Throughout the first week of December, all people would talk about was the attack on Colin and how to protect themselves if necessary. Stephen stayed with Kevin whenever they left the common room, so that the only muggleborn boy in his year had constant protection from the only pure-blood.

People continued discussing the best methods of protection the following week. Ari told his parents about it, but since they didn't know the method of the attack, they had no advice for protection. Ari was relieved when the next week; he saw a sign about the dueling club.

Ari watched carefully when Snape disarmed Lockhart. He figured that the spell didn't look too hard and was eager to practice it, however, when he tried it on Michael, he did not get it on his first few tries. Ari also watched the snake spell that Malfoy used on Potter. He wasn't too impressed with it. Even though Malfoy conjured a snake, he couldn't control it. He watched with horror as the snake headed toward Justin and was as surprised as everyone else when Potter hissed at the snake and stopped it from attacking.

After the shock of finding out that Potter was a parselmouth, Ravenclaws were debating whether or not Potter was the heir of Slytherin. Some students went to the library to look of Slytherin's line but didn't see any Potters on it. The last known descendants of Slytherin were a brother and sister, Morphin and Merope Gaunt. That led to a debate about if people stopped keeping track of Slytherin's descendants or if he has no heir and Potter was claiming it for himself based on his parselmouth ability.

The next day, after Justin was attacked, Ari went with Terry, Michael, Ernie, Dean, and Seamus to visit him in the hospital wing. Professor Sprout was in there, talking to Madam Pomfrey.

"There's no point in visiting him, boys," Professor Sprout said sympathetically. "He can't hear or feel anything. It's best if you return to your dorms."

"Did you tell Justin's mother yet?" Ernie asked.

"That's what we're going to do," Professor Sprout said. "As his parents are muggles, they can't come visit him in the hospital wing, but they do need to know not to meet the train as Justin will not be coming home from the holidays. I'm going to meet them at their home tonight to tell them."

"There's something else also," Ernie said, glancing at Ari. "Anthony doesn't know it yet, but we were planning a surprise party for him after the train gets to the station. Justin's mother was supposed to bring the cake. I suppose that if she didn't get the cake yet, you could tell her that the party is off."

"You were planning a party for me?" Ari asked, surprised.

"Of course," Michael said, "since we can't come to your bar mitzvah. Justin's mother was going to pick up a cake from a kosher bakery since she has some Jewish friends. We weren't going to miss this important milestone in your life."

"I can't believe my bar mitzvah is next week," Ari said. "I don't really feel like partying now."

"Justin will be okay," Professor Sprout assured everyone. "Once the mandrakes are ready, he'll be good as new. You could have your party then."

"I guess we're not having your bar mitzvah party after all," Terry said. "Too bad you won't invite us to the real thing."
"If I would know you could pass as Jewish muggles, I would invite all of you for sure," Ari said. "Michael and Dean are the ones who look the most not Jewish, but none of you would be able to pass as a Jew if having a conversation with one of my muggle friends. Maybe I can have a party in my house the day before my bar mitzvah for you lot."

"I still don't feel like partying," Ernie said.

"Me neither," Ari said, "But on Thursday night of next week, I'm not getting a choice about it. It's up to you if you want to come the day before. I'll give you all the address for my floo."

"What's floo?" Dean asked.

"It's traveling through fireplaces," Ari explained. "It's an easy form of magical transportation and how I get home every Shabbos. I wish I could floo to Hogwarts every 1 September since it's a waste of time to travel to London, but I was told it's against the rules."

"So how could I get to you?" Dean asked.

"I live in Glasgow," Ari told him. "Do you have any way of getting there?"

"You live in Scotland, and you go to London when it's time to get home?" Dean exclaimed. "That makes no sense! No wonder you complain about the train ride. I live in London, so for me, it's convenient."

"I could stop off in London on my way and pick you up," Seamus told Dean. "We spend lots of time shopping in London anyway."

They agreed to six o'clock Wednesday night and made sure to tell Stephen and Kevin. Kevin said there's no way he could make it as his family has plans for the whole week, but Stephen said he could try to come.

The train ride home was a solemn event. Ernie was mourning for Justin and Kevin was scared he would be next. As the train went through Scotland, the others tried to lighten the atmosphere by teasing Ari that he should just jump out the window and go home.

Ari made sure to tell his family that he invited his Hogwarts friends. Tatti wasn't too happy about it, but Mommy said it was fine. After Shabbos, they discussed what to serve. Ari offered to bake a cake and listed some of his favorite foods for his mother to prepare.

On Wednesday, at exactly six o'clock, the floo flared to life, and Michael and Terry came tumbling into the living room. Not long after, Dean and Seamus came. Finally, Stephen came, reporting that Ernie wasn't going to make it.

The food caused lots of comments and questions. Nobody has ever tasted potato kugel before. Ari explained that he normally only has it on Shabbos and holidays, but since it's one of his favorite foods, he asked his mother to serve it. They all enjoyed the food and Dean and Ari thought it was funny the way that Stephen marveled over every muggle invention, which was practically the whole house. Michael asked Ari to recite his speech that he was saying the following night. Ari tried to explain that it's not something they would understand, but when his fellow Ravenclaws got insulted, he said his speech.

Everyone was surprised that Ari made his own birthday cake. Mrs. Goldstein explained that Ari loved baking at an early age, although he doesn't always follow recipes correctly and made many errors in his early days. She entertained everyone with stories of how Ari read 2 ΒΌ as 21 and 4 and completely messed up; of the time he and his friend Mordechai were baking a cake for a school party and forgot the eggs, and of times Ari decided not to measure ingredients and to just estimate, so he made some very oily knishes. That led to a new discussion as none of the others (except for possibly Dean) ever tasted knishes, so Mrs. Goldstein took some out of her freezer and warmed them up in the oven. Of course, they wanted to know how the freezer and oven work. Mrs. Goldstein was relieved when all the guests left for the night.

The next day was the real bar mitzvah. There was no kugel, knishes or burgers, as the food had to be fancier. After the formal meal filled with speeches, and dancing to very loud music, Ari was glad his bar mitzvah was over. He greatly preferred his bar mitzvah with his Hogwarts friends.

All of Ari's muggle cousins were staying for Shabbos. Ari's cousin Chaim commented that some of Ari's friends said he dorms for yeshiva. Ari explained that his parents didn't feel the level of learning was high enough here, so he goes to a better yeshiva with a dorm. He told him that most of his friends from his new yeshiva live in London, so they didn't make it to the bar mitzvah, but they did throw him a party before he left for Chanukah.

Ari lained perfectly on Shabbos and when the bar mitzvah was finished, he was surprised that he was looking forward to going back to school.