Healer Song notes the time, when it's time. "You'd be welcome to stay, except Ms. Fish has assigned me more than one patient to occupy my afternoon, and not all of them as preposterously as you," he says. "Do you want to borrow the book?"

"No, thank you," he says. "As long as it is still here next week."

"I doubt anyone is going to wander off with it," says Healer Song. "I shall see you then."

Bella is in their room when he gets there.

"Healer Song is unexpectedly pleasant company," he says.

"That's good, it'd suck if he was awful and you still had to see him all the time."

"He let me read his illustrated medical texts."

"Were the pictures gross?"

"Not especially."

"That's good too, then."

"He advised me not to look at the dermatological ailments, but I hadn't reached that section when I had to go. Perhaps next time."

"I bet a lot of those are icky."

"Probably yes."

"I'm glad he's not being horrible about - the thing, is there a word for it?" says Bella. "Does he know stuff about it beyond just that you're, you know, a boy?"

"He knows that I am a boy. Apparently some of the Muggle solutions to the obvious imminent problem conflict with a wizard metabolism, and there are no wizard ones."

"That sucks."

"It does."

"I would've thought someone could just - wave a wand. There's shapeshifting magic, human transfiguration - doesn't work? Why not?"

"He didn't offer details. I will look into them."

Bella nods. "I'll help, if you want. So will the library elves I bet."

"So will Healer Song, I expect, if I ask him."

"If I eventually decide to be slightly less ambitious I might be a healer when I grow up," says Bella. "Instead of an everything-useful-I-can-think-of."

"Thought of anything else useful so far?"

"Lots of stuff. Did you know there's artifacts that will send you hours back in time?"