Chapter Summaries

During Potions class, Zhang Xiao talked his way out of trouble by inventing a name for the potion residue in his cauldron, while Snape bullied Harry and other students through a disastrous lesson. After class, Harry invited Zhang Xiao to visit Hagrid, and Zhang Xiao accepted.

• Zhang Xiao claimed his cauldron had been used to brew an East Asian potion called Happiness Soup, and Snape deducted one point from Slytherin for the dirty cauldron.
• Snape criticized Harry and praised Malfoy and Zhang Xiao, while Hermione successfully brewed the Cure for Boils Potion.
• Seamus's cauldron exploded, Neville was covered in potion and boils, and Snape sent both boys to the Hospital Wing before blaming Harry and docking Gryffindor a point.
• Malfoy mocked Seamus as a half-blood, and Zhang Xiao pointed out that Crabbe and Goyle's potion was a sludge-like mess.
• Zhang Xiao brewed the Cure for Boils Potion on his own and reflected on how much precision potion-making required.
• Harry invited Zhang Xiao to visit Hagrid, and Zhang Xiao happily accepted.

Zhang Xiao visited Hagrid’s cabin with Harry and Ron, where Hagrid initially objected to having a Slytherin guest but warmed to him. The conversation touched on Harry’s suspicions about Snape and the Gringotts break-in before Zhang asked to use nearby land to grow vegetables.

• Zhang Xiao, Harry, and Ron visited Hagrid, who reluctantly let Zhang stay after Harry and Ron vouched for him and Fang took to him.
• Hagrid apologized to Zhang and served him Rock Cakes while they discussed school, Professor Quirrell, and Snape’s dislike of Harry.
• Harry asked Hagrid whether Snape had hated James Potter at school, and Hagrid vaguely confirmed there might have been a feud.
• Harry brought up the Gringotts break-in on his birthday, but Hagrid avoided discussing it.
• Zhang Xiao asked Hagrid how he could get permission to use the open land by the cabin, explaining that he wanted to grow vegetables because he disliked Hogwarts’ repetitive food.

Zhang Xiao spoke with his parents through a Far-Seeing Mirror, learned they were trying to catch him a white-feathered Gyrfalcon, and discussed his recent actions at Hogwarts. After Malfoy asked to learn Chinese, Zhang Xiao connected the language to questions about China’s history and attitudes toward Muggles and bloodlines, and Malfoy agreed to study it.

• Hagrid agreed to Zhang Xiao’s request, and Zhang Xiao planned to ask his parents to send seeds; Professor Sprout later gave him botany advice and awarded Slytherin five points.
• Zhang Xiao showed Malfoy a Far-Seeing Mirror and used the Fingertip Circular Light Technique to contact his parents, though the mirror only transmitted their voices.
• Zhang Xiao’s parents told him they were searching the Outer Khingan Range for a white-feathered Gyrfalcon to send him, and they praised him for standing up to pure-blood bullies.
• Malfoy heard Zhang Xiao speak Chinese with his mother and asked to learn the language, but doubted that such a large country could have only one language.
• Zhang Xiao explained how China’s history might answer Malfoy’s questions about Muggles and bloodlines, and Malfoy agreed to learn Chinese.

Zhang Xiao practiced Daoist meditation while settling into an easy school routine and competing with Hermione in Charms. As Hogwarts students anticipated Flying Class, he wondered how the Daoist Order usually flew after learning that long-distance Flying Sword travel was uncomfortable and exposed.

• Zhang Xiao studied the meditation test diagram and could make only four of its eight characters light up, though his practice improved his concentration in class.
• Hermione grew competitive with Zhang Xiao after Professor Flitwick praised him and compared him with her.
• Half a month passed, and Zhang Xiao's seeds arrived by owl, though growing them quickly made them taste awful.
• Malfoy excitedly told Zhang Xiao that Flying Class was scheduled for that day and bragged about riding broomsticks at home.
• Zhang Xiao recalled that Zhang Chengdao had warned Flying Sword travel could bring cold, strong winds, and fatigue, but he still favored it for short, low-altitude trips.

Zhang Xiao and the other first-years began their first flying lesson, where he quickly summoned his broom. Neville struggled to call his broom up, and Zhang Xiao encouraged him as Neville reflected on Zhang’s kindness.

• Malfoy and other students boasted about their past Quidditch and broom-flying experiences, while Hermione had memorized information from Quidditch Through the Ages.
• Zhang Xiao and the first-years went to the lawn for their first flying class with Madam Hooch, who warned them to obey the rules.
• Madam Hooch told the students to call their brooms, and Zhang Xiao focused until his broom jumped into his hand.
• Neville pleaded with his broom to rise, but it remained on the ground, leaving him anxious about being scolded or mocked.
• Zhang Xiao told Neville to take a deep breath, and Neville recalled how Zhang had helped him and never laughed at him.

Zhang Xiao tried to protect Neville during flying class, but a faulty school broom sent them both hurtling into the sky. After they regained control and flew back, Neville leaped from the broom to save Zhang Xiao, leaving Zhang to dive after him.

• Zhang Xiao helped Neville summon his broom and switched places with him to prevent the accident he remembered from the book.
• Neville told Zhang Xiao that his broom was shaking, and Zhang realized it might be faulty before the broom shot into the sky with both boys aboard.
• Neville grabbed Zhang Xiao and helped him climb onto the broom, and Zhang managed to steer them back toward the lawn.
• As the broom faltered on the way back, Neville asked Zhang Xiao if they were friends and then jumped off, urging him to survive.
• Zhang Xiao let go of the broom and lunged after Neville.

Zhang Xiao saved Neville from a fatal fall, then plunged toward the ground himself. Harry, Ron, and Malfoy risked expulsion to help him, and the chapter ended with Zhang Xiao embracing them in gratitude as Dumbledore and Fawkes departed.

• Zhang Xiao caught Neville in midair and used a talisman to slow Neville’s fall, but continued falling himself.
• Harry flew to help Zhang Xiao, and Ron and Malfoy joined him despite Madam Hooch’s warning that anyone who moved would be expelled.
• Harry repeatedly tugged Zhang Xiao to slow his descent, but his broom cracked near the ground and he fell safely a few meters below.
• Ron caught Zhang Xiao and cushioned his landing, while Harry and Malfoy landed nearby; Ron was left groaning from the impact.
• Zhang Xiao thanked Harry, Ron, and Malfoy and hugged them, while Dumbledore told Fawkes that they were no longer needed and vanished in a flash of fire.

After Neville’s fall from a malfunctioning broom, Professor McGonagall punished and rewarded the students who tried to save him, while Snape defended Zhang Xiao’s actions. Harry and Ron later learned they would join Gryffindor’s Quidditch team, and Harry discovered his father had been a Seeker at Hogwarts.

• Professor McGonagall deducted points from Harry, Ron, Neville, and Zhang Xiao for their reckless actions, then awarded points for their courage and Hermione’s quick thinking.
• Professor McGonagall gave Zhang Xiao 150 points for his bravery and calm decisions, while Snape argued that Zhang had acted as an exemplary Slytherin.
• Madam Hooch suspended Flying Class until she could inspect every school broom, and McGonagall took Harry and Ron away to discuss their punishment.
• Harry told Zhang Xiao that McGonagall had made him Gryffindor’s new Seeker and Ron a reserve Keeper.
• Hermione told Harry that his father had been one of Hogwarts’s best Seekers, and Harry lingered by his father’s display in the House Trophy Room.

After the Flying Class incident made Neville and Zhang Xiao more popular, Zhang Xiao learned he had been assigned Forbidden Forest detention with Malfoy. He suspected Dumbledore planned the punishment as a test of the first-years and a way to draw out whoever was pursuing the Philosopher’s Stone.

• Neville gained classmates’ support, received more patience from professors, and kept up with lessons with Hermione’s help.
• Zhang Xiao spent his days studying and helping Hagrid tend the vegetable patch, while Malfoy grew upset after receiving a letter from home.
• McGonagall objected to sending first-years into the Forbidden Forest, but Dumbledore said he would follow them and agreed to schedule the detention after Halloween.
• Zhang Xiao and Malfoy received the Forbidden Forest punishment, and Malfoy panicked about the creatures said to live there.
• Zhang Xiao reasoned that Dumbledore’s defenses around the Philosopher’s Stone were designed to test newcomers and lure out the person trying to steal it.

The author explained that the book would not receive a second round of promotion, despite good reader retention, because readers had grown wary of Harry Potter fanfiction with Chinese elements. The author decided to keep writing for the readers who had supported them over the years.

• The author's editor said the book would not get a second round of promotion, though its follow-through readership was good.
• The editor praised the book's integration of Eastern elements but said it had arrived at a bad time, when readers reacted strongly against Chinese elements in Harry Potter fanfiction.
• The author described spending years considering how to combine Eastern ideas with the Harry Potter world while preserving its sense of reality and internal logic.
• The author said they had first conceived the book years earlier and delayed writing it while waiting to play Hogwarts Legacy as a Slytherin.
• The author recalled abandoning an earlier novel seven years ago and thanked the readers who had remained supportive since then.
• The author rejected the editor's joke about repaying readers with cross-dressing and vowed to keep writing.

Zhang Xiao discovered the Room of Requirement and used it to practice spells, then noticed his spellcasting capacity rose in sudden jumps that might be linked to Daoist Meditation. He left exhausted but pleased, planning to gather more data on whether combining Eastern cultivation with Western magic could strengthen him.

• Zhang Xiao avoided attention at Hogwarts and went to the Seventh Floor seeking a quiet place to practice.
• Zhang Xiao entered the Room of Requirement, which had created a practice area filled with self-repairing dummies.
• Zhang Xiao practiced offensive and defensive spells until he reached his limit of thirty-six consecutive casts.
• Zhang Xiao compared his spell-count records and suspected that seated Meditation might explain sudden increases in his magical capacity.
• Zhang Xiao took a stamina-restoring pill, resumed practicing, and returned to his dormitory exhausted but satisfied.

Zhang Xiao worried that events were being pulled back onto their original course as Harry and Ron’s feud with Hermione and Slytherin’s hostility continued. When Daphne Greengrass mocked his friends and attacked him with Dark Magic, he blocked her spell and stunned her, declaring that the pure-bloods only respected force.

• Harry and Ron complained to Zhang Xiao after Hermione refused to let them copy her homework.
• Zhang Xiao noticed familiar conflicts and bullying returning, and wondered whether the timeline resisted change.
• Daphne Greengrass mocked Zhang Xiao and his friends in the Slytherin common room while the pure-blood students laughed.
• Zhang Xiao drew his wand and told the students a story about a Muggle-born wizard who fought his way to respect in Slytherin.
• Daphne attacked Zhang Xiao with a powerful Dark spell, but he deflected it with Protego.
• Zhang Xiao stunned Daphne with Stupefy and declared that the pure-bloods feared force rather than virtue.

Zhang Xiao defeated the Slytherin pure-blood students who had planned to humiliate him, leaving Professor McGonagall and Snape to investigate the fight. Professor McGonagall asked Zhang to explain what had happened.

• Pansy Parkinson attacked Zhang Xiao, but he disarmed her and tossed her wand into the pool.
• The pure-blood students fired jinxes at Zhang Xiao, who dodged and counterattacked with unusual nonverbal magic, knocking down most of them.
• Zhang Xiao stunned Malfoy, who had fired several spells while deliberately aiming away from him.
• Professor McGonagall and Snape arrived to find the students sprawled across the Common Room and demanded an account of the incident.
• Snape threatened to use Veritaserum, and Professor McGonagall asked Zhang Xiao to tell them what had happened.

After Daphne Greengrass attacked Zhang Xiao with Dark Magic, Professor McGonagall and Snape dealt with the aftermath and sent Zhang to the Headmaster's Office at Dumbledore's request. Zhang arrived to find the former headmasters arguing in their portraits, and Dilys Derwent called for them to listen to Dumbledore.

• Zhang Xiao told Professor McGonagall that Daphne had insulted and attacked him, while Snape ordered Marcus Flint to take the injured students to his office.
• Snape rebuked Daphne Greengrass for losing control, and Professor McGonagall took Zhang and Daphne with her before Daphne was led away for her case to be handled.
• Professor McGonagall's Patronus summoned Zhang to Dumbledore's Office and gave him the password, Super Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.
• Zhang followed the Patronus to the gargoyle, spoke the password, and climbed the revealed staircase to Dumbledore's Office.
• The portraits of former headmasters argued with Phineas Nigellus Black as Zhang entered, until Dilys Derwent called for everyone to listen to Headmaster Dumbledore.

Zhang Xiao spoke with Dumbledore about the attack and his unknown Eastern family, then consulted his father, who explained the attackers’ motives and promised an Azure Luan elder would visit him. The chapter ended with Zhang Chengdao warning that the attackers might be trying to assess the Zhang family and exploit any weakness.

• Dumbledore asked Zhang Xiao why he thought the attack had happened, praised his reasoning, and questioned him about his family and the East.
• Zhang Xiao told Dumbledore he knew little about his heritage, and Dumbledore sent him away, praising him for standing up to bullies and hoping he would change Slytherin.
• Zhang Xiao contacted his father, Zhang Chengdao, who said his Gyrfalcon messenger plan had failed but an Azure Luan elder would come stay with Zhang Xiao.
• Zhang Chengdao agreed that the attack had been a test and explained that the attackers wanted to gauge the Zhang family’s strength before deciding how to approach them.
• Zhang Chengdao warned that the attackers might be hoping the Zhang family was weak so they could exploit them.

Zhang Xiao learned that the Daoist Order would deal with the pure-bloods through overwhelming force, while the Shafiq family was attacked after Slytherin students targeted him. He ended the chapter by declaring that he wanted to change Slytherin.

• Zhang Chengdao told Zhang Xiao that the Daoist Order would back him and could force the pure-blood families into line, then said the Order was invincible in Huaxia and about evenly matched with wizards abroad.
• The school punished the ten Slytherin students who attacked Zhang Xiao, emptying the house’s Gem Hourglass, while Daphne lost 200 points and withdrew from school.
• Students from the other houses mocked the Slytherins, and the Weasley twins taunted them during Quidditch practice.
• The Daily Prophet reported that masked attackers had wrecked the Shafiq manor and defeated its family members, frightening the Shafiq students at Hogwarts.
• Zhang Xiao recalled his father’s question about whether he wanted a title or real leadership and declared, “I want to change Slytherin!”

Zhang Chengdao’s alliances split the pure-bloods, while Zhang Xiao met with Dumbledore, who tested his intentions for Slytherin and offered conditional support. After Dumbledore advised him on how lasting change could be achieved, Zhang Xiao left with a clearer path, and Dumbledore chose to keep observing him.

• Zhang Chengdao’s cooperation agreements won over several pure-blood families and weakened their alliance against the Zhang family.
• Dumbledore told Zhang Xiao that he had become influential among part of Slytherin and asked where he intended to lead it.
• Zhang Xiao said he wanted Slytherin to embrace pride, responsibility, acceptance, and glory, and Dumbledore gave him a feather to use to contact him once.
• Zhang Xiao asked Dumbledore why his efforts to change things seemed to fail, and Dumbledore advised him to find and work through the connections that pulled them back to their original course.
• Dumbledore told the portraits he believed Zhang Xiao for now and would continue to observe him, while Fawkes indicated he liked Zhang Xiao.

After Slytherin lost the Quidditch match, Zhang Xiao reflected on Professor Quirrell’s suspicious actions and his efforts to encourage Harry and Ron to work harder. Davis then told Zhang that Hagrid had invited him to the Hut-on-the-Rock, where Harry and the others were waiting.

• Malfoy complained that Slytherin had lost after Harry caught the Golden Snitch, and he speculated that someone had tampered with Harry’s broom to help Slytherin.
• Zhang Xiao suspected Professor Quirrell had caused Harry’s broom to go out of control, though Malfoy laughed at the idea.
• Zhang Xiao recalled encouraging Harry and Ron to finish their homework and help them make up with Hermione after she saved Harry during the match.
• Davis told Zhang Xiao that Hagrid had invited him to the Hut-on-the-Rock, where Harry and the others were waiting.
• Zhang Xiao gave Malfoy the latest issue of Dragon Ball and left the Common Room.

Zhang Xiao cooked a meal for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid, then revealed that Nicolas Flamel owned the Philosopher’s Stone. The others realized the object guarded by Fluffy was likely the Stone, leaving them with a new lead in their suspicions about Snape.

• Harry told Hagrid that he and Ron had seen Snape near Fluffy and suspected him of trying to steal what the dog guarded.
• Hagrid explained that Fluffy was his and that Snape was one of the Stone’s guardians, then accidentally revealed Nicolas Flamel’s name.
• Zhang Xiao harvested bok choy and cooked wild boar and cabbage stew with help from Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
• Hagrid and the children loved the meal, and they shared it with rock cakes before taking a walk.
• Zhang Xiao identified Nicolas Flamel as Dumbledore’s friend and the owner of the Philosopher’s Stone, which could grant immortality.

After discussing what they would do with the Philosopher’s Stone, Zhang Xiao decided to visit the Hogwarts kitchens and ask the house-elves for Chinese food. The house-elves were horrified when they learned he had struggled to adapt to Hogwarts meals.

• Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Zhang Xiao shared their ideas about the Philosopher’s Stone, and Zhang said he would display it as a collectible.
• Zhang Xiao decided to launch the Hogwarts Special Meals Plan because he was tired of potatoes and roast meat.
• Cedric guided Zhang Xiao to the kitchens and gave him advice about speaking with house-elves; Zhang thanked him with a Bulma figurine.
• Zhang Xiao entered the kitchens and told the house-elves that he was an international student from China who had struggled with the local food.
• The house-elves interrupted Zhang Xiao with shrieks and sobs, while their leader cried that the situation was a disgrace.