Chapter Summaries

Terry Boot and Hermione were sorted into Ravenclaw, while Su Ming watched Dumbledore manipulate the Sorting Hat and noticed Mandy Brocklehurst’s strange presence. The chapter ended with Harry Potter joining Gryffindor to loud cheers.

• The Sorting Hat placed Terry Boot in Ravenclaw, and Su Ming suspected Dumbledore had arranged the result.
• Mandy Brocklehurst joined Ravenclaw, and Su Ming wondered whether she was a temporary avatar of a High-Dimensional Being.
• Hermione used Occlumency to hide her thoughts from the Sorting Hat and asked to join Ravenclaw.
• The Sorting Hat placed Hermione in Ravenclaw despite Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall hoping she would join Gryffindor.
• Amanda Brocklehurst noticed Su Ming watching her, then felt relief when Harry Potter’s sorting drew the hall’s attention.
• Harry Potter joined Gryffindor, and its students cheered loudly.

Su Ming discussed Hermione’s talent and the value of physical fitness with Professor Flitwick before Dumbledore announced that Su Ming’s physical education course would be required at Hogwarts. The students reacted with dismay, and Dumbledore ended the feast with warnings about restricted areas and the school song.

• Su Ming told Professor Flitwick that Hermione was a genius and said he would have taught her personally even if she had not enrolled at Hogwarts.
• Su Ming explained how physical fitness could improve spellcasting, and Professor Flitwick agreed the course could help students.
• Dumbledore introduced Professor Quirrell as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the year.
• Dumbledore announced that Professor Wilson’s physical education course would be required, shocking Hermione, Harry, Ron, and the other Muggle-born students.
• Dumbledore warned students to stay out of the Forbidden Forest and the corridor on the right side of the fourth floor, then led them in singing the school song.

Hermione toured Hogwarts with Cho Chang and learned about Ravenclaw’s unusual customs, facilities, and secret tools for evading school rules. After entering the common room, she felt overwhelmed by the House’s research obsession and wanted only to return to her dormitory and sleep with Crookshanks.

• Cho Chang guided Hermione and the new students through Hogwarts, explaining the castle’s floors, towers, and hazards, including Moaning Myrtle’s favorite bathrooms.
• Penelope Clearwater explained that Lady Ravenclaw had omitted the seventh floor because she believed wisdom could break free of the universe’s influence.
• Penelope demonstrated the Eagle Knocker, answering that Butterbeer was not alcoholic because its alcohol evaporated during brewing.
• Hermione explored Ravenclaw’s common room as the older students rushed to their research, while Cho Chang went to study magical owl breeding.
• Penelope described Ravenclaw’s permissive customs and offered the new students a Map Crystal for sneaking around, warning them not to lend it to other Houses.
• Hermione decided against nighttime adventures and longed to return to her dormitory to sleep with Crookshanks.

Hermione settled into Ravenclaw life, enjoyed its private dormitory, and discovered that her first class was a ninety-minute physical education lesson taught by Professor Wilson. Penelope reassured her and suggested asking leave for the other first-years, while Hermione headed toward the Black Lake expecting trouble.

• Hermione woke in her private Ravenclaw bedroom, bathed, and used magical conditioner to tame her hair.
• Hermione left the common room after an experiment caused strange gas to spread and ate a small breakfast in the Great Hall.
• Hermione discovered that first-year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students had a ninety-minute physical education class first thing that morning.
• Penelope joined Hermione for breakfast, reassured her about the class, and suggested she ask leave for the missing first-years.
• Hermione warned Penelope that Professor Wilson might retaliate, then headed to the Black Lake for class.

Hermione struggled to connect with the wary Hufflepuffs before Professor Wilson arrived late by walking across the Black Lake. She spotted flaws in his excuse and was left as the only Ravenclaw in class, nervously claiming the rest had gotten lost on the road of life.

• Hermione tried and failed to join the Hufflepuffs, who avoided her because they believed Ravenclaws would scam them.
• Hermione waited alone by the lake, hoping Professor Wilson would arrive.
• Professor Wilson crossed the lake on foot and blamed his lateness on taking a lost Black Cat home.
• Hermione suspected Professor Wilson had been drinking and overslept, while Su Ming privately approved of her observations.
• Professor Wilson asked the students to line up by House, and Hermione claimed the absent Ravenclaws had gotten lost on the road of life.

Su Ming used a lesson about unity to explain why he awarded Hermione points for protecting her classmates, while also punishing the Ravenclaw students who skipped class. He left Hermione resolved to make friends across Hogwarts as the four students faced a night of writing self-criticisms and the threat of their parents being informed.

• Su Ming awarded Ravenclaw five points after recognizing that Hermione had lied to protect her classmates.
• Su Ming demonstrated how several rods were harder to break together than one alone and taught the Hufflepuff first-years that unity was strength.
• Su Ming explained Hermione's reward, and the Hufflepuff students became more accepting of her.
• Su Ming deducted four points from Ravenclaw and ordered the four students who skipped class to write self-criticisms and have their parents or guardians informed.
• Hermione lamented that she had failed Penelope and resolved to make friends with students from other Houses.

Su Ming watched Hermione settle in among the Hufflepuffs and considered how Ravenclaw’s pragmatic traditions might temper her impulsiveness without making her selfish. He ended the students’ exhausting run by awarding Hufflepuff a point and introducing their first lesson in surviving dangerous places without wands.

• Su Ming reflected on Ravenclaw’s history and its members’ pragmatic instinct to avoid conflicts that offered them no benefit.
• Su Ming decided that Ravenclaw’s detached atmosphere could help Hermione become less impulsive while he kept her from growing overly selfish.
• The students reached the Forbidden Forest’s edge after running around Black Lake, exhausted and sick.
• Su Ming appeared before the students, awarded Hufflepuff one point, and announced a lesson on surviving dangerous environments without a wand.

Hermione recalled Professor Wilson’s wilderness survival lesson, in which he taught the students to cook giant spiders and centipedes without magic and fought off centaurs with his bare hands. At lunch, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones kept Hermione company, and she began to feel she had found friends.

• Professor Wilson took Hermione and the Hufflepuffs into the Forbidden Forest and taught them wilderness survival by roasting giant spiders and having the students prepare more themselves.
• Hermione challenged the need for survival skills and objected to eating spiders, but Professor Wilson explained the limits of wandless magic and threatened to catch Bowtruckles instead.
• Professor Wilson showed the students how to prepare giant centipedes, then fought off centaurs who came to investigate the fire.
• Hermione sat alone at lunch until Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones joined her and reassured her that friends could have different food preferences.
• Hermione complained to Hannah and Susan about Professor Wilson, felt better after sharing gossip, and decided to invite them to her dormitory.

Deathstroke defended his actions in the Forbidden Forest and explained his unusual physical education classes to Dumbledore. Dumbledore accepted his explanations, while the first-year Gryffindors and Slytherins were left exhausted but less hostile toward each other.

• Deathstroke told Dumbledore that the giant spiders had attacked his students first and argued that Hagrid should not keep dangerous creatures in the Forbidden Forest.
• Deathstroke offered Hagrid compensation and agreed to take future lessons farther into unclaimed territory; Dumbledore also heard his explanation for striking the centaurs.
• Dumbledore mentioned other complaints about Deathstroke’s lessons, then asked why his classes for Harry and Draco’s groups differed from Hermione’s.
• Deathstroke said he taught according to aptitude, explaining that Gryffindor and Slytherin students had run from wolves after learning an exercise routine.
• Dumbledore reflected that the shared ordeal had made the first-years less hostile toward each other, with their teacher becoming their common enemy.

Su Ming trained Hermione in weapons and driving while preparing to reward her with a broom, but on Halloween she discovered Quirrell smuggling a troll into Hogwarts. After Quirrell announced the troll was in the underground classrooms, Su Ming took Hermione to hunt it, with Dumbledore allowing them to handle it if they found it first.

• Su Ming built training facilities at Hogwarts and taught Hermione to use ranged weapons, while Hermione shared her rewards with Hannah and Susan and grew more popular.
• Hermione began tractor-driving lessons in exchange for a Comet 260 broom she planned to give Cho Chang.
• On Halloween, Hermione saw Quirrell levitate a sleeping troll into the castle and head toward the basement.
• Hermione reached the Great Hall and intended to warn Su Ming, but Quirrell arrived first and announced that a troll was in the underground classrooms.
• Su Ming asked Dumbledore to let him use the troll for an impromptu lesson, then carried Hermione out to hunt it after Dumbledore gave them permission to decide how to deal with it if they found it first.

Su Ming taught Hermione how to use intelligence and a counter-feint to reach the Troll before Dumbledore and the other professors. He sent a disguised tie to create a commotion at the fourth floor and spread Garlic Essence through the stairwells, then hurried with Hermione to find the Troll.

• Hermione told Su Ming that she had seen Quirrell let the Troll into the castle, and Su Ming pointed out that Quirrell had disappeared during the evacuation.
• Su Ming offered Hermione a magical creature care set as a reward for learning tactical theory, and she accepted the lesson.
• Hermione suggested delaying Dumbledore and the others, but Su Ming explained that they must stay together and interfere with their competitors instead.
• Su Ming sent a transformed tie to blow up a fourth-floor door, hoping to draw Dumbledore and the others toward the treasure stored there.
• Su Ming spread Garlic Essence through the stairwells to mask the Troll's scent and hurried with Hermione to find it.

Neville was trapped in the third-floor bathroom with a troll, and Deathstroke brought Hermione there to save him. Hermione wounded the troll with a shotgun, but Su Ming demanded that she choose whether to kill it; the chapter ended with the troll turning on her and Hermione facing the decision.

• Neville, upset after Ron blamed him for losing House Cup points, hid in the bathroom and was trapped by a troll while trying to leave for the Halloween feast.
• Hermione and Deathstroke arrived as Neville dodged the troll, and Deathstroke handed Hermione a modified shotgun to rescue him.
• Hermione fired a Slug Round into the troll's back, badly wounding it but failing to stop it.
• Su Ming urged Hermione to shoot the troll in the head, arguing that Neville and she would be in danger if she hesitated.
• The troll recovered and turned toward Hermione, leaving her to decide whether to kill it.

Hermione killed a troll with Su Ming’s automatic wand after it attacked her and Neville, then the professors arrived and dealt with the students who had broken the rules. The chapter ended with Snape questioning the weapon’s effectiveness and Su Ming arguing that preparation could overcome a troll’s defenses.

• Hermione fired the automatic wand at the troll until it died, and Su Ming praised her before she checked on the injured Neville.
• Neville thanked Hermione for saving him, then admitted he had forgotten why he was alone in the bathroom; Su Ming found his Remembrall and wand.
• Harry and Ron arrived after disobeying the Principal’s order to return to their common rooms, and Su Ming stopped them at the bathroom door.
• McGonagall scolded Harry and Ron and deducted twenty points from Gryffindor, while Flitwick and Snape examined the troll’s corpse.
• Snape challenged Su Ming about the automatic wand’s ability to defeat a troll, and Su Ming replied that an assassin could exploit a prepared strike.

After Hermione killed the troll to save Neville, Su Ming took her to Hogsmeade to celebrate and encouraged her to see herself as a future hero. The chapter ended with Hermione asking how to defeat dragons and Su Ming telling her to shoot them in the head.

• Professor McGonagall led Harry and Ron away after their encounter with the troll, while Su Ming enjoyed Ron's predicament.
• Hermione realized she had killed the troll, and Su Ming persuaded Flitwick to award her five points for saving Neville.
• Su Ming carried Hermione to Hogsmeade for sweets and Butterbeer, reassuring her that she had acted to stop a dangerous creature.
• As they crossed the Black Lake, Su Ming promised to teach Hermione about good and evil and suggested taking her dragon slaying over Christmas.
• In Honeydukes, Hermione asked about dragons' weaknesses, and Su Ming answered, “The head. Shoot the head.”

Hermione attended Potions after killing a troll and learned that the school had publicized her deed, while she noticed that a jar of Murtlap Tentacles had been emptied. She left class with questions for Professor Wilson as Snape remained distracted and unaware of the students’ progress.

• Hermione decided to work hard and become a Dragon-Slaying Hero during winter break after Christmas.
• Hermione shared candy with Hannah and discussed visiting the village during winter break, but Hannah and Susan said they had to go home.
• Hannah told Hermione that the Magical Noticeboard had announced she killed a troll and saved a Gryffindor student.
• Snape began a lesson on the Draught of Living Death and sent the students to collect ingredients.
• Hermione noticed that the jar of Murtlap Tentacles was completely empty, though it had been full the week before.
• Hermione set aside her concern to finish class and decided she would discuss the missing ingredients with Professor Wilson.

Hermione told Su Ming that someone had used up the Potions storeroom’s Murtlap Tentacles and reasoned that an injured creature might be hiding its wounds. Su Ming dismissed her suspicion of Snape, gave her Nicolas Flamel as a clue to investigate about Quirrell, and then encountered Snape, who grew wary when asked about the fourth floor.

• Hermione struggled through Flying Class, then told Su Ming that the Murtlap Tentacles in the Potions storeroom were gone and someone may have treated a secret injury.
• Hermione suspected Snape because he was limping, but Su Ming guided her to consider that the patient could be a large creature needing many bottles of healing potion.
• Su Ming gave Hermione Nicolas Flamel as a clue about Quirrell and transported her into the Great Hall before disappearing.
• Su Ming asked Snape why he was limping and learned that a stair had damaged one heel of his shoe.
• Snape became wary when Su Ming asked about the fourth floor and left, while Su Ming reflected that he intended to train Hermione by starting with a Horcrux.

Su Ming tested whether he could enter the Room of Requirement, then planned to retrieve a Potions textbook for Hermione. Hermione searched for Nicolas Flamel in Ravenclaw Tower and found an old manuscript that pointed her toward Leme, who had lived more than six hundred years earlier.

• Su Ming found that neither he nor Strangle and Cloak could make the Room of Requirement appear, and decided to bring Hermione there before Christmas to retrieve Ravenclaw's Diadem.
• Su Ming planned to take a special Advanced Potion-Making textbook from Snape's classroom while Snape was away tending to his injuries.
• Hermione asked Madam Pince for books about Nicolas Flamel and inferred that she needed a professor's permission to consult the Restricted Section.
• Hermione searched Ravenclaw Tower's disordered collection and found Leme's manuscript, the Book of Hieroglyphs.
• Hermione opened the manuscript and learned that Leme had lived more than six hundred years earlier.

Hermione read Leme’s account of alchemy, including his discovery that Red Stone could create the Elixir of Life, and was left wondering what lay beyond the world. After returning the book and reflecting on recent events, she joined Hannah and Susan, who arrived to show her a spell they had mastered.

• Hermione read Leme’s notes on transmutation and learned that Red Stone could convert magic power into life and produce the Elixir of Life.
• Hermione felt unsettled by Leme’s unanswered question about what existed beyond the world, then returned the book to the shelf without noticing it vanish.
• Hermione looked for her professor at dinner, guessed he had gone to The Three Broomsticks with Professor Flitwick, and recalled Ron’s humiliating Howler.
• Hannah and Susan joined Hermione at the Ravenclaw table and said they had mastered Hufflepuff’s signature spell after extensive experimentation.

Hermione accepted Hannah and Susan’s offer to share food after they insisted their friendship should be fair. After pooling what they knew about Nicolas Flamel and Professor Quirrell, the three girls decided to investigate the forbidden corridor together that night.

• Hannah showed Hermione the Food-Creating Charm, which summoned a badly burnt quail she had roasted.
• Hannah and Susan persuaded Hermione to accept occasional snacks so their friendship would not be one-sided.
• Hermione told Hannah and Susan that Professor Wilson had asked her to investigate Nicolas Flamel, and they shared what they knew about alchemy and Flamel’s connection to Dumbledore.
• Hermione concluded that the guarded treasure was Flamel’s Red Stone and that Professor Quirrell wanted to steal it.
• After discussing the troll incident and pooling their information, Hermione, Hannah, and Susan planned to visit the fourth-floor corridor after lights-out.

Harry dreamed that a giant snake played with a puzzle and woke after struggling to communicate with it in Parseltongue. Meanwhile, Hermione and her friends reached the guarded corridor, where they found the door ajar and suspected Quirrell had entered ahead of them.

• Harry watched The Serpent struggle with a metal-ring puzzle and tried to explain how to solve it in Parseltongue.
• Harry woke in the dormitory after Ron found him hissing in his sleep, and he returned to bed after apologizing to Ron and Neville.
• A transparent tentacle withdrew from Harry's pillow, and a hidden figure practiced Parseltongue before turning its attention to Hermione.
• Hermione used the glowing Crystal to guide Susan and Hannah from the basement to the fourth-floor corridor with scorched marks and a partly open door.
• Susan smelled garlic nearby, and Hermione concluded that Quirrell had arrived before them to pursue the protected object.
• Hermione explained that Professor Wilson had left her a shotgun, then led her friends toward the open door instead of fetching the Principal.