Recaps

Brian made Lockhart sign a magical contract to confess his crimes, give away his fortune, and face Azkaban, then tried a potion on the Longbottoms to awaken the hidden parts of their souls. The potion unexpectedly helped Frank and Alice regain consciousness, and Frank urged Neville to summon his grandmother and Brian before the brief clarity faded.

• Brian showed Lockhart his medical certificate and forced him to sign a contract promising public confession, philanthropy, and eventual imprisonment in Azkaban.
• Brian visited the Longbottoms with a special soothing draught made with Dumbledore’s celebration spell, while Mrs. Longbottom tested and gave it to Frank and Alice.
• Frank and Alice fell into unusually peaceful sleep, and Mrs. Longbottom eagerly ordered ten crates of the draught from Brian.
• Neville sang his parents their childhood lullaby, and Alice woke and recognized him as her baby.
• Frank woke with Alice, called Neville by name, and told him to bring Gran and Professor Brian before his consciousness faded.

Frank Longbottom briefly regained lucidity and warned his family and Brian that Voldemort had hidden a Horcrux in a golden cup entrusted to Bellatrix Lestrange. Brian stabilized Frank’s soul and explained that Alice might also recover, while Snape learned the potion would need further adjustments.

• Mrs. Longbottom entered the ward and found Frank lucid, whereupon he warned that Voldemort had made a Horcrux and that Bellatrix had guarded a golden cup containing it.
• Frank explained that he had retained part of his consciousness because he had been too afraid to complete the spell that would erase it, and he thanked Neville, Mrs. Longbottom, and Brian before his soul began to fade.
• Brian gave Frank potions to stabilize his soul and explained that Alice’s scattered memories might be reassembled so she could regain her personality and consciousness.
• Frank asked Neville whether he would help Alice if she woke without remembering him, and Neville promised to tell her about their lives; Frank then lost consciousness again.
• Mrs. Longbottom asked Neville what Brian liked so the family could repay his help, while Snape learned that Brian’s successful potions required adding two more spells and revising the herbal mixture.

Brian told Snape that Voldemort might have made multiple Horcruxes, then went to Dumbledore to discuss the possibility and the Golden Cup. Dumbledore revealed a possible second Horcrux: a glittering diadem bearing Ravenclaw’s emblem.

• Brian told Snape that Voldemort might possess more than one Horcrux, but Snape dismissed the possibility because he did not know the murder ritual protected a soul fragment.
• Brian left Snape to consult Dumbledore about Horcruxes and the Golden Cup.
• Brian found Remus Lupin signing his contract to become Hogwarts’s Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and congratulated him.
• Lupin thanked Dumbledore for the position and Wolfsbane Potion, then left to collect his teaching materials.
• Brian told Dumbledore what Frank had said about the Golden Cup and asked whether Voldemort might have several Horcruxes.
• Dumbledore took a Ravenclaw diadem from his drawer, suggesting it was another Horcrux.

Snape brewed and stored a lethal poison while preparing for the possibility of another wizarding war. At the Burrow, Harry and Ron relaxed before school, plotted a prank on Malfoy, and were called in for dinner.

• Snape salvaged a failed potion with unusual ingredients and bottled a harmless-looking poison that could kill with one sip.
• Snape planned his next brewing session and considered how to embarrass Harry when school resumed.
• Ron showed Harry Fred and George's Spicy Sneezing Candy, and they discussed using it against Malfoy and his friends.
• Harry and Ron recalled Neville and resolved to defend him if anyone bullied him at school.
• Hermione called Harry and Ron in for dinner, and Ron returned distracted after noticing Hermione's new hairstyle.
• Harry reflected that he and Ron had finished their homework and spent their break eating and playing, as Molly had encouraged.

Brian wondered whether Harry Potter was one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, given Harry’s Parseltongue and scar, and asked Dumbledore what he believed. Dumbledore said his view was similar to Brian’s and offered to explain his recent research, leaving the question unresolved.

• Dumbledore explained that Bingo’s diary entries led him to find Ravenclaw’s Diadem in the Room of Requirement, where Voldemort had left it without safeguards.
• Brian connected Harry’s Parseltongue, scar, and Snape’s feelings for him to the possibility that Voldemort had made Harry a Horcrux.
• Brian told Dumbledore that his magical intuition gave him no desire to kill Harry and argued that Harry need not die even if he contained Voldemort’s soul.
• Dumbledore admitted he had considered whether Harry was a Horcrux but denied that he had designed the Philosopher’s Stone trials to prepare Harry for death.
• Dumbledore said his current view resembled Brian’s and offered to share the results of his recent research.

Dumbledore explained how Dementors’ collective consciousness could illuminate the links between Horcruxes and Voldemort’s soul, offering a possible way to remove the fragment inside Harry. Brian also realized the findings could improve his and Snape’s soul-repairing potion, and arrived at the Potions Lab as Snape made a breakthrough.

• Dumbledore told Brian that murder left Horcrux soul fragments in a half-living, half-dead state, and described how Dementors restored their souls through a collective consciousness.
• Brian understood that linking Voldemort’s Horcruxes with Harry through Magical Resonance might draw the soul fragment out of Harry.
• Brian suggested asking Bellatrix Lestrange about the Golden Cup, and Dumbledore agreed to handle the prisoner interview.
• Brian recalled that Frank Longbottom’s soul had been repaired because he retained a substantial primary consciousness, and realized the potion could gather memories in stages to reduce risks and memory loss.
• Brian reached the Potions Lab and heard Snape excitedly muttering over a new herbal formula.

Brian and Snape adjusted their soul-healing potion after the previous Beagle remained mostly incapacitated, then treated a third Beagle whose body rapidly shrank and regrew as his soul expelled its impurities. Their successful trial led to an unexpected physical transformation in Gilderoy Lockhart, who appeared as a blond, curly-haired baby.

• Brian and Snape concluded that soul impurities had blocked the second Beagle's recovery and added concentrated Sopophorous Bean Juice to their potion.
• Brian and Snape treated the third Beagle, who expelled white vapor through his nose and ears as his condition stabilized.
• The third Beagle shrank dramatically, then rapidly grew back into a larger, healthier-looking dog before falling asleep.
• Several days later, Brian explained the potion's effects to Madam Strout and Lockhart's Healer during the first clinical trial.
• Gilderoy Lockhart appeared as a blond, curly-haired baby and wailed on the hospital bed.

Neville woke to find his young mother, Alice, teasing him about his height, then discovered that his young father, Frank, had begun remembering his family. As Alice and Frank each questioned how they could have married one another, Neville was left caught between them while Trevor plotted to escape on the journey back to Hogwarts.

• Neville found Alice beside his bed, and she complained that he should stop calling her Mum because she was only a few years old.
• Alice told Neville that Frank had shouted during the night and then sat alone in the sitting room, so Neville hurried to check on him.
• Frank told Neville that he had remembered Augusta was his mother and asked whether he really was Neville’s father.
• Frank protested that he could not have married Alice, while Neville assured him that grown-up Alice matched his ideal of a partner.
• Alice overheard Frank and Neville, returned to Neville’s room, and wondered whether she would really marry Frank.
• Trevor decided he would try to escape through a hole in the train taking Neville to Hogwarts the next day.

Brian accompanied Hermione to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and helped deal with a Muggle who had been affected by a magical mishap. As the Weasleys and Harry gathered to board the Hogwarts Express, Brian met Sirius and noticed Neville arriving with his family, while revealing that a Muggle friend’s niece named Lovegood was about to attend a remote boarding school.

• Brian used a spell to return a Bowtruckle to a trunk and cast a Calming Charm on a confused Muggle after the platform guard erased his memory.
• Hermione gave Brian a Bowtruckle-flavored chocolate from Ron, and Brian suspected the twins had tampered with it before deciding it tasted like mint.
• Percy complained about the crowded station while Arthur advised him to relax, and Molly reminded Ginny that her brothers should help her at Hogwarts.
• Ron called Harry over, prompting Fred and George to flee toward the barrier, while Ginny hurried off and Percy followed to look after her.
• Harry and Hermione went to find Ron as Brian greeted Sirius and spotted Neville with Mrs. Longbottom and the Longbottoms, who were still children.
• Brian told Sirius about his Muggle friend’s niece, whose surname was Lovegood, and complained that her father Xenophilius was an irresponsible oddball.

Brian smuggled Sirius aboard the Hogwarts Express in his black dog form and encountered the Longbottoms, whose memories had begun returning after their recovery. As the train prepared to leave, Brian ran into Dolores Umbridge, whom Sirius had reason to hate.

• Brian carried Sirius, disguised as a large black dog, through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and boarded the Hogwarts Express.
• Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville spoke with Frank and Alice Longbottom, who explained that their childlike bodies were temporary and hinted that a secret would soon be revealed.
• Brian greeted the Longbottoms, but Sirius stayed in his cage rather than reveal himself to them.
• Brian avoided a guarded entrance, boarded farther down the train, and walked toward the staff carriages with Sirius.
• Brian came face-to-face with Dolores Umbridge and hoped Sirius would control his anger at her.

Umbridge tried to recruit Brian into her Ministry-backed reforms at Hogwarts, offering him money and influence in exchange for supporting her. Brian questioned her plan, and their conversation ended in chaos when Neville's toad Trevor leapt onto Umbridge's face.

• Sirius fell asleep in his cage, and Brian moved it to an empty compartment before joining Umbridge.
• Umbridge told Brian she had been appointed Hogwarts High Inquisitor and temporary deputy headmistress, and offered him a Ministry title and six hundred Galleons a month to support her reforms.
• Umbridge said she wanted Hogwarts students to focus on theory and written exams rather than practical magic, while threatening to remove professors of subjects she considered unnecessary.
• Brian challenged the idea of eliminating practical lessons and stopped Umbridge from going after the student shouting in the corridor.
• Umbridge opened the compartment door and found Neville holding Trevor; Trevor leapt onto her face and clung to her while Brian used a Stabilizing Charm to keep her from falling.

Brian discovered that Trevor’s potion-tainted mucus had put Umbridge into a hallucination, then reassured Neville and left to get chocolate while Umbridge slept. Meanwhile, two hired supervisors prepared to guide Dementors toward the Hogwarts Express, and one revealed that his daughter was aboard and planned to limit the danger to the students.

• Trevor’s mucus caused Umbridge to hallucinate, and Brian examined her, rescued Trevor, and assured Neville that Umbridge would recover after sleeping.
• Neville explained that Trevor had fallen into a potion cauldron by accident and admitted he had been careless, so Brian encouraged him to improve Trevor’s care and think about whether to keep him.
• Neville left the compartment, and Brian found Neville’s wand, then went to buy chocolate to keep Umbridge quiet and asleep.
• Two cloaked figures discussed their role in supervising the Dementors Umbridge had hired to attack the Hogwarts Express, and the wizard admitted his twelve-year-old daughter was aboard.
• The wizard said he would send the Dementors toward the train’s staff and Umbridge, keeping them from entering the student compartments, and asked the witch not to stop him.

On the Hogwarts Express, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood bonded over Ginny’s romantic worries before Luna sensed a dangerous presence outside their compartment. In another carriage, Hermione showed Ron and Harry a real spell to turn rats yellow, while Ron noticed a dark figure outside the train.

• Ginny Weasley spoke with Luna Lovegood, who guessed that Ginny was troubled by romance but mistakenly thought Ginny liked one of her brothers.
• Luna warned Ginny not to reveal the name of the person she liked because Nargles might carry it to him, and Ginny felt calmer after talking with her.
• Luna knocked Ginny down and warned that something dangerous was approaching as the train slowed, the compartment grew cold and dark, and a black face appeared at the window.
• Hermione showed Harry and Ron a rat and explained that she had learned a real spell to turn rats yellow, but Ron reacted miserably.
• Ron told Harry and Hermione that Dementors, Boggarts, and rats were among the things he hated, then spotted a dark figure outside the train.

A witch betrayed and killed a wizard while arranging for Dementors to attack the Hogwarts Express, where Harry, Hermione, and Ron faced one in their compartment. Brian rescued them, but a hidden assailant then cast the Killing Curse at him.

• The witch mocked the dead wizard, revealed her plan to return to the Dark Lord with Harry Potter's blood, and led a Dementor toward the train's rear compartments.
• A Dementor attacked Ron, forcing him to relive painful memories; Harry tried to repel it with the Patronus Charm while Hermione pulled Ron away and broke her wand.
• Harry's Patronus weakened, but Brian's powerful silver mist and tentacles restrained the Dementor and dragged it out of the compartment.
• Brian gave Ron chocolate and reassured Harry and Hermione, then wondered how a Dementor had reached the train's protected route.
• An unseen attacker shouted "Avada Kedavra!" and green light flashed above Brian.

A witch’s Killing Curse rebounded and killed her while she ambushed Professor Brian on the Hogwarts Express, and Brian suspected more attackers were aboard. Sirius Black woke to find a Dementor threatening Umbridge and drove it off, only for the Giant Squid Patronus to capture it outside the train.

• A witch attacked Professor Brian with Avada Kedavra, but he reflected the curse and killed her, while Hermione and Harry reacted in shock.
• Brian secured the witch’s body and questioned students, then learned from an oddly dressed girl that another Dementor had headed toward the front of the train.
• Sirius Black woke in his cage, sensed a Dementor nearby, transformed into a human, and summoned a Patronus.
• Sirius found a Dementor about to Kiss Umbridge and used his Patronus to knock it away from her.
• The Dementor fled through a window, but the Giant Squid Patronus caught and wrapped it outside the train.

As Hogwarts prepared for the start-of-term feast, Dobby welcomed the return of Chet Brian while McGonagall and Sprout worried about Dolores Umbridge’s arrival and planned to resist her proposed reforms. Hagrid then arrived with an urgent message from Dumbledore: Umbridge needed Mimbulus mimbletonia pus, and the feast might be delayed.

• A Hogwarts house-elf ordered Dobby to move a table away from a lamp-post base, then rebuked him for seeking wages.
• Dobby looked forward to Chet Brian’s return and decided to rule out Dolores Umbridge as a potential friend after hearing how she had once cursed a house-elf.
• McGonagall and Sprout discussed Umbridge’s past misconduct and her plan to impose a return-to-basic-principles teaching approach.
• Sprout and McGonagall planned challenging lessons to test Umbridge’s knowledge of Herbology and Human Transfiguration.
• Hagrid rushed in with Dumbledore’s request for Mimbulus mimbletonia pus to save Umbridge, warning that the feast might be delayed.

Brian and Sirius brought captured Dementors and two bodies from the train attack to Hogwarts while Pomfrey fought to save Umbridge. The witch was revealed as a Death Eater who had infiltrated the Ministry, and Umbridge’s ghost appeared to protest Sirius’s accusations.

• Sprout brought a Mimbulus mimbletonia to the Hospital Wing, where Pomfrey used its contents to help treat Umbridge while Dumbledore worked to hold her remaining soul in place.
• Chet Brian explained that a toad’s hallucinogenic secretion may have disrupted the Dementor’s Kiss and given Umbridge a chance of survival.
• Brian and Sirius showed McGonagall and Hagrid two captured Dementors and the bodies of a witch and a wizard found after the train attack.
• McGonagall and Brian removed the dead witch’s false face, revealing scars that Sirius recognized as belonging to a Death Eater from the Lestrange family.
• Sirius warned that Death Eaters might still be hiding within the Ministry, and Umbridge’s ghost appeared to angrily demand to know who was slandering it.

As Hogwarts students traveled to the castle, Ginny and Hermione learned that they could see Thestrals because they understood and accepted death, while Ron could not. Ron’s frustrated questions turned into an awkward declaration of affection for Hermione, and the chapter ended with Dolores Umbridge returning as a ghost determined to carry out her Ministry assignment.

• Remus Lupin took charge of the students traveling by boat after Hagrid left with Professor Brian and Sirius Black to transport the dead and dying from the Hogwarts Express.
• Luna told Ginny that Thestrals were carrying Hagrid, Professor Brian, and Sirius, and explained that people who understood and accepted death could see them.
• Hermione explained the Thestrals to Ron and Harry, then read them a note saying that witnessing death alone was not enough to see the creatures.
• Harry and Hermione could not put their understanding of death into words, and Ron angrily complained that they kept information from him.
• Ron blurted out that he found Hermione’s hair and scent appealing, leaving Hermione embarrassed and Harry speechless.
• Dolores Umbridge died in the Hospital Wing, became a ghost, and vowed to complete her Hogwarts educational-reform assignment.

At Hogwarts’ start-of-term feast, the students encountered Dolores Umbridge as a ghostly High Inquisitor with an oversized head and tiny body. The Sorting Hat began singing about her and an unwelcome presence, but Umbridge flew into its mouth and took control before it could finish.

• Students mistook Dolores Umbridge’s ghostly form for a strange creature as she sat at the staff table with the High Inquisitor sign.
• Professor McGonagall objected to Umbridge addressing the feast, but Dumbledore allowed her to speak and explained that she retained her position until Fudge confirmed her death.
• The Sorting Hat delayed its song while Brian whispered to Professor Sprout, then began singing about Umbridge’s large head and tiny body.
• Umbridge misunderstood the song, briefly denied that it described her, and then accepted Brian’s explanation.
• The Sorting Hat started warning that something unwelcome had come to Hogwarts, but Umbridge launched herself into its mouth and ordered the sorting to begin.

During the Sorting Ceremony, Dolores Umbridge’s ghost possessed the Sorting Hat and tried to abolish Hogwarts’ four houses, while the staff and students struggled to restore order. The Hat prepared to use a secret measure to force Umbridge out as the houses competed to quiet down first.

• The Sorting Hat spoke in its own voice and Umbridge’s voice, but Umbridge refused to leave its stomach and proposed replacing the four houses with a class named after herself.
• Brian recalled a memory of feeding pigeons and a puppy as Professor Sprout gave him her homemade flavored sunflower seeds before hurrying to manage Hufflepuff.
• Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick tried to calm their houses, and Flitwick explained that gifted ghosts could immerse their minds in other beings or objects.
• Professor McGonagall projected the house-point hourglasses and offered points to the houses according to how quickly they became quiet.
• Gryffindor and Slytherin students restrained their noisy classmates, while Harry covered Ron’s mouth when Ron asked him to find out whether all girls smelled nice.
• The Sorting Hat warned Umbridge that it would use a special measure if she would not leave, then prepared to act.

Brian put on the Sorting Hat and was transported into a memory of the Founders’ time, where he woke during a forest fire with no memories. After Helga Hufflepuff rescued him, Brian discovered he could use wandless magic and extinguished a burning tree as the Founders prepared to confront the fire.

• The Sorting Hat asked Brian to put it on, then sang that he would enter a vision of the past and fight alongside Hogwarts’ four Founders.
• Brian woke in a burning forest with no memory of who he was, and Helga Hufflepuff told him she had found and rescued him.
• Helga explained that she and her three friends were battling the fire, while Rowena Ravenclaw called her to help create and defeat an enormous Fiendfyre.
• Brian decided to help and used wandless magic to make a burning tree and its flames vanish, astonishing Helga.

Godric Gryffindor and his companions fought a forest fire while Brian, an amnesiac wizard, joined them and revealed unusual magical skill. As Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff proposed extinguishing the blaze with rain, Gryffindor insisted they needed to summon Fiendfyre to preserve the forest’s vitality and recalled a legend.

• Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin pushed back the forest fire while Gryffindor declared he would duel the Fiendfyre.
• Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff arrived with Brian, whom Ravenclaw had rescued, and Brian helped drive back the flames using a branch as a wand.
• Brian recognized Slytherin’s concealed Legilimency, admitted he had lost his memory, and asked the wizards to help him learn about his identity.
• Gryffindor challenged Brian to duel after he defeated the Fiendfyre, and Brian agreed while asking to learn dueling spells.
• Hufflepuff proposed bringing down a heavy, magically fire-suppressing rain, and Ravenclaw said she could prepare it with water from a nearby source.
• Gryffindor rejected the alternative, explaining that they needed Fiendfyre to appear in the forest to preserve its vitality, and asked Ravenclaw whether she remembered a legend.

Brian joined Gryffindor’s plan to duel Fiendfyre after hearing the legend of a forest destroyed by magical flames, and introduced himself as Hogwarts. The flames gathered into a Fiendfyre creature on their own, culminating in the emergence of a huge fire toad with a twisted human face.

• Ravenclaw recounted a legend in which an ambitious wizarding expedition unleashed Fiendfyre, and the surviving exiles later defeated the Flame Monsters and restored their burned forest.
• Gryffindor insisted on testing the legend by dueling Fiendfyre, and Brian agreed after recognizing Gryffindor’s words as a quotation connected to Hogwarts.
• Brian chose the name Hogwarts, while Slytherin joined the plan to observe him and determine whether the legend was true.
• As the group pushed the forest fire back, Ravenclaw discovered that their magic had been absorbed by the flames, causing Fiendfyre to form naturally.
• The Fiendfyre gathered into a growing fireball, then burst apart to reveal an enormous toad with a twisted human face and a flaming pink bow.

Brian and the four founders fought a giant Fiendfyre toad while Salazar Slytherin revealed Rowena Ravenclaw’s painful past to argue that their school should admit only children from wizarding families. Ravenclaw refused, and after Godric Gryffindor destroyed the toad, Brian pointed out that their battle had created a cliff and a dry lakebed resembling the features in Ravenclaw’s dream.

• Godric Gryffindor challenged the giant Fiendfyre toad to a duel and parried its attacks with a spell-forged sword.
• Rowena Ravenclaw explained how Gryffindor’s sword combined magic with swordsmanship, and Salazar Slytherin exposed the story of Ravenclaw’s childhood friend to press his case against admitting Muggle-born students.
• Ravenclaw rejected Slytherin’s demand and insisted that the school admit every child with magic, while Helga Hufflepuff tried to calm the dispute.
• The Fiendfyre toad tried to flee, so Brian and the founders raised earthen walls to trap it while Gryffindor prepared a final strike.
• Gryffindor’s sword destroyed the toad, whose explosion extinguished the forest’s flames and left a deep pit and towering earthen walls.
• Brian observed that the battle had formed a man-made cliff and a dry lakebed, recalling the features in Ravenclaw’s dream.

Brian recovered his memories after the Sorting Hat ended its illusion and learned that the Founders’ memories depicted real events from Hogwarts’s early history. Back in the Great Hall, he joked that he would choose Azkaban, and the Sorting Hat unexpectedly announced that as his house.

• Brian realized the Sorting Hat had used his and Umbridge’s memories and thoughts to simulate an encounter with the Four Founders, then asked whether the events were historical.
• The Sorting Hat explained that the Founders had rescued a wizard called Hogwarts from a burning forest, and that his suggestion led them to create the lake and site where Hogwarts Castle was built.
• Brian wondered whether his Magic Coating connected him to the Founders, then learned he was not their descendant and accepted that he might have to face any connection as it emerged.
• When Brian asked which house he would join, the Sorting Hat said it could not reach a unanimous decision and asked him to choose for himself.
• Brian joked that he would choose Azkaban, and the Sorting Hat announced that name aloud in the Great Hall after Umbridge flew out of its rip and struck Peeves.
• Brian questioned the Sorting Hat about its announcement, and it apologized, claiming it had acted on reflex.