Chapter Summaries

Regulus visited McGonagall’s office, where she fitted his transformed appearance with combat clothing before he used Fawkes’s tail feather to open a brief spatial gap. His attempt to place Bellatrix’s Guardian Will into the Castle failed, but he observed McGonagall restoring the space and left with Fawkes.

• Regulus transformed as he entered McGonagall’s office, and she used Permanent Transfiguration to tailor his clothes for combat.
• Regulus summoned Fawkes with the phoenix tail feather, then used the brief spatial gap created by the Phoenix Flame to push Bellatrix’s Guardian Will into it.
• The Castle rejected the Guardian Will, and McGonagall gathered the remnants and carefully soothed the disturbed space.
• Regulus studied McGonagall’s technique and wondered whether gaining a title could help him earn the Castle’s acceptance.
• McGonagall told Regulus to warn her before trying something like that again, then he departed with Fawkes in a burst of golden flame.

Regulus arrived by phoenix in a remote village near the Scottish border and entered a shabby tavern, where his unleashed Magic Power unsettled the patrons. Albus Dumbledore recognized him despite his altered appearance and watched him with keen interest.

• Fawkes delivered Regulus to a narrow alley and flew away.
• Regulus surveyed the bleak, isolated settlement and entered its tavern.
• Regulus sensed a curse slowly eroding the old man crouched by the bar.
• Regulus's scorching aura made the tavern patrons wary, and two wizards moved closer to their wands.
• Albus Dumbledore recognized Regulus beneath his changed hair, eyes, and clothing, then watched him with interest.

Regulus, using the name Geralt, met Dumbledore at a tavern after knocking down a wizard who challenged him. Dumbledore confirmed he was recruiting, and the two prepared to talk.

• Regulus rejected the tavern's Butterbeer and insulted it, prompting a large wizard to confront him.
• Regulus restrained the wizard's wand arm and knocked him unconscious with a punch, while the man's companion carried him out.
• Regulus cleaned grime from his hand with a flicker of fire, ordered malt ale, and crossed the tavern to meet Dumbledore.
• Dumbledore replaced Regulus's malt ale with cloudy sparkling water, saying he was too young for the drink.
• Regulus introduced himself as Geralt, and Dumbledore confirmed he was recruiting and invited him to talk.

Regulus met Dumbledore in a tavern and reported what he had learned about Voldemort’s altered appearance and diminishing humanity, along with his preparations for war. Dumbledore listened and said he had also been investigating the Inferi.

• Dumbledore studied Regulus’s controlled, outwardly forceful Magic Power and praised how thoroughly he had prepared his appearance and temperament.
• Regulus told Dumbledore he had seen Voldemort at Lestrange Manor and described his waxlike skin, snake-like features, red slit pupils, and undetectable Magic Power.
• Regulus said Voldemort seemed to regard Bellatrix as an object and guessed that he had sacrificed his ability to empathize in pursuit of power.
• Regulus reported that Voldemort was gathering Werewolves under Fenrir Greyback in northern Yorkshire and using supplies, territory, and Potions to control them.
• Regulus shared reports of Inferi, a massacre in Little Hangleton, Ministry infiltration, and Dementors beginning to relent.
• Dumbledore listened to the intelligence and told Regulus that he had also been investigating the Inferi.

Dumbledore explained to Regulus how Voldemort’s growing attacks and the Ministry’s inaction were outpacing his efforts to build a resistance. As a wary, powerful wizard arrived at the tavern, Regulus sized him up.

• Dumbledore told Regulus about disappearances, attacks, and his plans to investigate the Yorkshire border while recruiting allies against Voldemort.
• Dumbledore described the growing attacks on wizarding families and the difficulty of assembling enough people to oppose Voldemort.
• Regulus considered how far Voldemort’s war preparations had advanced compared with Dumbledore’s early resistance efforts.
• Dumbledore checked his Pocket Watch and announced that another guest had arrived.
• A wary wizard entered the tavern, surveyed the room, and approached Regulus and Dumbledore’s table.

Dumbledore tried to recruit Angus Kro to fight Voldemort, but Kro refused because he believed the Wasteland’s Magical Creatures needed his protection. Regulus accepted Kro’s reasons but judged his choice unwise, and ended the chapter by confronting him directly.

• Dumbledore introduced Angus Kro, a former Ministry enforcement officer who tracked poachers, to Regulus, who presented himself as the adventurer Geralt.
• Dumbledore described the Death Eaters’ expanding attacks and asked Kro to join the fight, while Kro questioned him about the attacks’ locations, scale, and available forces.
• Kro refused, saying he needed to remain in the Wasteland to protect Magical Creatures from poachers and would fight Voldemort’s followers only if they came there.
• Regulus considered Kro’s refusal understandable but warned himself that the war would eventually reach the Wasteland.
• Regulus leaned toward Kro, let his Magic Power surge, and told him, “Don't be a pussy.”

Regulus confronted Kro in a wasteland after Kro challenged Geralt, and the two fought through a series of increasingly powerful spells. The chapter ended with both men’s magic surging as they prepared to continue the duel.

• Kro left Dumbledore’s gathering and Apparated to open ground, and Regulus followed him using Spatial Perception.
• Regulus challenged Kro to a fight, while Dumbledore watched from a nearby rise.
• Kro and Regulus traded spells, using the terrain and fast movements to avoid each other’s attacks.
• Regulus intensified his assault and blasted through Kro’s defenses, leaving him with superficial cuts.
• Kro’s anger settled into a colder resolve as his magic power surged, and Regulus’s Betelgeuse heat flared in response.

Regulus fought Kro across the Wasteland, then urged him to leave his solitary post and join Dumbledore’s side in the war. Kro said he would consider it, and Regulus departed with Dumbledore.

• Regulus and Kro exchanged powerful spells as their duel wrecked the Wasteland, while Dumbledore watched from the hills and recognized Regulus’s close-combat style as Abyssal Whisper.
• Regulus overwhelmed Kro at close range, and their fight ended when Kro held his wand to Regulus’s waist while Regulus stopped his fist inches from Kro’s face.
• Regulus challenged Kro’s years of guarding the Wasteland and argued that joining Dumbledore’s fight could help address the problems threatening it.
• Kro said he would consider Regulus’s offer, and Regulus walked back to Dumbledore before vanishing to the hills beside him.
• Dumbledore remarked that Regulus recruited more effectively than he did, and the two departed, leaving the ruined Wasteland empty.

Regulus accompanied Dumbledore to the Hog's Head Inn, where Dumbledore's brother Aberforth greeted them with insults and a quarrel about their respective animals. Regulus watched the brothers trade barbs while reflecting on their history, and the chapter left their purpose for visiting unaddressed.

• Regulus followed Dumbledore through Hogsmeade to the filthy Hog's Head Inn.
• Aberforth emerged from the back room and traded accusations with Dumbledore about the people who followed him.
• Dumbledore and Aberforth argued over the state of the pub, Aberforth's goat, and Dumbledore's Phoenix, Fawkes.
• Regulus sat back and watched the quarrel, considering Aberforth's reputation, his bond with goats, and the brothers' history after Ariana's death.

Regulus and Dumbledore visited Aberforth at the Hog's Head Inn, where Aberforth mocked his brother and gave Regulus a room for the night. Regulus told Dumbledore they would visit a werewolf village the next day to see whether his soul anchor had helped Edgar Tomlin keep his sanity through a full moon.

• Aberforth served Dumbledore his foul homemade gin and complained that Dumbledore only visited when he needed help with someone else's troubles.
• After Aberforth went to feed the goats, Dumbledore made bread and cheese for Regulus, and the two talked in the shabby pub.
• Aberforth gave Regulus a key to a room upstairs and warned him that following Dumbledore would not end well.
• Regulus told Dumbledore he wanted to visit the mining village north of Yorkshire on the next full moon to check on the werewolves.
• Regulus reflected that Edgar Tomlin had already endured one full moon with Guardian Will's anchor in his soul and hoped the experiment would let him retain his sanity again.

Regulus spent the night at the Hog's Head Inn, used magic to improve his bed, and endured Aberforth's awful breakfast before exploring Hogsmeade. After dining at the Three Broomsticks and attracting attention from students and Madam Rosmerta, he left the inn with Dumbledore by Apparition.

• Regulus silently killed rats and other small creatures in his room, then magically repaired and improved his bed.
• Regulus tried Aberforth's unappetizing breakfast and went out to explore Hogsmeade while Dumbledore stayed at the inn.
• Regulus drew attention from Hogsmeade students as he walked through the village, then ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, where Madam Rosmerta flirted with him.
• Regulus returned to the Hog's Head Inn at night and thanked Aberforth for his hospitality before leaving with Dumbledore by Apparition.
• Aberforth told Regulus not to return and warned Dumbledore not to walk alone at night.

Regulus and Dumbledore returned under concealment to the werewolf camp and found the pack had grown while the filth and misery had returned to the burned clearing. As Greyback rallied the gathered werewolves beneath the full moon, Regulus watched in silence, leaving the camp's next move unresolved.

• Regulus and Dumbledore used powerful concealment charms and Apparated into the camp's central clearing.
• They found the clearing covered in fresh filth and bones, and Regulus sensed that the pack had grown from roughly thirty or forty werewolves to around sixty.
• Dumbledore watched the newly bitten and long-transformed werewolves emerge from their shacks while Regulus considered how Voldemort's attacks were expanding the pack and spreading fear.
• Greyback gathered the werewolves and told the newcomers they could not return to their former lives, insisting that the camp was the only place they belonged.
• Greyback threatened to punish anyone who disobeyed as the pack waited for the full moon, while Regulus withdrew his gaze and noted that Greyback had recovered from the previous encounter.

Regulus and Dumbledore watched the werewolves transform under the full moon, and Edgar endured the change without losing the last spark of his humanity. Dumbledore recognized that Regulus’s Guardian Will was protecting Edgar, while Regulus silently asked whether Dumbledore liked what he saw.

• Regulus found Edgar sitting closer to the center of Greyback’s pack than he had been the previous month, and the other werewolves left him alone.
• Greyback transformed first, followed by more than sixty werewolves who changed amid howls and breaking bones.
• The transformed werewolves rampaged through the clearing, but Edgar stayed by a broken wall instead of joining their fights and frenzied behavior.
• Regulus saw a faint light of humanity persist in Edgar’s eyes and recognized that Bellatrix’s Guardian Will had survived its second full-moon test.
• Dumbledore observed the Guardian Will protecting Edgar’s humanity, understood that Regulus had placed it there, and looked at Regulus with approval and surprise.
• Regulus kept watching Edgar and silently asked Dumbledore whether he liked the light.

Regulus brought Dumbledore to observe Edgar’s failing Guardian Will anchor, and Dumbledore awakened the humanity protected inside it. Edgar gained enough clarity to make choices during his transformation, while Regulus left with a new direction for strengthening the anchor but no understanding yet of how Dumbledore had ignited the flame.

• Regulus and Dumbledore passed through the fighting Werewolf pack to reach Edgar, who remained quiet and apart from the others.
• Dumbledore slipped his will through Edgar’s Mental Barrier and Regulus’s protective shell without disturbing their structure.
• Dumbledore awakened the dim flame of Edgar’s humanity, making it shine within the blue-white Guardian Will shell.
• Edgar relaxed, recognized his own paws, and actively moved away from a nearby wolf instead of joining the pack’s violence.
• Regulus observed Dumbledore’s method and realized that protection could help humanity resist from within, though he still did not understand how the flame had been ignited.

Regulus considered how Guardian Will could protect and amplify either good or evil, and how it might combine with Light Magic to preserve implanted thoughts. Dumbledore secretly marked the Werewolves for long-term tracking, and he and Regulus left without disturbing the camp or exposing their connection.

• Regulus reasoned that Guardian Will could preserve and amplify hidden evil, or revive buried kindness, and considered combining it with Light Magic to protect implanted thoughts.
• Dumbledore cast concealed tracking spells on every Werewolf, allowing him to monitor changes in the camp and Greyback's movements.
• Regulus judged that destroying the camp would risk accelerating the war and exposing the Black family's secret contact with Dumbledore.
• Regulus and Dumbledore left the camp, while Regulus glanced back at the gray wolf sitting beneath the Full Moon.

Regulus accompanied Dumbledore as he traveled through northern England, recruiting possible allies for the Order of the Phoenix and learning about their lives. At the Raven and Fiddle, Moody sent a Patronus warning that the Pruitt brothers were surrounded near Skipton, and Dumbledore prepared to respond.

• Regulus and Dumbledore relaxed at the Raven and Fiddle, where they talked with Mr. Farnley about the inn and its history.
• Regulus recalled meeting a retired investigator, a potion-shop owner, and a retired Auror; none agreed immediately to join the Order of the Phoenix.
• Regulus and Dumbledore continued southeast toward the North York Moors, following a route that also covered an area with many disappearances.
• Moody's silver bull Patronus arrived with news that Dolohov and ten others had surrounded the Pruitt brothers north of Skipton.
• Dumbledore identified Moody and turned to Regulus after receiving the warning.

Dumbledore recruited Regulus to help rescue Fabian and Gideon Pruitt, who had been trapped by Death Eaters in an abandoned castle. After warning Regulus not to kill anyone, Dumbledore assigned him to clear the first-floor Drawing Room while he watched the other floors and the perimeter.

• Dumbledore received Moody's message that Fabian and Gideon Pruitt had encountered Dolohov and needed rescuing, and he asked Regulus to help without killing anyone.
• Regulus agreed to go, recognizing Dumbledore's need to contain the conflict and protect the Pruitt brothers.
• Dumbledore Apparated with Regulus to a castle in Northern Yorkshire, where Moody reported that ten Death Eaters had trapped the Pruitt brothers in a watchtower.
• Moody explained that the brothers had followed Rookwood and Dolohov after discovering their meeting, but Rookwood had already Apparated back to the Ministry of Magic.
• Dumbledore assigned Regulus to drive the Death Eaters from the first-floor Drawing Room and open a route for the Pruitt brothers, while he watched the other floors and the castle perimeter.
• Regulus drew his wand and approached the castle's main entrance as his Magic Power distorted the air around him.

Regulus refused to enter the trapped castle and instead prepared a high-pressure attack from outside. He held the pressure just below the point where his Shield Charm would fail, while a Death Eater noticed the strange activity but did not understand it.

• Regulus reasoned that the castle was protected by traps and decided not to follow the Pruitt brothers inside.
• Regulus told Dumbledore to have the others prepare Shield Charms and Bubble-Head Charms, and Dumbledore sent a silver Phoenix into the castle.
• Dumbledore identified Regulus to Moody as Geralt, an adventurer, and Moody agreed to watch him rather than interfere.
• Regulus created a spherical Shield Charm and used Ventus to draw air into it, steadily building extreme pressure.
• Regulus held the sphere just short of breaking while a Death Eater saw him manipulating the air outside the castle and returned to the staircase.

Regulus compressed air into a fist-sized sphere of high-pressure plasma and detonated it against the Castle’s entrance, destroying the stone arch and collapsing the outer wall. As the smoke cleared, the Castle’s torn cross-section was exposed.

• Regulus reinforced a Shield Charm with Bellatrix's Guardian Image and compressed air until it formed a fist-sized sphere of plasma.
• Moody feared the unstable sphere would explode, while Dumbledore watched and protected them both with spells.
• Regulus warned Dumbledore and Moody to cover their ears, then prepared to launch the sphere at the Castle’s entrance.
• Regulus synchronized the sphere’s impact with Betelgeuse's Burst Will and the Fire-Making Spell, triggering a massive explosion at the stone arch.
• The blast shattered the Castle’s protective layers, collapsed the entrance-side outer wall, and raised a brief mushroom cloud.
• The smoke drifted away, revealing the Castle’s torn cross-section.

Regulus tested his new Thermobaric Explosion spell by demolishing the front of the Death Eater stronghold, leaving its occupants injured but alive. As the survivors regrouped, Dolohov faced Regulus across the rubble while Moody stood between them.

• Regulus inspected the shattered Castle and considered ways to improve the spell, then replenished his Magic Power.
• Regulus told Dumbledore and Moody that the attack was done, and Moody reacted with disbelief while Dumbledore recognized how Regulus had combined basic spells with physical principles.
• Regulus sensed the injured Death Eaters in the ruins and found Dolohov still standing, having aimed the blast at the gate's support to limit casualties.
• Moody Apparated to the battlefield as Fabian and Gideon escaped the damaged turret, and he positioned himself between the survivors and Dolohov.
• Dolohov gave potions to a subordinate to administer to the injured, drank one himself, and stepped forward to face Regulus.