Recaps

Douglas persuaded Fudge to transfer Dolores Umbridge to New Azkaban as its administrative director, disguising her removal from Hogwarts as a promotion. Meanwhile, Sirius and the Hogwarts Heads of House began stripping Umbridge of her oversight powers and restructuring the school’s complaint system.

• Douglas proposed appointing Umbridge administrative director of New Azkaban, and Fudge amended the position to include inmate re-discipline and production discipline supervision.
• Fudge presented Umbridge with the transfer order, calling the appointment a mark of trust; Umbridge swallowed her resentment and accepted it.
• Sirius signed a declaration suspending Umbridge’s review authority over the Academic Affairs Office and revoking her access to students’ temporary files and club approvals.
• Sirius announced that Hogwarts would replace independent complaint boxes with a system jointly managed by the Headmaster’s Office, the Academic Affairs Office, and the Heads of House.
• McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout signed the declarations, while Snape examined a supplementary clause before signing.

After Umbridge’s departure, Hogwarts removed the public White List and restored limits and safeguards to school routines, though several reforms remained. The Daily Prophet announced Umbridge’s reassignment to New Azkaban, where Dirk greeted her.

• Sirius and the other signatories revised the morning schedule, abolished public rankings, and established new oversight for complaints, clubs, and professor reviews.
• Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione saw the blank wall where the White List had hung and reviewed the changes to Hogwarts routines.
• McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Snape adjusted their lessons and reinstated safer, more careful procedures.
• The Daily Prophet reported that Umbridge had been reassigned to New Azkaban and that Annex Three of the June Wartime Job Competency Certification would undergo review.
• Umbridge arrived at New Azkaban, where Dirk welcomed her as she questioned whether its order was more mature than Hogwarts’s.

Umbridge inspected Azkaban’s prison workshops and drafted new rules for labor discipline and ideological improvement. As Hogwarts prepared for examinations, Douglas and Sirius met Griselda Marchbanks and the visiting examiners, leaving the school’s assessment arrangements under scrutiny.

• Umbridge toured Azkaban with Dirk and demanded attitude scores, ideological reports, exemplary prisoners, and weekly discipline lectures in addition to work-output records.
• Umbridge wrote ten supplementary regulations, including public Red and Gray Lists, attitude essays, adjusted meal grades, and behavioral correction procedures.
• Douglas reviewed an essay about psychological oppression and hunger, while Sirius brought him forms and reported that the Magical Examination Authority had arrived.
• Douglas revised an examination clause to emphasize wartime education, then went with Sirius to meet Griselda Marchbanks, McGonagall, Flitwick, and the examiners in the Entrance Hall.

Douglas Holmes defended Hogwarts' wartime examination reforms before Griselda Marchbanks, who agreed to consider them after the written exams. As the exams began, Douglas monitored a troubling magical signal and reviewed underground research, then learned that Neville Longbottom had used an unconventional method on the Transfiguration paper.

• Griselda Marchbanks reviewed Hogwarts' student performance data and Douglas's proposed examination changes, then agreed to consider the supplementary agreement after the first written exams.
• The students entered the examination rooms, and Douglas told Sirius that he would not make the rounds because mistakes would also provide useful data.
• Back in his office, Douglas recorded a rising internal pressure from a red signal and reviewed thesis drafts from Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Jr.
• A young examiner reported that Neville Longbottom had solved a Transfiguration question using an unconventional method, and Douglas praised him for thinking beyond the model answer.

George and Fred tried to escape their seventh-year exams, but Sirius tied their experimental budget to their results and forced them to sit. They excelled at a practical, engineering-focused theory paper and were led with their classmates to a simulated disaster site for the final exam.

• George and Fred discussed skipping their exams to return to the Marauders Power Company, but Sirius threatened to cut their experimental funding unless they performed well.
• George and Fred entered the Great Hall and began the Defense Against Dark Magic Advanced Theory Paper, which asked them to plan containment after an explosion involving magical items and Muggle equipment.
• George calculated blast and magic-spread risks while Fred mapped the warehouse and outlined safety and memory-repair procedures, impressing Professor Marchbanks with their technical answers.
• George and Fred completed a packed series of seventh-year exams, then reached a simulated disaster area beside the Forbidden Forest for their final practical.
• George and Fred recognized parts of the simulation as layouts and accidents connected to their work, while Melissa Vane looked nervous and Ian Page clutched his toolkit.

George, Fred, Ian, and Melissa disabled an overloaded generator in the simulated ruins without using magic, reassured a witness dummy, and filed a collaborative report. They left early, only to begin another assessment in which an anti-magic barrier forced them to handle a similar generator problem again.

• George and Fred identified the generator’s faulty wiring while Melissa watched the diagram and Ian prepared insulating sealant.
• George cut the right-hand wire, but the generator kept ticking faster, so he and Fred decided to disconnect another wire.
• George cut the second wire, stopping the machine and extinguishing the Jinx trigger nails as Ian sealed the connection.
• Fred contacted the emergency channel, George typed an incident report, and Melissa reassured the witness dummy before their group left the ruins early.
• The next task began in a new simulated ruins zone, where an anti-magic barrier disabled their wands and the group found another modified generator surrounded by Jinx trigger nails.

Fred and George officially graduated from Hogwarts after passing their exams and receiving increased funding for their work. At the end-of-term feast, Douglas returned three Founders’ relics to their houses, while Dumbledore explained that Gryffindor’s sword had never been lost.

• Professor Marchbanks questioned Fred and George about their exam methods, then praised their safety awareness and dismissed them.
• Sirius gave Fred and George revised approval documents with a higher budget and told them they had graduated.
• At the end-of-term feast, Douglas presented Ravenclaw’s diadem, Hufflepuff’s cup, and Slytherin’s locket.
• Helena recognized her mother’s diadem, and the Fat Friar recognized Helga’s cup as the house ghosts reacted to the relics.
• Harry asked why the Sword of Gryffindor was missing, and Dumbledore said it would appear when a courageous Gryffindor needed it.

Douglas, Sirius, and the Hogwarts professors argued over sending fifty exhausted students to Ankh-Ka’s tomb in Egypt for a joint exercise with Uagadou. The meeting ended with McGonagall demanding to know what Douglas was trying to prove.

• McGonagall objected to the trip, warning that the students were exhausted and unfit to face ancient Egyptian curses.
• Sirius defended the expedition, explaining that Bill and Pheobe had prepared a heavily protected desert camp and security network.
• Snape argued that the students’ reflexive training had left them unable to think clearly, and Douglas said Snape’s sharpness could prevent them from making dangerous mistakes.
• Sprout and Flitwick warned that the desert conditions and Uagadou’s battle-hardened students would overwhelm Hogwarts’ students.
• Douglas said the encounter with Uagadou’s primal magic would shatter the students’ confidence in textbook learning, and McGonagall challenged him to explain his purpose.

Douglas argued that Hogwarts students needed to test their training in a real tomb, and Dumbledore arranged for the group to leave the next morning. As summer began, Filch found the Demon-Suppression Tower gone again and recorded its absence, while the ghosts learned Professor Holmes had not gone to Egypt.

• McGonagall warned Douglas that the students were already psychologically strained, but Douglas insisted they needed to prove their lessons could keep them alive.
• Snape left after saying he would not turn back for anyone who fell behind, and Dumbledore told the group to prepare for an eight o’clock Portkey departure the next morning.
• Filch began his summer inspection of the empty Hogwarts Castle with Mrs. Norris and recorded that the Charms classroom was sealed.
• Filch found only the Demon-Suppression Tower’s foundation marks and entered its summer leave of absence in his inspection booklet.
• Filch told the ghosts that Professor Holmes had not gone to Egypt, prompting them to scatter and spread the news.

Douglas released the missing prisoners from the Demon-Suppression Tower after disrupting their memories, then left as the Ministry of Magic patrol arrived. The prisoners could not identify who had taken them or explain what happened, while Bellatrix feared that her master would learn they had been tampered with.

• Douglas released the prisoners from the Demon-Suppression Tower and recorded their fragmented memories and reactions.
• Bellatrix and Rodolphus emerged with confused memories, and Douglas noted that Bellatrix retained humiliation but could not recount what happened.
• Douglas told the prisoners to remember that they had gone missing, were afraid, and did not know who had taken them.
• Bellatrix accused Douglas of taking something from them and insisted that her master would find out, but Douglas said he would not know which memories were true.
• Douglas left through the shadows as the Ministry of Magic patrol alarm sounded, and the Aurors arrived to find the prisoners covering the rocky ground.

Ministry inspectors found a group of prisoners on a rocky shore and discovered that many were missing Azkaban convicts, including Bellatrix Lestrange. They secured the scene and began processing the prisoners while reporting that the missing inmates had been located.

• The inspectors questioned the prisoners, found that they could not remember their identities, and began matching them against Ministry and Azkaban records.
• Martin identified Blair Avery, Augustus Rookwood, Travers, and Yaxley among the prisoners.
• The inspectors confirmed Bellatrix Lestrange’s identity from her wanted portrait, trial record, and Azkaban missing persons list.
• Martin reported that twenty-three people matched old Azkaban cases, including Bellatrix, the Lestrange Brothers, Dolohov, and Rookwood.
• The lead inspector raised the alert to level one, ordered the scene sealed, and instructed a clerk to report that the prisoners had been located.
• The inspectors restrained the prisoners and began counting, photographing, recording injuries, and removing them from the seawater.

North Sea patrol officers recovered Bellatrix Lestrange and other missing high-security prisoners, while Bellatrix hinted that someone had taken her memories and that she had not written a paper. Umbridge learned of the recovery and began gathering records to claim the discovery as her achievement.

• Bellatrix struggled as patrol officers escorted her, asking who had brought her back and saying she had not written the paper.
• The North Sea patrol reported the discovery to the Ministry, and officers celebrated finding the missing prisoners.
• An old Auror ordered Bellatrix silenced so the director's office would not hear her words first.
• Umbridge received an urgent dispatch confirming the recovery of Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Augustus Rookwood, Antonin Dolohov, and other prisoners.
• Umbridge ordered her secretary to bring the case files, prisoner lists, and patrol orders so she could connect the recovery to her work.

Umbridge tried to claim credit for the discovery of returned prisoners, while Dobby came back to Douglas with Elfscript, a writing system he had compiled for House-elves. Douglas explained that the script could preserve elven knowledge and foster a shared identity, leaving Dobby newly aware of its significance.

• Umbridge ordered her secretary to block further statements without her approval and drafted a report taking credit for the prisoners’ discovery.
• Dobby returned to Douglas’s home with parchment bearing a script he had named Elfscript.
• Dobby explained that he had gathered words from House-elves in different places and organized their shared language.
• Douglas recognized Elfscript as magical writing and praised Dobby for creating it.
• Douglas warned that writing could preserve House-elves’ fading knowledge but might also draw dangerous attention from wizards.
• Douglas helped Dobby understand that Elfscript could strengthen House-elves’ collective identity.

Douglas forced Red Mist to use his computational methods to translate the fictional rules in a Muggle novel into magic, while explaining that stories with consistent rules and costs could leave traces in civilization for magic to seize. The chapter ended with Red Mist studying the book under Douglas’s supervision.

• After breakfast, Douglas checked Red Mist’s upgraded motherboard chip and questioned him about recovering from the previous experiment.
• Red Mist described the pain of being compressed into the chip, and Douglas recorded his reactions in a notebook.
• Douglas activated the chamber and ordered Red Mist to translate the fictional concepts in Magic Apprentice into magical rules he could test.
• Red Mist questioned why Douglas needed his help, and Douglas explained that he wanted Red Mist to master the process rather than rely on Douglas’s own abilities.
• Douglas described how self-consistent fictional rules, causes, energy sources, and costs could form a magical model, then took the novel back as Red Mist studied it.

Douglas forced Red Mist to analyze a fictional text and translate its rules into magical parameters, while Red Mist tried to convince him to capture the original Voldemort too. Red Mist identified several kinds of magic but was caught hiding a clump of fear-based rules, and Douglas prepared to continue testing him.

• Douglas used a machine to transmit a book's contents into Red Mist and ordered him to identify its rules, convert them into magical parameters, and assess how to implement them.
• Red Mist suggested capturing the original Voldemort to improve the work, but Douglas recorded the suggestion as a possible attempt at manipulation and said the original was more useful studying Muggle science and blood.
• Douglas forced Red Mist to compute the fictional rules, and Red Mist produced three categories: emotion-driven wish magic, name-binding true-name magic, and object-narrative fate anchoring.
• Douglas punished Red Mist and extracted a clump of black mist, which Red Mist admitted had grown from fear-based rules within him.
• Douglas destroyed the black mist and said he wanted more samples, while Red Mist suggested shocking the original Voldemort to make him experience fear.

Voldemort summoned Lucius, Old Nott, Rowle, and Travers to Malfoy Manor’s underground workshop and tested their knowledge by asking them to diagnose a failed magical-creature experiment. He announced the Crimson Workshop as his core Death Eater research team, but Old Nott questioned the value of studying Muggle technology.

• Lucius led Old Nott, Rowle, and Travers into Malfoy Manor’s underground factory, where Travers mocked the Muggle equipment until Voldemort revealed himself.
• Voldemort ordered the Death Eaters to study and reprimanded them for neglecting their progress while focusing on a woman at Hogwarts.
• Voldemort showed them a magical creature that had died after seventeen minutes and asked them to explain why the experiment had failed.
• Rowle, Old Nott, and Travers offered possible explanations involving the nervous system, the heart, and the creature’s magical core.
• Voldemort established the Crimson Workshop as the Death Eaters’ core research team and warned them not to dismiss Muggle technology.
• Old Nott objected that Muggle things were inferior and suggested they could buy the Black family boy’s inventions instead.

Voldemort urged his followers to adapt to the changing wizarding world and challenge the trends Holmes had created rather than simply trying to kill him. He declared that he would make destiny take notice of him, and the gathered families pledged their support.

• Voldemort rejected relying on other people's technology and called on his followers to use their family legacies, dark magic, magical materials, and abilities to develop their own advantages.
• He argued that power now came from shaping institutions and trends, pointing to Azkaban's timers, assembly lines, and Squib-operated buttons as proof that wizards could lose their special status.
• Voldemort explained that killing Holmes would not undo Skynet, Hogwarts students' textbooks, or Muggle-born wizards' refusal to bow, so he aimed to contend for the weight of destiny instead.
• Voldemort acknowledged the prophecy that the Dark Lord would lose everything to a newborn baby and vowed to make destiny see him.
• Lucius, Rowle, Old Nott, and the other followers praised Voldemort and pledged their families' loyalty and resources.

Voldemort ordered the wizarding families to surrender their magical knowledge and help the Crimson Workshop develop Charms Rifles. He secured their agreement with a blood-binding Contract and named the Death Eaters the Workshop’s first researchers.

• Voldemort demanded that the families compile their magical legacies for the Crimson Workshop, and Lucius offered the Malfoy family’s knowledge.
• Voldemort introduced Charms Rifles, weapons that could let even untalented wizards release Dark Magic by pressing a switch.
• Voldemort argued that Holmes’s protective products threatened the power of wands, surnames, and bloodlines, urging the wizards to build a new world of their own.
• Voldemort presented a Contract marked with the Dark Mark, and the gathered wizards, including Lucius, sealed it with their blood.
• Voldemort declared the Death Eaters to be the Crimson Workshop’s first researchers and announced that the next era would not belong only to wand-wielders.

Voldemort approved the dark weapons made at Malfoy Manor and ordered Lucius to arrange an attack on Azkaban to test them. Meanwhile, Harry and Ron finished work at the factory and joined Hermione and Ginny for dinner.

• Old Nott, Travers, and Lucius showed Voldemort spell rifles, curse cannons, and Night Veil Spikes, explaining how each weapon worked.
• Voldemort praised the work and ordered the weapons tested in action.
• Lucius proposed attacking Azkaban to test the weapons and free imprisoned Death Eaters, following instructions from Douglas.
• Voldemort approved the plan and told Lucius to handle the arrangements without reporting back.
• Harry and Ron joked about their work-worn hands and the factory's ban on using magic to work.
• Harry and Ron joined Hermione and Ginny at a Chinese restaurant, where Hermione made them wash their machine-oil-stained hands before eating.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny discussed their summer factory work, saving money, and possible internships at the Marauders Power Company. Ron decided to improve his schoolwork and write his own internship report so he could apply there next year.

• Ginny examined Harry's callused hands while Ron and Hermione discussed his earnings and the costs of his meals.
• Hermione advised Ron to keep both pounds and Galleons, and explained that wizards might need to navigate both the magical and Muggle worlds.
• Hermione proposed that they seek internships at the Marauders Power Company, where Dobby could recommend her and Ron could ask Fred and George for a letter.
• Hermione told Ron to write his own report and improve academically, and Ron decided to start writing that night.
• Ginny persuaded Ron to treat them to another serving of spring rolls, and the group joked about what might happen on their first day at the company.

Valerius arrived at New Azkaban to inspect and upgrade its systems while Douglas, Sirius, Lupin, and Bill waited offshore for someone connected to troubling intelligence. Their fishing trip turned into a joke-filled morning, ending with Sirius finally catching a large fish as the group continued to wait.

• Valerius arrived at New Azkaban for its anniversary inspection, and Umbridge welcomed him with the Squib jailers.
• Sirius, Lupin, Bill, and Douglas fished from a yacht near Azkaban, trading jokes while Sirius caught only seaweed and a crab.
• Bill and Lupin spoke about bringing Pheobe and Tonks to watch the sunrise, while Douglas said they had been waiting since the previous night for someone to arrive.
• Lupin said he trusted Douglas's intelligence and warned that the Wizarding World could be in serious trouble if it was accurate.
• Sirius hooked a large silver-gray fish, and Lupin grabbed his belt to keep him from falling as Bill photographed the struggle.

Lucius led a group of disguised Death Eaters in firing a Curses Cannon at Azkaban to test their weapons and the prison’s defenses. The Defense System intercepted the shot, and Umbridge ordered the island’s towers to counterattack as the attackers approached.

• Sirius, Bill, Lupin, and Douglas detected an incoming vessel and prepared disguises to ambush its crew.
• Lucius ordered Rowle to fire the Curses Cannon at Azkaban while the disguised Death Eaters advanced by landing craft.
• Valerius urged Umbridge to treat the attack as a test of Azkaban’s defenses and praised her leadership.
• Azkaban’s golden defense grid intercepted the cannon blast without damage, delighting Umbridge.
• Valerius coaxed Umbridge into activating the counterattack, and twelve Automatic Defense Towers rose and fired silver-blue beams.

Douglas Holmes and his disguised allies intercepted the Death Eaters attacking Azkaban, capturing most of them while Lucius escaped with Travers. Umbridge claimed credit for repelling the attack and prepared a report as Azkaban returned to peace.

• Rowle fired a second shell at Azkaban while the Death Eaters' spell-rifle shots missed the island.
• Sirius announced that Douglas's speedboat had come to collect the Death Eaters, and Bill used a cable charm to haul them aboard.
• Lucius recognized Douglas's plan, threw Travers against the helm, and fled with him in the landing craft.
• Douglas ordered the speedboat home with the captured Death Eaters stunned and stacked on deck.
• Umbridge celebrated the attackers' retreat and claimed sole credit for Azkaban's defenses while preparing a headline and report.

Sirius, Bill, Lupin, and Douglas captured the Death Eaters who tried to escape Azkaban and jokingly named their haul the “North Sea Outstanding Talent Introduction Plan.” Back at his castle, Voldemort learned that the Marauders Company had foiled the plan and ordered his remaining followers to suspend attacks and continue their research.

• Sirius and Bill inspected the captured Death Eaters’ Charms Rifles, and Bill found that their crude design could cause the weapons to explode.
• Lupin confirmed that the captives bore no tracking marks and that Voldemort had probably not yet learned of their capture, while Douglas sent them into the Demon-Suppression Tower.
• Sirius proposed calling the captured Death Eaters the “North Sea Outstanding Talent Introduction Plan.”
• Lucius and Travers told Voldemort that Douglas Holmes and the Marauders Company had impersonated his agents and taken the escapees.
• Voldemort, short of capable followers, ordered Lucius to suspend attacks and continue the research, but Lucius warned that the Ministry might crack down after the Dark Mark appeared at Azkaban.

Douglas and his companions brought new Death Eaters to the Island in the Middle of the Lake to be forcibly recruited as researchers at Hogwarts’s reeducation center. Barty Crouch Jr. learned that the Crimson Workshop belonged to Riddle and perked up at the chance to confront the prisoners.

• Douglas signed the transfer paperwork while Barty Crouch Sr. explained that the captured Death Eaters would be judged by their research contributions.
• Kreacher and Dobby gave the new arrivals Anti-Magic Potion after their Polyjuice disguises were removed.
• Sirius, Lupin, Bill, and Douglas threw the unconscious Death Eaters onto the island, where Barty Crouch Jr. paused his writing to observe them.
• Barty Crouch Jr. dismissed questions about his master as lacking academic value and corrected Sirius by saying he had been a Hogwarts prefect.
• Douglas sent Barty Crouch Jr. papers from the Crimson Workshop and explained that it was Senior Riddle’s research organization.
• Barty Crouch Jr. grew excited at the sight of the prisoners, inwardly cursing them as traitors who had finally fallen into his hands.