Recaps

Mo Fei challenged Nicolas Flamel to create a meat combining beef, pigeon, and abalone, then began preparing the foul-smelling result. As Mo Fei explained his wizarding ingredients, Nicolas and Perenelle listened, leaving the cooking lesson about to continue.

• Mo Fei asked Nicolas Flamel to combine beef, pigeon, and abalone into one piece of meat without removing their unpleasant odors.
• Nicolas Flamel used alchemy to merge the three meats into a purple, visibly grained piece.
• Mo Fei inspected the meat, recoiled at its odor, then rinsed and massaged it to remove slime.
• Mo Fei marinated the meat with Muggle seasonings and wizarding ingredients, explaining that he had learned about them from Hogwarts textbooks.
• Nicolas Flamel listened as Mo Fei offered to explain how he used the ingredients, and Perenelle came to the doorway to hear.

Mo Fei explained how he prepared magical meat and the effects of the ingredients he chose, then cooked steaks with rice and vegetables for Nicolas Flamel and Perenelle. The two wizards eagerly began eating in the kitchen.

• Mo Fei explained that magical meat held lingering blood, odors, and residual magic, and described how massaging it and using seasonings made it easier to cook.
• Mo Fei explained the roles of lovage, ginger root, mistletoe berries, and bouncing grass in the dish.
• Mo Fei set the steaks aside to marinate and prepared rice and stir-fried vegetables.
• Mo Fei rapidly pan-fried the steaks over high heat, then served them over rice with the vegetables.
• Nicolas Flamel and Perenelle smelled the finished dish, accepted the plate, and began eating in the kitchen.

After sharing Mo Fei’s flame-seared chicken-in-pork-stomach patty, Mo Fei and Nicolas Flamel discussed the origins of house-elves. Nicolas explained how wizarding contracts transformed them into magical derivatives, leaving Mo Fei wary of trusting wizard society.

• Mo Fei’s savory patty won over Nicolas Flamel and Perenelle, who finished their plates.
• Mo Fei asked Nicolas Flamel why his home had no house-elves, and Nicolas said their presence made alchemists uneasy.
• Nicolas explained that house-elves had once been a race with powerful Apparition abilities and that wizards subdued them through war and bloodline contracts.
• Nicolas told Mo Fei that house-elves now depended on contracts and reproduced by magically producing replacements as they aged.
• Mo Fei felt unsettled by the house-elves’ transformation and resolved to remain cautious about Muggles integrating into wizard society.

Mo Fei asked Nicolas Flamel about the relationship between wizards and Muggles, and Flamel described how his views had changed over centuries of encounters with Muggles. He argued that the world maintained a balance between the two groups and that secrecy was the best way to preserve both, leaving Mo Fei reconsidering Grindelwald’s motives.

• Mo Fei asked Nicolas Flamel how he viewed the relationship between wizards and Muggles.
• Nicolas Flamel explained that he had come to respect Muggles’ wisdom and their ability to develop powerful weapons.
• Nicolas Flamel said that wizards and Muggles had once shared access to extraordinary powers, and that the world’s mystery seemed to prevent either group from eradicating the other.
• Nicolas Flamel pointed to the increase in Muggle-born wizards as evidence of the world’s balance and said he had supported the International Statute of Secrecy.
• Mo Fei felt reassured that some wizards considered humanity’s future and found Grindelwald’s fear of wizards blending into Muggle society plausible.

Mo Fei tried to persuade Nicolas Flamel to help create a separate world for wizards and Muggles, and Nicolas weighed the plan against the limits of magic and his own fading life. As Nicolas brainstormed ways to make it possible, Mo Fei suddenly came up with an idea.

• Mo Fei clarified that Gellert Grindelwald had told him about their plans, and Nicolas Flamel agreed that he wanted the future to unfold without deliberate interference.
• Mo Fei explained his plan to create a new world where wizards and Muggles could develop separately, but Nicolas Flamel warned that making one would be extraordinarily difficult.
• Mo Fei challenged Nicolas Flamel to consider the possibility rather than dismiss it, and Nicolas recognized that the plan might give him a chance to become a Legendary Wizard.
• Nicolas Flamel explained that sharing the Philosopher's Stone's immortality with his wife had weakened their souls and left their legend too weak to become firmly established.
• Nicolas Flamel considered ways to create a wizard-only space without the world rejecting it, while Mo Fei brainstormed and suddenly thought of an idea.

Mo Fei proposed creating a world inside shadows, and Nicolas Flamel developed the idea into a plan requiring several powerful specialists. As the old wizards Flamel contacted proved difficult to find, Flamel suggested using a seer and promised to coordinate through the Wizards' Council, leaving Mo Fei uneasy about how smoothly the plan was progressing.

• Mo Fei suggested creating a world within shadows, and Nicolas Flamel researched old accounts linking shadows to realms of the dead.
• Nicolas Flamel outlined the need for wizards skilled in barriers, Transfiguration, life magic, spatial magic, and possibly death magic, preferably Magic Masters.
• Nicolas Flamel recalled potential Magic Masters, but many of his old contacts had not been heard from for decades or centuries.
• Mo Fei stayed at Nicolas Flamel's home while owls brought back news, and he exchanged ideas about cooking and gardening with Perenelle.
• After learning that many possible candidates had died or were unwell, Mo Fei grew anxious, and Nicolas Flamel suggested finding them through a seer.
• Nicolas Flamel promised to contact and coordinate with the wizards through the Wizards' Council, while Mo Fei wondered why the arrangements seemed to be going so smoothly.

Mo Fei agreed to open a Muggle shop in Hogsmeade to help young wizards understand Muggle life and prepare for the future separation of the two worlds. Grindelwald promised to secure Headmaster Dippet’s approval, while Mo Fei planned to keep his orphanage and connect it to Hogsmeade.

• Nicolas Flamel told Grindelwald that he and Perenelle had agreed to the future plans after Mo Fei’s cooking won Perenelle over.
• Grindelwald asked Nicolas Flamel what he expected him to do, including finding suitable wizards and researching barrier magic.
• Grindelwald proposed that Mo Fei open a shop in Hogsmeade to introduce young wizards to Muggle food and culture.
• Mo Fei considered the shop’s benefits, including meeting young wizards, staying closer to Tom, and helping Kyle establish a clothing shop.
• Mo Fei asked whether Headmaster Dippet would approve, and Grindelwald promised to handle it.
• Mo Fei agreed to open the shop and keep his orphanage, with Grindelwald suggesting a transportation passage between the two places.

Mo Fei studied alchemy and learned how Pure Water stabilized alchemical products, while considering how it could connect the wizarding and Muggle worlds. Before returning to the orphanage, he brought Kyle to meet Nicolas Flamel, who agreed to hear Kyle’s question about alchemy and tailoring.

• Mo Fei learned from Nicolas Flamel that Pure Water could separate alchemical characteristics, stabilize products, and was essential to making a Philosopher’s Stone.
• Mo Fei realized his growing need for Belief Points made it important to keep the orphanage and its children in his life.
• Mo Fei asked Nicolas Flamel to meet Kyle, and Nicolas agreed because he considered Mo Fei a friend.
• Mo Fei brought Kyle to Nicolas Flamel’s house, where Kyle excitedly asked how to resolve excessive incompatibility between different materials.

Kyle sought Nicolas Flamel’s advice on combining alchemical fabrics into clothing, and Flamel identified ways to reduce their conflicting properties. Kyle left with books and encouragement, while Mo Fei returned to London with him.

• Nicolas Flamel watched Kyle make white and blue fabrics from Footless Bird feathers and Circling Fish scales, then saw him stitch them into a cloak.
• Nicolas Flamel explained that the fabrics’ retained magic caused them to repel each other and suggested several methods for making them blend.
• Nicolas Flamel gave Kyle books on purification, tempering, and material compatibility, and wished him well.
• Mo Fei and Kyle left Nicolas Flamel’s house and Apparated to London, where Kyle explained their arrival to the Aurors.

Tom prepared to attend an exclusive Slytherin banquet, where he planned to establish his importance through his abilities rather than reveal his Parseltongue. As the banquet approached, he chose an outfit made by Kyle, hoping to show it off.

• Kyle Apparated to Hogsmeade to scout the village before Mo Fei received permission to visit.
• News spread through Hogwarts that Tom had accepted an invitation to the exclusive Slytherin banquet, prompting mixed reactions from the houses.
• Tom ignored the attention and continued leading the Slytherins, doing homework, tending plants, and practicing spells.
• Tom decided to demonstrate his strength at the banquet instead of revealing his Parseltongue, which he feared could complicate his investigation into Slytherin's past.
• Tom opened his trunk, considered several unusual outfits Kyle had made, and chose one to wear to the banquet.

Tom wore the distinctive outfit Kyle had made for him to the Slytherin banquet, where its striking appearance and hallucinogenic effects stunned the students. Abraxas Malfoy greeted him, and Tom explained that a Slytherin could wear more than one mask.

• Tom examined Kyle's fitted, star-speckled outfit, which included concealed wand access, emergency bandages, and ribbon-like structures for combat.
• Tom left the dormitory, and Slytherins in the common room gaped at him and admired his appearance.
• Tom avoided crowds on his way to the banquet, but students who spotted him spread the news about his dazzling look.
• Tom entered the banquet room, silencing the gathered Slytherins with his appearance.
• Abraxas Malfoy greeted Tom in amazement, and Tom replied that Slytherins could have more than one mask.

Tom entered Slytherin’s Dream Tea Party, where the students tested his worth by asking what he wanted and what he could offer. After showing interest in Dark Magic and agreeing to provide rare Snakebone Grass, Tom challenged the second-year chief to a duel and wagered his position as chief.

• Abraxas Malfoy welcomed Tom and explained that he had passed the first step toward joining Slytherin’s inner circle.
• The Prefects introduced the Dream Tea Party and asked Tom to state his request and demonstrate his value.
• A student demonstrated the dangerous corpse-burning spell Phosphorus Fire, which Tom compared to Fiendfyre and asked to learn.
• The male Prefect asked Tom to help obtain Snakebone Grass for a budding Potions genius.
• Tom challenged the second-year chief to a duel, wagering his position as chief and agreeing to kneel and apologize if he lost.
• The second-year chief accepted Tom’s terms, and tension erupted through the gathering.

Tom challenged Samuel Dawson to a wizard duel after discovering Dawson had obstructed his search for Snakebone Grass. Slughorn refereed the duel, which began with Tom striking first to disrupt Dawson’s ability to cast incantations.

• Tom’s actions led the students to clear a space for a wizard duel, and Slughorn arrived to supervise.
• Slughorn learned that Dawson had offered potions to the year chiefs for their support and had arranged obstacles to keep Tom from finding Snakebone Grass.
• Slughorn expanded the dueling area, placed a barrier around it, and appointed himself referee.
• Dawson insulted Tom’s appearance, and both wizards took their positions while Dawson pointed his wand at Tom before the duel began.
• As Slughorn announced the start, Tom fired Rictusempra at Dawson to make it harder for him to pronounce incantations.

Tom and Dawson’s duel escalated as Tom used precise movement and his custom robe to counter Dawson’s tactics. Dawson fired a family-taught Dark spell, but Tom summoned two venomous snakes to shield himself, leaving the spell’s outcome unresolved.

• Tom dodged Dawson’s Petrificus Totalus and evaded Dawson’s counterattack, keeping the advantage in their opening exchange.
• Tom cast Tarantallegra while Dawson was off balance, but Dawson blocked with his robe and used a Levitation Charm to obscure Tom’s view.
• Tom’s custom robe streamers broke Dawson’s control of the robe and sent it flying back toward him.
• Dawson fired Blinding Needle Sting through the hole in his robe toward Tom.
• Tom cast Serpensortia, and one of the summoned snakes leaped up to block the incoming spell.

Tom Riddle used summoned snakes and hallucinogenic spores hidden in his robe to defeat Dawson in their wizarding duel. Slughorn declared Tom the winner, while Dawson was left burned, drenched, and humiliated.

• Tom Riddle's summoned snakes blocked Dawson's attack and coiled around his arms after Tom's robe covered his head.
• Dawson cast Incendio to escape, burning the snakes and robe, but inhaled hallucinogenic spores released by the flames.
• Dawson hallucinated that Tom was suffering, then cast Aguamenti and drenched himself while extinguishing the flames.
• Tom pointed out that the duel's outcome was clear, and the other Slytherins recoiled at Dawson's burned and soaked appearance.
• Slughorn declared Tom Riddle the winner and gave Dawson a potion to restore his senses.

Tom won his duel with Dawson at the Dreamshade Tea Party, earning the promised spellbook and Slughorn’s attention. Slughorn then questioned Tom about his background and ambitions in Potions, and Tom praised the subject and the value of studying it under a professor’s guidance.

• Tom’s illusion caused Dawson to believe he had won, but the Slytherins saw that Dawson had been burned and Tom was unharmed.
• Professor Slughorn declared Tom the winner, while the male prefect silenced Dawson and told him to provide the promised Feigned Death Potions.
• The male prefect gave Tom a spellbook containing Phosphorus Fire Burn and offered him the chance to exchange for more magic later.
• Slughorn spoke with Tom about his orphanage background and his connection to Kyle, deciding not to press him about who had taught him magic.
• Slughorn asked Tom about Potions and his aspirations, and Tom praised the subject’s complexity and the importance of a professor’s guidance.

After Tom’s success at Slughorn’s party made him a rising figure among Hogwarts students, Dumbledore worried that he resembled young Grindelwald, until Herbert urged him not to let the past overshadow the future. Tom focused on mastering Phosphorus Fire Burn and began investigating a special core for his coreless wand.

• Slughorn praised Tom’s caution with unknown potions and invited him to join the Slug Club when he was ready.
• After Dawson’s defeat, Slytherins and students from other houses increasingly admired Tom, while word spread about the wizarding robes he promoted for Kyle’s planned shop.
• Dumbledore grew wary of Tom’s growing influence because he reminded him of young Grindelwald.
• Herbert spoke with Dumbledore about how dwelling on the past could cost him the future, and Dumbledore quietly considered her advice.
• Tom quickly mastered Phosphorus Fire Burn, whose casting made his coreless snakewood wand feel as if it lacked something.
• Tom concluded that his wand needed a special core because conventional cores were incompatible with it.

Tom explored how Phosphorus Fire Burn might inspire unusual wand cores, while his solemn practice and encounters with death changed the spell and deepened his interest in death. He discovered it could burn away curses and was studying intensely until a letter from Mo Fei helped him relax.

• Tom considered using bones as wand-core material but decided he was not ready to experiment on himself.
• Tom pictured Mo Fei’s corpse dissections while practicing Phosphorus Fire Burn, and his flame developed a quiet quality with a silver glimmer.
• Tom reflected on witnessing Mrs. Field’s death, seeing Thestrals, and killing an attacker with venomous snakes, which drew him toward studying death.
• Tom discovered that his altered Phosphorus Fire Burn could remove curses by burning bones and began studying curses.
• Headmaster Dippet considered urging Tom to relax, but a letter from Mo Fei arrived and eased Tom’s strain.

After Mo Fei’s letter eased Tom’s fear of being abandoned, Tom rested by the Black Lake and wrote back about how much he missed the orphanage. He created a gentle, memory-infused spell that soothed the Horned Serpent, while Herbert saw his potential to master the Patronus Charm.

• Mo Fei’s letter reassured Tom that he was safe and still connected to the orphanage, easing the insecurity that had driven him to study magic so intensely.
• Tom went to the Black Lake, where the Horned Serpent protected him from the wind as he fell asleep dreaming of home.
• Tom wrote to Mo Fei about Hogwarts, his longing for the orphanage, and his plans to return for the holidays.
• Tom cast a modified Lumos filled with happy memories, and the Horned Serpent touched it, became deeply affectionate, and fell asleep in his pocket.
• Herbert witnessed Tom’s spell and recognized it as a gentle magic with effects resembling a weakened Patronus Charm.

Tom encountered Peeves on his way to the Owlery and decided to test his newly changed magic on him. The chapter also recounted Professor Merrythought’s theory that Peeves arose from generations of young wizards’ prank-loving thoughts absorbed by Hogwarts, leaving Tom poised to experiment.

• Tom spotted Peeves preparing to dump dirty water on him and chose to punish him with a test of his changed magic.
• The chapter described how Peeves differed from Hogwarts’s ghosts, could handle objects and prank students, and feared the Bloody Baron.
• Professor Merrythought discussed Peeves in class and suggested their core drive was pranks rooted in a lingering childlike spirit.
• Tom proposed that Peeves might not have been deliberately created, but had emerged from the castle absorbing generations of young wizards’ thoughts about pranks.
• Merrythought agreed that Peeves were unusual earthbound spirits born from Hogwarts’s complex magic.

Professor Merrythought explained why methods for dealing with Earthbound Spirits did not work on Peeves, then assigned the young wizards an essay on ways to punish him. Tom considered dark magic but chose Legilimency as his homework answer.

• A Ravenclaw suggested using Earthbound Spirit methods against Peeves, but Madam Merrythought explained that those methods would not work.
• Madam Merrythought described how Earthbound Spirits formed and advised the young wizards to leave and notify the Ministry of Magic if they encountered one.
• Madam Merrythought explained that Peeves was tied to young wizards' prank thoughts, targeted Gryffindor because its students planned pranks, and could be punished with spells or a professor's help.
• Madam Merrythought assigned a three-foot essay on ways to deal with Peeves, prompting the young wizards to protest.
• Tom remembered Owen's idea to summon Nick to threaten Peeves and decided to write about Legilimency instead of dark magic.

Tom used Lumos to test whether warm emotions tied to memory could influence Peeves, after immobilizing him with Petrificus Totalus. The spell first calmed Peeves, but then drove him into a sudden frenzy, and the Horned Serpent shielded Tom from a bucket swung at his head.

• Tom recalled that his professor had approved his theory about using Legilimency and Obliviate to alter the memories and obsessions that sustained spirits.
• Tom approached Peeves in a deserted corner and immobilized him with Petrificus Totalus before starting his experiment.
• Tom cast Lumos close to Peeves, and the warmth of the light reminded Peeves of the pleasure and praise associated with successful pranks.
• Tom saw Peeves grow calmer and more transparent, but Peeves suddenly went berserk, his eyes turning scarlet as he attacked Tom with a bucket.
• The Horned Serpent moved between Peeves and Tom and took the bucket strike.

Tom stopped Peeves’s frenzied attack with Transfiguration and Parseltongue, which appeared to make Peeves vanish into Hogwarts’s magical defenses. Headmaster Dippet discovered that Peeves had been targeted by the Imperius Curse and returned to his office determined to respond.

• Tom bound Peeves with a magically reinforced rope after his spells failed to affect him directly.
• Tom used Parseltongue to stop Peeves, and Peeves turned gray and vanished into the castle walls as the Horned Serpent watched.
• A gigantic snake beneath Slytherin sensed its master’s power, wondered whether Tom was the master’s heir, and went back to sleep.
• Headmaster Dippet used Prior Incantato to see that Peeves had been driven to attack Tom by a special Imperius Curse.
• Dippet erased the corridor’s traces, dismissed the arriving professors, and returned to his office vowing that Hogwarts would answer the intrusion.

Dippet investigated the attempt to control Tom with the Imperius Curse and suspected a connection between Dawson and Cody Hill’s rivalry with Malfoy. He sent Dumbledore to Hogsmeade, where inquiries about unfamiliar wizards led him into the Hog's Head, whose proprietor angrily confronted him.

• Dippet questioned Peeves and learned the suspect had appeared to be a young wizard using a secondhand wand.
• Dippet suspected Dawson might be involved because he had lost face at Horace’s Dream Tea Party, but could not explain who had mastered the Imperius Curse.
• Dippet discovered that Cody Hill, a Prefect candidate competing with Malfoy, had met privately with Dawson many times.
• Dippet sent Dumbledore to investigate Hogsmeade, where Dumbledore heard that someone wanted to rent the empty building beside the Hog's Head and that unfamiliar wizards had been visiting.
• Dumbledore entered the Hog's Head, and someone hostile accused him of declaring war by coming inside.

Dumbledore confronted Aberforth at the Hog's Head to investigate a Dark wizard connected to an incident at Hogwarts, but their conversation turned into a fierce duel over old family guilt. Aberforth revealed that the suspicious visitor was linked to the Hill family, leading Dumbledore to suspect someone was trying to provoke conflict between him and another man or Hogwarts.

• Aberforth attacked Dumbledore with Rolling Flames in his Dueling Domain, and Dumbledore contained the fire with Protego Diabolica.
• Aberforth followed with Ultimate Explosion and Thunderbolt Bombardment, but Dumbledore defended himself and urged him to calm down.
• Aberforth and Dumbledore argued over their shared guilt and the painful events behind their estrangement.
• Aberforth told Dumbledore that a suspicious visitor had moved into a Hogsmeade house and that a young wizard had been seen entering it.
• Aberforth identified the house as belonging to the Hill family and suggested that outsiders were trying to stir up conflict between Dumbledore and another man.