Recaps

At Malfoy Manor, Lucius Malfoy worried with Snape about Voldemort’s fascination with Muggle biology and Douglas Holmes’s influence. Lucius then confessed that Draco was torn between Holmes’s ideas and pure-blood loyalties, and Snape challenged him for letting Draco suffer.

• Snape dismissed Lucius’s alarm over Voldemort studying genetics and warned him not to mistake the Dark Lord’s distraction for safety.
• Lucius called Douglas Holmes a corrupting influence and described Voldemort’s intense interest in a Muggle genetic engineering book.
• Snape mocked Lucius’s fear and told him to worry instead about Draco.
• Lucius said Draco shut himself away, practiced Holmes’s Finger-Flick Technique, and recited wizarding etiquette and Muggle dynamics formulas in his sleep.
• Lucius admitted he had encouraged Draco to approach Holmes as a strategic investment, but now Draco felt caught between pleasing Holmes and upholding pure-blood beliefs.
• Snape, recognizing Draco’s inner conflict, sternly asked Lucius why he was letting his son remain torn in two.

Snape visited Draco at Malfoy Manor and found him falling behind on his holiday studies. He compared Draco unfavorably to Harry and Hermione, leaving Draco under pressure to work harder.

• Snape told Lucius that Draco needed to become stronger and ordered a visit to Draco’s study.
• Draco struggled to practice Protego Totalum while thinking about Harry’s dueling skills and the training he had learned from Holmes.
• Snape entered Draco’s study and criticized his comfortable setup, unfinished essay, poor handwriting, and misspelling.
• Snape claimed Hermione was studying advanced runes and Harry was enduring intense training to make Draco anxious about falling behind.
• Snape confronted Draco for treating the holiday’s first two days as an excuse to waste time.

Snape gave Draco a demanding summer training plan after criticizing his defensive spellwork, leaving Draco despairing over the schedule. Snape then went to find Douglas Holmes at Hogwarts, where an enchanted answering terminal identified him and offered him an exclusive interaction mode.

• Draco demonstrated Protego, but Snape criticized its instability and his stiff wand movements.
• Snape gave Draco a summer training plan that scheduled study and exercise from morning until midnight, threatening consequences if he failed to meet its requirements.
• Snape went to the Headmaster’s Office, but the gargoyle told him Dumbledore was away and directed him to Professor Holmes for miscellaneous matters.
• Snape knocked on Holmes’s office door, and an enchanted terminal appeared on the nameplate to explain that Holmes was outside the service area.
• The terminal identified Snape and announced that Holmes had reserved an Exclusive Interaction Mode for him.

Snape was enraged by Douglas Holmes’s magical answering plaque and reluctantly began reading the book Voldemort had assigned him. Meanwhile, Douglas shared a hot pot meal with Bill Weasley, Fleur Delacour, and Pheobe, while Bill tried to photograph the food for Charlie.

• Snape left an angry message for Holmes through Copper Face, which mocked his pronunciation and deflected his Reducto spell.
• Snape returned to his office, graded Potions exams harshly, and picked up the novel Magic Apprentice that Voldemort had ordered him to read.
• Douglas prepared hot pot while Bill Weasley interrupted the meal to photograph the dishes for Charlie.
• Fleur Delacour laughed as Pheobe teased Bill and tucked his hair behind his ear, while Douglas and Sirius rolled their eyes at the pair.

Bill showed the Weasley family photos while Douglas, Sirius, and Bill discussed Percy’s covert message and the family’s plan to deliver it. Sirius described the growing success of Remus’s werewolf academy and its new intake, including plans for a legitimate security team.

• Bill showed the group a photo of the Weasley family, and Sirius noticed Percy was missing.
• Bill explained that Percy had refused the sweets to protect a hidden message, which Arthur delivered by publicly throwing the package at him.
• Bill said Molly planned to make Percy copy notes a thousand times if he kept using the same excuse to refuse the sweets.
• Sirius told Douglas and Bill that Remus’s academy graduates were in demand and that the second intake would include werewolves from across Europe.
• Sirius said Remus was screening trainees with combat potential, and Douglas described the resulting security team as protection for the Marauders Power Company.

Sirius arranged for Dobby to deliver Harry a lavish meal at Privet Drive while he and Douglas argued over whether Harry would stay put and study. Douglas revealed their bet, and a message from Hogwarts summoned him back to work overtime.

• Sirius asked Dobby to pack Harry a selection of dinner and bring him maths papers, and Douglas approved the delivery.
• Bill asked why Sirius did not simply bring Harry to dinner, and Sirius explained that Douglas had bet Harry would come to them on his own.
• Sirius bet that Harry would hold out, risking three years of employment, while Douglas wagered that Harry would earn five more years of work and have to maintain perfect attendance.
• Douglas teased Sirius about finding a girlfriend, and Bill explained the joke to him.
• Douglas checked a message from Hogwarts and announced that he had to return to work overtime.

Douglas visited Snape while he marked Hogwarts exam papers and defended his approach to marking Defense Against Dark Magic exams. He revealed that a student committee had already graded most of the papers, leaving Snape to question whether other professors had adopted the same method.

• Douglas entered Snape's office with hotpot and a drink, but Snape told him to get the food away.
• Snape accused Douglas of neglecting his exam-marking duties while other Hogwarts professors worked through their papers.
• Douglas said he had finished marking the Defense Against Dark Magic exams over the weekend using a student committee.
• Douglas explained that students used preliminary reviews and double-blind cross-marking, while prefects reviewed the results and he spot-checked the work.
• Douglas argued that delegating repetitive marking developed students' skills and asked Snape whether other professors had started using the approach.

Snape told Douglas that Voldemort was obsessively studying his novels, convinced they contained clues to powerful magic, while Douglas argued this showed Voldemort had begun to fear him. Douglas also revealed that Dumbledore had gone to a London community university to study computers and had become fascinated with Minesweeper, leaving Snape exasperated but tempted by the spicy food Douglas brought.

• Snape told Douglas that Voldemort was analyzing his novels and had ordered Snape to collect all of Douglas’s manuscripts.
• Douglas said Voldemort’s fixation showed he was afraid and had lost confidence in his own power.
• Douglas told Snape that Dumbledore was attending computer classes at a London community university and playing Minesweeper.
• Snape ordered Douglas out, and Douglas left after revealing he had brought him extra-spicy beef tripe.
• Snape summoned the food container to his desk and left it there rather than throwing it away.

Douglas visited Newt Scamander and Tina Scamander at their home, bringing homemade sweets and other gifts. Newt tried to keep him outside, but Tina welcomed him in.

• Douglas used Dumbledore's parchment to reveal the Scamanders' hidden home on the Dorset coast.
• Newt rushed outside and tried to steer Douglas toward a tea shop instead of letting him enter.
• Douglas reminded Newt of his invitation and offered sweets made for Tina, while Newt insisted she was away and worried Douglas would eat his magical creatures.
• Tina came out carrying strawberries, greeted Douglas warmly, and scolded Newt for leaving their guest outside.

Douglas visited Newt and Tina with homemade pastries, winning over Tina and Mo Le despite Newt’s suspicion. Over tea, Newt praised Douglas’s role in developing the Improved Wolfsbane Potion and its success at Remus Lupin’s academy, while Tina began to reveal how Newt had reacted to Lupin’s public recognition.

• Tina welcomed Douglas into the house despite Newt’s warnings about him.
• Douglas gave Mo Le premium cat food, and the Kneazle stopped growling and rubbed against him.
• Douglas served Tina and Newt Eastern pastries, and Tina praised his cooking.
• Newt praised the Improved Wolfsbane Potion and credited Douglas with helping werewolves retain reason and magical ability while transformed.
• Tina started to tell Douglas how Newt had reacted to Lupin attending a public event as Head of Wolfmane Academy and receiving the Order of Merlin, and Newt tried to stop her.

Douglas visited Newt and Tina Scamander, teasing Newt about his drunken promise to entrust him with magical creatures and demonstrating a massage technique that delighted a Kneazle. After tea, Tina asked Douglas why he had really come, leaving Newt suspicious that he wanted the Scamanders’ creatures.

• Tina recounted how a drunken Newt had praised Douglas and promised to entrust some creatures to him, prompting Newt to protest that he would never hand them over.
• Douglas joked that he had brought a Graphorn breeding plan, and Newt ordered him out while Tina and the Kneazles laughed.
• Douglas demonstrated a magical massage on a Kneazle and offered to teach Newt if he could look inside Newt’s case.
• After they had eaten and drunk tea, Tina asked Douglas to explain his real reason for visiting.
• Newt suspected Douglas wanted the Demiguises in the cellar or the Graphorn and warned Tina not to accept food from strangers.

Douglas brought Newt and Tina a magically restrained snake taken from Voldemort and claimed it was a woman transformed by a Blood Curse. He named her Nagini, leaving Newt and Tina to confront the revelation that the Dark Lord’s companion had once been human.

• Douglas placed a black-cloth-covered cage before Newt and Tina, and Mo Le hissed at the creature inside.
• Newt examined the large snake while Tina sensed its intelligence and drew her wand.
• Douglas presented his notes and identified the snake as a Maledictus affected by a Blood Curse.
• Douglas claimed that most of the woman’s soul had been consumed by the curse and that she had been trapped in snake form for at least fifty years.
• Douglas said Voldemort had treated the snake as an emotional anchor and revealed her name: Nagini.

Newt and Tina recognized the snake Douglas had brought as Nagini, their former comrade who had been cursed to become a beast and later become Voldemort’s pet and killing tool. Douglas explained that restoring her humanity might be nearly impossible, but he would study whether Life Alchemy could awaken what remained of it.

• Newt dropped his teacup when Douglas named the snake Nagini, and Tina rushed to the cage to confirm her identity.
• Newt and Tina recalled how Nagini had been a human circus captive who helped Credence and fought beside them against Grindelwald before disappearing.
• Tina explained that Nagini’s Blood Curse had eventually trapped her in a beast’s body, and lamented that she had become Voldemort’s weapon.
• Newt thanked Douglas for bringing Nagini back and asked whether the curse could be reversed.
• Douglas said the transformation was nearly impossible to undo magically, but proposed researching whether Life Alchemy could awaken Nagini’s remaining humanity or free her from her bestial instincts.

Douglas proposed studying Nagini’s blood curse through Muggle biology and asked Newt to help develop a genetic map of Magical Creatures. Newt recognized that Douglas hoped they could correct the curse rather than remove it, and the chapter ended with him being invited to join the research.

• Douglas told Newt he had been researching blood curses and wanted to make the work a research project.
• Douglas emptied a mountain of Muggle biology books and scrolls from his suitcase.
• Douglas explained that the blood curse might be a flaw in the score of life and suggested correcting it instead of driving it out.
• Newt understood that removing the curse could kill Nagini and that they would need to find and repair its faulty point.
• Douglas asked Newt to help combine Muggle biology with knowledge of Magical Creatures and create a new gene map.

Douglas persuaded Newt to study biology and investigate Nagini’s Blood Curse, believing the research could save her and transform magizoology. Newt began the work with Tina’s support, while Douglas left to attend to a student in detention.

• Douglas convinced Newt that biological research could help cure Nagini and redefine the study of magical creatures.
• Tina pushed Newt to stop making excuses and ordered him to read the books to save Nagini.
• Douglas gave Newt study materials, Blood Curse research, enchanted laboratory equipment, and a plan to compare Nagini’s blood with the dark magic samples.
• Newt agreed to begin studying biology, and Tina promised to help him through the work.
• Newt asked whether Douglas would make the findings public, and Douglas said the cure’s results would speak for themselves.
• Douglas left to bring dinner to a student in detention and check his Muggle mathematics homework.

Douglas visited Fu Kee, the Chinese restaurant run by his old Muggle friends Clara and Leo. He reunited with them and was persuaded to stay for dinner.

• Douglas left Newt Scamander's estate after handing Nagini over to him and letting Voldemort study his notes with Snape's help.
• Douglas apparated to an alley in Dorset and entered Fu Kee, a restaurant marked with the name Holmes had written.
• Clara recognized Douglas and greeted him with delight before calling Leo out of the kitchen.
• Leo embraced Douglas and teased him for staying away for nearly two years.
• Clara closed the restaurant and poured Douglas tea, while Leo headed to the kitchen to prepare dinner and his new dishes.

Douglas visited his old friend Leo and gave him a new handwritten recipe book, then met Leo and Clara’s young son, Little Douglas. After Leo playfully named the boy after him, Douglas accepted the couple’s offer to treat their home as a place he could return to when he was tired.

• Douglas gave Leo a handwritten recipe book filled with cooking instructions and diagrams, and Leo eagerly examined it.
• Clara brought out their young son, whom she introduced as Little Douglas, and Leo revealed that he had named the boy after Douglas.
• Douglas gently greeted Little Douglas, who grabbed the silver clasp on Douglas’s coat.
• Leo asked whether Douglas was doing well at his distant school, and Douglas said his students and colleagues kept him busy.
• Clara told Douglas their home would always be his refuge, and Douglas smiled and agreed.

After returning to London, Douglas found Lucius Malfoy’s attack on the Marauders Power Company in the Daily Prophet and explained its political purpose to Dobby. Douglas revealed that the article also concealed a secret signal from Lucius, and began analyzing its structure.

• Douglas returned to London after spending an extra night with Leo and his family in Dorset County.
• Dobby welcomed Douglas home, served him lemonade, and reported that lunch and the Daily Prophet were ready.
• Douglas read Lucius Malfoy’s article condemning the Marauders Power Company and its founders.
• Dobby identified the article as Lucius’s show of loyalty to Voldemort and a call to wavering former followers.
• Douglas explained that Lucius had secretly agreed to hide vital intelligence in the structure of Daily Prophet articles, then began writing on parchment.

Douglas decoded a hidden message revealing that Voldemort would stage a mass prison break at Azkaban on July 15. He summoned Sirius, Remus, and Bill for an emergency meeting and confirmed the planned attack, leaving them facing an imminent crisis.

• Douglas and Dobby decoded the newspaper's hidden message as “July 15, Azkaban.”
• Douglas concluded that Voldemort planned a mass breakout to free loyal Death Eaters, spread panic, and announce his return.
• Douglas warned Dobby to watch the Daily Prophet and called Padfoot, Moony, and S.B. to an emergency meeting.
• Sirius, Bill, and Remus gathered at the Marauders Power Company office while awaiting Douglas.
• Douglas arrived and confirmed that Tom Riddle planned an “alumni reunion” at Azkaban on July 15.

Douglas told Bill, Sirius, and Lupin that Voldemort planned to break prisoners out of Azkaban on the fifteenth, and proposed that their company secretly empty the prison first. He planned to capture the Dementors for research and turn the prisoners into restrained academic researchers, and Sirius and Lupin agreed to join him.

• Douglas said his reliable source had given them three days to prepare for Voldemort's planned attack on Azkaban, and the group decided not to warn the Ministry.
• Douglas proposed an operation for the Marauders Power Company to reach Azkaban before Voldemort and clear it of its inhabitants.
• Douglas explained that they would capture the Dementors and use them in the company's research and defensive energy project.
• Douglas proposed taking the prisoners, including Death Eaters, to a Hogwarts research facility and compelling them to work on academic problems under restraints.
• Sirius enthusiastically supported Douglas's plan, and Lupin said he had no objection.

Douglas planned a four-person raid to isolate Azkaban, lure its Dementors into a trap, and capture them in a specially modified magical book. The group prepared their roles, but the operation itself had not yet begun.

• Douglas assigned Sirius to place Alert Devices around nearby islands to detect the Death Eaters’ arrival.
• Douglas gave Bill a single-use suppression array and tasked him with burying its discs at twelve points around Azkaban to block the Dementors’ connection to the Ministry.
• Douglas revealed an Emotion Crystal Core puppet that would lure the Dementors to Azkaban’s central courtyard.
• Douglas showed the group a dragon-hide book fitted with Space-Folding Runes and explained that it could imprison the gathered Dementors when triggered.
• Bill celebrated the planned raid and said he wanted to photograph it, while Douglas joked that he should use the flash.

Douglas and his allies finalized a plan to raid Azkaban, conceal their involvement, and lure Voldemort away if he appeared. The hunt was set for July fifteenth, with the Ministry of Magic expected to blame the Death Eaters.

• Douglas assigned Sirius and Lupin to create a public alibi in Diagon Alley and alert the Ministry when they received his signal.
• Douglas and Bill planned to hold a magical shield around Azkaban, then drop it when Death Eaters approached so the accumulated alarm signals would reach the Ministry.
• Douglas said he would draw Voldemort away from Azkaban if the Dark Lord arrived, protecting the Ministry's unprepared Aurors.
• Sirius explained that he could alter the detectors' magical frequencies to make the traces look like ordinary dark magic from the Death Eaters.
• Douglas ended the meeting and set the hunt to begin three days later, on July fifteenth.

After Sirius and Lupin left to prepare for the operation, Bill went to see Pheobe before facing Azkaban. At Hogwarts, Douglas found Filch punishing Peeves and refused to intervene, leaving Peeves to denounce Black as the archdevil’s lackey.

• Sirius left for Diagon Alley to buy robes and alert the Daily Prophet, and Lupin followed him.
• Bill told Douglas he wanted to see Pheobe before going to Azkaban, and Douglas warned him not to reveal details of the operation.
• Douglas heard shouting and laughter in the entrance hall and found Peeves bound upside down by a magical rope while Filch whipped him.
• Peeves begged Douglas for help and cited his privileges under the 1876 contract, but Douglas said Filch’s punishment was legal under the latest regulations.
• Peeves cursed Black for betraying mischief and becoming the archdevil’s lackey.

Douglas visited Hagrid after his holiday and caught him secretly roasting the Gourmet Blast-Ended Skrewts they had developed together. Hagrid admitted he was preparing them for Madame Maxime, and Douglas joined him to cook and share a meal.

• Douglas gave Filch medicinal cakes and gave Mrs. Norris freeze-dried chicken before leaving the castle.
• Douglas found Hagrid secretly roasting Gourmet Blast-Ended Skrewt meat beside his hut.
• Hagrid admitted he had roasted the Skrewts to develop a dish for Madame Maxime, who had praised French snails in her letter.
• Douglas tasted the roast meat, praised its flavor, and agreed to experiment with Hagrid on other preparations.
• Douglas asked Hagrid to bring out his aged mead, and Hagrid eagerly went to fetch it.

Douglas persuaded Hagrid to consider expanding the breeding of Blast-Ended Skrewts and other magical creatures into a Hogwarts research and supply facility. He left the proposal framed as academic conservation and biological research, despite its commercial and employment goals.

• Hagrid admitted that the Blast-Ended Skrewts were delicious but worried that breeding them took too long and few survived.
• Douglas proposed building a large-scale magical-creature breeding facility modeled on Charlie's dragon reserve.
• Douglas described internships and future jobs for students, especially Hufflepuffs skilled at caring for animals.
• Hagrid worried that Dumbledore and the Board of Governors would oppose raising aggressive creatures at Hogwarts.
• Douglas named the project the Hogwarts Research Center for the Sustainable Development of Magical Creatures and said it was about more than money or food.