Recaps

Manus used the Black Earth Technique to turn Dead Matter from an oak branch into a sapling, then considered the alchemy system’s pursuit of perfected life and its ethical implications. He stored the sapling in his Mental World to observe it separately and left further experiments for later.

• Manus compared the Black Earth Technique’s principle with the Emerald Tablet’s “as above, so below” and wondered whether the world’s Alchemy could work without extra materials.
• Manus repeatedly tried to recover an oak’s life information from Dead Matter, learning that failed creations could be recycled with some loss.
• On his final attempt, Manus created a small oak sapling and stored it in his Mental World for careful observation.
• Manus concluded that the Black Earth Technique aimed to improve life toward perfection, with Chalk, Gold, and Red Completion representing different levels of achievement.
• Manus reflected on the ethics of biological experimentation, recalling the foals and Magical Creatures harmed by experiments, and considered the importance of research purposes and methods.

Manus tested whether modifying Mandrakes could improve restorative draughts and concluded that it could not, while his Black Earth Technique continued to produce useful plants and expand his knowledge of life. He realized that Alchemy might eventually encompass every magical system and let him create near-limitless forms of life and matter.

• Manus recorded that his eighth-generation Mandrakes had humanoid forms but did not significantly improve the efficacy of restorative draughts.
• Manus abandoned efforts to improve Potions by modifying Magical Plants and decided to use the Black Earth Technique to create existing ingredients instead.
• Manus sampled a modified sugar maple and inspected plants developed for food, brewing, spices, chocolate, and Magical Textiles.
• Manus reflected that his Black Earth Technique could map and alter magical genetic information, potentially enabling him to create perfect life and restore youth.
• Manus concluded that advanced Alchemy could incorporate other magical systems and expressed reluctant gratitude to the dead transmigrator for the incomplete system.

Manus reached the Yellowing stage of Alchemy and realized that refining the Philosopher’s Stone depended on each alchemist’s own conception of wholeness. Nicolas refused to answer his questions, leaving Manus to reconsider whether he could use the Stone to complete his atlas.

• Manus refined a Yellowing seed and confirmed that it regenerated during the process while producing a pure substance.
• Manus concluded that the Philosopher’s Stone represented wholeness and wondered whether Reddening had degrees or limits.
• Manus met Nicolas and asked how an alchemist could achieve the Philosopher’s Stone’s wholeness.
• Nicolas was surprised that Manus had completed Yellowing but refused to explain the answer, telling him it had to be his own Philosopher’s Stone.
• Manus realized that an alchemist’s understanding and will shaped Alchemy, and that his plan to use the Philosopher’s Stone to complete his atlas remained far beyond reach.

Manus reflected on perfection and the possibility that a Philosopher’s Stone required a complete, self-sustaining world, then explored another Alchemy system for inspiration. He acquired knowledge of Dragon Vein Alchemy and found its biological-modification techniques useful, though its power ultimately came from Dragonkind bloodlines.

• Manus realized that lowering his standard of perfection would make a Philosopher’s Stone useless to him and considered the Ouroboros as a symbol of a self-sustaining whole.
• Manus asked Nicolas whether he had used a ritual to create his Philosopher’s Stone, and Nicolas refused to answer so he would not influence Manus.
• Manus decided to explore other Alchemy systems rather than spend time exhaustively reviewing his past knowledge.
• Manus studied Dragon Vein Alchemy, a system in which Dragonkind bloodlines set the limits of power and provided the raw material for its Philosopher’s Stone.
• Manus recognized that Dragon Vein Alchemy’s biological-modification knowledge could help with biology and Bloodline Modulation, and learned that Dragonkind authority—not Alchemy itself—was that world’s core source of power.

Manus advanced Dragon Vein Alchemy and discovered that the Seven Kingdoms and Dragon Kings all led back to Black King Nidhogg, inspiring a ritual to achieve perfection. He resolved to face the danger hanging over him by devouring himself completely and nurturing himself anew, though the ritual’s practical challenges remained.

• Manus advanced Dragon Vein Alchemy through the Skill Panel and studied its seven highest achievements, the Seven Kingdoms.
• Manus discovered that Black King Nidhogg was the source of all Dragon Kings and that their powers pointed toward a single, higher alchemical achievement.
• While traveling to Hogwarts, Manus realized Nidhogg’s cycle of division and reunion could inspire the ritual of perfection he had been seeking.
• Manus decided he could no longer avoid the danger hanging over him and planned to embody Odin, Yggdrasil, the Nine Realms, and Nidhogg.
• Manus proposed devouring himself completely and nurturing himself anew, while considering the endless maintenance required by an Ouroboros-style ritual and the Nirvana drawback of a Phoenix-style one.

Manus considered how to pursue perfection through the Nidhogg Ritual and planned to use Dragon Vein Alchemy to uncover how its self-devouring and rebirth worked. After his conversation with Bellows on the train, he asked how Bellows had spent his holiday.

• Manus reasoned that his divine statuses, Soul System, Mental World, and [Five Organs and Six Bowels] gave him much of the foundation needed for the Nidhogg Ritual, but he still needed to discover how to devour himself completely and be reborn.
• Manus decided to use Dragon Vein Alchemy to seek the missing steps, while accepting that he might have to combine knowledge from other magical systems.
• Manus realized that his changed view of mythological divine statuses could help him avoid being defined by a single existence, and noticed that his protective magic had grown stronger alongside his Source Righteous Qi and Black Qi.
• Manus spoke with Bellows about their holidays, and Bellows remarked that Manus's holiday had been exceptionally fulfilling.
• Manus admitted that he had spent most of his holiday studying Alchemy, then asked Bellows how his holiday had gone.

On the Hogwarts Express, Manus helped Bellows talk through his sadness about eventually having less time to care for his mother, Mrs. Travers. Bellows decided to pursue curse-breaking to earn money for her treatment, while Manus believed he could eventually help heal her soul damage.

• Bellows told Manus that planning his career had made him sad because he would not always be able to care for Mrs. Travers.
• Manus reassured Bellows that he expected to develop ways to ease and eventually heal Mrs. Travers's soul damage.
• Manus redirected Bellows toward focusing on what he could change, and Bellows decided to earn money to support his mother's care.
• Bellows said he had planned to apply to the Ministry of Magic but would try curse-breaking because the Ministry seemed unstable.

Manus advised Bellows on career options and demonstrated the Cloud-Reversal Charm while they arrived at Hogwarts in the rain. At the Thestral carriage stop, Manus noticed there were more adult Thestrals than the previous year and wondered where they had come from.

• Manus told Bellows that correspondence teaching could suit his abilities and earn him good money if he achieved strong grades.
• Manus hoped Dumbledore would defeat Voldemort before he graduated, which would let Manus use the two soul fragments he held to deal with Voldemort's main soul.
• Manus and Bellows arrived at the Hogsmeade station, where Manus used the Cloud-Reversal Charm to remove moisture from the platform.
• Manus explained that the Cloud-Reversal Charm was absent from the abridged spellbook and that using it to alter Britain's weather was prohibited.
• Manus reached the Thestral carriage stop and noticed unfamiliar adult Thestrals among the carriages.

Manus and Bellows discussed the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor’s rumored curse as they traveled to Hogwarts for their third year. Manus argued that the pattern of professors leaving after a year seemed real, though he suspected their own misdeeds might explain the accidents, and the chapter ended with the new professor’s seat empty at the feast.

• Manus and Bellows rode a Thestral carriage to Hogwarts and discussed the annual replacement of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
• Manus told Bellows that the repeated accidents affecting the professors gave him reason to think the curse might exist.
• Manus speculated that past professors’ accidents had exposed or punished their own wrongdoing, though he admitted he had too few examples to be certain.
• Manus and Bellows arrived at the Great Hall, where Manus noticed that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had not appeared.

Manus used a discussion about his Order of Merlin, First Class, to draw Ravenclaw students toward his neutral faction, then explained the history of the Curse on Defense Against the Dark Arts professors. The students began worrying about the missing professor and their exams, while a Death Eater supporter changed the subject to another school legend.

• Ravenclaw students who had not sided with the Death Eaters increasingly showed support for Manus, leaving the Death Eater-aligned group outnumbered.
• Manus explained that Defense Against the Dark Arts professors had repeatedly left Hogwarts before completing a school year, making the rumored Curse seem plausible.
• Students worried that the Curse might be real, but noted that they had never heard of it harming a student.
• Ravenclaw seventh-years noticed that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had not arrived and panicked about their N.E.W.T.s.
• A seventh-year Ravenclaw aligned with the Death Eaters dismissed their concerns and brought up another legend tied to student safety.

At the opening feast, Manus listened to Ravenclaws discuss the Chamber of Secrets before a familiar fight involving Potter and members of the Black family broke out. During the Sorting ceremony, Manus noticed a first-year staring intently, but he told Bellows the boy had not been looking at him.

• A Ravenclaw senior brought up the legend of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, and Manus felt guilty about having destroyed the statue inside it.
• A fight broke out in the entrance hall between Potter and Big Black on one side and Little Black and his friends on the other, and Professor McGonagall intervened.
• The brawlers were sent to the Hospital Wing, and the opening feast began with the Sorting ceremony.
• Manus noticed a first-year watching him with an intense gaze, but he insisted to Bellows that the boy had not been looking at him.

At the feast, Manus recognized that Barty Crouch Jr. had looked at him with calculated interest, and the boy was Sorted into Ravenclaw. Dumbledore announced a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and introduced Argus Filch as Hogwarts’s new caretaker, leaving Manus puzzled that Dumbledore had hired a Squib.

• Bellows questioned Manus about a first-year who had been watching him, and Manus said the boy’s interest in him was not genuine.
• Barty Crouch Jr. was Sorted into Ravenclaw, prompting Manus, Bellows, and Jasper to suspect he was calculating.
• Dumbledore announced that a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor would arrive the next day.
• Dumbledore announced that Apollyon Pringle had retired and introduced Argus Filch as the new caretaker.
• Manus realized Filch had not attended Hogwarts and wondered why Dumbledore had hired a Squib.

Manus questioned why Dumbledore had appointed Filch, a Squib, as Hogwarts caretaker, believing the appointment would weaken rule enforcement and worsen order at the school. After dinner, Manus returned to the dormitory with Bellows, who reflected on his family's finances and his lack of interest in marriage.

• Manus considered the caretaker's broad duties and concluded that Filch would struggle to enforce Hogwarts rules as a Squib.
• Dumbledore ended his welcome speech and summoned dinner, while Manus ate little and reflected on his magical research and his friends' goals.
• Manus returned to the dormitory with Bellows, who enjoyed the freedom and comfort of school life.
• Manus explained that marrying into a wizarding family was the practical way to gain House-Elves, and Bellows said marriage felt distant because the Travers family had been running a deficit.
• Manus remarked that Bellows was more responsible than he had expected.

Manus learned that Flitwick had secured Ministry approval for him to use a Time-Turner to complete his studies. After carefully reading its many warnings and rules, Manus discovered that the device used the Hour-Reversal Charm to turn back time.

• Manus and Bellows discussed the seriousness of love and Bellows asked Manus to divine his future marriage.
• Manus found Flitwick's note asking him to visit before the first class and went to his office.
• Flitwick showed Manus the approved application for a Time-Turner, which praised Manus's grades, abilities, and character.
• Manus carefully read the device's instructions, legal provisions, and extensive precautions.
• Manus learned that turning the Time-Turner once rewound time by an hour and that rewinding more than five hours was forbidden.

Manus carefully studied the rules and precautions for using a Time-Turner while Flitwick explained his own experience with it. After Manus signed an agreement to follow the rules, Flitwick gave him the Time-Turner.

• Manus reflected on how this world's unusual bonuses could shape his approach to magical research, then carefully read the Time-Turner's instructions.
• Flitwick praised Manus's caution and warned him about the dangers of wielding powerful magic without restraint.
• Manus asked whether Flitwick had used a Time-Turner as a student, and Flitwick described his experience and the workload-management tricks he had learned.
• Flitwick reassured Manus that the Time-Turner was safe when used according to its rules and told him to treat it as a tool for attending classes.
• Manus signed the agreement to use the Time-Turner according to the rules, and Flitwick handed it to him.

Manus received a Time-Turner from Flitwick, who asked why he had chosen four electives but not Muggle Studies. The two discussed Manus’s knowledge of Muggles, new Ministry restrictions, and his plans to make Broomsticks for the other Houses, leaving Flitwick ready to negotiate with their professors.

• Flitwick gave Manus a Time-Turner and asked why he had chosen four electives but not Muggle Studies.
• Manus explained that books in the Hogwarts library misrepresented Muggles and that he had learned about them from Muggle-born classmates and their parents.
• Flitwick warned Manus about the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy and new Ministry laws restricting Muggle products.
• Flitwick reminded Manus to attend dueling lessons on Saturday, and Manus said he had finished the dueling materials and Rowena Ravenclaw’s memories.
• Manus told Flitwick about making Broomsticks for the other Houses, and Flitwick agreed to speak with their professors and help negotiate a price.

Manus accepted Flitwick’s advice to charge the other houses for his Broomsticks and began studying his Time-Turner as a possible Alchemy research project. In Potions class, Slughorn described advanced Potions and hinted that a master could use Shrinking Solution to restore youth, leaving Bellows astonished.

• Flitwick explained why Manus should charge the other houses for his Broomsticks, and Manus agreed to leave the arrangements to him.
• Flitwick warned Manus that using a Time-Turner while taking four electives would be exhausting and sent him to prepare for class.
• Manus examined his Time-Turner and planned to investigate time through Alchemy, while considering a future job in the Department of Mysteries.
• Manus attended Slughorn’s Potions class, where Slughorn introduced advanced Potions and claimed Shrinking Solution could restore youth in the hands of a master.
• Bellows tugged at Manus’s sleeve and asked in shock whether an Elixir of Life really existed.

Manus explained how the Shrinking Solution recipe could produce an Elixir of Life, though brewing it required exceptional precision and its effects were modest. Bellows learned that it would not restore her mother's lost youth, while Slughorn realized the significance of her hope.

• Manus explained that a brewer had to perceive subtle magical adjustments to turn Shrinking Solution into an Elixir of Life, a task more difficult than brewing Felix Felicis.
• Manus revealed that he had tried brewing the Elixir and confirmed it could make someone younger, but warned Bellows not to expect a dramatic result.
• Bellows urged Manus to believe he could brew the Potion, citing Professor Slughorn as proof that it was possible.
• Manus explained that the Elixir usually made someone only one or two years younger, could not be stacked, and might cause side effects such as limb atrophy.
• Bellows admitted she had hoped the Potion could help her mother experience the youth she had lost, and Manus reacted seriously to her words.
• Slughorn understood the meaning of Bellows's hope and was relieved he had not punished her earlier.

After Slughorn recalled that no Potions master had been able to save Bellows’s mother from damage to her soul, Manus promised Bellows that she would recover. Manus then insisted that researching a way to repair soul damage was worth pursuing, even if it consumed time and energy, and suggested it might earn him a second Merlin Medal.

• Slughorn remembered Mrs. Travers’s illness and left without seeking out Manus to discuss Potions.
• Manus firmly promised Bellows that his mother would recover.
• Bellows thanked Manus and urged him not to feel responsible or divert his talent from more valuable work.
• Manus asked Bellows what he considered a more valuable direction and cited Laverne de Montmorency and Sacharissa Tugwood as examples of Potions researchers.
• Manus argued that repairing soul damage was a more worthwhile challenge because no wizard had ever managed it, and said he might earn another Merlin Medal by succeeding.
• Bellows asked whether Manus would pursue the work even if it cost him countless time and energy.

Manus reassured Bellows that he pursued research out of curiosity about the world’s mysteries, not because of Bellows or for money. The next day, Lily told him that Eulalie Hicks, an American witch and old friend of Dumbledore, had come to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts for a while.

• Manus explained that he had advanced his research into the Mysteries of the Soul because he wanted to understand and master the unknown, not because Bellows had influenced him.
• Manus went to sleep, planning to attend an extra class the next day with a Time-Turner and learn how it used the power of time.
• During History of Magic, Lily told Manus that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was Professor Hicks, who had studied at Ilvermorny and once taught Charms there.
• Manus recognized Hicks as Eulalie Hicks, an American witch who had fought Grindelwald alongside Dumbledore.
• Lily said Eulalie Hicks had come to exchange ideas with the British Ministry of Magic and visit friends before Dumbledore invited her to teach.

Manus compared the Sorting ceremonies at Hogwarts and Ilvermorny before using his Time-Turner and discovering how time travel affected the Soul System. He ended by testing whether he could cast a memory into a soul fragment and project it with Pensieve magic.

• Lily and Manus discussed Ilvermorny's Gordian Knot Ceremony, where favored House statues reacted to new students and students could choose among the Houses that accepted them.
• Manus considered how the two schools' Sorting ceremonies reflected different limits on personal choice, and connected Ilvermorny's rules to the United States' strict enforcement of magical secrecy.
• Manus ate a quick meal, then used his Time-Turner in an abandoned classroom to travel back two hours.
• Manus realized that his past and present selves seemed to form a single Soul System without conflicting memories, and concluded that matter, spirit, and energy might be fundamentally the same.
• Manus used a soul fragment to construct a magical structure, cast his memory of Potions class into it, and projected the memory with Pensieve magic; the projected Manus looked up beyond the scene.

Manus discovered that his Soul System could extend through other people's memories of him, allowing him to sense and potentially control his image within them. He considered the ability a safeguard against Legilimency and wondered why he had escaped the effects of earlier changes to time before attending Divination with Severus.

• Manus merged with the version of himself in his memories and realized that other people's memories of him could also connect to his Soul System.
• Manus concluded that those memory-images could not carry his will unless he deliberately made them substantial, and that he could sense when others recalled or searched memories of him.
• Manus decided the ability could help him prevent Voldemort from extracting information about him through Legilimency.
• Manus left the abandoned classroom and questioned whether the Soul System or his own nature explained why he had remained unaffected by changes to time.
• Manus entered Divination and told Severus he was attending two classes at once, while Severus decided he did not want to know how.

Manus attended Tracey’s first Divination lesson and tested a crystal ball, seeing only the ordinary pearly white mist. He told Severus that Gellert Grindelwald was the century’s Seer, leaving Severus wondering how a Seer could have been defeated by Professor Dumbledore.

• Manus took a damaged crystal ball from the crowded cabinet, and Severus brought him a stand to hold it in place.
• Tracey darkened the classroom and instructed the students to put magic into their crystal balls and look inside.
• Manus saw pearly white mist, while most of the class and Severus saw the same ordinary result.
• Manus told Severus that Gellert Grindelwald was the century’s Seer and speculated that a Seer’s foresight had limits or that Love had defeated him.

Manus unexpectedly saw an image of Dumbledore and Grindelwald forming a Blood Pact in his crystal ball, then failed to reproduce the vision or control the divination. He recorded the anomaly as homework while Tracey began teaching the class the theory of Divination.

• Manus's crystal ball briefly showed two blond boys making a Blood Pact, which he recognized as Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
• Manus speculated that his unusual vision might come from Beast Blood Baptism or his Soul System, then tried divining again.
• Manus asked who had killed Dumbledore's sister, but the crystal ball showed only pearly white mist.
• Tracey ended the divination exercise and assigned the students to write down what they had seen.
• Tracey opened the curtains and lectured on Divination, while Manus recorded his tests and omitted details about Dumbledore's privacy.

Manus spent a relaxing Saturday by the Black Lake with his classmates, who discovered that the pears he shared were grown for the King Family’s brewing business. Later, he considered how Time-Turners affected time and concluded that his own actions in the past seemed to change it immediately.

• Manus set aside his unexplained prophetic ability in his homework for Tracey to investigate and continued studying.
• Quirinus and the other students relaxed by the Black Lake after their busy first week of third year.
• Manus shared pears with his classmates, and Quirinus learned that Manus had grown them for brewing alcohol.
• Manus used the Time-Turner again and reasoned that, unlike ordinary time travel, his connection to the past seemed to change it at once.