I don't own the Harry Potter Characters, JK Rowlings does, yeah, you know the drill.
Chapter 11, The Gospel
The Coming of Saturday saw Quittich Practice for the Gryffindors. The team was moving along quite well. Thaddeus Ewls proved quite an effective beater, managing to knock several people nearly unconscious; he could also out-fly most of the chasers (except Ginny), which was, in part, due to the fact that the American game Quodpot which the rest of his family were more interested in required faster flying abilities.
Following practice, which ended at 3:00, Harry, Ron, and Ginny scurried back to the dormitories and changed into white baptismal robes. After doing so, Ron and Harry made their way through the common room toward the portrait-guarded exit.
"Are you excited?" Harry asked.
"Oh yes, I've been waiting for this all week."
"You know you two shouldn't be walking without a third person," Came Hermione's voice from behind them.
The two spun around to see Hermione with a smile on her face, which was unusual given the last week. Ron walked toward her and gave her a kiss.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Going to watch my friends' baptism," She said. "Look, I don't believe that Jesus is the son of God, but I respect that you do, and I'm sorry for criticizing."
"It's alright, I still owe you big for the rubbish that I said to you," Ron replied. "God how could I have been so foolish, and you so forgiving."
"We all make mistakes right?"
Ron then brought his lips to hers, the two kissed for several seconds before Harry, checking his watch, was finally forced to interrupt them on the count of the time. 3:30 was fast approaching, the three walked at quickstep out to the lake, a little cove of which had been magically blocked off from dangerous creatures on the count of the baptism. A small gathering was forming aside the cove, including Ginny, Neville, and the other of the eight who were being baptized (all dressed in white robes), along with Professor McGonagall, Hagrid, the Ewls siblings, Healer Ewls, Rabbi Lebowitz, and several other students who had come to observe.
Reverend Ewls, also dressed in white robes, was already in the lake. He was addressing the gathering as Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived directly at 3:30. They did not catch all that he was saying, something about John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus, the cleansing of sins provided by baptism, and entrance into the Kingdom of God. After he ceased his address, the Ewls siblings began to sing "Down in the River to Pray."
September in Scotland, the Lake, and nervousness, all combined to make the eight who were being baptized shiver to no end.
"Cold?" Ron asked Harry, as he himself shivered.
"Nervous" Harry replied.
"Me too a little, I can't understand why."
"Well, we're about to make the jump into new life, I guess that would make anyone nervous."
Reverend Ewls then extended his hand toward the eight awaiting baptism. Summoning her Gryffindor Courage, Ginny began walking toward the bank being the first to enter the water. She then trudged through the water toward Reverend Ewls, the cold of the lake increasing the intensity of her already shivering body. As she walked in the water toward his father, Elliot stopped singing, tears formed in his eyes.
Reverend Ewls took Ginny's left hand with his own left hand and positioned her to where she was facing the gathering, while Reverend Ewls faced her side. He placed his left arm in front of her, whispering instructions to her, she grasped his left arm with her own left hand, and laid her right hand, palm up, in Ewls' left hand. Ewls then raised his right hand at a right angle behind her back. He began speaking so the gathering could hear.
"Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God?" He asked loudly.
"I do," Ginny proclaimed.
"Then Ginerva Molly Weasley, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen."
Reverend Ewls then brought his arm down to her upper-back, and his left hand up to her nose which she covered with her own right hand which rested in his left. With the force of his left hand, he lowered her backwards, fully immersing her in the water for a split second, then raising her soaked body out of the water. When she emerged, a smile grazed her face, she and Reverend Ewls embraced, after which she trudged as fast as she could, practically running, through the lake back to the shore where Elliot Ewls was waiting for her with a towel, a kiss, and a very tight embrace.
As he observed this, Harry smiled, drawing from some outside source the ability to let go of his attachment to Ginny. Ron however was moved by this in another way, he was not angry at Elliot, in fact he was not angry at all, he merely imagined himself in Elliot's place, and Hermione in Ginny's place. He wished that Hermione would come to know what he had come to know and accept. He wished that she could be baptized, and was fearful for what awaited her on the count of her refusal to accept what he had come to know as the truth.
Reverend Ewls repeated the baptismal process with several others, including Ron and Neville before arriving at Harry. Who, like Ginny, entered the water shaking. He came to Reverend Ewls, and was positioned like unto Ginny.
"Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?" Asked Reverend Ewls.
"I do."
"Then Harry James Potter, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen."
As he had the others he had hitherto baptized, he lowered Harry into the water, fully immersing him for a second. As Harry reentered the world from the waters of baptism, like Ginny, a smile grazed his lips. He firmly shook Reverend Ewls' hand and then proceeded to the shore, where Hermione and Ron awaited him, both smiling. As he climbed back to the shore, he and Ron embraced, following which Elliot Ewls handed him a towel, and gave him an embrace of his own.
"Wow, you sure are getting wet, Elliot," Harry pointed out half-heartedly.
Elliot laughed, "Eh, part of the business right?"
"You must be freezing," Hermione proclaimed.
"No actually," Harry responded. "I'm quite warm."
The Gathering then sang "How Firm a Foundation," following which they walked back to the castle. Hermione and Ron, and Ginny and Elliot walked together, hand-in-hand.
Aside from the near-unbearable amounts of homework the N.E.W.T. level students were getting from their classes, the following weeks were almost uneventful. The eight students began to, as the Ewls siblings had done prior to the baptism, spread the gospel to any who was willing to hear. To Hermione's continued dismay, yet allowance, they were often found handing out religious tracts, or engaging in theological/philosophical discussions with bibles in hands, responding to challenges emanating from agnostically minded students. Religion often became the subject of Ron and Hermione's arguments, as Ron made it his life's goal to convert Hermione.
As promised, the praise-band started by the Ewls siblings began in late-September, meeting after dinner on Wednesday Nights, hosting contemporary worship services. These services seemed to be more attractive to a good number of Hogwarts students who found Sunday Liturgies to be quite dull. Much to Harry and Ron's surprise, Ginny sang in the praise-band. Apparently dating Elliot Ewls had its advantages in terms of improving the quality of her voice.
Aside the occasional religious arguments, Ron and Hermione were also at peace together. Word had gotten out to the students that Hermione was pregnant. As usually happens when rumors spread across Hogwarts, several theories circulated about the origin of her conception, none of them true. Most simply assumed that Ron was the father, which in terms of emotional attachment was not far from true. Ron could often be found in their free time holding Hermione and gently rubbing her stomach. It seemed that what the students said about Hermione failed to bother either Hermione or Ron as they proceeded with their schoolwork
Normalcy pretty much characterized life at Hogwarts well into October.