Chapter Summaries

Roy went to Diagon Alley with Cedric and Mia to shop for the new Hogwarts term, where Cedric became smitten with a new student named Cho. After Roy teased him about joining the Quidditch team to impress her, the friends continued their shopping.

• Roy agreed to bring Mia along when she insisted on joining him and Cedric in Diagon Alley.
• Roy gave Mia spending money and warned her to stay out of trouble before she went shopping on her own.
• Roy and Cedric discussed their new Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook while heading to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.
• Cedric stared at a pretty Chinese girl, and Roy teased him by trying to introduce himself and Cedric before Cedric tackled him.
• Madam Malkin told Roy and Cedric that the girl's name was Cho and that she was a new student.
• Roy encouraged Cedric to join the Quidditch team so Cho might take an interest in him.

Roy and Cedric visited Diagon Alley to have their school robes altered and shop for textbooks while discussing their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. At Flourish and Blotts, they met Cho Chang, Mia, and an unfamiliar golden-haired woman whom Roy regarded with suspicion and bluntly challenged.

• Roy and Cedric left their robes with Madam Malkin and headed to Flourish and Blotts while discussing the mysterious new professor, Dia Jobana.
• At the bookstore, Cedric searched unsuccessfully for Cho Chang and worried that she might not like him.
• Roy teased Cedric about his crush and joked about visiting Cho's house on a broomstick.
• Cho Chang and Mia approached Roy and Cedric alongside an unfamiliar, elegant blonde woman.
• Roy eyed the stranger with hostility and asked who she was.

Roy intimidated Dia Jobana when she approached him, then claimed his hostility came from PTSD after his kidnapping in America. After Bill’s letter explained that Dia was his coworker and had brought Roy a package, Roy softened, though Dia privately remained wary and recalled her task from Lord Tiago.

• Roy acted hostile toward Dia Jobana, alarming her, Cho Chang, Mia, and Cedric.
• Cedric and Mia distanced themselves from Roy, who suddenly apologized and blamed his behavior on PTSD from his kidnapping.
• Roy questioned Dia about why she had sought him out, and she said Bill had asked her to deliver a package and letter.
• Roy read Bill’s letter, accepted the wooden box, and apologized to Dia after learning Bill had recommended her for Hogwarts.
• Dia shook Roy’s hand and privately reflected that she had not failed the task Lord Tiago gave her.

Roy invited Cho Chang and Professor Dia Jobana for ice cream, where he reunited with Connor and introduced him to the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Roy ended the gathering by bluntly asking Dia whether she had taken the position because she had a death wish.

• Cho Chang declined Roy's invitation because her parents were waiting to buy her a wand, while Dia agreed to join the group.
• Mia led Roy, Cedric, Dia, and the others to the ice cream shop, where they ran into Connor.
• Roy and Cedric greeted Connor and teased him about getting fatter, but Connor insisted he was thinner than before.
• Roy introduced Connor to Mia and Professor Dia Jobana, and Connor formally greeted his new teacher.
• After the group received their ice cream, Roy asked Dia whether she had chosen the teaching post because she had a death wish.

At an ice cream shop, Professor Dia Jobana explained her background and her plan to study the Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts curse, while Roy concealed what he knew about an antique box. After the students left, Dia met her teacher, who revealed a plan to create chaos and meet Roy to recover a diamond.

• Connor covered for Roy’s blunt question, and Dia explained that she had grown up in Egypt, trained under a curse expert, and worked for Egypt Gringotts.
• Dia said she had taken the Hogwarts post to investigate its curse and expected to remove it within a year, while Roy doubted her optimism and choked on his ice cream.
• Dia asked Roy where he had found a wooden box that Bill had brought to Egypt Gringotts for appraisal, and Roy gave an evasive answer while stopping Mia from revealing more.
• After leaving the shop, Roy, Connor, and Cedric joked about Dia and Snape as they continued their shopping.
• Dia met her teacher, who looked identical to her, and discussed whether Roy had the diamond and a plan to hijack the Floo Powder Network and meet him.

Roy spent the day buying supplies in Diagon Alley while Mia, Cedric, and Connor talked about Hogwarts and Roy’s exploits. After leaving the Leaky Cauldron, Roy was swept off course by a hijacked Floo Network and confronted by a disguised stranger.

• Roy bought a year's worth of Potions ingredients and seeds while Cedric, Connor, and Mia waited at the Leaky Cauldron.
• Cedric and Connor told Mia about Hogwarts and praised Roy's extraordinary achievements, then began teasing him about girls who liked him.
• Roy returned, joined the group for lunch, and arranged to meet Cedric and Connor on the train on September 1st.
• Mia traveled through the Floo Network first, and Roy followed after giving the address for Godric's Hollow.
• The Floo Network diverted Roy through a chaotic magical torrent and threw him onto hard concrete with his packages scattered.
• A disguised stranger addressed Roy Smith from behind, and Roy drew his wand to defend himself.

Roy fought Tiago in an alley, and their evenly matched battle ended when they wounded each other and discovered they both healed rapidly. Tiago escaped while Roy stayed behind, exhausted and troubled by the fight.

• Roy blocked Tiago’s surprise attack and was kicked into a concrete wall, but he recovered without serious injury.
• Roy used the Golden Rose to activate his black skull mask and fought Tiago at high speed for more than five minutes.
• Roy and Tiago abandoned their defenses and stabbed each other, wounding Roy’s arm and Tiago’s thigh.
• Roy and Tiago noticed their injuries healing rapidly and decided not to continue fighting.
• Tiago said Roy had taken something belonging to him, then fled as the seal on his chest began acting up.
• Roy drank a potion while resting against the alley wall and cursed Tiago.

After a masked attacker wounded Roy and warned that their conflict was not over, Roy feared Mia might also be in danger and set off to find her. Elsewhere, Dia struggled to stop her teacher Tiago’s uncontrollable laughter until he knocked himself unconscious against a hotel wall.

• Roy treated his knife wound, inspected his damaged sword and scattered supplies, and wondered why the attackers had sent only one person after him.
• Roy suspected the attackers might be after the Thorne family's key or Mia’s diamond, but could not explain their motives or their warning that they would return.
• Roy realized Mia’s Floo Powder route might also have been hijacked, gathered his belongings, and Apparated away to check on her.
• At a nearby hotel, Dia tried to bandage Tiago’s injured leg and cast Stunning Spells to stop his laughter, but he resisted or dodged them.
• Tiago charged into a hotel wall, struck his forehead, and passed out.

Roy returned home after being attacked and found a threatening letter saying his enemies knew where he and Mia lived. He hurried to flee with Mia, but mistook Dumbledore for an attacker and fired a Killing Curse at him, leaving Dumbledore asking whether Roy planned to go to Azkaban.

• Roy arrived at his home, found a threatening letter pinned to the door, and burned it with black flames.
• Roy searched for Mia, found her safe upstairs, and told her they had to leave because their hiding place had been discovered.
• Roy packed their belongings and led Mia outside, deciding they needed to go somewhere secluded.
• Roy sensed someone behind him and fired Avada Kedavra at the figure before recognizing Dumbledore.
• Dumbledore blocked the Killing Curse with a magical barrier and asked Roy whether he planned to report to Azkaban when school started.

After Roy described the attack on him and Mia, Dumbledore ordered them to stay at Hogwarts while he secured their home and investigated the threats. Roy and Mia were sent to temporary rooms, while Dumbledore left Roy’s questions unanswered.

• Roy told Dumbledore how attackers had ambushed him and threatened him and Mia, and showed him the dagger from the threatening letter.
• Dumbledore accepted Roy’s explanation but warned him to stop using Unforgivable Curses and ordered him not to investigate or confront the attackers.
• Roy agreed to Dumbledore’s plan to keep them at school briefly and have their home protected with the Fidelius Charm.
• Dumbledore told Mia that someone would supervise her after Roy returned to school, and she protested losing her chance to live alone.
• Dumbledore summoned the House-elf Poppy to take Roy and Mia to their rooms, then cut off Roy’s questions and sent them to a tidy staff room.

After an even fight with the attackers forced Roy to flee, he brooded over his weakness and resolved to become strong enough to protect Mia and take revenge. He finished a broad combat-enhancement plan and decided to begin by finding a way around the Anti-Apparition Jinx.

• Roy sat by the Black Lake, replayed his fight with the attackers, and concluded that his exoskeleton and other advantages were no longer enough.
• Roy suspected the Americans had copied his technology and vowed not to let the attackers threaten him and Mia again.
• Roy decided he needed to raise his strength rather than rely on Dumbledore to protect them.
• Roy used the Practical Manual of Ancient Magic to write a comprehensive combat-enhancement plan in his Notebook.
• Roy considered developing spider robots or perfecting the Clone Technique, then chose to start by figuring out how to counter the Anti-Apparition Jinx with help from the House-elves.

Mia toured Hogwarts with the Fat Friar, met the Bloody Baron, and learned that her Slytherin ancestry made her unusual. At dinner, Professor McGonagall warned her not to take pride in her birth, while Roy focused on how to improve his strength.

• The Fat Friar showed Mia around Hogwarts, where she encountered the Bloody Baron, who recognized Slytherin's blood in her.
• Mia asked the Bloody Baron about Sebastian, and he recalled Sebastian's friendship with a powerful transfer student who knew Ancient Magic.
• The Bloody Baron told Mia that the transfer student might have surpassed Dumbledore in destructive power and spoke of powerful wizards avoiding worldly responsibilities.
• At dinner, Professor McGonagall explained that Mia was likely the last living descendant of Slytherin's surviving bloodline and cautioned her against bloodline pride and prejudice.
• Mia asked whether she could still join Hufflepuff, and Professor McGonagall reassured her by describing a Slytherin-raised student who chose Gryffindor.
• Roy watched Mia and Professor McGonagall talk while wondering whether to pursue the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Professor McGonagall gave Mia a private Transfiguration lesson and worried about the Obscurus threatening her health. Later, Roy experimented with House-elf travel to bypass the Anti-Apparition Jinx, but the spatial anchor he created quickly disappeared.

• Mia completed Professor McGonagall's transformation exercises and turned a triangular pyramid into a cube during their lesson.
• Professor McGonagall gave Mia snacks and hugged her, saddened by the possibility that the Obscurus would prevent her from attending Hogwarts.
• Roy had Shanshan repeatedly Apparate with him through the corridor as he studied how House-elves traveled through space.
• Roy reasoned that House-elves opened passages using anchors and tried reversing Apparition to mark a location beneath his feet.
• Roy created a green spatial mark, but it dissolved into smoke a few seconds later.

Roy and Mia spent the morning separately at Hogwarts, with Roy researching his Webway Plan and Mia exploring the castle. Mia got lost and followed Snape to his Potions office, where her persistent presence left him irritated.

• Roy introduced Mia to Hogwarts's special places over breakfast before they went their separate ways.
• Mia slipped away from the library and wandered through the moving staircases, repeatedly circling the same corridors.
• Mia encountered Snape near the staff room and followed him through the castle.
• Snape recognized Mia as a descendant of the Saru family but continued to his Potions office without confronting her.
• Snape shut himself inside his office, and a knock sounded at the door moments after he sat down.

Mia Saru persuaded Snape to let her into his office for a Potions lesson, claiming that her life as an Obscurial might be short. Snape grew curious about her talent, but the chapter ended with Mia peppering him with questions about cauldrons.

• Mia asked Snape to teach her Potions, and he told her to wait until she enrolled at Hogwarts.
• Mia pleaded that she was an Obscurial who might die soon, prompting Snape to reconsider and leave his office door open.
• Mia followed Snape inside and marveled at his office and its collection of bottles and jars.
• Snape asked Mia if she still wanted to learn Potions, and she hurried to his silver cauldron.
• Mia questioned Snape about cauldron materials and repeated Roy's warnings about aluminum cookware, leaving Snape recalling a Rejuvenation Potion lesson.

Roy studied spatial magic and experimented with reverse Apparition, but his spell only distorted the space around him and left him dizzy. After Mia’s failed Potions spilled onto him without harming him, Roy realized he had accidentally discovered the Phasing Charm.

• Roy searched Hogwarts Library for spatial magic research and found Ravenclaw’s notes on reverse spells and magical symmetry.
• Roy used Ravenclaw’s ideas to build a reverse Apparition spell, but it only warped his own space and made him dizzy.
• Mia rushed in with three Potions, including a bubbling green brew, and Roy accidentally fell as she lost her footing and dropped them.
• The Potions mixed into a corrosive liquid that splashed over Roy, but he emerged unharmed.
• Roy saw that the liquid had corroded the floor where he had stood and recognized that he had discovered the Phasing Charm.

Mia’s Nurgle soup shocked Snape with signs of artificial life, while Roy tested his intangibility and discovered that thrown objects passed through him. Roy began wondering why his skills belonged to characters who killed their teachers, as Dumbledore suddenly felt a sense of dread.

• Mia’s corrosive Nurgle soup burned a hole through the floor, and Roy sealed the remaining sludge after Scourgify failed to clean it.
• Snape examined the sludge, suspected it was connected to the Obscurus, and tested it by pouring Potions into its vessel.
• Roy asked Shanshan and Poppy to attack him so he could test his intangibility, but they fled; Mia punched him and gave him a black eye.
• Roy had Mia throw balls at him and confirmed that they passed through his intangible body before hitting the wall.
• Roy wondered why the skills he had learned belonged to characters who killed their teachers, while Dumbledore sneezed at the Ministry of Magic and felt inexplicably uneasy.

Roy improved the Phasing Charm while Mia continued her studies at Hogwarts. With school about to start, Dumbledore arranged for Mia to live with Newt, and she eagerly accepted.

• Roy tested the Phasing Charm and learned that it distorted his body's location, though wide-area attacks could still hit him and the spell caused dizziness.
• Roy reworked the Phasing Charm to improve its casting speed and reduce its magic consumption, making it a viable combat technique despite the lingering dizziness.
• Mia advanced to first-year lessons under Snape and Professor McGonagall, while several returning Hogwarts professors helped care for her.
• Dumbledore told Roy and Mia that he had placed a Fidelius Charm on Roy's cabin and arranged for Mia to live with Newt once term began.
• Mia agreed to stay with Newt because she wanted to play in his magical suitcase, and Roy joked with Dumbledore about sending her to France.

Dumbledore discussed the attackers’ Egyptian and Middle Eastern magical traces with Roy, then took Roy and Mia home and promised to monitor Professor Dia Jobana. On September 1, Roy traveled alone to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, where a hidden watcher began a plan to seize his luggage.

• Dumbledore told Roy that the attackers’ magic resembled styles from Egypt and the Middle East, and gave him the attackers’ North African steel dagger.
• Dumbledore refused to obtain a Horned Serpent gemstone and used Fawkes to take Roy and Mia home.
• Dumbledore said he would keep an eye on Dia Jobana and warned Roy not to test her or Snape himself.
• Newt and Tina visited, discussed the attackers and Mia’s illness with Roy, and took Mia and Tom the cat away.
• Roy Apparated to King’s Cross Station on September 1 and passed through to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
• A hidden watcher saw Roy reach the platform and ordered someone over a walkie-talkie to prepare to seize his luggage.

Tiago and his accomplices flooded Platform Nine and Three-Quarters with Confunded Muggles and smoke, then attacked Roy and stole his luggage. Tiago escaped with the suitcase containing the magical diamond, but Roy's voice stopped him just before he reached the getaway car.

• Tiago coordinated his accomplices, drank a potion to delay his seal punishment, and stunned a patrolling Auror.
• The attackers released smoke and led Confunded Muggles onto the platform, trapping Roy in the crush of panicked people.
• Roy recognized that the smoke was harmless and suspected the Muggles had been Confunded, but the crowd carried him toward the footbridge.
• Tiago and another masked accomplice injected Roy with neurotoxin, stole his suitcases, and fled across the footbridge.
• A second wave of Confunded Muggles trapped Roy while Tiago escaped through an emergency exit with the suitcase containing the magical diamond.
• As Tiago approached his getaway car, Roy called out and demanded his unfinished summer homework back.