Professor McGonagall led them into the castle and gave them a speech about the houses. When she left, Dean whispered, "What house do you think you'll be in?"

"Either Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw," Ari answered.

"I hope we're together," Dean told him.

"If we're not, we can each try to get some housemates to join us for sports on Sunday," Ari said optimistically.

Dean screamed when he saw the ghosts.

"It's okay," Ari told him. "My father said they're all harmless except Professor Binns. He's our history teacher, and he's going to put us to sleep each class."

When Professor McGonagall told them to line up, Dean and Ari went to the back of the line. They both nervously walked to the great hall with the other first years. After the hat sang its song, Ari asked, "What do you think?"

"I'm not a Ravenclaw," Dean said. "I don't think I'm Slytherin either."

"Then we have a 25% chance of being in the same house," Ari said.

"Don't you mean 50?" asked Dean.

"No," Ari explained. "We each have a 50% chance of being in Hufflepuff. That means that there's a 25% chance of both of us being in Hufflepuff, a 25% chance of me being a Hufflepuff and you being a Gryffindor, a 25% chance of me being a Ravenclaw and you being a Hufflepuff, and a 25% chance of you being Gryffindor and me being Ravenclaw."

"You sound like a Ravenclaw with that explanation," Dean teased.

"I always liked math," Ari admitted.

Ari watched as two girls were sorted into Hufflepuff and realized he will have to interact with girls if he goes there. A boy and girl were sorted into Ravenclaw next. After that, a girl was sorted into Gryffindor, and another girl became the first Slytherin.

"Looks like I'm stuck with girls no matter what house I'm in," Ari thought nervously. He hoped he wasn't expected to interact with them too much. He didn't pay attention to the remainder of the sorting until he heard "Goldstein, Anthony."

"I thought your name is Ari," Dean said to him.

"Ari's a nickname," Ari said. "It's a long story, and I don't have time to explain now."

He walked over to the stool and listened as the hat spoke to him.

"You're hardworking like your father," the hat said, "and loyal to the Jewish people. You're not always loyal to your friends though, so I don't know if Hufflepuff is for you."
"When wasn't I loyal to my friends?" Ari wondered.

"When your friends were mean to others, you always stood up for the people being bullied," the hat explained. "That's actually a Gryffindor trait, standing up for what you think is right and fighting other people's fights for them, however, I never saw a Gryffindor with as many fears as you have. It's pretty impressive; you're scared of owls, mice, dogs, cats, rats, toads, frogs- "

"Lions, tigers, and bears," Ari added. "Keep going, make me look chicken."

"You really are though," the hat said. "Although you do think fast. I see you're good at math. Your teacher thinks you're the best gemara student he ever taught; not that I know what gemara is, you scored highest on your school's vocabulary test, and you love science experiments. When you add that to your love of reading, you seem to make a good RAVENCLAW!"

Ari walked to the table that was cheering loudest. He saw that the first girl and boy sorted there were sitting across from each other. There was a second boy sitting next to the first, while two more boys were sitting next to the girl. He sat down next to the unfamiliar boy who was sitting next to one of the few names he remembered, Terry Boots.

Ari didn't pay much attention to the rest of the sorting until a girl sat down next to him. He was a bit surprised but didn't say anything. When there were only four kids left, Dean was finally called. Not surprisingly, he was sorted into Gryffindor. Ari clapped loudly for him.

When the sorting was finished, Dumbledore asked to say a few words, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

"So what's the connection?" Ari asked curiously.

"Huh," the boy next to him asked.

"Nitwit is a foolish person," Ari explained. "Blubber is fat; oddment is leftovers, and tweak is to pull. Is he referencing the four houses, trying to insult someone, or just being silly?"

"Don't overthink it," an older student next to Terry said. "Just enjoy the food."

Ari watched everyone else pile their plates with food. He peeked into his dinner bag at his burger. He would need to wash if he wants to eat the bun.

"Where's the closest sink?" Ari asked the older student.

"Why do you need a sink?" the older boy asked.

"I need to wash my hands," Ari said shyly.

"I could clean them with a spell," came the kind offer.

"I need to wash them for religious reasons," Ari explained, realizing with embarrassment that most of his table was listening to him.

"How does that work?" the older boy asked. "I don't know much about religions, but as a Ravenclaw prefect, I feel that I should."

"You're a prefect?" Ari asked.

"Yes," the boy said. "There's always a boy and girl prefect from each house that are selected in their fifth year and continue being prefect in sixth and seventh year, so each house has six prefects. I'm Robert Hilliard by the way."

"Ari Goldstein," Ari responded.

"I thought you were called Anthony by the sorting," Robert commented.

"My legal name is Anthony," Ari explained. "But I have a Hebrew name also and I was always called Ari."

"So what does washing hands have to do with religion?" Robert asked.

"Jews always wash their hands before eating bread," Ari told him. "We wash with a cup, pouring water over each hand."

"You don't need a sink for that," Robert said.

"I need a cup of water and a place to pour it," Ari countered. "If I wash at the table, the table would get wet."

Robert pointed his wand in Ari's cup and said, "Aguamenti". The cup filled with water.

"Wash into Michael's cup," Robert said, gesturing to the unknown boy between Terry and Ari. "I'll vanish the water after you wash."

"Are you okay with that?" Ari asked Michael.

"Go ahead," Michael said. "I'm finding this very amusing. I never met a Jewish person before."

Ari washed, whispered the brachos, and took a bite of his burger.

"I never knew there were Jewish wizards," the boy across from Ari commented.

"Well, my father graduated many years ago," Ari said with a grin. "He's thirty-four, so unless you were left back many times, you wouldn't know him. All the other Jewish wizards live in America."

"How can you be sure of that?" Terry asked.

"Back when the Jews went to Israel from Egypt, the first king they had was a man named Saul." Ari explained. "He killed all the Jewish witches except one. That one made sure to document all her descendants until she died, when her oldest child took over. Until 1850, all the Jewish witches and wizards lived together. In 1850, they started slowly immigrating to America, until 1938 when my family was the only one left. I know that everyone left, because my grandmother told me the history."

"Does everyone know their family's magical history?" a nervous looking boy asked. "I'm the only magical one in my family. Is that a problem?"

"Not at all," Ari said. "I was actually hoping to get enough people familiar with sports together on Sundays for games. I prefer rugby, but Dean Thomas in Gryffindor prefers soccer. What's your favorite sport?"

"I'm not that good, but I like baseball," the boy shyly said.

"Perfect," Ari said. "I brought my ball and glove, hoping I'll have someone to play with. What's your name?"

"Kevin," the boy said. "What position do you play?"

"Pitcher," Ari answered. "What about you?"

"Catcher," Kevin said, "or outfield."

"I need a catcher while I'm here," Ari told him. "I have to stay in shape for the summer when I'm with my muggle friends."

Ari watched as the food disappeared and was replaced with desserts. He pulled out a donut from his bag and started eating it.

"Do you always eat your own food?" Michael asked.

"I keep kosher," Ari told him. "My parents are going to send me kosher food every morning."

"Too bad," Terry said. "Hogwarts has great food."

"I'll have enough to eat," Ari said. "I wonder which teachers from my father's days are still here," he added, changing the subject to a more comfortable one.

"Most of the teachers were here a long time," Robert said. "Did your father mention any names?"

"He told me that he had a new defense teacher every year," Ari began.

"That's still true," Robert said. "They say the position is cursed."

"Does Professor Flitwick still teach Charms?" Ari asked.

"Yes, and he's also head of our house," Robert told him. "Did your father also have McGonagall and Sprout?"

"Yes, Sprout started his first year," Ari said. "And he had Slughorn for Potions."

"Slughorn is long gone," Robert said. "Did he mention any other teachers?"

"Yes, but I'm hoping Binns doesn't still teach history," Ari said.

"He does," Robert told him, "But as long as you read the book, you'll know the material, so it doesn't matter who is teaching it."

Dumbledore stood up and made several final announcements including a warning about the third floor corridor. Ari cringed when everyone sang the school song. He noticed two redheads at the Gryffindor table singing to a funeral march and wondered if they considered school to be their funeral. Finally, Robert led them to the Ravenclaw tower and explained that they have to answer a riddle to get into the common room. Since it was their first day, he answered for them before showing them the dorms. Ari quietly davened maariv before going to sleep. He couldn't help wishing he was home and still attending yeshiva. Going to school with non-Jews was a lot harder than he thought, or at least the first day was.