flourishandblottsstories:

A discreet Portkey was set up for him once a year.  It was usually an empty bottle brought up from the kitchen, except for the time Fred Weasley managed to enchant all the bottles to hide themselves around the castle and explode into different colored confetti any time a prefect walked by.  That year, he had to make do with a biscuit tin.

Anthony often thought that he’d just skip it.   He was usually only just digging into his classes for the year, and there was always at least three essays he would have to finish when he got back.  He sometimes started to write the letter to his mum telling her he’d be staying at Hogwarts before the guilt would overwhelm him.

The truth was, he wasn’t sure he believed in any of it any more.  He lived in a world where bushes really did catch fire without flame, where water could be made to spurt from a stone.  Those wonderful, terrifying tales he grew up with could really be true- and that made him question his faith.

But he went.  Every year.

Every year, he felt the jerk under his navel, landed dizzily in the field behind his house.  Every year he entered the warm kitchen, smelling of freshly baked challah and sweet apples.  Every year he helped his mother clean up after dinner, licking the honey off the spoon she offered him as a treat.

Every year he recited the same prayers, sung the same melodies, told the same lies to the friends and neighbors he saw at shul.  Every year, he felt the slight dizziness and unreality that came with fasting.  Every year, he watched as tears rolled down his mother’s cheek as she recited the Yizkor for his father.

Every year, he cried too.

And every year, when the kugel had been eaten and the kitchen was in a state of controlled disaster, Anthony Goldstein would kiss his mother on the cheek, gather up the leftovers she had neatly wrapped for him, and walk out to find the empty bottle in the middle of the field.

And returned to the real world.

(Source: thejdc.convio.net)

L’shanah tovah, lovely followers!  May your new year be sweet and full of joy.

Tags:

#Harry Potter #Judaism #fanfic #storytime #(…you felt a slight dizziness and unreality after a *one-day* fast?) #(I don’t remember that) #(maybe the thirst does that to you?) #(I always skip the part about not drinking anything) #(it seems unfair) #(I need about a gallon of water per day to thrive) #(which I figure means a one-day water fast for me would be like 2 – 4 days for a normal person) #(and that’s going too far) #anyway Happy New Year everybody #(…hey wait a minute!) #(we forgot to put a birthday candle in the apple cake and have the wind blow it out!) #(oh well) #(maybe we can do that tonight) #(we still have cake left) #tag rambles