Chapter 163: Summary of Volume Three

Explain the overall setting.

The title of Volume Three is "Harry Potter and the Ace of Auror," "HarryPotterAndtheAceofAuror," which stands in direct opposition to "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."

In the original, Volume Three's theme is the legacy of the older generation, characterized by time travel; in this revised version, it supplements this by having Harry learn of Snape's past early, introducing Donald's youthful recklessness, and incorporating a larger-scale time-travel plot.

From a narrative pacing perspective, the original Volume Three is self-contained and has relatively minor impact, its main purpose being to flesh out lore and introduce readers to Harry's parents' generation. In this revised version, Volume Three serves more as a bridge—its own story is not particularly compelling.

The first thirty chapters of Volume Three simply depict Harry completing his third year in a routine manner—part of "not providing a particularly compelling story." In the final thirty chapters, Harry technically does not need to witness the two men's actions, but to maintain his perspective as the narrative lens, he is given a pretext to act as a camera.

The primary function of the final thirty chapters is to resolve the plot threads from the Chamber of Secrets case. In this story, the entire Chamber incident is a dispensable time loop—it occurs because "fate wishes to restore the original timeline," so time exploits Zhang Qiu as a traveler. The deeper reason is that the author wished to recreate the mystery elements of the Chamber, requiring broader narrative planning.

Beyond this, Doctor and Time-Instant Matrix hold critical significance in the overall outline and warrant early foreshadowing. The theory of time and the TARDIS must also be introduced to readers in advance, to avoid overwhelming them with too many new concepts in Volume Four.

As stated in the prologue, Dumbfounded is a Soviet agent; combined with his inherent character traits, the resulting plot unfolds as follows:

Dumbfounded joins the Auror Office under the identity of Johnny English. Afterwards, Fudge is assassinated (an act orchestrated by Yanayev to elevate the hawkish Scrimgeour), and Dumbfounded is reassigned to protect the Muggle Prime Minister—an obvious demotion for an Auror. During this time, he leverages Muggle political power and a self-engineered achievement (solving the Anglo-French smuggling case) to build an impressive record, securing a peripheral role in the Doctor Project. He then uses his year-long duty protecting Harry as credentials to deeply participate in the Year Four operation to capture Voldemort.

Regarding what Yanayev aims to achieve through this plan… I will explain it later.

Regarding Donald's subplot, introducing Cassandra serves multiple purposes: first, to clarify Cui Ge's origins and flesh out his character; second, to establish the Hogwarts legend of "Cassandra, the blonde Slytherin senior," as this character appeared in the mobile game; most importantly, to create obstacles for Donald.

Donald himself is, to some extent, a satire of fanfiction authors who ignore plot and setting, immediately showing off by pursuing Hermione, Luna, and Fleur, and building harems. Thus, Donald must also grow—from a frivolous, lustful, show-off rich kid to a calculating, ruthless side antagonist, then undergo limited redemption based on his positive contributions to the main plot.

Regarding Harry's romantic arc, Volume Three includes expanded scenes for Zhang Qiu; the original's Ron-Hermione quarrel is partially transformed into Zhang Qiu's obsession with fate causing Harry distress, ultimately resolved through honest conversation, deepening their bond.

To avoid confusing readers, this is clarified in advance: in the outline, Zhang Qiu and Harry are each other's first loves, and neither has ever loved anyone else.

But before greater interests, love must take a back seat.

Other settings related to Volume Three, if not explained further later, will be updated in this chapter; any future changes will be noted at the chapter's end.