Chapter Summaries

Gavin returned to Hogwarts with Dumbledore after helping stabilize Cordelia, and agreed to write an anonymous article announcing that an Obscurus could be cured to draw her father, Alaric Rowle, back. He accepted Dumbledore’s Amulet and later caught up with Cedric in the kitchen as the school year neared its end.

• Dumbledore sent Cordelia back to St. Mungo’s with Dibby, and Cordelia asked Gavin to visit again soon.
• Dumbledore told Gavin he planned to publish an anonymous announcement that an Obscurus could be cured to bring Alaric Rowle back and protect Cordelia; Gavin agreed to write it while omitting the method.
• Dumbledore offered Gavin an Amulet that could block a Killing Curse, and Gavin accepted it.
• In the kitchen, Cedric mistook rice noodle roll for the pork sausage Gavin liked, and Gavin cooked the dish while they talked.
• Cedric told Gavin that Hufflepuff had won the Quidditch Cup, Harry Potter and Malfoy had received detention, and Hufflepuff stood second in House points.
• Gavin learned that it was June 18 and that the End-of-Year Feast was the following night, then refused to make Cedric another serving of sausage.

Gavin returned to Hogwarts after secretly helping Dumbledore and kept his role in the Philosopher’s Stone incident from Ernie and Justin until Harry and his friends filled them in. As the school year ended, Gavin revealed that Cordelia had recovered, then went to St. Mungo’s to see her.

• Gavin reunited with Ernie and Justin, told them he had studied the Philosopher’s Stone, and joined them for a fishing trip where he caught nothing.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione thanked Gavin for helping during the Philosopher’s Stone incident, explained that Norbert had reached Romania, and told Ernie and Justin more of what Gavin had kept secret.
• Gavin returned the Marauder’s Map to Fred and George, who realized he had figured out how to use it.
• Dumbledore awarded Gryffindor points for Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville, giving Gryffindor the House Cup while Gavin accepted that his own part had to remain secret.
• After the students left Hogwarts, Gavin told Professor McGonagall that Miss Rowle’s condition was resolved and went to St. Mungo’s, where Cordelia greeted him with a happy smile.

Cordelia left St. Mungo’s for Rowle Manor with Gavin and began rebuilding her life there while keeping the truth about her recovery secret. After the Daily Prophet reported that Dumbledore and the mysterious scholar Wishtoday might have solved the Obscurus, Alaric Rowle returned and reunited with his daughter.

• Cordelia said goodbye to the staff at St. Mungo’s, and Dibby Apparated her and Gavin to Rowle Manor.
• Gavin was astonished by the scale of the manor and helped Dibby clean it, persuading Cordelia to practice magic with Scourgify.
• A week later, Gavin read a Daily Prophet article about Dumbledore and the mysterious scholar Wishtoday, the pen name he had suggested.
• Dumbledore arrived at Rowle Manor with Alaric Rowle, who ran to Cordelia and embraced her as they both cried.

Alaric returned from Nepal and reunited with Cordelia after Gavin helped save her from the Obscurus, then Gavin left Rowle Manor for his empty family home. There, he received a warning from the Ministry for using magic, while Healer Vittel remained unaware that Cordelia had survived.

• Dumbledore told Gavin that Alaric had spent two years in Nepal seeking a treatment for the Obscurus and returned after reading about Cordelia in the Daily Prophet.
• Alaric thanked Gavin for saving Cordelia, and he and Cordelia shared painful memories and reconciled at Rowle Manor.
• Cordelia and Alaric asked Gavin to stay longer, but he left with Dumbledore and returned to his family home.
• Gavin used Lumos to turn on the lights and received a Ministry warning because the Trace detected his underage magic.
• Gavin settled into the empty house, thought about writing to Cordelia, and considered getting a House-elf.
• Healer Vittel drank at the Leaky Cauldron, believing Cordelia had died, and angrily blamed Dumbledore for failing to save her sooner.

Gavin returned to Oxford and worked with Professor Bill Roscoe before agreeing to attend a semiconductor conference in Romania. He then met Cordelia at King's Cross on July twelfth, where she asked whether she looked pretty.

• Gavin reviewed Professor Bill Roscoe's research reports and spent a week sending him several review papers and research plans.
• Professor Bill Roscoe gave Gavin an early Nokia mobile phone and invited him to represent the group at a semiconductor conference in Romania, providing a passport and plane ticket.
• Gavin received a letter from Cordelia inviting him to go out on July twelfth.
• Gavin arrived early at King's Cross and met Cordelia, who appeared healthy and asked him, “Do I look pretty?”

Gavin took Cordelia on her first outing in Muggle London, celebrating her birthday at the zoo and giving her a mobile phone so they could stay in touch. The day ended with Cordelia reunited with Alaric and calling Gavin to ask where they would go tomorrow.

• Gavin met Cordelia at King's Cross, admired her dress, and took her by taxi to London Zoo while Alaric watched them leave.
• Cordelia explored the zoo's animals and Muggle attractions, then declared pandas her favorite because they came from the same place as Gavin.
• Gavin celebrated Cordelia's birthday with a chocolate cake and gave her a mobile phone as a present.
• Gavin brought Cordelia back to King's Cross, where Alaric thanked him for giving her a happy day.
• After saying goodbye, Gavin received Cordelia's first call on her new phone, and she asked where they would go tomorrow.

Cordelia chose to make up her first-year lessons over the summer so she could enter the same year as Gavin, while Gavin attended a semiconductor conference in Romania and reunited with Norbert. After discovering Norbert had been wounded by a violent Black Dragon, Gavin was carried to the dragon’s cave and faced a confrontation.

• Gavin teased Cordelia by calling her an underclassman, and she decided to take Alaric’s summer tutoring and sit the resit exam.
• Gavin attended the semiconductor conference in Bucharest, spoke with researchers who knew his work, and learned Yvette hoped Professor Bill Roscoe would return next year.
• Charlie Weasley met Gavin and took him to the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary to see Norbert and gather news for Hagrid.
• Andrew Marcus required Gavin to sign a safety waiver and pay a deposit before entering Norbert’s enclosure.
• Norbert greeted Gavin, and Gavin noticed a wound Norbert had received fighting a newly arrived, aggressive Black Dragon.
• Norbert carried Gavin to a cave and urged him to face the Black Dragon, whose violet eyes appeared in the darkness.

Gavin and Norbert fought a larger Hebridean Black inside its cave, where Gavin used the Obscurus to kill it after his spells and Norbert’s attacks failed. Charlie and others arrived as Gavin concealed a mysterious, heat-reactive Crest he found in the dragon’s remains.

• The Hebridean Black attacked Gavin at the cave entrance and overpowered Norbert in the ensuing fight.
• Gavin blinded the black dragon with enhanced Lumos while Norbert wounded it, then used the cave’s weapons, a swamp, and a severed wing membrane to hinder it.
• Gavin unleashed the Obscurus, invaded the black dragon’s brain, and killed it, leaving himself exhausted.
• Norbert celebrated their victory, then panicked when the dead dragon expelled stomach contents across the cave.
• Gavin found a warm, heat-reactive Crest among the dragon’s vomit and hid it when Charlie and others entered the cave.

Gavin used a signed agreement to stop Andrew from claiming the Black Dragon’s carcass, then was detained at the sanctuary while awaiting help. During his confinement, he practiced and began experimenting with the Shield Charm, deciding to ask Professor Flitwick for guidance when term began.

• Andrew accused Gavin of poaching, but Gavin cited the magically notarized agreement that made the Black Dragon carcass his private property, and Charlie confirmed the dragon had nearly killed him.
• Gavin accused Andrew of concealing the dragon’s infection, and Andrew withdrew rather than confront Norbert, though he later detained Gavin at the sanctuary.
• Gavin wrote to Mr. Rowle asking for help, then spent two days practicing the Shield Charm while confined in an employee dormitory.
• Gavin tested a layered, prestressed Shield Charm inspired by Rupert’s Drop, but his experiments used too much Magic for only a small improvement.
• Gavin considered other ways to strengthen the spell and decided to ask Professor Flitwick for guidance when term began.

Alaric Rowle secured Gavin’s release from the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary and brought him back to Rowle Manor, where Cordelia insisted he rest and explain what happened. The chapter leaves Gavin recounting his cave ordeal while Alaric reads Dumbledore’s letter about Cordelia’s studies and late-night Lumos spells.

• Alaric confronted Andrew Marcus with evidence of sanctuary misconduct and obtained Gavin’s deposit and claim to the unregistered dragon’s carcass.
• Alaric gave Gavin the dragon’s remains in a Transport Bag and the recovered spoils in a storage pouch, then took him by Portkey to Rowle Manor.
• Cordelia checked Gavin for injuries and insisted he stay at the manor instead of going home.
• Cordelia settled Gavin in the sitting room with Hot Chocolate and Butter Biscuits and asked him to explain the blood on his robes.
• Alaric read Dumbledore’s letter, which praised Cordelia’s Charms progress and asked her to stop casting Lumos late at night.

At Rowle Manor, Alaric helped Gavin fill gaps in his basic Charms and shared an ancient meditation tradition resembling Gavin’s Consciousness Space theory. After Cordelia’s phone battery died, Gavin began investigating whether magic could charge it, leaving him considering direct control of its electrons.

• Cordelia settled Gavin into a guest room, and Alaric began teaching him Charms while pointing out gaps in his basic magical knowledge.
• Gavin checked Cordelia’s Consciousness Space, observed that its black Whirlpool had shrunk while her white Manas Consciousness remained unchanged, and heard Alaric describe similar ideas from Kathmandu.
• Cordelia stopped Gavin from taking Alaric’s notes on Meditation techniques after warning that he would recklessly try them.
• Cordelia and Gavin bought replacement batteries for her phone, and the shop clerk mistook their bulk purchase for a business venture.
• Gavin tried using Transfiguration to charge a dead battery, but each attempt quickly reverted, so he proposed moving its electrons directly instead.

Cordelia went to Diagon Alley with Gavin to buy schoolbooks, where she met Harry, Ron, and Hermione and witnessed the confrontation between Lucius Malfoy and the Weasleys. Gavin secretly took Tom Riddle's Diary from Ginny's fallen cauldron and left with Cordelia, whose wand came from her mother.

• Cordelia went to Flourish and Blotts with Gavin and befriended Hermione while Harry and Ron joined their conversation.
• Lucius Malfoy insulted Cordelia and the Weasleys, and Arthur Weasley attacked him after Lucius mocked his family and the Grangers.
• As Hagrid separated the men, Gavin secretly slipped Tom Riddle's Diary from Ginny's spilled books into his Dragon Hide Bag.
• Hagrid led the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione out of the shop, while Gilderoy Lockhart gave Cordelia signed books and posed for a photograph.
• Gavin left Flourish and Blotts with Cordelia, who showed him her mother's willow wand.

Gavin posed as Justin Finch-Fletchley to question Tom Riddle through the Horcrux notebook, first baiting Tom with Muggle mathematics and then drawing out his ideas about Transfiguration. Tom’s theories gave Gavin a new direction for studying permanent change, and the exchange ended with Tom asking what had happened to Voldemort in 1992.

• Gavin opened the notebook while pretending to be bullied Muggle-born student Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Tom Riddle introduced himself.
• Gavin unsettled Tom by asking him calculus and geometry questions, then invited him to discuss the wizarding world.
• Tom explained Gamp’s Five Exceptions and proposed that a wizard’s perception and precise targeting might limit Transfiguration.
• Tom suggested that the Super-Sensory Charm could help a wizard perceive an object’s components, giving Gavin a new lead on permanent Transfiguration.
• Tom asked who Professor McGonagall was, learned Dumbledore was Headmaster, and asked what year it was.
• After Gavin said it was 1992 and that Voldemort was famous, Tom asked what had become of Voldemort, but Gavin abruptly ended the conversation.

Gavin misled Tom Riddle with a fabricated story about Voldemort before learning to refine his magical perception with Tom’s guidance. Dumbledore agreed Cordelia could enroll at Hogwarts under her real name, while Gavin resolved to give Dumbledore the diary when school began.

• Gavin told Tom that Grindelwald had returned, taken Voldemort in as his deputy, and made him do menial work, then redirected Tom’s questions toward magic.
• Tom taught Gavin to narrow the Super-Sensory Charm’s range, and Gavin used the technique to examine and crack a grain of sand.
• Dumbledore discussed the risks of Cordelia enrolling under the Rowle name, and Alaric insisted she attend Hogwarts under her real name.
• Dumbledore and Gavin concluded that Cordelia’s past was unlikely to be discovered and that her Obscurus was continuing to shrink, so Dumbledore approved her using her real name.
• Gavin dreamed Draco exposed his deception to Tom, woke frightened, and decided to give Dumbledore the diary when school started.

Gavin and Cordelia played Quidditch on the pitch at Rowle Manor, where Gavin used mathematical models to catch the Snitch and taught Cordelia how to predict its flight. After adapting her strategy, Cordelia beat him in their fourth round and celebrated her victory.

• Cordelia took Gavin to Rowle Manor’s Quidditch Pitch and challenged him to catch a special-edition Snitch.
• Gavin used a modified Super-Sensory Charm to catch the Snitch quickly, then caught it again without magic by calculating its path.
• Gavin explained Snitch-flight modeling to Cordelia, who realized that changing the release point could make prediction harder.
• Cordelia had Dibby release the Snitch from a random location, forcing Gavin to spend longer tracking it.
• Cordelia changed her gaze and flight route in the fourth round, caught the Snitch first, and celebrated her win.

Gavin experimented with Tom’s lessons in Dark Magic, succeeded in casting the Imperius Curse, and decided to take the diary to Dumbledore. He accompanied Cordelia to Hogwarts, reunited with Cedric and Cho on the train, and saw a Thestral when they reached the school.

• Tom offered to teach Gavin Dark Magic, and Gavin used negative emotions from his Consciousness Space to successfully cast the Imperius Curse on a maggot.
• Gavin packed Tom’s diary and the Crest in his Dragon Hide Bag and planned to take the diary to Dumbledore.
• Alaric saw Cordelia off at King’s Cross, and Gavin accompanied her through the barrier to the Hogwarts Express.
• Gavin met Cedric and Cho in a train compartment, where Cedric described their visit to see Mooncalves in the Wye Valley.
• Hermione searched the train for Harry and Ron, and the group spotted the Weasley family’s flying car in the sky.
• As Gavin and the others reached the carriages, Gavin saw a Thestral.

Gavin returned to Hogwarts, reunited with Ernie and Justin, and saw Cordelia sorted into Slytherin. After learning about the Free State of Tylo, a country he remembered never existing, he investigated the library and concluded that someone had altered history.

• Gavin saw a Thestral pulling the carriage, though Cedric and Cho could not see it, and explained that only people who had seen death could see Thestrals.
• Gavin gave Ernie and Justin living Fire Dragon models from Romania and told them he had visited Norbert.
• Cordelia Rowle joined Hogwarts as a second-year transfer student and was sorted into Slytherin, where she ignored Draco Malfoy and unnerved Pansy Parkinson with a glance.
• Justin described the Free State of Tylo, prompting Gavin to realize that the country had not existed in the world he remembered.
• Gavin searched Hogwarts's library and found multiple books and maps confirming Tylo's existence throughout history, leading him to suspect that someone had interfered with the past.

Gavin began his resit exams after missing the previous year's finals, and Professor McGonagall had him demonstrate Transfiguration before making him help grade the other students. He passed Justin and then left with Cordelia, while Justin followed them to a classroom and misinterpreted their private conversation.

• Gavin and Justin went to Professor McGonagall's office for their Transfiguration resits, where they learned the task was to turn a mouse into a teapot.
• Gavin transformed his mouse perfectly, and Professor McGonagall asked him to examine the other students' work.
• Gavin coached Baggins through the teapot spell and passed Justin despite a faint patch of mouse skin showing through the glaze.
• Gavin left the exam and met Cordelia, who questioned why he had avoided her and revealed that they were good friends.
• Gavin and Cordelia went to an empty classroom so he could check on her, and Justin followed before overhearing their ambiguous conversation and leaving in a daze.

Gavin repotted a Mandrake with remarkable skill, earning Hufflepuff points and passing his Herbology resit without a separate exam. Later, he helped Professor Flitwick develop a teardrop-shaped Shield Charm and left with the professor’s research notes as a reference.

• Gavin quickly repotted his Mandrake seedling, then rescued Hermione’s fallen seedling, earning Hufflepuff points from Professor Sprout.
• Professor Sprout told Gavin that his practical work had already passed the Herbology resit and gave him dragon-dung fertilizer.
• At lunch, Justin sought Gavin’s advice about liking a girl who was already with someone, then watched Cordelia leave with Gavin.
• Cordelia earned an Outstanding on her Charms resit, and Gavin asked Professor Flitwick about the Shield Charm.
• Gavin explained the Rupert’s Drop principle, and Professor Flitwick created a teardrop-shaped Shield Charm that stopped books from striking Gavin but broke when Cordelia tapped its tail.
• Professor Flitwick gave Gavin a thick Diary of research notes and lamented that nobody had broken through his Shield Charm in years.

Gavin used a Levitation Charm to reshape wonton wrappers into steamed cake, prompting Professor McGonagall to reconsider how Transfiguration worked and award him points. After class, Gavin heard that Lockhart had successfully frozen Cornish Pixies and resolved to investigate him in their next lesson.

• Professor McGonagall taught the second-years to transform beetles into buttons, and Cordelia earned ten points for her carefully patterned button.
• Gavin transformed his beetle into a button and earned five points for Hufflepuff before using a Levitation Charm to turn wonton wrappers into steamed cake.
• Draco Malfoy mocked Gavin, but Professor McGonagall deducted five points from Slytherin and examined the steamed cake.
• Gavin explained how precise Levitation Charms might reshape matter, and Professor McGonagall awarded him fifteen more points and asked him to demonstrate his work at Transfiguration Club.
• Gavin overheard Ravenclaw students praise Lockhart for freezing Cornish Pixies and decided to investigate whether the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was a fraud.