Tony's patronus doesn't take much longer to finish - hers is a gigantic eagle, nearly as big as Feral's thestral. (It can sit on Bella just as well as the elf owl can, since they're weightless.)

Bella makes no progress. New books on the Philosopher's Stone, received on her birthday, get mist just like the first one did, if a little more anemically. (The books are not as good as that first one.) Feral works on being an Animagus; he doesn't have it down before winter break, though. He also keeps telling Bella about what's been going in Herbology, although she has to translate his ramblings and half-formed written scrawls into usable notes by herself.

Bella does not get Feral a Christmas present, per request, but she gives Sherlock a book about prophecies and Tony a book about various failed attempts to integrate magic and technology. Euterpe can't carry them both at the same time and Bella wants her free for sending letters anyway, so she just brings them with her to hand over after winter break.

Author: occluminous	Tony's patronus doesn't take much longer to finish - hers is a gigantic eagle, nearly as big as Feral's thestral. (It can sit on Bella just as well as the elf owl can, since they're weightless.) Bella makes no progress. New books on the Philosopher's Stone, received on her birthday, get mist just like the first one did, if a little more anemically. (The books are not as good as that first one.) Feral works on being an Animagus; he doesn't have it down before winter break, though. He also keeps telling Bella about what's been going in Herbology, although she has to translate his ramblings and half-formed written scrawls into usable notes by herself. Bella does not get Feral a Christmas present, per request, but she gives Sherlock a book about prophecies and Tony a book about various failed attempts to integrate magic and technology. Euterpe can't carry them both at the same time and Bella wants her free for sending letters anyway, so she just brings them with her to hand over after winter break.
Author: nobodyelse	Sherlock, it turns out, has also gotten Bella a book for Christmas. He hands it to her wrapped in plain brown paper when she walks into their room. "Merry Christmas. I didn't want to trust this to an owl," he says. "Owls can be tracked."
Author: occluminous	That makes Bella intensely curious! She raises an eyebrow at Sherlock and then shreds the wrapping paper.
Author: nobodyelse	It's called The Eternal Dark: Studies in Forbidden Immortality, and it is about various unsavoury ways people have tried to become immortal. "I don't think there is anything in there you would want to use," he says, "but it might be useful to know about, all the same."
Author: occluminous	"Ooh." Bella promptly turns the cover white, and casts the same refuse-to-open-for-arbitrary-people spell she uses on her notebooks. "Thanks!"
Author: nobodyelse	He smiles.
Author: occluminous	"I don't know if this will work before I actually read it, but," says Bella, and she hugs the book to her chest and pulls her vine wand, "Expecto Patronum!" She gets a barely visible sneeze of mist.
Author: nobodyelse	"Hmm," says Sherlock.
Author: occluminous	"Any conclusions?" she asks, sticking her wand back into her hair.
Author: nobodyelse	"Not yet," he says. "But at least I know I'm looking for information in the right places."
Author: occluminous	Bella chuckles and settles in to read a chapter before the welcome feast.
Author: nobodyelse	The first chapter is an overview, mentioning a few highlights without going into detail and talking about some of the things that Dark Arts immortality methods tend to have in common. Particularly, that they all - or all of the effective ones - involve causing irreparable harm to some person or creature. And then it is time for the welcome feast!
Author: occluminous	Feasting! Bella finishes her book after dinner, and tries the Patronus again. It gets worse mist than the best Philosopher's Stone book and better mist than the inferior ones. It's all, still, mist.
Author: nobodyelse	A few days later, Sherlock leaves another book on her desk for her to find in the morning, with a cheerful yellow ribbon tied around it in a bow. It's about a set of artifacts called the Deathly Hallows.
Author: occluminous	Bella reads this one, partly over lunch and partly after classes, and tries again under Sherlock's supervision. Mist yes, but worse than the inferior Philosopher's Stone books.
Author: nobodyelse	"I am sensing a theme," says Sherlock. "Are you sensing a theme?"
Author: occluminous	"Well, yes, but this is also the only theme we've investigated; there could be something neither of us has thought of that would also work, or it could be some kind of placebo effect."
Author: nobodyelse	"Why this placebo effect?"
Author: occluminous	"I don't know. It's a very weird placebo effect. I mean, it does make me happy that there has been prior art on immortality and only some of it is obviously a failure or harmful to others? But - it's really weird."
Author: nobodyelse	"Yes," says Sherlock.
Author: occluminous	"When I asked a teacher about it the other month he just offered to make me an appointment with Healer Song if I wasn't feeling 'emotionally comfortable'," says Bella. "If there's something other than being depressed or incompetent that can block a Patronus it must be very uncommon."
Author: nobodyelse	"Clearly," says Sherlock. "And yet, here you are."
Author: occluminous	"I am very uncommon, I guess," shrugs Bella. "... I just realized I completely forgot to give you and Tony your Christmas presents, I was going to do it right away but then I got distracted." She dives into her bag and produces a thick volume of onionskin paper. "Here. I hope you didn't think I just forgot. Actually one time when I was falling asleep I managed to mostly convince myself that you would have figured out what and where your present would be and just quietly collected it but by the time I woke up I had forgotten again and didn't think to check."
Author: nobodyelse	Sherlock laughs.
Author: occluminous	The book is entitled "Prophetic Utterances and The Surrounding Events: A Comprehensive History". It is divided by time period, nationality of prophet, and prophecy subject matter; there is a chunky index in the back.
Author: nobodyelse	"It's beautiful," says Sherlock. "Thank you."
Author: occluminous	"You're welcome. You didn't think I forgot, did you?"
Author: nobodyelse	"Not exactly."
Author: occluminous	"Not exactly?"
Author: nobodyelse	He shakes his head. "Never mind."
Author: occluminous	Bella frowns. But she drops it.
Author: nobodyelse	"Speaking of things we have forgotten to mention," he says, "Tony and I got our second wands over winter break. Spruce and cedar, respectively, and unicorn hair. They'll be coming by owl any day now; they were still being fitted for handles when we saw them in the shop."
Author: occluminous	"Ooh, nice. What do those woods mean?"
Author: nobodyelse	"Cedar: loyalty, perceptiveness," he says. "Spruce: boldness and a sense of humour."
Author: occluminous	"But not so much perceptiveness that you noticed your present."
Author: nobodyelse
Author: occluminous	"Aww." She hugs him.
Author: nobodyelse	He hugs her back.
Author: occluminous	School swings back into session. On the second weekend Bella unilaterally declares that she and all of her friends should spend Sunday morning flying around.
Author: nobodyelse	This is an excellent plan and Sherlock fully supports it.
Author: pythbox	Feral doesn't have a broom! But he can borrow one from the school.
Author: sparksflying	"Why don't you have a broom? I should get you a broom," says Tony. "Sherry, remind me to get Feral a broom."
Author: nobodyelse	"Will do," says Sherlock.
Author: occluminous	Bella giggles and kicks into the air. Wheeeeee!
Author: nobodyelse	Whee.
Author: pythbox	Feral chases after Tony and attempts to hug her in midair.
Author: sparksflying	Given that he's on a school broom, she'd have to let him catch her on purpose. She does.
Author: occluminous	Awww! Then it is lunchtime. And then Bella and Sherlock head back for their room, although Bella will clear out so he can catch up on sleep after she has put her broom away. "So I know I got you a Divination book, but how's the actual class going?"
Author: nobodyelse	"Far less interesting than the book," he says. "There's enough evidence to strongly suggest that prophecy is a perfectly legitimate phenomenon. Tea leaves, less so."
Author: occluminous	"Can you learn to do any of it or do you just have to be born prophetic?"
Author: nobodyelse	"No data, but I suspect the latter. Because there is no data. Genuine seers are often but not always people with the obvious set of related interests. It's not quite clear whether or not being one makes the rest of the trash actually work."
Author: occluminous	"I don't suppose you've gotten any of the trash to behave interestingly."
Author: nobodyelse	"Not that I'd give any weight to. But then, I have no indication that I am a prophet."
Author: occluminous	"What are the indications, anyway?"
Author: nobodyelse	"Giving a prophecy is considered a pretty clear sign. Beyond that, nothing especially consistent. But prophecies themselves are interesting. They have recipients, did you know that? As far as anyone can tell, each one is intended for a specific listener who is present at the time the prophecy is given."
Author: occluminous	"Weird. Is it usually one person per prophecy?"
Author: nobodyelse	"Only one recipient per prophecy has ever been clearly identified, but sometimes there are too many people present and not all of them follow up afterward. In the clear-cut cases, it seems the recipient always gets something useful out of the prophecy, although not always soon enough to do any good. And of course they all come true, but some of them are vague enough that that's not saying much."
Author: occluminous	"I had heard about the vagueness thing," says Bella. "I wonder why they're like that."
Author: nobodyelse	"There are competing theories. One of the better ones is that they are meant to be useful to the recipient at a specific moment, and too much clarity would lead to them going off early. But prophecy is not a voluntary exercise, so the seers aren't much help in figuring it out; they don't choose the wording. Some of them don't even remember it afterward."
Author: occluminous	"Huh." Here is their room. Bella taps the doorknob to let them in.
Author: nobodyelse	In they go. "Good night," he says wryly, climbing up to bed.
Author: occluminous	Bella puts her broom away and leaves him be for the rest of the day. She is back that evening.
Author: nobodyelse	Sherlock is a little slower waking up than usual, and his hair is a mess when he answers the door mid-yawn.
Author: occluminous	In comes Bella. "Sleep well?"
Author: nobodyelse	He shuts the door. A voice barely recognizable as his, speaking as though from the other end of a vast empty room with exquisite acoustics and considerable echo, says: "The light of hope will erase the shadow of death."
Author: occluminous	"Beg pardon?"
Author: nobodyelse	"...What?" says Sherlock. "Is someone throwing Memory Charms again? I just lost another few seconds."
Author: occluminous	"I would never. You just said, um, 'The light of hope will erase the shadow of death".
Author: nobodyelse	"...Did my voice sound strange?"
Author: occluminous	"Extremely!"
Author: nobodyelse	"I just gave a prophecy," he says, blinking. "I was not expecting that. Write it down - exact words - you can't extract your memories yet and it might apply before you can."
Author: occluminous	Bella promptly writes down the exact words. "I have no idea what it means, though."
Author: nobodyelse	"Nor do I. But I am not supposed to. You're the one who is meant to understand it - not now, but at some future time when it will either be of some use to you or let Fate say 'I told you so' after the fact."
Author: occluminous	"I guess it at least sounds - promising?"
Author: nobodyelse	"That's not always a reliable indicator. But yes, it does."
Author: occluminous	"Huh. Do you think we should tell anybody else?"
Author: nobodyelse	"No. Well, we can tell Tony and possibly Feral. We should not tell any adults. I don't want anyone knowing I'm a seer yet."
Author: occluminous	"I didn't mean adults, I don't think they'd be useful about it at all," shrugs Bella.
Author: nobodyelse	He snorts. "They so rarely are."
Author: occluminous	"And this isn't anything like Healer Song's specialty."
Author: nobodyelse	"It is not."
Author: occluminous	"How secretive do you want to be about your prophetude? Like, can we tell them at breakfast or do we have to draw them aside and swear them to secrecy?"
Author: nobodyelse	"Secretive," he says. "Definitely secretive."
Author: occluminous	"Okay. Secrecy-swearing it is. After classes tomorrow?" proposes Bella.
Author: nobodyelse	He nods.
Author: occluminous	So after classes the next day, Bella (presumably accompanied by Sherlock) pulls aside Feral and Tony someplace nice and quiet, hopping with excitement.
Author: pythbox	"This has to be something good," says Feral, gesturing to Sherlock, "or you'd be in bed, right?"
Author: nobodyelse	"I might debate 'good', but it's interesting. And important."
Author: occluminous	"He gave me a prophecy," says Bella, after making quite sure they are unobserved, and she opens to that notebook page and shows them. "We don't know what it means though."
Author: sparksflying	"Whoa," says Tony. "Seriously?"
Author: nobodyelse	"As far as I can tell," says Sherlock.
Author: sparksflying	"Which is pretty far. Wow," says Tony.
Author: occluminous	"Yeah. We aren't telling any grownups," Bella adds.
Author: sparksflying	"No kidding," says Tony.
Author: pythbox	Feral snorts.
Author: occluminous	"Do either of you have a guess what it could be about?"
Author: pythbox	"Nope," says Feral.
Author: sparksflying	"Well... it sounds like it's about your immortality thing," says Tony doubtfully. "But it's pretty vague."
Author: occluminous	"My immortality thing also vaguely seems to be related to when I do and don't get mist trying to cast a Patronus," Bella muses.
Author: sparksflying	"That's weird," says Tony.
Author: occluminous	"It's really weird!" agrees Bella. "But I still can't get more than mist, or mist with anything unrelated, so - I don't know what's going on at all."
Author: sparksflying	"Me neither," says Tony.
Author: pythbox	Feral looks at Sherlock.
Author: nobodyelse	"Insufficient data," he says, shrugging.
Author: occluminous	"But I get lots of interesting presents while he data-collects. Best kind of experiment."
Author: nobodyelse	Sherlock grins.
Author: pythbox	Feral giggles.
Author: occluminous	Bella hugs Sherlock.
Author: nobodyelse	Sherlock hugs back!