Recaps

At breakfast, Gavin shared French fries with Cordelia before observing how her Nimbus 2001 used her magic during flight. His observations led him to question how Ron Weasley’s family car could move on its own, and he began planning an expedition into the Forbidden Forest to find it.

• Ernie tried to classify Gavin’s French fries, while Cordelia tasted them and agreed to let Gavin accompany her to the Quidditch pitch.
• Gavin watched Cordelia practice and saw Runes and magical threads connect her to the Nimbus 2001 as she flew.
• Gavin concluded that a broomstick used its rider’s magic as power, then wondered how a vehicle could move by itself.
• Gavin asked Ron about the Weasley family car and proposed searching for it in the Forbidden Forest with Ron’s help.
• Hermione discussed making a plan, while Cordelia confirmed Gavin might go even if she tried to stop him.
• Gavin proposed sending Ron ahead to see whether the car recognized him, and Ron protested that he would be used as bait.

Gavin organized a search for the Weasley family's missing Ford Anglia, and Hermione’s safety rules led the group to seek Hagrid’s help. They found tire tracks at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, but a swarm of Acromantulas surrounded them before they could investigate further.

• Hermione rewrote Gavin’s plan with strict safety rules, and Harry, Ron, and Cordelia agreed to join the search with Hagrid’s help.
• Hagrid told the group he had heard the car near an old oak grove close to Acromantula territory and warned them that spiders had been restless.
• Cordelia persuaded Hagrid to take the group to the forest’s edge and convinced Ron to come rather than risk Gavin carrying him there later.
• Gavin found tire tracks near an old oak, and Ron recognized them as belonging to the Ford Anglia.
• Hagrid refused to let the group follow the tracks farther into the forest, but a swarm of Acromantulas emerged and surrounded them.

Hagrid and the students were surrounded by Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, where Gavin tested powerful blue-green flames and helped the group fight their way toward escape. The enchanted Ford Anglia rescued them, and they emerged from the forest with Hagrid safe and Ron shaken by Gavin’s reckless driving.

• Hagrid tried to reason with Mosag, but she refused to honor Aragog’s promise not to harm Hogwarts students and ordered the spiders to attack.
• Gavin and Cordelia became separated from the others, and Gavin used blue-green flames to kill Acromantulas after discovering that his other fire spells barely harmed them.
• Gavin rejoined Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fang, and Hagrid as the spiders closed in, and the Ford Anglia arrived to rescue them.
• Gavin took control of the Ford Anglia and drove it through the spider swarm and out of the Forbidden Forest while using blue fire to stop their pursuers.
• The group regrouped near Hagrid’s Hut, and Ron compared Gavin’s driving to watching a pig destroy Brussels sprouts.

Gavin studied the Weasley family's Ford Anglia and discovered that music could calm its chaotic magic and change how it drove. When he heard an adult scream in the Forbidden Forest, he raced to the scene and found three Aurors surrounded by Acromantulas.

• Gavin met the Ford Anglia at the edge of the Forbidden Forest and inspected its altered engine, removing a branch from the Whomping Willow that was stuck inside it.
• Gavin struggled to see the car's magical structure until he relaxed, then learned that it absorbed ambient magic and that the Forbidden Forest's chaotic magic made it unstable.
• Gavin studied Mr. Weasley's improvised Runes and found that a Reset Rune could restore the car to factory settings, which would erase its memories.
• Gavin discovered that a Muggle song calmed the car and straightened its magical lines, while different kinds of music changed its mood and performance.
• Gavin heard spells and an adult man's scream in the Forbidden Forest, then raced toward the sounds in the Anglia.
• Gavin found three Aurors surrounded by Acromantulas, drove into the clearing, and told them he had come to help.

Gavin rescued Kingsley Shacklebolt, Tonks, and Dawlish from Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, then learned the Aurors were investigating poachers. After returning to Hogwarts, he discovered the school was tense because the Chamber of Secrets might have opened again.

• Gavin used blue fire to kill an Acromantula and make the spiders retreat until Mosag arrived and ordered them to stand down.
• Mosag revealed that her colony feared Gavin because he had killed all forty-one spiders that pursued him before, then led the Acromantulas away.
• Gavin introduced himself to Kingsley Shacklebolt, Tonks, and Dawlish, and drove them out of the forest in Mr. Weasley's sentient Ford Anglia.
• Kingsley explained that the Aurors were investigating the Deepwater Group, a poaching organization targeting creatures in the Forbidden Forest.
• On the drive back, Gavin said Tom Riddle would have made a good professor, alarming the Aurors until he clarified his disdain for Voldemort's terrorist activities.
• Gavin returned to Hogwarts, where Justin told him that the Chamber of Secrets might have opened again.

After students reported seeing contradictory visions of bloody writing around Hogwarts, Gavin and Cordelia investigated and suspected the sightings reflected people’s fears rather than a real Chamber of Secrets attack. Lockhart then claimed to know the culprit, prompting Cordelia to urge Gavin to investigate him.

• Justin and Ernie told Gavin that students had reported bloody writing in several locations, but professors including Dumbledore found no trace of it.
• Harry told Ron and Hermione that Dobby had warned him to leave Hogwarts, and Hermione deduced that a basilisk was in the Chamber of Secrets.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione tried to inspect the Chamber entrance after curfew, but Professor McGonagall caught them and gave them detention.
• Gavin and Cordelia compared conflicting witness accounts, and Luna Lovegood told them she had heard a disturbing song near a sighting.
• Cordelia concluded that the visions showed what frightened each witness most, while Lockhart announced that he knew the culprit.
• Cordelia urged Gavin to investigate Lockhart, leaving him baffled.

Cordelia used Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Gavin and question Lockhart, while Gavin accompanied her as a seagull. Lockhart revealed that he had invented a second personality to explain the Chamber of Secrets incident, then threatened Cordelia with a Memory Charm, prompting her to stun him; she left Gavin to take the blame.

• Cordelia won a round of rock, paper, scissors against Gavin with help from a costly pendant that suppressed her stray thoughts, and Gavin gave her a hair for the Polyjuice Potion.
• Cordelia transformed into Gavin and entered Lockhart's office with Gavin disguised as a seagull.
• Lockhart traded a fabricated account of his heroics in the Chamber of Secrets for the culprit's identity, but admitted he had no name and was trying to pressure his supposed second personality into appearing.
• Lockhart explained that he believed danger and pressure could awaken a more powerful version of himself, and Cordelia challenged whether that personality existed at all.
• Lockhart reached for his Wand and prepared to use a Memory Charm, but Gavin's seagull form attacked him and Cordelia stunned him.
• Cordelia warned Gavin that Lockhart would remember only that Gavin had attacked him when he woke.

Gavin searched Lockhart’s memories and discovered how Lockhart stole the Homorphus Charm from an Armenian wizard, while Cordelia and Gavin both unexpectedly performed wandless Legilimency under the Polyjuice Potion’s effects. After the potion wore off, they encountered two Ravenclaw students suffering a magical disturbance, and Gavin suspected it was caused by an inaudible kind of Music.

• Gavin entered Lockhart’s memories, learned the Homorphus Charm’s incantation and wand movement, and witnessed Lockhart steal the Armenian wizard’s notes and erase his memory.
• Gavin and Cordelia searched Lockhart’s office, arranged him in an apparently sleeping pose, left him a misleading note, and used Runes to reset his portraits.
• Cordelia discovered that the Polyjuice Potion seemed to strengthen her Legilimency, and Gavin proposed that the potion could affect magic as well as appearance.
• Cordelia refused to let Gavin use her hair for further tests, then changed back when the Polyjuice Potion wore off.
• Gavin and Cordelia found two Ravenclaw boys experiencing a frightening vision and distress; Gavin observed that their magic had become chaotic and increasingly black.
• Gavin recalled Luna’s report of hearing Music and wondered whether an inaudible kind of Music had caused the disturbance.

Gavin built infrasound detectors to track the source of the hallucinations at Hogwarts, and he and his friends followed several signals without finding the culprit. After Gavin used witness patterns to predict where another signal would appear, the group spotted Dobby carrying a Black Wooden Box.

• Cordelia worried when Gavin was missing for three days, but he returned with five infrasound detectors and explained how they worked.
• Gavin assigned his friends detector searches and witness reporting, then the group traced their first signal to a blank wall.
• Over the following week, the group detected five brief signals, and Gavin noticed that almost none of the affected students were from Gryffindor.
• Gavin mapped Harry's movements against the sightings and directed the group to watch the eastern cross-corridor on the fourth floor.
• The group waited in hiding until a small figure appeared with a Black Wooden Box, and Harry recognized Dobby.

Gavin and the students fought Dobby to recover the Black Wooden Box, whose music caused terrifying hallucinations, and Gavin finally stunned the house-elf and dismantled the device. Dobby escaped after implying his master had ordered the scheme, and Professor McGonagall arrived to find the corridor wrecked and Gavin examining the box.

• Dobby tried to escape with the Black Wooden Box, but Gavin and Cordelia trapped it inside an enchanted suit of armor.
• Dobby attacked the group with animated armor and powerful magic, while Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ernie, and Cordelia joined the fight.
• The Music Box’s effects filled the corridor with hallucinations, but Gavin used Muffliato to shield himself and lured Dobby into reaching for the box.
• Gavin opened the armor’s secret release and stunned Dobby as he caught the falling box; Cordelia summoned it, and Gavin dismantled its mechanism.
• Dobby admitted that his master had promised no one would be hurt, then escaped after telling Harry to leave Hogwarts.
• Professor McGonagall arrived and saw the destroyed corridor, the dismantled Music Box, and Gavin among the students.

Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore learned how Gavin and the students stopped Dobby’s enchanted Music Box, while Gavin obtained a hair from Dumbledore after bargaining over his reward and settling an old debt. Lucius Malfoy confronted them, but Harry freed Dobby by tricking Lucius into giving him a sock, and Dobby drove Lucius away.

• Ernie reported that Dobby had used the Music Box to affect students, and Professor McGonagall ordered the six students to write reports and warned Gavin to inform a professor before disappearing.
• Dumbledore examined the Music Box and its parts as Gavin explained how he tracked Dobby; Harry learned that Gavin had used him as bait.
• Gavin persuaded Dumbledore to provide a hair for Polyjuice Potion research after paying 3,590 Galleons toward his Astronomy Tower debt.
• Lucius arrived to demand the Music Box and accuse the students, but Dumbledore challenged his claims and kept the device’s internal components for investigation.
• Harry put a sock inside the empty Music Box casing and returned it to Lucius, who passed it to Dobby; the sock freed Dobby, who protected Harry and knocked Lucius down.

Gavin discovered that Polyjuice Potion could alter how magic flowed through a transformed body, then watched Harry help Gryffindor defeat Hufflepuff in the Quidditch match. His experiments suggested that negative emotions could no longer grow his black Whirlpool, leaving him wondering how Cordelia's Obscurus had become so vast.

• Hagrid explained that Dumbledore had restricted House-elves from crossing Hogwarts's grounds freely, leaving him to inspect every delivery.
• Lockhart took credit for solving the Music Box crisis and assigned students a three-foot essay, prompting Ernie to record Lockhart among those who claimed to have guided events without taking part.
• Gavin used Polyjuice Potion made with Harry's and Seamus's hair and found that their bodies enhanced the Disarming Charm and favored explosive spell release, respectively.
• Harry played Beater for Gryffindor, disrupting Hufflepuff's attacks before catching the faster, distant Golden Snitch and winning the match.
• Gavin tested his black Whirlpool with anger and found that it expanded only temporarily, then returned to its previous size as he wondered how Cordelia's Obscurus had grown so large.

Lockhart held a lavish dinner for his six student assistants and tried to pressure Cordelia into drinking his supposedly harmless Courage Wine. After Snape identified it as a dangerous potion and agreed to help expose Lockhart’s crimes at Friday’s book launch, Gavin prepared to make Lockhart confess in public.

• Lockhart gave Harry, Hermione, Ron, Gavin, Ernie, and Cordelia grandiose animal codenames and invited them to his appreciation dinner.
• At the dinner, Lockhart took credit for the Chamber of Secrets investigation and presented Courage Wine as a harmless way to overcome fear.
• Lockhart pressured Cordelia to drink the unknown potion, but she demanded its formula and independent testing, forcing him to back down.
• Gavin secretly collected a sample of the Courage Wine, and Snape identified it as diluted Draught of Euphoria mixed with Firewhisky and other ingredients that impaired judgment.
• Gavin told Snape that Lockhart had stolen others’ memories and planned to make him confess at Friday’s book launch; Snape agreed to handle the Veritaserum.
• Snape refused to give Gavin a strand of his hair, and Gavin left believing Lockhart would soon reveal his crimes before the school.

At Lockhart’s book launch, Gavin’s question exposed that Lockhart had stolen other wizards’ experiences and used Memory Charms on them. Dumbledore had Lockhart arrested and summoned Ministry investigators, while Gavin quietly signaled Snape across the Great Hall.

• Lockhart presented Hogwarts Crisis and claimed he had planned the investigation, while Ron challenged the book’s cover and Ernie objected to its treatment of his report.
• When Gavin asked Lockhart to teach the Homorphus Charm, Lockhart admitted the spell was not his, and Hermione revealed that its story belonged to an Old Armenian Wizard.
• Under McGonagall’s questioning, Lockhart admitted to using Memory Charms on six people, and Dumbledore ordered him taken to his office and the Ministry notified.
• Lockhart tried to draw his wand, but McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Snape aimed their wands at him, and he surrendered before following McGonagall from the hall.
• After Lockhart left, Gavin suggested Ron keep the book as a souvenir, then silently raised his Pumpkin Juice toward Snape, who pushed Lockhart’s goblet away and gave a slight smile.

Gavin comforted Cordelia after she cried over The Remains of the Day, then watched her lose a close Quidditch match to Cho Chang. Cordelia left the match resolving to have no regrets, while a hidden figure prepared to bring an unnamed girl “home” once Dumbledore left Hogwarts.

• Gavin tried to comfort Cordelia by describing increasingly grim tragedies, and she stopped crying and began eating her breakfast.
• At the Slytherin-versus-Ravenclaw match, Cho marked Cordelia closely and used an elaborate search pattern to find the Golden Snitches.
• Cho tricked Cordelia into chasing a false lead, but Cordelia later caught a Snitch and scored twenty points for Slytherin.
• Cho caught the final Snitch, giving Ravenclaw a 290–90 victory over Slytherin.
• Gavin encouraged Cordelia to keep trying so she would have no regrets, and she agreed.
• In a windowless room, a hidden speaker told an accomplice to wait until Dumbledore left Hogwarts before bringing a girl “home.”

Snape took over Defense Against the Dark Arts and tested the students with a hex-filled obstacle course, while Cordelia pulled Gavin away from his experiments for an afternoon by the Black Lake. As Cordelia asked what their relationship was, Cyril Rosier appeared before them in the form of an owl Animagus.

• Dumbledore left Hogwarts to meet a possible replacement for Lockhart, and Snape announced that he would teach until Saturday.
• Snape put the students through a course of hexes; Cordelia completed it quickly, while Gavin destroyed the dummies and lost five Hufflepuff points.
• Cordelia took Gavin's schedule and brought him to the Black Lake, where they ate, talked, and she fell asleep against his shoulder.
• On the path back to the castle, Cordelia asked Gavin what they were to each other, but he hesitated to answer.
• An owl carrying a suitcase landed near Gavin and Cordelia, transformed into a man, and revealed himself as Cyril Rosier.

Cyril Rosier ambushed Gavin and Cordelia with eighteen Dark Wizards, but Gavin’s Fiendfyre defeated them and destroyed Cyril’s Obscurus tools. Cyril used Dumbledore’s Silver Amulet to turn a dodged Killing Curse back on Gavin, then escaped with Cordelia; Gavin recovered and set out to bring her back.

• Cyril Rosier and eighteen Dark Wizards trapped Gavin and Cordelia inside a Lockdown Barrier, bound Cordelia, and attacked Gavin.
• Gavin blinded the attackers with a Flash Charm, then used Protego Diabolica to kill the Dark Wizards and force Cyril to retreat behind an Amulet.
• Cyril unleashed three Obscurus constructs, but Gavin traced their magical connections and destroyed the tools that controlled them.
• Gavin disarmed Cyril, dodged the Killing Curse from Cyril’s Dark Green Amulet, and was struck when his Silver Amulet dragged the curse back onto him.
• Cordelia’s Obscurus erupted and severed Cyril’s arm, but Cyril trapped her in Restraint Garments and escaped with her by Portkey as the barrier began to fail.
• Gavin revived, found his Wand broken, and contacted Alaric Rowle for help before taking Cordelia’s Wand and vowing to bring her back.

After Cyril kidnapped Cordelia, Gavin and Alaric used Cordelia’s Trace records at the Ministry to find her location in Cumbria. Gavin impersonated Dumbledore to access the records, but the real Dumbledore arrived just after Gavin and Alaric Apparated away, leaving the Ministry staff baffled.

• Gavin met Alaric and Dibby at Hogwarts’s outer wall, then blasted open a gap in the magical restriction and left for the Ministry with them.
• At the Ministry entrance, Gavin told Alaric that Cordelia’s Trace could reveal where Cyril had taken her, and disguised himself as Dumbledore with Polyjuice Potion.
• Gavin convinced Mafalda Hopkirk to show him Cordelia’s Trace records, which placed her at Number Seven, Greystone Valley, Cumbria.
• Gavin and Alaric Apparated toward Greystone Valley after obtaining the location, while Hopkirk wondered why Dumbledore could not Apparate.
• The real Dumbledore arrived at the Ministry, and Hopkirk asked whether he had already been there.

Gavin rescued Cordelia from Cyril and killed him before Dumbledore and the Aurors arrived. Though Mafalda Hopkirk ordered Gavin detained in Azkaban, Cordelia accepted his proposal to be his girlfriend.

• Gavin and Alaric reached the stone house, where a guard trapped Alaric in a magical snare and attacked them; Gavin killed the guard with Black Flame and told Alaric to blame him for what followed.
• Gavin entered the basement and found Cyril preparing to use the Imperius Curse on the restrained Cordelia; Cyril unleashed a mass of Black Flame, but Gavin revealed his own Obscurus and swallowed the attack with a huge Black Dragon.
• Gavin blocked Cyril's attempt to Apparate, severed his right hand, and tore him apart with Black tentacles before freeing Cordelia from the six Restraint Garments.
• Cordelia awoke, and Gavin asked her to be his girlfriend while offering her mother's Wand; Dumbledore, Kingsley, Alaric, and the Aurors arrived as Mafalda Hopkirk announced Gavin's emergency detention in Azkaban.
• Cordelia took her mother's Wand and accepted Gavin's proposal.

Thirteen-year-old Hufflepuff Gavin arrived in Azkaban and resisted, then subdued, a Dementor using his unusual magic. After recruiting it to bring him another Dementor, he warned Augustus Rookwood to keep quiet, leaving Rookwood terrified and unsure how Gavin had escaped his locked cell.

• Augustus Rookwood watched a Dementor enter the new prisoner Gavin’s cell, expecting the boy to scream, but Gavin woke and slapped it.
• Gavin fought the Dementor, then used Black Flame and Fiendfyre, which strengthened the creature, before Silver Flame weakened it and forced it to submit.
• Gavin offered the Dementor Black Flame and happiness in exchange for its obedience, then persuaded it to bring him another Dementor the following night.
• The Dementor left after locking Gavin’s cell, while Rookwood wondered whether the boy could rival the Dark Lords at their peaks.
• Gavin appeared outside Rookwood’s cell despite its locked door, examined the prison bread, and told Rookwood not to reveal what had happened.

While imprisoned in Azkaban, Gavin recovered his belongings, ate lunch by the shore, and checked on Cordelia, who confirmed that her father was working to clear his name. After discovering that his Obscurus had grown through the deaths he caused, Gavin examined Cyril’s captive soul and began forcing him to teach Dark Magic.

• Gavin secretly retrieved his confiscated supplies and cooked fried fish and French fries on Azkaban’s shore, where he realized he had lost a third of his life force.
• Gavin contacted Cordelia through a mirror; she said she was recovering, told him the Ministry had charged him with seventeen offenses, and asked him to bring her fried fish after his acquittal.
• Gavin decided to use his time in Azkaban to learn Dark Magic from its imprisoned wizards while planning to return to Cordelia if her condition worsened.
• Gavin entered his Consciousness Space and saw that his Obscurus had grown dramatically, leading him to suspect that killing people had fueled it.
• Gavin questioned whether he could replenish his life force and noticed Cyril Rosier’s damaged soul bound inside his Consciousness Space.
• Gavin began using magical threads to force Cyril to teach him Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Gavin tortured Cyril in the Consciousness Space, learned about the Cruciatus Curse and Cyril’s failed attempts to restore vitality drained by the Obscurus, then repaired Cyril’s soul for further experiments. In Azkaban, Gavin bought knowledge of the Marauder’s Map from Sirius with a small serving of fish and chips, while Rookwood tried to bargain with information about Horcruxes.

• Gavin used Legilimency to learn how Cyril cast the Cruciatus Curse, then tortured him with an Itching Charm and the Curse itself.
• Gavin learned from Cyril’s memories that his experiments could only slow the decline caused by the Obscurus, not restore lost vitality, and repaired Cyril’s battered soul so he could continue using him.
• Gavin visited Sirius in Azkaban, asked about the Marauder’s Map, and gave him a small portion of fish and chips in exchange for an explanation of its charms.
• Sirius explained that the Homunculus Charm copied traits of a soul and that the Tracking Charm and Revealing Charm used those traces to locate and identify people.
• Rookwood offered to teach Gavin Dark Magic, but when Gavin dismissed his value, Rookwood asked whether Gavin had heard of Horcruxes.

Gavin learned the Horcrux process from Rookwood while using Legilimency to steal the real instructions, then tested his power over two Dementors in Azkaban. He left the prison and began experimenting with Cyril’s damaged soul, intending to use pieces of it rather than his own.

• Gavin pretended to consider Rookwood’s offer, paid him half a fish as a deposit, and used Legilimency to learn the genuine Horcrux instructions.
• Gavin burned a new Dementor with the Silver Flame until it shrank, then made it and the first Dementor obediently bring him another prisoner the next night.
• Gavin gave both Dementors traces of black mist and happiness, then promised the second that it could bring a Dementor it hated for him to punish.
• Gavin escaped Azkaban as a seagull and decided to use his notebook as a Horcrux vessel and Cyril’s soul as experimental material.
• Gavin entered the consciousness space, identified cracks in Cyril’s soul, and began pulling a fragment loose while Cyril pleaded with him to stop.

Gavin split Cyril’s soul and made a conscious Horcrux, then began farming potatoes and mapping Azkaban while investigating a guarded summit and his declining life force. The chapter ends with Gavin speaking in two voices, alarming Rookwood and Sirius as he leaves to deal with the strange symptom.

• Gavin tore off Cyril’s arm, creating a second Cyril, and identified the split as a Horcrux; the fragment volunteered for the experiment, but Gavin absorbed it into the Diary instead.
• Gavin tested the Diary’s independent thoughts, confirmed that its Cyril could resist him, and sealed it away while considering how to turn it into a useful, nonconscious assistant.
• Gavin found fresh water and a sheltered patch of soil near the mountain, evaded the Dementors guarding its summit, and planted potatoes.
• Gavin tested a Marauder’s Map of Azkaban and found that it could not record the summit; afterward, his life force weakened and his restorative potion worked less well than before.
• Gavin told Rookwood he had already learned Soul Splitting, then his voice changed and seemed to speak in two voices; Rookwood and Sirius both heard the strange sound.

Gavin rejected the Diary’s offer of an Unbreakable Vow and went to Azkaban to learn the Memory Charm from Lockhart. After learning the spell, he repeatedly altered Lockhart’s memories and discovered he could plant suggestions, leaving him ready to continue experimenting.

• Cordelia ended her mirror conversation with Gavin and told Dibby she would wait before telling Mr. Gu about her condition.
• Gavin refused the Diary’s proposed vow and decided to strip the Horcrux of its memories using the Memory Charm.
• Gavin found Lockhart in Azkaban, persuaded him to teach the Memory Charm, and promised to help him escape in exchange.
• Gavin used Legilimency as Lockhart explained the spell, then erased Lockhart’s recent memories to test it.
• Gavin repeated the experiments until Lockhart forgot who he was, then successfully suggested that Gavin was his father and that Lockhart should leave him his estate.