Chapter Summaries

After Harry was revealed to be a Parselmouth, Will reconsidered the Chamber of Secrets’ purpose and prioritized his Transfiguration exam while keeping Voldemort’s Diary for later investigation. At Potions class, Snape punished Seamus and Harry after Seamus’s cauldron exploded.

• Snape dragged Harry to the Headmaster’s Office after Harry spoke Parseltongue, and news of his ability spread through Hogwarts.
• Will heard about Harry’s Parseltongue and questioned whether the Basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets were truly meant to purge Muggle-born students.
• Will decided to focus on Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration exam and postpone investigating Voldemort’s Diary and the nature of Magic.
• In Potions class, Sylvia asked Will about the rumor that Harry was descended from Slytherin, and Will warned her to stir her cauldron.
• Seamus Finnigan’s cauldron exploded, and Snape took five points from Gryffindor before taking another ten from Harry for laughing.

Snape examined Will’s Bone-Growing Charm and struggled to understand how Will’s Magic could reproduce a potion’s effects. Will then passed Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration tests for the Second, Third, and Fourth Year curricula with ease.

• Will brewed Doxy Repellent during his extra Potions lesson with Snape.
• Snape tested Will’s Bone-Growing Charm on a Doxy whose leg bones he had removed, and confirmed that Will had restored its skeleton.
• Snape recalled Dumbledore’s warning not to question Will about how his charm reproduced the effects of potion ingredients.
• Will turned a turtle into a teapot and transformed a book into a lively eaglet for Professor McGonagall’s exam.
• Will completed Professor McGonagall’s successive transformations from a stick to a snake, a knife, and a lizard, impressing her.

Will joined Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Club and gained the Level 5 Charisma ability True Mask. As he left for his first meeting, Hermione watched him go and worried that she was falling behind him.

• Professor McGonagall welcomed Will into the Transfiguration Club and told him its first meeting would begin at six that evening.
• Will reached Charisma Level 5 and chose True Mask, which made people who trusted him see him as someone familiar and credible.
• Harry, Hermione, and Neville asked Will for ingredients to brew Pepperup Potion for the ill Ron, and Will sent Sylvia to help them.
• Will hurried to the West Tower for the club meeting, while Hermione remembered Professor McGonagall saying she could apply in her fifth year and wondered whether Will was already at that level.

Will joined Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration Club, where she explained how Natural Magic enabled the Animagus ritual. The chapter ended with Will wondering whether Wizard Sight could reveal the magic in thunderclouds if he observed them up close.

• Professor McGonagall introduced second-year Slytherin Will Behrens to the Transfiguration Club as a student already at a fifth-year level.
• McGonagall explained that Wizards had some magical resistance and that attempts to transform Wizards into Fantastic Beasts had ended in grotesque failures.
• McGonagall described becoming an Animagus as a ritual that used Natural Magic, with each step helping enlist it.
• McGonagall extinguished the fire so the students could observe the thunderstorm’s magic, and Will realized the clouds were too far away for his Wizard Sight to reveal it.

During a Transfiguration Club meeting, Will sensed the Natural Magic in distant lightning and discussed its connection to a Wizard’s Magic with Professor McGonagall. He left determined to investigate whether ritual Transfiguration could turn someone into a magical creature, but McGonagall refused to give him an unrestricted pass to the Restricted Section.

• Will watched a distant lightning bolt and sensed the Natural Magic within it.
• Will asked Professor McGonagall whether Natural Magic was fundamentally the same as a Wizard’s Magic, and she confirmed that both shared the same core despite Natural Magic’s varied and difficult forms.
• Will wondered whether the Animagus ritual could make a transformation into a magical creature permanent and resolved to experiment.
• Will concealed how he had sensed the Magic when Professor McGonagall asked him to explain.
• Will asked Professor McGonagall for a pass to the Restricted Section, but she told him to find specific books first and seek her approval.

Will obtained permission to study in the Restricted Section, learned Ritual Studies, and kept building a rapport with the Diary while Hogwarts remained peaceful. After falling asleep in the Room of Requirement, he woke to find the black Diary beside his hand.

• Will bluffed the Diary with Dumbledore’s name and pretended to be Daniel Drakecliffe, an ambitious second-year Slytherin.
• Will secured Dumbledore’s permission to borrow up to three books at a time from the Restricted Section and chose books on rituals, Animagi, and magic.
• Will studied Ritual Studies and continued chatting with the Diary, whose attitude toward him grew warmer.
• Colin Creevey’s Harry Potter Fan Club drew attention, while Snape mocked Harry in Potions and found Will asleep beside a well-brewed Swelling Solution.
• Will returned to the Room of Requirement, fell asleep, and woke to find the black Diary beside his hand.

Will discovered that the Diary had gained the ability to move, confronted the soul fragment inside it, and heard Tom Riddle claim that the Chamber of Secrets was a treasure filled with knowledge and riches. Will remained suspicious but agreed to hear more if the Diary showed good faith.

• Will noticed the Diary had entered a new magical stage, then attacked it with Sectumsempra without damaging it.
• Tom Riddle wrote to Will, denied meaning him harm, and tried to persuade him to cooperate by promising a treasure.
• Will repeatedly questioned Tom's claims and attacked the Diary as it described Salazar Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets.
• Tom said he had opened the Chamber despite growing up in an orphanage, and Will agreed to take his word for it if Tom showed good faith.

Will used the Diary to pursue Lockhart’s Memory Charm knowledge while planning to obtain the Basilisk Fang and destroy Tom Riddle. Halloween passed unusually safely at Hogwarts, where Will celebrated with Sylvia while Harry, Hermione, and Ron faced a grim scene in the Underground Classroom.

• Will demanded that Tom teach him the Unforgivable Curses, then ordered him to record everything he knew about Dark Magic with an enchanted Quill.
• Will used the Imperius Curse on a Slytherin girl to get Lockhart’s Office password and placed the Diary there to steal Lockhart’s knowledge of the Memory Charm.
• Will restored his routine, searched the Room of Requirement for hazards, and watched the heavy Halloween rain from the Seventh Floor.
• Two Slytherin girls gave Will pink letters, which he burned before Sylvia linked her arm through his.
• Will and Sylvia celebrated Halloween in a carved pumpkin at the feast, while Harry, Hermione, and Ron faced rotting food in the Underground Classroom.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione learned from Dumbledore that Dobby still had a master, while Will secretly set events in motion around Tom Riddle’s Diary. Lockhart opened the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and slid into the tunnel, where Will followed and kicked him into the mud.

• Dumbledore spoke to Harry about Dobby and what he had learned about the house-elf’s master.
• Hermione and Sylvia discussed Will’s absence from classes and the recent Quidditch match and Duelling Club.
• Will, recovering in secret, watched the gloomy weather and prepared to act after leaving the Diary with Lockhart.
• Lockhart used the Diary’s Parseltongue to open the hidden entrance beneath the sink and plunged down the pipe.
• Will arrived in the tunnel behind Lockhart and kicked him face-first into the mud.

Will confronted Tom Riddle’s Diary and incapacitated Lockhart in the Chamber of Secrets. He revealed that he had anticipated Tom’s plan and was waiting for the Basilisk, which emerged from a pipe at the chapter’s end.

• Will kicked Tom’s Diary away and illuminated the Chamber, finding the Basilisk’s enormous shed skin.
• Will maimed Lockhart’s wand arm, destroyed Lockhart’s Wand, and knocked him unconscious.
• Will accused Tom of breaking their agreement and revealed that he had secretly monitored Lockhart with help from two friends and a special Map.
• Tom tried to keep Will in the Chamber by offering him knowledge and power while waiting for the Basilisk.
• Will revealed that he knew Tom was expecting the Basilisk, and the enormous snake burst from a pipe.

Will subdued the Basilisk with the crowing of transformed roosters and froze it, then forced Tom to open the Chamber of Secrets. After uncovering Tom’s history as a Horcrux maker, Will found Slytherin’s hidden library and revealed that Professor Dumbledore was listening.

• Will used rooster calls to incapacitate the Basilisk, froze it solid, and removed one of its fangs.
• Will forced Tom to open the Chamber of Secrets and found only Slytherin’s statue in the first chamber.
• Will explained that Tom had killed a girl in 1943 and made his Diary into a Horcrux, then demanded the location of Slytherin’s real treasure and Horcrux knowledge.
• Tom opened a hidden entrance behind Slytherin’s statue, revealing a vast library filled with books and advanced spells.
• Will revealed that Professor Dumbledore had been listening as a figure appeared beside him.

Will revealed to Dumbledore that Tom Riddle’s Diary was a Horcrux and proposed that Slytherin had hidden a deeper chamber containing the secret of making Horcruxes. In the exposed chamber, Dumbledore confronted Tom while Will’s plan and Dumbledore’s trust in him became clear.

• Tom tried to close the Chamber of Secrets and urged Will to flee from Dumbledore, but Dumbledore stopped the trapdoor with his wand.
• Dumbledore said Will had explained the Diary and the chamber to him, and that he already knew about Will using the Imperius Curse.
• Dumbledore recalled Will telling him after Halloween that Lucius Malfoy had delivered Tom Riddle’s Diary and that it was a Horcrux.
• Will connected basilisks, Parseltongue, and Horcruxes to Herpo the Foul and suspected Slytherin’s true chamber was hidden beyond the known chamber.
• Will explained that the Diary’s attempt to drain his magic had made him distrust it, so he handed it to Lockhart and asked Dumbledore to work with him.
• Will told Dumbledore he had a plan to find the Chamber of Secrets.

Will and Dumbledore discovered Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets, destroyed Tom’s Diary, and divided the chamber’s books according to their agreement. Dumbledore burned the chamber’s remaining dark Magic texts, while Will arranged to study Old English and turned his attention to the books he could still obtain.

• Will and Dumbledore put their plan into action, with Snape helping to make Will’s disappearance seem plausible and Will borrowing the Marauder’s Map from the Weasley Brothers.
• In the chamber, Tom resented Dumbledore’s trust in Will, while Will explained that he pursued Magic for its own sake and thanked Tom for revealing the chamber.
• Dumbledore collected the chamber’s non-dark Magic books, and Will destroyed Tom’s Diary with a basilisk fang.
• Will examined the chamber’s library and proposed sealing it, but Dumbledore set fire to the chamber and its remaining books on dark Magic.
• Dumbledore offered to copy his books into the Library and find Will an Old English teacher, then suggested they check on Lockhart.

Will returned to studying at Hogwarts after Lockhart’s fraud was exposed and began reading a book on Animagus transformations and Alchemy. The book suggested that becoming an Animagus was a form of Life Alchemy, leaving Will wondering whether Wizards could transform themselves into Magical Creatures.

• The Ministry of Magic announced that Lockhart had been arrested for fraud and tampering with other Wizards’ memories, and the Daily Prophet exposed the real people behind his books.
• Dumbledore told Hogwarts that he would find a substitute Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, while Will resumed his studies and Hermione struggled with Lockhart’s disgrace.
• Will studied Transfiguration and Old English, hoping to earn experience from Slytherin’s books.
• Will read that Alchemy and Transfiguration both reshaped matter, and that an Animagus transformation borrowed Magic from nature.
• Will considered the book’s claim that becoming an Animagus was Life Alchemy and wondered whether Wizards could use it to become Magical Creatures.

Will compared Alchemy with Transfiguration before attending Herbology, where he later encountered Harry caught up in Colin’s fan club drama. Snape confronted Dumbledore about losing the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, and Dumbledore revealed he had appointed a new professor and offered Snape a collection of Slytherin’s Dark Magic books.

• Will considered how Alchemy differed from Transfiguration and wondered whether Animagus transformation could be altered to perform Life Alchemy again.
• Professor Sprout taught the students about Mandrakes and warned them that the plants’ screams were dangerous when they were pulled from the soil.
• Will found Harry being pestered by Colin, while Malfoy mocked Harry over bath photos taken for the Harry Potter Fan Club.
• Snape arrived and deducted fifteen points from Gryffindor, then glanced at Will as he left.
• Snape asked Dumbledore why he had canceled Snape’s appointment to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.
• Dumbledore gave Snape books left behind by Slytherin and said a new professor would teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Dumbledore introduced Alastor Moody as Hogwarts' new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and Moody began teaching students about the realities of wizarding war. His blunt lessons unsettled younger students, increased Harry's renown, and left Moody eyeing Will with suspicion before he began discussing Voldemort.

• Dumbledore announced Alastor Moody as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and Will recognized him as likely the real Moody.
• Sylvia told Will she knew Moody through her grandfather, while Ron recounted Moody's reputation as an Auror.
• Moody taught students about wartime tactics and deadly magic, horrifying Harry and Ron and prompting a long discussion with Professor McGonagall.
• Moody's account of Voldemort and the Death Eaters increased students' respect for Harry and helped the Harry Potter Fan Club grow.
• Moody singled out Will over his surname, then condemned Slytherins with Death Eater relatives before beginning a lesson about Voldemort.

Moody warned his students about the horrors of the last wizarding war and summoned Will and Harry for practical lessons. After testing their Disarming Charms, he assigned Harry more practice and offered to teach Will combat techniques.

• Moody described the Death Eaters’ violence and urged his students to prepare for future wars.
• Malfoy complained after class that Moody was a lunatic for talking about another war.
• Moody summoned Will to his office, where he explained that Dumbledore had asked him to give special lessons to Will and another student.
• Harry arrived, and Moody asked him to demonstrate the Disarming Charm; Harry cast it at Moody, who judged his performance passable.
• Will cast a much faster and stronger Disarming Charm, prompting Moody to test it again with a Shield Charm.
• Moody told Harry to keep practising and offered to teach Will practical combat techniques.

Will trained with Moody to improve his combat skills while balancing a packed schedule and struggling with his Animagus attempt. After Potions, the Weasley Twins tested their Roaring Biscuits on Ron and Harry, drawing Snape’s ire, while Snape reminded Will to prepare for their lesson that night.

• Moody coached Will and Harry in combat and assigned them weekly training sessions.
• Will attended extra lessons, failed to keep a Mandrake leaf in his mouth, and began dueling classmates in Moody’s Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.
• The Weasley Twins offered their Roaring Biscuits to Will and Sylvia, who both refused.
• Ron and Harry ate the biscuits and made loud animal-like noises in the Corridor.
• Snape took four points from Gryffindor, warned Harry, and told Will to prepare for their lesson that night.
• Will watched the Twins leave and recalled their skill at Transfiguration.

Will learned from Snape how magical ingredients retained their power after a creature died and asked whether wizards left magic behind as well. Snape explained that wizards had no Magical Organs, leaving Will to question how ghosts fit the rule.

• Will brewed Shrinking Solution and asked Snape whether potions could be made into solid food.
• Snape taught Will that a creature’s magic could be directed into useful body parts before death so they would retain it.
• Will killed a Cornish Pixie and collected its blood, but found that neither the blood nor the corpse retained magic.
• Snape dissected a Runespoor and explained that some creatures had Magical Organs, while powerful ones such as Fire Dragons, unicorns, and phoenixes retained magic throughout their bodies.
• Will asked whether wizards left magic behind when they died, and Snape said they had no Magical Organs and left no magic.
• Will asked whether ghosts counted as magical remnants because he could see magic flowing within them.

Snape explained to Will how ghosts were formed and what they could remember and learn, prompting Will to consider how they might relate to Natural Magic. Later, Will helped the Weasley Brothers evade Filch and invited them to see a remarkable place.

• Snape told Will that ghosts were imprints formed by a wizard’s lingering fixation and that they could not learn new things.
• Will compared ghosts to frozen artificial intelligences and considered whether their existence was connected to Natural Magic.
• After leaving Snape’s office, Will encountered the Weasley Brothers fleeing Filch and directed them into a nearby room.
• Will told Filch that he had seen two Weasleys run upstairs, then waited until Filch had left before the brothers emerged.
• Will invited the Weasley Brothers to visit a remarkable place.