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.
"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."
And then it is time for the welcome feast!
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."