The first week of Hogwarts went by fast. Ari woke up early every day to daven in the common room. The first time people walked in on him, they looked at him like he was strange and then decided he's doing one of his Jewish things. It didn't take long before everyone accepted that Ari had his food delivered by owl every day, washed into someone else's cup whenever his meals included bread, and davened in a quiet corner of the common room. Robert showed him how to do the aguamenti charm but said that vanishing spells are too advanced. In Potions class, Ari discovered a muggleborn Hufflepuff his year and told him to spread the word about muggle sports on Sunday.
Ari happily said good-bye to his roommates on Friday afternoon before going home for Shabbos. His parents greeted him quickly and told him to hurry and get ready since he only had a half hour. It wasn't until the Shabbos meal that the subject of Hogwarts came up.
"So, how many of my old teachers are still there?" Tatti asked curiously.
"Most of them," Ari said, swallowing some challa. "McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Binns. Sinistra teaches Astronomy, Quirrell teaches Defense, and Snape teaches Potions."
"Is your defense teacher any good?" Oma asked.
"Not at all," Ari complained. "He stutters badly, his room stinks like garlic, and he wears a smelly turban. He should be gone within a year though, so hopefully next year, we'll have a better teacher."
"You said that Snape teaches potions?" Ari's father asked.
"Yes," Ari said. "He's very sarcastic and criticizes everything."
"There was a Snape two years younger than me in Slytherin," Tatti said. "I wonder if it's the same person."
"He has black greasy hair and is head of Slytherin," Ari offered.
"Sounds like it might me the same," Tatti said. "I didn't really know students from other houses or other years, but everyone knew Snape and it wasn't for a good reason."
"Was he a troublemaker?" Ari asked curiously.
"Not at all," Tatti told him. "There were four Gryffindor bullies in his year."
"I thought Gryffindors defend people from bullies," Ari argued.
"Every middah could be used for good or bad," Tatti said. "If you use your Gryffindor bravery for good, you defend others who need it. If you use it for bad, you may end up bullying innocent people. That's what happened to the Gryffindors in that year. They went out of their way to bully Snape and embarrass him in front of the whole school. They used to hex him, and since it was four against one, Snape didn't usually succeed in defending himself. Many people thought it was funny to watch, but I always felt sorry for him."
"Why didn't you stand up for him?" Ari asked accusingly. "How could you just stand there when someone is being bullied?"
"I didn't want to be bullied next," Tatti said shamefacedly. "I didn't want to find myself dangling upside down in front of the entire school with my underwear showing."
"So nobody ever defended him?" Ari asked.
"There was a Gryffindor girl who used to defend him," Tatti said. "She had bright red hair and was always yelling at the bullies."
"Didn't any of the teachers do anything?" Ari asked.
"When the boys were caught, they were punished," Tatti said. "But they weren't always caught. Usually bullies wait for no teachers to be around before doing the bullying."
"I know Snape turned out okay," Ari said, "since he's a professor now. What happened to the bullies?"
"Two of them are dead," Tatti started. "One of them is in jail, and I haven't heard anything else about the last one."
They deserve it," Ari said. "There's no excuse for bullying people like that. What happened to the girl who used to defend Snape?"
"She died too," Tatti said.
"How did she die?" Ari asked.
"A dark wizard killed her," Tatti said. "During the war that ended when you were two."
"How come nobody uses his name?" Ari wanted to know. "Harry Potter is in my year and everyone always talks about how he defeated you know who. You always refer to him as a dark wizard or a rasha. Nobody uses his name."
"People are scared to," Tatti said, "but do you know how the girl who defended Snape died? She was probably defending Harry Potter."
"Why did he try to kill Potter in the first place?" Ari asked.
"Potters parents were part of the group who fought him," Tatti said. "He showed up at the house ready to kill the whole family. He killed both parents but couldn't kill little Harry."
"Why would the redhead girl be there at the time?" Ari asked.
"She's Harry's mother," Tatti answered. "I was actually surprised when I read about it in the news."
"Why is that surprising?" Ari wanted to know.
"Because it means she married one of the Gryffindor bullies of her year," Tatti said with a smile. "I don't understand how that happened, but I guess with the war going on, people on the same side put aside their previous differences."
"Were you involved in the war?" Ari asked.
"I stayed out of it," Tatti said. "I live in a muggle area and as long as we're not being attacked, I stay out of the magical world and all its politics. I did put some protective spells over the community, but that was all I did."
"So you're like our American relatives," Ari criticized.
"I'm not," Tatti said. "When Oma and Opa were fighting, it's because the Jewish people were being targeted for extermination. This time, nobody was targeting Jews. No entire nation was being threatened to be exterminated. It was more important to stay alive myself than to join the people protecting others and end the only Jewish magical line still in Europe."
"Did Snape fight?" Ari asked.
"I don't know," Tatti said. "I didn't know him well at all. I only knew of him because he was constantly being bullied in front of everyone and I felt sorry for him. I didn't keep up with anyone in Hogwarts after graduation."
"I don't think I will either," Ari said. "People in my house ask me questions sometimes about some of the things I do, but overall, they're nice to me. We're planning on doing muggle sports on Sunday. I got one muggleborn Gryffindor and one Hufflepuff to try to get over whoever they can from their house, and I'll try from Ravenclaw."
"So you're not wasting your efforts on Slytherin," observed Tatti.
"I noticed two Slytherins during Herbology who look like they would be good rugby players," Ari offered. "But a boy who was with them said that they don't do things with my kind."
"That's rude!" Mommy exclaimed. "I hope you had a good comeback."
"I said that it's their loss and walked away," Ari said sheepishly. "I didn't want to deal with their kind any more than they wanted to deal with me."
"You shouldn't be making friends with all these goyim," Oma admonished.
"I need to survive these seven years," Ari countered. "I can't do it without some friends."
"I hope none of your friends are German," Oma said.
"I don't think they are," Ari reassured her. "The boys in my house are Boot, Corner, Cornfoot, and Entwhistle. None of them sound like German names. The Gryffindor is black so he can't be German, and the Hufflepuff's last name is Finch-Fletchley. I'm pretty sure none of them are German."
"Just be careful," Oma warned. "And stay away from bullies. If none of the professors protected that poor boy from the bullying, they won't do anything for you either. Keep your head down and stay out of trouble."
"I'll see," Ari said. "As of now, there is no trouble, and I don't know any spells to stop bullying anyway, so you have nothing to worry about."
Ari thought about sarcastic Professor Snape and wondered how different he would be if more people stood up for him. He felt grateful that he wasn't bullied and wondered how long it would be before bullying started again in Hogwarts.