"Tell Feral, 'I've only been taking magizoology for a week.'"

It vanishes and comes back to deliver a giggle.

"Tell Feral, I'm jealous and happy for him."

Feral's response: "Awwwwwwww. I'd hug you if I knew where you were."

"I'm in the little courtyard behind the library."

Another giggle.

Bella giggles, doesn't send an answer, and puts her feet up to read her book.

Pretty soon, Feral shows up and hugs her.

"Patronuses are awesome," says Feral. "Whatcha readin'?"

"About goblins. They have a lot of rebellions, especially in Britain."

"Ooh," says Feral. "That sounds interesting."

"Yeah. This book isn't really answering all my questions, I'm going to have to find another one, but I have the impression that either the British Ministry steals from goblins a lot or goblins have weird notions about property compared to humans?"

"...Explain more?" he says, sitting down.

"Well, the goblins keep having rebellions over wizards having stolen their stuff," says Bella. "Except this book is adamant that wizards know better than to cheat goblins and they always pay for their stuff. There aren't any interviews with goblins or anything in this book, but that seems weird, I read a book about centaurs last year and it had a section about the herds in Britain and when they say wizards have stolen from them the answer is 'well that was other wizards', not 'no here's the receipt'."

"That is weird," says Feral. "I wonder what's going on there."

"Dunno, I'm going to see if I can find out. I'm definitely going to take Being Studies when social studies goes into specialties."

"I'm probably gonna drop it," says Feral. "Magic's more fun."

"I don't know what I'm going to be able to stand to drop. Maybe I'll just make do with the one elective slot," says Bella. "I want to take Healing and I can probably get in bits of everything else I need before I qualify for it."

"I'm getting out of Social Studies as soon as I can," he says. "Dunno about the rest. I might have to drop Magical Defense if I want to stay in school - there's just too much having to point a wand at somebody under pressure - but maybe I can work around it with the teacher."

"I'm going to specialize into wards or maybe countercurses when I can," Bella says.

Feral shrugs. "Maybe that too."

"And I'm going from theory into spell development the second I'm allowed, I want to make my own spells."

Feral laughs. "Yeah, I'll bet. Maybe you'll make a Patronus you can actually do."

"Wouldn't that be nice. The book said that people who are unhappy - like, as people in general, not just at the time they try to cast the spell - sometimes never can, but - I'm not. Unhappy in general."