Chapter Summaries

After Wade recovered from the magic that had turned him into a child, he said goodbye to his parents and walked with Dumbledore, discussing Voldemort’s presumed death and the Ministry’s leadership. The chapter left Wade questioning Dumbledore’s decision not to become Minister for Magic as they considered Rufus Scrimgeour’s appointment and the Acolytes’ growing power.

• Madam Pomfrey confirmed that Wade had fully recovered, and his friends and parents visited him before leaving the hospital ward.
• Wade joined Dumbledore at the window, watched his parents’ carriage depart, and worried that he had made them suffer by taking risks.
• Dumbledore reassured Wade that his actions helped protect ordinary people and explained why the public believed Voldemort had died.
• Wade and Dumbledore discussed how Voldemort was hiding and recovering, and how quickly the Wizarding World might forget the truth.
• Wade asked Dumbledore about refusing the post of Minister for Magic and questioned whether Rufus Scrimgeour could handle the Acolytes’ growing power.

Wade discussed Rufus Scrimgeour’s suitability as Minister for Magic with Dumbledore and came to understand why Dumbledore kept himself away from power. Dumbledore then revealed that a mysterious time-related kettle troubling him had not been made by Britain’s Department of Mysteries.

• Wade told Dumbledore he feared Scrimgeour’s hard-line methods could harm ordinary people and allies.
• Dumbledore explained that power could magnify his flaws and that he stayed away from authority to avoid repeating grave mistakes.
• Dumbledore defended Scrimgeour as someone willing to confront threats, and Wade agreed that he was preferable to Fudge’s inaction.
• Wade asked about the Golden Kettle, and Dumbledore said it was a time-related magical artifact that had not been made by Britain’s Silent Ones.

Dumbledore explained to Wade that wizards gained magic after surviving contact with mysterious regions, and that early wizards built towers around them that later became schools and Ministries of Magic. He showed Wade the hidden origins of the British Ministry and revealed that the Golden Kettle held the same strange sand used in Time-Turners, though for a different purpose.

• Wade asked whether the Golden Kettle came from another country, and Dumbledore asked him how he thought wizards had originated.
• Wade recounted theories that wizards descended from ancient gods or magical creatures, and Dumbledore rejected those claims as humans' attempts to invent noble origins.
• Dumbledore showed Wade visions of mysterious regions whose powers contaminated the blood of a few survivors, granting them magic and leading others to revere them as gods.
• Dumbledore explained that early wizards built towers to study and conceal the regions, and that most towers eventually became Ministries of Magic while a few became schools.
• Dumbledore showed Wade how one ancient tower became the hidden underground British Ministry of Magic, then gathered golden grains from the kettle into a glass jar.
• Dumbledore told Wade that the grains were the same substance found in a Time-Turner hourglass, but served a different purpose.

Dumbledore explained that the Golden Kettle used Time Particles to overlay a phantom of the past rather than reverse time, and warned Wade about the particles’ dangers. Wade realized the Muggles working with Voldemort had obtained the kettle through a serious breach, possibly involving a Ministry takeover or traitors among the Silent Ones.

• Dumbledore demonstrated how the Golden Kettle made a bird appear to rewind into an egg and explained that it overlaid a phantom of time rather than restoring a person's actual age.
• Dumbledore described different forms of Time Particles, including those that caused time loops, slowed time, and powered Time-Turners.
• Dumbledore warned Wade that misuse of the Golden Kettle could cause organ lesions or make people disappear, and said it should never have left Ministry control.
• Dumbledore identified Voldemort's allies as a tattooed woman and a scarred man who had killed themselves before they could be questioned.
• Wade and Dumbledore suspected the Muggles had obtained the kettle either by seizing a Ministry or through betrayal by Silent Ones in a Department of Mysteries.

Dumbledore told Wade that a threat might surpass Voldemort or Grindelwald and asked him to help visit an old friend trapped in a nightmare. Wade and Harry faced intense attention at the Great Hall, where Ginny defended Harry from intrusive questions.

• Dumbledore collected the Time Particles and warned Wade that a greater threat might be coming.
• Dumbledore explained that the person locked in the monastery confessional was an old friend trapped in a nightmare, and asked Wade to bring Harry to visit him after lunch.
• Wade walked to the Great Hall as students stared and whispered about him and his Golems.
• Fred and George jokingly announced Wade as the King of Golems, and Wade rapped them on the head.
• A Gryffindor student pressed Harry for details about returning from the dead, but Ginny threatened to turn the student's tongue into a Slug.
• Harry sat beside Wade, and Fred and George teased him about getting to know Ginny again.

After the battle, Wade and Harry discussed Harry’s survival and the strange bond between him and Voldemort. Harry believed his mother’s protection in both their bodies had kept him alive, but Dumbledore’s explanation remained only a theory, and Harry feared it would not save him again.

• Wade and Harry’s friends shielded them from curious students, while Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott faced hostility at lunch and Draco Malfoy sneered at their pleading looks.
• Wade and Harry went to the Headmaster’s Office, where Wade asked about Harry’s scar and the vision he had experienced after being struck by the Killing Curse.
• Harry said he had seen a crying red-skinned child in an empty house but had hurried to wake because he feared Voldemort would attack Wade.
• Harry explained that Dumbledore thought Voldemort’s use of Harry’s blood had placed his mother’s protection in both of them, which might have stopped the Killing Curse.
• Harry told Wade that Dumbledore considered the bond an untested theory, and he doubted Voldemort would give him another chance to survive.

Dumbledore took Harry and Wade through London to St. Mungo’s Magical Hospital to visit Horace Slughorn. After meeting the hospital’s portrait guide and seeing its unusual patients, they reached the Spell Damage floor.

• Dumbledore led Harry and Wade through London under a Notice-Me-Not Charm, and Wade and Harry joked about Harry’s resemblance to Sirius.
• Dumbledore brought them into St. Mungo’s through a disguised department-store entrance.
• Dilys greeted them and said Horace was well but had grown timid, then directed them to his ward.
• Dumbledore, Harry, and Wade rode the lift past patients with magical injuries and illnesses to the Fifth Floor.

Dumbledore brought Wade Grey and Harry Potter to St. Mungo’s to see the traumatized Horace Slughorn, whose terror and guilt surfaced when he saw the boys. The healer allowed them five more minutes with Slughorn, despite warning that further agitation would end the visit.

• Pai Yi warned Wade and Harry to avoid bright lights and loud noises as they entered Slughorn’s room.
• Dumbledore tried to calm Slughorn, who panicked, hallucinated, and apologized to Lily for telling someone something.
• Harry asked Slughorn about Lily, but Slughorn slipped into a lesson and addressed her as Miss Evans.
• Wade approached Slughorn, who screamed about Tom and became so distressed that Healers ushered the visitors out.
• An elderly healer scolded Dumbledore for provoking Slughorn, then allowed Wade, Harry, and Dumbledore five more minutes with him.

Wade used his Golems to calm Slughorn, who regained his clarity and remembered Harry’s mother, Lily. Dumbledore then persuaded Slughorn to extract the memory he needed, though the memory showed Slughorn discussing Tom Riddle and a gift of candied pineapple.

• Wade released his damaged Golems into the ward, and Slughorn relaxed as he cuddled them.
• Slughorn recognized Dumbledore and apologized to Harry for Lily’s death, praising her courage.
• A Cheetah Golem calmed Slughorn, who recognized Wade and enthusiastically praised his Golems and imagined his old collection.
• Dumbledore urged Slughorn to provide the memory, and Slughorn used his Wand to draw a silver strand from his temple.
• Dumbledore collected the memory in a Crystal Vial, and it began with Slughorn speaking to Tom Riddle about candied pineapple and helping him find a job.

Wade and Harry left Slughorn in the hospital with a Cheetah Golem to comfort him, while Dumbledore kept a mysterious Crystal Vial connected to Voldemort's capture of Slughorn. They encountered Mrs. Longbottom, who thanked Wade and praised Harry before calling Frank and Alice Longbottom out of their ward.

• Wade left his Cheetah Golem with Slughorn after healer Elliot agreed to treat it as a special medical device.
• Dumbledore took the Crystal Vial and told Harry it was a key to the mystery behind Voldemort capturing and torturing Slughorn.
• Wade and Harry passed a portrait healer who warned Harry about Imprint Sympathy Syndrome, but Wade dismissed the diagnosis as outdated nonsense.
• Dumbledore, Wade, and Harry encountered Mrs. Longbottom, who thanked Wade for helping Neville and praised Harry for his bravery.
• Mrs. Longbottom called Frank and Alice Longbottom out of their ward, and they emerged together.

Wade, Harry, and Dumbledore met Neville’s parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom, who were recovering after years of suffering under the Cruciatus Curse. The couple planned to rejoin the Order of the Phoenix, but their frail condition sent them back to rest, while Dumbledore warned that Voldemort might try to free his followers from Azkaban.

• Frank and Alice thanked Wade for lending Neville a magical item that helped them regain their senses.
• Augusta explained to Harry that Bellatrix and her group had tortured Frank and Alice fourteen years earlier, and Harry expressed sympathy for them.
• Alice comforted Harry about James and Lily, while Frank told Dumbledore that he and Alice hoped to rejoin the Order of the Phoenix.
• Augusta insisted that she be notified when Voldemort appeared, and Frank warned that Voldemort might gather followers from Azkaban.
• Dumbledore discussed strengthening Azkaban’s defenses with Scrimgeour, then stopped when Frank and Alice grew too weak to stand.
• Augusta sent Frank and Alice back to their ward to rest, and they said goodbye to Wade, Harry, and Dumbledore.

After visiting Frank and Alice Longbottom at St. Mungo’s, Harry struggled with grief over his dead parents, but Wade’s small Patronus comforted him on the walk back to Hogwarts. The group returned safely, while Dumbledore stayed behind on the steps, studying the warm Crystal Vial with a grave expression.

• Harry walked silently after seeing Frank and Alice, imagining his own parents alive before forcing the longing from his mind.
• Wade conjured a tiny silver stag from a streetlamp’s light, and Harry held it as it warmed and comforted him.
• Dumbledore praised Wade’s spell, then helped him and Harry avoid trouble for underage magic by claiming he had cast it.
• Dumbledore Apparated with Wade and Harry to Hogwarts, where Hagrid greeted them and heard that the Longbottoms were recovering.
• Hagrid planned to visit Frank and Alice with gifts, while Harry and Wade headed toward the Great Hall with him.
• Dumbledore remained on the steps and took out the still-warm Crystal Vial, his expression turning solemn.

Wade learned that Dumbledore had been nominated for Minister for Magic because the Ministry feared Grindelwald’s planned visit, then hurried to ask Dumbledore how the election had ended. Dumbledore said the matter was resolved, leaving Wade concerned about what had happened between him and Grindelwald.

• The Grey Lady told Wade that Dumbledore was at the Ministry of Magic, and Nearly Headless Nick reported rumors that Dumbledore had been nominated for Minister for Magic.
• The Fat Friar explained that many people opposed Scrimgeour and that the Ministry wanted Dumbledore to face Grindelwald.
• Wade returned to the Room of Requirement to repair the damaged Golem.
• Zoe told Wade that Dumbledore had returned to Hogwarts, and Wade flew to the Headmaster’s Office as a peregrine falcon.
• Dumbledore told Wade that the election had been resolved, and Wade asked whether he and Grindelwald had fought.

Dumbledore told Wade that Grindelwald had visited Fudge without harming him, allowing Fudge to resign and Dumbledore to return to Hogwarts. Dumbledore then showed Wade a memory of Tom Riddle from Horace's recollections, leaving Wade inside the memory as a young man began asking a question.

• Dumbledore explained that Grindelwald had visited Fudge, who later went to St. Mungo's out of fear and resigned as Minister for Magic.
• Dumbledore said the Ministry's officials had stopped pressuring him to remain in the running for Minister, allowing him to return to Hogwarts.
• Wade considered how Grindelwald's actions had undermined the Ministry and left it weakened, but kept his thoughts to himself.
• Dumbledore showed Wade the Pensieve and explained that Harry was not yet ready to see Tom Riddle in Horace's memory.
• Wade entered the memory and found himself in an office as a young man politely began asking a question.

Dumbledore showed Wade Slughorn’s memory of explaining Horcruxes to Tom Riddle, revealing that Tom had planned to split his soul into seven pieces. Dumbledore confirmed that the Diary was the first Horcrux and remained safely in his possession.

• Tom Riddle coaxed Slughorn into explaining how murder could split the soul and seal a fragment inside an object.
• Tom asked whether he could split his soul into seven pieces, terrifying Slughorn, who later altered the memory with a spell.
• Dumbledore explained that Slughorn had hidden the memory out of fear that Voldemort would return and silence him.
• Dumbledore told Wade that Voldemort intended to make six Horcruxes, believing his soul would then consist of seven pieces.
• Dumbledore confirmed that the Diary was the first Horcrux and was kept somewhere safe.

Wade and Dumbledore counted the remaining Horcruxes and considered whether Voldemort had made another one from Nagini. Dumbledore then showed Wade a memory of Voldemort torturing Slughorn for answers about replacing a destroyed Horcrux.

• Wade told Dumbledore that the Diary, Ravenclaw's Diadem, and Slytherin's locket had been destroyed, leaving Hufflepuff's Golden Cup and an unknown Horcrux, which might be Harry.
• Dumbledore said the Golden Cup was thought to be in the Lestrange vault at Gringotts and suggested Voldemort might help them retrieve it.
• Dumbledore proposed that Wade might have destroyed the final Horcrux by accident, prompting Wade to remember Nagini dying with baby Voldemort and to wonder about the King Cobra.
• Dumbledore used his Wand to show Wade a memory of Voldemort confronting a tortured Slughorn in the Monastery cemetery.
• Voldemort asked Slughorn how to replace a destroyed Horcrux and whether his soul could be divided further, then tortured him with Crucio when Slughorn hesitated.

Wade and Dumbledore witnessed Voldemort brutally interrogating Slughorn for information about splitting his soul. Slughorn revealed a way to split an existing Horcrux fragment again, leaving Voldemort thrilled by the possibility.

• Voldemort tortured Slughorn and demanded answers about the instability caused by splitting his soul.
• Wade asked Dumbledore why Voldemort had not used Veritaserum, and Dumbledore explained Slughorn could resist it or alter his memories.
• Voldemort forced the broken Slughorn to warn that splitting his soul further could cause the soul in his body to collapse.
• Slughorn explained that Voldemort could guide an existing soul fragment into someone who would give everything to the Horcrux, then split the fragment again.
• Voldemort reacted with wild ecstasy at Slughorn's method.

Wade and Dumbledore deduced that Voldemort would inspect his Horcruxes and realize most had been taken or destroyed, though he still believed the Diadem was intact. They considered his remaining options and ended with Wade asking whether Dumbledore would return the Diary to Lucius Malfoy.

• Dumbledore and Wade left Slughorn’s memory after witnessing Voldemort learn how to make Horcruxes.
• Wade and Dumbledore concluded that Voldemort would inspect his Horcruxes and discover that several were gone.
• Dumbledore explained that Voldemort still believed Ravenclaw’s Diadem was intact because he thought Ryan had hidden it.
• Dumbledore revealed that Ryan Smith was imprisoned in America and would face twelve years in prison for helping Voldemort.
• Wade and Dumbledore discussed Voldemort’s likely options, including seeking Lucius Malfoy to obtain Hufflepuff’s Golden Cup.
• Wade asked Dumbledore whether he planned to return the Diary to Malfoy.

Dumbledore agreed with Wade to use the diary as bait to make Lucius Malfoy cooperate in destroying Voldemort’s Horcrux. Alone, Dumbledore found resolve in thoughts of his fallen allies and Hogwarts’s students, while Lucius and Narcissa discussed hiding from Voldemort and retrieving Draco.

• Dumbledore told Wade that Lucius would cooperate because Voldemort would kill him if he learned the diary was compromised.
• Wade gave Dumbledore permission to use the diary as he saw fit and offered his help.
• After Wade left, Dumbledore remembered James Potter, Lily, the Longbottoms, the Bones, Caradoc Dearborn, and the Prewett brothers, then drew strength from imagining Hogwarts’s students.
• Dumbledore resolved that destroying the diary and the Golden Cup would leave Voldemort unable to resurrect.
• Narcissa joined Lucius in his study, where he considered cutting off the arm bearing the Dark Mark, and they discussed finding a way to retrieve Draco.

Lucius and Narcissa planned to flee after Voldemort escaped, fearing he would punish Lucius for betraying him. Dumbledore arrived at their home in the rain and asked to talk, leaving Lucius face-to-face with the wizard he had feared would not protect them.

• Lucius told Narcissa he regretted killing Barty Crouch Jr. and feared Voldemort would discover his betrayal.
• Narcissa urged Lucius to seek Dumbledore's protection, but Lucius refused and feared Dumbledore could not keep them safe.
• Narcissa began packing so she and Draco could flee, while Lucius decided to stay behind and face Voldemort.
• Lucius warned Narcissa to avoid their communication devices and to trust no unexpected message from him.
• Lucius went downstairs to answer the door and found Dumbledore, who said they needed to talk.