occluminous | wand and shield

The semester wears on. Bella studies and flies and reads through the library elves' recommendations and accommodates Sherlock's sleep schedule. (Artemis Burberry is actually tolerable enough on any subject but Sherlock, and is more than happy to avoid him on occasions when Bella is around to sleep over with Tony for a night.) She gets A's in everything except Transfiguration; she gets a B there, because she eventually compromised with the teacher on the subject of live animals. Bella will work with bugs, but she wants to be very good at bugs before she messes with mice. Some of the mistakes the other students have made with their rodent subjects made her want to throw up, however easily they were put right.

She explains this compromise to Feral, when the semester changes over. She's just in the next segment of each of the core curriculum courses - no electives till seventh grade, when the brooms course is over with - but they'll have all different teachers and schedules and classmates. (Feral is still in her Defense course, and now so are Sherlock and Tony; she has the twins in brooms and theory, too, and Feral in potions.) "Bugs are really stupid and they have really simple nervous systems. You could probably get a B like I did if you would work on bugs."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Maybe. But that just implies that no one else has a rich pureblood parent who chose to yell about it." Bella pauses. "Or that Mr. Phelps has been Memory Charming extra people. But - apparently he can't do it to me - so - will you believe me if he tries to cover it up?" she asks dubiously.

"I'm sending this letter before I go back to class," says Tony. "And if I forget all about it afterward, Mom's going to raise some hell for sure."

"That's a good idea."

Write write write.

"Yeah. I do want him fired. He's been doing this for nine years. He had plenty of time to have an attack of conscience."

"He thinks there's nothing wrong with it," says Tony. "But he's, you know, wrong. I'm gonna run and see if I can find Nike. You coming?"

"Yes," says Bella.

Off she goes!

Bella follows her, getting her tears under control.

"...Seriously though, are you okay?"

"He didn't actually do it. But I could feel him trying. I - don't know how I stopped him. And it felt bad."

"Weren't you trying to learn how to do that kind of thing? Maybe it worked," says Tony.

"I didn't even come up with anything good to try. Feral was going to test stuff for me because he didn't mind me trying to break through, but eventually we figured out he wasn't a good subject. I've been working on other stuff. And a little bit of made-up Occlumency practice, here and there, but it's supposed to be really hard to get to be a good Occlumens."

"I guess you're just lucky, then."

"Maybe. Have you ever heard of someone just doing it automatically?"

"Me? No," says Tony. "But I don't know that much about Occlumency."

It turns out that Nike is in Tony's room.

"Hey, buddy," she says. "I need to send a letter to Mom, you up for it?"

Nike bobs her head regally.

"Cool," says Tony, and she ties the letter gently to Nike's claw with a bit of ribbon.

"My parents couldn't do anything, I guess," Bella says gloomily.

"If there's a lot of people yelling, it might help if yours are too," says Tony. "But if it's just my mom... yeah."

"Nobody else in class seemed fazed. Except Sherlock."

"Honestly, I didn't care that much either," says Tony. "But it is kind of creepy and weird, and I care that you care."

"It would be one thing if he asked for a volunteer and Feral raised his hand and then didn't remember doing it. But he just went and cast it on everybody."

"Yeah."

"Tempus." Bella sighs. "We should probably head back. In case he doesn't get fired."

"Yeah," Tony repeats. "...Do you want a hug, or something?"

"Yeah." Bella hugs her.

Hugs.

And slow, reluctant return to class.

(no subject)

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