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Professor Spukhafte doesn't have any more advice than Hermione does, and is not as willing as the Gryffindor to help them if they're still stuck.
Which they are. Sadde's suggestion that they try focusing on shorter parts of memories for a higher happiness-per-second value helps him but not Miranda, so he ends up with a more solid fog. Still just fog, though. They continue reading books about it, and it seems to just be that idiosyncratic. Interestingly enough, some books written by alchemists also have mentions of Dementors, trying to figure out what their symbolic value is and whether it's possible to integrate it. More advanced books are in the Restricted Section, and they won't have access to it until at least Professor Slughorn gives them the go ahead.
The year passes. Willow is consistently good at the theoretical parts of classes and consistently bad at the practical ones, mostly due to being flustered by failures and not quite being able to get over that fact. Sadde and Miranda are exceptional at Potions, and the only reason Sadde isn't also exceptional at Transfiguration is that he doesn't quite care enough about homework when all that's on the line are his grades. That, plus all the time he spends between reading about Dementors, reading about Alchemy, and trying to undo the damage suffered by Slytherins because of the Dark Lord.
That last goal has the most tangible results, for a certain value of "tangible." Slytherin firsties are divided between liking him (Jacob and two of the girls) and grudgingly tolerating him (the other boy and girl). He has thoroughly dispelled the notion that he's "just another Slytherin" firsties from other Houses (except perhaps Gryffindor) might have, but of course that doesn't make the older years all that happy. Well, not that the older Slytherins actually care that much. But he has helped various of them with various things, mostly by acting like a somewhat willful minion, since there's not much more he can do to help older students beyond that, so he's at least on talking terms with most of them (Cole and Astoria have been quite useful there, as well).
Arens is not one of them, but by now he's mostly just ignoring Sadde and hoping he'll just go away.
Summer arrives.
They return home and spend a while with their respective families, but eventually...
msmaxwell
Willow sends everyone letters via owl, telling them she's got her house's fireplaces hooked up to the floo network, and that they could get there on that given day and is it a good day for everyone? They can bring their parents and siblings and whatever they want, the house can accommodate lots of people.
planetarium
Karen is only allowed to come for a few hours and is not supposed to leave the house or talk to any uninformed Muggles, but she can come for a bit.
always_and_forever
Sadde will have to use Miranda's fireplace, and his mum won't be coming either.
msmaxwell
Willow is bummed out a bit by the "only a few hours" part! But that's okay, she guesses, they'll have lots of fun during those few hours.
planetarium
Karen apologizes; her parents are just nervous about her accidentally breaking the Statute or getting into some kind of trouble she's not equipped to handle.
chanuphis
Miranda demonstrates the Floo. When Sadde follows after her, she will be picking herself up from the floor.
msmaxwell
"Hi!" Willow welcomes them all.
They are inside, so they can't see the entire expanse of the house, but if this one room is anything to go by, it is big. The fireplace is large enough for three people to stand in it without crowding each other, and there are two couches sorta-facing it at an angle with a centre table directly in front of the fireplace itself, and on top of what looks like a very expensive rug. The walls are white and the ceiling is tall and there is pretty decoration inlaid with gold, and another table over there with a few chairs, and book shelves, and one door on the wall to either side of them.
They are inside, so they can't see the entire expanse of the house, but if this one room is anything to go by, it is big. The fireplace is large enough for three people to stand in it without crowding each other, and there are two couches sorta-facing it at an angle with a centre table directly in front of the fireplace itself, and on top of what looks like a very expensive rug. The walls are white and the ceiling is tall and there is pretty decoration inlaid with gold, and another table over there with a few chairs, and book shelves, and one door on the wall to either side of them.
msmaxwell
Willow giggles. "Okay, so, what do you want to do first? I can show you around and we can hang out in the library and we can have tea and we can swim in the pool and we can ride ponies and we can play golf and we can play tag, oooh we could also play hide-and-seek, my siblings never played with me, they were always too busy being prodigies, my older sister and the twins are here though so if you want to meet them you can, and mum is too although dad isn't."
chanuphis
"I'm incapable of tag played off broomsticks," Miranda reminds her. "But Karen has to leave soonest so she should pick first."
msmaxwell
"Golf is a game where you have a bat shaped like an L and there's a tiny white ball and you have to hit it with the bat so it'll roll to a hole, and you win by doing a whole course of it and having to hit the ball less than everyone else!"
msmaxwell
"It's because it's actually really hard to do it right, if you swing too hard you overshoot the target, but not hard enough and you don't quite reach it, and the hole is only big enough for the ball to fit so you have to be really precise. ...it's not actually much fun as a team sport though I just suggested it because we have a mini-golf course."
planetarium
"I kinda want to go swimming," says Karen. "After seeing the house. If I'm picking, I mean."
msmaxwell
Their first stop is the kitchen, so she'll introduce them to her cook Ms. Hannah.
planetarium
Karen is very alarmed to discover that they have a human, Muggle cook who is not part of Willow's immediate family.