Chapter Summaries

Lin Ze tried to protect an abused girl in Norway from three Muggles, but their gun killed one of the men and triggered the girl's Obscurus. As the destructive magic surged around her, Lin Ze drew his wand to face it.

• Lin Ze confronted three armed Norwegian men who claimed the girl begging beneath a porch was their child.
• The men demanded Lin Ze's valuables, and he showed them Galleons, which the bearded man confirmed were real gold.
• When the bearded man demanded Lin Ze's clothes, his gun fired and killed the man who had whipped the girl.
• The girl rose, released powerful Obscurus magic, and melted the snow into vapor as black particles swirled in the wind.
• Lin Ze recognized the danger, drew his wand, and prepared to respond while the surviving Muggles remained unaware of the magic.

Lin Ze tried to calm the girl as her Obscurus threatened to erupt, but the force attacked him and began draining his magic. He was left trapped in place, overwhelmed by the voices inside his head.

• The bearded man grabbed for the girl's hair, but a burst of black energy hurled him into a warehouse wall and knocked him unconscious.
• The other burly man fled across the snow while Lin Ze stayed to confront the floating girl, whose body cracked with dark red light.
• Lin Ze tried to soothe the girl by explaining the Obscurus and talking about anything he could think of, and the black mist briefly slowed.
• Black particles surged through Lin Ze's Shield Charm, bound his limbs, drained his magic, and stopped him from Apparating.
• Voices filled Lin Ze's mind with the girl's pain and rage as he remained trapped by the tendrils.

Lin Ze talked the girl into suppressing the Obscurus and held her as she remembered her mother, calming the destruction at Tromsø’s port. The girl thanked him and spoke for the first time in a long while, while Lin Ze’s magic grew stronger.

• Lin Ze fought to stay conscious as the girl’s Obscurus drained his magic, then urged her to push back against it and reminded her that her past abuse was not her fault.
• The girl’s tentacles loosened and the black mist withdrew as she began to regain control of her body.
• Lin Ze pulled the girl into his arms and encouraged her to think of her mother, and she cried against his chest as peace returned to the port.
• Lin Ze noticed his magic had become more concentrated and abundant after the Obscurus settled.
• The girl thanked Lin Ze and discovered she could speak, and he gave her a handkerchief when she started crying again.

Lin Ze took Aila from the harbor to the Northern Lights Inn, where he paid for a room and food and told the landlady he was her distant cousin. In their room, Aila hesitated to use the bed because she was dirty and had no clean clothes, so Lin Ze began transforming a sheet with his wand.

• Lin Ze learned that Aila's mother had died when she was very young and that her uncle Agnar had taken her in.
• Aila led Lin Ze to the Northern Lights Inn, where the landlady recognized her and warned Lin Ze not to anger her uncle.
• Lin Ze paid for a room with two beds and hot food, then claimed he was Aila's distant cousin on her mother's side.
• In the room, Aila said she was too dirty to sleep on the bed and had no clothes to change into, so Lin Ze used his wand on a sheet.

Lin Ze helped Aila understand that she was not a monster and considered how to control her Obscurus. At the inn, he unexpectedly encountered Igor Karkaroff, who had come out of hiding for a drink.

• Lin Ze transfigured bedsheets and a chair into clothes and shoes, then reassured Aila that her power was magic and she was not a monster.
• Lin Ze helped Aila learn how to use the bathtub and thought about seeking Newt Scamander’s advice on her Obscurus.
• Lin Ze heard an argument downstairs and recognized Igor Karkaroff, a wanted Death Eater, at the inn’s bar.
• Karkaroff explained that he had been hiding in his cousin’s warehouse and had ventured out for a drink.
• Lin Ze ordered coffee in English, prompting Karkaroff to turn around and ask who he was.

Lin Ze confronted Igor Karkaroff in an Arctic inn and demanded that he help the Ministry locate other Death Eaters. Karkaroff agreed to cooperate only if Lin Ze made an Unbreakable Vow, leaving their negotiation unresolved.

• Lin Ze introduced himself to Karkaroff as the deputy leader of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's Special Operations Team and revealed Karkaroff's wanted status and bounty.
• Lin Ze ordered Karkaroff to provide information on other Death Eaters, offering him freedom and a new identity in exchange.
• Karkaroff considered attacking Lin Ze but decided against it, fearing Lin Ze's composure signaled formidable power.
• Karkaroff agreed to work with Lin Ze but demanded an Unbreakable Vow as a guarantee.
• Lin Ze laughed derisively at Karkaroff's demand.

Lin Ze stopped Karkaroff from attacking or escaping, then used Legilimency to force him to reveal Death Eaters’ names, hiding places, and evidence. He left with Karkaroff’s memories and marked him so he could track him.

• Karkaroff tried to attack Lin Ze and then Apparate away, but Lin Ze disarmed him and used the Cruciatus Curse to stop him.
• Lin Ze threatened Karkaroff until he agreed to answer questions without an Unbreakable Vow.
• Lin Ze used Legilimency to make Karkaroff reveal the locations of several Death Eaters, including Antonin Dolohov, Evan Rosier, and Amycus and Alecto Carrow.
• Karkaroff identified Barty Crouch Jr. as a Death Eater and said he had memories of him torturing Muggles with the Dark Lord.
• Lin Ze questioned Karkaroff for over half an hour, marked his palm with a tracking spell, and collected bottles containing his memories.

Lin Ze extorted Karkaroff and secured him as a Ministry contact before returning to Aila. When Aila asked to go with him, Lin Ze admitted it would be inconvenient and offered to send her to a friend instead.

• Lin Ze made Karkaroff leave his valuables behind and warned him not to remove the mark he had placed on him.
• After Karkaroff left, Lin Ze concealed his memories, paid the landlady, and returned to Aila.
• Lin Ze dried Aila's hair with magic, and she told him Agnar had beaten her and stopped townspeople from feeding her.
• Lin Ze asked Aila about her future, and she said she wanted to go with him.
• Lin Ze explained that taking Aila along would be inconvenient and said he could send her to a friend.

Lin Ze brought Aila from the inn to the magical world and began arranging her legal status, taking her to the Ministry of Magic to seek help from old Crouch. The chapter ended as Scrimgeour opened the door to his office.

• Lin Ze learned from the landlady that Agnar had abused Aila, and the landlady agreed not to discuss Aila's past with anyone who came asking.
• Lin Ze reassured Aila that she could return to the inn someday and took her through the Floo Network to the Leaky Cauldron.
• Lin Ze introduced Aila to the magical world, bought her Butterbeer, robes, and ice cream, and showed her Diagon Alley.
• Lin Ze took Aila to the Ministry of Magic through the visitors' telephone box and led her to Scrimgeour's office.
• Scrimgeour opened his office door after Lin Ze knocked.

Lin Ze arranged a legal identity for Aila, an eight-year-old Obscurial, and brought her to Godric's Hollow to stay with Quinn Travers while she learned to control her magic. Quinn questioned Lin Ze about the danger of keeping her, leaving the arrangement uncertain.

• Lin Ze told Scrimgeour that Aila was an Obscurial, and Scrimgeour agreed to help secure her a legal identity.
• Lin Ze asked Crouch to register Aila as his distant niece, and the Wizard Identity Registration Office prepared her paperwork.
• Lin Ze took Aila through the Floo Network to Quinn Travers's home in Godric's Hollow.
• Lin Ze explained Aila's situation to Quinn, who learned that she was an Obscurial and eight years old.
• Quinn warned Lin Ze that Obscurials generally did not live past ten and questioned what would happen if the Ministry discovered her.

Lin Ze arranged for Aila to stay with Quinn and Amy, and asked Quinn to adapt an alchemical ring that might suppress her Obscurus. The chapter ended with Quinn accepting money from Lin Ze to help cover Aila’s needs and the risks of sheltering her.

• Lin Ze explained that he had secured Aila’s identity and protection, then showed Quinn Bados’s magic-suppressing ring and asked him to modify it.
• Quinn agreed to study the ring’s runes, while he and Lin Ze kept Aila’s connection to Godric’s Hollow from her.
• Amy returned home, welcomed Aila, and gave her a Chocolate Frog; Quinn then told Amy about Aila’s background and the danger she posed.
• Amy agreed to let Aila stay, and Quinn explained to Lin Ze that his family had disowned him for marrying Amy, a half-blood witch.
• Lin Ze gave Quinn a pouch of Galleons to pay for Aila’s food, clothes, and other needs, and Quinn accepted it.

Lin Ze bought a Pensieve in Diagon Alley so he could examine Karkaroff’s memories, then opened a small personal vault at Gringotts. The chapter left him inside vault 618, which was ready to hold the Pensieve and his memories.

• Lin Ze left Quinn's house and returned to the Ministry of Magic by Floo Powder.
• Lin Ze bought a Pensieve from an old wizard in a secondhand magical items shop for 460 Galleons and learned how to use it.
• Lin Ze visited Gringotts and asked Grot to open the smallest standard vault.
• Grot completed Lin Ze's paperwork and gave him the key to vault 618.
• Grot escorted Lin Ze underground, where Lin Ze unlocked vault 618 and entered it.

Lin Ze watched Karkaroff's memory of Barty Crouch Jr. torturing a Muggle during his initiation as a Death Eater, then entered another memory to see Lucius Malfoy at a Death Eater gathering. The chapter ended with Lin Ze observing Lucius seated at the head of a lavishly decorated room.

• Lin Ze activated the Pensieve and entered Karkaroff's memory of Barty Crouch Jr.'s initiation.
• Voldemort invited Barty Crouch Jr. to torture a captive Muggle, and Barty killed him while the Death Eaters watched and applauded.
• Voldemort praised Barty Crouch Jr., who declared his devotion and received an embrace from his master.
• Lin Ze returned to the vault, restored Barty's memory to its bottle, and poured the memory labeled "Lucius" into the Pensieve.
• Lin Ze entered the memory and saw Lucius Malfoy seated among Death Eaters in an elegant drawing room.

Lin Ze attended Weiqi Lasigehuoen’s interrogation about the Death Eater ambush that killed Peter Pettigrew and two Ministry officials. Crouch asked Lin Ze to investigate moles within the Ministry, and Barty Crouch Jr. arrived to be questioned.

• Kingsley told Lin Ze that Crouch had summoned him to Interrogation Room Three to hear Weiqi’s account of the ambush.
• Weiqi described the Death Eaters’ attack, the Anti-Apparition Jinx, and a huge black dog that killed Peter Pettigrew before vanishing into the woods.
• Weiqi recalled a silver-masked Death Eater ordering the others to attack someone in the woods, but he could not explain who else had been there.
• Lin Ze reassured Weiqi that surviving the attack was an impressive feat, and Weiqi left the room.
• Crouch asked Lin Ze to investigate moles in the Ministry, then an Auror announced that Barty Crouch Jr. had arrived.

Lin Ze and Ministry officials questioned Barty Crouch Jr. about the attack on Peter Pettigrew’s escort, and Crouch gave a polished account that left his father and Scrimgeour impressed. Afterward, Fudge approached Lin Ze to congratulate him and probe his Norway leads and new relative.

• Barty Crouch Jr. recounted the attack, saying the escort officers had been killed and an unidentified person in the woods helped him drive off the Death Eaters.
• Lin Ze asked whether the attackers had targeted Peter or the escort team, and Barty Crouch Jr. suggested that Peter’s death would reveal who benefited most.
• Crouch dismissed the idea of advancing his son, explaining that he had arranged the escort assignment so Barty Crouch Jr. could earn service credit for an undemanding Ministry post.
• Scrimgeour praised Barty Crouch Jr.’s ability as he and Lin Ze left the interrogation room.
• Cornelius Fudge congratulated Lin Ze on the Black case and asked about his Norway leads and the distant younger cousin he had brought back.

Lin Ze returned to the Ministry and tried to find Kage Greengrass, but found him absent and heard that his Special Operations Team’s investigations had stirred resentment. After work, Lin Ze caught former Minister Fudge trying to pick a lock in Diagon Alley and demanded an explanation.

• Lin Ze returned to the Special Operations Team office, where Ben Frick complained about handling twenty-seven reports while Kingsley and Amelia were occupied with arrests and interrogations.
• Lin Ze visited the Beast Division to confront Kage Greengrass about his role in Karkaroff’s memories and werewolf oversight, but Kage was absent and his house-elf claimed not to know where he had gone.
• Lin Ze overheard Ministry workers worrying that the Special Operations Team’s investigations had driven the Death Eaters into action and might send more Ministry employees to Azkaban.
• Lin Ze told Moody that Karkaroff had escaped in Norway but left behind intelligence for him to sort through.
• In Diagon Alley, Lin Ze caught Fudge trying to pick a shop lock, accidentally set his hair on fire, and then put it out with water.
• Lin Ze asked Fudge why he was picking a lock in Diagon Alley.

Lin Ze caught Fudge trying to pick the lock of a shop in Diagon Alley and learned that Fudge had overheard Lucius Malfoy hiding an object sought by the Dark Lord. Lin Ze brought the reluctant Fudge inside to investigate, and they began descending into the shop’s basement.

• Lin Ze confronted Fudge outside the shop, and Fudge asked him to pretend he had not seen him trying to pick the lock.
• Lin Ze guessed Fudge’s visit was connected to Malfoy, and Fudge admitted he had overheard Lucius discussing an object the Dark Lord wanted retrieved.
• Fudge explained that Lucius had hidden the object somewhere safe and told the unknown visitor where it was, but Fudge did not know what the object was.
• Fudge tried to leave after Lin Ze pointed out that someone might already have taken the object, but Lin Ze grabbed him and insisted they investigate.
• Lin Ze opened the shop lock with his wand, used a Detection Spell to locate a door behind the counter, and led Fudge down the stairs after checking for danger.

Lin Ze and Fudge were ambushed in an abandoned shop by a hooded wizard who used the Killing Curse and powerful magic. Lin Ze’s magic grew stronger as he fought, and the chapter ended when Fudge attacked the hooded man with a Cruciatus Curse.

• Lin Ze and Fudge hid beneath the stairs when they heard someone enter, but the hooded man blocked Lin Ze’s Disarming Charm and fired a Killing Curse.
• Lin Ze Apparated with Fudge behind the attacker and retaliated with a Killing Curse before the hooded man sent the shop’s contents hurtling at them.
• Lin Ze fought the hooded man at close range and urged Fudge toward the exit, but the attacker destroyed the doorframe with another Killing Curse.
• Lin Ze’s magic grew stronger as he exchanged spells with the hooded man, who trapped him in the air and demanded to know what he had seen and how he had found the place.
• Fudge fired a Cruciatus Curse at the hooded man, forcing him to release Lin Ze and block the spell with a piece of wall.

Lin Ze and Fudge fled from a hooded attacker, but the attacker caught Lin Ze in a London square and overwhelmed him with powerful magic. The man revealed himself as Rodna Grindelwald, Gellert Grindelwald’s son, and became interested in Lin Ze’s magical circuits.

• A hooded man summoned three iron golems, prompting Lin Ze and Fudge to Apparate out of the shop and split up.
• The hooded man pursued Lin Ze to a London square, where his spell slammed Lin Ze into the paving and injured him.
• Lin Ze dodged the hooded man’s killing curse and taunted him, while the man conjured a huge fireball and turned the fleeing Muggles to ash.
• The hooded man removed his hood and identified himself as Rodna Grindelwald, revealing that Gellert Grindelwald was his father.
• Rodna extinguished the fireball and examined Lin Ze, saying the magical circuits inside his body were interesting.

Rodna discovered that Lin Ze’s magical circuits were unusual, then took him to his study and questioned him about his growing magic. The conversation ended with Rodna warning Lin Ze not to mention Dumbledore.

• Rodna examined Lin Ze and said his magical circuits seemed fundamentally different from those of other wizards.
• Lin Ze joked that he came from another world, and Rodna restored the square and revealed that the Muggles were unharmed.
• Rodna opened a rift in spacetime and brought Lin Ze to his study, where he questioned him about his magic growing during their fight.
• Lin Ze claimed he was exceptionally gifted, and Rodna agreed that not everyone was the same.
• Lin Ze mentioned Dumbledore, and Rodna told him not to mention that man in front of him.