Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xiao visited the Hogwarts kitchen and taught the house-elves how to cook several Chinese home-style dishes. He left them cookware and rice, promising to teach them more, and looked forward to escaping Hogwarts’ potato-heavy meals.

• Yunbo and the other house-elves blamed themselves for failing to serve Zhang Xiao food he enjoyed, and Yunbo asked him for recipes from his homeland.
• Zhang Xiao brought cookware and ingredients to the kitchen and showed the house-elves how to make stir-fried tomatoes and eggs.
• The house-elves hesitated to eat food Zhang Xiao had cooked, but tried it so they could learn the flavor and praised it enthusiastically.
• Zhang Xiao taught Yunbo and the other house-elves to make Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork and Kung Pao Chicken.
• Zhang Xiao left the house-elves cookware, seasonings, Wuchang Rice, and a rice steamer, and promised to teach them more dishes.

Zhang Xiao drew attention at lunch with his priceless Chinese tableware and offered Draco Malfoy a set of Yuan Blue-and-White Porcelain if his family could persuade powerful Muggles to publicly return a hundred Chinese cultural artifacts. Malfoy planned to ask his parents, and news of Zhang Xiao’s unusual meal spread among the young wizards.

• Zhang Xiao brought Malfoy to his usual lunch seat, where an assortment of rare Chinese tableware appeared before him.
• Malfoy admired the porcelain and asked Zhang Xiao where he had obtained it.
• Zhang Xiao asked whether Malfoy’s family still had ties to powerful Muggles, and Malfoy admitted that they did.
• Zhang Xiao offered Malfoy a set of Yuan Blue-and-White Porcelain if his family helped arrange the public return of a hundred Chinese cultural artifacts.
• Malfoy decided to write to his parents, and word of Zhang Xiao’s tableware and food spread among the young wizards.

Zhang Xiao’s tomato and egg stir-fry became so popular at Hogwarts that Dumbledore added it to the school menu. Later, Zhang Xiao passed a test in the Room of Requirement and opened the Golden Book and Jade Register, whose glow and clear note left him refreshed.

• Harry, Ron, Hermione, Cedric, and students from all four houses asked Zhang Xiao to share his tomato and egg stir-fry, until silver basins of it appeared on every table in the Great Hall.
• Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore tried the dish, and Dumbledore officially added it to the Hogwarts menu.
• Hagrid expanded his vegetable patch with the house-elves’ help and began raising Yorkshire pigs.
• As November brought colder weather, Malfoy grew increasingly anxious about his approaching detention in the Forbidden Forest.
• Zhang Xiao visited the Room of Requirement, placed the Golden Book and Jade Register on the silk testing cloth, and opened its clasp after the eight characters lit up.

Zhang Xiao entered the Golden Book and Jade Register and met a recorded memory of Zhang Chengdao, who explained how Daoist magic and wizarding magic differed and complemented each other. The lesson left Zhang Xiao ready to begin studying the Daoist Order’s foundational Golden Light Spell.

• Zhang Xiao opened the book, pricked his finger on its jade page, and was pulled into a constructed space.
• Zhang Xiao met a recorded Zhang Chengdao, who explained that the space preserved his teachings for Zhang Xiao to study.
• Zhang Chengdao demonstrated Daoist magic as a practice of serving all living beings and wizarding magic as a practice focused on serving oneself.
• Zhang Xiao concluded that the strength of wizarding magic came from grasping the heart, then exhausted himself through intense contemplation.
• Zhang Chengdao told Zhang Xiao to keep his mind calm and began teaching him the Golden Light Spell.

After Zhang Xiao exhausted himself studying, the Room of Requirement gave him a luxurious bedroom and an exceptionally restorative sleep, but he could not summon that room again. He resumed his Daoist training and practiced the Thunder Talisman before preparing for his detention with Malfoy and the two little ones.

• Zhang Xiao collapsed from exhaustion, and the Room of Requirement transformed into a luxurious bedroom where he slept.
• Zhang Xiao woke refreshed in the mysterious room, but the room would not let him inspect its belongings or return when he tried to summon it again.
• Zhang Xiao reviewed his father Zhang Chengdao's teachings about Daoist arts, implements, and methods, and chose to prioritize the Golden Light Spell.
• Zhang Xiao studied the Thunder Talisman and attempted to draw one while visualizing thunder and lightning, but struggled to divide his attention.
• Zhang Xiao packed his supplies and prepared for that evening's detention with Malfoy and the two little ones.

Zhang Xiao, Harry, Ron, Neville, and Malfoy set out with Hagrid to serve detention at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid revealed that something had been hunting unicorns, and Zhang Xiao ended the chapter with a premonition that something significant might happen that night.

• At dinner, Malfoy worried that the school would not protect its students, while Zhang Xiao recalled how Hogwarts's motto came from Salazar Slytherin's tragic encounter with a sleeping dragon.
• At eleven, Zhang Xiao and Malfoy met Filch in the Entrance Hall, where Harry, Ron, and Neville joined them for detention.
• Filch mocked the students and insulted Hagrid, so Zhang Xiao confronted him and sent him away before Hagrid arrived with Fang and a crossbow.
• Hagrid explained that Filch had bullied him since his school days, then led the students toward the Forbidden Forest.
• At the forest's edge, Hagrid warned them that an intruder had been hunting unicorns and said their task was to find tracks or unicorns.
• Zhang Xiao sensed that something big might happen that night.

Hagrid, Zhang Xiao, and Malfoy encountered an armored troll while following the unicorn blood trail in the Forbidden Forest. As Hagrid fought the creature, a signal firework revealed that Harry, Ron, Neville, and Fang had also run into trouble.

• Hagrid split the students into two groups, and Zhang Xiao gave Harry, Ron, and Neville Daoist Order Signal Fireworks.
• Hagrid, Zhang Xiao, and Malfoy followed the unicorn blood trail while Harry, Ron, Neville, and Fang took another path.
• Hagrid found tracks that did not belong near the forest's edge, then identified the charging creature as a troll.
• An armored troll attacked, and Hagrid fought it while ordering Zhang Xiao and Malfoy to run.
• Zhang Xiao stopped Malfoy from fleeing blindly, and a firework signal from Harry and Ron's group exploded overhead.

Zhang Xiao joined Harry, Ron, and Neville in distracting a magically sluggish troll while Malfoy went to fetch the professors. Their fragile plan collapsed when Dumbledore warned that a dangerous intruder was approaching and he had to leave to stop him, just as the troll suddenly sped up.

• Zhang Xiao sent Malfoy toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest to find the professors, then hurried to help Harry, Ron, and Neville face a troll.
• Zhang Xiao's spells failed to hurt the troll, so he proposed that the boys spread out and take turns distracting it as it chased them.
• Harry, Ron, and Zhang Xiao mocked the troll while keeping it occupied, but Zhang Xiao's growing sense of danger went unexplained.
• Dumbledore warned Zhang Xiao that a dangerous man had entered the Forbidden Forest and that he had to stop him, then the troll suddenly accelerated.

Zhang Xiao, Harry, Ron, and Malfoy fought a troll after Dumbledore left them to handle the danger. Ron finally knocked it out, and Zhang Xiao was left wondering how Ron's mispronounced Levitation Charm had worked.

• Dumbledore left Fawkes to watch over the group as the troll charged at Neville, and Harry and Ron tried to distract it.
• Malfoy joined the fight by casting a Shield Charm that sent Neville clear of the troll's club.
• Zhang Xiao and Harry attacked the troll with Fire Talismans, Thunder Talismans, and sparks fired into its nostril.
• Exhausted, Zhang Xiao urged Ron to use Wingardium Leviosa, and Ron levitated the troll's club and struck its head, knocking it out.
• As the others recovered, Zhang Xiao realized Ron had seemed to mispronounce the incantation.

After the students survived the danger in the Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore confronted the weakened Tom Riddle, who vowed to return. As McGonagall and Snape rushed to the forest, Dumbledore returned to the students and sent Fawkes to help Hagrid.

• Zhang Xiao set aside his suspicion about Ron's mispronounced spell, while Ron confirmed that Harry was safe and Neville was unconscious after hitting a rock.
• Ron and Malfoy argued over their status as members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and Zhang Xiao stayed out of it.
• Dumbledore confronted Tom Riddle in the Forbidden Forest, warned him that he would fail again, and watched him retreat while promising to return.
• McGonagall summoned her Comet 260 and flew toward the Forbidden Forest, and Snape followed after accusing Dumbledore of breaking his promise.
• Dumbledore returned to the students, praised their teamwork to Fawkes, and asked the phoenix to help Hagrid.

Professor McGonagall found the young wizards after they defeated a troll in the Forbidden Forest and arranged for them to be treated. After seeing the students carried to the Hospital Wing, McGonagall and Snape decided to confront Dumbledore about his promise.

• Fawkes flew away as Dumbledore noticed McGonagall approaching and saw the troll and young wizards.
• Zhang Xiao urged the others to leave, but McGonagall arrived and checked the students, finding Neville unconscious but alive.
• Ron claimed he had struck the troll, which began to rise before McGonagall knocked it back down with a spell.
• Snape examined the students, praised Zhang Xiao's contribution, and gave him a Draught of Living Death to help him rest.
• Madam Pomfrey arrived and took the students to the Hospital Wing while McGonagall and Snape resolved to see Dumbledore.

Professor McGonagall confronted Dumbledore for leaving the students unattended, then learned he had gone to meet Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest and agreed to trust his plans. Zhang Xiao woke after five days in the Hospital Wing to find that the students had showered him with gifts, and Ron asked him for a favor.

• Professor McGonagall berated Dumbledore for breaking his promise to watch over the students, and he apologized.
• Dumbledore told Professor McGonagall that he had gone to meet Tom, whom she recognized as Voldemort, in the Forbidden Forest.
• Professor McGonagall heard Dumbledore's explanation, agreed to trust his plans, and left to check on the students.
• Zhang Xiao woke in the Hospital Wing, where Ron told him he had been asleep for five days and that students had brought him many gifts.
• Ron asked Zhang Xiao for a favor.

Zhang Xiao agreed to teach Harry, Ron, and Hermione advanced spells and considered starting a secret duelling club, but Professor Flitwick told him first-years could not establish clubs and advised him to let magical learning progress gradually. Flitwick made an exception for Zhang Xiao’s talent, leaving Zhang suspicious that the professor had withheld something and wondering whether to test a wild idea.

• Harry persuaded Ron that Malfoy’s Shield Charm showed they had fallen behind, and the two resolved to work hard and learn the spell.
• Ron told Zhang Xiao that Harry and Hermione wanted him to teach them the Shield Charm, and Zhang Xiao agreed while considering a spell-practice club.
• Zhang Xiao whispered his duelling-club idea to Ron, who was excited by the plan, and Zhang decided it would have to remain secret.
• Professor McGonagall told Zhang Xiao that first-years could not apply to establish a club, and Professor Flitwick advised him to postpone the idea because students should learn magic step by step.
• Professor Flitwick praised Zhang Xiao’s exceptional talent and said he should have been sorted into Ravenclaw, while Zhang Xiao suspected the professor was hiding something and considered trying an idea prompted by Ron’s mispronounced incantation.

After settling into a calmer routine at Hogwarts, Zhang Xiao met Azure Luan, who had followed a mark to find him. She delivered his parents’ message and shared a magical fruit with him, while Fawkes flew out of Dumbledore’s office after hearing her call.

• Zhang Xiao abandoned his reckless pursuit of advanced magic and settled into classes, reading, homework, and tending his crops.
• Zhang Xiao relaxed in the winter sun when he sensed a cry approaching from the sky.
• Azure Luan arrived, bowed to Zhang Xiao, and brought him a conch containing his father’s explanation of how she had marked him to find him.
• Zhang Xiao called Azure Luan “Big Sister Bird,” and she gave him a delicious red fruit, though she limited him to one a day.
• Fawkes heard Azure Luan’s cry and vanished from his stand in Dumbledore’s office.

Zhang Xiao introduced Azure Luan to the students at Hogwarts, where she charmed the children and drew admiration in Slytherin. After Graham Montague mocked her place in Zhang Xiao’s family and challenged him to an unarmed honor duel, Zhang Xiao accepted and prepared to fight.

• Fawkes appeared when his tail feather began to burn, but Azure Luan rebuffed him after a brief exchange of calls.
• Zhang Xiao brought Azure Luan around the grounds, and she let the Hogwarts students pet her.
• Zhang Xiao introduced Azure Luan as an elder of his family in the Slytherin Common Room.
• Graham Montague mocked Zhang Xiao’s family and challenged him to an honor duel without wands.
• Zhang Xiao accepted Montague’s challenge and announced that he would use tai chi.

Zhang Xiao beat Montague in a duel, then explained his victory through Davis’s mistaken belief that all Chinese people knew kung fu. As Christmas approached, Hogwarts grew cold, Snape berated Harry in Potions, and Malfoy unknowingly guessed why Snape resented him.

• Zhang Xiao punched Montague unconscious, and Davis revealed that he believed Chinese people all knew kung fu.
• Zhang Xiao showed Bird Sis around Hogwarts, where she chose the tallest tower as her home and began bringing him fruit at lunch.
• Snow blanketed Hogwarts in mid-December, while the Weasley twins were punished for enchanting snowballs to chase Quirrell.
• In Potions, Seamus caused an explosion and ended up in the Hospital Wing, while Snape mocked him and took points from Gryffindor through Harry.
• Malfoy asked Zhang Xiao why Snape hated Harry, and Zhang Xiao praised Malfoy's accidental insight into the reason.

Zhang Xiao prepared Christmas gifts, asked his parents about a Spirit Beast Collar, and practiced drawing talismans at Hogwarts. He finally succeeded once at drawing a Sky-Drawing Talisman after a month of practice.

• Zhang Xiao finished a Christmas gift list, including presents for Hogwarts professors, and gave it to Azure Luan to deliver when the weather cleared.
• Zhang Xiao contacted Li Qingshu and Zhang Chengdao, who confirmed that the Daoist Order had Spirit Beast Collars and agreed that Zhang Xiao could have one.
• Zhang Xiao practiced drawing talismans in a magically restored sand tray and reflected on the Daoist Order's Sky-Drawing Talisman technique.
• Zhang Xiao successfully drew a Sky-Drawing Talisman for the first time after a month of repeated practice.

Zhang Xiao pushed himself too hard practicing the Sky-Drawing Talisman and Azure Luan stopped him before he collapsed. As the first term ended, he declined Malfoy’s invitation to visit Malfoy Manor and prepared to leave for the holidays.

• Zhang Xiao failed repeatedly at the Sky-Drawing Talisman until pain and exhaustion snapped him out of his frantic practice.
• Azure Luan gave Zhang Xiao a green jujube and her cry helped him recover; he realized he had been depleting his vital essence and returned to bed with her.
• Headmaster Snape distributed a sign-up sheet for students staying at Hogwarts over Christmas, and Zhang Xiao was the only young Slytherin who signed up.
• Malfoy invited Zhang Xiao and his parents to Malfoy Manor during the summer, but Zhang Xiao politely declined because his family already had plans.
• Zhang Xiao said goodbye to Malfoy as the first term of his first year ended.

Zhang Xiao spent the Christmas holiday with Harry and Ron, enjoying the Gryffindor Common Room and a chaotic game of wizard’s chess. On Christmas morning, he sorted through a mountain of gifts and discovered that Dumbledore had sent him a letter handwritten by Salazar Slytherin.

• Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Sprout decorated the Great Hall with magical Christmas decorations and plants, and Ron got lashed by a singing plant after an experiment.
• Harry, Ron, and Zhang Xiao spent time in the Gryffindor Common Room, where Zhang Xiao transformed Ron’s chess queen and Harry’s pieces played on their own before Ron won.
• Zhang Xiao woke to a mountain of Christmas presents, including gifts and love letters from young witches he did not know, among them Romilda Vane and Lavender Brown.
• Zhang Xiao opened gifts from Harry, Ron, Hermione, Malfoy, and Hagrid, and gave Ron a Chudley Cannons uniform, a deluxe edition of Dragon Ball, and a Ptolemy wizard card.
• Zhang Xiao opened Dumbledore’s package and found a letter handwritten by Salazar Slytherin.

Zhang Xiao considered why Dumbledore had given him Salazar Slytherin’s letters and concluded that Dumbledore believed he could gradually change Slytherin House. In Slytherin’s first letter to Godric, Zhang Xiao learned that the Church’s Witch Hunters were persecuting wizards, and the chapter left him reflecting on Slytherin’s youthful compassion and resolve.

• Zhang Xiao read Dumbledore’s note and reasoned that his Slytherin identity and family standing made him better positioned than Dumbledore to influence the House.
• Zhang Xiao decided that changing Slytherin would take years of steady guidance, and that correcting the pure-blood community would take even longer.
• Zhang Xiao opened Salazar Slytherin’s first letter to Godric and read that the Church was pursuing Slytherin.
• Salazar Slytherin described Witch Hunters capturing wizards and using Crowns of Thorns to prevent them from casting spells.
• Salazar Slytherin told Godric that many persecuted wizards knew few spells and hinted that he was developing an idea to help them.
• Zhang Xiao set the letter aside and pictured Salazar Slytherin as a compassionate, spirited young man.