Chapter Summaries

Wizet and Luna walked through snowy London and shared hot chocolate at a department-store stall. They sampled each other’s drinks and discovered that the flavors seemed to improve as they drank.

• Wizet and Luna walked hand in hand through the heavy snow, and Wizet caught Luna when she nearly slipped.
• Wizet and Luna entered a crowded department store and brushed snow from each other’s hair and clothes.
• Wizet ordered Luna a hot chocolate topped with cream, marshmallows, and chocolate shavings, and bought himself one flavored with cinnamon.
• Luna fed Wizet a marshmallow and shared her hot chocolate with him, while Wizet offered Luna a sip of his cinnamon drink.
• Luna and Wizet noticed that both hot chocolates seemed to taste better as their flavors developed.

Wizet and Luna spent a snowy day shopping, choosing gifts and sharing a tender conversation about how much they loved each other. On Christmas morning, Dobby showed Wizet the gifts he had received and gave him a handmade coat, which Wizet happily accepted.

• Wizet and Luna sampled hot chocolate and shopped for yarn, accessories, holiday decorations, and fashion books for Dobby.
• Luna read Guess How Much I Love You and told Wizet that he could always find her; Wizet said he could never win at measuring their love.
• Wizet and Luna left the department store together as snow fell, calling the snowflakes sweet and marshmallow-like.
• On Christmas morning, Wizet woke to find Dobby stacking gifts and wearing the hats Wizet and Luna had given him.
• Dobby presented Wizet with a handmade dark blue coat, and Wizet said he liked it and thanked him.

Wizet discovered that the Longbottom family's gift was a magical contract and read Augusta Longbottom's explanation of its meaning. He accepted a symbolic bond promising that the Longbottoms would always welcome him as a friend, and the contract formed when its seal dissolved.

• Wizet sensed a magical contract in the Longbottom family's envelope and recognized it as a one-sided contract resembling a Life Debt.
• Augusta Longbottom's message urged Wizet to accept the gift as a simple ritual so the family could regard him as a friend rather than a benefactor.
• Wizet opened the letter and read that the Longbottom family offered him their trust, support, and home whenever he needed them.
• The Longbottom family seal dissolved after Wizet read Neville Longbottom's name, forming the magical contract.
• Wizet recognized that the adjusted contract placed little burden on him and could be ended whenever he wished.

Wizet unwrapped Christmas gifts from Agnes, Miriam Strout, and Malcolm Sharma, including materials for his magical research. Luna’s poem opened a vivid memory of their rainy encounter with a red fox cub, leaving Wizet smiling and reflecting on how much he liked her.

• Wizet received gifts from Agnes and Miriam Strout, who thanked him for helping Agnes recover from her failed Animagus practice.
• Wizet opened Malcolm Sharma’s gift and found the comprehensive documents he had requested, along with a card emphasizing North America’s efficiency and information-gathering strength.
• Wizet finished opening the other presents and read the poem on Luna’s Christmas card.
• Wizet opened Luna’s card and relived their rainy encounter with a red fox cub through a vivid memory.
• Wizet reread Luna’s poem and realized he liked everything about her.

Wizet connected Luna’s poem about a fox’s fur to his unanswered questions about thunder and lightning in Animagus practice. He concluded that nature’s magic awakens an animal instinct in the soul, causing it to expand and change before the body transforms.

• Wizet recalled Luna’s poem while revisiting the memory in the card and realized that thunder hid autumn’s desolation inside the fox’s fur.
• Wizet opened his notebook and reconsidered the question Miriam Strout had raised about thunder and lightning in Animagus practice.
• Wizet reasoned that thunder and lightning transmitted nature’s magic, which an Animagus practitioner received through an instinctive response in the soul.
• Wizet connected animals bristling their fur to the maxim “as within, so without,” concluding that the soul’s expansion and awakened animal instinct affected the body’s transformation.
• Wizet recorded his conclusion and smiled again at Luna’s poem on the card.

Wizet answered Luna’s call through the magical mark he had given her and appeared outside her bedroom. Luna drew him close and asked him to keep his eyes shut, leaving him anticipating what she would do next.

• Wizet recognized Luna’s call through the shared W and L ritual mark and Apparated to her bedroom.
• Luna greeted Wizet wearing Dobby’s sunflower-decorated witch’s hat and showed him the glowing mark on her palm.
• Wizet told Luna that her Christmas gift was precious and whispered that he loved her all the way to the moon and back.
• Luna asked Wizet to close his eyes, then moved close, dropped her hat, and cupped his face.
• Wizet kept his eyes closed as Luna’s breath brushed his nose and their heartbeats quickened.

Wizet and Luna shared a brief kiss, leaving Wizet stunned and Luna flushed when she woke later. Wizet kept smiling as he replayed the moment, while Xenophilius Lovegood remained unaware of what had happened.

• Luna kissed Wizet, then hurried back into her room and left him standing outside with her wizard's hat.
• Wizet picked up Luna's hat and decided it was his own glass slipper, intending to return it to her later.
• Xenophilius Lovegood found Wizet outside Luna's door, wished him a Merry Christmas, and took him downstairs for breakfast.
• Wizet continued pressing his wand to his temple and smiling, then explained his research on lightning to Xenophilius.
• Xenophilius brought breakfast to Luna, found her flushed, and relaxed when she said an enthusiastic Nargle had warmed her up.
• After Xenophilius went downstairs, he found Wizet still sitting in the sitting room with his wand pressed to his temple.

Xenophilius Lovegood mistook Wizet’s distracted behavior and modest Christmas gift for signs that goblins had trapped him in debt. He offered to help expose Gringotts, while Wizet began to explain the misunderstanding.

• Xenophilius Lovegood watched Wizet and Luna after lunch and suspected something unusual had happened between them.
• He found Wizet in the living room gripping his wand to his temple and asked whether he had forgotten to prepare Luna a Christmas present.
• Wizet instinctively said he had prepared a feather, prompting Xenophilius Lovegood to suspect that M.S.C. had lost its money to goblins.
• Xenophilius Lovegood imagined that Gringotts had saddled Wizet with a huge debt and offered his savings and newspaper connections to help him.
• Wizet realized what Xenophilius Lovegood believed and started to explain.

Wizet explained to Xenophilius Lovegood that the phoenix feather he gave Luna let her call for him discreetly, and Xenophilius realized the two had hidden their connection from him. Remembering how Pandora's parents had scrutinized him, he softened and chose not to reject Wizet.

• Xenophilius Lovegood worried about Wizet's debt to Gringotts and asked how many Galleons he owed.
• Wizet explained that the phoenix feather he gave Luna let her call for him, and Xenophilius compared it to a Two-way Mirror.
• Wizet admitted that the connection was discreet enough to escape detection unless someone deliberately looked for it, even by Headmaster Dumbledore.
• Xenophilius realized Luna and Wizet had been hiding their connection from him and remembered how Pandora's parents had once scrutinized him.
• Xenophilius asked how many phoenix feathers Wizet had found, and Wizet said there would only ever be one.
• Xenophilius considered treating Wizet as Pandora's parents had treated him, but he could not bring himself to make Wizet feel unaccepted.

Xenophilius Lovegood tried to leave Wizet anxious by acting stern and mysterious after their conversation, while Wizet took the time to think things through. By evening, Wizet confidently told Xenophilius that he had reached a decision, though the chapter ended before he explained it.

• Xenophilius Lovegood noticed Wizet's unease and decided to maintain a stern, noncommittal attitude to make him ponder their conversation.
• Xenophilius patted Wizet on the shoulder, told him to think it through, and went upstairs, secretly pleased that Wizet seemed bluffed.
• Wizet took Xenophilius's words as guidance, resolved to regain the initiative, and decided to return Luna's wizard hat.
• That evening, Xenophilius called Wizet into the sitting room and asked whether he had thought it through.
• Wizet smiled and told Xenophilius that he had thought it through.

Wizet told Xenophilius Lovegood that he had figured out what they had discussed, leaving Xenophilius bewildered and unable to sleep over how quickly it had happened. Meanwhile, Luna remembered what she had done that morning, received Wizet’s letter about her pointed hat, and prepared to open her door to him.

• Wizet sincerely thanked Xenophilius Lovegood and said he had figured things out, leaving Xenophilius stunned.
• Xenophilius struggled to respond as the elder he had planned to be, then Dobby interrupted them by announcing dinner.
• After dinner, Xenophilius returned to his bedroom and lay awake, muttering that he could not accept how Wizet had figured it out so quickly.
• Luna reflected on the morning and recalled that she had taken off her pointed hat after Wizet’s words inspired her to act.
• Thor delivered Wizet’s letter to Luna, telling her that she had left her pointed hat behind.
• Luna recognized the letter’s Cinderella reference, gathered her courage, and prepared to open the door.

Wizet and Luna shared an awkward first kiss, then discovered a sweeter, lingering one as they grew closer. The kiss left Luna dizzy and weak, and Wizet caught her in his arms.

• Wizet tucked Luna’s hair behind her ear and placed her wizard hat back on her head.
• Luna and Wizet leaned toward each other and kissed, lightly knocking their front teeth together.
• Wizet kissed the tear from the corner of Luna’s eye and said he had discovered two secrets.
• Luna took Wizet’s hand, and he held her waist as they shared a longer kiss.
• Wizet and Luna pulled apart to catch their breath, and Wizet lifted the dizzy, weakened Luna into his arms.

Luna and Wizet shared an inexperienced, passionate first kiss, discovering how quickly they lost themselves in each other. Afterward, Wizet returned to his room and reflected on their discoveries, including the smiling W and L on his palm.

• Luna playfully nipped Wizet's shoulder, then kissed him as he carried her toward the bedroom.
• Wizet and Luna kissed repeatedly, pausing to catch their breath and discovering that an hour had passed with the bedroom door still open.
• Wizet helped Luna sit on the bed, and she told him she knew he had not felt pain when she bit him.
• Wizet told Luna he wanted to save everything that made him different for her, and they kissed again.
• Wizet returned to his room, cooled it with a Cryo-Preservation Charm, and noticed his swollen lips and the smiling W and L on his palm.

Selina Pendragon visited Gellert Grindelwald in Nurmengard, where he described the prison as a place he had chosen and a vantage point from which to watch the world. Grindelwald explained that the growing chaos was a necessary release of pressure as secrets hidden by the International Statute of Secrecy emerged.

• Selina Pendragon entered Grindelwald’s cell after practicing the Flight Charm and asked whether Nurmengard might collapse.
• Selina Pendragon brought Grindelwald mead and Cockroach Cluster for Christmas, and they traded remarks about the gifts.
• Grindelwald said he had chosen Nurmengard and valued watching the lively outside world from there.
• Grindelwald read reports of potion-related Muggle deaths, an Erumpent attack, and a dispute over gold between a Muggle company and wizards.
• Grindelwald compared the world’s upheaval to an abscess draining and said the incidents were a necessary consequence of the International Statute of Secrecy’s secrets being exposed.

Gellert Grindelwald argued that Muggles harmed by black-market potions would learn magic’s dangers through experience, while Selina Pendragon revealed that the Isaiah Society was experimenting in the Middle East to mass-produce wizards. The chapter left Grindelwald questioning the nature and abilities of the weak, adult wizards the Society had created.

• Gellert Grindelwald told Selina Pendragon that Muggles were obtaining dangerous potions through a newly emerging black market.
• Gellert Grindelwald argued that the Ministry of Magic’s inability to control the situation would let Muggles learn from the harm they suffered.
• Selina Pendragon confirmed that the Isaiah Society was conducting a magical experiment in the Middle East to mass-produce wizards.
• Selina Pendragon explained that the subjects were around thirty, physically stronger than comparable Muggles, and barely capable of magic.
• Gellert Grindelwald reacted gravely and asked how old the subjects were and how powerful their magic was.

Selina Pendragon and Gellert Grindelwald discussed wizards who could cast only the Fire-Making Spell and bore Fire Salamander scales, concluding that Voldemort and the Isaiah Society had likely created them. Grindelwald viewed the growing entanglement of magic and Muggle technology as a crucible that could force cooperation between Muggle governments and the Ministry of Magic.

• Selina Pendragon recounted finding a mercenary who cast the Fire-Making Spell without a wand and was killed by a bomb before they could question him.
• Selina Pendragon showed Gellert Grindelwald a tissue sample covered in scales, and he identified them as Fire Salamander scales growing on a human body.
• Gellert Grindelwald concluded that Voldemort and the Isaiah Society had succeeded in producing wizards with limited magical abilities.
• Selina Pendragon warned that these wizards could evade Muggle-Repelling Charms and bring Muggle munitions into the magical world.
• Gellert Grindelwald argued that war and chaos could break the old order and drive Muggle governments and the Ministry of Magic to cooperate.

Gellert Grindelwald and Selina Pendragon discussed the collapse of the old order and Wizet’s mastery of Voldemort’s Flight Charm. Grindelwald revealed that he was practicing the charm to make Nurmengard fly while remaining inside it.

• Grindelwald argued that the Inferi threat and other conflicts would force wizards and Muggles to abandon the old order and learn new roles.
• Selina said she enjoyed fighting but had little interest in a new world, and Grindelwald suggested she was looking forward to confronting the Isaiah Society’s “My Lord.”
• Selina and Grindelwald discussed Wizet learning and improving Voldemort’s Flight Charm, with Dumbledore’s help.
• Selina asked how far Grindelwald had progressed in practicing the Flight Charm, and he pointed to Nurmengard’s shaking and magical fluctuations.
• Grindelwald revealed that he planned to make Nurmengard fly so he could travel without technically leaving the prison.

Gellert Grindelwald explained how losing his wands and living in Nurmengard let him bind himself to the castle through an improved Flight Charm. He had not yet learned to make the castle fly, but he could already use it to speak and act, and Selina Pendragon understood how Voldemort’s magic had helped him.

• Gellert Grindelwald told Selina Pendragon that he had learned to feel Nurmengard as a living place, with the wind and weather as its breath and heartbeat.
• Grindelwald explained that losing both his original wand and the Elder Wand had led him to explore wandless magic and advance his Flight Charm.
• Grindelwald made Nurmengard tremble with magical ripples, but said he still could not make it fly.
• Grindelwald used Nurmengard to speak and sing, explaining that his thoughts could become the castle’s will because he had bound himself to it.
• Grindelwald said his Flight Charm drew on Voldemort’s original spell and that Wizet’s insight into Voldemort’s magic had helped him complete his own approach.
• Selina Pendragon concluded that Voldemort had truly been helpful.

Selina Pendragon and Gellert Grindelwald discussed when he might finish his Flight Charm and join Dumbledore during a real crisis. Before Selina left Nurmengard, Grindelwald asked her to deliver an ordinary mirror and a message to Wizet.

• Selina Pendragon suggested Grindelwald surprise Dumbledore with his Flight Charm on February 14, but Grindelwald wanted to use it to reach Dumbledore during a crisis and fight alongside him.
• Selina Pendragon prepared to leave Nurmengard after accepting Grindelwald’s Christmas gifts of mead and Cockroach Cluster.
• Grindelwald asked Selina Pendragon to deliver a Christmas present to Wizet, explaining that his gift had arrived late because Wizet and Selina had been drunk on Christmas Eve.
• Selina Pendragon worried that the mirror might warn Wizet of danger, but Grindelwald said the Isaiah Society was focused on the Middle East and was avoiding Wizet.
• Grindelwald chose an ordinary mirror as Wizet’s gift and told Selina Pendragon to include his message that he thought Wizet needed a mirror and had insisted on sending it.

Wizet prepared to leave England for New York, while Xenophilius Lovegood teased him about his Christmas-night cold and reminded him to stay in touch. Wizet set off with the Two-way Mirror and Pepperup Potion, and Xenophilius watched over his departure plans.

• Dobby served Wizet breakfast and grew excited when Wizet assured him that his cooking was the best.
• Xenophilius asked Wizet about his trip to New York and mentioned the cold Wizet had caught after Christmas, making Wizet and Luna blush at the memory.
• Xenophilius privately delighted in believing Wizet had lied about having figured out his feelings, since Wizet had caught a cold that night.
• Wizet explained that his earlier illness was an ordinary cold and said the Pepperup Potion had mostly cured it.
• Xenophilius told Wizet to pack the Two-way Mirror carefully and use it to contact the Lovegoods if anything happened.