Tony's mother is not successful at getting that teacher fired, although he does look stressed for the rest of the semester and conspicuously ignores Bella and both Starks.

It is decided, with considerable owling and eagling, that Bella should visit Tony and Sherlock at home, and vice versa, in July - first all of them at Charlie's house, then all at the Stark house, then all at Renée's, with Mrs. Stark providing transportation.

Term comes to an end.

Bella steps out of the bus, all her possessions plus her animal in tow, and the bus pulls away, and she tromps toward Charlie's door. (ACAAM admitted her on the basis of this residency, so this is where she is let off.)

And then she hears someone say, "Stupefy," and that's the last thing she knows for a while.

----

When she wakes up, she's in some kind of mostly white room, her eyes are dry like they've been open for much too long to the point where it's hard to see and hard to blink, and she can't move.

"Did you bring her around?"

"Yes, see?"

"All right, let's re-run the tests with her awake, follow the checklist -"

"I would've followed the checklist -"

"I know, I know. Go on."

"Open your eyes, girl."

She has them closed; she's crying moisture back into them. When she doesn't obey, there's the sound of a wand swishing through the air and they open again. It's still hard to see, but there's someone leaning over her; a man, judging by the voice.

"Legilimens," he says.

It's not wholly dissimilar from the attempted Memory Charm, but more piercing, and she can see it coming. She chucks him out of her head, almost without effort but not without pain - like she's deflecting a gently tossed beach ball, a big easy target, that happens to be covered in spines. It feels like her thoughts sting. "Stop it!" she shrieks. "You can't!"

"Yes, that's the curiosity," says the man, and he tries it again: "Legilimens."

She never stops batting him away, and he goes down a long, long list of spells, most of which she doesn't recognize, all of which fail, all of which hurt in their own unique ways. The Confundus burns, and when she howls at the attempt, they seem to be done for the day.

They leave her awake, paralyzed in the chair she's propped up in, and she still can't move.

Questions. She has questions. Somewhere in her aching, battered head are questions.

She wants to get out.

She has - her eyes, her voice, her mind.

She whispers doggerel, trying poem after poem to free her limbs so she can try to get more things; nothing takes. Doggerel is weak and the paralysis was cast with a wand.

What else?

She swallows - they could have given her water, couldn't they? - and says:

"Mith?"

The library elf pops into place, round-eyed and confused. "Miss Bella needs a library elf in the summer time?"

"Mith. I need help," says Bella desperately, "I'm stuck here, I got kidnapped, can you get me out?"

Mith peers at Bella. "...Mith is not allowed to fuss with wizard magic, Miss. Very very not allowed."

"Could Kay - or a kitchen elf?"

"No, Miss," apologizes Mith.

"Could you get me one of my wands?"

"Mith is not knowing where they is, Miss Bella," says Mith, wringing her hands, and if Bella doesn't come up with a way for this elf to help her soon she's going to start peeling the skin off her ears or something.

"I need help - a teacher?"

"Mith wishes she could, Miss Bella, but elves is not allowed to be bothering teachers in the summer time."

Bella swallows. "Can you bring someone else here? Mrs. Stark maybe - or - Healer Song's not a teacher -"

Mith shakes her head, eyes watering. "Mith is not knowing where to find them unless they call her."

"Feral?" tries Bella, and Mith lights up.

"Mith can bring Miss Bella Feral Orphan," she agrees, and she pops out again, and she goes looking for Feral.