Recaps

Brian recorded his experiments on stabilizing a memory-based duplicate and discovered that a triangular structure helped him build the duplicate more reliably. By November 30, the experiment had reached eighty percent, and Brian began a Wizard’s Chess match against his duplicate, whose new ideas could still threaten his stability.

• Brian wrote that Hogwarts had been peaceful, Percy had awakened and been rejected by his former girlfriend, and Draco Malfoy had become more subdued after Lucius’s imprisonment.
• Brian reviewed his memory-stacking experiments and realized that categorizing memories and building a solid base had stabilized his duplicate, though the duplicate still shattered after suddenly having an idea.
• Brian concluded that the stacking method was the remaining problem and planned to build a triangular structure, using hazy drinking memories as stabilizers.
• By November 30, Brian had completed the triangular structure to its peak, and his duplicate reported feeling stable despite briefly sprouting a third hand.
• Brian warned his duplicate that Wizard’s Chess would provoke a stream of new ideas, then opened the chess set and started a match as the pieces mistook the two players for identical people.

Brian held a Hogwarts Christmas event that collected students’ memories of love while giving away Honeydukes sweets. He planned to use the memories to force Voldemort’s Horcruxes to merge, and Harry arrived just as Brian considered filling Voldemort’s soul fragments with love.

• Ron told Harry and Hermione that the Pensieve event copied memories of love without removing them, and described memories of his wand and his parents’ love for him.
• Harry grew eager to use the Pensieve to recall memories of his parents, and Hermione persuaded Ron to help them finish their punishment duties.
• Brian encouraged Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang to use the Pensieve together, collecting a powerful shared memory of their affection.
• Brian revealed that the event supported his plan with Dumbledore to combine Voldemort’s Horcruxes using memories of love.
• Brian considered implanting love-filled memories into Voldemort’s soul fragments, and Harry Potter came to the event.

Harry used Brian’s Pensieve to recover a warm but indistinct memory of his parents, and Brian suspected it came from the night they died. Meanwhile, Ministry workers relaxed before Christmas, unaware that a dangerous rat was lurking in the Department of Mysteries’ Time Room.

• Harry’s overflowing memory filled a fifteenfold-capacity Memory Jar before he recalled his parents’ voices and asked Brian to let him try again.
• Hermione explained that Harry would likely struggle to recover more details, and Brian told him the Pensieve would remain available; Ron and Hermione comforted Harry as he left with candy.
• Brian concluded that Harry’s memory probably captured Lily and James Potter’s final moments and retained an echo of Lily’s powerful love magic.
• Ministry employees eased into the Christmas period, while two Unspeakables played a magical card game in the Brain Room and joked about Time-Turners and Ministry security.
• The Unspeakables heard a possible noise in the Time Room and went to investigate, while a rat with silvery, mercury-like forepaws crouched in the darkness.

The Department of Mysteries descended into chaos as an orchestrated attack disrupted several rooms and overwhelmed its emergency channels. Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch Jr. stole Time-Turners, while Crouch revealed that Scrimgeour’s decision to put his father in charge of the Ministry’s internal investigation had helped set the assault in motion.

• Rainbow rain transformed the Brain Room’s brains, and the Unspeakables struggled to control the resulting chaos.
• Sarah sent a distress signal and learned that other Department of Mysteries rooms were also under attack, while the Emergency Support Team tried to reach the department.
• Peter Pettigrew used the Dark Lord’s enchanted hands to steal Time-Turners from a locked cabinet in the Time Room.
• Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as his father, told Peter to escape through the rat hole and said Scrimgeour would pay for putting Barty Crouch Sr. in charge of the internal investigation.

After Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters and the Ministry fell into chaos, Dumbledore sent Snape to infiltrate their gathering while Brian prepared another attempt to fuse Horcruxes. Harry experienced a vision of Voldemort, and Hogwarts students learned their families had abruptly arranged for them to stay at school over Christmas.

• A Death Eater disguised as a fireworks-shop customer recognized Voldemort’s summons, put on his mask, and left to join the gathering.
• Snape told Dumbledore he would attend the mandatory meeting to regain Voldemort’s trust, despite the danger, and asked what Order information he could reveal.
• Dumbledore learned that Voldemort’s attack on the Department of Mysteries had left Scrimgeour gravely injured and the Ministry overwhelmed.
• Brian reviewed his Horcrux-fusion experiments with his duplicate and planned to divide a memory of love between two Horcruxes for another attempt.
• Harry dreamed that he was Voldemort choking a late-arriving masked man, then hid the vision from Ron and resolved to tell Dumbledore.
• Hogwarts students received letters saying their families had to travel and that they should stay at school for Christmas.

On Christmas, Brian negotiated with Voldemort’s Diary over the next stage of fusing the Horcruxes, agreeing to let it merge with a memory of love before facing the stronger soul. Meanwhile, Harry slipped away from the Hogwarts feast, and Ron found the bathroom where Hermione said he had gone empty.

• Brian and his clone discussed the Ministry’s decision to replace the injured Scrimgeour with Barty Crouch as Minister for Magic.
• Brian continued fusing Voldemort’s Horcruxes, and the Diary asked to merge with the soul inside Nagini before joining the Misfit Horcrux.
• Brian and his clone deduced that the Diary wanted to strengthen itself before the next fusion and risked being destroyed by the stronger soul.
• Brian agreed to let the Diary merge with a memory of love first and promised to weaken its opponent during the later fusion.
• At Hogwarts’s Christmas feast, Hermione told Ron that Harry had gone to the Boys’ Bathroom, but Ron found it empty.

Harry followed a mysterious summons to the Chamber of Secrets, where he found two Professor Brians working on a strange object and suffered a powerful attack through his scar. After seeing his parents protect him from a monstrous baby, Harry awoke as Brian prepared to reveal the truth.

• Harry went to the second-floor Girls' Bathroom under his Invisibility Cloak and opened the hidden entrance by commanding the tap.
• Moaning Myrtle told Harry that a basilisk had killed her, but someone had later carried it away from Hogwarts in a boat.
• Harry used an imitation of the Bloody Baron's voice to drive Peeves away, then jumped down the drainpipe and followed the summons.
• Harry reached a chamber where two Professor Brians were casting magic on a broken golden cup-like object containing a Diary.
• Harry's scar burned with intense pain, then his parents appeared in a dark vision restraining a monstrous red baby and told him they loved him.
• Harry awoke as his scar faded, and Brian said he would now tell Harry the whole truth.

Brian oversaw the merger of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, and Lily Potter and James Potter helped remove Voldemort’s soul fragment from Harry. The merger left Voldemort’s soul in an uncertain five-in-one state, while Harry slept free of the fragment and Brian prepared to explain what had happened.

• Brian filled Voldemort’s Diary with memories of Harry’s parents’ love, but much of that love faded as the Diary absorbed the Cup and Diadem.
• Nagini merged with the Horcrux, and the love began joining Voldemort’s soul instead of disappearing.
• Harry entered as Voldemort’s four-in-one soul summoned the fragment inside him, and Lily Potter and James Potter appeared with Voldemort’s baby-shaped soul fragment.
• Lily Potter and James Potter pulled Voldemort’s fragment out of Harry and sacrificed their remaining consciousness to join it with Voldemort’s soul, severing Harry’s connection to him.
• Brian saw Harry sleeping without the soul fragment and checked the unstable five-in-one Horcrux before asking his double to help explain the events.

Brian and Dumbledore dealt with Barty Crouch Jr.’s infiltration of the Ministry while the Diary Horcrux experienced a dream designed to make Voldemort confront love. The fragment awoke with a new sense of self and decided it wanted to reunite with its original self.

• Dumbledore returned from the Ministry with an impersonator of Barty Crouch Sr., who transformed into Barty Crouch Jr. after taking a Dark Magic-enhanced Polyjuice Potion.
• Dumbledore told Brian that Barty Crouch Jr. had escaped Azkaban after Barty Crouch Sr. exchanged him for his dying wife, and that Death Eaters had infiltrated the Ministry.
• Brian reflected that Barty Crouch Jr. had rejected his mother’s love, then watched as the turbulent soul inside the infant Horcrux settled.
• In a dream, Tom Riddle attacked Amy Benson and met with Mrs. Cole, who responded to his past cruelty with kindness and love.
• The Diary Voldemort remembered that he was a fragment of Voldemort’s soul and decided that he wanted to unite with his original self.

Brian and Dumbledore completed a ritual that located Voldemort and his last Horcrux at Brian’s Muggle house, where Voldemort attacked Brian’s Clone and apparently destroyed him. Brian lost contact with the clone and realized the tracking ritual had not shown the attack in real time.

• Brian and Dumbledore used the cooperative fused Horcrux to complete a ritual that revealed Voldemort and his remaining Horcrux were together at Brian’s Muggle house.
• Brian’s Clone visited a florist, bought Christmas trees and flowers, and planned to decorate his house before shopping for food.
• As Brian’s Clone opened the house door, Voldemort’s spell engulfed him in flames and immobilized him inside a vast magical array.
• Voldemort crushed the gem-set ring, using its destroyed soul to activate the array and compress Brian’s Clone into a black dot that vanished.
• At Hogwarts, Brian saw the tracking display change and could no longer sense his clone, concluding that Voldemort had attacked him.

After learning that Voldemort had killed his Doppelgänger, Brian prepared with Dumbledore to confront him, while his merged Horcrux demanded the chance to die alongside Voldemort. As they set out, Voldemort revealed that he had cursed Dumbledore and expected teleportation to split him in two.

• Brian learned that his Doppelgänger had died after warning him that Voldemort’s magic array would briefly weaken Voldemort, and he resolved to avenge his friend and search for remnants of his consciousness.
• Brian noticed that one of the six remaining dots on his chest had burned away, suggesting a change in his connection to Voldemort.
• Tom Riddle’s Horcrux revealed that it had helped accelerate the magic array and demanded to kill Voldemort by merging with him before destroying itself.
• Brian told the Horcrux he would consider its request, while the Horcrux declared that it loved Voldemort and understood love better than anyone.
• Voldemort waited in the house where the magic array had faded and revealed that he had cursed Dumbledore, hoping teleportation would split him in two.

Brian captured Voldemort after Dumbledore’s teleportation curse scattered his body parts across Britain, then reunited with Dumbledore and reported the success. Meanwhile, Brian’s Clone drifted through a strange river as his memories began to break apart.

• Dumbledore explained that the curse from the Gaunt family's house had scattered his body parts during teleportation, while Brian learned that Voldemort was at his house.
• Voldemort celebrated Dumbledore’s apparent death, but Brian appeared, immobilized him, and captured him after his magic stopped obeying him.
• Brian knocked Voldemort unconscious, secured his house, and went to retrieve Dumbledore’s head and arm from the newsstand.
• Dumbledore’s head called to a delivery driver and his assistant, and Brian arrived and told him that Voldemort had been captured.
• Brian’s Clone drifted as a drop of water in a strange river, felt his mind breaking apart, and wished he could settle somewhere on land.

Brian oversaw Dumbledore’s treatment and then joined Snape in planning how to capture the Death Eaters by exploiting Voldemort’s Dark Mark. The chapter ended with Brian proposing that Voldemort’s cooperative Horcrux could provide the magical power needed to summon them.

• Madam Pomfrey and her assistant Healers began repairing Dumbledore’s scattered body, while Dumbledore shared knowledge he had learned from Secrets of the Darkest Art.
• Brian went to the Chamber of Secrets, where Voldemort tried to persuade Snape to free him and promised him control of Hogwarts.
• Snape refused to trust Voldemort and worked out that the Dark Mark could be activated only with Voldemort’s magical power.
• Brian revealed himself, and Snape proposed concealing Voldemort’s capture while gathering the active Death Eaters for a meeting.
• Brian suggested using Voldemort’s cooperative Horcrux to activate the Dark Mark and draw the Death Eaters together.

Igor Karkaroff hid in Bulgaria after the Dark Lord returned, but Avery found and brutalized him before bringing him to the Death Eaters’ meeting at the Gaunt Shack. Snape welcomed Karkaroff with a grim prediction of what awaited him inside.

• Karkaroff hid in a remote Bulgarian safe house and talked himself into leaving to buy wine.
• Avery ambushed Karkaroff, accused him of betraying the Death Eaters, and severely wounded him.
• Avery gave Karkaroff a potion, set the safe house ablaze, and carried him to the Dark Magic Conference.
• Snape admitted that the meeting concerned the Order of the Phoenix and directed arriving Death Eaters inside, where they were captured.
• Avery showed Snape the unconscious Karkaroff, who woke and recognized him.
• Snape told Karkaroff that he was likely to become a puddle of sludge.

Brian and Snape captured the Death Eaters at the Dark Magic Conference, while Voldemort’s soul began disintegrating as his Horcrux’s souls merged with him. As Dumbledore, Brian, and Snape waited for Voldemort to die, Brian discovered that one of the countdown marks on his body had vanished.

• Brian subdued the Death Eaters and found Igor Karkaroff, who panicked when he recognized Snape and stunned himself.
• Snape and Brian brought the unconscious wizards to Dumbledore, who revealed that Voldemort would die within minutes unless he sincerely regretted his crimes.
• Dumbledore explained that the love of the souls inside Voldemort’s Horcrux had disrupted the balance of the merging and was causing Voldemort’s soul to be shredded.
• Brian, Dumbledore, and Snape prepared to watch Voldemort die, while Dumbledore chose juice instead of wine because of Madam Pomfrey’s warning.
• After feeling a surge of magic from Voldemort, Brian noticed that one of the countdown marks disguised as a birthmark had disappeared.

As Voldemort’s death approached, Brian’s uncontrolled magic broke free of its restraints and transformed into pages covered in ancient runes. The chapter ended with Brian naming the mysterious pages “How Books Are Made,” though he did not know what the book contained.

• Brian’s magic grew dangerously hot as the countdown to Voldemort’s death neared its end, and Dumbledore and Snape failed to control it.
• Brian joked with Dumbledore and Snape about his possible death and remembered the wills he and Hagrid had written.
• When the final countdown mark disappeared, Brian’s protective magical layer shattered, releasing his magic and leaving him overwhelmed by itching.
• Dumbledore urged Brian to relax and let the magic escape, while Snape warned that directing it toward his chest could make his heart explode.
• Brian moved his hands apart, guiding the escaping magic into two balls that became pages covered in ancient runes.
• Brian shook the pages until they multiplied into two stacks, then named the unknown book “How Books Are Made.”

Brian discovered that the blank book formed from his magic carried a curse that made him repeat a short span of perception, and he realized Book’s tooth marks offered a way to break it. He raced through Hogwarts with the book, leaving McGonagall to question Fred and George about their Fantastic Candy.

• Brian used an Automatic Sorting Charm to assemble the scattered pages into a blank-covered book and opened it, triggering a curse that made him repeat his actions and story.
• Dumbledore identified the book’s perception-rewinding curse, while Snape continued tending to Voldemort’s corpse; Dumbledore’s attempt to inspect the book left his magic unstable.
• Brian noticed Book’s tooth marks on the book and remembered Book’s ability to absorb books and transfer their knowledge, deciding it could help break the curse.
• McGonagall caught Colin Creevey and Fred and George Weasley wandering the halls, learned Colin had eaten too much Erumpent-version Fantastic Candy, and demanded the twins surrender their candy.
• Brian sprinted past McGonagall and the students with the book, and McGonagall asked Fred and George whether they had given the candy to any professors.

Brian gathered ingredients to help the Book break the curse on a troublesome book, borrowing most from Snape and obtaining Acromantula venom from Aragog’s grandson. He prepared to follow the Book’s cooking method, but the Book only showed him a question mark, leaving the procedure unclear.

• The Book gave Brian a list of ingredients and indicated that the cursed book had to be cooked in the Pensieve.
• Brian visited Snape, who supplied most of the ingredients in exchange for a replacement set within a week.
• Brian traded a bucket of fresh meat for Acromantula venom from One Hundred Eighty-Eight, Aragog’s grandson.
• Brian assembled the ingredients and asked the Book to reveal its power, but it displayed a question mark instead of instructions.

Brian watched the Book absorb the Cursed Book and its contents, then entered the Book’s mouth and witnessed a memory of Hogwarts’ founding. The vision ended with the Founders naming their castle Hogwarts after the amnesiac man who had called himself Hogwarts.

• Brian used a Pensieve filled with a medicinal mixture to strengthen the Book, which then devoured the Cursed Book’s curse and revealed the title “Hogwarts Travelogue.”
• The Book’s suction drew in the Travelogue’s Ancient Runes and nearly pulled Brian in, but it stopped when he shouted; after the Book urged him onward, Brian let it swallow him.
• Inside the Book, Brian observed Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff find an unconscious version of himself in a burning forest and help him recover.
• The amnesiac Chet Brian, who called himself Hogwarts, agreed to stay with the Four Founders, and the vision shifted to a thriving forest with Hogwarts Castle above the cliff.
• Helga Hufflepuff and the other Founders proposed naming the castle Hogwarts after their friend, explaining that he had helped them choose the cliff and deep pool as its location.

Brian discovered that the man appearing in the memory was his Clone, who had traveled more than a thousand years into the past and become connected to Hogwarts. The Clone began explaining his history, but Brian interrupted him, leaving his questions about the Clone’s current state unanswered.

• Brian’s Clone met Rowena Ravenclaw in secret and raised her long-running research into replicating Godric’s magical skin.
• The Clone explained that a sufficiently special memory could provide the compatible energy, then showed Ravenclaw one of Brian’s memories.
• Brian interrupted the vision, pulled off the man’s wig, and recognized the Clone by a warning spell hidden behind his ear.
• The Clone restored his hair and greeted Brian, revealing that he had recently buried wine in Hogwarts’ garden for him.
• Brian apologized for disrupting the explanation and asked what state the Clone was existing in.

Doppelgänger explained how Voldemort’s use of time sent him into a backward-flowing river, where he escaped as a droplet while pursued by a piece of Voldemort’s soul. He described reaching a forest and later returning to Hogwarts over a thousand years in the past, where the Founders became his friends.

• Doppelgänger told Brian that his ghostly existence was fading because he had nearly fulfilled the obsession keeping him in the world.
• Doppelgänger recounted how Voldemort used a piece of his soul and the power of time to pull him into a river flowing backward through time.
• Doppelgänger said he transformed himself into a droplet with limbs and escaped onto the riverbank, where Voldemort’s soul pursued him as a ball of fire.
• Doppelgänger explained that he regained his human form, reached a forest by focusing on the Forbidden Forest’s great tree, and collapsed as the fire exploded.
• Doppelgänger recalled waking with amnesia and eventually returning to Hogwarts more than a thousand years in the past, where he befriended the four Founders.

Doppelgänger explained how he had crossed a thousand years to guide Brian toward destroying Voldemort and revealed that Brian’s parents were Unspeakables who died bringing him from a dream into the world. Brian learned the truth about his past and stayed with Doppelgänger to ask questions before saying goodbye and forgetting.

• Doppelgänger explained that a fragment of Voldemort’s soul inside him made him a time bomb, so he arranged for Brian to destroy Voldemort’s other Horcruxes before he could die.
• Doppelgänger described the objects and clues he had sent Brian through time, including the countdown, wand, compass, and book, and explained how he had observed Brian from within the Hogwarts Travelogue.
• Brian realized that Doppelgänger’s consciousness had crossed a thousand years inside the magic coating on his body, and Doppelgänger confirmed his theory.
• Doppelgänger revealed that Brian’s parents were Unspeakables who studied dreams and had died to bring him, a child conceived in a dream, into the world.
• Doppelgänger offered Brian time to digest the revelations and ask questions before they watched the rest of Hogwarts Travelogue and said goodbye.

Number Forty-Eight wrote a birth certificate for the dream child he and Number Forty-Nine had raised inside a collapsed dream, explaining why they had erased their names and describing the child’s growth. Brian dreamed of being a ball of light as the fading figure who had written the message promised to reveal who had brought about his birth.

• Number Forty-Eight addressed his unborn child and described his loving, teasing relationship with Number Forty-Nine.
• Number Forty-Eight explained that he and Number Forty-Nine had erased their names and most ties to the real world to avoid endangering collapsed dreams.
• Number Forty-Eight recounted how he and Number Forty-Nine watched their child grow from a fragile dream particle into a dream bubble, which briefly took the shape of a baby.
• Brian slept with the crystalline page on his forehead and dreamed of two blurry figures watching him as a ball of light.
• A nearly transparent figure beside Brian’s bed said that, since Brian had been born because of them, they would reveal who had brought about his birth.

Fred and George Weasley showed Harry and Ron their Dream-Peeping Telephone, a device meant to listen to a connected person's dreams. When it rang unexpectedly, Professor Brian warned them against spying and sent them back to bed, leaving the boys startled.

• Fred and George Weasley revealed their Dream-Peeping Telephone and explained how to use it with magical earplugs.
• Ron persuaded Harry to try the telephone, hoping to hear Snape talking in his sleep.
• The telephone rang before Harry could turn the dial, and Fred and George admitted they had not expected anyone to call it.
• Professor Brian's voice came through the telephone, scolded them for prying, and threatened to take Gryffindor House points if he caught them again.
• After the call ended, Ron worried Professor Brian could still hear them, and the telephone answered him before Professor Brian wished them good night.