January passed quickly, and Ari was surprised when on February 14th, the dining room looked like it was decorated by a little girl whose mother invested in confetti. When Lockhart announced that it's Valentine's Day, Ari seriously considered taking his breakfast back to the common room, but his friends convinced him to stay.

Ari found the whole concept of Valentine's Day to be annoying. Luckily, all the Ravenclaw girls in his year noticed he never felt comfortable interacting with them and didn't send him anything. His friends had fun making fun of Lockhart, which was becoming a favorite activity. Ari and Terry started hassling him in class, asking him to teach them the spells he used in his books, claiming that they need to be prepared in case they ever meet a banshee, ghoul, hag, troll, vampire, werewolf, or yeti. Lockhart tried to explain that they weren't second year spells, but they insisted that if their second year textbooks talk about them, they have a right to know. Over time, Lockhart stopped calling on them in class.

Before Pesach, the second years were told they need to select electives for next year. Ari wasn't sure what to take and discussed it with his family while he was home.

"Muggle studies is obviously a waste of time," Ari pointed out, "as I'm muggle raised. Magical Creatures is out as I don't like animals; and divination and arithmancy both deal with false prophecies so their assur. That only leaves ancient runes."

"I took ancient runes and care of magical creatures," Tatti said. "I didn't really enjoy either course. Like you, I don't like animals, and I found the runes to be very hard, although you may have an easier time with it."
"Isn't Arithmancy math?" Mommy asked.

"It's using math to predict the future," Ari said.

"That does sound interesting," Mommy commented.

"Also against halacha," Ari added.

"What good is care of magical creatures anyway," Ari complained. "I'm never going to see any of them once I leave Hogwarts. Maybe I should do muggle studies just to get an easy course."

"That's bittul zman," Mommy reprimanded.

"So is care of magical creatures," Ari complained.

"People are going to wonder why you're taking muggle studies if you're muggle raised," Mommy countered.

"People will wonder why I'm taking care of magical creatures if I'm scared of animals," Ari retorted.

"Maybe we should discuss this with Rabbi Kohn," Mommy finally suggested.

Rabbi Kohn's take on the courses was completely different than the Goldsteins.

"If you're attacked, which subject would help you most?" Rabbi Kohn challenged.

"None of them," Ari said. "Muggle studies will just teach me things I already know, I don't expect to get attacked by magical creatures, divination is an attempt to turn an ordinary wizard into a navi, and arithmancy is using numbers to predict the future."

"Aren't you supposed to be good with numbers?" Rabbi Kohn asked. "I thought you're the one who figures out gematrias in your head."

"I usually do," Ari said, "but as these are English words, I don't know the gematria of any of them. I would have to first spell each course in Hebrew."

"That's not my point," Rabbi Kohn said. "I mean that Hashem gave you a gift. You always got good marks on math tests without studying. You have magic. It makes sense to combine the two, just don't try to predict the future when you don't need to for class."

Ari agreed and signed up for Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Most of his roommates were taking the same courses as they considered the other ones to be weak options.

When Ari came back to Hogwarts after Shabbos one week, he was surprised to find the castle in a lockdown. He was told that there were more attacks over Shabbos and lots of extra security precautions will be taken. That meant he could no longer play football with Dean on Sundays. Dean wasn't sure if he was a muggleborn and didn't want to take any chances. Ari resigned himself to having a boring end of the school year.

Ari got used to the teachers walking him to class. He thought it was a bit strange as none of the attacks happened on the way to class, but he figured anything the teachers are doing to keep students safe should be appreciated.

Most of the Ravenclaws spent the month of May studying for exams. Ari listened as friends revised aloud and corrected things he knew were incorrect, but didn't do much studying himself. Three days before exams were supposed to begin; all students were sent back to their common rooms.

Everyone was talking about the latest attack despite the fact that nobody knew what happened. At this point, everyone was willing to admit that Potter was not the heir of Slytherin as his best friend was attacked, but nobody knew who it could be.

As it got later at night, people started going to bed. Ari davened maariv in the empty common room before getting undressed and going to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Ari woke up very confused. People were hitting him, shining a light in his face, pouring water on him, and trying to get him out of bed.

"What do you want?" he mumbled.

"They announced that we're having a feast tonight!" Terry yelled. "Potter killed Slytherin's monster and saved the girl who was attacked tonight! You need to come with us!"

"Give me some time," Ari mumbled, hurrying to wash negel vasser and keep up with his roommates. "Why can't we wait until the morning to celebrate?"

Ari was relieved to hear that exams were cancelled. He was still annoyed about being dragged out of bed for feast he can't partake in, as his parents weren't notified and didn't send any food in the middle of the night.

June passed quickly, and once again it was time to go home. On the Hogwarts Express, everyone was once again teasing Ari that he should jump out the window while still in Scotland. When they finally got to platform 9 ¾, Justin's parents greeted them with a cake from a kosher bakery.

"Sorry we missed the bar mitzvah," Mrs. Finch-Fletchley said, "But I got a kosher cake to celebrate Justin's recovery."

All the Hufflepuffs in their year stayed behind for cake together with the five Ravenclaw boys, Dean and Seamus.

"Ari had a party for us in his house after all," Dean told Justin. "It's too bad you missed it."

After they all thanked Mrs. Finch-Fletchley for the cake, they said good-bye to each other, promising to keep in touch over the summer. Ari barely noticed being apparated home. He was finally starting to get used to the sensation.