Chapter Summaries

As Slytherin’s suspicions about Tom settled into wary silence, he woke and went outside to explore Hogwarts and exercise. The smell of soil brought back Mo Fei’s lessons in cultivation and Herbology, leaving Tom recalling how carefully he had taught him to understand plants.

• Slughorn noticed the unease surrounding Tom and chose not to investigate his origins further.
• Tom woke, moved the little snake onto a scarf nest, and left the Slytherin common room to find the morning sun.
• Tom jogged around Hogwarts but found that a powerful confounding effect prevented him from tracing the castle’s perimeter.
• Tom exercised behind the castle and followed the smell of soil and fertilizer toward a growing area.
• Tom remembered Mo Fei teaching him to study the properties of plants by examining and tasting their different parts.

Tom met Professor Herbert Beery while she tended Hufflepuff’s outdoor plots and explained why he was awake early. After learning he came from Kyle’s orphanage, Herbert welcomed him warmly and invited him to examine a biting geranium.

• Tom found Herbert Beery watering the plants outside the greenhouses.
• Herbert asked Tom why he was up so early, and he said he was used to helping at the orphanage.
• Herbert worried that Tom had been mistreated and offered him a welcoming place among the Hufflepuffs.
• Tom clarified that he had been happy at the orphanage and mentioned Kyle, whom Herbert remembered.
• Tom studied the plots and showed particular interest in a biting geranium, so Herbert invited him to examine it and tested his knowledge.

Tom impressed Professor Herbert with his careful handling of a Biting Geranium, and she offered him extra morning practice tending plants. He returned to the Slytherin common room to wash up and prepare to send a letter, while Herbert remained in a very good mood.

• Tom carefully examined a Biting Geranium and collected its digestive fluid without disturbing it.
• Herbert praised Tom’s knowledge and skill, then gave him advice on his positioning, how he held the plant, and how he collected its secretions.
• Herbert invited Tom to help tend the plants every morning, and Tom eagerly accepted the offer.
• Herbert sent Tom back to the castle for breakfast and classes, and he returned to the Slytherin common room to wash up and retrieve his letter.
• The older Hufflepuffs found Herbert in a very good mood when they came to help in the greenhouse after breakfast.

Tom organized the first-year Slytherins so they would not be late for class, sent a letter from the Owlery, and found the Charms classroom. He returned to the common room and made the newly awakened students get ready properly before they set out together.

• Tom counted the first-year Slytherins at breakfast, instructed them to gather in the common room after eating, and went to the Owlery.
• Tom met Owen, told him he had not been injured in the previous day's battle, and headed to send a letter and find the Charms classroom.
• Tom fed an owl to carry his letter, then used Lumos to blind Peeves and escape their prank.
• Tom located the Charms classroom and returned to the common room to gather the first-year Slytherins.
• Tom ordered the students to fetch the Standard Book of Spells, tidy their uniforms, and stop chattering, bringing the chaotic group into order.

Tom led the young wizards to their first Charms lesson, where Professor Flitwick introduced the subject and taught them the Levitation Charm. As the students practiced its pronunciation and wand movements, Tom wondered how Flitwick had managed to make their wands float.

• Tom led eleven young wizards to the Charms classroom ten minutes before class, where they sat together with him at the front.
• Professor Flitwick introduced himself and explained how Charms had developed from ancient forms of magic.
• Li Ang answered Flitwick's question about the origins of Charms, earning Ravenclaw a point.
• Flitwick began teaching the Levitation Charm and explained its pronunciation, wand movements, and the need to imagine the target as light.
• Flitwick stopped students from taking out their wands and used the Levitation Charm to float them near the ceiling.
• Tom kept his wand put away and wondered how Flitwick had made wands, which already held magical power, float for so long.

During the first Charms lesson, Tom experimented with levitating the air around a feather and succeeded after Professor Flitwick advised him to target the whole area. As the class ended, Flitwick asked Tom to stay behind.

• Tom watched Professor Flitwick levitate the students’ wands and realized the spell affected the surrounding air as well as the objects.
• Flitwick had the students practice the Levitation Charm on feathers, while Tom attempted to capture and levitate the air around his feather.
• Owen became anxious when Flitwick watched Tom, but steadied himself and became the first student to make his feather rise.
• Flitwick advised Tom to target the feather and surrounding area together, and Tom cast Wingardium Leviosa to levitate his feather steadily.
• Flitwick awarded Owen two points and Tom one point, and called Tom to stay behind after class.

Tom impressed Professor Flitwick with his Levitation Charm and gained an offer of private instruction. Meanwhile, Mo Fei prepared to travel abroad, accepted Grindelwald’s invitation to Germany, and arrived in Nurmengard.

• Tom demonstrated precise control of Wingardium Leviosa by lifting and moving a heavy desk for Professor Flitwick.
• Professor Flitwick advised Tom to practice basic magic in class and offered to answer his questions after lessons.
• Owen waited for Tom, questioned whether he had held back, and then told him about Ravenclaw’s common-room entrance.
• Mo Fei read Tom’s letter, replied that he would be away traveling, and left the orphanage keys with Aiwen and his wife.
• Grindelwald invited Mo Fei to Germany, and Mo Fei Apparated with him to Nurmengard.

Grindelwald brought Mo Fei to Nurmengard, where he explained that it had once been intended as his base and later became a place to counsel opponents. He questioned whether wizards had any future beyond fading into Muggle society or being conquered, and left Mo Fei with the question of what path they should take.

• Grindelwald led Mo Fei through Nurmengard, which served as a base for the Acolytes.
• Mo Fei reflected on why Grindelwald had imprisoned himself after losing to Dumbledore and considered the threat Muggles posed to wizards.
• Grindelwald revealed that Nurmengard had been planned as a stronghold for his campaign to make wizards rule Muggles before it became a place to confine and counsel opponents.
• Grindelwald criticized wizards, including Albus, for underestimating Muggles and acknowledged that his last gamble had little chance.
• Grindelwald asked Mo Fei whether wizards had any future beyond allowing magic to fade away.

Mo Fei imagined separating the ordinary and magical worlds, while Grindelwald explained Nurmengard’s isolation magic and the knowledge hidden in the castle. Mo Fei began studying the castle’s ritual magic and realized the visit might have been planned to shape the future.

• Mo Fei considered creating separate ordinary and magical worlds, with strict screening for travel between them and magic-school graduates who returned to the ordinary world losing their magic and memories.
• Grindelwald led Mo Fei through Nurmengard and described its top-floor room and the castle-wide magic he had created as a legacy of his knowledge.
• Mo Fei recognized that Grindelwald’s words were meant to draw Tom toward the castle and its advanced magical knowledge.
• Mo Fei connected Nurmengard’s isolation magic to his own idea of creating a separate world and suspected Grindelwald had planned the visit in advance.
• Mo Fei upgraded the architecture skill on his panel to study Grindelwald’s ritual magic and gained new insight.

Mo Fei finished studying Grindelwald’s castle and decided to leave, preparing a magical-creature feast as thanks before he went. He marinated Cockatrices and prepared the other dishes for Grindelwald and several guests, leaving the dinner to begin the following evening.

• Mo Fei used his architecture skills to document unusual magical features of the castle and its garden, becoming familiar with the place over a month.
• Mo Fei decided to leave after his studies reached a bottleneck and planned to repay Grindelwald with a meal.
• Mo Fei asked Lulu to gather ingredients from his menu, and Grindelwald approved the request and invited several wizards to dinner.
• Mo Fei prepared magical herbs and ingredients, marinated six Cockatrices, and made plans for noodles, soup, and a cold appetizer.

Mo Fei prepared an extraordinary meal for Grindelwald and four of his trusted Acolytes, whose doubts about its strange ingredients vanished as they tasted each course. Grindelwald recognized that the food had restorative effects and left the dinner considering how it might help his followers, while deciding to keep Mo Fei as a willing ally rather than force him to cook.

• Mo Fei stayed in the kitchen preparing dinner, unaware that Grindelwald had invited four trusted Acolytes to Nurmengard.
• Grindelwald reassured his guests that the dinner was simply a chance to share delicious food, and they relaxed before the first course arrived.
• The Acolytes hesitated at the unusual salad but followed Grindelwald’s example, then eagerly ate the springy appetizer.
• The guests enjoyed Mo Fei’s tender chicken and scorpion-tail meat, followed by hand-pulled noodles that surpassed the foods they usually ate.
• Grindelwald realized that the courses were restoring vitality, repairing damage from Dark Magic, and potentially making older diners about five years younger.
• Grindelwald considered keeping Mo Fei to cook for him, but decided that forcing a chef could turn the food into poison and that their current relationship was preferable.

Grindelwald introduced Mo Fei to four Acolytes, hoping the Muggle could challenge their growing prejudice against Muggles. After one Acolyte insulted Mo Fei and nearly drew her wand, Grindelwald asked him to help and offered to promote Kyle’s clothing business in return; Mo Fei was receptive to the deal.

• Grindelwald’s guests praised Mo Fei’s meal and asked to meet the wizard who had prepared it.
• Lulu fetched Mo Fei, and Grindelwald introduced him to the four Acolytes.
• The Acolytes realized through magic perception that Mo Fei was a Muggle, and one witch reacted with disgust.
• The witch mocked Mo Fei’s name, and he corrected her before another Acolyte stopped her from drawing her wand.
• Grindelwald privately explained that he wanted Mo Fei to counter the Acolytes’ growing hostility toward Muggles and offered to help expand Kyle’s clothing business.
• Mo Fei considered the offer and was inclined to accept it.

Mo Fei accepted Grindelwald’s deal and challenged a witch among the Acolytes, arguing that Muggle weapons and skills deserved respect. In their underground arena duel, the witch used a Shield Charm to stop his bullets and then disarmed him with Expelliarmus.

• Mo Fei challenged the Acolytes’ assumptions about Muggles, prompting the witch to provoke him into a fight.
• The witch conjured German firearms and explosives, and Mo Fei chose a pistol, a submachine gun, and grenades.
• Grindelwald transported everyone to an underground arena and agreed to serve as referee.
• The witch began the duel with a Shield Charm, which stopped Mo Fei’s bullets.
• The witch cast Expelliarmus and knocked the pistol, submachine gun, and grenades away from Mo Fei.

Mo Fei fought the witch after she disarmed him, using his speed and Qi-enhanced strikes to break through her defenses. He narrowly dodged her close-range Killing Curse, leaving the witch and the watching wizards astonished while Grindelwald released his grip on the Elder Wand.

• The witch and the other wizards underestimated Mo Fei after his weapons were knocked away, but he rushed across the distance and attacked her Shield Charm with Qi-coated hands.
• The witch tried to drive Mo Fei back with Knockback Jinxes, but he dodged them and continued striking her shield until her dizziness worsened.
• The witch cast the indiscriminate dark spell Tide of Terror, but Mo Fei resisted its fear and shattered her Shield Charm.
• The witch cast Avada Kedavra at close range, and Mo Fei followed the lights he sensed within himself to evade its green curse.
• The watching wizards turned to Grindelwald in alarm, while Grindelwald loosened his grip on the Elder Wand after Mo Fei escaped the curse.

Mo Fei defeated Grindelwald’s witch guest, then asked Grindelwald to send him back so he could continue his journey. Grindelwald suggested he visit France to meet an elderly gentleman, and Mo Fei vanished with a small orrery.

• After Mo Fei dodged her Killing Curse, the witch gave up, and he put away the grenades he had prepared as traps.
• The three watching wizards reconsidered their assumptions about Muggles after seeing Mo Fei defeat the witch.
• Grindelwald praised Mo Fei for holding back, while the witch realized how thoroughly he had anticipated her moves.
• Mo Fei explained that his combat instincts and knowledge of wizarding spells helped him counter her, though unfamiliar Dark Magic and powerful Magic Masters could still threaten him.
• Mo Fei asked Grindelwald to send him back, and Grindelwald gave him a small orrery and suggested he visit France to meet an elderly gentleman.
• Mo Fei vanished, leaving Grindelwald alone with his four followers, who asked what he thought.

Grindelwald warned his followers that Muggles’ growing population and rapidly advancing weapons could threaten even powerful wizards. He ordered them to prepare for victory or defeat in Europe, leaving them with plans to strengthen wizardkind or preserve their forces underground.

• Grindelwald challenged his followers to consider the danger posed by Muggles’ numbers and the rarity of powerful wizards.
• Grindelwald fired a mass of guns at four followers, whose joint Shield Charm broke under the barrage before he froze the bullets in midair.
• Grindelwald explained that Muggle technology advanced faster than wizard spells and hinted that the Wizarding World had hidden countermeasures known to Magic Masters.
• A follower asked whether Grindelwald’s plans involving a German Muggle were meant to delay the future he had foreseen.
• Grindelwald ordered his followers to prepare for both outcomes: retrain wizards and build an army if they unified Europe, or go underground, preserve their strength, and seek successors if they failed.

Slughorn studied Tom’s background, talents, and possible claim to Slytherin’s inheritance, then began cultivating him. Tom accepted the professor’s help while noting which Hogwarts professors treated him differently.

• Slughorn suspected Tom was connected to the Gaunt family and possibly descended from Slytherin after observing the headmaster’s concern and a Horned Serpent scale on Tom’s sleeve.
• Slughorn concluded that Tom’s Parseltongue, magical talent, and interest in potions made him a promising investment and possible Heir of Slytherin.
• Slughorn recalled that Slytherin’s inheritance required his bloodline and the strength to defeat a master-level professor.
• Slughorn guided Tom’s studies, gave him potion materials to practice with, and broadened his knowledge of the Wizarding World.
• Tom accepted Slughorn’s goodwill and remembered the professors who helped him, while Dumbledore and Binns treated him differently.

Dumbledore taught Tom and the other first-years the stages and dangers of Transfiguration, demonstrating how objects could change shape and nature, become living creatures, and be permanently altered. He then began their first practical exercise, turning wood into needles, which proved far harder than the students expected.

• Tom kept his distance from Dumbledore because the professor’s reactions to him seemed wary and nostalgic.
• Dumbledore explained the stages of Transfiguration, from changing an object’s shape and nature to animating it and performing Consecutive Transfiguration.
• Dumbledore demonstrated Transfiguration by turning a lectern into iron and a lion, then showed the danger of a failed transformation with a grotesquely altered creature.
• Tom asked whether transformed creatures had independent minds, and Dumbledore warned that appearances did not reveal whether something was truly alive.
• Dumbledore moved the class on to turning wood into needles, and the students struggled even to give the wood a metallic sheen.

Tom successfully Transfigured a wooden stick into a needle and used Magic Perception to investigate how the spell changed it. He decided that Transfiguration would not be his main focus, while his essay-writing skills helped him excel at his Hogwarts assignments.

• Tom Transfigured a wooden stick into a needle before the other students, earning two points for Slytherin from Dumbledore.
• Dumbledore told Tom to sense the magic on the needle, and Tom used Magic Perception to study how it altered the object's surface and internal structure.
• Tom reasoned that Transfiguration would be dangerous against magical creatures and wizards, and concluded he should focus more on subjects with direct combat applications.
• Dumbledore reassured students who had not completed the task that they would study inanimate-object Transfiguration throughout the year, then assigned homework.
• Tom used the essay-writing method Zane had taught him and earned an O on every assignment, beginning a month of intensive study and research.

Tom advanced his magical studies at Hogwarts, growing frustrated with broom flying and researching Lumos for its effects on plants and moonlight. After discovering that Pure Water was exceptionally rare and linked to the moon, he decided to test whether Lumos could simulate moonlight.

• Tom made progress with the Levitation Charm and began considering how it might let wizards fly without brooms.
• Tom disliked flying lessons and brooms, though he kept his flying ability at an average level.
• Slytherin students became absorbed in Quidditch as team tryouts began, prompting Tom to pursue broomless flying magic.
• Tom studied Lumos and abandoned using it in combat, instead experimenting with its effects on plant growth and moonlight.
• Tom read that Pure Water was scarce, difficult for wizards to make, and possibly connected to the moon's nature.
• Tom decided to investigate whether Lumos could reproduce moonlight and help him make Pure Water.