Chapter Summaries

Manus was called home from his Christmas Eve gathering when Professor Sprout arrived with the unusual Dittany he had asked her to find. After harvesting its withered and newly sprouted branches, he preserved them for later and returned to spend the evening with Severus and Lily.

• Manus left the secret base after the bell rang and found Professor Sprout visiting his parents.
• Sprout told Manus that the special Dittany had appeared and took him to Hogwarts Greenhouse Four.
• Manus examined the Dittany's strange withered branch and vibrant young branch, then removed both for study.
• Manus preserved the branches and chose to postpone experimenting so he could spend Christmas Eve with Severus and Lily.
• Manus returned to find that Severus and Lily had added more wine to the simmering pot.

After returning the tipsy Severus and Lily home, Manus investigated two Dittany branches and found that the tender branch held unusually abundant vitality. Unsure whether it had sacrificed itself to save the withered branch or stolen that branch’s vitality, he hesitated over how to use them—until sunlight revealed a new trait in the tender branch.

• Manus returned the tipsy Severus and Lily to their families, then decided to postpone crafting his magical item while he was still muddled.
• Manus tested the withered and tender Dittany branches and found that the tender branch had an abnormal excess of vitality, with no evidence of outside magical interference.
• Manus realized that the tender branch might have either received vitality through a sacrificial process or plundered it, changing whether the Phoenix Bracelet would heal or steal vitality.
• Manus spent the night unable to decide whether testing the branches would risk their purity or proceeding without testing would endanger the Phoenix Nirvana Ashes.
• As sunlight fell on the tender branch, Manus perceived a golden, flame-like trait and wondered why it had appeared.

Manus completed the Phoenix Bracelet using two Dittany Branches and Phoenix Nirvana Ashes, unexpectedly giving the branches traits associated with the Sun God's Birthday. The bracelet became a single, continuous ring, and Manus wondered whether a mysterious force had arranged the timing and materials.

• Manus recalled that Christmas had originated as a celebration of the Sun God's birthday before the Church adopted the date, and remembered that Easter had undergone a similar change.
• Manus examined the sunlight-tinged Dittany Sprig and decided to craft the bracelet from it and a withered branch, using Phoenix Nirvana Ashes as their core.
• Manus treated both branches with potions and spells, preparing them to withstand the materials and preserve their contrasting qualities of growth and withering.
• Manus changed his design and used the Phoenix Nirvana Ashes to join the branches end to end, making the bracelet a single, continuous ring.
• Manus finished the Phoenix Bracelet just after midnight and suspected that the timing, the materials, and his choice to spend Christmas Eve with Severus and Lily had all been just right.

Manus reflected on the Phoenix Bracelet as a possible reward from the fairy-tale world, then rested and considered the limits of his young body and magic. As the holiday ended, he returned to Hogwarts and reunited with Pandora on the train, where she brought him her Potions homework.

• Manus wondered whether the Phoenix Bracelet was a reward for his past actions or an advance payment for a future trial, then stored it in his pocket dimension.
• After feeding the Magical Creatures in his suitcase, Manus went to bed exhausted and reflected the next morning on needing time to grow stronger.
• Manus spent the holiday and his twelfth birthday in Cokeworth while Huginn watched Hogsmeade Village.
• On Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, Manus and Bellows watched students complain about returning to school and unfinished homework.
• Pandora visited Manus's compartment, handed him her Potions homework, and sat opposite him after joking with Bellows.

Manus evaluated Pandora’s potion assignment, praised her progress, and encouraged her to keep studying. After they reached Hogwarts in heavy rain and Peeves soaked the students with water balloons, Manus reflected on his research into Non-beings and the potential for further study.

• Manus praised Pandora’s assignment and recommended books, while Bellows teased him about sounding like a professor courting her.
• Rain poured over the students as they traveled to Hogwarts, leaving them soaked and muddy by the time they entered the castle.
• Peeves mocked the students and threw water-filled balloons at them before vanishing.
• Manus recalled studying a Boggart and considered how Non-beings arose from collective emotions.
• Bellows explained that Peeves rarely crossed paths with Manus because he avoided professors, the library, and Ravenclaw Tower.

Manus developed a self-balancing system of Light Qi and Dark Qi to strengthen his body and magic, then decided to help Ravenclaw’s Quidditch team with its slow training balls. He showed Edmund a Golden Snitch he had made.

• Manus used his Qi Magic to create preliminary magical Five Organs and Six Bowels that could digest food and store some of its energy.
• Manus concluded that balancing Light Qi and Dark Qi could let his magic system strengthen itself over time.
• Ravenclaw students discussed their Quidditch prospects and complained that their training golf balls were slower than the Golden Snitch.
• Manus approached Edmund and showed him a Golden Snitch he had made.

Manus unveiled his Training Golden Snitch, astonishing Ravenclaw and stirring interest across Hogwarts. Rowena Ravenclaw thanked him for reconciling her with Helena and offered him the possessions buried with her in a secret tomb beneath Hogwarts, leaving Manus uneasy about accepting them.

• Manus showed Edmund his reusable Training Golden Snitch and explained how its box could recall it remotely.
• The Ravenclaw Quidditch Team tested the Snitch at an extra practice, and its speed amazed the spectators.
• News of the Snitch spread through Hogwarts, prompting the Gryffindor and Slytherin captains to seek access to it and the pitch.
• Rowena Ravenclaw thanked Manus for helping her and Helena understand one another and avoid repeating their old conflicts.
• Rowena told Manus that the founders had built a secret tomb beneath Hogwarts and offered him the possessions buried with her, which he found difficult to accept.

Rowena Ravenclaw asked Manus to retrieve Helena's remains from Albania and bury her beside Rowena, then told him how to find the founders' tombs at Hogwarts. Manus opened the hidden entrance and crossed the crystal barrier, discovering a moonlit field created with Ancient Magic.

• Rowena Ravenclaw asked Manus to bring Helena's remains from Albania and bury her with Rowena, and she told him Helena would reveal the location.
• Rowena Ravenclaw showed Manus the route to the founders' tombs and explained how to enter them using the rhythm of the Hogwarts motto.
• After class, Manus went into the dungeons, used Revelio as he followed the hidden passage, and tapped the brick wall to reveal a spiral staircase.
• Manus descended to a crystal barrier and used the Ancient Magic Rowena Ravenclaw had taught him to make it transparent.
• Manus saw an archway opening onto a moonlit field created with Ancient Magic.

Manus visited the founders’ graves and planned future work on Soul Magic and Voldemort’s soul fragment in the Resurrection Stone. Back at Hogwarts, he refused to sell the Training Golden Snitch to the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch Teams, while allowing Ravenclaw to use it for free.

• Manus entered the founders’ burial place, paid tribute at the graves, and noted that Slytherin’s grave lacked a wand.
• Manus left the graves and considered advancing his Soul Magic research and experimenting with the Voldemort soul fragment in the Resurrection Stone.
• Manus ate in the Great Hall, where George approached him about the Training Golden Snitch.
• George told Manus that the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch Teams wanted to know whether the Training Golden Snitch was for sale.
• Manus refused to sell the Snitch and asked George to explain that Ravenclaw could keep using it for free.

Manus negotiated cooperation with Little Tom, a young Horcrux fragment, and considered what its guesses revealed about Voldemort's choices. After noticing that Katria's Curse was worsening and her flare-ups were drawing closer together, Manus decided to speak with her.

• Manus told Little Tom that he was a Horcrux fragment and offered cooperation, which Little Tom accepted after hearing the danger of meeting Voldemort's original self.
• Manus reflected on Little Tom's guesses that Voldemort favored commemorative objects for Horcruxes and might entrust them to close subordinates.
• Manus considered asking Big Tom why he had chosen the diary as a Horcrux and concluded that Big Tom's information was useful but not fully trustworthy.
• Manus noted that Katria rarely attended Death Eater gatherings and that the intervals between her Curse flare-ups had shortened.
• Manus estimated that Katria had only a little over four months before the Curse became a serious threat and decided it was time to talk to her.

After researching Soul Magic, Manus upgraded [Condensation] along the path of using souls to improve his Life Essence. He discovered that the enhancement had strengthened him and made souls more responsive, though the souls used were impossible to control or collect himself.

• Manus spent more than a week studying Soul Magic until he could manipulate souls rather than merely extract them.
• Manus upgraded [Condensation] to +10 and examined its enhancement paths, rejecting risky options that involved powers from outside sources.
• Manus chose to use soul power to improve his Life Essence, and a vast number of souls merged into his body through [Condensation].
• Manus sensed small improvements across his physical and magical abilities, and suspected his lifespan and thinking speed had also increased.
• Manus tested his improved control over souls but found he could not move the souls that had enhanced him, and concluded the Skill Panel had merged them through brute force.

Manus strengthened his Life Essence with the Skill Panel until [Condensation+10000], then adapted to his transformed body and discovered he could produce high-quality souls himself. With souls now available for his Unicorn Cloak, he considered waiting for their quality to improve further as he turned his attention to the consequences of creating the Training Golden Snitch.

• Manus strengthened [Condensation] as far as [Condensation+10000] before stopping to adjust to the changes in his attributes.
• Manus spent three hours testing and adapting to his transformed body, then recorded that future strengthening should be limited to about ten times a day.
• Manus discovered that his body could produce radiant souls, which he could use for healing, research, and making a Unicorn Cloak.
• Manus examined the silver and golden Unicorn Hair yarn he had prepared and decided to wait for his soul quality to improve before making the cloak.
• Manus concluded that the effects of his Training Golden Snitch should have spread enough by then.

After improving his Soul Magic, Manus entered a strange Mental World with his physical body and realized his Life Origin was gaining qualities that bridged matter, spirit, and energy. He returned to reality, decided to postpone researching the Mental World, and told the shocked Bellows that he was researching magic.

• Manus entered a hazy world while asleep and discovered he could leave it and return at will.
• Manus concluded that the world was a complex Mental World and that his physical body had entered it after his Soul Magic improved.
• Manus speculated that his strengthened Life Origin could eventually unite matter, spirit, and energy, but chose to balance research with his other pursuits.
• Manus returned to reality, where Bellows stared at him in shock, and said he was researching magic.
• Bellows mentioned that Apparition was forbidden at Hogwarts, then told Manus he did not need to explain.

Manus approached Katria about the Curse affecting her and brought her to her rarely used office. He cast Secret Revealing so she could see the black mist surrounding her from his magical perspective.

• Manus encountered Katria speaking with McGonagall and asked to discuss a question with her.
• Katria warned Manus that evil Dark Magic could pollute the soul, then agreed to take him to her office.
• Manus led Katria through the changing staircases after she lost her way.
• Manus told Katria that he knew about her Curse and said he had seen it.
• Manus asked permission to cast Secret Revealing, then revealed black mist emerging from Katria.

Manus revealed the Curse on Professor Katria and offered to help her, then identified it as a possible Beastman Blood Curse. Katria remained unsure whether to trust him, despite fearing that an approaching outbreak could permanently turn her into a beast.

• Manus used his improved sensory spell to reveal the black Curse covering Katria and offered his help.
• Manus explained that he had improved Scarpin's Revelaspell, while Katria struggled to reconcile his age with his remarkable abilities.
• Katria refused to decide immediately, fearing the Curse's increasingly frequent outbreaks and the possibility that she would lose her human mind for good.
• Manus urged Katria to consider his offer soon and said he needed to examine the Curse during an outbreak.
• Manus suspected Katria suffered from the Beastman Blood Curse, which could erase her human consciousness and leave her permanently transformed into a beast.

Manus learned that Katria carried an ancient Beastman Blood Curse and warned her that no known case had ever been cured, though he offered to try. After the curse transformed her into a lynx and she fled Hogwarts, she disappeared, leaving Manus to fear that her next choice might put them at odds.

• Manus recognized Katria's curse and explained that it was an ancient ritual with no recorded cures.
• Katria begged Manus to help break the curse, and he said he would do his best but made no promises.
• Manus left Katria to decide whether to accept treatment and resolved that he might have to fight her if she became a villain.
• Katria's curse erupted, leaving her transformed into a lynx for twelve hours before she attacked livestock in Hogsmeade and fled to the Highlands.
• Katria regained human form, suffered a breakdown, and disappeared with an Apparition.
• McGonagall told the students that Katria had taken leave, while Manus suspected she had vanished and reflected that they might no longer remain on good terms.

Manus read that Katria had led the Death Eaters in an attack on the Ministry of Magic and wondered whether they had been seeking a way to save her from the Beastman Blood Curse. Near the end of the school year, he met someone disguised as Pandora and recognized the visitor as Professor Katria, whom he said was already dead.

• Manus waited months for news of Katria before seeing her leading masked Death Eaters in a Daily Prophet report about their attack on the Ministry of Magic.
• Manus suspected the Ministry was hiding the Death Eaters' real purpose and considered whether it held something that could save Katria from her Curse.
• Manus studied the other Death Eaters in the photograph, memorizing details that might help him recognize them later.
• Two weeks later, a figure appearing to be Pandora asked Manus to speak privately, and he led her outside the castle.
• Manus scrutinized the figure and identified her as Professor Katria, telling her she had already died.

Manus discovered that Katria was a dying corpse kept moving by Dark Magic and learned that Voldemort’s treatments had failed to cure her Beastman Blood Curse. Katria asked him to examine her daughter, Mathilde, for the curse, and gave him the key to her Gringotts vault before her remaining time ran out.

• Manus identified the many failed potions and dark spells on Katria, including her use of Unicorn blood and human sacrifices to delay the curse.
• Katria revealed that she had used Pandora’s hair for Polyjuice Potion but had not harmed her.
• Katria told Manus that a spell was keeping her soul convinced her body was alive, but it would last only three days and she was already on the second day.
• Katria explained that she feared Mathilde might have inherited the Beastman Blood Curse and asked Manus to examine her daughter.
• Manus agreed to investigate Mathilde and help if she had the curse.
• Katria gave Manus the key to her special Gringotts vault as payment.

Manus accepted Katria’s vault key to cover the cost of treating her daughter and brought the dying professor to the Room of Requirement to question her. Katria shared intelligence on Voldemort and the Death Eaters, then explained that Voldemort had sent her to attack the Ministry’s Department of Mysteries in search of a way to save her.

• Katria offered Manus the key to her family’s vault, which held money, treasures, and information she had gathered while seeking a cure for the Blood Curse.
• Manus accepted the key and promised to use its contents for Katria’s daughter’s treatment, then return anything left over when she graduated from Hogwarts.
• Katria said she planned to find a remote place to die, and Manus offered to handle her body after her death.
• Manus took Katria under an Invisibility Charm to the Room of Requirement and questioned her about Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
• Katria gave Manus a list of Death Eaters and named nine of Voldemort’s trusted associates, including Old Malfoy.
• Katria told Manus she had attacked the Ministry’s Department of Mysteries because Voldemort claimed it might contain a way to save her.

Manus learned that the Department of Mysteries contained a locked room said to hold love, a force that might once have cured Katria’s curse. He went to the library to investigate love-based magic and asked Pandora to help him find books about pure, intense love.

• Katria told Manus that Death Eaters had entered the Department of Mysteries, where a locked room was said to contain love, but they had found no cure for her curse.
• Manus questioned Katria about the Department’s rooms and decided to prepare for a possible future visit rather than break in.
• Manus went to the library to search for myths, fairy tales, and other clues about magic powered by love.
• Pandora met Manus in a section of the library and offered to help him find books.
• Manus asked Pandora for books about pure, intense love, and she reacted with surprise.