Recaps

Lin Ze found records suggesting that Death Eaters were targeting Claire Street and possibly keeping him under surveillance, while attacks on the Hog's Head continued. He went to get lunch at the Ministry and spotted a crowd in the corridor.

• Lin Ze ran into Prewett, who feared a woman would report him over a customer’s reaction to his potion, and told him he had transferred to the Records Management Office.
• Lin Ze read that Death Eaters had attacked the Hog's Head again, injuring three Aurors, and wondered why they kept targeting it.
• Lin Ze received a Department of Magical Law Enforcement file from Kingsley Shacklebolt detailing suspicious activity on Claire Street.
• Lin Ze reviewed reports and concluded that Death Eater harassment in London was mostly probing, but their activity on Claire Street was unusually targeted and might be aimed at him.
• Lin Ze left for lunch after warning Pick about the canteen’s pumpkin soup, then saw a crowd in the corridor.

On October 31, Lin Ze saw Death Eaters gathering in Diagon Alley and heard Voldemort threaten the Ministry and demand the Potters. Though no longer an Auror, Lin Ze decided to face the attackers, walking alone toward at least thirty Death Eaters as the chapter ended.

• Lin Ze saw three Dark Marks over Diagon Alley and spoke with Mr. Fortescue, who kept his ice cream shop open despite the danger.
• At the Leaky Cauldron, Lin Ze heard the Ministry announce an emergency response and warn residents to evacuate or stay indoors.
• Lin Ze heard Voldemort threaten the Ministry and demand that it surrender the Potters, its minister, and other alleged traitors.
• Lin Ze decided to seek a place in the aftermath of Voldemort’s fall and left the Leaky Cauldron despite Old Tom’s warning.
• Lin Ze drew his wand and walked toward a group of at least thirty Death Eaters gathering at the southern end of Diagon Alley.

Lin Ze tried to avoid a group of Death Eaters in Diagon Alley, but he was dragged into a chase after a goblin’s tin box rolled to his feet. Cornered in a dead-end alley with the goblin and four Death Eaters, he tried to distract them by criticizing their masks.

• Lin Ze saw a large group of Death Eaters approaching and hid in a nearby alley, questioning whether his assumptions about the day’s timeline were reliable.
• A goblin fleeing four Death Eaters fell in the alley, and his tin box rolled to Lin Ze’s feet.
• Lin Ze threw the tin box at the leading Death Eater, then grabbed the goblin and escaped through a side door as spells struck the walls behind them.
• The goblin, who said he was a Gringotts treasure-hunting consultant, directed Lin Ze through the alleys as the Death Eaters pursued them.
• Lin Ze and the goblin reached a dead end, where four Death Eaters blocked their escape.
• Lin Ze set down the goblin and mocked the tall Death Eater’s mask, recommending that the group hire a professional designer.

Lin Ze fought Death Eaters trapped in a dead-end alley and was nearly overwhelmed by reinforcements. A runaway flying bicycle crashed into the Death Eaters blocking the entrance, leaving the outcome obscured by dust.

• Lin Ze distracted a tall Death Eater with questions about masks and the Dark Lord, then stunned him and fought the remaining three.
• Lin Ze tried to escape deeper into the alley but found a dead end as a rider on a flying bicycle passed overhead.
• Lin Ze disarmed and stunned one Death Eater, then defended himself against the two who remained.
• Six more Death Eaters entered the alley and trapped Lin Ze against the wall.
• The out-of-control bicycle returned and crashed into the six Death Eaters at the entrance, filling the alley with dust.

Lin Ze and a Gringotts goblin were saved from Death Eaters by a purple-robed cyclist who fell from the sky, then by Kingsley Shacklebolt. The cyclist mourned his wrecked bicycle, and Lin Ze asked who he was.

• A cyclist on a flying bicycle crashed into six or seven Death Eaters and helped Lin Ze and the goblin.
• The cyclist introduced his damaged wand and explained that his dog had chewed several of his wands.
• More Death Eaters approached, but Kingsley Shacklebolt struck them down with red spells and left without speaking.
• Lin Ze thanked the cyclist for saving him and asked who he was.

Lin Ze met Quinn Travers after they survived a fight with Death Eaters, then learned that Quinn lived near the Potter family in Godric's Hollow. The chapter ended with Lin Ze meeting Grot, a low-ranking Gringotts consultant who had been hiding with a tin box.

• Quinn Travers thanked Lin Ze for drawing the Death Eaters' fire and admitted that he had crashed into them because he could not brake in time.
• Quinn searched an unconscious Death Eater for valuables, then invited Lin Ze to visit his home in Godric's Hollow.
• Quinn described the Potter family and their newborn son, prompting Lin Ze to realize that Voldemort might attack them that night.
• Lin Ze used a Mending Charm on Quinn's wrecked bicycle, which Quinn happily rode despite its poor condition.
• Lin Ze remembered the goblin hiding in the corner, and the goblin introduced himself as Grot, a third-class consultant from Gringotts' London branch.

Lin Ze helped Grot reach Gringotts after a bicycle unexpectedly defeated the Death Eaters pursuing him, then returned home as Voldemort headed for the Potters’ cottage. He worried that Quinn, who lived next door to the Potters, might be caught up in the attack.

• Quinn rode away after giving Lin Ze two oranges, and Lin Ze worried that Quinn might be near the Potters’ home when Voldemort arrived that night.
• Lin Ze helped Grot to his feet and promised to escort him to Gringotts after Grot said his legs were too weak to walk.
• Ben Frick found Lin Ze, and Lin Ze claimed a falling Muggle bicycle had knocked down the Death Eaters while Grot confirmed his story.
• Lin Ze and Frick escorted Grot to Gringotts, where Grot thanked Lin Ze before going inside.
• Lin Ze returned to his attic, watched the evening sky, and worried that Quinn might be home during Voldemort’s attack on the Potters.

After Voldemort’s fall, Lin Ze returned to the Auror Office as assistant team leader of a new team tasked with investigating Death Eaters and their associates. He told Scrimgeour that he already had a long list of people to investigate.

• Lin Ze read the Daily Prophet’s report of Voldemort’s fall and watched the wizarding world celebrate.
• Lin Ze met Prewett, who celebrated the news and said his creditor had fled to France with her family.
• Lin Ze went to the Ministry of Magic and learned that his transfer to the Auror Office had been approved.
• Scrimgeour appointed Lin Ze assistant team leader of the newly formed Special Operations Team, which would investigate and arrest Death Eaters and their associates.
• Lin Ze asked Scrimgeour to investigate certain people first and said he had a long list of targets.

Lin Ze saw the cramped, poorly equipped office assigned to the Special Operations Team and met its first members. Amelia Bones thanked him for uncovering a suppressed report, while the team remained one member short.

• Scrimgeour showed Lin Ze the Special Operations Team's former storage-room office, which had a brick-wall view and broken furniture.
• Kingsley Shacklebolt and Ben Frick arrived and inspected the office.
• Amelia Bones arrived with Everett Banks and Reed Tonks, then asked Lin Ze about the letter he had written.
• Amelia told Lin Ze that someone had deliberately suppressed the report he found and that she was investigating the person responsible.
• Scrimgeour left the six assembled members to get acquainted, saying the final member could not attend that day.

Lin Ze outlined the Special Operations Team’s targets and evidence against Bodo Crabbe, Seymour Parkinson, and Lucius Malfoy. After Parkinson disappeared, Lin Ze directed the team to investigate the records and correspondence he left behind to uncover the wider Death Eater network.

• Lin Ze named Bodo Crabbe as the team’s first target and described evidence linking him to Death Eaters and smuggling through the Logistics Office.
• Lin Ze identified Seymour Parkinson and Lucius Malfoy as larger targets, citing tampered trial records and Malfoy’s alleged leaks and payments.
• Scrimgeour reported that Parkinson had gone missing after receiving a letter the previous night.
• Lin Ze suspected Amycus Carrow had warned Parkinson and said the Carrow brothers might be arranging escape routes.
• Lin Ze crossed out Parkinson’s name as an immediate target and told the team to trace the tampered trial records and his Death Eater correspondence.

Lin Ze and the Special Operations Team arrested Bodo Crabbe for colluding with Death Eaters, leaking Auror information, and framing a colleague. Crabbe’s arrest sent waves of fear through the Ministry as rumors spread that Lin Ze’s notebook contained evidence against many people.

• After reading news of the Dark Lord’s downfall and the Ministry’s anti-Death Eater operation, Crabbe packed to flee before Lin Ze arrived at his house.
• Kingsley Shacklebolt, Ben Frick, and Amelia Bones blocked Crabbe’s escape routes, and Amelia arrested him.
• Lin Ze confronted Crabbe with his notebook of evidence and said he was targeting all of them.
• The Special Operations Team returned to the Ministry, where news of Crabbe’s arrest and the rumored list made employees fear they might be next.
• Lin Ze read the Daily Prophet’s report on the arrest and praised the photograph Kingsley had taken.

Lin Ze’s team learned that Parkinson had fled toward the Scottish Highlands after the Carrow brothers rejected him, and they planned to question his wife for information. The new Minister, Millicent Bagnold, summoned the team and senior Ministry officials to a meeting the next morning, leaving Lin Ze confident she would treat them fairly.

• Ben asked why Goyle had not been arrested, and Lin Ze and Kingsley explained that Goyle had no direct ties to the Death Eaters and had been too foolish to know Crabbe’s plans.
• Amelia reported that Parkinson had tried to meet the Carrow brothers in Knockturn Alley, been turned away, and likely fled toward the Scottish Highlands.
• Lin Ze warned against pursuing Parkinson with limited manpower and gave Amelia interrogation techniques to use on Parkinson’s wife, who was already in custody.
• Amelia announced that Minister Millicent Bagnold had summoned the Special Operations Team and several senior officials to a meeting at nine the next morning.
• Lin Ze suspected someone had complained about the team’s investigation, but reassured Ben that Bagnold was principled and would not make an example of them.

Lin Ze and the Special Operations Team attended a Ministry meeting where Minister Millicent Bagnold raised criticism of their investigation methods. Lucius Malfoy defended his family and complained that the team was investigating his finances.

• Lin Ze arrived early at the Minister's Office and reassured Kingsley, then entered with the Special Operations Team.
• Millicent Bagnold commended the team but said voices within the Ministry questioned its broad investigations and arrests.
• Lucius Malfoy argued that social ties and pure-blood ancestry were not evidence of Death Eater sympathy, then claimed the team was investigating his funds.

Amelia challenged Malfoy over his access to confidential Special Operations Team information and pressed Minister Bagnold to investigate its sources. Bagnold deferred the request until after the meeting, leaving Malfoy's informants unidentified.

• Amelia confronted Malfoy about how he learned details of the Special Operations Team's financial investigation and said the leak required a thorough investigation.
• Fudge defended Malfoy, but Amelia asked him to identify who he had meant when warning against indiscriminate investigations of pure-blood families.
• Amelia argued that leaked information had already helped Parkinson flee and warned that other targets could escape if the leaks continued.
• Bagnold asked Malfoy to explain, and he claimed his old friends at the Ministry occasionally discussed its work with him.
• Amelia pressed Malfoy to name those friends, but he refused, citing social etiquette.
• Bagnold ended the debate and said she would discuss Amelia's request with Director Crouch after the meeting.

Lin Ze and Amelia confronted Lucius Malfoy during a Ministry meeting over the Special Operations Team’s investigation into Death Eater connections, and Bagnold praised Amelia while warning her of Malfoy’s influence. Back at their office, the team realized someone had leaked their investigation into Malfoy’s finances and suspected the leak came from within their own group.

• Lin Ze reported that the Special Operations Team had arrested Bodo Crabbe and identified suspects across the Ministry and among people outside it.
• Crouch warned that Death Eater infiltration formed a network across Ministry departments, while Bagnold defended the investigation and reassured Malfoy that he was not under suspicion without evidence.
• Malfoy demanded the names of the outside suspects, and Lin Ze refused to disclose them before the evidence reached the Wizengamot, insisting that the team would follow the evidence regardless of wealth or status.
• After the meeting, Bagnold warned Amelia that Malfoy would not overlook her public challenge, and Amelia said he should expect resistance if he tried to order the team around.
• Back in the team’s office, Lin Ze pointed out that Malfoy must have learned about their investigation into his finances, and the group concluded that someone among them might have leaked the information.

Lin Ze’s team investigated how their confidential inquiry into Malfoy and Parkinson had been exposed, suspecting a Ministry House-elf had overheard them. Alastor Moody arrived and announced that Scrimgeour had appointed him to lead the team.

• Lin Ze questioned Everett Banks after he admitted telling his wife, who worked at the Floo Network Management Office, that the team was investigating someone important.
• Kingsley spoke with Mrs. Banks and found little reason to believe she had leaked the information, so the team set Everett aside as a suspect.
• Lin Ze suggested that a Ministry House-elf had overheard their discussion of Malfoy’s funds and Parkinson’s altered trial records, and the team focused instead on investigating the records.
• Alastor Moody arrived after being three days late, reported that he had sent a Death Eater remnant to Azkaban, and said Scrimgeour had told him to lead the team.

Lin Ze and the Special Operations Team chose Department of Mysteries employee Augustus Rookwood as their first target, suspecting he had sold Ministry secrets to the Dark Lord. They prepared an arrest warrant and divided the team to intercept him at the Floo Network hall or wait at his home.

• Moody reviewed Lin Ze's list of suspected Death Eaters and asked whom they should investigate first.
• Lin Ze named Augustus Rookwood and cited records showing that Rookwood had deposited over eight thousand Galleons after Death Eater attacks on secret Ministry outposts.
• Moody and Amelia agreed the Special Operations Team could arrest Rookwood without notifying the Department of Mysteries, and Amelia produced a stamped blank arrest warrant.
• Lin Ze planned to intercept Rookwood in the Floo Network hall after work and arranged for a backup team to wait at Rookwood's home.
• Lin Ze assigned himself, Moody, Kingsley, and Ben to the Floo Network hall, while Amelia, Everett, and Reed were to watch Rookwood's house.

Lin Ze, Moody, Kingsley, and Ben arrested Augustus Rookwood in the Ministry’s Floo Network hall after Rookwood tried to escape. As the team left, Lin Ze spotted Quinn Travers in the crowd, who praised his kick and explained that he kicked a neighbor’s goat away from his lemon tree.

• Lin Ze’s first Full Body-Bind Curse missed Rookwood and struck a young wizard, causing a commotion in the hall.
• Rookwood threw his briefcase at Kingsley and ran for a fireplace, but Lin Ze kicked him down and Kingsley disarmed him.
• Moody bound Rookwood and told him he was under arrest for supplying confidential Ministry intelligence to the Dark Lord.
• Ben lifted the curse from the young wizard, while Lin Ze gathered Rookwood’s scattered documents and returned them to his briefcase.
• Lin Ze recognized Quinn Travers in the crowd, and Quinn praised Lin Ze’s kick before telling him about kicking a neighbor’s goat.

Lin Ze, Moody, and Kingsley interrogated Rookwood, who confessed to spying for the Death Eaters and named several Ministry accomplices. His account also revealed Voldemort had been searching for an object connected to Slytherin that could grant immortality, and the chapter ended with Lin Ze insisting Voldemort would fall for good.

• Moody confronted Rookwood with evidence of unexplained Gringotts deposits, while Lin Ze showed him stolen Department of Mysteries documents and pressed him to confess.
• Rookwood admitted that Amycus Carrow had recruited him in 1978 to pass Ministry secrets to the Death Eaters in exchange for money.
• Rookwood named two fellow Department of Mysteries employees and later identified three more Ministry employees as Death Eaters.
• Rookwood said Carrow had reported that Voldemort was searching for something connected to Slytherin that could grant immortality, and Lin Ze suspected it was Slytherin's Locket.
• Rookwood signed his confession and was taken away, but questioned whether Voldemort had truly fallen; Lin Ze told him Voldemort would fall whether he liked it or not.

After the Special Operations Team arrested Rookwood, a newspaper revealed the operation and prompted an urgent meeting with Minister Bagnold. She assigned the team new investigations, including a week-long liaison mission in France, and Moody chose Lin Ze for his French skills.

• Moody, Kingsley, and Lin Ze discussed the Death Eaters’ search for a Slytherin relic before ending their interrogation of Rookwood and his accomplices.
• Lin Ze returned home, thought about Voldemort’s Horcruxes, and was summoned by Moody to the Minister’s office the next morning.
• Bagnold confronted the team about a Daily Prophet report exposing Rookwood’s arrest and discussed how the news might have leaked.
• Bagnold told the team to investigate the Malfoy family’s Death Eater connections and help France investigate British contraband marked with the Dark Mark.
• Moody assigned Lin Ze to travel to France as the team’s liaison because he spoke French.

Lin Ze learned that Lucius Malfoy’s allies had secured a review of Bodo Crabbe’s arrest procedure, then investigated Malfoy’s finances and political connections. The chapter ended with Lin Ze realizing that Malfoy’s influence over the Wizengamot was far-reaching.

• Bagnold told Lin Ze, Moody, and Ben that the Wizengamot had approved an appeal of Bodo Crabbe’s arrest because the Special Operations Team had failed to obtain a warrant.
• Lin Ze saw that Lucius Malfoy and other old pure-blood family members had supported the appeal, while Bagnold said she would correct the procedural flaw and protect Crabbe’s case.
• Lin Ze examined records from Malfoy’s private vault and noticed that his donations were meticulously documented and often followed Death Eater attacks.
• Amelia brought records showing that Malfoy had observed forty-three trials over ten years, including thirty-two involving suspected Death Eaters.
• Amelia and Kingsley connected lenient verdicts in the trials to Wizengamot judges who owed Malfoy favors, and Lin Ze recognized that three of those judges had backed Crabbe’s appeal.

Lin Ze joined the French Ministry of Magic’s joint investigation into a shipment of Dark Mark-marked contraband from Britain and suggested ways to pressure the captured smuggler into talking. Mr Delacour assigned him to travel to Marseille the next morning, then told him Olivia wanted him to come to dinner that night.

• Lilia Claire escorted Lin Ze to a meeting led by Mr Delacour, who headed the International Auror Joint Operations Group.
• Mr Delacour explained that French Aurors had intercepted prohibited magical items at the Port of Marseille, shipped from Britain shortly after Voldemort’s fall.
• Lin Ze learned that the French Aurors had arrested Marseille smuggling ringleader Antoine Dupont but could not get him to reveal the sender.
• Lin Ze suggested exploiting Dupont’s fears for his safety, fortune, and family instead of relying on stronger doses of Veritaserum.
• Mr Delacour told Lin Ze to accompany him to Marseille the next morning and said Olivia had invited him to dinner that night.

Lin Ze visited the Delacour family in Paris, where Olivia hoped to join his official trip to Marseille but was refused by her father. In private, Mr Delacour admitted that France was not safe and revealed that British Death Eater groups had tried to enter the country.

• A House-elf escorted Lin Ze from the French Ministry of Magic to the Delacour residence in Paris.
• Mrs Delacour welcomed Lin Ze at dinner and teased Olivia about how often she had praised him.
• Olivia asked to accompany Lin Ze and Mr Delacour to Marseille, but her father and mother said she had to report to her internship.
• Mrs Delacour asked whether Lin Ze had used the herbal soap she had given him, and he admitted he had not.
• Mr Delacour took Lin Ze to his study, agreed that France was not safe, and said at least three groups of British Death Eaters had tried to enter since the Dark Lord's downfall.

Lin Ze traveled to the French Ministry of Magic’s Marseille outpost to question Antoine Dupont, a captured smuggler who had refused to speak. He pressured Dupont with evidence that his assets were frozen and offered to help protect his sister’s properties, leaving Dupont willing to cooperate.

• Lin Ze went with Mr Delacour and several Aurors to the Marseille outpost, where they learned Antoine Dupont had been on a hunger strike and refused to speak.
• Lin Ze questioned Dupont, describing how his Death Eater partners could no longer protect him and might see him as a liability.
• Lin Ze showed Dupont an order freezing his Gringotts accounts, warehouses, and properties, causing Dupont to panic.
• Lin Ze offered to help Dupont retain the properties registered in his younger sister’s name if he revealed the smugglers and recipients.
• Dupont agreed to cooperate, and Lin Ze began by asking for the shippers’ names.

Lin Ze learned from Dupont that Hugo Bados might be hiding in an abandoned fish cannery in Marseille’s Old Port, and discovered Bados had once developed a dangerous Shadow Potion. After hearing that Bados may have been spotted there, Lin Ze went alone to investigate and followed fresh footprints toward a half-open door.

• Lin Ze got Dupont to identify Hugo Bados as the recipient of the shipment and learned of a possible hideout at an abandoned fish cannery near the Old Port.
• Lin Ze gave Mr Delacour the lead, while Mr Delacour recalled Bados’s history of illegal experiments and arranged to check the address.
• Richard told Lin Ze that Bados had worked on a Shadow Potion that rapidly increased magical power but could drive users insane.
• Richard reported that an old wizard had possibly seen Bados near an abandoned cannery by Saint-André Gate, and Lin Ze hurried there without waiting for backup.
• Lin Ze entered the cannery, found fresh footprints leading to a half-open iron door, and approached it with his wand drawn.