The class ended without Lockfart coming back, so we ended up leaving our tests on the table for him to collect. Hermione didn't let me copy but Daphne did, a true comrade to the cause. I'm a bit surprised Daphne knew so much about him, but I guess he is popular.

Hermione almost refused to leave without handing in her test properly but I ended up convincing her. She was scared when I mentioned we could be late to Transfiguration and would lose both attendance grade and house points.

The rest of the day was pretty boring as nothing was different with Transfiguration. What I was really excited about was the first day of Dueling class.

The only other notable thing of the day was Daphne didn't sit with us at dinner. After that, we had another tournament to determine the King of chess… I was knocked out in the first round. Dean and Ron battled it out with Ron winning with only a queen and a pawn left.

****

The next morning I sat in the common room reading one of Sid's books named "Post Mortem". It is still an hour before class begins and I am planning to go to breakfast soon. Much to my surprise Ron, Harry, and Dean all come downstairs at the same time.

"Soren, you were still here?" Harry asks.

Before I can answer Dean speaks up "We were planning on going to meet you at the great hall for breakfast."

"Oh, cool. But why are you three up so early? There is still a while before class." I ask.

Ron steps forward obviously excited "Because we have dueling class today."

Realization dawns on my face as I nod, "Ah, of course, that is exciting. Why aren't Seamus and Neville coming?"

Harry and Dean laugh "They didn't sign up for dueling. Neville's Grandma didn't let him and Seamus's parents didn't sign off on it saying it was too dangerous." Harry says while Ron has a wicked grin behind him.

"That sucks." I say as I stand up putting the book in my mokeskin pouch "Let's go then."

They all start to follow but Harry stops and asks "Where's Hermione?"

"Who cares? We are with the boys." Ron chimes in.

I roll my eyes at Ron "She left for breakfast a few minutes ago. She wanted to study while she ate."

"Of course she does," Ron mutters while Harry and Dean chuckle at her predictability.

"By the way, Dean, how did Seamus get to know a Slytherin girl?" I ask as we make our way through the four flights of ever-changing set of chairs.

He shrugs "I think he mentioned that they were friends as kids. They met again after a long time at his birthday party. Their mothers know each other I think, they both work in the ministry together or something."

"Who needs girls anyway," Ron mutters to himself.

I myself don't really care about women or relationships at this point in my life, I would rather just have friends. "What about you Harry? What do you think about girls? Perhaps first-years, perhaps red-heads, maybe a bit short, and MAAYYYYBEEEE related to your friend?" My eyes move between Ron and Harry as I speak.

Harry looks at me confused while Ron gives me a knowing side-eye. I shake my head at Harry, perhaps he doesn't even know what I mean yet. He is only 12 after all.

Dean pipes after the look of realization flashes on his face "Oh, you mean Ginny. Yeah, she is kind of cute."

I smack the back of his head "Off-limits."

He holds the back of his head while looking at me like I shot his dog in front of him "What was that for?"

Ron gives a nod as I speak up again "Off. Limits. No more questions." As I finish my sentence we enter the Great Hall. There are quite a few people there for a change, mostly Slytherin and Gryffindor, they are probably also excited for dueling.

Harry points to the end of the Gryffindor table "There are Hermione and Daphne."

I sit down between the two of them. Daphne smiles as she scoots over to give me room while Hermione just stares at me with a slight scowl.

"Why do you insist on sitting between the two of us," Hermione asks, slightly annoyed.

I smirk "Why would I want to sit next to one beauty when I could sit between two?" I say with a joking tone.

Daphne blushes and looks away while Hermione 'hmphs' with a red tinge on her face. I smile seeing their reactions, perhaps I'm teasing too much. I wouldn't want them to start developing feelings for me.

"So Daphne, did you end up signing up for Dueling class? I heard we have a shared class with Slytherin." I ask, trying to change the subject.

She smiles with a still red face "Yes, father said it would be best if I learned how to duel. He said being good at fighting is a 'pureblood' trait."

Hermione scoffs "Sounds like a load of malarkey. Your father sounds awful… no offense."

Daphne gives a wry smile "Yeah… he wants to marry me off to another pureblood family. He only thinks of me as a tool."

My brows raised in interest "Which noble house? Not many have children our age."

Her face dyes red as she looks at me for a second before looking away again. "Ah, I see." I say with a slightly blushing face as I turn away.

Hermione slaps my shoulder and looks at Daphne with sympathetic eyes "Well, I think that's awful. Don't worry none of us here would let that happen." Her eyes go over the other boys who all nod.

"Not many of the Pureblood families like us anyway, one more enemy means nothing," Ron says with a confident grin.

'Is being disliked something to brag about?' I ponder to myself.

Harry nods and Dean gives a thumbs up and extends out a hand to Daphne "I'm Dean Thomas by the way."

Daphne shakes his hand with a confused smile. "Daphne Greengrass."

I notice that the book Hermione is holding is the Charms book I got her and I see my opportunity to change the topic. "Why are you studying charms?" I hear the trio of boys behind me agree with a small in sync 'yeah'.

Hermione sighs "I know you boys are excited for Dueling but you can't forget we have charms. Dueling starts right after Charms."

All four of us have a taken aback look. "Did you all just forget?" Hermione chides.

Harry rubs the back of his head "Kind of." I just shrug.

"You three should head back and grab your books a few minutes early," I tell the three.

Dean's eyes narrow "You don't have it either though."

I gesture at my mokeskin bag. "I got it."

He looks confused but Hermione clarifies "It's a Mokeskin bag. It has a small subspace in it about 100x larger than its appearance."

His jaw drops "That's awesome! Where can I get one?"

"You can't. They are bloody expensive. Not to mention they are only sold to members of the Noble houses as well as some rich ministry officials." Ron says, sounding a bit envious.

Dean looks a bit bummed out but fine nonetheless. Ron, however, looks at his cracked wand "Wish I could fix this, too bad wands are expensive."

"I'll pay for it if you want to be my 'independent contractor' like your older brothers," I say with a small smirk.

Ron looks interested "What does that mean?"

Hermione looks at Ron with a bit of worry "Don't do it, that's his way of saying, servant."

I give her a glare before turning back to Ron. "We can talk about it later."