Chapter Summaries

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.

Lin Ze discovered an imprisoned lizard that appeared to be a wizard trapped in Animagus form, then learned Richard had lured him to the cannery as part of a scheme to earn credit by supposedly rescuing him. Richard revealed that Bados had been experimenting on animals and wizards to develop an Animagus potion.

• Lin Ze found rows of cages containing dead animals and discovered a weakened lizard with a phoenix tattoo that indicated it was a wizard Animagus.
• The lizard confirmed that it could not change back and that someone had done something to it.
• Richard arrived with four hooded wizards and aimed their wands at Lin Ze.
• Richard explained that he had sent Lin Ze to the cannery so Bados could take him hostage, letting Richard stage a rescue and gain a promotion.
• Richard said Bados was researching a potion to turn wizards into Animagi, and Lin Ze looked toward the imprisoned lizard.

Lin Ze fought Richard and four black-robed wizards in a factory, using spells and a lizard’s attack to incapacitate several of them. After Richard hit him with the Cruciatus Curse, Lin Ze fired Unforgivable Curses in return, ending with a Killing Curse that Richard barely dodged.

• Lin Ze dodged Richard and the four wizards’ attacks, struck one with a Leg-Locker Curse, and tried to Apparate, but Richard disrupted the attempt and sealed the factory against Apparition.
• A large lizard bit one black-robed wizard, and Lin Ze stunned the injured man during the ensuing chaos.
• Lin Ze made the floor slick, causing two wizards to fall, then petrified them before another wizard bound him with vines and Richard tortured him with the Cruciatus Curse.
• Lin Ze grabbed a fallen wand and fired the Cruciatus Curse at Richard, who dodged and demanded to know how an Auror could use an Unforgivable Curse.
• Lin Ze mocked Richard and cast the Killing Curse, which Richard narrowly dodged.

Lin Ze defeated Richard and the other black-robed attackers, then used Essence of Dittany and a Healing Charm on the injured lizard. The lizard transformed into a wounded young man, whom Lin Ze covered with Richard’s robe.

• Lin Ze dodged Richard’s Killing Curse, disarmed him with a hidden Nonverbal Spell, and stunned him.
• Lin Ze collected the five opponents’ wands and searched the unconscious men for valuables.
• Lin Ze found the lizard alive and treated its wounds with Essence of Dittany and a Healing Charm.
• The lizard transformed into a naked young man with a phoenix tattoo and an iron ring fell from his tail.
• Lin Ze gave the young man Richard’s robe to cover himself.

Lin Ze rescued Benjy Fenwick from Bados's experiments and exposed Richard as a traitor working with Bados. At St. Marseille Hospital, Mr Delacour struggled to accept that Richard, his former apprentice, had betrayed him.

• Lin Ze learned that Benjy Fenwick, an Order of the Phoenix member, had been captured by Death Eaters and used as a test subject for Bados's animal-transformation potion.
• Fenwick explained that Bados had tested the unstable potion on dozens of wizards and used an enchanted iron ring to suppress Fenwick's magic and trap him in animal form.
• Mr Delacour arrived with French Aurors, and Lin Ze identified Richard as the mole who had lured him into Bados's trap.
• Mr Delacour ordered the captured wizards taken away for treatment and questioning, while Fenwick was carried to safety after Lin Ze explained who he was.
• At St. Marseille Hospital, Mr Delacour told Lin Ze that he had personally trained Richard and planned to recommend him for the International Auror Joint Operations Group.

After Fenwick recovered enough to speak, he revealed that Bados’s laboratory was likely hidden underwater near Marseille and identified a regular supply route through La Ciotat. Lin Ze and Mr Delacour prepared to discreetly watch the docks on Tuesday to find it.

• Fenwick told Lin Ze and Mr Delacour that the cannery had been a disposal site for failed test subjects, not Bados’s laboratory.
• Fenwick recalled that the laboratory might be aboard an abandoned cruise ship near Marseille, then reasoned it was probably beneath the sea.
• Fenwick remembered that Bados’s limping assistant Mathieu had mentioned regular supplies every Tuesday from La Ciotat.
• Lin Ze proposed staking out La Ciotat’s docks the next day, and Mr Delacour agreed to send only a small team.

Lin Ze and Mr Delacour watched La Ciotat’s docks for Bados’s hidden supply boat, but none appeared on the expected Tuesday. By five in the afternoon, they were still waiting and questioning whether Fenwick’s information was accurate.

• Lin Ze and Mr Delacour reviewed harbor records and concluded that Bados’s supply boat was not among the registered vessels.
• They staked out the docks that night, saw only the expected fishing boats return, and left after finding no suspicious activity.
• Lin Ze returned to the outpost early Tuesday with a croissant for Mr Delacour, who had arrived before him.
• Lin Ze and Mr Delacour watched the docks through the day, but no supply boat appeared.
• By five o’clock, Lin Ze was still waiting at the window while Mr Delacour frowned over the empty docks.

Lin Ze and Mr Delacour followed Mathieu to a hidden underground laboratory beneath an abandoned warehouse. When they tried to question him about Bados and the test subjects, a curse caused Mathieu to explode before he could reveal anything.

• Lin Ze and Mr Delacour spotted Mathieu arriving at the docks by magically modified motorboat and followed him to an abandoned warehouse.
• Mathieu opened a secret door in the warehouse wall and descended into an underground laboratory filled with potions and caged, suffering animals.
• Lin Ze and Mr Delacour disarmed and immobilized Mathieu, then questioned him about Bados, the cruise ship, and the test subjects.
• Mathieu began to reveal Bados’s whereabouts, but a dark purple fissure appeared beneath his clothes and his upper body exploded.

Lin Ze and Mr Delacour uncovered evidence of Bados’s lethal Animagus experiments in an underground laboratory, then captured two associates and used Legilimency to learn the location of Bados’s hidden laboratory. They prepared to join an underwater operation at a sunken cruise ship near the Old Port.

• Mathieu exploded after a curse triggered when he tried to reveal information, leaving Lin Ze and Mr Delacour without their lead.
• Lin Ze and Mr Delacour found three animal prisoners, suspected to be wizards, along with a transformation potion and records of experiments that ended in failure or death.
• Maurice and Lambert arrived at the laboratory, tried to flee, and were stopped by Mr Delacour’s spells.
• Mr Delacour used Legilimency on both men, leaving them witless and learning that Bados’s cruise ship lay three nautical miles southeast of the Old Port, with its funnel as the entrance.
• Mr Delacour contacted an Auror and ordered the Underwater Operations Team to prepare diving equipment within fifteen minutes.

Lin Ze and Mr Delacour led French Aurors into Bados’s underwater laboratory, where they found its defenses almost nonexistent and captured a supposed Hugo Bados. The captive transformed into a young woman and delivered a cryptic warning, prompting Lin Ze to order everyone out.

• Lin Ze and Mr Delacour reached Bados’s abandoned cruise ship laboratory with eight French Aurors and broke in through the funnel.
• The Aurors swiftly subdued Bados’s guards and discovered cages of transformed test subjects, while Lin Ze grew suspicious that the raid was too easy.
• A crying man who identified himself as Hugo Bados begged the Aurors to arrest him, claiming someone wanted to silence him.
• The supposed Bados transformed into a young woman, who warned that everyone was dead and ordered them to clean the place out.
• Lin Ze shouted for everyone to get out immediately.

Lin Ze returned from France after Bados's laboratory was destroyed in an explosion that killed an Auror and left all the test subjects dead. After saying goodbye to the Delacour family, he arrived back at the Ministry and learned Moody was questioning captured Death Eater remnants.

• The explosion destroyed the cruise ship, killed an Auror, and left three people with minor injuries, two seriously injured, and none of the test subjects saved.
• Lin Ze stayed in Marseille for three days, visited Fenwick in the hospital, and agreed to tell Dumbledore that Fenwick was alive.
• Mr Delacour told Lin Ze that Richard would face imprisonment for colluding with Death Eaters and attempting murder, then urged him to write to Olivia.
• Mrs Delacour gave Lin Ze a parcel of food and household supplies, and Lin Ze promised Olivia he would write once Ministry business settled down.
• Lin Ze returned to the Britain Ministry of Magic, where Ben Frick and Kingsley welcomed him back and Kingsley said Moody was interrogating captured Death Eater remnants.