Chapter Summaries

Professor Lupin resumed teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, while Harry defended Snape’s homework and openly admitted to having Hermione write his essay. After class, Harry transformed Dean Thomas into a ball and kicked him into the courtyard, and Helena punished Gryffindor by deducting two points.

• Professor Lupin returned to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, and students complained about the homework Snape had assigned while substituting for him.
• Harry argued that the students should complete Snape’s essay on Werewolves, so Lupin made it part of their future assessment.
• Dean Thomas accused Harry of having Hermione write his essay, and Harry shamelessly defended the arrangement as scholarly pilfering.
• Lupin taught the class how to fight a Green Water Monster, while Dean Thomas remained distracted and uneasy.
• After class, Harry transformed Dean Thomas into a ball and kicked him into the courtyard.
• Lavender asked Helena to punish Harry, and Helena deducted two points from Gryffindor instead.

After Gryffindor lost to Hufflepuff in Quidditch, Oliver Wood intensified the team’s training. Cedric Diggory confronted Harry over Cho Chang and left humiliated when both Harry and Cho rejected him.

• Gryffindor lost its Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, leaving Oliver Wood devastated until the team reminded him they could still win the championship.
• Oliver Wood began putting the Quidditch players through harsher training five times a week.
• Cedric Diggory approached Cho Chang while she played Gomoku with Harry, but Hermione ignored him and Harry asked what he wanted.
• Cedric accused Harry of being unworthy of Cho and challenged him to a Quidditch match, demanding that Harry stay away from her if he lost.
• Harry insulted Cedric, and Cho told him she did not want to know him and asked him to leave.
• Cho told Harry that Cedric had repeatedly pursued her despite her refusals, and Harry mocked Cedric for lacking self-awareness.

Harry noticed Hermione’s exhausting use of the Time-Turner and teased her with an outrageous suggestion, while the first snow brought the students into the Christmas season. In Hogsmeade, the group heard that Rita Skeeter’s attacks had put Cornelius Fudge under pressure, and Harry promised Cho Chang she would not have to return to the home she disliked.

• Harry asked Hermione whether her overwork made her happy, and Hermione admitted she had smiled less since third year began but wanted to finish the year before changing her routine.
• Harry told Hermione a story about Tokisaki Kurumi and proposed using the Time-Turner to create another version of her, prompting Hermione to throw a book at him.
• Astoria woke Harry to show him the first snowfall, as Hogwarts began preparing for Christmas.
• Harry, Cho Chang, Hermione, and Astoria visited Hogsmeade and heard wizards discuss Rita Skeeter’s articles attacking Fudge and the Ministry’s efforts to control the Daily Prophet.
• Fudge entered The Three Broomsticks and passed Harry without speaking, privately dismissing the idea that Harry could help him.
• Cho told Harry she did not want to return to her home for the holidays, and Harry promised to take care of her for the rest of her life.

Helena tried to leave Harry’s cottage, but Harry forced her to stay while Cho Chang and Hermione moved in. At Hogwarts, Hermione challenged Professor Trelawney to a public Divination contest on Christmas Day, and Lavender and Parvati took the challenge notice to Trelawney.

• Helena felt lonely as she packed Harry’s belongings, but Harry told her he was staying at Hogwarts for the holidays and said Cho Chang would live at the cottage.
• Helena announced she was moving out because she was a ghost, but Harry dragged her into her room, and she emerged agreeing not to leave.
• A challenge letter appeared on the Hogwarts notice board, where Hermione Granger offered ten thousand Galleons if Professor Sybill Trelawney could defeat her in a Christmas Day contest.
• Students argued over Hermione’s chances and Trelawney’s credibility as crowds gathered around the notice board.
• Lavender and Parvati tore down the challenge letter, convinced Trelawney would win, and set off to show it to her.

Harry encouraged Hermione as she worried about proving herself in Divination and promised to take her into the Forbidden Forest the next day to meet one of his pets. Meanwhile, Parvati and Lavender pressured Trelawney into accepting Hermione’s public challenge, and Trelawney decided to confront Hermione about her Arithmancy.

• Harry reassured Hermione that she could face Trelawney and suggested a walk in the Forbidden Forest after the other students left school.
• Harry promised to introduce Hermione and the others to one of his pets, then summoned Helena to massage his shoulders as Cho Chang watched in surprise.
• Parvati and Lavender brought Hermione’s challenge to Trelawney and told her they had announced that she would take part.
• Trelawney learned that the challenge was already widely known and asked how Hermione was doing in Arithmancy.
• After Parvati and Lavender said Hermione seemed to struggle with Arithmancy, Trelawney said she would go enlighten her.

On the first day of the holiday, Hermione moved into Harry’s rooms, and Harry, Cho Chang, and Hermione visited Hagrid. Hagrid explained that the Ministry had compensated him for destroying his wand and planned to expand his home.

• Hermione told Harry she was frightened by the empty Gryffindor common room and moved into his rooms, sharing Cho Chang’s bedroom.
• Cho Chang made breakfast, and Harry sent Helena to China to study cooking; Helena decided to become the God of Cooking.
• Hermione brought Crookshanks to Harry’s rooms, while Harry remembered parting with Astoria, whom he had sent back to her family’s estate.
• Harry, Cho Chang, and Hermione walked through the snowy grounds to visit Hagrid, who told them Trelawney’s predictions had angered him.
• Hagrid showed Harry the Galleons the Ministry had given him as compensation for his destroyed wand and said he planned to expand his house and build Fang a doghouse.

Harry led Cho and Hermione deep into the Forbidden Forest, where they met Little Snow and Hermione learned that Harry could fly without magic. They reached a remote part of the forest despite Little Snow’s reluctance, and Harry reassured the others about the creatures watching them.

• Cho explained the Cheering Charm to Hermione and offered to teach her how to cast it.
• Little Snow appeared, welcomed Cho, and carried her through the air above the forest.
• Harry took Hermione flying without using magic, surprising her and prompting her to warn him not to reveal the ability to other wizards.
• Harry, Cho, and Hermione traveled across mountain ranges into the deeper Forbidden Forest, where Little Snow refused to go farther.
• Cho and Hermione described unseen watchers and a centaur carrying a spear, while Harry said the forest creatures generally would not harm them.

Harry explained that Unicorns kept Forbidden Forest creatures safe by purifying their drinking water, then brought Hermione and Cho Chang to an ice-covered lake to meet his underwater pet. He introduced it as something like Godzilla, leaving them unsure what to expect.

• Harry explained that creatures in the Forbidden Forest feared wizards because of the harm Voldemort had caused and relied on Unicorns to purify their water.
• Harry led Hermione and Cho Chang to a large snowy basin, where Cho cleared the snow and revealed thick ice over a deep lake.
• Hermione guessed that Harry's pet was an Ice Fish and described its amusing face-slapping spell, but Harry said it was not one.
• Harry told Hermione and Cho that his pet lived underwater and was kind of like Godzilla, then began explaining what Godzilla was.

Harry teased Hermione and Cho Chang about his terrifying pet before summoning the Basilisk from beneath the frozen lake. They tried to Apparate away from the enormous snake but ended up standing on its head, where Harry revealed it was his pet.

• Harry exaggerated the Basilisk's power while Hermione and Cho Chang laughed at his description.
• Harry summoned the Basilisk, which burst through the lake's thick ice and rose above the water.
• Hermione and Cho Chang mistook the giant snake for a dangerous lake monster and clung to Harry as they prepared to flee.
• Harry Apparated with Hermione and Cho Chang, but they arrived atop the Basilisk's head.
• Harry told the frightened girls that the Basilisk was the pet he had wanted them to meet.

Harry revealed to Hermione and Cho Chang that he had controlled the Basilisk since it awoke in the Chamber of Secrets, explaining how he prevented it from killing anyone and clarifying that Voldemort had used the diary to release it. At Hogwarts, Dumbledore refused Sybill Trelawney’s request to cancel her Christmas Day contest with Hermione, leaving her angry and Dumbledore considering a new Divination professor.

• Harry teased Hermione and Cho Chang into agreeing to punish each other while he watched, then showed them the enormous Basilisk.
• Hermione recognized the Basilisk and worked out that Harry had controlled it during the Chamber of Secrets attacks, preventing the victims from being killed.
• Harry explained that Voldemort had controlled Ron through the diary and released the Basilisk, and that the story of Slytherin’s heir was a distorted rumor.
• Harry Apparated with Cho Chang and Hermione back to Hogwarts after Hermione asked to leave the Basilisk.
• Trelawney asked Dumbledore to stop her contest with Hermione, but he insisted she prepare for Christmas Day and reminded her that her prophecy had secured her post for thirteen years.
• After Trelawney stormed out, Dumbledore discussed replacing her as Divination professor with the former headmasters.

On Christmas Day, Harry teased Hermione about repaying a ten-thousand-Galleon wager, then joined the Hogwarts students and professors for a festive feast before Professor Trelawney arrived and insulted everyone. The chapter left Trelawney drawing Harry's contempt as the Christmas competition still awaited.

• Harry woke from a dream about Cho Chang, Hermione, and Astoria, then joked with Hermione about repaying him for their wager with her body.
• Hermione became determined to win the competition after Harry calculated the price of his proposed repayment.
• Dumbledore welcomed the students who had stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas, conjured extra tables, and led them in pulling crackers before the feast.
• Professor Trelawney arrived late and rejected seats beside Hagrid, Snape, and Professor Binns, insulting each of them.
• Hermione and Cho Chang wondered why Trelawney was acting so unusually, while Harry called her stupid.

At the Christmas feast, Trelawney clashed with Professor McGonagall and pushed to begin her Divination duel with Hermione Granger early. Just as Hermione prepared to face her, Dumbledore brought in a mysterious old friend to judge, and Trelawney turned pale at the sight of him.

• Trelawney warned that thirteen people dining together meant the first to rise would die, and Dumbledore joked that he would stand first.
• Trelawney and Professor McGonagall traded barbs about Trelawney's supposed prophetic powers until Dumbledore intervened.
• Trelawney demanded that her Divination duel with Hermione Granger begin before the Christmas feast was finished, so Dumbledore cleared the hall and arranged the tables.
• Hermione stepped forward to face Trelawney after Harry urged her to win.
• Dumbledore returned with an old friend to judge the contest, and Trelawney went pale when she saw him.

Brian Lopez arrived to referee Hermione Granger’s divination contest against Trelawney, and he found that he could not see Harry Potter’s past or future. As the assessment began, Professor Victor rooted for Hermione and recalled her father’s belief that science could defeat magic.

• Cho Chang explained Brian Lopez’s reputation as a powerful diviner and former president of the Diviners Guild, and Harry said Lopez could try to favor Trelawney if he dared.
• Brian Lopez looked at Harry but saw only a blank expanse, then mistook Harry’s joke about his eyes for concern about a Muggle eye disease.
• Brian Lopez announced that he would judge the contest by testing Hermione and Trelawney on events that had already happened, and said the match would also assess Trelawney’s guild membership.
• Professor Victor encouraged Hermione and recalled how Trelawney had scorned Arithmancy and how Victor’s father had argued, “Use science to defeat magic!”

Hermione defeated Trelawney in a Divination contest, but Brian Lopez allowed Trelawney to remain Hogwarts's professor. Harry then revealed that the apparent Trelawney had taken Polyjuice Potion, and she fled toward the Great Hall doors.

• Professor McGonagall, Professor Lupin, and Hagrid encouraged Hermione as she faced Trelawney in the contest.
• Hermione and Trelawney performed divinations for students, and Hermione correctly identified the joint crime behind a boy's ruined Quidditch jersey.
• Hermione divined that Brian Lopez was thinking of Dumbledore as a Stinky-Nose Worm because he had missed his family's Christmas lunch, and Brian declared Hermione the winner.
• Brian Lopez said Trelawney could keep teaching at Hogwarts despite losing, leaving Hermione and the students disappointed.
• Harry accused Brian Lopez of failing to recognize that Trelawney had taken Polyjuice Potion, and Trelawney panicked and ran for the Great Hall doors.

Harry exposed Zacharias Shula as the wizard impersonating Trelawney, and Brian Lopez expelled him and Trelawney from the Diviners Guild. Trelawney waited anxiously in her quarters, recalled how she had built her career on a genuine prophecy she could not remember, and then looked up as her door opened.

• Harry dispelled the Polyjuice Potion and revealed that the fake Trelawney was Zacharias Shula, whom Brian Lopez recognized as a member of the Diviners Guild.
• Brian Lopez condemned Zacharias Shula for impersonating Trelawney and bullying Hermione, then expelled him and Trelawney from the guild.
• Zacharias Shula protested that Brian Lopez was no longer the guild president, and Brian Lopez said he would inform Buffett about the guild's lax management.
• Trelawney recalled that she had accidentally made a genuine prophecy years earlier and had used that event to become a Hogwarts teacher despite lacking divination skill.
• Trelawney blamed Hermione for forcing her to hire Zacharias Shula and use Polyjuice Potion, then looked up when her door opened.

Dumbledore expelled Trelawney from Hogwarts, and Snape collected the rest of her payment for the Polyjuice Potion. After Zacharias Shula left for Hogsmeade, Trelawney headed into the Forbidden Forest, where an omen of death appeared to Zacharias.

• Dumbledore told Trelawney she had been expelled from Hogwarts and ordered her to leave.
• Trelawney left Hogwarts with Zacharias Shula and, while resting in the snow, met Snape, who demanded the remaining payment for her Polyjuice Potion.
• Snape admitted he had recognized Trelawney’s scheme but had not exposed Zacharias Shula because he hoped they would win money from Harry Potter.
• Snape shut Hogwarts’s gates behind Trelawney, Zacharias Shula, and her suitcase, and Zacharias said he planned to get a hot Butterbeer before opening a Divination shop abroad.
• Trelawney vowed to take revenge and walked into the Forbidden Forest, while Zacharias saw an omen resembling an enormous, sinister black dog.

Trelawney entered the Forbidden Forest to pursue revenge but became lost and was swallowed by a monster at a lake. Meanwhile, Harry explained to Hermione why he had let her compete in the Divination contest, and she reluctantly accepted his reasoning.

• Trelawney entered the Forbidden Forest alone, frightened by the creatures watching her in the darkness.
• Trelawney became lost and found a moonlit lake, where she stopped to consider how to find the Death Eaters.
• A monster emerged from the lake and swallowed Trelawney.
• Harry lounged with Cho Chang and Hermione, then choked on a fruit pit before demanding that Hermione check his fruit for pits.
• Harry told Hermione he had let the Divination competition proceed because winning mattered to her, and Hermione reluctantly agreed he had a point.

Harry and Cho Chang ate with Hermione, who recounted how Trelawney had rebuked Lavender and Parvati. Later, Harry persuaded Dumbledore to pursue reforms and challenge Fudge’s leadership, and Dumbledore left to begin acting.

• Harry conjured dinner for himself, Cho Chang, and Hermione, who described Lavender and Parvati crying after Trelawney cursed them out.
• Harry urged Hermione to grow confident enough to confront those who had wronged her, while Cho Chang disapproved of his influence.
• On December 31, 1993, Harry confronted Dumbledore in the Headmaster’s Office and pressed him to replace Fudge and reform the wizarding world.
• Harry invoked Dumbledore’s old ideals and criticized unjust laws, prompting Dumbledore to express outrage and reconsider his inaction.
• Dumbledore agreed to shoulder the responsibility of change and left through the fireplace to meet someone.

Dumbledore courted influential wizards as he pursued the Minister for Magic position, then steadied himself by looking into the Mirror of Erised. On the day of Sirius’s trial, Harry felt a mysterious pull from a black door in the Department of Mysteries before following Dumbledore toward the courtroom.

• Dumbledore visited powerful wizards and won their support by promising benefits in exchange for concessions.
• Dumbledore looked into the Mirror of Erised and saw a young girl, a woman, and a strong man, while Snape questioned him about it.
• On January 3rd, 1994, Harry and Dumbledore arrived at the Ministry of Magic for Sirius’s trial.
• Harry felt an unseen force calling him from the black door at the end of the Department of Mysteries corridor and sensed that something behind it was connected to him.

Harry and Dumbledore arrived at the Ministry of Magic for Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew’s hearing, where Dumbledore’s authority and Fudge’s political weakness became apparent. The chapter ended with Black and Pettigrew chained in the crowded Tenth Courtroom as the hearing was about to begin.

• Harry criticized the gloomy court corridor, and Dumbledore agreed that the Ministry needed to be rebuilt.
• Fudge left Percy Weasley with Dumbledore, and Percy explained that he had accepted a chance to become Fudge’s personal assistant before hurrying after him.
• On the elevator, Percy warned Fudge about unfavorable newspaper coverage supporting Dumbledore, but Fudge dismissed the reports and insisted Dumbledore would never seek the minister’s office.
• Dumbledore and Harry entered the Tenth Courtroom, where they saw the assembled Wizard High Court and learned that Dumbledore was its Chief Warlock.
• Harry took a seat near the front as Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew sat chained in the center of the courtroom.