seeking thestral

[occluminous]

Feral goes back to school. Bella goes to Charlie's house for the rest of the summer. She studies her textbooks and does her summer projects and owls her friends.

She thinks about Dementors.

Comments

[occluminous]

"Maybe I should ask the teacher ahead of time just in case."

[nobodyelse]

"Probably a good idea."

[occluminous]

"What do you do with them after they turn into things?"

[nobodyelse]

"Laughter repels them. There is a spell that will alter the Boggart's form into something more humorous, and then you have a good giggle and it tries to run away and the next person has a go. I did not successfully cast the spell."

[occluminous]

"I wouldn't think most sincerely terrifying things would be very funny," objects Bella. "That doesn't make sense."

[nobodyelse]

"And yet, there it is."

[occluminous]

"I don't think I'd be scared if I saw a very convincing image of myself dead and knew full well what was going on. But I don't know what I'd do to it to make it funny, either. And I know I don't function very well around a real Dementor but if the boggart is bad at faking it I guess there could be something funny that could happen to it."

[nobodyelse]

"The teacher recommends party hats," he says dryly. "As a catchall. They looked particularly fetching on the giant spider."

[occluminous]

"Corpse in a party hat," muses Bella. "No, I think if I had that to work with I'd make it look like I'd died cartoonishly. Put it under an anvil, tongue sticking out, X's for eyes, about to pop back up as soon as the plot demands. Dementor I think I'd put in tie-dye."

[nobodyelse]

At that, Sherlock actually does giggle.

[occluminous]

"Death to good taste," intones Bella, holding a clawing hand out at him. "I will suck out the soul of fashion sense."

[nobodyelse]

He snickers.

[occluminous]

"Thank you for warning me," she adds more seriously.

[nobodyelse]

He shrugs. "Of course."

[occluminous]

"I assume you already warned or are about to warn Tony; I can tell Feral if you haven't."

[nobodyelse]

"Yes. I have warned Tony, but not Feral."

[occluminous]

"- Is this why you weren't in Charms?"

[nobodyelse]

"Yes."

[occluminous]

Bella hugs him again.

[nobodyelse]

Hugs.

[occluminous]

Bella doesn't have another class with Feral until Magical Defense, so she runs off to find him while lunch is still ongoing.

[pythbox]

Feral is in his room!

"Hey, what's up?"

[occluminous]

"Sherlock warned me about what's in Defense today. It's these things called boggarts that turn into your worst fear when you look at them."

[pythbox]

"...I should probably skip Defense," says Feral.

[occluminous]

"I'm going to warn the teacher that mine might be a dementor and if boggarts are good at faking effects like theirs I should skip my turn. What's with yours?"