"Why are you smiling about it?"

"Because I think scary stuff is funny," he shrugs.

"Why?"

"Because I've seen more of it than most people?" he suggests.

"I don't get how that'd follow."

"Okay," he says, "how about: because I'm screwed up in the head?"

"I... guess that would be a reason, sort of," acknowledges Bella. "Do we have any other classes together?" She shows him her schedule.

"So you've taken this level of Charms before, right? What can I expect?"

"I don't remember," he says with a shrug. "Guess we'll find out in a bit!"

...No wonder he's in remedial classes. Bella snorts softly. "My roommate and his sister are in Charms with us," she volunteers.

"Oh, cool," says Feral. "Maybe I'll have friends this year."

"How come you don't have any already?"

He gives her a look. "Be...cause my name is Feral Orphan and I think Dementors are funny and I can see Thestrals and I hang out with house elves?"

"I guess that would make it tricky," acknowledges Bella. "Do you have a hard time getting along with your roommate?"

"Not anymore!" he says cheerfully. "I went through three last year because I set the bed on fire in my sleep sometimes, so they put me in my own room right above the healer's wing."

Bella blinks. "That sounds like a reasonable thing to do if you set things on fire in your sleep," she says, "yeah."

"I never set my roommates on fire," he says, apparently feeling that this is an important distinction, "but they kept claiming I was trying to."

"If you were asleep I don't see how you could've been trying to," says Bella, "but I don't blame them for being scared."

"Me neither," he snorts. "Waking up in a burning room is scary."

"Isn't there a magic equivalent of an automatic sprinkler so you could wake up wet instead of surrounded by fire?"

"Guess not."

"So basically this entire building wouldn't pass Muggle fire code," says Bella.

"Nope," he says. "But when practically anybody with a wand can put out a fire, I guess that's less of a problem."

"Well, I don't know how to do it, how do you?"