Chapter Summaries

Grindelwald’s attacks overwhelmed the American Magical Congress and threatened the secrecy of the wizarding world, while Su Ming worked with him on a separate plan targeting the Congress building. The chapter ended with a homeless man heading into the building to trigger a fire alarm, unaware that Su Ming warned it was about to explode.

• Grindelwald caused havoc across the United States, including contaminating New York’s water supply and altering the Hollywood sign, while Aurors struggled to contain the damage.
• Kowalski learned that dark wizards were joining the destruction and demanded that they be sentenced to death, but his secretary pointed out that no such law existed.
• Su Ming and Grindelwald watched the overwhelmed Congress from an alley and paid a homeless man to set off the Woolworth Building’s smoke alarm.
• Su Ming promised Grindelwald that he would honor their deal and let him spend his old age with Dumbledore, then explained that money and guns could succeed where magic could not.
• The homeless man accepted a deposit and ran toward the Woolworth Building after Su Ming told him the building was about to explode.

Su Ming demonstrated his Cosmic Energy Ray while helping Grindelwald attack the Magical Congress headquarters, then Grindelwald challenged Dumbledore and escaped. Kou Hauge ordered the returning Aurors to erase the Muggles’ memories and summon Dumbledore.

• Su Ming arranged a distraction that drove civilians from the Magical Congress headquarters, then explained to Grindelwald that magic drew on different forms of energy.
• Su Ming blasted a vast hole through the headquarters with his Photon Shattering Fist, and Grindelwald attacked the fleeing wizards.
• Grindelwald defeated Kou Hauge’s spells and declared that he alone was the Dark Lord, challenging Dumbledore to meet him in the United States.
• Grindelwald and Su Ming escaped on the flying carpet, and Kou Hauge ordered the Aurors to erase Muggles’ memories and send for Dumbledore.

Su Ming and Grindelwald continued spreading panic across the United States to pressure the Confederation and bring Dumbledore into their plans. As the Serpent Tree leaves became the focus of a dispute between the American and British magical authorities, Su Ming prepared to escalate matters by attacking Baltimore.

• Su Ming and Grindelwald agreed to divide their attacks between the East and West Coasts, while Su Ming warned Grindelwald not to confront Dumbledore, who possessed all Three Deathly Hallows.
• Grindelwald spent the next several days harassing American Aurors, while Su Ming committed nighttime crimes as Little Black and continued lecturing at Ilvermorny.
• Principal Fontana refused to give Britain ten Serpent Tree leaves, offering five at most, while Fudge demanded ten and kept Dumbledore at the Ministry of Magic under investigation.
• Speaker Kou Hauge pressured Fontana to sacrifice the leaves for the American Magic World, but Fontana refused to give up the school's treasure.
• Su Ming decided to increase the pressure by planning to blow up Baltimore, where he had heard an American wizard prison was located.

Su Ming returned to London with the Serpent Tree leaves after Fontana agreed to Dumbledore’s aid mission, while Grindelwald avoided meeting Dumbledore. They planned to steal Ariana’s and Lily Potter’s remains, with Grindelwald proposing to empty the entire cemetery and pin a Dark Mark on Voldemort.

• Fontana arranged for Su Ming and Snape to return to London after Dumbledore arrived at Ilvermorny, while he stayed behind to deal with the crisis.
• Su Ming returned to his shop, gave Hermione gifts from America, and encouraged her to visit Hannah and Susan during the summer.
• Fudge secretly brought Su Ming the Serpent Tree leaves in exchange for money and hurried away after the deal.
• Grindelwald revealed that he planned to dig up Ariana’s grave, and Su Ming asked him to retrieve Lily Potter’s remains for Snape as well.
• Grindelwald proposed removing every set of remains from the cemetery to conceal their targets, and Su Ming urged him to mark Voldemort with a Dark Mark.

As Hogwarts began a new school year, Hermione met the eccentric first-year Luna Lovegood, whose strange beliefs were paired with sharp deductions about the Chamber of Secrets. Luna asked Hermione to show her the Chamber, leaving Hermione determined to take the new girl seriously despite finding her difficult to understand.

• Su Ming planned to intensify training for Gryffindor and Slytherin and help Hermione prepare to destroy Voldemort's locket and diary.
• Professor McGonagall sorted Luna Lovegood into Ravenclaw after the Sorting Hat declared her a perfect fit.
• Luna sat beside Hermione, asked whether she had seen death, and gave her a pair of Spectrespecs while calling her the Chosen One.
• Luna explained that her father published The Quibbler and deduced that Voldemort had killed Moaning Myrtle and framed Hagrid over the Chamber of Secrets.
• Luna asked Hermione to take her to the Chamber that night, and Hermione decided to take Luna's insights seriously.
• Ginny Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor, and Luna ate raw carrots during dinner while Hermione struggled to understand her.

Luna followed Hermione because she was trying to locate the Chamber of Secrets and hoped to sell proof of it to fund a trip with her father. Su Ming offered Luna paid work to borrow Ginny’s self-answering notebook, leaving the group waiting to investigate it.

• Hermione complained to Su Ming that Luna had been following her everywhere, and he explained that Luna was tracking her movements to deduce the Chamber of Secrets’ location.
• Su Ming invited Luna in and asked her directly about her motive, and Luna admitted she had guessed the entrance was in the second-floor girls’ bathroom but could not open it without Parseltongue.
• Luna told Hermione she wanted to photograph the Chamber and sell the story to the Daily Prophet to earn money for a trip to Sweden with her father.
• Su Ming offered to sponsor Luna, but she said she preferred to earn a reward through work.
• Su Ming asked Luna to borrow Ginny’s notebook that answered questions by itself and bring it to him, Hermione, and Professor McGonagall for inspection.

Ginny felt lonely and inferior at Hogwarts, so she confided in a magical diary that called itself Tom. Luna brought Ginny and the diary to the professors, where McGonagall asked to examine it.

• Ginny struggled to make friends and felt overlooked by Ron, Harry, Fred, and George, while her family's poverty made her feel inferior.
• Ginny wrote her school worries in an old diary bearing the name Tom Riddle, and the diary began answering her questions in elegant cursive.
• Luna came to the Gryffindor common room and asked to borrow the diary, saying the professors and Senior Granger wanted to see it.
• Ginny insisted on going with Luna so she could meet Hermione, and they entered the professors' private room near the Great Hall.
• Su Ming gave Luna a heavy bag of money, and McGonagall invited the frightened Ginny to sit beside her before asking to examine the diary.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick confirmed that Tom Riddle’s diary was a Horcrux, and Su Ming had Hermione test it while pretending to be Ginny. The diary responded to Su Ming’s absurd question about Nick Fury, and Su Ming dismissed Voldemort as “nothing much.”

• Professor McGonagall recognized Tom Riddle’s handwriting, and Professor Flitwick confirmed that the diary was a Horcrux.
• Professor McGonagall tossed the diary to Professor Wilson, while she and Professor Flitwick reminisced about their school days and agreed to dance if Dumbledore did not return.
• Su Ming asked Hermione to use Occlumency and pretend to be Ginny while writing to the diary; Professor McGonagall comforted the frightened Ginny.
• Professor Flitwick showed that Tom Marvolo Riddle’s name rearranged into “I am Voldemort,” and Hermione wrote Su Ming’s question about when Nick Fury would die.
• The diary replied by asking who Nick Fury was and why anyone wanted him dead, and Su Ming laughed off Voldemort as nothing much.

Su Ming explained the diary Horcrux’s riddle, then destroyed it with Godslayer and Snape’s Fiendfyre. Ginny was spared punishment at school but faced a letter to her mother, while the professors gathered for dinner after Voldemort’s soul fragment vanished.

• Su Ming explained that the wizard in the diary’s riddle would die from altitude, cold, and lack of oxygen, and Flitwick understood the answer.
• McGonagall assigned Su Ming to handle the Horcrux, awarded Ravenclaw another hundred points, and told Ginny she would write to Molly.
• Ginny ran out crying, and Su Ming told Hermione to keep watch over her while Hermione and Luna left the room.
• Su Ming fed the diary into Godslayer, then Snape burned the shredded remains with Fiendfyre until young Voldemort’s apparition disappeared.
• Su Ming declared the Horcrux destroyed and invited the professors to share his Instant Hot Pot.

Ginny feared the Howler sent by her mother, but it repeatedly landed in Ron’s plate and Molly scolded him and his brothers for failing to protect Ginny. Ron then clashed with Draco and was punished by Snape, while Hermione wondered where the Sports Professor had gone.

• Hermione and Luna comforted Ginny in the Gryffindor common room after she returned from the diary incident.
• At breakfast, Errol repeatedly delivered Ginny’s Howler to Ron instead, and Molly’s letter shouted at Ron, George, Fred, and Percy for neglecting Ginny.
• Molly reassured Ginny, invited Harry and his Godfather to the Burrow for Christmas, and the Howler burned away.
• Draco mocked Ron and Harry, and Ron drew his wand after his hearing returned.
• Snape disarmed Ron, took ten points from Gryffindor, and ordered him to report to Filch that night.
• Hermione recalled Snape waiting outside the Great Hall and wondered why the absent Sports Professor had arranged for her and Luna to receive praise.

Su Ming and Grindelwald secured Lucius Malfoy’s cooperation in planting Voldemort’s diary on Ginny Weasley, then revealed that they had destroyed the Horcrux. Lucius received an injection of Su Ming’s life-extending serum and left bound to keep their secrets, with his family’s future tied to continued service.

• Grindelwald and Su Ming confronted Lucius in the underground range, where Lucius agreed to serve them to protect his family.
• Lucius recalled how Deathstroke had coerced him into slipping Voldemort’s diary into Ginny Weasley’s cauldron during a staged altercation with Arthur Weasley.
• Su Ming revealed that the diary was a Horcrux and that he had destroyed it the previous night.
• Grindelwald offered Lucius immortality as a reward, and Su Ming injected him with his life-extending serum.
• Su Ming warned Lucius that he was bound by a Fidelius Charm and would need to keep working to secure more serum for himself and his family.

After Lucius Malfoy began testing Su Ming’s lifespan potion, Hermione enjoyed growing popularity at Hogwarts while enduring demanding wilderness training from her professor and the mysterious Grindelwald. As Christmas approached, she planned to go home, but the Sports Professor told her she would be going to France instead.

• Su Ming and Grindelwald agreed to observe Lucius Malfoy for months before deciding whether the lifespan potion was safe for wizards.
• Hermione spent the term with her friends, earned Hagrid’s respect, and became popular among younger students and some Pure-blood families.
• Su Ming trained Hermione in the Forbidden Forest and the Amazon, while Grindelwald taught her advanced magic and dangerous spells.
• Hermione decided to go home for Christmas and was about to arrange her train ticket when the Sports Professor told her she had to go to France with him.

Su Ming explained how Nicolas Flamel’s debt to him let him arrange for Hermione to attend Beauxbatons as an international exchange student. Hermione accepted the trip, and Su Ming left her to prepare before telling her the new term’s goals.

• Hermione questioned why she had to spend Christmas in France, and Su Ming explained that he was taking her to Beauxbatons.
• Su Ming told Hermione that Dumbledore had used the Resurrection Stone as bait to test whether Voldemort was alive, and that Nicolas Flamel owed him a favor.
• Su Ming claimed he was the principal of a magic academy outside their world and promised to take Hermione there when she was older.
• Su Ming explained that Flamel had funded Beauxbatons and that he had used the favor Flamel owed him to secure Hermione’s exchange-student status.
• Hermione thanked Su Ming, and he told her to prepare for the trip to Beauxbatons.

Su Ming and Hermione flew from London to Paris on a chaotic budget airline, then traveled toward the Paris Opera House to enter the city’s magical world. Hermione was excited to explore Paris, and the chapter left them at the entrance beneath the Statue of the Goddess.

• Su Ming and Hermione took an EasyJet flight, where the crew and passengers turned the cabin into a Christmas party.
• After landing, Hermione praised the airline while Su Ming planned their route into central Paris and agreed to let her shop for clothes.
• Su Ming led Hermione through snowy Paris to the Garnier Opera House, where the entrance to the city’s magical world was hidden.
• Su Ming explained that French wizards had built a vast magical space beneath Paris’s catacombs, accessed by crawling beneath the Statue of the Goddess.

Su Ming took Hermione through a magical passage into Paris, showed her the lively wizarding district, and explained the harsh realities of magical education. At the French Ministry of Magic, he arranged for Hermione to register her wand and revealed that she would spend the next semester at Beauxbatons learning languages and etiquette.

• Su Ming and Hermione entered a crowded Parisian wizarding street through a bronze statue passageway.
• Su Ming described Paris’s magical attractions and explained that street performers could struggle to find work, prompting Hermione to tip an old Mage.
• Su Ming warned Hermione that Hogwarts students who failed their O.W.L.s could be expelled, then bought French cat treats for Crookshanks.
• Hermione asked to visit the French Ministry of Magic, where Su Ming brought her to register her wand.
• Su Ming told Hermione that her next semester would be at Beauxbatons, where she would study more than thirty foreign languages and learn magical etiquette.

Su Ming brought Hermione to Beauxbatons so she could study languages and adapt to its magical culture, then returned to the Spider Web Core to discuss establishing a Weave in the Marvel Universe. The plan remained stalled because the Spider Web could not serve as a true god, leaving Su Ming to seek the local god of death or turn again to the Spectre Universe.

• Su Ming showed Hermione Beauxbatons and explained that studying there would help her learn languages, while she noticed that nearly all the students appeared to be girls.
• Su Ming left Hermione with the headmistress and teachers, telling her to study hard and keep exercising before he returned to the United Kingdom.
• At the Spider Web Core, Su Ming asked the Great Weaver, Elminster, and Mordenkainen how their plan to create a Weave was progressing.
• Elminster and Mordenkainen explained that the Spider Web could not act as a true god because it lacked a divine portfolio and could not leave its divine kingdom or create an avatar.
• Su Ming concluded that he would need to meet the world's god of death or rely on the Spectre Universe to establish magic across universes.

Su Ming discussed Hermione’s Sorcerer-like magic with Elminster and Mordenkainen, who agreed to study whether she could also learn the Mage’s path. He then learned that the Master liches on Sepulk were developing a digital magic network and hurried off to check on their progress.

• Elminster told Su Ming that he and Mordenkainen had secretly investigated the new world’s wizards and found their spellcasting came from their bloodlines.
• Mordenkainen explained the cautious tests he had used before entering the new world, and Su Ming instructed them to follow that procedure when crossing worlds.
• Su Ming explained that Hermione’s bloodline-based magic worked independently of magic networks and compared her prospects with Magik and Khadgar.
• Elminster and Mordenkainen agreed to experiment with teaching Sorcerers the Mage’s path, and Su Ming gave them textbooks and permission to use workers from his shop.
• Elminster told Su Ming that the Master liches on Sepulk were building a digital P2P magic network, so Su Ming hurried there to check on them.

Hermione returned to Hogwarts after a term of intensive study at Beauxbatons, where she learned languages, aristocratic etiquette, and how to make friends. At the new school year’s feast, Dumbledore summoned her to his office, leaving her to expect another assignment.

• Hermione reunited with Hannah and the others on the train and showed off her progress in twenty-nine foreign languages.
• Hermione described her Beauxbatons studies and new social skills, then spent the summer exploring Muggle London with her friends.
• Hermione returned to Hogwarts for the new term, where Ravenclaw welcomed only one new student.
• Dumbledore returned from America after failing to catch Grindelwald, whose attacks had become less frequent and left no deaths.
• Dumbledore asked Hermione to come to his office after dinner, and she recognized the familiar feeling of another task beginning.

Hermione met with Dumbledore and the Hogwarts professors, who approved her receiving a Time-Turner despite her not knowing what it was. The meeting ended when Minister Fudge arrived with a wooden box for Professor Wilson.

• Hermione entered Dumbledore's office and joined the professors for tea.
• Flitwick objected to giving Hermione a Time-Turner because of the danger, while McGonagall, Sprout, and Snape supported trying it.
• Dumbledore explained that the Ministry procedures for assigning Hermione a Time-Turner were complete and warned her not to abuse its power.
• Hermione realized that nobody had explained what a Time-Turner was before Fudge emerged from the fireplace with a wooden box.
• Fudge handed the box to Professor Wilson, who approved of it.

Su Ming gave Hermione a Time-Turner and showed her how it let her travel back an hour, then revealed he had arranged for her to attend six other wizarding schools as an exchange student. Hermione reluctantly considered his plan after he promised she could later use the Time-Turner for extra rest and offered her an experimental serum to endure the workload.

• Su Ming gave Hermione a Time-Turner and explained that turning its disk once sent her back one hour.
• Hermione used it and saw her past self arrive at the Principal's office, while Su Ming explained timelines and alternate versions of people.
• Su Ming told Hermione he had arranged for her to enroll in third-year exchange programs at six more wizarding schools.
• Hermione protested that attending Hogwarts and six other schools would exhaust her, but Su Ming promised she could later use the Time-Turner for sleep and leisure.
• Su Ming offered Hermione a choice between the Mirakuru Miracle Serum and the improved SSS Serum to help her withstand the workload.