Chapter Summaries

Lila and Fontana escaped their pursuers by blending into a crowded shopping mall, where they destroyed their clothes and belongings to remove any tracking magic. They slipped past suspicious men and reached the street, while the smoke from Lila’s burning restroom stall drew attention inside the mall.

• Fontana gave Lila her sapphire-set Wand, disguised them as Muggles, and led her into a crowded mall to evade their pursuers.
• Lila stripped off her clothes and accessories, used a cleansing charm, and burned her belongings to eliminate any tracking traces.
• Lila noticed ants slipping into a crack in the restroom wall and suspected they might be connected to golems, but she set the crack and stall on fire without telling Fontana.
• Fontana checked Lila for residual Magic Power, then disguised himself and Lila as an elderly man and his daughter as they passed a suspicious man at the mall exit.
• Lila and Fontana escaped into the street, and the restroom door burst open as smoke poured into the mall.

Wade and Antoine investigated the burned remains in a sealed restroom and learned that the tracked targets had escaped. Wade revealed how his tiny Ant Golems had followed visitors connected to Stonefield, then proposed using divination to find the fugitives.

• FBI agents guarded the restroom, where Wade and Antoine found burned clothing and a melted Chairman's badge among the remains.
• Wade discovered an exhausted Ant Golem in a wall and transferred it to the Wardrobe Space, where the other Golems gathered around it.
• Antoine asked how Wade had secretly tracked Lila and Fontana, and Wade explained that Ant Golems had attached themselves to people visiting Stonefield Manor.
• Wade revealed that the tiny Golems had kept tracking the visitors after the Stonefield deaths, but the targets escaped.
• When Antoine worried they could no longer find the fugitives, Wade said they could use divination.

Wade used divination to locate the fugitives Lila Piquelly and Fontana in New York, then warned Antoine that they could rebuild their influence if left alone. Wade began preparing to ensure they could not escape again, hoping to return to Hogwarts soon.

• Wade used a crystal ball, blood, and personal items to divine the fugitives’ location, seeing Times Square, a subway, and the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Wade told Antoine that Lila Piquelly and Fontana had returned to New York, where crowds could shield them from the Aurors.
• Wade reasoned that Lila’s secrets and Fontana’s abilities could help them form a new alliance and attempt a comeback.
• Antoine prepared to summon the Acolytes and go to New York, but Wade stopped him to make preparations to prevent the fugitives from escaping.

Lila and Egbert Fontana forced Soren Minden to reveal information about Congress, then planned to rebuild their influence cautiously. While they were caught in a Muggle protest parade, Fontana was poisoned and collapsed as the crowd ignored and trampled him.

• Lila confronted Soren Minden about deliberately botching Obliviation spells and threatened to expose him, forcing him to agree to help.
• Lila questioned Minden about events in Congress and enlisted his assistance.
• Lila and Fontana discussed infiltrating Congress through lower- and mid-ranking officials and went toward Echo Alley to gather supplies and information.
• A wildlife protest parade swept Lila and Fontana into its crowd as they traveled through a Muggle area.
• A girl dressed as a rhinoceros bumped into Fontana, and he soon became dizzy and struggled to breathe.
• Fontana dropped his antidote, collapsed, and was trampled by the crowd while Lila was separated from him.

After Fontana was killed in the street, Lila fled into the subway, convinced his killer was hiding among the Muggles. Wade and Antoine watched the pursuit unfold, and Lila’s escape ended with a cleaner aiming a silenced pistol at her.

• Passersby discovered Fontana’s corpse, and Lila ran toward the subway after seeing it.
• Antoine questioned how Fontana had died so easily, and Wade said Fontana had let down his guard.
• Wade watched the subway entrance and said Lila could not escape.
• A police officer approached Lila in the subway, but she panicked and exploded a vending machine to create chaos.
• Lila slipped into a restricted passageway, where a cleaner raised a silenced pistol toward her side.

Lila escaped Vera’s grenade by Apparating, but lost her leg and narrowly evaded Viktor and Wito while trying to reach a hospital. She Apparated again and ended up bleeding on a bridge as bootsteps approached.

• Lila survived the cleaning woman’s gunfire with the Anti-Curse Vest and blasted her with Confringo.
• Vera rose from the blast, threw a grenade, and reported that Lila had escaped but left a severed leg behind.
• Lila’s Apparition took her only a few kilometers, and she used the Imperius Curse to make a passerby carry her toward a hospital.
• Lila recognized Viktor and Wito as the maintenance workers, shoved her carrier toward them, and Apparated away.
• Lila landed on a bridge, badly wounded and bleeding, as someone approached in leather boots.

Lila Piquery recognized that Wade Gray was behind the precise attack that killed her, and Antoine Morrow executed her in Grindelwald’s name. Grindelwald let Chairman Barrett choose to conceal her death for now, then asked Wade if he understood what had happened.

• As Lila lay dying, she recognized Antoine Morrow and realized Wade Gray was responsible for the attack.
• Antoine admitted he served Grindelwald and killed Lila with the Killing Curse after she identified Wade.
• Grindelwald told Klinch Barrett that Lila was dead and asked whether Congress should announce it or keep it secret.
• Barrett recommended withholding the news, and Grindelwald agreed; Barrett returned to Congress, where employees hailed him as chairman.
• After Barrett left, Grindelwald asked Wade whether he understood what had happened.

Wade discussed Grindelwald’s choice of Barrett and learned how Grindelwald kept the new Congress President dependent on his support. Grindelwald then urged Wade to build loyalty through shared interests and secrets, using Wade’s bond with his friends as an example.

• Wade questioned why Grindelwald had chosen Barrett, and Grindelwald explained that Barrett lacked the power and independence to betray him.
• Grindelwald contrasted his control over Barrett with Dumbledore’s reliance on personal prestige and morality, which had failed to keep Fudge loyal.
• Grindelwald warned Wade against blindly granting favors or trusting expressions of gratitude, and advised him to bind loyalty through lasting value, shared interests, and secrets.
• Grindelwald asked whether Wade had shared a dangerous experience with his school friends, and Wade recalled that they had secretly dealt with one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes together.
• Grindelwald told Wade to create similarly strong bonds and make his companions’ ambitions, ideals, and safety inseparable from his own future.

Klinch Barrett resumed the chairman’s inauguration ceremony as the Magical Congress tried to recover from its recent crisis. Niccolo Hawthorne refused to return to leadership, acknowledged his failures, and left the inn with Antoine and an unfamiliar young man.

• Klinch Barrett delivered a cautious speech promising to lead the damaged Magical Congress through its recovery.
• Guests at the White Bridge Inn discussed the Congress’s new leadership, the dismissed Ilvermorny professors, and Niccolo Hawthorne’s absence.
• Antoine asked the disguised Niccolo Hawthorne whether he wanted to return, but Hawthorne said he would not.
• Hawthorne admitted that his arrogance and reliance on reports had kept him from understanding ordinary people and that he had not been a qualified chairman.
• Antoine introduced Hawthorne to an unfamiliar young man, who said their plan should work, and the three left the inn together.

Wade reflected on Grindelwald’s advice about balancing ideals with practical weaknesses as he flew away. Meanwhile, Vera secured funding terms, Wilan found a promising rare-earth deposit, and Viktor took interest in a neglected digital-platform proposal.

• Wade remembered Grindelwald’s warning that reform required both idealism and practical use of people’s weaknesses.
• Vera told company executives that the Seven-Colored Flower Fund would guarantee existing debts and provide research funding in exchange for letting the future team focus on pharmaceutical research.
• Wilan surveyed an abandoned mine and secretly identified it as a rich rare-earth deposit, then urged his contact to buy it quickly.
• Viktor returned to an investor presentation and approached the young platform-economy founder after everyone else ignored him.

Abigail and Braun trekked through the Appalachian Mountains toward the Dream Weaver, and Abigail recalled Brolin explaining that the Scourers hid children with Giant or Veela blood at a remote training base. They reached a ring of standing stones and found a concealed forest cottage ahead.

• Abigail struggled along the mountain trail until Braun caught her when she slipped and offered her water.
• Abigail remembered Brolin saying the Scourers brought children with Giant or Veela blood to an isolated training base, and she asked where it was.
• Braun gave Abigail his warm Cloak after her own had been torn by branches, and she thanked him.
• After hours of trekking, Abigail recognized a clearing with seven or eight white stones and said the Dream Weaver was ahead.
• Abigail and Braun crossed the stone barrier and discovered a hidden cottage in the forest.

Abigail and Braun found Grimson, the Goblin called the Dream Weaver, in his cottage, where Abigail recovered memories of Grimson altering her mind for the Scourers. Grimson offered to restore all her memories in exchange for working with him, but Braun challenged whether Grimson could be trusted, and Grimson attacked him with a spell.

• Abigail recalled being subjected to memory manipulation and told Braun that she had forgotten everything in Grimson's cottage.
• Braun searched Grimson's papers until Grimson emerged from a hidden trapdoor and introduced himself as the Dream Weaver.
• Grimson admitted he had left a way for Abigail's memories to return and revealed that Brolin had secretly pledged allegiance to wizard factions.
• Grimson offered to restore Abigail's memories if she renewed their pact, but Braun questioned whether the memories Grimson returned would be genuine.
• Grimson reacted angrily to Braun's challenge and fired a silver spell at him.

Braun and Abigail fought Grimson, whose Dark Curse briefly turned Abigail against Braun before Grimson fled into the woods. The Cloak restrained Abigail, and she realized it was a Golem and asked whether Braun was one too.

• Grimson attacked Braun with a silver spell, but Braun struck him and sent him crashing through the wall.
• Grimson animated objects in the cabin, and Braun and Abigail destroyed most of his attacks while he drank a Potion.
• Grimson's spell distorted Braun's face, but Braun recovered and charged after him.
• Grimson controlled Abigail, who fired at Braun and then cast Avada Kedavra, but Braun dodged and the Cloak bound her.
• Braun followed Grimson's blood trail into the woods while the Cloak restrained Abigail and talked until she returned to normal.
• Abigail asked the Cloak whether it was a Golem and whether Braun was one too.

Braun pursued Grimson through the forest and killed him after the goblin’s attempt to escape and persuade him failed. Abigail then learned that Braun had survived the goblin’s magic because three Substitute Golem masks had taken the effects in his place.

• Grimson Apparated away from Braun, then turned the forest animals against him instead of abandoning his cabin.
• Braun cut down the attacking animals and shot Grimson from a tree, leaving the goblin unable to Apparate successfully.
• Grimson accused wizards of oppressing nonhuman races and urged Braun to join his cause, but Braun followed Wade’s instruction and confronted him.
• Grimson offered to reveal secrets, then touched Braun with a Dark Curse; Braun killed him and confirmed his death with two more strikes.
• Abigail saw Braun’s ruined face restore itself and learned that three Substitute Golem masks had absorbed the magical effects.

After Grimson’s death, Braun and Abigail searched his cabin for the memories he had taken from her. They discovered a hidden room filled with thousands of memory vials, leaving Abigail with hope that her past was among them.

• Abigail realized Grimson was dead, and Braun suggested searching the cabin for where he had stored her memories.
• The Cloak dragged Grimson’s corpse along, and Abigail used a Levitation Charm to carry it after the Cloak complained about the effort.
• Braun and Abigail searched Grimson’s cabin and collected old scrolls, books, ingredients, Wands, and Magical Items from his basement workshop.
• The Cloak found a stone structure behind the cabin and called Braun and Abigail over to see what was inside.
• Braun and Abigail discovered thousands of Crystal Vials containing memories, and Abigail wondered if her own past was among them.

Abigail and Braun searched the memory warehouse and found memories that revealed how Brolin had manipulated her after she killed men conducting experiments on children. Abigail was left shaken by the truth and by her former trust in him.

• Abigail realized the Scourers’ teachings might have been lies and questioned what her loyalty and hatred meant.
• Abigail identified Grimson’s system of sorting memories by the four elements, and Braun found a vial labeled Selena Abigail.
• Braun urged Abigail to consider leaving the past forgotten, but she chose to learn the truth and viewed a memory of visiting the warehouse with Brolin and their teacher.
• Abigail relived how she discovered children being tortured in a laboratory and killed the men responsible, while Brolin praised her and promised to investigate the operation.
• Abigail recognized Brolin’s apparent support as false, broke down in the memory warehouse, and Braun told her to stop.

Abigail recovered memories that made her question the Scourers and then opened a Crystal Vial containing memories of her childhood. The memory revealed how she was sold by her parents, forced to work on a farm, and mysteriously escaped a lawn mower just before it struck her.

• Abigail remembered denying Carlyle's existence to his dying father and killing Landon Johnson to protect the Scourers.
• Abigail recoiled from the memories of Hogwarts, but took the Crystal Vial Cloak had found and released its memory.
• Young Abigail heard her father bargain her away and was taken from home while her mother tearfully gave her a shriveled apple.
• At a vast farm, Abigail and the other children endured exhausting labor and harsh living conditions.
• A lawn mower rushed toward Abigail after she collapsed, but she suddenly appeared beneath a crooked tree more than ten meters away.

Abigail experienced kindness and comfort for the first time at Old John’s farm, but overheard the family planning to sell her because of her teleportation ability. The next morning, a buyer arrived with a check to take her away.

• Old John, Maya, and Adams welcomed Abigail to dinner and gave her a clean, comfortable bedroom.
• Unable to sleep, Abigail overheard Old John and Maya discussing her powers and Old John’s plan to sell her to people who searched for children like her.
• Abigail returned to bed, realizing that both her parents and the farm owners had treated her as something to sell.
• Old John called the buyers the next morning, and one arrived before lunch with a check to take Abigail away.

Sophelus Rake recognized Abigail’s unstable magic, took her on as his student, and began teaching her wizardry. After six months of traveling together, they were visited by a strange woman who mentioned Rake’s previous student and showed them a newspaper about the Potter couple.

• Sophelus Rake questioned Abigail about the moment she folded space and concluded that her magical outburst had reached a rare level.
• Rake gave Abigail a wand, and her first wave sent flames into the motel wall; he told her she was a female witch and that her ability was called Apparition.
• Over the next six months, Abigail traveled with Rake, learned simple spells, and endured the discomfort of Apparition.
• A strange, short visitor challenged Rake about taking another student and warned that Abigail might betray him as his previous student had.
• Rake said he would have Grimson reshape Abigail’s painful memories and showed the visitor a newspaper featuring a laughing man; Abigail recognized the words “Thirteen,” “Black,” and “Potter couple.”

Abigail relived a memory of Rake and Amanda plotting to use her parents’ deaths to bind her to their cause and discussing a search for a hidden rift in Kosovo. The memory connected the rift to recent incidents involving Time Magic, and Abigail tried to tell Braun what she had realized before a sudden sound interrupted her.

• Amanda agreed to have Grimson support Rake’s Scourers and examined the newspaper portraying Sirius Black as a vicious Dark Wizard.
• Rake told Amanda that a lead pointed to a hidden rift in Kosovo, and she agreed to send people there to search.
• Abigail realized Rake had manipulated her into believing an evil wizard killed her parents, making the Wizarding World her enemy.
• Abigail connected the Kosovo rift to recent wars and repeated Time Magic injuries, then grabbed Braun to share her discovery.
• A heavy thump sounded in Abigail’s ears as she began to speak.