Chapter Summaries

Harry discovered that the trench coat’s magical functions could only be unlocked by completing Muggle junior high school courses, and Sirius’s letter explained that Vernon Dursley would supervise him. The chapter left Harry dreading Douglas’s summer homework more than Voldemort.

• Dobby explained that Harry had to pass one summer course to unlock each function of the trench coat.
• Harry found a stack of Muggle junior high school textbooks in his suitcase and learned that the assigned homework covered a full set of courses.
• Dobby gave Harry a letter from Sirius, who explained that Harry had to stay on Privet Drive for safety and that the textbooks were meant to build his knowledge.
• Harry read that Sirius had arranged for Vernon Dursley to supervise his studies through a business agreement involving Grunnings.
• Dobby left, and Harry buried his head in his pillow, despairing over the summer homework Douglas had assigned.

Harry learned that Sirius and Mr. Holmes had persuaded Vernon to supervise his Muggle studies in exchange for a lucrative business deal. The Dursleys began to see Harry as a source of wealth, while the summer agreement left him facing strict study requirements.

• Vernon summoned Harry and told him to sit down, startling him with his unexpectedly restrained manner.
• Vernon explained that Sirius and Mr. Holmes had arranged a summer homework supervision agreement with him.
• Vernon said that supervising Harry's studies for at least six hours a day and keeping him from magic would earn him a £100,000 contract.
• Vernon revealed that the Marauders Power Company might also fund his own parts-processing company if Harry's grades satisfied them.
• Petunia and Vernon looked at Harry as a valuable source of money, while Dudley watched him fearfully.

Harry learned that Vernon agreed to help enforce his summer study schedule because he respected Douglas Holmes’s business sense and wanted to protect the Dursley family’s financial future. Vernon immediately ordered Harry to begin mathematics lessons and threatened to lock him in the cupboard if he disobeyed.

• Harry questioned why Vernon would cooperate with wizards despite his past hatred of them.
• Vernon explained that he trusted Douglas Holmes because Holmes followed ordinary rules, handled business professionally, and had legal approval for his dealings.
• Vernon praised Holmes and criticized James Potter, angering Harry when he insulted Harry’s father.
• Vernon said he had accepted the agreement for the Dursleys’ future as well as for Harry’s education.
• Vernon ordered Harry to start Cambridge Junior High School mathematics immediately and threatened to contact Holmes or lock Harry in the cupboard if he slacked off.

Harry and Dudley were made to study under the Dursleys’ supervision after Mr. Holmes arranged a sponsored education program for Dudley. Meanwhile, Bill Weasley resigned from Gringotts and arrived in London to begin his new role with Marauders Power Company.

• Uncle Vernon ordered Dudley to join Harry in studying, and Aunt Petunia insisted he accept the sponsored weight-loss and intellectual development package.
• Harry and Dudley sat down with their schoolwork after Uncle Vernon threatened to call Mr. Holmes to tutor them in person.
• Bill handed over his Gringotts keys and signed his resignation agreement despite Ragnok’s objections.
• Bill defended his decision to join Douglas and Marauders Power Company, telling Ragnok that freedom mattered more than gold.
• Bill traveled from Egypt to Griffin’s Nest, where the security emblem confirmed his identity and welcomed him home.

Bill returned to the Marauders Power Company after resigning from Gringotts and found Fleur Delacour waiting in his office. She became his archaeological assistant, and he and Douglas toasted to freedom.

• Bill visited the Marauders Power Company, where Fred and George tested antigravity boots and George fell safely after one malfunctioned.
• Bill rode the Boggart-powered lift to the Archaeological Research Department and found Fleur dusting a cursed Aztec mask in his office.
• Fleur told Bill she had applied to become his assistant so she could improve her English and help him face danger.
• Bill welcomed Fleur aboard, but Douglas interrupted them and teased her about her English.
• Douglas and Bill shared Firewhisky and toasted to freedom.

Snape answered the Dark Mark’s summons and learned that Voldemort was hiding in a secret location after Holmes disrupted the Death Eaters’ plans. A Portkey brought Snape to a brightly lit hall, where he saw Voldemort in a bizarre posture.

• Snape secured his office, removed his ring, and went to Malfoy Manor in response to the Dark Mark.
• Lucius Malfoy questioned Snape about whether Holmes had exposed the Death Eaters who had been present when Voldemort returned.
• Snape explained that Holmes suspected the Dark Lord might have called out names to mislead him and recommended taking no action.
• Lucius revealed that Voldemort was not at Malfoy Manor and used a Portkey hidden in an Encyclopaedia Britannica volume to take Snape to him.
• Snape arrived in a vast, candlelit hall and saw Voldemort in an extremely bizarre posture.

Voldemort studied Muggle molecular biology to understand what Douglas Holmes had done to him, then pressed Snape about Douglas’s unusual Potions practices. Snape recalled Douglas’s treatment of valuable ingredients and felt his resentment rise.

• Snape arrived to find Voldemort studying Muggle textbooks on genetics and molecular biology.
• Voldemort questioned Snape about whether Douglas had studied science while at Hogwarts.
• Snape described Douglas as disrespectful of traditional magical theory and fond of experimenting with new inventions.
• Voldemort clarified that he wanted to know about Douglas’s unorthodox practices in Potions.
• Snape remembered Douglas cooking precious medicinal ingredients like vegetables, and his resentment surfaced.
• A postscript presented a multiple-choice question about Fred and George’s underwater-burning firework and gave the previous question’s answer.

Snape described Douglas Holmes’s irreverent use of potion ingredients for cooking, explaining why he had refused to admit Douglas to Advanced Potions. Voldemort sympathized with Snape but then pressed him for information beyond Douglas’s culinary antics.

• Snape told Voldemort that Douglas had used potion cauldrons and valuable ingredients to make hot pot and medicinal cuisine.
• Snape described Douglas roasting ingredients into concentrated elixirs, causing an explosion, and having students taste ingredients in Potions class.
• Lucius recognized the foods Snape described and swallowed, while Voldemort struggled to respond to Snape’s furious complaints.
• Voldemort told Snape he understood the torment of dealing with Douglas and compared it to performing a symphony beside someone using a whoopee cushion.
• Voldemort questioned Snape about what else made Douglas troublesome, saying the stories about cooking did not provide the information he wanted.

Snape explained Douglas Holmes's Improved Wolfsbane Potion by inventing a story about his use of Muggle knowledge and pharmaceutical machinery. Voldemort interpreted Holmes's public activities as disguises for secret research, while Snape concealed how little he knew about Holmes's real intentions.

• Voldemort questioned Snape about how Holmes had developed the Improved Wolfsbane Potion and where he had learned about bloodlines and biological structures.
• Snape claimed that Holmes had learned from Muggles and described his trip taking Hogwarts students to visit a pharmaceutical factory.
• Voldemort concluded that Muggle precision and reproducibility had enabled Holmes to improve the potion, and declared Holmes's other activities a disguise.
• Snape told Voldemort that Holmes had introduced Muggle ideas such as morning runs, management studies, and an Academic Affairs Office.
• Snape admitted he knew little about Holmes's work behind the scenes, and Voldemort fell silent as Lucius waited in fear.

After Snape reported on Douglas Holmes’s Muggle science and management ideas, Voldemort decided those topics were a distraction and convinced himself that Holmes’s real power came from the rules and systems in his novels. He sent Snape back to Hogwarts to investigate Holmes’s writing and ideas, then began studying Magic Apprentice himself.

• Voldemort reconsidered Snape’s report and suspected that Holmes had deliberately drawn his attention toward science and management.
• Voldemort studied the popular novels in his library and concluded that Holmes might be imposing a fictional system of magic on the real world.
• Voldemort ordered Snape to return to Hogwarts and observe Holmes’s stories, writings, notes, and conversations to uncover the source of his power.
• Snape and Lucius left by Portkey, while Voldemort reverently opened Magic Apprentice and resolved to decipher Holmes’s secrets.

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.