Recaps

During the practical lesson, Dire Wolves rescued injured students even as Vaughn revealed to Isabella that he intended the Werewolf Class proposal to provoke hostility and make werewolves see him as their sole savior. The exercise ended with the young wizards transported back to Hogwarts, shaken and battered.

• Jack watched Harry, Hermione, and Ron enter the Devil's Snare while giant wolves helped other students in the forest.
• A Dire Wolf brought herbs to Dean and Neville and explained how to make a simple medicine to stop Neville's bleeding.
• Vaughn told Isabella that resistance to the Werewolf Class would intensify conflict and make werewolves abandon their illusions about acceptance.
• Professor Rosier announced that the practical lesson was over, and the students were transported out of the forest.
• Harry and Ron returned to Hogwarts with the other students and walked back to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Isabella Rosier explained the purpose of her unpredictable Defence Against the Dark Arts practical and praised Hermione for her quick thinking, while Hogwarts students rushed to prepare for the next challenges. The practicals drew attention to neglected subjects and professors, and the chapter ended with Aurora Sinistra visiting Isabella in tears after realizing that the Mooncalf challenge had been designed to revive interest in Astronomy.

• Isabella Rosier told the second-years that practical lessons tested improvisation and awarded Gryffindor ten points for Hermione Granger’s alertness and knowledge.
• Isabella assigned a five-foot essay, and Hermione ordered Harry and Ron to spend the week studying defensive spells with her.
• Students across Hogwarts eagerly shared stories about practical class, crowded the library for creature books, and the Weasley twins began renting out their copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
• Professor Kettleburn welcomed a flood of students asking about magical creatures, while Professor McGonagall faced questions about using Transfiguration against Hidebehinds after Ravenclaw’s disastrous challenge.
• The sixth-years’ Mooncalf challenge sparked a schoolwide interest in magical rituals and Astronomy after Professor Flitwick directed students to Professor Sinistra’s field.
• Aurora Sinistra visited Isabella in tears, acknowledging that she understood the effort to draw attention to neglected subjects like Astronomy.

Vaughn’s paper on werewolf descendants and the Dire Wolves provoked backlash against his practical classes, but international support for his Potions exchange weakened Fudge’s position. Dumbledore arranged for Vaughn to meet Nicolas Flamel after Vaughn completed his first Aether Journey, while concealing Flamel’s real purpose.

• At a staff gathering, Professor Sinistra and Professor McGonagall supported Vaughn’s practical classes and criticized the governors’ prejudice after his paper mentioned the Dire Wolves.
• McGonagall said Dumbledore had been summoned by the Hogwarts Board of Governors and the Ministry of Magic over the practical classes and Vaughn’s paper.
• Dumbledore told Vaughn that potion masters had acknowledged his observations at the Inquiry Meeting, but Fudge had postponed the hearing for a month.
• Vaughn read a French Daily Prophet report that Beauxbatons and Castelobruxo had accepted Hogwarts’ invitation to a Potions exchange, with Castelobruxo eager to help perfect his spell.
• Dumbledore revealed that Nicolas Flamel had helped secure Beauxbatons’ support and wanted to meet Vaughn after his first Aether Journey.
• Vaughn suspected Dumbledore was hiding Flamel’s true intentions, while Dumbledore said Fudge was suffering from the international pressure.

Vaughn and Dumbledore negotiated over the Ministry’s practical-class inquiry, the international potions exchange, and the Chamber of Secrets, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione explored the revised practical class. Harry suspected their search for a Runespoor egg might involve a dangerous illusion and stopped his companions after noticing something on the map.

• Dumbledore explained that Fudge’s political position had weakened and agreed that Fudge could participate in the international potions exchange; Vaughn warned that they should stay alert during the month-long postponement of the practical-class hearing.
• Vaughn challenged Dumbledore’s handling of the Werewolf Class proposal, then revealed that the Chamber of Secrets entrance was in the abandoned girls’ Washroom on the second floor and that Parseltongue was needed to open it.
• Dumbledore demanded further information about Horcruxes, and Vaughn pointed out that Harry could speak Parseltongue; Vaughn later left the headmaster’s office thinking about how to keep the werewolf factions and their opponents divided.
• Oliver Wood intensified Gryffindor’s Quidditch training after hearing that Vaughn might leave the Slytherin team, while Hogwarts’ practical classes expanded into three-hour sessions with tasks, points, and blind-box prizes.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the dark forest to search for a Runespoor egg, using a quest scroll that displayed their progress and a map as Ron argued that Vaughn had made the forest deliberately frightening.
• Harry recalled reports of students encountering a Runespoor and wondered whether they had entered its dreamlike fantasies; while studying the map, he suddenly told Ron and Hermione to be quiet.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron encountered Colin Creevey in the jungle while investigating an approaching presence. Meanwhile, Vaughn attended a Hogwarts Board of Governors meeting where governors challenged his practical classes and Direwolf research, leaving the board divided as the Ministry backed him.

• Harry decided that he, Hermione, and Ron should extinguish their light and hide as the map's arrow pointed toward something approaching.
• Colin Creevey emerged from the bushes, recognized Harry, and greeted him with a flash of magnesium.
• Alecto Carrow and Lucius Malfoy attacked Vaughn's practical curriculum and raised fears that Direwolves could spread lycanthropy.
• Professor McGonagall defended the practical classes, citing Draco Malfoy's improved conduct and interest in studying magical creatures.
• Vaughn asked the governors who doubted his Direwolf research, and seven of the twelve raised their hands.
• A Ministry representative announced that Minister Fudge accepted Vaughn's Direwolf findings and that the Ministry supported his request.

Vaughn confronted the Hogwarts governors over the Dire Wolf research and offered to let Seba bite him to prove Dire Wolves could not spread lycanthropy. After Seba returned to the tribe shaken by the meeting, Harry began considering the latest practical class’s failure and its consequences.

• Lucius Malfoy watched Vaughn address the representatives of the Wesley, Pickford, and Charlton families while Fudge joined Vaughn’s side.
• Vaughn silenced Alecto with a display of powerful magic, summoned Fawkes and Seba, and offered his arm for Seba to bite as proof of the Dire Wolf’s safety.
• Seba recalled its past mistreatment and realized the governors’ challenge could endanger Vaughn and obstruct werewolf rights, but it bit him after he reassured it.
• Fawkes took Seba back to the Forbidden Forest, where Seba met the centaur Albedo and invited him to hear its concerns and share them with Firenze and Magorian.
• Harry reflected that his team had failed to finish the practical-class mission because the map’s arrow markings revealed enemy locations as well as runic snake eggs.

Harry and Ron learned that the Hogwarts Board of Governors was questioning Vaughn over practical classes and his plan to educate werewolf children, while Neville earned praise for driving off Mooncalves. Vaughn appeared at dinner with an injured left arm, but he told Professor McGonagall that his research would be proven at the Board’s meeting on the full moon.

• Harry complained about the practical lesson’s two-way pursuit setup and Colin Creevey’s constant photography, then Malfoy told him and Ron that the Hogwarts Board of Governors was questioning Vaughn about practical classes.
• Ron admitted he was jealous of Vaughn and told Harry about Vaughn’s plan to establish a Werewolf Class for magical children among werewolves.
• Harry and Ron searched the other houses for news of Vaughn, then heard Neville explain that a Hodag horn doll had driven away the Mooncalves he encountered.
• Harry spotted Vaughn talking with Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick at dinner, and Ron noticed Vaughn was using his right hand because his left arm was injured.
• Vaughn told Professor McGonagall that the Board had not reached a conclusion but that some family representatives had set aside their doubts, and he expected his research to convince them at the full-moon meeting.

Professor Flitwick argued that the Dueling Club should serve the whole school, while Professor McGonagall weighed the risks of expanding practical education. After Harry realized Colin Creevey had once carried the notebook’s strange presence, practical classes continued and Professor Rosier demonstrated how students could have defeated the Kappa.

• Professor Flitwick urged Professor McGonagall to make the Dueling Club a school-wide class, and she left unsure whether it would overwhelm other subjects.
• Professor Flitwick revealed that news of Vaughn’s Board meeting had leaked and objected to the Governors forcing Vaughn to prove himself through self-harm.
• Harry and Ron failed to ask Vaughn about rumors that practical classes would be canceled, and Ron learned that Vaughn would not play Quidditch that year.
• Ron pointed out that Vaughn had seemed certain Harry was involved in an accident during practical class, prompting Harry to remember that Colin Creevey had carried the notebook’s strange presence.
• Harry watched Colin and found no trace of that presence, while Colin continued following him around Hogwarts with his camera.
• Professor Rosier showed the fourth-years two ways to defeat the Kappa after their class failed, and her rebuke about cucumbers became a popular catchphrase.

Harry told Ron and Hermione about the dangerous diary and his suspicions that it had influenced him, but his confession that he had hidden it from Vaughn drove Hermione away and strained his friendship with Ron. As Harry worried about the diary and their falling-out, Wood woke him before dawn and demanded that he attend Quidditch practice.

• Wood learned from Marcus Flint that Vaughn had left the Slytherin Quidditch team and celebrated by preparing even more intense training for Gryffindor.
• Draco Malfoy announced that the Hogwarts Board of Governors had approved Vaughn's proposal for a Dueling class, and Harry used the news to invite Hermione to train with him and Ron.
• Harry told Ron and Hermione about the diary, Snape confiscating it, and his suspicion that Colin Creevey had encountered it; Ron and Hermione warned that it was likely a Dark Magic object containing a human soul.
• Harry and Ron rejected Hermione's suggestion to tell the professors, and Harry refused to tell Vaughn until they had dealt with the diary; when he admitted he had hidden it out of jealousy or fear, Hermione stormed out.
• Harry realized that his jealousy toward Vaughn might have been caused by the diary and resolved that he needed to improve his magical strength.
• Wood woke Harry in the predawn darkness and insisted he come to Quidditch practice after he had stayed awake for thirty hours planning the team's tactics.

Harry endured Wood’s grueling Quidditch training and wrestled with his guilt over hiding the notebook, while Vaughn sensed a warning from the Personality Armament in Harry’s mind. The chapter left Harry heading toward Hagrid’s hut and Vaughn focused on his stalled research into the second-edition Wolfsbane Potion.

• Harry found Colin Creevey waiting outside the changing room and spent four hours training with the Gryffindor team while Creevey watched and cheered.
• Harry tried to learn from Fred and George whether Vaughn’s Dueling Club would open, but the twins dodged his questions and distracted him with a staged argument.
• Harry remembered how Ron and Hermione had once stayed beside him after practice, then turned away from the castle to visit Hagrid’s hut.
• Harry’s guilt over hiding the notebook surged as he neared Hagrid’s hut, triggering a warning from the Personality Armament that Vaughn sensed in the Room of Requirement.
• Vaughn chose not to investigate Harry immediately and returned to his work on the second-edition Wolfsbane Potion, whose development had been stymied by the werewolf virus’s magically protected, reusable capsid.

Vaughn identified the full moon as the trigger for the werewolf virus’s protective lock and used the Spell Development Module to design a new Wolfsbane Potion 2.0 that could disrupt the transformation ritual through the body’s own mutations. Meanwhile, Lupin saw that North American werewolves’ protests had escalated into a political standoff and read an editorial arguing that the demonstrations were an obedience test designed to desensitize the public.

• Vaughn explained to Hermione that the full moon opened the virus’s protective lock, making it impossible to interfere with the virus while its capsid was shed.
• Hermione praised Vaughn’s revised Wolfsbane Potion 2.0 for preventing werewolves from being forcibly transformed, and Vaughn prepared to use the Spell Development Module to advance his design.
• Vaughn analyzed the virus’s embedded curses and transformation ritual, then proposed using gerbera and the body’s natural healing mutations to destroy the ritual framework.
• Lupin woke to find the North American werewolves still protesting across wizarding communities, while their former residence stood empty.
• Lupin reread a newspaper editorial that described the demonstrations as a deliberate compliance test intended to lower the public’s resistance through repeated challenges to its expectations.

Lupin questioned whether Vaughn had shaped his loyalties through an obedience test and worried that an article accusing North American werewolves of manipulation could provoke a backlash. After Matthew brought him to the Shrieking Shack to meet Vaughn, Lupin found the Weasley twins there and heard a girl invite him inside.

• Lupin read an article about obedience tests and wondered whether Vaughn had influenced him by showing him the suffering of werewolf refugees.
• Lupin feared the article could fuel anti-werewolf sentiment and suspected Vaughn might have orchestrated the North American werewolf march and the deaths of two werewolves.
• Matthew told Lupin that Vaughn wanted to see him about the Wolfsbane Potion and directed him to the Whomping Willow.
• Matthew escorted Lupin by Floo to Hogsmeade, then left him to continue toward the Shrieking Shack alone.
• Lupin reached the shack, remembered his school years and the Marauders, and met Fred and George, who said Vaughn was waiting upstairs.
• Lupin knocked on the first room on the second floor, and a girl inside told him to come in.

Vaughn brewed and tested a second version of the Wolfsbane Potion on Lupin, whose severe reaction left him unconscious but untransformed under the magical moon. Vaughn and Hermione judged the experiment partly successful and began planning further adjustments, while Lupin remained in the suitcase to recover for more tests.

• Lupin entered Vaughn’s brewing room and learned that he had been summoned to test the second version of the Wolfsbane Potion, while Hermione prepared to record the experiment.
• Vaughn explained the potion’s ingredients and rituals as he brewed it, then completed a luminous potion designed to disrupt lycanthropy.
• Lupin drank the potion and suffered intense pain before Vaughn raised the magical moon; Lupin lost consciousness but did not transform.
• Hermione recorded Lupin’s reaction, and Vaughn identified the potion as partly successful while discussing ways to improve its formula.
• Vaughn ended the day’s experiments and left Lupin asleep inside the suitcase beneath the magical moon, expecting to continue testing the next day.

While refining Wolfsbane Potion 2.0, Vaughn explored how magic enhanced ingredients’ properties and prioritized Fluxweed for further experiments. Hogwarts approved his Dueling Club, and Harry considered joining for Vaughn’s spell guidance while worrying about Colin Creevey’s absence and the strain on his friendships.

• Vaughn recorded theories about magical ingredients, concluded Fluxweed could reshape living bodies, and planned to make it a major ingredient in a future experiment with Lupin.
• After two days of punishing potion trials left Lupin suffering severe pain and physical changes, Vaughn suspended the experiments so he could recover.
• Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts, and the Board of Governors approved Vaughn’s Dueling Club after disputes over whether it should be a club or a permanent class.
• Harry read the club announcement and wanted to join for spell practice; Neville admitted he feared being too foolish to benefit from Vaughn’s instruction.
• Harry worried that Colin Creevey had been absent, while Ron dismissed the concern and discussed Vaughn’s spell skill and dangerous Apparition magic.

Harry noticed Ron falling for Hermione while the rain and Quidditch training made Hogwarts miserable, then joined Ron in investigating whether Peeves had found Harry’s dangerous lost notebook. The chapter left them planning to enlist Hogwarts ghosts to track Peeves and Colin Creevey, while agreeing to ask Vaughn or Dumbledore for help if necessary; Vaughn later entered their dormitory with his wand glowing red.

• Harry realized Ron was mooning over Hermione and worried that their friendship with her would become strained.
• Harry endured Oliver Wood’s rain-soaked Quidditch training, then visited Hagrid and heard that Vaughn and Rosier’s pumpkin seeds had produced an enormous crop for Halloween.
• Neville told Harry and Ron that the Dueling Club would begin the following Saturday, and the three went to register among students and ghosts.
• Peeves drenched Harry and Ron with water balloons, and Nearly Headless Nick mentioned an evil notebook, leading Harry and Ron to suspect Peeves had found Harry’s lost notebook.
• Harry and Ron decided to ask the ghosts to help track Peeves and Colin Creevey, and agreed they would turn to Vaughn or Dumbledore if their plan failed.
• Vaughn entered Harry and Ron’s dormitory at night with his wand casting a red glow.

Vaughn examined Harry’s memories and warned Dumbledore that an unknown force had affected Harry’s mind. They then confronted the disturbance near the Chamber of Secrets, saved Mrs. Norris, and Dumbledore opened the Chamber’s entrance by recording Parseltongue with a magical music box.

• Vaughn extracted and examined Harry’s memories, finding no current abnormality but confirming that an unknown force had previously affected Harry’s mind.
• Dumbledore admitted he planned to use the diary to spur Harry’s growth, and he asked Vaughn to help investigate the evil stirring in the castle.
• Filch found Mrs. Norris injured in a dark corridor, and Vaughn and Dumbledore helped him get her to the hospital wing.
• Vaughn identified Filch’s book, Quick Casting, as a scam, then joined Dumbledore at the abandoned lavatory entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
• Dumbledore revealed that he had borrowed Nicolas Flamel’s music box and used it to record Parseltongue, causing the hidden entrance to open.

Vaughn accompanied Dumbledore into the Chamber of Secrets, where Dumbledore hoped to find knowledge about Horcruxes and a way to help Harry. As they reached the Basilisk’s hiding place, Dumbledore began reconsidering Slytherin’s motives in the context of the Dark Ages, leaving his true plan unresolved.

• Vaughn questioned Dumbledore’s purpose for bringing him to the Chamber, and Dumbledore asked him to follow below before explaining.
• Vaughn and Dumbledore crawled through a deep pipe, crossed a damp cave, and opened the Chamber’s entrance with a music box that hissed in Parseltongue.
• Vaughn confirmed that the Basilisk had not yet awakened, and he and Dumbledore explored the vast chamber, finding no inheritance or Horcrux knowledge.
• Dumbledore told Vaughn he had hoped to find knowledge that could help Harry, and explained that he suspected Tom had learned about Horcruxes from Slytherin’s inheritance.
• Vaughn spotted the Basilisk’s possible hiding place inside a giant statue, while Dumbledore discussed whether Slytherin’s opposition to Muggle-born students reflected fear of exposure during the Dark Ages.

Dumbledore argued that Salazar Slytherin may have created a Horcrux in the Chamber of Secrets and that Tom Riddle reopened it to revive Slytherin and gain his help. Vaughn accepted the theory as plausible, and they considered how to investigate it without killing the Basilisk.

• Dumbledore illuminated the Chamber and argued that Slytherin may have built it as a place to prepare for resurrection rather than to attack Muggle-borns.
• Vaughn reasoned that the Basilisk might be Slytherin's Horcrux and that the diary's Tom Riddle had reopened the Chamber to revive Slytherin.
• Dumbledore explained that the diary fragment may have learned of Voldemort's failure and sought power and a path to resurrection, while Vaughn recalled Voldemort's instructions to Lucius Malfoy about returning the diary to Hogwarts.
• Vaughn proposed killing the Basilisk to examine its soul, but Dumbledore warned that its death could also kill Slytherin if it was a Horcrux.
• Vaughn suggested investigating Morfin Gaunt's memories in Azkaban, and Dumbledore hesitated because another visit might further damage Morfin's unstable mind.

Vaughn agreed to help Dumbledore track the notebook and protect Colin Creevey, while warning him against trying to resurrect Slytherin. After retrieving and activating the Marauder's Map, Vaughn found Peter Pettigrew near Harry and Ron, then spotted Creevey with Peeves in a secret passage.

• Vaughn gave Dumbledore a magical mist that could help him sense the notebook and advised him to draw Creevey into the Dueling Club without arousing Tom's suspicion.
• Vaughn warned Dumbledore not to resurrect Slytherin in hopes of solving Harry's Horcrux problem, then left the Chamber of Secrets with Fruit Tea.
• Vaughn checked on Mrs. Norris in the infirmary and asked Filch to retrieve a blank parchment from his office.
• Vaughn activated the Marauder's Map and saw Peter Pettigrew's name beside rat tracks near Harry and Ron, who were asleep.
• Vaughn studied the map's connection to Hogwarts and found Peeves and Colin Creevey together in a secret passage on the fourth floor.

Harry and Ron learned that Malfoy had joined the Slytherin Quidditch team with a fleet of Nimbus 2001s, and the Gryffindor team was badly beaten in a brawl. As the Dueling Club’s first event began, Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived at a packed training ground filled with students and professors, while Vaughn prepared to teach them.

• Vaughn failed to locate Tom Riddle’s notebook precisely and left the investigation to Dumbledore.
• Harry celebrated Mrs. Norris’s injury, but Malfoy revealed that he had become Slytherin’s Seeker and that his father had bought Nimbus 2001s for the entire team.
• Malfoy and the Slytherin players fought the Gryffindor team at the pitch and overwhelmed Harry, Wood, and the others.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione gradually resumed spending time together, and Ron joined Harry’s Quidditch training with Hermione watching.
• Vaughn prepared for the Dueling Club while continuing work on the Wolfsbane Potion and his alchemy studies, and the notebook remained quiet.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived at the crowded Dueling Club event, where Percy organized attendees and several professors gathered.

At the Dueling Club’s first event, Vaughn explained why he and Professor Isabella Rosier had reformed practical Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, using an illusion of a North American battle to show students the dangers wizards faced. He began introducing the importance of spells, leaving his speech underway.

• Harry and Ron avoided Snape after their potion made a Moloch Rat lose all its fur, then learned from Colin Creevey that Slytherins were spreading rumors about them.
• Hermione accused Harry and Ron of failing to plan how to retrieve the bewitched notebook from Colin, but postponed the discussion when Vaughn and Professor Isabella Rosier arrived.
• Vaughn opened the Dueling Club event by declaring that the wizarding world was not peaceful and showing the students an illusion of a battle in North America, including the Killing Curse.
• Vaughn told the students that fear was an important lesson and announced that practical classes would become more difficult and might recreate events for students to experience.
• Vaughn introduced plans for an information-sharing center, then began explaining that wands and spells were the most important tools a wizard could rely on.

Vaughn lectured the Dueling Club about Ancient Magic and argued that a wizard’s strength mattered more than simply learning powerful spells. After dazzling the students with an enhanced Lumos demonstration, he invited them to challenge him and began a duel against six students at once, leaving the fight underway as they launched advanced spells.

• Vaughn explained the difficult rituals behind Animagus transformation and contrasted Ancient Magic with the more convenient Modern Charms system.
• Vaughn transformed Lumos into a brilliant, multicolored light that he expanded, divided, exploded, and recalled, then urged students to grow stronger rather than merely seek powerful spells.
• Vaughn invited students to duel him using their strongest magic while he restricted himself to basic spells, and six students volunteered, including Draco and Cedric Diggory.
• Vaughn announced that all six would fight him together, and a Ravenclaw sixth-year opened with Deprimo, collapsing the ground beneath him.
• Vaughn used the Feather-Light Charm to float above the collapsing ground as a Gryffindor sixth-year summoned a storm cloud overhead.

Vaughn demonstrated how mastery of basic spells could defeat powerful attacks, then set Hogwarts students the task of practicing the Levitation Charm to Level 2. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to visit Hagrid, they discovered that someone had killed all the chickens in his coop.

• Vaughn countered the older students’ amplified spells and defeated five of the six challengers with a powerful Stunning Spell, then explained his spell-grading system and assigned the Levitation Charm as the first practice task.
• Harry and Ron struggled to keep their paper airplanes aloft, while Hermione managed the Levitation Charm with ease.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione discussed Vaughn’s unusual conversation with Colin Creevey and wondered whether Vaughn knew about the notebook.
• The trio arrived at Hagrid’s hut and found him furious over the deaths of all his chickens, which had been killed without visible wounds or signs of being eaten.
• Hagrid suspected a student was responsible, and Hermione reasoned that the chickens had likely been poisoned or killed with magic.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione found no evidence of who killed Hagrid’s chickens, while Vaughn and Dumbledore discussed using Colin Creevey to make Tom Riddle lower his guard and reveal his plans for the Basilisk. Vaughn also agreed to finish the second-version Wolfsbane Potion amid rising conflict over North American werewolves, then reflected on his own role in stirring the protests as Matthew remembered how Vaughn had changed his life.

• Harry, Ron, and Hermione suspected the diary might have bewitched a first-year to kill Hagrid’s chickens, but found no evidence and left Hagrid grieving.
• Dumbledore told Vaughn he had adjusted Colin Creevey’s emotions so Tom Riddle would feel secure enough to test his plans by killing the chickens, and explained that he wanted to learn why Tom needed the Basilisk.
• Vaughn agreed to complete and announce the second-version Wolfsbane Potion after Amelia asked for help easing the escalating dispute between North American werewolves and English wizards.
• After speaking with Amelia, Vaughn admitted to himself that he had orchestrated the werewolves’ protests and planned to rein in their ambitious leaders before the movement escaped his control.
• Matthew woke from a nightmare, remembered the trauma of Greyback turning him into a werewolf, and reflected on Vaughn as an unfathomable presence like the sky.

Matthew received a letter revealing Vaughn Weasley's decision to abandon the North American werewolf separatists, and he welcomed his master's ruthlessness. Meanwhile, John Mir negotiated with shadowy opponents to spark a bloody clash against the werewolves, while the conspirators debated Vaughn's possible response and arranged to proceed.

• Matthew read and burned a letter announcing that the separatists' usefulness to Vaughn Weasley was ending, and he felt exhilarated by his master's ruthlessness.
• John Mir led the North American werewolves' march through Diagon Alley as conservative wizards gathered to watch and the protesters grew uneasy.
• John Mir met Mr. Mysterious in Borgin and Burkes's basement and demanded support for the werewolves' practical needs in exchange for provoking a bloody incident.
• Mr. Mysterious agreed to discuss John Mir's conditions, and John Mir promised that a clash would happen within days.
• After John Mir left, the conspirators discussed abandoning the werewolves to bounty hunters and questioned whether Vaughn Weasley could detect their plans.