Author's Note: This story started due to some musing about characters that really don't get used. It quickly focused on the Fat Friar due to my use of my Catholic faith in recent chapters of Summer Rituals to drive character development. Several discussions ensued, and this was the result. Further discussions occurred after the draft was posted to CaerAzkaban, to the point that I know this isn't the only part. The title I posted this under may change, but the part title won't.
This story fits between the prologue and chapter one of Ritual Yours, occurring right before Hermione goes to wash her face and the troll busts in on her. At the end of this story, I shall provide everyone with the current reading order for the Rituals series.
The Pastor I Wasn't
It was All Hallow's Eve, and the Fat Friar, Hufflepuff ghost at Hogwarts was drifting through the halls of Hogwarts. He'd briefly stopped by the small gathering that Nearly Headless Nick was having for his four hundred ninty-ninth death day, but that wasn't a big gathering like it would be next year. The Fat Friar had to be thinking about his other duties at Hogwarts, though. For the next day was All Saints' Day, a Holy Day of Obligation, and thus he'd be the celebrant at Mass in Hogwart's Saint Edward the Confessor's Chapel, early the next morning. He'd been the sole priest and pastor of that particular benefice for the last forty years, though Bishop Mario had promised him a parochial vicar, the next time a magical was ordained in the Diocese of Aberdeen.
The friar had keen ears, and suddenly heard a girl crying. She appeared to be just outside the confines of the girl's loo, though if he were alive, he would have had to go through it to get to where she was. He decided to poke his head through the wall and check on the girl. In the dim light he could see the sobbing girl, shut but not locked in the closet. He went fully through the wall.
"May I ask what troubles you, my daughter," the Fat Friar said as he hovered next to the girl. The girl appeared to have run away from someone and hid in this closet inside this girls loo. Her hands ineffectually wiped the tears from her eyes as she sniffled, sitting on an overturned bucket next to the mops and cleaning supplies kept in this chamber. The friar had been told that it smelled of lemons, but he no longer could tell, being a ghost.
"Why do you care?" the girl asked. "I'm not a Hufflepuff ... and apparently not a Gryffindor either. I'm just a nightmare that no one can stand. I have no friends. I never get any friends." Her crying picked up, tears rolling down her face.
"I see – but I don't see," the Fat Friar said. "Yes, you are a Gryffindor, and do not let anyone say you are not. True, you are not a Hufflepuff, but does not mean you are not one of my charge. I may be Hufflepuff's ghost, but I am also Pastor of the Saint Edward the Confessor's Chapel of Hogwarts, and an ordained Catholic priest. Not that it means much to many these days, but still matters to me. I care for my flock."
The girl sniffled, and looked up at the friar. "You're a real Catholic Priest?" she asked.
"Ordained nine ninty-nine by Ealdwulf while he was Archbishop of York and Bishop of Worcester," the Fat Friar said. "Attended the Council of Trent, only part of it of course, no one really attended the whole thing, with all the interruption it had. I did manage to attend all of Vatican II. There aren't very many priests who are ghosts who can speak to our particular problems administering to the faithful, both those alive and those who can't quite pass on."
The friar's rambling confirmation of his position seemed to have provided enough time for the girl to get a little composure. "Then Father ...?"
"Clement, though I do have no real objection to the descriptive name that my Hufflepuffs have given me."
"Father Clement, can you hear my confession?" the girl asked.
The friar reached into one of the pockets hidden in his robes and pulled out a deep purple stole. He hadn't died with it, but his liturgical vestments seemed to always be available to him. He placed the stole around his neck before he said, "I can, Hermione."
"Bless me Father, for I have sinned, it has been sixty-two days since my last confession."
"I am willing to guess that one of your sins is just that, along with missing Mass?" Friar Clement said. The girl blushed. "Your house and year mate, Seamus, can show you where the Chapel is. Mass is at eight and again at eleven in the morning ever Sunday, and regular confession hours is seven to nine on Saturday. We shall skip the confessions of any of your deviance from the religious practices which your parents no doubt expected you to continue, as long as I can expect to see you on Sunday?"
Hermione nodded, before beginning to enumerate all the sights that she'd done since her last confession. She rambled on, providing the Fat Friar with all the details of how she believed she had sinned, starting at her last confession the day before she had left for Hogwarts. The friar was impressed at how she was able to enumerate it all, seeming to never take a breath as he did so, despite the fact that she was still crying. Confession was obviously a very emotional thing for the girl.
As she enumerated her mostly venal sins, she seemed to cry in shame, but also in loneliness. Father Clement could tell, this girl needed friends, and did not know how to get them. He would have to, without breaking the seal of the confessional, do something about that, though he did not know what, yet. He would have to pray on that.
Finally, the girl ran out of steam, ending her confession by confessing her sin of Pride, and the way she had corrected her fellow Gryffindor's pronunciation of the levitation spell. Then she ended her spiel with why she'd ended up hiding in the closet in the girl's loo. "He said I was a nightmare ... and I am."
The girl slumped on the upturned bucket, and sniffled, her head drooping down and eyes looking unfocused at the floor. "My daughter, while you have sinned, and I shall rightly give you penance for your sins, a nightmare you are not. Are you ready to hear your penance, having made an honest confession of your sins, both grave and not?"
Hermione nodded.
"Then for penance, I want you to say the rosary every morning until Christmas Eve, and when you see a classmate needing help, offer to help, when you can, saying, 'May I help you?' but go no further until they ask. Offer thy hand, but the other must accept before it is given. Finally, I expect you at Mass tomorrow. It is a Holy Day of Obligation, on a weekday, so Mass is at six thirty."
Hermione nodded agian.
"Now, let us pray the Act of Contrition together.
"O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin," they said together.
Then the Fat Frier took a deep breath, as he always had, in life and death, before granting absolution, "God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He did the Sign of the Cross on her forehead as he concluded.
"Amen."
"Go in peace and may God bless you," The Fat Friar said.
"His mercy endures forever," Hermione said.
"Now, go clean your face," the friar said. "You still have time to make the feast, and the All Hallows Eve Feast at Hogwarts is not to be missed."
The Fat Friar then drifted through the wall into the Saint Edward the Confessor's Chapel. Ghosts did not sleep, so he spent the hours until dawn contemplating the his mission at Hogwarts.
In life, Father Clement had not been the best of priests. His hold on the vows of his holy orders had been passing at best. He was quite often into the drink, which was how the Abbot had managed to poison him, something that the friar knew that the Abbot had come to regret. He had not be chaste, quite the contrary, actually. There were two students at Hogwarts right now that numbered among his descendants. It was his inability to obey orders not do magic among the suffragan parishes to the monastery that had been the reason behind his death. While the friar would like to believe that his use of healing charms among the peasants and jealousy were behind it, he had to admit that pulling the rabbit out of the communion plate had probably been the last straw.
A year after the friar's death, the Abbot had died of an illness that Father Clement had and could have cured. The friar had felt great pleasure on hearing that, something that he still assigned himself penance for, after all these years. The Abbot had also gone to Heaven, not even managing a single day waiting. Sometimes death didn't seem to be fair.
As Father Clement kneeled before the altar, he renewed his vow once again to be a better priest in death than he had in life.
And now that reading order ...
While publication order is an option for reading the Rituals Series of my works, some prefer time line order to read my stories, which drives some people nuts with Take no Umbridge. Fortunately the time line order for the Ritual Series is currently a little bit easier. It will get a bit harder when I really get working on By Hepheatus Forged. When a story is split, I will use the Title "Chapter Title" (1) format to help designate this.
Ritually Yours "Late October" (1)
The Friar's Confessions "The Pastor I Wasn't" (1)
Ritually Yours "Middle of November" (2) through "End of December" (4)
Prometheus Unbound "To Suffer Woes" (1) through "Joyous, Beautiful and Free" (10)
By Hepheatus Forged "The Heat of the Forge" (1)
Prometheus Unbound "This like glory is to be" (11)
Ritually Yours "January" (5) through "End of the Year" (12)
Summer Rituals "Nine and Three Quarters" (1) through"Seven" (4)
You Should be Ashamed
Summer Rituals "Six" (5)
This reading order is also on my profile and will be updated as needed. Eventually a timeline reading order will be available on my revamped website.