Ari sat with his fellow Ravenclaws in the great hall and watched the sorting. When it was finally time to eat, he unpacked his food and had just finished eating when Harry walked in, still in muggle clothes, with his face covered in blood.
"What do you think happened to him?" Terry whispered.
"I don't know," Ari whispered back, "But it must have happened on the train, or he would have had time to change."
When Dumbledore stood up for his speech, it was obvious that something happened to his hand. Everyone tried to guess what is was, but Dumbledore continued his speech as though it was nothing serious. They were all surprised to hear that Slughorn was teaching Potions and Snape was teaching Defense. The news brought on a discussion about what type of defense teacher Snape would be, when Dumbledore interrupted to continue his speech. Ari showed the first years how to get to their tower and explained about the riddle.
The next morning after breakfast, Professor Flitwick had to confirm that they all passed the classes they wanted to take for NEWTs.
"Are you sure you don't want to take Potions?" Flitwick asked Ari. "Not many people get an O in Potions."
"I'm going to muggle yeshiva after I graduate," Ari said. "I need all my free periods to study gemara and chumash so I can keep up with those who spent the whole secondary school in muggle yeshiva."
"If you're sure about that," Flitwick said, signing off on Ari's three classes.
When Ari saw how much homework he got for Ancient Runes, he was happy he only signed up for 3 classes. He realized that Snape won't let him do his Runes homework during class, and had fun trying to hex Michael. He and Michael cheated, whispering their hexes and shield charms, as neither one had any experience in nonverbal spells. Arithmancy was interesting as usual, and Ari was happy to have the afternoon off.
Ari spent the whole afternoon doing his homework. He was happy not to be joining Terry and Michael for Potions as every teacher assigned lots of work. At Dinner, Ari happily told Terry and Michael that he finished his homework.
Ari quickly settled into a routine. During free periods, he first did all his homework and made up work he missed over yom tov. If it was complete, he went over the parsha of the week. If he finished that, he learned gemara. He hoped he would still be considered the best learner after Hogwarts.
Terry and Michael were constantly complaining about having to do nonverbal spells in Transfiguration and Charms. Ari only had to worry about it in defense, but it was still challenging.
In October, Ari missed the first Hogsmeade trip. When he came back to school after Shabbos, he found out that a Gryffindor girl was cursed and is in the hospital wing. On Monday, she was transferred to Saint Mungos.
The next two months passed quickly. Ari usually managed to finish his homework Monday afternoon and he had Tuesday morning to do the parsha. He was proud of himself for keeping up with his learning despite being in a not Jewish environment.
In December, the castle was covered in mistletoe. Ari never knew anything about mistletoe and was surprised to hear that the practice was to kiss whoever was under it with you. Ari made sure to stay away from the mistletoe and any unfamiliar plant, not knowing if there was anything else he should know about.
Ari was happy to go home for the Holidays. The whole mistletoe business was starting to freak him out. He knew he would never understand his schoolmates.
Ari was relieved that everyone returned to school by floo. It made no sense to travel from London if he's already in Scotland. He wondered why he couldn't always use the floo.
After the break, everyone was talking about apparition lessons. Ari was disappointed to find out that they were on Shabbos and he wouldn't be able to participate. When he told his family, Oma offered to teach him, but Tatti reminded her that it's illegal.
In March, Ron Weasley was poisoned. It was a reminder that the war going on outside of school still affected those in Hogwart's safe environment, or at least, that's what Oma said when Ari told her.
When Ari returned to school after the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff quidditch match, it was to the news that Harry had once again managed to get injured during a game. Ari no longer took these reports seriously, as it was happening almost every year.
Ari was tempted to join the many that were going for extra apparition lessons in Hogsmeade, but as he never took a single lesson, he knew he couldn't start now. It would have been nice to leave school for a Sunday, but as Ari went home every Shabbos, he knew he shouldn't complain. He complained anyway, but it didn't make a difference.
In April, Ari's friends took their apparition tests. Once again, Ari complained about all the classes being on Shabbos.
In May, the news spread through the school that Harry Potter almost killed Draco Malfoy. Ari wondered what the whole story was, but knew he had no way of finding out. He barely had anything to do with Harry this year, as there was no DA.
In June, Dumbledore died. Ari regretted not having his galleon with him when the message got out about death eaters attacking the school, but he saw no reason to keep it with him this year, as the DA stopped.
Dumbledore's funeral was the first not Jewish funeral that Ari went to. Tatti and Oma came too. Ari cried when he heard the merpeople's music. He was surprised that Hagrid carried in Dumbledore's body. He expected the body to already be in a coffin. The man who spoke was incredibly boring which was kind of strange since Dumbledore had an interesting life.
Ari left his family after the funeral. There was no reason to ride the Hogwarts Express this year as many students left early. He wondered what Hogwarts would be like next year without Dumbledore. He hoped it would still be safe.