Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xiao spoke with Professor Lupin in his office, learned Lupin was a werewolf, and agreed to examine him using his Dharma Eye. The chapter ended as Zhang Xiao saw black energy seeping from Lupin's body.

• Lupin showed Zhang Xiao the Grindylow in his office, and they made tea together.
• Lupin struggled to tell Zhang Xiao about his condition, but Zhang Xiao asked if he was a werewolf.
• Zhang Xiao explained that Dumbledore had told him, and Lupin said Snape brewed Wolfsbane Potion to keep him safe during the full moon.
• Lupin asked Zhang Xiao to help with his werewolf problem, and Zhang agreed to examine him.
• Zhang Xiao used his Dharma Eye to observe Lupin and saw wisps of black energy seeping from his body.

Zhang Xiao could not identify the source of Professor Lupin’s black energy, so he arranged for his parents to examine Lupin during the next Hogsmeade weekend. Meanwhile, Greengrass pressured Fudge to restrict East-West trade in exchange for helping remove Dumbledore from two powerful positions.

• Zhang Xiao consulted Records of Demons but found that Lupin showed few signs of being a demon or monster, then called Zhang Chengdao for help.
• Zhang Chengdao agreed to visit with Zhang Xiao’s mother and examine Lupin, and Zhang Xiao arranged to meet them during the next Hogsmeade weekend.
• Lupin found the tea Zhang Xiao had left for him and quietly savored it, moved by the thoughtful gift.
• Greengrass urged Fudge to ban East-West trade or make it a Ministry monopoly, threatening that Dumbledore could otherwise gain more support.
• Greengrass offered to help remove Dumbledore as chairman of the International Confederation of Wizards and Wizengamot Chief, and Fudge said he would think about it.

Zhang Xiao helped Neville’s newfound abilities flourish and offered to arrange a physical training room after other students asked to join. In China, Lucius Malfoy learned that Fudge planned to bring his business under Ministry of Magic control, leaving him astonished by the proposed intervention.

• Neville impressed the Duelling Club by casting a powerful Stunning Spell, and Harry explained that Neville’s former difficulties had been caused by a Memory Charm.
• Zhang Xiao reflected on Neville’s progress and learned that Neville needed a place to continue the physical training he had started at Wudang.
• Zhang Xiao offered to ask for an empty classroom and set up a training room, and Harry and several other students asked to join.
• Zhang Xiao considered asking his father for basic unarmed fighting techniques that he could teach to the students.
• At a construction site in Pengcheng, Lucius Malfoy received a call warning him that Fudge wanted to pass the East-West Trade Management Act and place the business under Ministry control.

Lucius warned Zhang Chengdao that Fudge planned to restrict East-West Trade and make it a Ministry of Magic monopoly, a move Zhang Xiao traced to Voldemort’s extremist allies. Zhang Xiao found a way around the threat by proposing Hong Kong as an offshore trading center, then turned to studying Dark Magic.

• Lucius contacted Zhang Chengdao and explained that the Ministry’s proposed trade monopoly was likely being driven by Voldemort’s extremist pure-blood supporters.
• Zhang Chengdao asked Zhang Xiao how to respond, and Zhang Xiao considered how Voldemort’s return and Fudge’s political fears had shifted the balance among the pure-bloods.
• Zhang Xiao reasoned that the Daoist Order’s trade profits mattered to its pure-blood partners, who mainly wanted Galleons rather than imported goods.
• Zhang Xiao proposed Hong Kong as an offshore settlement center where East and West could trade beyond the Ministry of Magic’s reach.
• Zhang Xiao set the trade problem aside and began studying Dark Magic from the open Diary.

Zhang Xiao began studying dark magic with Tom's guidance and tested the Corrosion Curse in the Room of Requirement, where its power resisted the room's repairs and stirred an unsettling pleasure in him. Tom then revealed that Slytherin had left research notes in the Chamber of Secrets and remembered taking some to the Room of Requirement.

• Zhang Xiao asked Tom to create a beginner's study plan for dark magic, and Tom recommended starting with the Corrosion Curse.
• Zhang Xiao cast the Corrosion Curse on a target in the Room of Requirement, and the spell melted through it faster than the room could repair it.
• Zhang Xiao felt pleasure from the curse's power, dispelled the feeling with the Golden Light Spell, and stopped practicing when the sensation became harder to overcome.
• Zhang Xiao asked Tom whether the Chamber of Secrets contained anything beyond the basilisk, and Tom showed him a hidden room full of books and a desk.
• Tom said Slytherin had left research notes for his heir and recalled taking some of them to the Room of Requirement.

Zhang Xiao searched Hogwarts’s Room of Hidden Things, found and sealed Ravenclaw’s Diadem, then safely opened the cursed trunk containing Slytherin’s Research Notes. He ended the chapter holding the notes at last.

• Zhang Xiao used a flying ribbon to search the vast room for the markers Tom had left.
• Zhang Xiao found the Diadem beside a broken bust and used his Dharma Eye to confirm it was a Horcrux.
• Zhang Xiao sealed the Diadem, bringing the Horcruxes dealt with to three of seven.
• Zhang Xiao opened the cursed trunk from a distance, avoiding its deadly black mist and screaming trap.
• Zhang Xiao put on Dragonhide Gloves and retrieved Slytherin’s Research Notes from the trunk.

Zhang Xiao read Slytherin’s experimental notes, which led him to propose that bloodlines were keys while souls were the source of magical abilities. The remaining scrolls revealed Slytherin’s views on owls and standardized spells, then ended with his decision to explore mysterious ruins alone; Zhang Xiao noticed writing on the scroll’s back.

• Zhang Xiao examined Slytherin’s records of experiments on magical creatures and humans, including his observations about dragons, unicorns, giants, and werewolves.
• Zhang Xiao compared Slytherin’s bloodline hypothesis with evidence from Harry, Animagi, and ghosts, then wrote that bloodlines were keys and souls were the treasure vault.
• Zhang Xiao read Slytherin’s notes about the Ministry’s enchanted postal owls and his call to standardize spells.
• Zhang Xiao learned that Ravenclaw had devised a method to restore damaged murals, and read that Slytherin planned to return to the ruins alone after Gryffindor refused to join him.
• Zhang Xiao reached the end of the scroll, then noticed writing on its back.

Zhang Xiao read Slytherin’s warning about a coming disaster, then brought the message and the Ravenclaw’s Diadem to Dumbledore. Dumbledore recognized the diadem as a likely Horcrux and began examining Slytherin’s research notes, where he noticed something unusual about Zhang Xiao.

• Zhang Xiao compared Slytherin’s warning with the letter to Gryffindor and decided to take the concerns about Ancient Magic and the wizard population to Dumbledore.
• Zhang Xiao visited the Headmaster’s Office and showed Dumbledore Ravenclaw’s Diadem, prompting Dumbledore to suspect that Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes were Founder relics.
• Zhang Xiao explained that he had found the diadem among Slytherin’s research material in the Room of Requirement and gave the notes to Dumbledore.
• Dumbledore read the notes, connected them to Tom’s advanced knowledge of bodily modification, and noticed something unusual about Zhang Xiao on the final sheet.

Zhang Xiao shared Slytherin’s dangerous research with Dumbledore, who decided to investigate and keep it secret. Later, Snape took over Lupin’s Defence Against the Dark Arts class, punished Gryffindor students, and ordered Ron to stay after class.

• Dumbledore read Zhang Xiao’s materials, agreed the biological modifications were dangerous, and asked him to keep them sealed while he investigated Slytherin’s warning about a catastrophe.
• Zhang Xiao left Dumbledore a package of Drunken Peanuts, then continued dividing his time between physical training and Daoist Magic while his Time-Turner duplicate studied magic.
• Hermione scolded Zhang Xiao for not using his Time-Turner to attend classes, but accepted his assurance that the school had approved his method.
• Snape arrived to teach Lupin’s Defence Against the Dark Arts class, deducted points from Gryffindor, and chose to teach the students about werewolves.
• Snape deducted more points from Hermione, and Ron defended her before Snape ordered him to stay after class and assigned the students essays on identifying and killing werewolves.

Professor Lupin taught the class how to face a Boggart, and Neville’s fear revealed the gravestone of his parents. After the students took turns transforming their fears with Riddikulus, the Boggart turned toward Zhang Xiao and vanished before revealing what he feared most.

• The students complained to Professor Lupin about Snape’s homework, and Lupin told them they would not have to write the essay.
• Professor Lupin introduced the Boggart and explained that a crowd and the Riddikulus spell could defeat it.
• Neville faced the Boggart, which became the gravestone of Frank and Alice, then turned it into Snape in women’s clothing.
• Parvati, Seamus, Dean, and Ron each transformed the Boggart’s frightening forms into comic ones.
• The Boggart became Professor McGonagall expelling Hermione, and Zhang Xiao and Malfoy helped comfort her.
• Zhang Xiao faced the Boggart, which took Professor McGonagall’s form before bursting into mist.

During Lupin’s Boggart lesson, the Boggart accidentally triggered Zhang Xiao’s pendant and then revealed his fear of his future daughter dating a reckless young man. Zhang invited his friends to spend Christmas with him, while Neville’s rapid Tai Chi progress impressed Zhang as Hogsmeade weekend approached.

• Zhang Xiao’s pendant caused the Boggart to writhe in pain and retreat into the wardrobe, and Lupin and Zhang had to coax it back out.
• The Boggart appeared as Zhang’s imagined future daughter defending a scruffy boyfriend, prompting Zhang to unleash golden light and send it fleeing into the wardrobe again.
• Lupin awarded points to the students and assigned homework, while Zhang invited his friends and their families to spend Christmas at his home; Harry accepted with Sirius.
• Zhang Xiao sparred with Neville and was astonished when Neville deflected his move, showing remarkable progress in Tai Chi.
• Zhang watched the young wizards exercise at the gym and reflected that the Hogsmeade weekend was the next day.

Zhang Xiao reunited with his parents in Hogsmeade, then brought them together with Lupin to investigate his werewolf condition. After their initial tests found no external cause, Li Qingshu asked to test Lupin’s blood.

• Heavy snow covered Hogwarts, and Zhang Xiao went to Hogsmeade with the other young wizards.
• Zhang Xiao reunited with Zhang Chengdao and Li Qingshu at the Three Broomsticks, where they shared Butterbeer and caught up.
• Sirius arrived with Lupin and took the young wizards to choose Christmas presents, while Lupin told Zhang Xiao about the Shrieking Shack.
• Zhang Chengdao and Li Qingshu met Lupin at the Shrieking Shack and agreed to examine his werewolf condition.
• Li Qingshu tested several magical objects and found no sign of an external cause, then asked Lupin for permission to test his blood.

Li Qingshu and Zhang Chengdao tested Professor Lupin’s blood and found no parasites, poison, or curses, then began examining him outside his body. Li Qingshu’s reaction to what she saw through the transformed Bagua Demon-Revealing Mirror suggested they had discovered something important.

• Li Qingshu healed Lupin’s wrist and tested his blood with several Daoist instruments, but the Microscopic Disc found no gu worms, poison, or similar abnormalities.
• Li Qingshu asked Lupin about werewolf families, and Lupin described his observations that sons were often werewolves while daughters were not.
• Li Qingshu and Zhang Chengdao decided to separate Lupin’s soul and spirit from his body, and Zhang Chengdao knocked him unconscious with a palm strike.
• Li Qingshu used the Bagua Demon-Revealing Mirror, which transformed into a lens, then called Zhang Chengdao and Zhang Xiao over to look.

Zhang Xiao and his parents discovered that Lupin’s condition resembled the transformations of China’s Tushan clan and invited him to seek their help. After Lupin accepted, the family spent a snowy afternoon together in Hogsmeade, where Zhang Chengdao asked Zhang Xiao what he thought of the Ministry of Magic’s ban.

• Zhang Xiao saw animal ears and a tail on Lupin’s soul through the Bagua Mirror, and Li Qingshu explained the Tushan clan’s similar ability to take fox or human form.
• Zhang Chengdao said a Wudang disciple named Gu Ying was involved with a Tushan fox maiden, then the family agreed to return Lupin’s soul and discuss his condition with him.
• Zhang Chengdao and Li Qingshu invited Lupin to China, where the Tushan clan might help him control his transformations.
• Lupin agreed to travel to China after the school year ended, and Zhang Xiao hugged him and reassured him.
• Zhang Xiao transformed the Three Broomsticks’ terrace into a warm sunroom, and the family shared food and drinks while admiring the snow.
• Zhang Chengdao asked Zhang Xiao what he thought about the Ministry of Magic’s ban.

Zhang Xiao proposed moving East-West trade to Hong Kong, but Zhang Chengdao warned that doing so would undermine the Daoist Order’s dignity and bargaining power. Zhang Xiao chose to let trade stop until the Ministry of Magic and the pure-bloods recognized that the decision belonged to the Daoist Order, while the young wizards returned to the Three Broomsticks with Sirius’s gifts.

• Zhang Xiao explained that Cornelius Fudge was testing the Daoist Order and using the trade restrictions to justify searches, with extremist pure-bloods backing him.
• Zhang Xiao proposed moving trade to Hong Kong, where goods could be exchanged and processed outside the Ministry of Magic’s restrictions.
• Zhang Chengdao warned that accepting the Ministry’s terms would make the Daoist Order appear eager for profits and surrender control of the trade.
• Zhang Xiao decided to let East-West trade stop until the Ministry and the pure-bloods understood that the Daoist Order held the right to decide whether trade continued.
• Sirius treated Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the other young wizards to gifts, including an owl for Hermione, while Malfoy regretted losing his chance to give her one.
• Sirius went to the Hog’s Head to meet Lupin and ask how things had turned out.

Zhang Xiao told Malfoy and Lucius that he planned to stop East-West Trade, prompting Lucius to fear the consequences across the Wizarding World. In Diagon Alley, Fritz Dennis learned that the trade had been banned and that the magical leaves he needed for his potion were gone.

• Zhang Xiao asked Malfoy to watch the mood in their house and said he planned to stop East-West Trade.
• Lucius ended a phone call with Zhang Xiao, worried it could unleash upheaval across the Wizarding World.
• Fritz Dennis spent a Galleon to impress a waitress, then left after learning she was married.
• Dennis went to Slug & Giggs Apothecary to collect ten portions of magical leaves from the East.
• Giggs told Dennis that the Ministry of Magic had banned East-West Trade and that the leaves were gone, leaving Dennis shocked.

Dennis lost access to the eastern ingredients behind his Super Invigoration Draught and joined the growing protest against the Ministry’s trade ban. Greengrass persuaded Fudge that the East was weak and urged him to send a threatening letter, leaving the Ministry poised to escalate the dispute.

• Giggs told Dennis that the Ministry had cut off East-West trade, and that his prepaid ingredients were already purchased and could only be collected if the Ministry allowed them through.
• Dennis sought ginseng from the Potions Association, but its staff refused to allocate scarce supplies because Master Figor also needed them and the stock could make only a few dozen potions.
• Dennis hurried to the Ministry, where Bones addressed a large protest and asked the crowd to leave while the Ministry tried to communicate with the East.
• Fudge panicked over the protest, but Greengrass calmed him with a bank draft and argued that the East was too weak to resist Britain.
• Greengrass urged Fudge to send China a strongly worded warning letter, claiming Mahoutokoro’s records showed the country’s wizarding community had nearly been destroyed in a past war with Japan.

Fudge struggled to deliver his ultimatum to China, while Zhang Chengdao dismissed its threats and planned to redirect East-West trade through Hong Kong. At Hogwarts, Zhang Xiao enjoyed Hagrid’s Hippogriff lesson and prepared Christmas gifts before Dumbledore revealed that he had found an important lead on another Horcrux.

• Fudge sent his ultimatum through a circuitous chain of intermediaries until Lucius Malfoy delivered it to Zhang Chengdao, who dismissed it and planned to move the trading destination to Hong Kong.
• Hagrid brought Hippogriffs to Care of Magical Creatures, and Zhang Xiao, Hermione, Ron, and Malfoy approached and rode Buckbeak.
• Malfoy praised Buckbeak as the ideal of a new pure-blood aristocracy and said he would urge his father to keep a Hippogriff.
• Zhang Xiao considered Christmas gifts for his professors and settled on giving Professor McGonagall a Flying Motorcycle.
• Dumbledore sent Zhang Xiao a note and Phoenix Tail Feather revealing that he had found an important lead on another Horcrux.

Dumbledore brought Zhang Xiao by Phoenix fire to the wilderness near Little Hangleton, where they walked toward the Gaunt Shack, Voldemort’s birth mother’s home. Dumbledore explained how he traced the Horcrux and warned Zhang Xiao about the younger Voldemort’s clever defenses as they approached their destination.

• Zhang Xiao used Fawkes’s feather to travel by Phoenix fire to Dumbledore in the wilderness.
• Dumbledore said Zhang Xiao’s discoveries of other Horcruxes had helped him identify patterns and locate a promising route to Voldemort’s Horcrux.
• Dumbledore explained that Voldemort’s cave defenses relied on durable Inferi and potions because large-scale magic was difficult to sustain.
• Dumbledore described how young Voldemort used obstacles and an illusion to exploit wizards’ habit of moving anything blocking their path.
• Dumbledore identified the shadowy building ahead as the Gaunt Shack, the home of Voldemort’s birth mother.

Dumbledore and Zhang Xiao reached the Gaunt Shack to investigate the defenses Voldemort had left there. After Zhang used a recording of Harry speaking Parseltongue to drive away the snakes, they entered the house and prepared to explore further.

• Dumbledore showed Zhang Xiao the Riddle House across the valley, then guided him toward the Gaunt Shack.
• Dumbledore checked the path for magical traps and concluded that Voldemort had likely concentrated his defenses inside the shack.
• Dumbledore and Zhang Xiao found the shack filled with snakes, which Zhang drove away using a recording of Harry's Parseltongue.
• Dumbledore used his Deluminator to light the abandoned room and prepared to investigate Voldemort's remaining tricks.