Chapter Summaries

During the Gryffindor–Slytherin Quidditch match, Quirrell jinxed Harry’s broom while Snape tried to counter the spell. Hermione set Quirrell’s scarf on fire, Harry caught the Snitch and Gryffindor won, while William remained curious about what Quirrell was hiding beneath his scarf.

• Angelina scored twice for Gryffindor, but Slytherin used fouls to catch up.
• Harry’s broom began bucking wildly, and Hermione spotted Quirrell jinxing it while Snape tried to stop him.
• Hermione reached Quirrell and set his scarf ablaze, causing the crowd to rush to put out the flames.
• Snape extinguished the fire, and Quirrell ran toward the castle without removing his scorched scarf.
• Harry recovered, caught the Snitch, and Gryffindor won 220–100.
• William watched Quirrell through his binoculars, interested in what he was hiding beneath his scarf.

William and his friends discussed Nicolas Flamel and the object hidden by Dumbledore, then decided to offer a bounty for learning what Quirrell hid beneath his scarf. The chapter revealed that Voldemort’s face was on the back of Quirrell’s head and was badly burned.

• William reasoned that a powerful black-robed wizard had tried to steal something from Gringotts and wondered whether Quirrell was acting for him.
• Hermione showed Harry and Ron a book about Nicolas Flamel, and they concluded that Dumbledore might be protecting the Philosopher’s Stone.
• Hermione revealed that she and William had been invited to Flamel’s Christmas birthday party, making Ron envious.
• William, Cedric, and Cho decided to offer fifty Galleons to any student who discovered what Quirrell kept beneath his scarf.
• Quirrell gave Voldemort a burn potion, but Voldemort spat it out and angrily demanded to know why it tasted disgusting.

Voldemort pressured Quirrell to gather unicorn blood, herbs, and a hidden backup while plotting to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone. The next morning, Quirrell returned to the Great Hall, where Dumbledore expressed concern and Snape offered him Potions for his burns.

• Voldemort accused Quirrell of doubting him, then promised him eternal life if he secured the Philosopher’s Stone.
• Voldemort ordered Quirrell to gather more unicorn blood and retrieve a backup he had left at Hogwarts.
• Quirrell entered the Great Hall in a new robe, garlic, and scarf, drawing the students’ attention.
• Dumbledore urged Quirrell to let Madam Pomfrey treat his burns, but Quirrell refused to miss lessons.
• Snape offered to brew Quirrell Potions for his burns, and Quirrell accepted.
• Dumbledore and McGonagall discussed Trelawney’s injury and her request for a raise.

Professor Trelawney received a salary increase while William and the students turned Professor Quirrell into the target of escalating pranks. Quirrell endured the attacks without removing his turban, and the chaos continued as Christmas arrived.

• Dumbledore tripled Trelawney's salary after she used a workplace injury to ask for a raise.
• Quirrell ate William's experimental Rainbow Bubbles and was drenched and covered with creatures from the Black Lake.
• William and the others raised a hundred-Galleon bounty for revealing what was under Quirrell's turban, prompting students to launch increasingly elaborate pranks.
• Lee Jordan attacked Quirrell with golden dye and a Niffler, while Cedric made Pea Wands that students used to ambush him.
• Peeves joined the attacks, and Quirrell began wearing thick armor while still refusing to remove his turban.
• The students' campaign against Quirrell carried on until Christmas arrived.

William and Cedric set out with the others to catch a Merperson, while William described an unconventional wand design. They encountered Quirrell and Hagrid on the way, and left for the Black Lake as Hagrid headed back to the castle with a Christmas tree.

• Cedric brought William and the others outside to catch a Merperson, hoping to take some of its hair for wand cores.
• William proposed a wand with a polyethylene shell and an erbium-doped silicon dioxide core, which Cedric did not understand.
• The twins attacked Quirrell with snowballs, but his metal armour blocked them, and he said he would be leaving soon.
• William told the twins Quirrell would probably leave Hogwarts for Christmas, ending their hopes of continuing to attack him at school.
• Hagrid carried a fir tree toward the castle, warned the group to stay out of the Forbidden Forest, and told them about the Christmas decorations.
• Hagrid asked whether they had seen Harry, and Fred and George said Harry was in Potions Class with Snape.

William, Cedric, Fred, and George trapped a Merperson to take her hair, but were surrounded by her tribe and faced the chieftain’s demand that Cedric marry her. Elsewhere, a runaway broom struck Malfoy, and Hermione recognized it as William’s and rushed to find him.

• William and the others lured a Merperson through a hole in the Black Lake ice, stunned her, and Cedric cut off all her hair.
• A crowd of Merpeople surrounded the four wizards, and their chieftain called the unconscious Merperson a princess and asked if Cedric planned to marry into the tribe.
• Cedric asked William for a way out, while William joked that marrying the Merperson would give Cedric access to the lake’s creatures and materials.
• At the castle, Malfoy mocked Ron’s family, and Ron charged at him before Snape intervened.
• A flying broom narrowly missed Snape but struck Malfoy, and Hermione recognized it as William’s broom and hurried toward its source with Harry and Ron following.

Professor Quirrell took a Nimbus 2000 collision to protect the Dark Lord’s face while William and his friends escaped the Merpeople on the Black Lake. The group returned to the castle soaked, having learned that the old chieftain’s trident could control the lake.

• Quirrell removed his bulky outfit and tried to avoid a collision with the speeding Nimbus 2000 by turning his head, but the broom struck him and Snape stepped on him as the crowd rushed past.
• William summoned the Nimbus 2000, and he, Cedric, Fred, and George flew away from the Merpeople.
• The elderly Merpeople chieftain used his trident to melt the lake ice, raise waves, and send columns of water after William’s broom.
• William dodged the attacks and escaped to the castle with the others, while the chieftain sent a wave crashing onto the shore and soaked Snape and the crowd.
• William told Cedric, Fred, and George about ways to dive underwater, including Gillyweed, and identified the trident as a likely source of the chieftain’s power.

After the Christmas feast, William and Hermione traveled from Hogwarts to Nicolas Flamel’s manor aboard a giant golden toad submarine. As they explored the Black Lake, they found a painted mermaid whose image seemed to come alive, and William heard a mysterious song.

• Quirrell disappeared after being found traumatized, while Snape demanded punishment for William and the others; Dumbledore settled the dispute with the Merpeople’s chief.
• The next day, William and Hermione left Hogwarts by presenting their golden invitations, which transformed into a giant golden toad.
• A House-elf named Mercury welcomed William and Hermione aboard and explained that he would guide the toad to Nicolas’s manor.
• The golden toad leaped into the Black Lake, turned transparent underwater, and carried William and Hermione past the lake’s strange scenery.
• William and Hermione saw a rock painted with Merpeople chasing Giant Squids, and William heard a beautiful song as the mermaid in the painting seemed to come alive.

William and Hermione witnessed a witch draw power from the Merpeople’s ritual, then fled when the chieftain ordered them captured. The chieftain’s trident forced their toad craft into the lake bed, shaking the Slytherin Common Room above.

• William and Hermione watched a witch emerge from a vortex, briefly draw the Ravenclaw Bronze Ring toward her, then absorb most of the light from the Merpeople’s tails.
• The witch departed through the vortex, and the Merpeople chieftain recognized William and ordered the gates shut and the Grindylows after him.
• Mercury guided the toad through waterweed, where Grindylows seized it, but the toad fired Stunning Spells and broke free.
• The chieftain used the trident’s magic to force the toad down onto the lake bed, stirring silt and sending a violent clang through the Slytherin Common Room.
• Professor Snape and the young wizards looked up as the Black Lake’s water rippled above them.

William and Hermione escaped a pursuit by the Merpeople chieftain, but their damaged transport toad smashed through the Slytherin Common Room skylight and flooded it. After they reached Devon, Mercury failed to repair the toad, and a mysterious old man arriving on a giant bird was struck by lightning and fell.

• A giant toad carrying William and Hermione struck the Slytherin Common Room skylight, and the Merpeople chieftain’s attacks shattered it, flooding the room as Malfoy and Snape fled and called for help.
• William and Hermione escaped from the toad after it crashed on the Devon coast, and Hermione drank a potion to recover from seasickness.
• Hermione blamed William for provoking the Merpeople by cutting their hair, while William denied responsibility and promised it would not happen again.
• Mercury tried to repair the toad with an electric welding torch, but its Ancient Runes-powered core defeated him, and the toad broke down completely.
• A giant bird carrying an old man arrived overhead, and lightning struck the man before William could warn him not to stand so high up.

William, Hermione, and their friends rode Newt Scamander’s Thunderbird, Frank, after Nicolas sent Newt to collect them. Newt explained that the Merpeople were people, not creatures to capture, and challenged the children to reconsider how they had treated them.

• Newt arrived on Frank to pick up William and his friends after Nicolas reported that William’s toad had gone wrong.
• William and Hermione wrapped themselves in blankets as Frank carried them through the cold night sky.
• Newt explained that he had rescued Frank from smugglers in Egypt and that he planned to take another smuggled magical creature to Romania.
• William recounted how he and his friends had encountered the Merpeople at the Black Lake.
• Newt explained the Wizarding World’s changing definitions of a being and said Merpeople and Centaurs qualified as people.
• Newt told William and Hermione that the Merpeople had not attacked them because they were strange, but because the children had acted wrongly by capturing them.

Newt explained that magical rituals drew on unseen powers and that Merpeople worshipped Siren, whom they believed guided ghosts to the Underworld as Death’s servant. After William recounted the wizarding tale of Death and the Three Brothers, Mercury revealed that his great-grandfather had told him a completely different version.

• William told Newt about the ritual he had witnessed in the Merpeople’s village, and Newt explained how rituals called on powers from a special realm in exchange for offerings.
• Newt identified the Mermaid Statue as Siren and said Merpeople believed she lived on a distant island and guided ghosts into the Underworld for Death.
• Mercury asked whether Newt meant Death from the Three Brothers, prompting William to explain the tale from The Tales of Beedle the Bard to Hermione and Newt.
• Mercury said the story he had heard from his great-grandfather was completely different from old Beedle’s version.

Mercury told the story of Death’s gifts to the Three Brothers, and William wondered whether his Ravenclaw Bronze Ring and other legendary items were real. As the group neared Nicolas’s manor, a Niffler stole alchemical objects from Newt’s belongings, including a coin that startled William.

• Mercury recounted how Death gave the eldest brother a potion-brewing cauldron, the second a wisdom-bestowing wreath, and the youngest a finger bone that could control time.
• The eldest brother used his cauldron to make an immortality potion and cure villagers for gold, but a poor villager stole the cauldron and killed him.
• The second brother killed his wife and child to experience death, then took his own life after the wreath blew away and his knowledge vanished.
• The youngest brother used the finger-bone ring to avoid Death for years, then let time advance and welcomed Death when he was ready to die.
• William wondered whether his Ravenclaw Bronze Ring and the other gifts were real, while Hermione dismissed the stories as invented versions.
• A Niffler tried to steal from William, pulled Bobocha from his pouch, and was restrained; Newt identified its spilled valuables as Nicolas’s alchemical items, and William recognized a Victoria’s Secret commemorative coin.

William and Hermione arrived at Nicolas Flamel’s estate, where Newt calmed a Romanian Longhorn that had escaped from his case. The reunion ended with Nicolas showing Newt a sensational Rita Skeeter article accusing him of being a traitor and an unfaithful lover.

• William and Hermione flew toward Nicolas’s estate on a Thunderbird, but a Romanian Longhorn attacked them as they approached.
• Newt recognized the dragon as Balerion, who had escaped from his case, and calmed him by facing him without a wand.
• William and Hermione gave Nicolas birthday presents, while Perenelle welcomed Bobocha and fed him dried fish.
• Nicolas showed Newt Rita Skeeter’s article, which accused him of spying for Dumbledore and abandoning a pregnant Seraphina Picquery.
• Newt swore at the accusations and insisted that Picquery’s child had nothing to do with him.

Rita Skeeter published a scandalous story about Newt, while Nicolas Flamel took William aside to explain the mysteries surrounding Siren, Death, and Mercury. Nicolas began his account with the story of Death and the Three Brothers.

• Rita Skeeter targeted Newt with a newspaper story alleging he had abandoned Seraphina Picquery and hinting that her child was his.
• Newt went to his room to check his suitcase and draft a letter demanding that Rita apologize.
• Perenelle took Hermione to her room, while Nicolas led William around the estate.
• Nicolas reassured William that Albus could repair the damage to the Slytherin Common Room and said he wanted to speak with him privately.
• Nicolas brought William inside, played Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, and began his story with Death and the Three Brothers.

Nicolas told William a version of the Three Brothers story in which each brother received a magical gift, then explained how three objects from different tales could form the Deathly Hallows. He claimed he possessed the eldest brother’s alchemy book, leaving William to confront the possibility that the legends were real.

• Death gave the eldest brother an alchemy book, the second brother a python, and the youngest brother a goblet that provided food and drink.
• The eldest brother created a Philosopher’s Stone but died after everything he touched turned to gold, while the second brother was killed after his python attacked his wand.
• The youngest brother used the goblet to feed famine-stricken people, was betrayed and killed, then returned to life and later willingly went with Death.
• Nicolas showed William the Deathly Hallows symbol and argued that the three gifts in each of several stories formed a set that could make someone master of Death.
• Nicolas said Grindelwald had been searching for the Deathly Hallows and revealed that he possessed an alchemy book matching the eldest brother’s gift.

Nicolas Flamel told William how a dream led him to discover the Book of Abraham among the Dead Sea Scrolls and how its pages hinted at the gifts sought by Death’s second and third brothers. He revealed that he believed Salazar Slytherin’s wand might be the serpent-swallowed wand and traced its history to Isolt Sayre before it vanished.

• Nicolas told William that he followed a dream to the Dead Sea, where he found the Book of Abraham among ancient scrolls.
• Nicolas explained that he spent twenty-one years learning Ancient Runes to read the book, whose pages showed a wand swallowed by a serpent and a goblet.
• Nicolas said Salazar Slytherin’s snakewood wand with a Basilisk horn core might be the wand depicted in the book.
• Nicolas traced Slytherin’s wand through his children to the Gaunt family and said Isolt Sayre stole it from Gormlaith Gaunt and took it to America.
• Nicolas said the wand’s trail vanished after Isolt Sayre founded Ilvermorny with her husband.

Nicolas Flamel told William how he traced the Holy Grail and explained his theory that finding Death required a trial that could cost two companions their lives. He warned William not to pursue Death, while revealing that he sought the Deathly Hallows to understand the Book of Abraham and extend his own life; the chapter ended with Nicolas falling asleep and William leaving him covered with a robe.

• Nicolas told William that the Holy Grail was another name for Death's goblet and recounted its legends, including how Merlin hid it in Merlin Memorial Hall.
• Nicolas said he had a good idea where the Holy Grail was and guessed that Siren could lead someone to Death.
• Nicolas warned William that meeting Death might require three close companions to undertake a trial, with only one surviving, and William refused to risk his friends' lives.
• Nicolas explained that he sought the Deathly Hallows to unravel the Book of Abraham and keep living, because the Philosopher's Stone and Elixir of Life could not grant eternal life without limits.
• Nicolas described his fear of endings and his wish to see more of the world, then fell asleep as William covered him with a robe and quietly left.

William studied alchemy with Nicolas Flamel and learned that Quirrell’s strange behavior was real, while Dumbledore had used a fake Philosopher’s Stone as bait. Dumbledore visited with Christmas presents, and William discovered that Professor Snape had sent him a Bezoar.

• William studied Nicolas Flamel’s early alchemy book and took apart alchemical objects to learn from them.
• Nicolas explained that the Philosopher’s Stone had exhausted its magic and that Dumbledore had placed a fake one in Hogwarts’s restricted area, but he did not reveal who directed Quirrell.
• Hermione hurried William to the lake, where Dumbledore and Newt debated what animal Hermione’s snow sculpture depicted before she identified it as a Ukrainian Ironbelly.
• Dumbledore gave William and Hermione their Christmas presents and passed along Professor Snape’s message that he wanted William back at school soon.
• William told Hermione he had sent Snape Bawang anti-hair-loss shampoo instead of Fleamont Potter’s Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion, then found a Bezoar in Snape’s gift.

William and Hermione exchanged Christmas gifts, and William received an alchemical ring from Dumbledore that transformed into a magic-breaking sword. After Hermione gave him an awkwardly knitted scarf, William fled from her teasing while she secretly treasured his portrait badge.

• William gave Dumbledore a warming badge and received a silver ring that transformed into a sharp, magic-breaking sword.
• Hermione received a career-planning book from Dumbledore, and she and William discussed what she might do after Hogwarts.
• Hermione helped William open presents, including chocolate from admirers and a recording crystal ball from Phoebe at Beauxbatons.
• William gave Hermione a badge bearing a cartoon portrait he had drawn of her, and Hermione gave him a badly knitted scarf.
• Hermione swung the sword at a snowman when William laughed at the scarf, and William ran off while Hermione muttered that he was an idiot and fixed the snowman's head.