Chapter Summaries

Corbett escaped the Aurors after a violent pursuit, mutilating himself to remove a dark mark and reaching a vineyard to hide. Lila and other Cloaked figures found him, questioned him about what he had told Ezra Hughes, and killed him.

• Corbett fought off the Aurors with an Anti-Curse Vest and Fiendfyre before Apparating away from Ezra Hughes, Salina Goldstein, and Rex Grim.
• Corbett removed the pitchfork-shaped mark from his abdomen, then Apparated again, leaving fingers and part of an ear behind.
• Corbett reached a vineyard, treated his wounds with a Potion, and vowed revenge while he waited for the Aurors to find him.
• Lila and the Cloaked figures found Corbett and asked whether he had revealed anything to Ezra Hughes.
• A green plant spike pierced Corbett's chest, and Lila and the others burned his body to ash.

Lila secured the Cloaked figures’ support for a new order in the American Wizarding World. Later, Wade and Antoine tracked an ice cream vendor watching the Stonefield mansion, and the vendor’s disguise came under threat when someone recognized Rolando Stern.

• Lila called on the Cloaked figures to help her establish a new order, and they pledged their support.
• Wade and Antoine watched an ice cream vendor linger near the Stonefield mansion and discussed the family’s wealth and influence.
• Wade explained that the vendor repeatedly appeared near places connected to the Magical Congress, the White Bridge Inn, the Magical Hospital, and Drayne’s investigation.
• Rolando Stern spoke privately with Mr. Brolin about possible cooperation and demanded proof of the other side’s capabilities.
• A passerby recognized Stern, making him tense as he watched the person’s reflection in the truck’s railing.

Stern met his former headmaster, Egbert Fontana, while selling ice cream, and Fontana offered him a job at Ilvermorny and help paying for his leg treatment. After Fontana left, he found Wade and Antoine, while his daughter exposed Stern’s claim that he could not afford treatment as a lie.

• Fontana recognized Stern and offered him a position as Professor Cranston’s Herbology assistant at Ilvermorny, but Stern said he needed time to think.
• Fontana gave Stern the name of Healer Dempsey and offered to cover the cost of treating his injured leg as a loan.
• After Fontana left, Stern told Brolin that the headmaster probably had not noticed anything unusual.
• Wade and Antoine discussed Stern’s encounter as Wade worked on finding a way to monitor the Stonefield Manor.
• Fontana confronted Wade and Antoine, and his daughter called him an idiot because she had seen Stern use an expensive Communication Pea despite claiming he could not afford treatment.

Antoine Moreau questioned Headmaster Fontana about Stern, the Scourers, and Prometheus while Wade kept Fontana’s daughter company. Stern continued investigating the Stonefield family, and reporter Tom Haik began searching for Aldridge Corbett.

• Fontana confronted Wade and Antoine, then recognized Antoine as Professor Moreau of Salem and agreed to hear what he knew about Stern.
• Antoine asked Fontana what he knew about the Scourers and Prometheus.
• Wade spoke with Fontana’s daughter, who recognized the ice cream seller as suspicious and explained why her father distrusted intelligent magic Golems.
• Stern left the Stonefield estate and drove his ice cream truck to another location to continue investigating the family.
• Tom Haik showed a shop owner a photograph of Aldridge Corbett and asked whether he had seen him.

Tom Haik investigated Corbett’s connection to the Stonefield family and photographed Rolando Stern working as an ice cream vendor. Stern struggled to keep up his disguise while Headmaster Fontana followed him through the streets.

• Tom Haik paid a shop owner for information and learned that William Stonefield had hosted Corbett, who supposedly could give the old patriarch power beyond imagination.
• Tom Haik concluded that Corbett’s disappearance concealed a major secret and resolved to investigate further.
• Tom Haik recognized Rolando Stern selling ice cream, photographed him serving a Muggle child, and decided to publish the picture.
• Headmaster Fontana followed Stern in Muggle clothes, while Stern worried that the headmaster would keep following him after the customers left.

Stern secured more time from Headmaster Fontana by promising to answer him by morning, then returned to the Scourers’ base and learned that Brolin had sent Abigail to contact Prometheus. Grant White’s reminder that Stern was a wizard who might oppose Prometheus’s experiments sent Stern hurrying to the station.

• Stern asked Headmaster Fontana to give him more time before discussing his personal matters, and promised to answer by the next morning.
• Stern returned to the Scourers’ temporary base after checking that he was not being followed and found Grant White instead of Leader Brolin.
• Grant White told Stern that Brolin was at the station, while Abigail said she was leaving for Washington to contact Liana Lightfoot of Prometheus.
• Stern objected that Abigail was making contact before the Scourers had assessed the risks or settled the terms.
• Grant White suggested that Brolin did not care that Prometheus used wizards for experiments and reminded Stern that he was a talented wizard.
• Stern hurried toward the underground station without answering Grant White.

Brolin defended his decision to cooperate with Prometheus and accused Stern of hypocrisy, revealing that Sera Abigail herself was being offered as proof of the organization’s sincerity. Later, Stern stopped a young trainee from following Abigail and sent her to ask Abigail about the item she had left behind.

• Stern confronted Brolin over contacting Prometheus, but Brolin argued that the organization needed their resources to survive.
• Brolin challenged Stern’s hatred of wizards and questioned whether Stern truly acted for the organization.
• Brolin revealed that cooperation with Prometheus had already begun and that Sera Abigail was the offering, prompting Stern to try to stop her.
• Brolin reminded Stern that he had reported Abigail’s suspicious behavior and urged the organization to eradicate wizards, then asked what Stern really wanted.
• A trainee asked to join Abigail’s mission, but Stern refused and told her to ask Abigail about the item she had left behind.

Egbert Fontana decided to face his former student as Aurors attacked the Scourers’ underground base. Stern tried to rally the Scourers and find Brolin, but discovered the Golems were gone.

• After waiting past one o’clock, Egbert Fontana agreed to join Salina Goderick and confront his former student.
• An explosion shook the Scourers’ base, and a member warned Stern that Aurors from the Magical Congress had found the entrance.
• Stern ordered the Scourers to fall back while Lyla Piquelly directed the Aurors’ advance through the corridors.
• Unable to find Brolin, Stern suspected he was at the underground station and rushed there.
• Stern found the station empty, with only broken chains where the Vampire, Werewolf, and troll Golems had been.

After Brolin abandoned the Scourers, their resistance collapsed as Aurors swept through the underground station. Stern attempted to kill himself rather than surrender, but Fontana interrupted him and urged him to give up.

• Stern found the station empty and realized Brolin had fled with Ilari and the Golems, leaving the Scourers behind.
• The Scourers lost hope and began abandoning the fight as Aurors advanced through the passages.
• Lila disarmed a terrified girl and ordered an Auror to take her away, while the girl remained convinced that wizards were evil.
• Stern refused his companion's plea to flee, then forced himself to prepare for the approaching Aurors.
• As Stern began casting Avada Kedavra at himself, Fontana stopped him, caught his Wand, and told him to give up.

Stern realized a Tracking Charm on his shoulder had led the Aurors to the organization’s base, and he was taken into custody as Fontana lamented the path he had chosen. Meanwhile, Brolin arrived at a secret underground station with Ilari and an army of Golems, where Mark Paul received them and Brolin demanded a meeting with Sir Stonefield.

• Stern discovered the Tracking Charm on his shoulder and understood that his lapse had exposed the organization’s base.
• Fontana told Stern he had left him a final chance to turn back, then removed the charm as Aurors escorted Stern away.
• Lila Piquelly asked Stern to reveal Brolin’s location, but Stern said he did not know where Brolin was.
• Brolin’s train emerged into a brightly lit underground station, where he and Ilari stepped out with their Golem army.
• Mark Paul introduced himself as Sir Stonefield’s special assistant and questioned whether the creatures were truly Golems.
• Brolin told Paul he wanted to meet Sir Stonefield immediately to finalize details of their cooperation.

Assistant Paul escorted Brolin and his Golems through the heavily secured Manor, where a wizard-targeting device incapacitated Ilari and affected the smaller Golems. Meanwhile, Wade received a hemispherical mirror from a dove and prepared to view what it had seen.

• Assistant Paul told Brolin that Sir Stonefield was unavailable and led him toward the guest rooms, while most of the Golems stayed behind in the station.
• Assistant Paul showed Brolin the Manor’s security measures and assured him that its staff had cleared every snail from the grounds.
• A dragonfly-shaped security vehicle made Ilari and the Golems feel ill, and Assistant Paul explained that it disrupted wizard-made devices, especially smaller Golems.
• Brolin asked whether the vehicle affected Golems, and Assistant Paul confirmed that it had a stronger effect on smaller ones.
• Wade stroked a dove, produced a hemispherical mirror, and asked to see what it had witnessed.

Wade used the disappearance of his Snail Automatons to identify the Stonefield family’s magically protected territory and watched Brolin and his companions arrive at the Manor. Assistant Paul then revealed that Stonefield wanted to collaborate with Ilari rather than Brolin, leaving Ilari shaken by the prospect that Brolin might abandon him.

• Wade traced a gap in the Snail Automatons’ surveillance to magical interference near the Stonefield family’s property and watched the Manor through a mirror hidden in a robin’s eye.
• A vampire girl in the group noticed Wade watching and gave him a faint smile.
• Assistant Paul showed Ilari a lavish alchemy laboratory prepared specifically for him, which Ilari excitedly admired.
• Paul told Ilari that Stonefield wanted to work with him because he could provide Golems and was more valuable than Brolin.
• Paul questioned whether Ilari could trust Brolin not to abandon him, and Ilari’s fear became visible.

Assistant Paul persuaded Ilari to consider working with Sir William Stonefield by highlighting how little credit and control Brolin had given him over the Golems. Ilari began to see himself as a better partner for Stonefield, and Paul returned with Stonefield’s signature so Ilari could demonstrate how to transfer authority over the Golems.

• Assistant Paul asked Ilari to consider Sir William Stonefield’s offer, then drew him into explaining how he created the Golems.
• Paul questioned whether Brolin had compensated Ilari or contributed beyond providing materials, and Ilari admitted that the Scourers received no wages.
• Ilari explained that the Golems could be contracted to multiple masters, including Brolin and himself, after Brolin allowed him to establish contracts.
• Paul asked whether Ilari could add Stonefield as an object of the Golems’ loyalty, and Ilari said he would need Stonefield’s handwritten signature.
• Ilari realized Stonefield was at the Manor and began thinking he could be a better partner than Brolin.
• Paul returned with Stonefield’s signed parchment and asked Ilari to demonstrate transferring authority over the Golems.

Elsie told Wade about the Stonefield family’s experiments and promised to gather information on their associates. She disguised Wade as her bodyguard Lawrence and brought him to the Magical Congress to see the arrested second-in-command of the Scourers.

• Elsie explained that powerful people treated the victims of experiments as expendable and described the Stonefield family’s influence and interest in extending life.
• Elsie promised to compile information on the Stonefield family and its connected families and companies.
• Elsie introduced her bodyguard Lawrence and gave Wade his Vanderbilt family Cloak so he could enter the Magical Congress unnoticed.
• Wade used Human Transfiguration to take Lawrence’s appearance, surprising Elsie with his skill.
• Elsie and Wade entered the Magical Congress headquarters through its revolving door, and the scene around them changed.

Elsie and Wade entered the Magical Congress to observe the captured Scourer Rolando Stern while Wade considered why Lila Piquery had received the credit for destroying the organization. As they reached Stern’s interrogation room, Wade suspected Lila’s sudden political prominence signaled a deeper maneuver.

• Elsie told Congress officials she had come to see the captured Scourer, and they directed her to the tribunal.
• Elsie explained to Wade that the public credited Lila Piquery with ending the crisis, strengthening her prestige while leaving Chairman Hawthorne exhausted and resented.
• Wade wondered why Lila had led the operation instead of Hawthorne, Ezra Hughes, or another senior official, and judged the choice a serious political anomaly.
• Wade passed Moody and Kingsley, who discussed whether to remain in America while waiting for the Scourer case to conclude and for Wade to report back.
• Elsie stopped outside the interrogation room, where Rolando Stern was visible through the glass.

Wade and Elsie questioned Rolando Stern about his warning to Abigail and his hatred of wizards. Stern revealed that his wizard father had used Love Potion to deceive his mother, then abandoned her, and that she killed herself after the potion wore off, leaving Stern convinced the wizarding world was rotten.

• Elsie shielded the interrogation room from sight and sound while Wade read the Aurors' records on the Scourers.
• Wade asked Stern why he had warned Abigail, and Stern said she had been a comrade despite his doubts about her loyalty.
• Stern condemned the Scourers for treating people as less than human and questioned their corrupted ideals.
• Wade asked why Stern hated wizards, and Stern described how his father used Love Potion to make his mother abandon her life and marry him.
• Stern said his father later abandoned them, his mother killed herself after the potion wore off, and the wizard was remembered as a hero after dying in battle.
• Stern declared that the wizarding world was rotten and should be cleansed.

Elsie Vanderbilt and Wade left Stern’s interrogation, while Auror Samuel Goldstein investigated whether Stern had been replaced and warned against trusting powerful people. As they crossed the Magical Congress atrium, Elsie asked Wade whether he planned to rescue Professor Abigail.

• Elsie and Wade left Stern’s interrogation room, and Samuel Goldstein questioned Wade’s identity before letting them go.
• After the Vanderbilts departed, Goldstein examined Stern for signs of a disguise or substitution and found no reaction to his tests.
• Goldstein defended his precautions by recalling a Ministry official who had used Polyjuice Potion to switch his son out of prison.
• Elsie noticed that Wade seemed troubled by Stern’s story and warned him to be careful about Love Potion at Hogwarts.
• Elsie asked Wade whether he planned to rescue Professor Abigail after Stern’s testimony suggested the Scourers had discarded her as a pawn.

Wade and Elsie traveled to Washington to look for Wade’s friend and investigate the Prometheus presence there. They arrived at the Wizard United Club and discovered it was surrounded by a chaotic market and an apparent filming set, where a young warrior recognized Elsie.

• Wade decided to go to Washington because Prometheus and William Stonefield’s eldest son were there, and he hoped to find his friend.
• Elsie accompanied Wade through her family’s private fireplace, and they Flooed to the Wizard United Club in Washington.
• Wade and Elsie emerged into a disorderly open-air market that Elsie did not recognize.
• Two groups staged a mock magical battle, which stopped when the crew called for a break.
• A young warrior carrying a curved blade recognized Elsie and called out to her.

Wade and Elsie investigated the whereabouts of Liana Lightfoot, but August ordered Elsie back to the Manor, leaving Wade to continue alone. Wade also found two contradictory newspaper reports presenting Stern as both a victim of hardship and a captured Scourer leader.

• Elsie introduced Frankie Boman, who explained that he was helping make a fantasy film with volunteers to protect the Wizarding World’s secrecy.
• Wade and Elsie left the film set and entered a bustling wizarding street, where Elsie planned to ask about Liana Lightfoot.
• Elsie received an urgent message from August Vanderbilt ordering her to return to the Manor, but she continued her inquiry in the Book of Friends.
• Wade bought two newspapers that portrayed Stern first as an impoverished former wizard and then as a Scourer leader arrested by Aurors.
• Elsie learned that Lightfoot was in the top-floor apartment of Watergate Tower and told Wade that she had to leave.
• Wade and Elsie parted ways, with Wade continuing toward Lightfoot and Elsie heading to a wizarding inn.

Grant White drugged Abigail after using Carlyle’s fate to persuade her to go for a drink, then handed her over to a group treating her as trade goods. The chapter leaves Abigail unconscious in a cargo van with the buyers.

• Grant White told Abigail that Ms. Lightfoot had arranged a meeting at Watergate Tower for the following night.
• Grant White persuaded Abigail to go to the Crimson Twilight bar by offering to tell her how Carlyle died.
• Grant White secretly put powder in Abigail’s drink and recounted Carlyle’s disappearance and reported death.
• Abigail drank the spiked cocktail, lost consciousness, and Grant White carried her out of the bar.
• Grant White took Abigail to a black cargo van and presented her to a uniformed man as premium merchandise.