Chapter Summaries

William and Hermione prepared to enter the Underworld, learning the history of the golden coffins and using Hufflepuff’s magic to reveal the River Styx. Hidden inside the coffins, they passed the gate of the dead and vanished from the mortal world.

• Hermione nearly fell from the pyramid, and William caught her before she could be hurt.
• William decided to take Arya with them and interrogate her on the River Styx, while Hermione closed the coffin lid over her.
• William read the golden coffin’s inscription, which recounted Osiris’s death and resurrection, and learned how Ravenclaw’s coffins could carry the living into the Underworld unseen.
• William used the Eternal Fire and Hufflepuff’s magic to reveal the River Styx, and he and Hermione climbed into the golden coffins.
• The coffins drifted past the dead and a hooded figure at the Underworld’s gate, then carried William and Hermione into darkness.

William and Hermione struggled to navigate the Underworld’s lightless waters until Hermione used Goblin Gems to illuminate their golden coffin. They spotted a Titan Giant and reached the lagoon near the Fountain of Fair Fortune, leaving the pair to face the Underworld’s dangers ahead.

• William and Hermione discovered that spells drained their magic quickly in the Underworld, while the Deluminator and Night Vision Potion could not provide lasting light.
• Hermione used five Goblin Gems to light the golden coffin, and William noticed strange Water Monkeys lurking beneath the River Styx.
• Hermione pointed out two green lights in the distance, and William recognized them as the eyes of a Titan Giant standing across a mountain pass.
• The Titan Giant roared as giant seabirds rose from its body and circled the coffin, while William reconsidered exploring the Underworld with Hermione.
• The golden coffin passed the Titan’s ridges and entered a lagoon, where William identified their destination on the map as the Fountain of Fair Fortune.

William and Hermione traveled through the Underworld toward the Island of the Fountain of Fair Fortune, where Arya woke and explained the island’s magic and history. When William asked whether she was Arya or Egypt’s Beautiful Queen, she claimed to be the Lady of the Lake.

• William learned that the Fountain of Fair Fortune could permanently increase luck, but he postponed trying to reach it because of its protections.
• Arya woke in the golden coffin, bound and weakened, but Veritaserum failed to reveal who controlled her body.
• As the coffin drifted past abandoned buildings on the island, Arya said the fountain worked only on the longest day of the year and that the previous Death had created it.
• Arya explained that the Underworld had a god-made sun and said the previous Death had disappeared, leaving the island in ruins.
• Arya asked who had helped William and Hermione enter the Underworld, and William said Hufflepuff had left the information.
• William asked whether she was Arya or Egypt’s Beautiful Queen, and she answered that she was the Lady of the Lake.

Vivian explained that Morgan had impersonated her, killed her, and been imprisoned by Merlin in Stonehenge. She revealed that she and Morgan were sisters, both daughters of Death, leaving William and Hermione stunned by the secret of Morgan’s parentage.

• William and Hermione learned that the witch they had met in Stonehenge was Morgan le Fay impersonating Vivian, the real Lady of the Lake.
• Vivian explained that Grindelwald had resurrected her soul from Cleopatra VII’s tomb, where it had been nurtured by the former pharaoh’s resurrection preparations.
• Vivian said Morgan had ambushed her after the Battle of Camlann, taken her appearance, and lured Merlin into a trap before he imprisoned Morgan in Stonehenge.
• Vivian revealed that Morgan was her younger sister and that neither Morgan nor King Arthur was the Duke of Cornwall’s child.
• Vivian told William and Hermione that she and Morgan were both daughters of Death.

William and Hermione questioned Vivian about Death, Merlin, and the River Styx, then learned that a mysterious old man had manipulated Rosier and Arya into destroying Paris. The old man might be Death himself, leaving William unsure who he was or what he wanted.

• Vivian told William and Hermione that powerful wizards could become Death, and said her father had asked her to persuade Merlin to take the role, but Merlin refused.
• Vivian said Merlin had put her soul into a mummy and promised to wait for her at the end of the River Styx, which made William wonder whether the Four Founders had gone there too.
• William and Hermione refused to release Vivian because they could not verify her account, and William questioned whether she had incited Arya to destroy Paris.
• Vivian explained that a strangely dressed old man had deceived Rosier and encouraged Arya to destroy Paris, and Hermione recognized him as the man they had seen in Paris and Venice.
• William wondered whether the old man had also revived Tom, and Vivian said the man might even be her father, Death, whose appearance she had never seen.

William learned that the old man manipulating events was likely Death and bargained with Vivian for her help retrieving Morgan’s trident. Meanwhile, Harry believed he was trapped beyond rescue, and on his seventeenth birthday he chose to fall into the River Styx.

• Vivian explained that the old man was likely Death and offered to fight Morgan in exchange for the Holy Grail’s power.
• William used Felix Felicis with Future Water to glimpse the future, then demanded that Vivian help him take a trident from Morgan.
• Harry woke in captivity, recalled his disjointed dreams, and realized it might be his seventeenth birthday.
• Harry remembered how Tom had repeatedly caught him after his escape attempts and decided to thwart Tom by choosing his own death.
• Harry stepped toward the River Styx and fell into it.

Tom dragged Harry through Death’s trial, tormenting him until he fell into despair and then reignited his hope through hatred. The River Styx appeared, and Tom realized Harry’s despair had helped him complete the trial and reach Death.

• Harry tried to drown himself, but Tom pulled him back and warned that Harry could not die unless Tom allowed it.
• Tom explained that magic in the Underworld was restricted, while Prehistoric Mysteries let him use his full power, and he forced Harry to drink healing potion and eat a Death Worm.
• Tom led the injured Harry through extreme weather, and Harry repeatedly tried to escape before collapsing in the snow in despair.
• Tom threatened Harry’s friends and invoked his parents’ deaths, Ginny, and revenge until Harry found the strength to stand and vow to kill him.
• The snow vanished and the River Styx appeared; Tom revealed that driving Harry into despair and then giving him hope had completed Death’s trial.

Tom crossed the River Styx with Harry and the three soul fragments, then met Death to claim the Deathly Hallows. Death granted Slytherin a clay figure, Harry a bucket for gathering killed souls, and Tom the Ark of the Covenant, which promised unrestricted resurrection at his peak.

• Tom used Prehistoric Mysteries to conjure a bridge across the River Styx and dragged Harry toward its midpoint.
• Death appeared on the far bank as Tom presented the emerald Horcrux and its soul fragment.
• Harry felt his scar flare and saw the two infants connected to the soul inside him, realizing he had overlooked something for years.
• Death granted Slytherin's soul fragment a clay figure for Elaine and gave Harry a bucket to gather souls that had been killed.
• Tom asked for unrestricted resurrection at his peak, and Death gave him the Ark of the Covenant.

After securing unlimited revivals through the Ark of the Covenant, Tom hid it in the River Styx and tried to kill Harry. William, Hermione, and Vivian interrupted him, and after Vivian repeatedly killed him, Tom fled.

• Tom cut out his heart, placed it in the Ark of the Covenant, tested its revival power by killing himself, and hid the ark in the River Styx.
• Tom carried Harry farther from the river, woke him, and began drowning him while claiming fate required Harry to die.
• William, Hermione, and Vivian arrived on golden coffins, and Vivian attacked Tom with powerful magic.
• Tom revived after Vivian struck him down and severed his head, prompting William to wonder whether Tom was using a technique like Izanagi.
• Vivian asked whether the Deathly Hallow let Tom revive indefinitely, and Tom boasted before turning and running.

William and Hermione identified three more Deathly Hallows and realized Tom planned to use the Soul-Gathering Coffin to restore his soul fragments. After Harry awoke safely in William’s Safety Watch, the group neared Death’s dwelling and encountered a black-robed wizard on an island.

• Hermione identified the Stand User, the Soul-Gathering Coffin, and the Ark of the Covenant as three additional Deathly Hallows.
• William concluded that Tom had used the Ark of the Covenant to resurrect himself, while Hermione suspected he wanted the Soul-Gathering Coffin to restore his soul fragments.
• William reassured Hermione that they would kill Tom, and she rested beside him beneath the rain in the Underworld.
• Harry awoke in William’s home inside the Safety Watch, realized William and Hermione had rescued him, and went outside to find them.
• William told Harry they were near Death’s dwelling and could return to the magical world, but the three spotted a black-robed wizard on a nearby island.

Death spoke with the old man about Stark, the hidden exit from the Underworld, and the danger facing Elaine’s sisters, while the old man recovered Tom’s Ark of the Covenant. Meanwhile, William and Hermione guided the golden coffins through the River Styx and entered the whirlpool beneath the waterfall, leaving their destination uncertain.

• The old man told Death that Stark had the finger bone Ravenclaw had hidden, but Death showed no interest in reclaiming it.
• Death explained that a whirlpool at the end of the River Styx led back to the mortal world, and said he had created the passage during his battle with Merlin.
• Death asked the old man to release Morgan, who had been imprisoned for fifteen hundred years, and the old man agreed to try.
• The old man fished Tom’s Ark of the Covenant from the river and carried it west, while Death remained by the bridge.
• William and Hermione spotted a vast waterfall and steered the golden coffins toward a gap blasted through the River Styx.
• William and Hermione climbed into a coffin, and the whirlpool spun it into the pitch-black passage.

William, Hermione, and Harry returned from the Underworld through the Department of Mysteries, where William asked to see Dumbledore so they could move against Voldemort. At Hogwarts, William rejected inheriting the Elder Wand and proposed making a wand from Ravenclaw’s Diadem, guided by Professor Trelawney’s Prophecy.

• Luo Suo saw golden coffins emerge from the archway in the Death Chamber and fled, shouting that the Four Founders had returned to life.
• William, Hermione, and Harry emerged from the coffins, and William led them toward the Department of Mysteries’ locked room before Aurors arrived with Minister Bones.
• William asked Minister Bones to take him to Dumbledore, saying he needed to see him immediately.
• At Hogwarts, William told Dumbledore that Harry might already know he was a Horcrux, but Dumbledore insisted on telling Harry himself.
• William declined Dumbledore’s offer of the Elder Wand and explained that he wanted to make a wand from the Elder Wood vine formed from Ravenclaw’s Diadem, following Trelawney’s Prophecy.

Harry learned that he carried a fragment of Voldemort’s soul and accepted that he might have to die to defeat him. After discovering the plan, Snape grieved for Harry and shared a tender farewell with him in the corridor.

• Harry questioned the Sorting Hat about its choice of Slytherin and heard Dumbledore explain how students could fit more than one house.
• Dumbledore told Harry that Lily’s sacrifice had made him a Horcrux, and that Voldemort had created another fragment in him when he attacked Harry again.
• Harry thanked Dumbledore for telling him the truth, accepted that he might die that summer, and said goodbye.
• Snape confronted Dumbledore after learning Harry was to be bait in the plan, then summoned a silver doe Patronus and admitted that he had always loved Lily.
• Harry waited for Snape in the corridor, hugged him, and said goodbye; Snape told Harry that his eyes were just like his mother’s.

William arranged for Gregorovitch to make imitation Elder Wands and planned to craft another wand using Death’s elder wood and an Egyptian wand core. He then convinced Draco to turn against Voldemort, ending the chapter with Draco accepting William as a friend and pledging his loyalty.

• William tested Gregorovitch’s three imitation Elder Wands and asked him to make another wand using the elder wood and Egyptian wand core.
• William saw Hermione and Anne fighting, then spoke with Luna, who told him she hoped to see her mother again and asked to hear about his Underworld adventure.
• William met Draco after letting him see his father and urged him to leave Voldemort and join the Order of the Phoenix.
• William used Draco’s wand and their shared history to persuade him to choose a side, warning that the Malfoy family would be destroyed if he kept serving Voldemort.
• Draco knelt and pledged loyalty to William, who called him a friend; Draco agreed and drank with him.

Voldemort gathered the Death Eaters, whose morale had collapsed after their losses against the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix, and revealed that Grindelwald had agreed to join forces with him. The chapter ended as Voldemort announced their Phoenix Slaying Plan to turn the war around.

• Voldemort questioned Narcissa about Draco’s absence, and she claimed Draco was searching for Harry Potter in Diagon Alley.
• The Carrow siblings returned and told Voldemort that Grindelwald had arrived.
• Voldemort told the Death Eaters that he had arranged for Grindelwald and his Acolytes to join their campaign against Dumbledore and Stark.
• Wormtail escorted Grindelwald into the meeting, while Voldemort asked about Grindelwald’s absent student.
• Voldemort opened the meeting by announcing the Phoenix Slaying Plan to defeat the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix.

Voldemort secretly planned to feint at the Hebrides while attacking Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, then plotted with Grindelwald to draw Dumbledore and Stark away. He arranged to betray Grindelwald’s forces, sent Dementors toward Hogwarts and the Ministry, and left Wormtail to guard the Runespoor as he prepared for war.

• Voldemort told Grindelwald that his public plan to retake the Hebrides was a deception and revealed his secret plan to attack Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.
• Voldemort and Grindelwald agreed to use Karkaroff’s information to lure Dumbledore away while they each kept Dumbledore and Stark occupied.
• Voldemort learned that Gregorovitch was dead, then ordered Dementors to attack the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts and to turn on Grindelwald’s subordinates.
• Voldemort questioned Wormtail about Snape and assigned him to guard the Runespoor until the attack on Hogwarts.
• Voldemort promised Wormtail a metal body and declared that he would claim Dumbledore’s life, Hogwarts Castle, and the Elder Wand.

Tom met Wormtail at Snape’s house and learned that Voldemort planned to leave his snake with Peter. Suspecting the snake was Voldemort’s final Horcrux, Tom told Peter to hide it and wait for him to take him away.

• Wormtail entered Snape’s empty house and tried to break into the storeroom, but Tom emerged from the shadows and greeted him.
• Tom asked Wormtail about Voldemort’s meeting, and Peter’s silver arm suddenly seized his throat for betraying Voldemort.
• Tom stopped the arm and explained that his severed connection to Voldemort had caused the protective magic to activate.
• Tom persuaded Wormtail to continue his final mission by promising to spare him from death and lead him toward immortality.
• Wormtail revealed that Voldemort planned to leave his snake in Peter’s care, and Tom suspected the snake was the last Horcrux.
• Tom told Peter to hide with the snake for a few days, promising to take him away and reward him afterward.

William used his control of the Dementors to turn Voldemort’s planned attack against the Death Eaters, then helped Dumbledore prepare to defend Hogwarts and destroy the Horcruxes. The chapter ended with William proposing that Sirius and Lupin join Snape’s mission to kill Wormtail, bringing their long-delayed revenge closer.

• William disguised himself as Grindelwald to deceive Voldemort, then met Little Black Robe and learned that Voldemort planned to use the Dementors against their forces.
• William ordered Little Black Robe to attack the Death Eaters alongside Ministry wizards and then help wipe them out at Hogwarts.
• William told Dumbledore that Voldemort planned to attack Hogwarts on the night school began, and they planned to evacuate the students while trapping the attackers in the castle.
• William and Dumbledore agreed that Hermione and Phoebe would lead a team to destroy the Horcrux in Gringotts.
• Dumbledore revealed that Tom had told him Voldemort left the Runespoor Horcrux with Peter Pettigrew, and that Snape would go to kill it.
• William suggested that Sirius and Lupin join Snape to deal with Wormtail and take their revenge.

Voldemort rallied the Death Eater army with a speech blaming Muggles and Muggle-born wizards for the decline of wizarding power. He revealed his plan to attack Hogwarts and sent the newly emboldened army marching to slaughter its defenders.

• Voldemort addressed the demoralized Death Eaters while hiding his plan to attack Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic instead of the Hebrides.
• Voldemort recalled how Dumbledore had taught him that the strong controlled the weak, then accused Muggles and Muggle-born wizards of taking power from Pure-bloods.
• Voldemort attacked the International Statute of Secrecy and laws protecting Muggles and House-elves, urging the Death Eaters to destroy the existing order.
• Voldemort called for a Pure-blood-led world and praised killing Muggle-borns, prompting the Death Eaters to shout in support.
• Voldemort ordered the army to march on Hogwarts and slaughter its defenders, and the Death Eaters charged away.

Harry and Ron returned to Hogwarts for their seventh year as Voldemort began an assault on the castle and tried to recruit William. William rejected him and sent the students away by Portkey, leaving the adults to face the coming battle.

• Harry and Ron arrived at Hogwarts, where Ron teased a first-year, and Harry reflected on how much had changed as he exchanged a silent nod with Malfoy.
• William watched the students gather for the Sorting Ceremony, where Dumbledore's absence and the Sorting Hat's mournful song unsettled the Great Hall.
• Voldemort announced that Death Eaters were surrounding Hogwarts, claimed Dumbledore was being held back, and offered William power in exchange for allegiance.
• William refused Voldemort, demanding justice for his victims, and Voldemort ordered his army to attack Hogwarts and destroy William.
• William told the students they had to leave, rejected their pleas to fight, and sent them away when the goblet Portkeys activated.