reached for the final heart as the dark-cloud blockade over Alexandria broke.
• Tom looked into Kenttanka’s damaged eye as their divided souls met again, and an earthquake exposed the buried serpents and tentacles while cannon fire sounded from the shore.

Nelson, Andros, and the Greek fleet broke through Herpo the Foul’s defenses and began reclaiming the Balkan Peninsula, while Tom revealed that he had manipulated Herpo’s suspicion to make the assault possible. Herpo realized he had been deceived, but his ritual had already begun and could not be stopped.

• Nelson froze the descending tsunami into a ramp, sending the Greek fleet charging toward Alexandria behind a giant assembled by the people.
• The giant smashed through the Thunder Net, allowing the fleet to reach shore and freeing the land from Herpo the Foul’s illusions and Dementors.
• Andros led the Greek Wizards in a surprise assault, rapidly retaking their lost territory as Herpo’s servants fled.
• Tom explained that Herpo’s suspicion and arrogance had let the plan succeed, while Nelson’s fleet and the Greeks advanced in Alexandria.
• Herpo discovered Tom’s betrayal, but Tom taunted him that the ritual had already begun and that Herpo himself was the wager.