Chapter 17

(Yes, I did the movie version of this.)

"They're all just here because they think I'm some kind of freak." Harry muttered to Hermione.

Soren put his head onto his hand. This hadn't been going well, and of course he didn't understand much of what they were talking about. You-know-who? Cedric Diggory?

It looked like Harry was going to leave, then Luna said, "Is it true you can produce a Patronus charm?"

Harry stopped but didn't say anything. It was Hermione who spoke. "Yes. I've seen it."

"Blimey Harry, I didn't know you could do that." Someone else commented.

"A-and he killed a basilisk. With the sword in Dumbledore's office." Neville added.

"Third year he fought about a hundred dementors at once." Ron put in.

"And last year he really did fight off You-know-who in the flesh." Hermione finished.

Soren smiled. Hedwig had always been so proud of Harry. While Soren still didn't know who You-know-who was, but had to admit Harry had a really impressive list. If he ever got back to being an owl, he'd have to tell Hedwig about some of this. No. Not if, when. He corrected himself.

Harry meanwhile, had something of his own to say. "Facing this stuff, in real life, is not like school. In school if you make a mistake you can just try again tomorrow. But out there, when you're a second away from being murdered," Suddenly the image of Kludd came to Soren's mind. During the battle of the burning. Soren hadn't wanted to kill Kludd, but Kludd would have killed Soren. Really Twilight had saved him.

Harry continued, "Or watching a friend die, right before your eyes . . . you don't know what that's like."

I do actually. Soren thought as another image raced to him. This one was of Coryn. He quickly looked away.

There was a pause. Then he heard voices, but he wasn't really listening. Someone put a hand on him. "Soren?" Soren blinked. He turned to see Gylfie giving him a concerned look. "Soren are you alright?"

He nodded. "I'm fine."

His voice wasn't the most convincing, but Gylfie didn't point that out. "Okay. Then let's go."

"Huh?" Soren gave her a confused expression.

"Everyone's signing up for the lessons."

Soren let out a sigh and collected his thoughts. Then he got up and walked with the other four to sign up.