CH-13

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at the evasion, but Harry held up his hands, warding off her retort. "Indulge me. I'm honestly curious."

She hesitated a moment before nodding slightly, chewing on her bottom lip a moment while she put her thoughts in order. "You have used the Force several times. That sleight of hand with that black dust in the bar, knocking those guys out. But… the healing you did was beyond anything I've seen. I don't think even Master Shaak Ti, or Master Stass Allie or…"

Ahsoka trailed off as she felt a pang of bitterness, almost mentioning the former friend who had betrayed her, before she picked up her thought. "I don't think even the best Jedi healers could have helped her."

"I have no idea how you did that… trick to bring us here. That was like nothing I ever felt before, and one moment we were there, and the next we were here. It was either some bizarre mind trick, or you… somehow... teleported us. Both of which are equally as mind boggling." She shook her head and took a breath.

"I think you're a Jedi… or rather a former Jedi. Though you were never a Jedi Master because then everyone would recognize you. Only twenty of those have ever left the Jedi Order. However given how you seem feel about the Order, and what you said to those Masters I'd say you weren't happy when you did leave. That's why you're now… a bounty hunter." She summarized with a slight nod at her deductions.

"Oh… and you used the Force to open up that box at the bar too." She interjected quickly when she saw Harry prepared to reply.

"Observant little one, aren't you?" He commented with a soft chuckle, betraying his amusement. "Well, first off. I'm not a Jedi. Never have been, and short of giving myself a full frontal lobotomy, with a hydrospanner in Zero-gravity, while intoxicated, and under enemy fire, will never be a Jedi. They're far too limited."

Ahsoka looked surprised at that last statement, "Limited, what do you mean? In what way are they limited?"

Harry chuckled again, and grinned. "I'll get to that in a bit. Might as well hit all your observations first. You're right about me being not happy with the Jedi Order."

"Once I heard about them, I did some looking into them, and was not really impressed by much besides the fact that they still somehow exist. I'm not impressed with their policies, their beliefs, or usually how they conduct themselves." He shook his head a little bit in disgust, "I've encountered more than one of them in my travels. Saved more than one, though they remain blissfully ignorant of that fact. I've yet to be overly impressed, save by their extreme need to martyr themselves."

Harry shook his head as a wry smile graced his face. "Worse than even a pack of Gryffindors."

Before Ahsoka could ask what that comment meant Harry pressed on.

"As for the bounty hunter part… well, technically you're right about that since I pay my dues and all that so I can say I am. But I only occasionally turn in bounties, usually when they irritate me, or fall into my lap like our religious guest." Harry shrugged with a gesture in the direction of the cell.

"Truthfully, a lot of planets tend to look the other way when it involves someone with a bounty hunting licence. It is also convenient for ignoring a lot of rules and laws and such when the need suits me. They assume whoever I'm there to pick up is likely to rid them of a problem. And if I'm in some out of the way location and confronted by authorities, usually saying that I'm a bounty hunter following a lead, avoids arguments."

Harry shook his head, "That being said, I would never consider it to be my primary profession of choice. It just gets me more rights than 'eccentric and mysterious historian" tend to get."

"So… what are you?" Ahsoka asked with a puzzled expression on her face, her tone making it clear she wasn't just asking for an occupation or something.

Harry laughed softly, despite a slightly sheepish look on his face. "Talk about a loaded question. Um. I don't know that there's a word for what I am. I sorta fell into what I do by accident."

"I explore, I look through histories or historical sites." He shrugged lithely, knowing there really wasn't a cut and dry word for what he was. "I keep an eye out for things and travel a lot. While I'm doing this, I take on odd jobs. Sometimes for money, sometimes for fun."

"Sometimes because he is bored." disapproving voice of Minnie spoke as the droid walked up with a whirling of servomotors.

Harry rolled his eyes to look at the droid, "Problem Minnie?"

"No Mister Potter, I have the holo clip ready to transmit to the Jedi Temple. I just thought it might be wise to prepare to leave before any restrictions regarding our movement might be imposed." The droid explained.

"It's very likely they will track the transmission of the events here, and attempt to prevent us from receiving clearance for departure." The droid finished factually.

Harry nodded and ran a hand over his face. "And Coruscant is not a planet where you can simply kick in the sublight engines and leave. Well, we probably could, I'm just not sure that I want to make that big of an impact." He seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding, "Okay Minnie, we're not leaving this second but start prep for take off."

"All right, Mister Potter. I will let Dobby know." The droid said as it turned to walk away.

"Don't bother. I'm sure the bugger is listening in." Harry muttered as the droid walked off.

Ahsoka was still regarding him cautiously, though stopped at outright suspicion. When Harry turned to regard her once more, she took her chance to ask "So you're not a Jedi, and never have been. But I've seen you use the Force, so what are you?"

She bit her tongue to keep from asking the followup question, almost asking him if he was Sith, but managed to stop herself in time. She was aware there were more Force users out there in the galaxy besides just Jedi and Sith, though they tended to be deeply religious sects of one sort or another.

She'd encountered a few in just the past few years. The problem was, most of them were only passably neutral with the Jedi. Many of them were in direct opposition to the Jedi, and had actually been hunted down by the Jedi and all information about them destroyed, since so many of their ideologies closely aligned with the Sith.

Harry grinned, clearly amused once more. "I'm a wizard."

"A…. wizard." Ahsoka repeated dryly.

Harry was enjoying himself. He did enjoy the doubt on her face. It had been a long time since he'd outright talked about himself and being so open with another living being was strangely liberating. Ahsoka's attention was caught now, as she was looking at him with a combination of pity and scorn.

"I'm not a 'Force User' Miss Tano." Harry clarified. "I use Magic." He gestured at the floor in front of him and a chair popped into existence right in front of where Ahsoka sat on the edge of a table.

K̾o̾-̾f̾i̾

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