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Tony's patronus doesn't take much longer to finish - hers is a gigantic eagle, nearly as big as Feral's thestral. (It can sit on Bella just as well as the elf owl can, since they're weightless.)
Bella makes no progress. New books on the Philosopher's Stone, received on her birthday, get mist just like the first one did, if a little more anemically. (The books are not as good as that first one.) Feral works on being an Animagus; he doesn't have it down before winter break, though. He also keeps telling Bella about what's been going in Herbology, although she has to translate his ramblings and half-formed written scrawls into usable notes by herself.
Bella does not get Feral a Christmas present, per request, but she gives Sherlock a book about prophecies and Tony a book about various failed attempts to integrate magic and technology. Euterpe can't carry them both at the same time and Bella wants her free for sending letters anyway, so she just brings them with her to hand over after winter break.
occluminous
nobodyelse
Sherlock, it turns out, has also gotten Bella a book for Christmas.
He hands it to her wrapped in plain brown paper when she walks into their room.
"Merry Christmas. I didn't want to trust this to an owl," he says. "Owls can be tracked."
He hands it to her wrapped in plain brown paper when she walks into their room.
"Merry Christmas. I didn't want to trust this to an owl," he says. "Owls can be tracked."
occluminous
That makes Bella intensely curious! She raises an eyebrow at Sherlock and then shreds the wrapping paper.
nobodyelse
It's called The Eternal Dark: Studies in Forbidden Immortality, and it is about various unsavoury ways people have tried to become immortal.
"I don't think there is anything in there you would want to use," he says, "but it might be useful to know about, all the same."
"I don't think there is anything in there you would want to use," he says, "but it might be useful to know about, all the same."
occluminous
"Ooh." Bella promptly turns the cover white, and casts the same refuse-to-open-for-arbitrary-people spell she uses on her notebooks. "Thanks!"
occluminous
"I don't know if this will work before I actually read it, but," says Bella, and she hugs the book to her chest and pulls her vine wand, "Expecto Patronum!"
She gets a barely visible sneeze of mist.
She gets a barely visible sneeze of mist.
occluminous
"Any conclusions?" she asks, sticking her wand back into her hair.
nobodyelse
"Not yet," he says. "But at least I know I'm looking for information in the right places."
occluminous
Bella chuckles and settles in to read a chapter before the welcome feast.
nobodyelse
The first chapter is an overview, mentioning a few highlights without going into detail and talking about some of the things that Dark Arts immortality methods tend to have in common. Particularly, that they all - or all of the effective ones - involve causing irreparable harm to some person or creature.
And then it is time for the welcome feast!
And then it is time for the welcome feast!
occluminous
Feasting!
Bella finishes her book after dinner, and tries the Patronus again. It gets worse mist than the best Philosopher's Stone book and better mist than the inferior ones. It's all, still, mist.
Bella finishes her book after dinner, and tries the Patronus again. It gets worse mist than the best Philosopher's Stone book and better mist than the inferior ones. It's all, still, mist.
nobodyelse
A few days later, Sherlock leaves another book on her desk for her to find in the morning, with a cheerful yellow ribbon tied around it in a bow.
It's about a set of artifacts called the Deathly Hallows.
occluminous
Bella reads this one, partly over lunch and partly after classes, and tries again under Sherlock's supervision. Mist yes, but worse than the inferior Philosopher's Stone books.
nobodyelse
"I am sensing a theme," says Sherlock. "Are you sensing a theme?"
occluminous
"Well, yes, but this is also the only theme we've investigated; there could be something neither of us has thought of that would also work, or it could be some kind of placebo effect."
occluminous
"I don't know. It's a very weird placebo effect. I mean, it does make me happy that there has been prior art on immortality and only some of it is obviously a failure or harmful to others? But - it's really weird."
occluminous
"When I asked a teacher about it the other month he just offered to make me an appointment with Healer Song if I wasn't feeling 'emotionally comfortable'," says Bella. "If there's something other than being depressed or incompetent that can block a Patronus it must be very uncommon."
occluminous
"I am very uncommon, I guess," shrugs Bella. "... I just realized I completely forgot to give you and Tony your Christmas presents, I was going to do it right away but then I got distracted." She dives into her bag and produces a thick volume of onionskin paper. "Here. I hope you didn't think I just forgot. Actually one time when I was falling asleep I managed to mostly convince myself that you would have figured out what and where your present would be and just quietly collected it but by the time I woke up I had forgotten again and didn't think to check."
occluminous
The book is entitled "Prophetic Utterances and The Surrounding Events: A Comprehensive History". It is divided by time period, nationality of prophet, and prophecy subject matter; there is a chunky index in the back.