Recaps

Vaughn explained to Snape that the International Statute of Secrecy suppressed the wizarding world's productive forces and made social change inevitable, leaving Snape shaken by Vaughn's view of Voldemort as a catalyst rather than a great leader. Vaughn and Hermione then continued researching Protein Robots, and he planned to ask Snape for more Felix Felicis.

• Vaughn told Snape that the International Statute of Secrecy was backward and argued that magic's productive forces would inevitably overturn the wizarding world's existing social order.
• Vaughn told Hermione that Muggle inclusion in potion-making followed objective social changes, and Snape left in a daze after hearing Vaughn describe Voldemort as a catalyst for reform.
• Hermione questioned whether Vaughn had been too harsh on Snape, and Vaughn said Snape would work through his childhood shadows.
• Vaughn and Hermione resumed researching Protein Robots, whose ongoing bonding caused them to form aggregates and shortened their shelf life.
• Vaughn proposed using a Vanishing Spell variant to break the robots' bonds and an enzyme-protein factory to produce molecular chaperones that would prevent aggregation.
• When Hermione worried they were running out of Felix Felicis, Vaughn said he would ask Snape for some.

Vaughn persuaded Snape to help him obtain Felix Felicis by giving him hope connected to the Resurrection Stone. The next morning, the Daily Prophet attacked Vaughn’s new potion-making method, and Hogwarts students debated whether it could expose the wizarding world to Muggles and provoke conflict.

• Hermione watched Vaughn leave Snape’s office and say that Snape would help him buy Felix Felicis in a few days.
• After Vaughn and Hermione left, Snape sat by the fireplace clutching a sketch of the Resurrection Stone, shaken by the hope Vaughn had offered him.
• The Daily Prophet reported that a delegation from the Far East would arrive in five days and published a hostile front-page article condemning Vaughn’s new potion-making method.
• Harry and Ron read the article’s claims that Magic Protein could enable Muggles to learn magic, and they worried that the resulting discovery could lead to chaos and war.
• Dean, Seamus, Fred, and George argued over whether Muggles would threaten wizards, while Dean and Harry acknowledged that Vaughn might be able to make his ideas real.

Harry and Hermione studied Vaughn's magical-protein research while the wizarding world reacted with fierce support and opposition, including threats against Vaughn and the Weasley family. As the holiday drew to a close, Ron noticed that every Hogwarts professor had gathered at the staff table, signaling that something was about to happen.

• Harry questioned his own assumptions about Vaughn's research and decided to investigate it, then asked Hermione to help him understand it.
• Hermione gave Harry a large stack of books, and he spent the holiday studying while Ron worried about the growing public controversy.
• Vaughn published a paper detailing new spells and formulas, prompting a wave of praise, furious criticism, and a death threat that Amelia Bones ordered the Aurors to investigate.
• Fred and George warned Ron that older students might target the Weasley family, and Harry arranged for someone to restrain the would-be attackers.
• Ron heard that Draco Malfoy had ordered Goyle and Crabbe to beat up Marcus Flint and several older Ravenclaw students.
• On the evening before the holiday ended, Ron saw every Hogwarts professor gathered at the staff table.

Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts, calmed the students, and announced that the Quidditch Cup was canceled because the school would host an international academic exchange. After the feast, he told Vaughn that the Central Refining Academy delegation was in London and had broader diplomatic aims.

• Dumbledore returned to the Great Hall, where his presence eased the students’ unrest, and Draco told Vaughn that Flint had been used by several Ravenclaws to target the Weasley Family.
• Dumbledore declined to state a position on Vaughn’s Magic Protein, then announced that Hogwarts would cancel the Quidditch Cup to host the International Magical Academy Potions Exchange Event.
• Dumbledore explained that the exchange would cover subjects beyond Potions and bring visiting students into Hogwarts classes, disappointing Oliver Wood while intriguing Harry.
• After the feast, Vaughn walked with Dumbledore and asked about the Central Refining Academy delegation, which had arrived in London and was working to restore old international relations.

Vaughn agreed to meet the Chinese delegation after Dumbledore speculated that its decades-long secret operation might have involved Aether and the gods. The chapter left Vaughn considering whether to recruit the legendary Li Nanyu into his research group.

• Dumbledore told Vaughn that the Chinese delegation wanted to meet him, and Vaughn agreed to a formal meeting.
• Dumbledore explained that China had carried out a secret operation from the 1960s until a little over ten years earlier, while Voldemort's rise distracted the wider wizarding world.
• Dumbledore speculated that the operation might have involved using Aether to create gods, though he had found no evidence of one during his time in China.
• Dumbledore said Barty Crouch Sr. would arrange the meeting after the Chinese delegation cut off contact with Fudge over his visit to Mahoutokoro.
• Dumbledore suggested Vaughn's recent paper as a reason for the meeting, noting that Li Nanyu was interested in his research.
• Vaughn asked how interested Li Nanyu was, then revealed he was considering recruiting him into his research group.

Dumbledore tried to limit Vaughn’s influence over the international Potions exchange, but Hogwarts’s professors opposed him and Sybill Trelawney’s vision gave him a graceful retreat. Vaughn dismissed Rosier’s calls to challenge Dumbledore and continued preparing a new formula for his upcoming meeting with the Chinese delegation.

• Dumbledore proposed diverting visiting students into other subjects to reduce the scale and influence of Vaughn’s Potions exchange, but Rosier, Kettleburn, and Snape objected.
• Trelawney interrupted the meeting with a vision of foreign wizards bringing chaos and bloodshed, easing the tension and allowing Dumbledore to end the meeting without pressing his proposal.
• Rosier told Vaughn about the meeting and urged him to teach Dumbledore a lesson, but Vaughn explained that their mutual setbacks helped preserve their cooperation.
• Rosier asked whether Vaughn’s magic protein could capture magical elements, and Vaughn directed her to the experimental records.
• Vaughn continued working on a new formula for his upcoming meeting with the Chinese delegation, while noting that he still had difficulties to solve.

Isabella pressed Vaughn to help address problems with the Practical Class reforms and inspect the Trial Grounds. Harry and Ron failed to catch an Augurey, while Hermione explained a better method; the chapter left Ron wondering if the Practical Class had become repetitive.

• Isabella reminded Vaughn that he had neglected the Practical Class reforms and urged him to help inspect the Trial Grounds, while warning that Dumbledore could use the visiting delegations to challenge their position.
• Harry and Ron tried to approach an Augurey's nest through a tunnel, but the wind alerted the bird, which flew off with its nest and left them covered in mud.
• Harry and Ron returned to their cabin, where Hermione cleaned them with a gust of wind and explained how to trade Mooncalf dung for fairy eggs to obtain Augurey feathers.
• Hermione said she had learned the plan by studying Newt Scamander's book and inferring what to do from the creatures' habitats and diets.
• After cleaning off and resting, Ron said the Practical Class was becoming boring because they had already explored much of the Trial Grounds.

Vaughn and Isabella discussed the Practical Class’s fading appeal and the danger of making its lessons more realistic. Isabella left the conversation determined to keep the class going, while Vaughn suspected she was hiding the cause of her urgency.

• Ron told Harry that students were losing interest in the Practical Class and Hermione was treating its missions as chores.
• Isabella explained that the Trial Grounds’ scripted missions were becoming repetitive and costly to maintain, putting student support and the class’s future at risk.
• Vaughn considered the Practical Class a way to build influence and leverage, while Isabella argued that young wizards needed preparation for dangers such as Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
• Isabella proposed making the Practical Class completely real, but Vaughn rejected abandoning its safety controls because students’ and fantastic beasts’ magic could cause serious injuries.
• Isabella admitted that last year’s events might have frightened her, then asked Vaughn to keep students enthusiastic until she left Hogwarts.
• Afterward, Vaughn told Fruit Tea that Isabella seemed afraid of something and might be hiding the reason for her anxiety.

A Chinese visitor’s accidental magic in Westminster caused a major exposure incident, while Harry and Ron discussed its fallout and visited Hagrid as he prepared the Quidditch Pitch for visiting school delegations. The chapter ended with Vaughn and Dumbledore at the Leaky Cauldron, where Tom revealed that information brokers were seeking details about the young Chinese wizard.

• The Daily Prophet reported that a Chinese wizard had summoned a Cloud Chariot over Westminster, forcing the Ministry to conceal the magical exposure from Muggles.
• Harry, Ron, Dean, and Seamus argued over the International Statute of Secrecy and whether the incident would affect Vaughn.
• Harry and Ron followed Fang to the Quidditch Pitch, where Hagrid was hauling logs for a recreation area for visiting school delegations.
• Harry tried to help Hagrid with the Levitation Charm, then flew around the pitch with Ron before spotting Dumbledore’s office lit by green Floo flames.
• Vaughn and Dumbledore arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, where Tom said several information brokers were asking about the Chinese wizard behind the incident.

Vaughn, Dumbledore, and Barty Crouch Sr. discussed the tense fallout from a Chinese wizard’s exposure of magic and how to arrange Vaughn’s meeting with the Chinese delegation. Crouch proposed involving the England Branch as a way to win its officials over, explaining that its Irish-born staff had grown resentful of the Confederation’s control.

• Vaughn questioned whether the Chinese wizard’s exposure of magic had been orchestrated, but Dumbledore urged him to focus on meeting the Chinese delegation.
• Dumbledore brought Vaughn to meet Barty Crouch Sr., who said the incident had heightened tensions between England and China and prompted the England Branch to loosen its restrictions on their meeting.
• Vaughn described his progress on an improved universal functional group, and Crouch suggested using the research papers as grounds for the England Branch to send a mediator and witness.
• Crouch explained that the England Branch’s officials were Irish and argued that their personal interests had brought them into conflict with the Confederation’s central authority.

Vaughan agreed to Barty Crouch Sr.’s plan to involve the International Confederation of Wizards’ England branch in the magical exchange. In London, Li Nanyu studied intelligence about Vaughan and accepted the branch’s condition to join the meeting, while Cheng Quandao prepared to meet the young wizard he envied.

• Barty Crouch Sr. urged Vaughan to involve the England branch in the magical exchange, and Vaughan agreed to follow his proposal with Dumbledore’s help.
• Li Nanyu reviewed intelligence about Vaughan Weasley and struggled to reconcile the conflicting accounts of the boy’s character and accomplishments.
• Cheng Quandao told Li Nanyu that the England branch had approved a meeting with Vaughan on the condition that an official participate throughout.
• Li Nanyu decided to accept the branch’s condition and criticized Cheng Quandao for treating politics as a simple division between friends and enemies.
• Cheng Quandao reflected on his jealousy of Vaughan and recalled volunteering for the delegation so he could meet him in person.

Cheng Quandao agreed to test his magic against Vaughan Weasley during a diplomatic meeting, but Vaughan’s immense fog spell unsettled him before they even met. Li Nanyu recognized the fog as a demonstration of Vaughan’s power and a warning tied to China’s Cloud Chariot, leaving him impressed by how closely the young wizard matched their expectations.

• Li Nanyu told Cheng Quandao that he would handle the ceremonial exchange with Vaughan Weasley, and Cheng agreed after his pride was provoked.
• Cheng reviewed his spells and high school studies before setting out with Li Nanyu the next morning.
• Li Nanyu revealed that Vaughan had hidden the meeting place inside a vast fog covering London, and explained that powerful wizards were not bound by rules in the same way as the weak.
• Cheng realized the fog contained real water, and Li Nanyu estimated that it took tens of thousands of tonnes to create.
• Li Nanyu concluded that Vaughan was testing how a cloud-like mass of water could affect a city and was warning them not to turn their Cloud Chariot into a weapon.

Cheng Quandao and Li Nanyu followed Vaughan Weasley’s magical fog trail and discovered that he had used spatial magic to create an entrance connected to the Thames. They emerged beside the churning river, where Albus Dumbledore was waiting with another person, and Li realized Vaughan had been testing him.

• Cheng Quandao regretted letting jealousy and arrogance keep him from noticing Vaughan Weasley’s magical test, while Li Nanyu explained the gap in their outlooks.
• Li Nanyu led Cheng Quandao through the fog and revealed that its moisture traced a vast vortex shaped by spatial magic.
• At a crossroads, Li Nanyu examined the place where fog appeared from nowhere and concluded that Vaughan had placed his final question there specifically to test him.
• Li Nanyu sealed Cheng Quandao’s senses and guided him through the hidden doorway to a dock beside the Thames.
• Cheng Quandao saw the river boiling with rising mist and London glowing beneath the fog, then heard Albus Dumbledore remark that someone’s magic had ruined their morning.

Vaughn Weasley met Li Nanyu, who explained that China had sent Cheng Quandao and other promising young wizards to learn from him as a gesture of trust. Li began revealing why China wanted to cooperate with Vaughn, describing the emergence of legendary wizards who had escaped death and the past persecution of China and America, before beginning an account of the crisis in 1940.

• Cheng Quandao froze when he met Vaughn Weasley and realized how painful it was to be treated with indifference.
• Dumbledore introduced Vaughn to Li Nanyu, then took Cheng Quandao aside and discussed an old Chinese friend who may have died during the Second World War.
• Li Nanyu told Vaughn that Cheng Quandao was one of China's promising young wizards and that the delegation's future had been entrusted to Vaughn's guidance.
• Vaughn asked Li Nanyu what China wanted and what was happening with Wilkinson, and Li said Wilkinson was a legendary wizard who had escaped death like the beings called DeSantis.
• Li Nanyu explained that China and America had faced persecution by the International Confederation of Wizards and began recounting how their crisis reached its worst point in 1940.

Li Nanyu revealed that the God of Death had been dead and that legendary alchemists created him after being influenced by a mysterious golden soul. Vaughn reacted with disbelief as Li Nanyu explained that no golden soul had ever been born in their timeline.

• Li Nanyu told Vaughn that Grindelwald had been used as a distraction by the International Confederation of Wizards while China and America were ignored.
• Li Nanyu recounted meeting Wilkinson in 1940 and discovering that he represented the New Gospel Society rather than the American Magical Congress.
• Vaughn said he had encountered the God of Death, but Li Nanyu insisted that the God of Death was already dead.
• Li Nanyu explained that ancient legendary alchemists had created the God of Death after seeing a golden soul, and questioned how they had all reached the same idea.
• Vaughn cried out in disbelief as Li Nanyu concluded that a golden soul had never been born in their timeline, while Dumbledore listened from the other boardwalk.

Li Nanyu explained to Vaughn that the golden soul, born in the future, might be the Creator and the source of fate, prompting Vaughn to reconsider how time and destiny worked. Vaughn concluded the Creator might be deliberately ensuring His own birth, but noticed a contradiction in that idea.

• Li Nanyu told Vaughn that the golden soul could be born in Aether’s future and travel backward, leading Vaughn to connect it with the Creator and Aether’s response mechanism.
• Li Nanyu explained that fate arose from the Creator becoming the universe’s endpoint, and that their experiment to change the past had failed at great cost.
• Vaughn challenged the idea that a single future meant absolute predestination, and Li Nanyu argued that reality could be understood through both materialist and idealist perspectives.
• Vaughn asked whether the Creator had deliberately influenced ancient legends and the New Gospel Society, and Li Nanyu said the Creator might be acting to bring about His future birth.
• Vaughn reasoned that if the Creator’s birth were inevitable, He would not need to interfere, and he recognized a contradiction in Li Nanyu’s explanation.

Li Nanyu explained that souls and free will could alter the otherwise fixed outcomes of the Creator’s design, and revealed that China had selected Vaughn as a possible “variable among variables.” After reporting to Fudge, Vaughn reflected on the political maneuvering between England, Japan, China, and the Confederation, while Li Nanyu vowed China would oppose an English-Japanese alliance.

• Li Nanyu told Vaughn that souls and free will could change natural laws, and explained that the New Gospel Society might be driven by fear of death rather than loyalty to the Creator.
• Li Nanyu revealed that China had studied English wizards born in 1980, had once focused on Harry Potter, and now considered Vaughn a potential “variable among variables.”
• As Vaughn and Dumbledore returned from the meeting, Vaughn privately concluded that the phrase referred to someone who had never belonged to this world, while Dumbledore tried to bargain for the explanation.
• Vaughn and Dumbledore gave Fudge a report at the Ministry, and Vaughn recognized that Fudge’s trip to Japan had been a deliberate test of China and Japan’s diplomatic intentions.
• Vaughn recalled Li Nanyu warning that China would not allow England and Japan to form an alliance, then learned that Umbridge was the only notable supporter present with Fudge.

After meeting Professor Li Nanyu, Vaughn returned to Hogwarts and analyzed what the Chinese delegation had told him about the Creator, variables, souls, and spacetime. He began planning experiments to test those ideas and considered Newt Scamander as a possible subject, while Newt struggled with evidence that legends could alter magical creatures and their ingredients.

• Vaughn returned to Hogwarts, reassured McGonagall that his meeting with Li Nanyu had gone well, and visited the kitchens for dinner.
• Vaughn wrote down the Creator and variables as key intelligence, concluding that souls and free will might be higher-dimensional factors that allowed changes to the plot.
• Vaughn connected spacetime, aether, and the Creator in his notes and planned experiments to test Li Nanyu's claims, including a Time-Turner experiment involving a memory charm.
• Vaughn chose Newt Scamander as a potential subject because Newt might have enough historical importance to test the limits of a closed spacetime loop.
• Newt told Tina that his tests using Vaughn's Trait Theory and Magic Extraction Method suggested legends could give magical creatures' ingredients the properties described in those legends.

Vaughn’s notes on the New Gospel Society were interrupted when Hermione entered the kitchens and accused him of exploiting house-elves. After the elves’ fierce reaction and Vaughn’s magical intervention, he questioned Hermione about her new campaign and its chances of success.

• Tina suggested that Newt visit Hogwarts to consult Vaughan Weasley about Trait theory, but Newt sneezed and felt unsettled by a watching Fwooper.
• Vaughn recorded Li Nanyu’s warning that the New Gospel Society sought to create chaos in England and Europe, possibly to obtain something connected to becoming a Legendary Wizard.
• Hokey served Vaughn choucroute garnie and rice in the kitchens, where Hermione arrived with leaflets for her new Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.
• Hermione accused Vaughn of enslaving the house-elves, while Hokey and the other elves denounced Hermione and insisted they wanted to work.
• Vaughn stopped the escalating panic with a surge of magic, dismissed the elves, and asked Hermione when she had discovered them and whether she intended to stop eating their food.
• Hermione admitted she had not eaten in almost two days and explained S.P.E.W.’s aims; Vaughn read her leaflet and asked whether anyone would accept its demands.

Hermione questioned Vaughn about house-elf enslavement, and he argued that generations of selective breeding had reshaped elves physically and psychologically, making liberation far more complicated than persuasion. After showing her his research, Vaughn encouraged Hermione to pursue reversing artificial selection as a long-term goal, and she asked whether he would support her.

• Hermione explained that she planned to keep campaigning for house-elf freedom, and Vaughn challenged her to consider why wizards and elves accepted their relationship.
• Vaughn compared house-elves to domesticated animals and argued that generations of selection had made obedience part of their biology and instincts.
• Vaughn gave Hermione his experimental records on Hogwarts house-elves, showing their hormonal responses, brain changes, and signs of domestication syndrome.
• Hermione asked whether a medicine could restore house-elves to their original state, but Vaughn said it could only temporarily alter their behavior, not change their inherited nature.
• Vaughn told Hermione that deeper life research might eventually make change possible and urged her to study how to reverse artificial selection.
• Hermione asked whether Vaughn would support her, and he encouraged her to pursue the problem as a future research goal.

Vaughn persuaded Hermione to stop forcing House-elves to accept freedom, and she suspended S.P.E.W. Harry learned that the Chinese magical delegation would soon arrive at Hogwarts, while the Ravenclaw girls around Vaughn kept him from asking about their journey.

• Vaughn reassured Hermione that she could help the House-elves without imposing her beliefs, and Hokey welcomed Hermione into the kitchens.
• Harry and Ron argued about S.P.E.W. until Hermione admitted she had oversimplified the House-elf issue and suspended the society's activities.
• Harry saw Vaughn surrounded by Ravenclaw girls, including Cho Chang, and the Weasley twins offered him a mysterious business opportunity that he declined.
• Hermione suggested Harry reconsider the twins' offer, then explained that the Chinese delegation would soon stay in accommodation near the pitch rather than in the castle.
• Harry wondered whether the delegation's Cloud Chariot would break wizarding laws, but the Ravenclaw girls occupied Vaughn throughout breakfast and he could not ask him about it.

Harry and his classmates endured a week of etiquette training as Hogwarts prepared to host delegations from magical schools around the world. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny visited the detached West Tower, where Ministry employees were repairing it, and met McConnell, who worked under Vaughn.

• McGonagall announced that international school delegations were coming to Hogwarts and suspended most classes for a week of intensive etiquette lessons.
• McGonagall tested the students' manners, embarrassing Ron as he unsuccessfully tried to clean pumpkin soup from his robes.
• Harry and his classmates struggled through strict lessons in speech, conduct, dress, dining, dancing, and other formal skills.
• Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny crossed the icy bridge to accompany Hedwig to the West Tower, which had been detached from the castle and was being repaired by Ministry employees.
• Hermione asked Ginny whether she liked Harry, and Ginny admitted she was unsure because the real Harry differed from the heroic figure she had imagined.
• McConnell greeted Harry and his friends at the West Tower and explained through his connection to the Department of International Magical Cooperation that he now worked under Vaughn.

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione retrieved Hedwig and Zhu Weiqiong from the newly renovated West Tower and moved them into a new Owlery Hagrid had prepared. Meanwhile, Pheobe and Madame Maxime discussed the press’s praise of Vaughan Weasley and China’s conspicuous support for him, leaving Madame Maxime puzzled about the reason for their enthusiasm.

• Mr. McConnell enthusiastically praised Vaughan Weasley to Ron and Ginny, offered the group a tour of the renovated West Tower, and misremembered Hedwig’s name.
• Harry and the others toured the tower’s lavish interiors, which featured eight different national styles, before collecting Hedwig and Zhu Weiqiong and their belongings from the Owlery.
• Hagrid showed the group the owls’ new quarters near the greenhouses, where Hedwig and Zhu Weiqiong settled onto perches he had made from wand wood.
• Aboard the flying carriage, Pheobe complained that newspapers portrayed Vaughan Weasley as a great leader and his collaborators as followers.
• Madame Maxime urged Pheobe to join Vaughan’s project and pointed to China’s outspoken support for him, while admitting she also did not know what motivated the Chinese delegation.

Vaughn tracked the arriving schools as the delegations gathered in Campbeltown and began approaching one another, while Hogwarts tightened security and accelerated its students’ preparation for the Potions exchange. McGonagall challenged Harry’s belief that he would stay out of the coming rivalry, leaving him uncertain about her arrangements.

• Madame Maxime spotted Durmstrang’s underwater ship near England’s white cliffs and suspected Karkaroff had arrived early for a reason.
• Phineas reported the schools’ movements to Vaughn, who learned that Sirius was holding up in Azkaban and offered to help improve his conditions.
• Phineas grieved over Regulus’s death and agreed to keep monitoring the delegations; he later reported that Ilvermorny and Mahoutokoro had reached Campbeltown after Mahoutokoro’s unexplained stop in Dublin.
• Mahoutokoro approached Beauxbatons and Durmstrang separately; Beauxbatons refused contact, while Durmstrang welcomed the visitors aboard its ship.
• Hogwarts barred outside owls and magical creatures and intensified etiquette lessons, with McGonagall planning assessments in four subjects.
• Harry told McGonagall he disliked showing off or causing trouble, but she called him naive.

Harry learned that foreign delegations might challenge him because he was famous for supposedly killing Voldemort, and he worried that he could not defend himself. After poor practical assessments, he and Ron began intensive training as the delegations’ arrival drew closer, until they found the Great Hall newly decorated one February morning.

• Harry told Ron, Hermione, and Ginny that his reputation as the slayer of a Legendary Wizard could attract challenges, and Hermione said his best option was to follow McGonagall’s training plan.
• Harry committed himself to revision and assessments, but he and Ron received poor grades, while Hermione excelled and several other students also struggled.
• Snape mocked Harry and Ron over their Potions results, and the professors later criticized the students’ assessment performances.
• Harry and Ron began intensive training with plans prepared by the professors as the foreign delegations’ arrival approached.
• Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny entered the Great Hall one early February morning and discovered it had been freshly decorated.