Jewish Girl at Hogwarts 3
Rachel dragged her trunk and owl resolutely down the train corridor, looking into the student filled cabins. The trunk thunked against her legs and the caged hit against her hips, causing Fegalah to hoot in annoyance. She looked around, looking for an open cabin. Near the end of the train she heard an irritate voice say, “Where are they?” Looking into the cabin Rachel saw a bushy haired girl staring out the window down at the track. Next to her was a red headed girl kneeling on the seat next to her.
“I don’t know,” the red haired girl said, “They were right behind us the platform.”
Shaking her head the brown haired girl sighed and sat down. As she did so, she looked over at Rachel. “Oh. Hello.”
“Um… hi.”
The red haired girl turned and seeing Rachel smiled in a friendly manner. “Hi. Need a place to sit?”
“Yes, please.” Rachel said, grateful for the invitation. She dragged her trunk into the small cabin. Leaving it on the floor she put the owl cage on the seat and struggled to lift the trunk up into the luggage racks. The bushy haired girl got up and helped her. The red head went over to the owl and coo-ed at it. Fegalah hooted back, clicking his beak in a friendly manner.
“He’s a lovely owl. What’s his name?”
“Fegalah.” Rachel said. “It means bird in Yiddish.” The red haired girl blinked as if she had never had heard of Yiddish before. The bushy haired girl spoke up.
“It’s a mixture of German and Hebrew isn’t it? Used by Jews in Europe. Are you Jewish?” She asked.
“Yes, I am.” Rachel said quietly. An awkward silence followed, the only noise coming from the clacking of the train and the hooting of Fegalah.
“Jewish?” the red haired girl repeated. “I’ve never met a Jew before.”
“I’ve never met a witch before.”
The red haired girl looked slightly abash. “I’m Ginny.”
“Herminone,” the bushy haired girl said holding out her hand, “I’m second year. Gryffindor.”
Rachel took it, “Rachel. And what’s Gryffindor?” She sat down next to her owl. Ginny sat down next to Herminone who proceeded to explain what the houses were and how they were sorted. From there the conversation went to class subjects, teachers and other students at the school. Herminone was very knowledgeable and knew the answers to almost all of Rachel’s questions. Something for which Rachel was entirely grateful. Her father had been rather vague on what to expect. She supposed it was because it was he wanted it to be a surprise for her. Or perhaps because every time he started to talk about it her mother glared at him.
Eventually the food cart came by with the frizzy haired witch. Herminone and Ginny both bought cauldron cakes and pumpkin juice as well as something called Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans and some other bits of candy. Rachel looked at the candy longingly, but shook her head when she was offered some. “I can’t. It’s not Kosher.” She explained as she pulled out her own lunch. It was a Turkey sandwich on Challah with mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato. Also included in the lunch were an apple, a coke, potato chips and sesame seed candies. The candies she pocketed for later, though she knew there would be more elsewhere.
She excused her self for a moment and walked down to the restrooms where she washed her hands, saying a brucha as she dried them.
“What’s Kosher?” Ginny asked. Rachel held up her hand indicating that she needed a moment. She then said another brucha, this one a blessing over the bread and food she was going to eat, and tore off a piece of bread and ate it.
“It’s a set of dietary rules and restrictions that some Jews live by, rules that we got from the Torah. The rules set out what we can and can’t eat. How an animal is supposed to be killed, how the food is supposed to be prepared, things like that.” She bit into her sandwich and chewed it thoughtfully. “Plus blessings and things like that.” Ginny nodded, though she didn’t look quite like she understood.
“What’s the Torah?” she then asked.
“It’s the first five books of the bible,” she paused and continued, “And there’s no New Testament. At least not for Jews.” Ginny looked surprised at this, but Herminone intervened with another question. For the rest of the train ride Rachel found herself fielding questions about Judaism. It was very difficult thing to do; she was being asked about things that she took completely for granted. Things she never even thought were different.
By the time the train had rolled to a stop she had gone over everything from basic beliefs to how Hanukah wasn’t a version of Christmas. She had even gotten out her small Bible and prayer book and shown it to both girls.
When the train stopped, the three of them got their trunks and dragged them off the train, each of them complaining about how there should be a better way to move them. A rough and loud voice shouted out, “Firs’ years over here!” Herminone waved to Ginny and Rachel as she went off in another direction. Giving a nervous smile to Ginny, Rachel started walking towards the voice.
Hrmmm... well that's about it for now. Should be working on my thesis. But I'm not. I'm doing other stuff! Yay!