"About five hundred and fifty miles an hour," says Bella, "wow. So, really really fast."

Feral giggles. "Awesome. That should make it easier, huh?"

"Yeah. And now you know how far away Santa Cruz is."

"Yeah, Britain's really far away. Do you want to nip out and kill the closest Dementor right now?"

Feral grins. "Sure, why not," he says, and shifts again.

Bella hops on, doesn't bother doing anything to her hair because it's already nesty beyond nonmagical repair probably, and crouches low across his neck.

"You can land. You don't have to get that close," Bella says, drawing a wand.

Feral hugs Glowy Person, despite Glowy Person not being especially solid.

"Feral?" Bella asks, as Glowy Person chases the Dementor. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get a good look at it!" he says. "Can you get your Patronus to back off for a second?"

"Maybe. I don't exactly direct it moment to moment -" She pulls Glowy Person back closer to herself; it fidgets but doesn't go after the Dementor, which resumes circling. "I don't want the Dementor to get you, though, why do you want to look at it?"

"So I can figure out the spell, why else? It's not like I get a kick out of these things!"

"...Okay." She keeps her focus on Glowy Person. The dementor drifts nearer, then farther again.

The dementor shrinks away; it was willing to try going around one glowy person, but two are above its pay grade. It starts to rise into the air to fly away.

Bella applauds.

Bella hugs him.

"Let's get the next one. Heh, you don't even need me along to do this, now, do you?"

"Probably easier with you, though," he says. "We wouldn't even have to land, now that I've had my good look. If it was just me I'd have to turn human again to cast the Patronus."

Bella nods. "We can just strafe them."

He cracks up and hugs her again, a little shakily.

Hugs. Her glowy person fades out. "You okay? You have tear marks on your face." She digs around in her pocket for leftover candy from their packed snacks-in-Santa-Cruz.

"Do I?" He wipes his face with the hand that is not still holding his wand. "Yeah, I do." He shrugs. "I'm fine - I just - " and he grabs some chocolate out of her hand.

She lets him have all of it; she was near her glowy person the whole time.

He wolfs it down, hugs her again, and turns back into a Thestral.

She recasts his Cushioning Charm, hops on, and says, "Giddyup."

"You're not supposed to do that. We could have landed," Bella chides.

He snorts.

"Anyway, unless there's another one really nearby, let's go back to school."

Bella reverses the Disillusionment, and does some homework, until it is evening and she heads back to her and Sherlock's room.

"We killed two Dementors! And Feral can do a glowy person now!"

"That is interesting."

"He had to get a good look at one, though. And I don't think that can be it because probably plenty of people look at Dementors."

"What is your theory, then?"

"I don't know exactly. Some combination of - feeling like I do, or like Feral does because apparently that counts - about them, and - getting what they are?"

...He waits for her to elaborate.

"They're a death thing, about death or pieces of it or something," Bella explains. "They aren't okay the way death isn't okay. I think the animal Patronuses are sort of going - 'la la, you can't scare me, animals cannot comprehend cessation of existence'. And the glowy persons are about - hope instead of distraction."

"Feral didn't seem to think it made all that much sense when I explained it but he put it together after he got a look at the first one we found. The second one we just strafed."

"I am not sure I understand," says Sherlock. "And the parts I understand, I am not sure I like."

"What's not to like? I mean, regular Patronuses still work for doing regular Patronus things."

"I am not very good at hope," says Sherlock. "I am even worse at - personal illusions, of the cognitive rather than the magical kind. If your theory about the animal Patronus is close to the mark, then knowing that, I don't think I will be able to cast one."

"...I could be completely wrong though, I never even did an animal one..."

"You could," he says.

"So - I guess you don't - feel like trying one now, but - I hope I didn't break yours or something, even animal ones are useful, maybe I'd better not tell anyone else my theory."

"I - I broke Sherlock's Patronus. I was explaining it to him and - he can't even get an owl now, let alone a person."

"...that's not good," says Feral. "Wow. How'd that work?"

"I don't know!"

He hugs her.

"But I guess I'd better not try to explain to anyone else, huh?" mumbles Bella into his shoulder, hugging him. "You were lucky, Sherlock wasn't - I don't know what the odds anybody else will be are. I don't want to break Tony's or anybody else's. Regular Patronuses are better than nothing."

"Yeah. Maybe he'll get it back sometime but I don't know, he probably just tried and tried all night after I fell asleep without a break, if it was going to come back he might've managed it then."

"Maybe I should try helping him," says Feral. "I mean - it's hard to imagine how much worse it could get from here."

"Maybe," says Bella uncertainly.

"Like, if you can think of a way I could actually fuck him up any worse, I won't," says Feral. "But the damage is done now, and if we can fix it we might as well try, right?"

"I mean - ask him if he thinks more trying could get the owl back, I guess," says Bella. "I don't think there are other spells that work on the same principle, or anything."

"Yeah. Or something. I dunno. I'll talk to him sometime."

Bella nods. "It was such a cute owl. It sat on my finger."

Feral smiles sadly. "Yeah."

"I didn't know it was even possible to break somebody's Patronus," she says in a small voice.

He hugs her again.

Hugs.

Yes. Those. Hugs are good.