Chapter Summaries

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.

Hogwarts welcomed the first visiting delegation, China's Central Academy of Qi Refining, whose students arrived on clouds and impressed the gathered students with their magic. Harry sensed Li Nanyu's attention and noticed an unfriendly boy watching him before another delegation's ship rose from the Black Lake.

• Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny joined the Hogwarts students in the courtyard to welcome the arriving delegations.
• Vast clouds rushed over the mountain ridges and filled the valley with mist, and Dumbledore welcomed Li Nanyu and the Central Academy of Qi Refining.
• The Chinese students gathered the mist into cotton-like balls and stored them in pouches, while Li Nanyu nodded toward Harry.
• Harry used Occlumency after sensing Li Nanyu's scrutiny, then noticed a Chinese boy staring at him with hostility.
• The Black Lake's ice shattered, and an enormous sailing ship surrounded by magical fire rose from beneath the water.

Hogwarts welcomed delegations from magical schools around the world, but the arrival ended with a Beauxbatons witch confronting Harry and insulting him as England’s Chosen One. As Harry and his friends returned to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione worried that the encounter had drawn everyone’s attention to him.

• Students watched the delegations arrive in spectacular ways, including Durmstrang’s ship, Beauxbatons’ carriage, and Uagadou’s carpet.
• Harry and the other students lined up as Dumbledore led the visiting delegations toward Hogwarts.
• A hooded Beauxbatons witch stopped before Harry, identified him as England’s Chosen One, and told him he did not live up to his reputation.
• Ron angrily condemned the witch on the way back to Gryffindor Tower, while Hermione warned that Harry would have been wrong to attack her.
• Hermione told Harry that everyone had watched the witch approach him and feared McGonagall’s concerns about the attention on him had come true.

Vaughn took Mundungus Fletcher to a deprived London neighborhood to find impoverished Muggles who could meet his requirements, then returned to Hogwarts and discussed his Ireland research with Dumbledore. Dumbledore realized Vaughn had kept him from a dangerous encounter with Tom’s past and admitted he had obtained a Horcrux, while Vaughn confronted him about his distrust and informants.

• Harry worried that the visiting school delegations would provoke him because they resented Vaughn’s standing, while Ron and Hermione discussed why Harry might be targeted.
• Mundungus led Vaughn through an underground passage to a London slum and explained how factory closures and poverty had transformed the area.
• Mundungus described the neighborhood’s diverse, impoverished residents, and Vaughn judged that they suited the task he had assigned.
• Back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore asked Vaughn about his Ireland research, and Vaughn confirmed it concerned Tom and had spared Dumbledore great pain.
• Dumbledore said Vaughn had saved his life and acknowledged that Vaughn had obtained a Horcrux, but Vaughn insisted the site held only the remains of unfortunate people and a noble soul.
• Vaughn accused Dumbledore of planting informants and manipulating Mundungus to test him, but said he had no intention of investigating or punishing the informer.

Dumbledore warned Vaughn that magic protein research could overturn the wizarding world’s hierarchy and ignite widespread conflict. Meanwhile, a meeting of pure-blood leaders broke down into infighting, and Rosier confronted Lucius with his knowledge of Voldemort’s plan to obtain an item connected to resurrection.

• Dumbledore told Vaughn that magic protein could empower Muggles, threaten pure-blood interests, and destabilize the wizarding world.
• Dumbledore admitted he had feared Gellert Grindelwald’s influence over Vaughn, but now considered Vaughn even more dangerous to the established order.
• At a secret pure-blood meeting, Selwyn and Travers argued over Vaughn’s research while the chairman urged the families to unite against its implications.
• The pure-blood meeting dissolved into renewed arguments, and Lucius Malfoy dismissed the group as incapable of taking effective action.
• Rosier stopped Lucius and revealed that he knew American visitors were hiding at Hogwarts to help Voldemort obtain an item connected to resurrection.

Vaughn and Dumbledore discussed pure-blood plans to resurrect Voldemort and agreed the Potions Exchange could give them a chance to confront him. Vaughn then extracted Peter Pettigrew’s memories while keeping him under mind control, and Ron woke the dormitory screaming that Scabbers was missing.

• Dumbledore warned Vaughn that some pure-bloods would try to resurrect Tom, while others supported Vaughn’s magic protein research.
• Dumbledore named Rosier as the family behind the resurrection plan and said the Potions Exchange could provide an opportunity to act.
• Vaughn considered the danger of Voldemort, their incomplete preparations, and the need to kill him in one decisive attempt.
• Fruit Tea brought Scabbers to Vaughn, who used Mind Invasion to restore Peter Pettigrew’s memories and extract a strand of silvery-white mist.
• Peter recognized Vaughn’s control and panicked before his consciousness was suppressed again, while Harry woke to Ron shouting that Scabbers was gone.