Chapter Summaries

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.

Manus investigated why Barty Crouch Jr. had been seeking him out and read the boy’s paper on Petrificus Totalus. He questioned Barty Jr. about his reasons for researching the spell, leaving the conversation unresolved.

• Manus suspected that changes in time had not affected him and decided to prepare safeguards before testing his theory.
• Barty Jr. approached Manus, who led him through a hidden passage to an abandoned classroom for a private conversation.
• Manus noticed that Barty Jr.’s admiration and other emotions seemed directed at someone he saw through Manus.
• Barty Jr. gave Manus his paper on Petrificus Totalus and said Senior McLeod had approved it for Manus’s guidance.
• Manus asked Barty Jr. what he had been thinking while researching the spell, since the paper gave no clear reason for his interest.

Manus urged Barty Jr. to write from his own ideas rather than relying on advanced material, then met Flitwick for dueling instruction. Flitwick judged Manus ready for practical training and took him to the Room of Requirement, where their lesson began.

• Manus questioned Barty Jr. about why he had written his paper and encouraged him to show his own intelligence and original thinking.
• Manus explained his holiday dueling studies to Flitwick, who decided his theory was strong enough to move on to practical training.
• Flitwick led Manus to a blank wall on the Seventh Floor and noticed that Manus already knew about the hidden room.
• Manus named the room the Object-Hiding Room, the Room of Requirement, and the Come-and-Go Room, and Flitwick opened its door to begin their lesson.

Manus began his first Dueling Tournament practice with Flitwick in the Room of Requirement and used a blinding Lumos to open the duel. Flitwick defended against two attacking knight statues but could not work out how Manus had conjured them.

• Flitwick explained the dueling platform and began a practice duel with Manus according to tournament rules.
• Manus and Flitwick followed the formal approach, bow, and three-step casting procedure.
• Flitwick cast Expelliarmus as Manus cast an unusually bright Lumos, forcing Flitwick to shut his eyes.
• Manus dodged Flitwick's spell and sent two knight statues, one with a lance and one with a flail, charging at him.
• Flitwick cast Protego and rolled away from the statues, then wondered how Manus had made them attack.

Manus explained how he used silent magic, his self-created Statue Summoning Charm, and his knowledge of Flitwick’s Apparition habits to win their practical duel. Flitwick realized he could no longer Apparate casually against Manus, while considering the difficulty of learning the same tactic himself.

• Manus disarmed Flitwick as he reappeared, then explained that he had used Non-verbal Spells.
• Manus demonstrated his self-created Statue Summoning Charm and asked whether it was permitted in dueling tournaments.
• Manus explained that he predicted Flitwick’s destination by studying his past Apparition habits, casting range, and gaze direction.
• Flitwick recognized that Apparition would be risky against Manus and dismissed the idea of learning the difficult prediction technique himself.

Manus continued dueling practice with Flitwick, who adjusted their rules to focus on non-verbal casting and fundamentals. After a hard-fought second duel, Flitwick recognized that Manus was rapidly correcting his weaknesses and hoped the other students in the upcoming tournament would be strong enough to challenge him.

• Flitwick warned Manus that his mentally demanding technique worked better in friendly sparring than in formal duels, and Manus agreed to limit it during practice.
• Flitwick asked which Charms Manus knew and learned he could cast most of them non-verbally, so he set non-verbal casting as a rule for future practice duels.
• After the second duel, Flitwick was astonished to learn Manus could Apparate and saw how quickly he adapted, counterattacked, and corrected his mistakes.
• Flitwick returned to his office, considered his championship trophies, and concluded that Manus was exceptional rather than that he had grown old.
• Flitwick hoped Manus's opponents in the tournament would be more capable than the Wizards he had faced in his own dueling days.