Chapter Summaries

The Daily Prophet reported on Fudge’s visit to China and spread claims that China housed many Legendary Wizards, prompting Dumbledore to warn Vaughn that the mistaken reports could conceal a larger threat. Vaughn connected Dumbledore’s concerns to Wilkinson and the mysterious identity of DeSantis, while Hermione helped him manage his growing workload.

• Fudge rushed from Durmstrang to China after hearing that China might join the Potions Exchange Program, hoping to win favor with its Legendary Wizards.
• Cho Chang explained Mount Hua to Harry, Hermione, and Ron, then rebuked Ron for repeating insulting claims about China.
• Hermione read a Daily Prophet report about Fudge’s visit and learned that the article claimed four Legendary Wizards lived on Mount Lao Jun.
• Vaughn read Dumbledore’s letter, which revealed that China had only four Legends and warned that the false reports might be connected to DeSantis, Wilkinson, and the International Confederation of Wizards.
• Vaughn recalled overhearing an Eastern wizard discuss Wilkinson and Destiny, then Hermione joined him and offered to help with his letters.

Hermione helped Vaughn handle correspondence as he replied to Dumbledore, while Umbridge reported to Fudge about foreign interest in China’s hidden Legendary wizards. Dumbledore met Master Li on Mount Hua and warned that China’s deception and plans to cooperate with the Confederation risked igniting a wider conflict.

• Hermione sorted Vaughn’s letters, and Vaughn wrote a reply to Dumbledore.
• Umbridge told Fudge that China supposedly sheltered four Legendary wizards and that France and South America were investigating them.
• Fudge ordered Umbridge to court a Central Alchemless Committee member and contact Dumbledore about supporting the potion exchange in return for concessions.
• Dumbledore secretly listened to Fudge and Umbridge before meeting Master Li on the mountain path.
• Dumbledore warned Master Li that Slavic Legends had joined the Confederation and that China’s concealment of its strength was dangerous.
• Master Li said China needed a basis for cooperation and would threaten everyone who stood in its way.

Hagrid and Vaughn led Harry, Ron, and Hermione deep into the Forbidden Forest to find Aragog, where they encountered Professor Kettleburn among a group of unicorns. Kettleburn joined them, revealed his admiration for Vaughn’s ability to speak Unicorn Language, and began to discuss Harry’s scar before Hagrid stopped him.

• Master Li’s illusory figure disappeared in the snow after parting on bad terms with Dumbledore.
• Hagrid told Harry and Ron that Vaughn had asked him to search the Forbidden Forest for Aragog, then accidentally revealed his secret to them.
• Ron persuaded Harry and Hermione to follow Hagrid and Vaughn into the Forbidden Forest, and Vaughn agreed to let them come.
• The group found Professor Kettleburn surrounded by unicorns, and Vaughn spoke with him in Unicorn Language.
• Kettleburn recognized Harry, recalled his mother Lily, and began to describe the wizard who gave Harry his scar before Hagrid interrupted him.
• Vaughn explained that he had invited Kettleburn, who praised Newt’s work on magical creatures as the group prepared to set off.

Vaughn and Professor Kettleburn discussed their plans for a Fantastic Beasts research project while Kettleburn praised Hagrid and recommended him as his successor at Hogwarts. As the group approached Aragog’s lair, Hagrid called Ron back, whose earlier sense of foreboding had faded.

• Professor Kettleburn told Hagrid he had defended him after the Ministry’s verdict and said he would not reveal that Hagrid was raising creatures in the Forbidden Forest.
• Vaughn and Kettleburn discussed Hogwarts education, and Kettleburn announced he planned to recommend Hagrid for the Care of Magical Creatures position when he retired next year.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione cheered Hagrid, while Vaughn and Kettleburn agreed to work together on a Fantastic Beasts research project.
• Vaughn explained that his project aimed to develop new potion ingredients through breeding and hybridization, and Kettleburn suggested using a Manticore as a starting point.
• Hagrid identified Acromantulas as a more practical research subject and led the group toward Aragog’s lair, then called Ron back before he went farther.

Ron and Harry explored the Forbidden Forest, where they encountered giant spiders and were attacked. Vaughn intervened with powerful spells, but Harry remained suspended in spider silk as the fight continued.

• Ron and Harry spotted a Chinese Biting Cabbage and planned to take its seeds to sell or use for potion-making.
• They overheard two strange voices discussing Aragog, meat, and fools who wandered into the forest.
• A giant spider named Alawi surprised the boys, while another spider named Araclaid caught Harry in its web.
• Harry tried to defend Ron, but Alawi's fear left Ron frozen as Harry was hauled into the air.
• A blue flash and a powerful Flipendo blasted Alawi through the forest, and an unseen Sectumsempra cut Araclaid's leg as it tried to pull Harry closer.

Harry and Ron were attacked by Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, but Vaughn rescued them and the group was surrounded by the spiders. Aragog arrived and rebuked his children, recognizing Vaughn as a danger to the colony.

• Vaughn severed one of Araclaid's legs with Sectumsempra and stopped Harry's fall with Arresto Momentum.
• Hagrid scolded Harry and Ron for running ahead, while Vaughn warned that Araclaid had gone to summon reinforcements.
• A colony of Acromantulas surrounded the group, and Mars emerged to question Hagrid about Alawi's death.
• Araclaid accused Ron of killing Alawi and Professor Kettleburn returned, driven back by spiders while carrying a vial of Alawi's venom.
• Aragog appeared, struck Araclaid for his foolishness, and warned that Vaughn could destroy the Acromantula colony.

After the Acromantulas attacked Harry and Ron, Vaughn subdued Araclaid and confronted Aragog about the colony’s involvement. Aragog revealed that Mars had secretly cooperated with a group of non-English wizards, whose American accents led Vaughn to suspect a larger plot was underway.

• Aragog stopped himself from killing Araclaid, and Vaughn shrank the spider and sealed him in a glass jar.
• Aragog apologized to Hagrid while the other Acromantulas withdrew, and Hagrid left Vaughn and Aragog alone to talk.
• Vaughn pressed Aragog about the attack on Harry, and Aragog admitted that outsiders had approached Mars a little over three months earlier.
• Aragog said the wizards were not English, and Vaughn identified their accent as American English.
• Vaughn realized that a plot beyond his understanding might be unfolding closer to home.

After learning that American-accented wizards had arranged for Mars to attack Harry, Vaughn sought Dumbledore’s advice about prophecy and the mysterious DeSantis group. He proposed meeting Grindelwald and believed he could persuade him to cooperate, leaving Dumbledore wary of what the encounter might lead to.

• Vaughn promised Aragog he would not trouble Mars, then learned that American-accented wizards had visited more than three months earlier and that Mars had planned to attack Harry on the day he arrived.
• Vaughn returned to Hermione, Harry, and Ron, then hurried to Dumbledore’s office to discuss the possible role of prophecy.
• Dumbledore explained that prophecies were usually vague, but agreed to investigate whether Destiny could make them precise and considered consulting Grindelwald.
• Vaughn asked Dumbledore to arrange a meeting with Grindelwald and connected the mystery wizards to the DeSantis group and Wilkinson.
• Vaughn told Dumbledore that he opposed the Statute of Secrecy but rejected Grindelwald’s methods, and said he might persuade Grindelwald to cooperate.

Vaughn explained to Dumbledore why he believed profit could drive wizards to abandon the Statute of Secrecy, then received Phineas Black’s plea to save Sirius in exchange for the Black family’s resources. Meanwhile, Harry suspected the Acromantula attack had not been accidental, and after catching a fever he sought Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, where Luna warned that Nifflers were swarming around his head.

• Vaughn argued that profit had driven Muggle technological progress and said Grindelwald was an idiot for choosing terror over that approach, leaving Dumbledore unable to answer.
• Dumbledore urged Vaughn not to act until he returned and asked him to look after Harry, while Vaughn silently considered the conversation and examined the shrunken Araclaid.
• Phineas Black called Vaughn his relative and asked him to save Sirius, offering access to the Black family’s books, Magic, and resources.
• Harry recalled the attack in the Forbidden Forest and suspected Vaughn’s Acromantula might mean the attack had been deliberate.
• Harry caught a fever and found Ron in the Hospital Wing, then told him his suspicion; Ron panicked and refused to help investigate.
• Harry found Hermione, Ginny, and Luna handing out flyers, and Luna told him Nifflers were swarming around his head and chewing on his brain.

Harry and Ron discovered that Vaughn’s questionnaire proposed letting professors join the Duelling Club as instructors, despite the Board of Governors’ restrictions. Vaughn privately persuaded Snape to consider teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and warned him to report any signs of the curse.

• Hermione made Harry fill out two Duelling Club questionnaires, and Cho Chang told him the answers would explain Vaughn’s plans.
• Harry found Ron cheerful after Madam Pomfrey gave him a pint of Draught of Joy, and Ron noticed the questionnaire asked about professors becoming club instructors.
• Ron joked that Vaughn planned to create his own Hogwarts, while Harry wondered whether Vaughn was challenging the Board of Governors.
• Vaughn defended the questionnaire to Snape and offered him the role of Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor.
• Snape agreed to help the club, and Vaughn warned him to tell him or Dumbledore immediately if he noticed anything unusual about the curse.

Vaughn discussed his magical research with Snape, who agreed to become an instructor for the Duelling Club. Vaughn planned to use that appointment to challenge the Board of Governors’ restrictions, while students began returning questionnaires and worried that the governors could block the club’s reforms.

• Vaughn told Snape he suspected a curse had caused trouble during his Aether ritual, then explained his plan to develop a universal matrix for extracted medicinal traits.
• Snape questioned Vaughn about studying Araclaid and reluctantly offered to serve as the Duelling Club’s potions instructor; Vaughn left with the shrunken spider and threatened to experiment on him.
• Vaughn considered how Snape’s appointment could rally the club’s supporters and provoke conflict with the Board of Governors, while drawing Hogwarts professors and students to his side.
• Harry and Ron returned their completed questionnaires at lunch, where students discussed which instructors might join the Duelling Club.
• Seamus warned that the Board of Governors barred the club from appointing an instructor, leaving the nearby Gryffindors uneasy and the Slytherins even more subdued.

As the Board of Governors’ restriction on the Duelling Club threatened Vaughn’s reforms, Snape, Flitwick, and Sprout won McGonagall’s support by showing how the practical classes had improved Hogwarts teaching. Vaughn remained confident while researching with Kettleburn, explaining that the reforms also served the professors’ ambitions and ideals.

• Hermione and Ginny collected the students’ questionnaires, and McGonagall hurried into the Great Hall to demand that they be compiled for her.
• Snape convened a secret meeting with McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout, then announced that he would support Vaughn and urge the Board of Governors to revoke its restriction on the Duelling Club.
• Flitwick showed McGonagall scenes comparing students’ clumsy spellwork from the previous term with their improved skills and enthusiasm after the practical classes and club began.
• Sprout described how Vaughn and Rosier’s practical lessons had increased students’ interest in Herbology, and Flitwick argued that the Board’s restriction harmed teaching and students’ rights.
• In a secret Slytherin classroom, Vaughn continued enchanting a microscope while Kettleburn examined Araclaid and asked whether Vaughn feared the dispute.
• Vaughn told Kettleburn that the reforms also let professors pursue personal ideals and self-realization, comparing their purpose to Kettleburn’s devotion to dangerous Magical Creatures.

Vaughn explained how the Board of Governors’ factions could be used to end interference in Hogwarts, then demonstrated his new Living Dissolution Ritual to Professor Kettleburn. The ritual exposed every detail of Araclaid’s living body in a higher-dimensional space, leaving Kettleburn overwhelmed but amazed.

• Vaughn told Kettleburn that the Board of Governors was divided by conflicting interests and that some committee members wanted the dispute over Hogwarts’s teaching plans to end.
• Vaughn prepared an abandoned classroom as a laboratory and explained that his Living Dissolution Ritual could reveal the structure of a living body.
• Vaughn used the ritual on Araclaid, whose body unfolded through a polyhedral space while Araclaid cried out and pleaded for mercy.
• Kettleburn was overwhelmed by the flood of information from the ritual, and Vaughn stopped it from flooding his senses with a spell.
• Vaughn explained that the ritual projected information from Araclaid’s living body, and Kettleburn looked again and praised the magic as wondrous.

Vaughn and Kettleburn studied Araclaid’s Flesh Polyhedron, and Vaughn explained how filtered knowledge from its higher-dimensional information might reveal the nature of spirituality. That night, Harry and his dormmates decided they needed Dumbledore’s help to save the Duelling Club, and Ron suggested contacting Fawkes through Guoguo Tea.

• Kettleburn received knowledge from the Flesh Polyhedron, while Vaughn used Persona Armors to filter its information and store the resulting knowledge.
• Vaughn told Kettleburn that the polyhedron’s nonlinear view of spacetime could let them study Araclaid’s life and perhaps uncover the secret of spirituality.
• Harry, Seamus, Dean, Ron, and Neville discussed the Board of Governors’ threat to abolish the Duelling Club and wished Dumbledore were there to oppose them.
• Seamus urged Harry to find Fawkes and contact Dumbledore, but Harry explained that only Vaughn and Professor McGonagall knew how to enter the Headmaster’s Office.
• Ron proposed another way to contact Fawkes: Guoguo Tea.

Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville sneaked out of Gryffindor Tower to find Guoguo Tea and summon Fawkes, with Ron using Scabbers as bait. Guoguo Tea led them to a hidden meeting where Alecto Carrow argued with Hogwarts’ Heads of House, and the group decided to follow her inside.

• Harry and the others left Gryffindor Tower under the Invisibility Cloak, and Ron revealed he had brought Scabbers to lure Guoguo Tea.
• Ron negotiated with Guoguo Tea, offering to let her play with Scabbers if she helped them summon Fawkes with one of her feathers.
• Guoguo Tea led the five students through the dark castle to a corridor painted like a forest.
• The students heard Alecto Carrow arguing with Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, and Severus behind a half-open door.
• Guoguo Tea entered the room, and Harry and the others decided to follow because they suspected the Board of Governors meeting was taking place there.

Harry and his friends secretly watched the Board of Governors debate the Duelling Club, where the vote ended in a four-four-four stalemate. Confused by the shifting alliances, they postponed contacting Dumbledore, while Guoguo Tea left Ron distraught by tormenting Scabbers.

• Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville followed Guoguo Tea under the Invisibility Cloak and overheard Alecto Carrow and Lucius Malfoy argue against the Duelling Club while the four Heads of House defended it.
• Harry watched the Board of Governors split into supporters, opponents, and abstainers, and the vote to restore the club's functions ended four in favor, four against, and four abstaining.
• Back in the dormitory, Harry and his friends struggled to understand the committee members' votes, and Guoguo Tea returned with a bundle while staring at Ron.
• Hermione scolded Harry and the others for wandering at night and urged them to pretend the meeting had never happened.
• Seamus and the others decided not to contact Dumbledore yet, but to keep a phoenix feather as a backup plan; Ron protested after Guoguo Tea battered Scabbers's cage.

Harry learned that Draco wanted to protect Vaughn’s practical class and Duelling Club, and Draco explained why most pure-bloods might support Vaughn despite their prejudices. Draco began identifying the Board of Governors members likely to oppose Vaughn, but the chapter ended before he named the final family.

• Harry warned his friends to keep their discussion of the Board of Governors private after Fred and George revealed Percy knew they had overheard the meeting.
• Draco privately asked Harry whether he had seen Lucius at the Board meeting and confirmed that Lucius had abstained from voting against Vaughn and the club.
• Harry told Draco what he had witnessed, and Draco argued that Vaughn’s magical power and influence had earned him growing support among pure-blood families.
• Draco said he and many Slytherins wanted to save the practical class and Duelling Club, and suggested their pure-blood connections could sway the Board.
• Draco explained that Alecto Carrow was firmly opposed to Vaughn and began describing the other committee members, but stopped before revealing the last family.

Harry agreed to watch Lucius Malfoy’s behavior at the Board of Governors after Draco asked him to find out why his father’s stance was ambiguous. Meanwhile, Kettleburn visited Vaughn in the abandoned classroom, where Vaughn continued studying Araclaid’s life information through the polyhedron’s light and gave no hint of his plans.

• Draco told Harry that he could influence the Parkinson family and asked him to observe Lucius Malfoy at the Board of Governors; Harry agreed.
• Pansy insulted Dean, Seamus, Neville, and Ron as she left with Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe, while Harry concealed his agreement with Draco from his friends.
• Harry regretted not asking Draco about the Notebook after returning to his dormitory.
• Kettleburn evaded curious students and brought breakfast to Vaughn in the abandoned classroom, where he watched Vaughn withdraw the polyhedron’s light.
• Kettleburn told Vaughn that the Board of Governors had reached no decision and that young wizards and Pure-blood Families were discussing how to support him.
• Vaughn said he had no thoughts about the meeting because he was not allowed to attend, while Kettleburn remained convinced that he was not passively waiting for events to unfold.

Kettleburn worried that rumors about pure-blood support were pushing Hogwarts students toward compromise, while Fudge celebrated the apparent rift between Vaughn and Dumbledore. At Mount Lao Jun, Master Li questioned Dumbledore about the conflict and warned that it could determine whether the East joined Vaughn’s International Potions Exchange Event; Dumbledore later read letters from pure-bloods and realized how strongly the rift had bolstered Vaughn’s position.

• Kettleburn saw students considering compromise with pure-blood families to break the Board of Governors’ deadlock and worried about the effect on them.
• Fudge told Dumbledore that he planned to approach Vaughn, believing their falling-out made Vaughn open to being won over.
• Master Li asked Dumbledore whether his conflict with Vaughn was genuine, explaining that the East’s participation in the exchange event depended partly on their relationship.
• Master Li said the East had to weigh Vaughn’s influence over young wizards against the risk of falling behind, while Dumbledore questioned whether their ideas might bring disaster.
• After Master Li left, Dumbledore read letters from pure-bloods and reflected that Fudge’s mockery and the East’s intervention showed how confident Vaughn had become.

Li Nanyu met with three fellow Legendary Wizards in a hidden pocket dimension, where they discussed Vaughn Weasley, the dangers of Aether, and the possibility that his work could lead to a new Path of Legends. Li was sent to complete negotiations and seek a chance to observe Vaughn in England, while the chapter ended with Harry and Ron leaving Transfiguration class under the weight of Professor McGonagall’s essay assignment.

• Li Nanyu reported that Dumbledore and Vaughn Weasley had fallen out over ideological differences and learned that Dumbledore carried the stench of Death after being targeted in Aether.
• Li Nanyu and the other three Legendaries agreed to share intelligence about Vaughn’s artificial Potions substrate with the Qi Refining Committee and Potions Association, and to build friendly relations with Cornelius Fudge.
• Li Nanyu raised the possibility that Wilkinson and the DeSantis group had pledged themselves to an Aether God, but the Eastern Celestial Master forbade him from considering such an alliance and ordered him to observe Vaughn’s path instead.
• Professor McGonagall assigned her second-year students a four-foot essay with strict font and spacing limits, prompting loud complaints after class.
• Harry ignored Ron’s worries about the assignment and left with him, preoccupied with his secret efforts to gather intelligence at Board of Governors’ meetings and Hermione’s anger about the risks.