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

[alicornucopia]

"You use that excuse to get out of a considerable amount of work," snaps the teacher, "but you've had more than enough time to grow out of infantile accidental magic. If you do the exercise correctly you will experience scarcely a second of actual fear - the incantation is Ridikkulus, you must think of a way to render your fear humorous, and if Miss Swan cannot then she at least has the history of classwork to conceivably make up for it. You on the other hand -" He flicks his wand, and Feral scoots forward in front of a cupboard, and the cupboard opens.

[pythbox]

A man steps out of the cupboard - somewhere between forty and fifty, well-dressed by Muggle standards, with a passing resemblance to Feral and an expression of cold anger on his face.

Feral flinches back.

The Boggart goes up in flames with an unearthly scream. The cupboard does likewise, unearthly scream not included.

And Feral spins around, snarling, to give the teacher a venomous glare.

[alicornucopia]

The teacher puts out the fire with a slice of his wand, expression unreadable.

[occluminous]

"Feral," warns Bella in his ear, putting a hand on his elbow.

[pythbox]

There is not much left of either the Boggart or the cupboard; of the former, a cloud of nasty-smelling smoke, and of the latter a charred frame and a pile of ash.

"Do you fucking believe me now?" Feral growls.

[occluminous]

"Feral," pleads Bella.

[alicornucopia]

"You've ruined the lesson for everyone. I don't have another boggart," says the teacher. "What is wrong with you? You are fourteen years old! Accidental magic is for children!"

[pythbox]

Feral takes a deep breath, shakes off Bella's hand, and stalks out of the room.

[occluminous]

Magical Defense's exercise having been ruined, it lets out early.

Bella knocks quietly on Feral's door.

[pythbox]

After a few seconds, he opens it.

It is fairly obvious that he has been crying.

[occluminous]

Bella hugs him.

"That teacher is horrible and he should have been fired in first year," she mumbles into his shoulder, "I'm sorry."

[pythbox]

"I could've fucking killed him," says Feral, cling-snuggling. "I almost did. And fuck, if he does that every time - I can't be the only kid in the whole school who's got somebody they don't wanna meet like that. It's fucked up."

[occluminous]

"Are you gonna be okay?"

[pythbox]

"Sure," he says. "Maybe not today, but I will. I just—" He shivers, bites his lip, and hugs her tighter. "I didn't know it was going to be that bad," he murmurs. "I thought it would be more like when the Dementor hit me - but - that was all in my head. With the Boggart, he was there. It's a whole different thing."

[occluminous]

Hugs. "Do - do you need to talk to Healer Song or something?"

[pythbox]

"Fucked if I know," he mutters.

[occluminous]

"Who was - you probably don't want to talk about it."

[pythbox]

"My dad. And yeah, I don't."

[occluminous]

Hugs.

[pythbox]

Yes. Hugs. Hugs are good. Feral likes hugs.

[occluminous]

"I'm sorry."

[pythbox]

"I'll be okay," he says, hugging her some more. "...If you wanna stay and snuggle me for a while, though, that would be good."

[occluminous]

"I can do that," agrees Bella, and she does precisely that.

[pythbox]

Feral curls up in bed and snuggles her. It does help; he doesn't start crying again, or feel like he might set anything on fire.

[occluminous]

Snuggle, snuggle. "Transferring into a different section wouldn't even help," mutters Bella. "I wonder if they'd let me test into ninth grade Defense or something."