Chapter Summaries

Gerald fought his way into the Slytherin Common Room to avenge Kenneth Thompson, then clashed with Snape after Avery Selwyn unleashed Fiendfyre. Their duel continued as shocked Slytherin students watched, with Snape preparing to show Gerald the full extent of his magic.

• Gerald defeated Avery Selwyn’s lackeys and cornered Selwyn, who accused him of killing his uncle and then attacked him with Fiendfyre.
• Gerald avoided the Fiendfyre with a Sky-Riding Talisman, but Snape arrived and extinguished the flames.
• Gerald explained that he had come to seek justice for Kenneth Thompson, and threatened to sink Slytherin if denied it.
• Snape used a spell to force Gerald down, and the two began dueling with fire, transfiguration, water, and other spells.
• Slytherin students gathered to watch and marveled that Gerald could fight Snape; Snape then vowed to show him real magic.

Gerald fought Snape in the Slytherin Common Room, transformed into a silver dragon, and unleashed a greatly empowered Thunder-Summoning Art before Dumbledore intervened. Dumbledore stopped the battle and sentenced Gerald to a month of detention with him, leaving the Slytherins stunned by how lightly Gerald was punished.

• Snape attacked Gerald with thousands of icicles, and Gerald defended himself with overlapping shields before transforming into a silver dragon.
• Gerald discovered that his dragon form strengthened his Thunder-Summoning Art and called down a massive lightning bolt at Snape.
• Dumbledore blocked the bolt, stopped the fight, and conjured a robe for Gerald as he returned to human form.
• Dumbledore reprimanded Gerald for breaking into the Slytherin Common Room, attacking students, damaging the room, and fighting Snape.
• Dumbledore sentenced Gerald to serve detention with him for a month, shocking Avery Selwyn and the watching Slytherins.

After Dumbledore erased the Slytherins’ memories of the fight, he took Gerald to his office and questioned him about his dragon form’s lightning ability. The chapter ended with Dumbledore leading Gerald to a Pensieve, leaving Gerald worried about what the Headmaster intended to do with it.

• Dumbledore used Mass Obliviate on the Slytherin students and told Snape to return them to their dormitories while preserving Gerald’s and Snape’s reputations in their memories.
• Gerald asked about his roommate Kenneth, and Dumbledore promised to have Selwyn apologize and to speak to Fudge about Selwyn’s father.
• Dumbledore praised Gerald’s strength and asked how he had unleashed lightning while transformed into an Eastern Divine Dragon.
• Gerald claimed the lightning was an innate ability of his Animagus form, and Dumbledore accepted the explanation.
• Gerald challenged Dumbledore about bullying at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore described the political pressures affecting the school before leading him to another room.
• Gerald recognized the silver basin as a Pensieve and feared Dumbledore planned to extract his memories.

Dumbledore brought Gerald into a Pensieve to show him a memory of his youth with Grindelwald. In the memory, Grindelwald advocated wizard rule over Muggles and urged Dumbledore to join him in changing the world.

• Dumbledore opened a cabinet of memories and invited Gerald to enter the Pensieve with him.
• Gerald entered the Pensieve and found himself watching young Dumbledore and Grindelwald beneath a beech tree.
• Dumbledore told Gerald that the memory still haunted him and urged him to watch closely.
• Young Grindelwald condemned the Ministry of Magic and the International Statute of Secrecy, arguing that wizards should not have to hide.
• Young Dumbledore said his sister had been tormented by Muggles and admitted that he wished wizards could live openly.
• Grindelwald insisted that wizards were superior and should rule the world, then urged Dumbledore to help him make it happen.

Gerald watched Dumbledore’s memories of his youthful bond with Grindelwald and the growing conflict over Ariana’s care. The chapter ended as Aberforth confronted Albus and Grindelwald over their plan to take Ariana with them.

• Young Dumbledore and Grindelwald clasped hands and agreed to pursue rule for the greater good, including a decent life for Muggles who submitted.
• Aberforth scolded Albus for neglecting Ariana, and Grindelwald argued with him before leaving.
• Young Dumbledore entered the stone house and tried to comfort Ariana, who recoiled from his touch.
• Dumbledore told Gerald that Ariana had developed an Obscurus after Muggles bullied her and that she had killed their mother during a loss of control.
• Young Dumbledore sent Grindelwald a letter, then Aberforth angrily challenged their plan to take Ariana with them.

Gerald watched a memory of young Albus Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Aberforth fighting after Grindelwald cursed Aberforth and nearly killed him, while Ariana’s Obscurus began to emerge. Back in the Headmaster’s Office, Dumbledore urged Gerald to restrain his power and not follow Grindelwald’s path.

• Grindelwald used the Cruciatus Curse on Aberforth after Aberforth told him to leave the house.
• Aberforth and Grindelwald fought, and Grindelwald cast the Killing Curse at Aberforth before Albus moved his brother out of its path.
• As the three men argued and fought, Ariana curled in the corner began to lose control and emit a black aura.
• Gerald returned to the Headmaster’s Office with Dumbledore and inferred the tragic outcome of the memory, explaining that he had read about Obscuruses.
• Dumbledore warned Gerald that the pursuit of power could lead to losing control and urged him to act with love, responsibility, and restraint.

Gerald reflected on Dumbledore’s warning about Grindelwald and resolved to pursue immortality without losing his way. After Dumbledore agreed to teach him the Fidelius Charm during detention, Gerald returned to a cheering Gryffindor Common Room and learned that Lupin, Black, and Winslet were staying with his family to protect them.

• Gerald accepted Dumbledore’s advice about the dangers of power without voicing his disagreement, then asked him to teach the Fidelius Charm during their month of nightly detention.
• Gerald reassured Dumbledore that Ariana would not want him to remain burdened by guilt, and Dumbledore later told McGonagall he believed Gerald was a good and empathetic child.
• Gerald returned to the Gryffindor Common Room, where students celebrated his attack on the Slytherins, and he reassured Kenneth that the Selwyn family would make amends.
• Gerald told Lupin that Dumbledore would teach him the Fidelius Charm, and Lupin replied that he, Black, and Winslet were staying with Gerald’s family for protection.
• Gerald decided that Winslet would be the best choice for the Fidelius Charm’s Secret Keeper because their Blood Contract prevented her from betraying him.

Gerald mastered the Fidelius Charm and made Winslet the Secret Keeper for Grandpa Henry’s home, then learned that Cedric had been led by Helga Hufflepuff’s portrait to a secret chamber. The discovery left Gerald planning to seek recognition from the other Hogwarts founders, especially Godric Gryffindor.

• Gerald completed his Fidelius Charm training with Dumbledore and asked Winslet to meet him in Hogsmeade.
• Gerald made Winslet the Secret Keeper for Grandpa Henry’s home, and Lupin and Black confirmed that they could no longer find it.
• Gerald considered making protective bracelets from Hermes’s shed snake skin for Grandpa Henry and his family.
• Cedric told Gerald that Helga Hufflepuff’s portrait had directed him to a secret chamber.
• Gerald concluded that entering the founders’ hidden chambers required their recognition and decided to speak with Godric Gryffindor’s portrait.

Gerald agreed to help Cedric investigate the secret chamber Helga Hufflepuff had revealed, and the two found its entrance hidden in the Hogwarts Kitchen. They uncovered a marble wall behind a landscape painting but did not yet know how to open it.

• Gerald agreed to accompany Cedric to Helga Hufflepuff’s secret chamber after Cedric admitted he was nervous about going alone.
• Vivian warned Gerald that Avery Selwyn’s family blamed him for a curse and might retaliate during the holidays, but Gerald said he had a plan.
• Gerald and Cedric entered the Kitchen, where House-elf Billy guided them to a landscape painting beside the storeroom.
• Gerald asked Billy to keep their search secret, and Billy eagerly promised he would not tell anyone.
• Gerald lifted the landscape painting and revealed a smooth marble wall, but Cedric did not know a password or method to enter.

Gerald and Cedric discovered Helga Hufflepuff’s hidden home inside a painting, where Helga appeared and chose Cedric as her successor. She gave him a notebook and a magical shelter brooch, which Gerald learned had been made by Rowena Ravenclaw.

• Gerald found Helga’s hidden passage by reading her words about the qualities of a true Hufflepuff, then entered the painting with Cedric.
• Gerald and Cedric crossed the painted landscape and reached Helga’s stone house, where Helga appeared to greet them.
• Cedric asked Helga to consider Gerald despite his being a Gryffindor, and Gerald offered to step aside so Cedric could receive the legacy.
• Helga chose Cedric as her successor and gave him her recipe-and-spell notebook and a wheat-ear brooch that unfolded into a protected shelter.
• Gerald asked about the brooch’s alchemy, and Helga explained that Rowena had made it as a gift to her.

Gerald and Cedric learned from Helga Hufflepuff about the painted world's physical inhabitants and received her notes and a brooch, then discovered that time passed three times faster inside the painting. As exams approached, Gerald kept cultivating and studying, and he began using the painted world as extra time for cultivation.

• Helga explained that portraits had physical forms and could be harmed inside their painted worlds, then gave Cedric notes and a wheat-ear brooch and urged him to protect Hogwarts in the future.
• Gerald and Cedric left Helga's painted world and realized that only half an hour had passed outside despite spending hours within it; Gerald memorized Helga's notes, including the spells Blazing Flamefall and Fate-Weaving Rain.
• Fred and George invited Gerald to visit Lee Jordan's family by the sea during the holidays, and Gerald agreed if nothing interfered.
• As exams neared, Gerald continued cultivating, making Flying Letter Notebooks, and speaking with Godric Gryffindor's portrait while his classmates focused on revision.
• Gerald returned alone to Helga's painted world, found it empty, cultivated there, and determined that time flowed roughly three times faster inside than outside.

The chapter explained that Helga’s painting slowed time to a third of its normal speed, unlike the Time-Turner, which sent its user into the past. The narrator decided to cultivate in the painting often and use the time advantage to work harder.

• The narrator compared Helga’s painting with the Time-Turner Hermione had used in her third year.
• The narrator noted that controlling time was a divine law even in the cultivation world.
• The narrator realized that Helga’s painting slowed time to a third of its normal speed.
• The narrator planned to cultivate in the painting often, believing that success would still depend on hard work.