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Bella is picked up from Charlie's house at the end of the summer, her visits with various people and her other parents having concluded a couple of weeks previous. She feels very worldly as she gets on the bus and is inspected by the new sixth-graders. The bus trundles along to the Bay Cauldron, and she does her shopping, and helps one of those sixth-graders pick an owl, and then they all arrive at ACAAM.
She goes to her and Sherlock's room to drop off her belongings and let Euterpe out.
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occluminous
occluminous
"Like, how many times per hundred spells do you set a thing on fire?"
"...I don't really keep count?" he says. "And it matters how hard I'm trying not to?"
He shrugs.
"Who knows? I told you, I'm not keeping count. It happens more when I'm not paying attention, and almost never when I'm trying not to, now that I've figured out how to try not to. But trying not to is hard and I can't always do it right. Especially when I'm upset. And I still light up the bed sometimes - I thought for a while I'd stopped, but then I did it again."
"Who knows? I told you, I'm not keeping count. It happens more when I'm not paying attention, and almost never when I'm trying not to, now that I've figured out how to try not to. But trying not to is hard and I can't always do it right. Especially when I'm upset. And I still light up the bed sometimes - I thought for a while I'd stopped, but then I did it again."
occluminous
Bella settles for this description. She nibbles her sandwich. (She found enough information about animal intelligence last year to be comfortable eating non-magical meat again; her sandwich is turkey.)
Feral munches lunch.
And then off everyone goes. Bella has Social Studies and Sherlock has Divination; the other two have Transfig.
The Transfiguration teacher is all for jumping right in on Day One. They will be turning firecrackers into fireflies.
The Transfiguration teacher is all for jumping right in on Day One. They will be turning firecrackers into fireflies.
"...Seriously?" says Feral.
sparksflying
Tony pats him on the back. And goes and sits somewhere far away.
"This is a simple exercise, and a year behind your grade level," the teacher tells him. "There is sympathy between the firecracker and the firefly according to Corbetti's Third Principle. Carry on."
Feral throws up his hands in exasperation and takes a seat at the back of the room, two rows behind the nearest other student.
This turns out to have been a good idea.
He manages a firefly on the first try, and turns it back without a problem.
On the second try, the firecracker goes up in smoke and takes most of his desk with it. Feral calmly Extinguishes the smoldering remains.
This turns out to have been a good idea.
He manages a firefly on the first try, and turns it back without a problem.
On the second try, the firecracker goes up in smoke and takes most of his desk with it. Feral calmly Extinguishes the smoldering remains.
The teacher was near enough to get a faceful of smoke. She stares at Feral as though he's an intrusive snail in her garden, clearing away the smoke with a wave of her wand. "You are still having your pyrotechnic incontinence issue?" she says. "At this age? This is ridiculous. Go see Healer Song. Don't bother coming back to my class until he's cleared you."
"Fine," says Feral. "See ya."
He didn't bring any books to class, so he just gets up and walks out.
He didn't bring any books to class, so he just gets up and walks out.
Healer Song is in the infirmary, of course.
Figures.
"Hi," says Feral. "I blew something up in Transfiguation and Mrs. Vasquez says I'm not allowed back in her class until you've cleared me."
"Hi," says Feral. "I blew something up in Transfiguation and Mrs. Vasquez says I'm not allowed back in her class until you've cleared me."
"Hmm," says Healer Song. "Can you tell me more about the problem? I know you have that nearby room with the fire detector, but since you've never actually put anyone in the infirmary with fire - as opposed to with your teeth -" he raises an appraising, but not instantly condemning, eyebrow - "I don't have a lot of detail."
Feral grins unrepentantly at the mention of the biting incident.
"Hey, he got better," he says. "If I'd lit him up, he might not have."
"Hey, he got better," he says. "If I'd lit him up, he might not have."
"Yes, speaking of which, please tell me how that goes. How often? Is it more with particular spells or at particular times than others?"
"I dunno how often. Less than I used to," he says. "More when I'm distracted or in a hurry, a lot more when I'm pissed off. And that's casting spells - if I get upset enough, sometimes something goes up without me even touching my wand."
Healer Song frowns, slightly.
"When was the first time wandless fire happened?"
Feral gives him a slightly suspicious look. "I don't remember exactly. Sometime when I was little."
"When your wand isn't involved to pick out a target, what things tend to go up?"
"Just stuff. Whatever's nearby. Things I'm looking at or touching. Not people." He hesitates, then amends, "Not most people."
Healer Song waits invitingly.
Feral raises his eyebrows.