I am writing about a Wizarding Church for a couple of reasons. One has to do with stories around Christmas that are partially written. There are plot reasons why I have Harry concerned about good and evil, and this gives me a vehicle for writing about them. I do not pretend to have any easy answers to difficult moral questions.
If you like a writer who examines moral and spiritual questions I can recommend cpstabell on the whattpad (dot com) site. Her Harry Potter stories are excellent and her Dream series is fantastic.
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Birth of the Potter Children | ||||||
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Category: Post-DH/AB Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Nymphadora Tonks, Ron Weasley Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama, General, Romance Warnings: Death, Intimate Sexual Situations, Violence Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 59 Summary: Third in the Almost Happily Ever After series, starting at the end of the hunt for the remaining supporters of Tom Riddle and the end of Ginny's Quidditch career. Hitcount: Story Total: 123105; Chapter Total: 4504 Author's Notes: |
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It was Saturday, New Year’s Day. Harry was working, Ginny was free, well as free as you could get when you had a nursing infant. WWW was going to be closed until Sunday afternoon. George and Angelina, Freddy and Roxanne were going to spend the day with Angelina’s family. Bill and Fleur and their family were in France. Charlie was working; dragons did not take a day off and someone had to cover the holidays. Percy and Audrey, Little Molly and Lucy were supposed to be at the Bakers all day, where Ginny said “They can be bored and boring all day!” Ginny did not know what Ron and Hermione were going to be doing, but she thought they probably needed to be alone. If Jean needed company that was Hermione’s task now. Everybody was going to be together Sunday morning as usual. Ginny went over to the New Burrow and talked to her mother and father and helped get ready for Sunday. Harry was planning on taking some time off in January, and go somewhere with just the 3 of them. “I love nursing and love James, but it does tie you down,” Ginny said. “Time away from James is measured in hours, and not very many hours at that.” Harry spent most of Saturday in the office, scheduling the few people on duty. He had plenty of time to think, and he thought that he and Ginny needed a vacation. He could free up a good week in January, maybe more. He did talk to Al VanLente, and in the end he ended up scheduling a two week semi-working vacation in the Caribbean doing what he had done before, mostly taking it very easy but with some mapping included. He did talk to Ginny a couple of times as he was working on vacation plans. Sunday the same people were at the New Burrow, but Jean Granger was with Hermione and Ron. Hermione was not as down as she was Christmas. She and her mother were dealing with Hugo’s death. Jean was both a little intimidated by the number of small children running around, and delighted by all the life. After most of the other people were gone Jean came up to Harry and asked, “Harry, do any witches and wizards go to church?” “I think my parents went to church,” said Harry. “I was baptized.” “I want to keep going to church, Harry,” said Jean, “and Hermione has offered to go with me, but Hermione has told me about the Sunday morning family meetings. Having been to one today I can see how she does not want to miss them. I suppose I could go to church on Saturday night, but our local church does not have a Saturday evening service.” “There is an association of Christian Wizards,” said Harry. “I know the director in Switzerland. I’m going to be in Switzerland this week. We’ve had to reschedule our Tuesday meeting, but I think I’ll be there Wednesday or Thursday.” Monday there was a Ministry announcement about the Funeral of Hermione Granger Weasley father’s, with a notice that people not used to dressing as Muggles needed to get their clothing approved before going. Elves and house elves were going to be able to attend, staying in the balcony of the church where they would be invisible to Muggles. There was also an announcement in the Daily Prophet. This worried Harry and Jim Snook, and they had Arthur Weasley schedule several extra DMLE people including a couple of Aurors to quietly shadow the funeral. Monday afternoon Ginny again delivered some papers to Eloise. She looked so awful, even before she saw Ginny, that Ginny significantly relaxed the curse. Eloise would still get a little sick to her stomach, but not near as sick as before, and she would not throw up, when she saw or thought of Harry or Ginny. Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM was Hugo’s funeral. The family gathered at 8:00 AM, and Harry and Ginny were there to support Hermione. There was a chance for guests to gather the hour before the service. Hermione was somewhat surprised to see how many of her father’s professional colleagues were there. Quite a number of them mentioned how proud Hugo was of his daughter. Several of the Dentists said they represented groups who know him as consummate professional, and conveyed the sympathies of a group of people. Hermione heard story after story of not only what a good dentist her father was but also what a good man he was. The funeral was a conventional Anglican funeral. White vestments were worn, and the service celebrated the Resurrection and Eternal Life. At the sermon the priest talked about how faithful Hugo was. He as Hugo’s pastor had talked to Hugo occasionally, even counseled with him, and could testify that Hugo was a good man. The pastor indicated that Hugo had lost his parents and a brother, years earlier in a tragic house fire, which had scarred him. He was looking forward to meeting them in heaven. As the service came to a close a close colleague and friend of Dr. Granger stood up. As the acknowledged leader of the group, Dr. Charles White asked the Pastor if he could say a few words. He began with a joke that he had heard Hugo tell many of his pediatric patients, ‘If you are true to your teeth, they’ll never be false to you’. They he would say, “And that’s the whole tooth”. Hermione groaned inside. That was her father! Charles related many of the stories that had poured into the office when Hugo’s illness was announced. The dentists that he had trained had all said that they were better dentists because of Dr. Granger’s positivity, and his deep belief that God had gifted him with his ability to keep his patients smiling. Dr. White related many stories from patients who had been afraid to go to the dentist until they had an appointment with Dr. Hugo. Dr. White’s final words were said with tears in his eyes, ‘Hugo’s smile will be missed here on earth, but will add a bit of brilliance to Heaven.’ Hugo was buried in a graveyard where there were several generations of Granger’s. Hugo’s parents and brother were not there; there were no graves for them and no record of a funeral, although they had all been registered in the same Anglican Church. There were a number of suspicious beings that appeared like they may have been trying to get into the Funeral, but the Aurors, other guards, and armed elves, scared off anyone who was not supposed to be there. After his discussion with Jean, and the funeral, Harry thought more about church. Harry knew his parents were members of a Christian church in Godric’s Hallow. He remembered a brief conversation with Rev. Sergius O’Brien in Switzerland. Harry felt he needed to know more about Christianity and the Magical world. As a wizard, especially with the experiences he had before and at the Battle of Hogwarts, he had no doubt there was life after death. But how do you teach someone to be good, and what is good after all? There were moral questions, and Harry thought he needed some sort of moral framework. He was not concerned about himself so much, but Hermione seemed to have a feeling for right and wrong that was at least part because she was brought up a Christian. “I’m trying to find a Wizarding Christian Church for Jean Granger,” Harry told Ginny the next day. “She and Hermione want to go to church.” Ginny looked at Harry like she wasn’t particularly interested. “I may go with them,” Harry said. “Why?” asked Ginny. “My parents were members of the little church at Godric’s Hallow,” Harry said. “I would like to learn more about Christianity.” “Christians burned witches at the stake,” Ginny said. “I’m not interested in the least about some group that burns witches.” “Hermione went to church,” Harry said. “She wants to go back. She is one of the brightest, and morally best, people I know. If she got that from going to church I want to know about it.” “I don’t get it,” Ginny said. “Go, if you want to. Just don’t count on me going with you.” Harry’s meeting was scheduled for late morning and over lunch on Thursday. Harry sent an owl to Sergius, and they had an appointment for Thursday afternoon right after his meeting. Thursday afternoon Harry walked over to the offices of the Association of Christian Wizards. Sergius was there, along with another person. Sergius said “Harry, I want to introduce you to Apollo Scherica. Yes, Apollo is Nausicaa’s husband. He is also a Bishop of the Wizarding Christian Church, serving as Patriarch right now.” Apollo said “I hate the term Patriarch. It implies an old celibate man with a lifetime appointment. We elect our leaders, and we don’t serve lifetime terms.” Harry said, “There is a Wizarding Christian Church?” Apollo said, “Actually we are the oldest group that separated themselves from the church. It’s real awkward being a Christian and a witch or wizard, and within the first 200 years of Christianity we decided we needed to be somewhat separate.” “What do Wizard Christians believe in?” said Harry. “I’ll let Jack Lewis tell you about beliefs. He is the priest of the little church in London that has a Saturday evening service. I want to talk to you about history.” “History?” asked Harry. “There are a lot of things you can not easily understand unless you know the history. First, the Wizarding community has always believed in an afterlife. So as the Jews, in particular the Pharisees began to believe in an afterlife it interested wizards. The issue was one God verses many gods. The Jews at one time believed that their god was the best, the chief god, but later that he was the only God and the rest of the gods were myths. “Many wizards believe that they are descendents of the gods, the “others” that had magical power. So there is a contradiction between the belief in one God and the belief in the gods.” “So why become Christian?” asked Harry. “The teaching of Christ is very appealing,” said Apollo. “There is nothing in the New Testament that contradicts our way of life.” “So some wizards wanted to become Christian, but there were problems,” said Harry. “Exactly” said Apollo. “It is difficult to be on both sides of an issue. For example most Christians wanted prophesy to just stop. But if you are a prophet by profession, and good at it, what do you do? One of the earliest pronouncements of the Christian Church was to forbid Christians from eating meat sacrificed to idols, to gods other than the one Christian God. So if you are a prophetess of Delphi, and want to continue to prophesy by killing an animal and read its entrails, but also become Christian, what do you do?” “You have a real problem,” said Harry. Apollo said “What we do here is we still kill the animal, and still offer it up, but instead of a pagan priest offering the animal to one of the pantheon of Greek or Roman gods, a Christian priest offers up the animal specifically to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Christian God, in a ritual that is partly Christian, and partly harkens back to the sacrifice of the Jews. After the animal is killed then the priestess reads the entrails, but as she does she is very specific that she is doing this as a skill or gift of her ancestors, but not in contradiction to any Christian teaching.” “So the other Christians did not appreciate this compromise,” said Harry. “People who are not magical do not appreciate how carefully we try to be true to both the Christian beliefs, and at the same time true to our abilities and history as magical people,” said Apollo. “So what is the Wizarding Christian Church like?” asked Harry. Apollo said, “In many ways we are like one of what they call the Orthodox Christian Churches. We have priests and bishops like all the churches before the Protestant Reformation. We have a hierarchal structure. We have beliefs that are for the most part very orthodox, modified by the need to accept magic. Our church services are more like a Catholic or Orthodox or High Anglican service than a low Protestant service. We believe in the Sacraments that Catholic and Orthodox believe in.” “Do any of the other churches know about you?” asked Harry. Apollo said, “We have been at all the major councils of the church, and many other meetings, but usually we are reasonably hidden. Some of the key documents can only be read by magic. We have had good relations with a very few popes, the last one John XXIII. We can trace our ancestry and our priesthood back to the apostles.” ; After more discussion they gave Harry an introduction to Jack Lewis, the priest in London, along with the time and location of church services. Saturday afternoon Harry took Hermione and Jean to the church at 5:00 PM, with an appointment to meet with the pastor before the 5:30 PM service was to begin. Ginny said she might come along sometime, but she wanted to stay with James. The church turned out to be a modest sized church in an older section of London, Saints Merlin and Mungo’s. It looked like it was maybe 200 years old, neither updated recently or in bad repair. Unless you were looking for it you would probably not notice it. The doors were locked, but there was a sign on it that you could read if you were a witch or wizard saying to touch the door with your wand and it would open. Jack Lewis turned out to be a reasonably young man, in his early 30’s. He introduced his wife Harriet. They had a 7 year old son and 5 year old daughter playing in a playroom at the church. Jean wanted to know if she could get into the church if she was not accompanied by a witch or wizard. Jack pulled out a wand, touched her and then the door, and said, “Now the door will open for you.” Harry said, “Apollo Scherica told me you would teach me about Christian beliefs, answer my questions.” Jack asked, “Did you have any Christian teaching when you grew up? I know you lived with your Aunt and Uncle. Did they go to church?” Harry answered, “Vernon Dursley hated anything to do with religion and churches. Vernon was, and still is, pretty good at hating. I could do a lot worse than like anything he hated.” Jack asked, “Any bible stories in school.” Harry said, “No. Occasionally I get the idea that there is a world of things out there I know nothing about.” Jack said, “Even if you are not Christian, if you want to understand English literature and art, it is hard without at least a basic understand of bible stories and Christian beliefs.” Harry asked, “Where do I start?” Jack said, “Do you have a bible?” Harry said, “No. What is a bible?” Jack said “It’s the basic book of Christians. The three great monotheistic religions have written scriptures, writings that contain their key beliefs. The part of the Christian bible that we call the Old Testament consists of writings that date to before the birth of Jesus Christ, and most of them are shared in some fashion with the Jews. The Moslems have their own scriptures, the writings of Mohammed, the Koran. The New Testament was written after the death of Christ.” Jack gave Harry a bible, and he glanced at it. “Where do I begin?” asked Harry. Jack said “The worst way is probably to start at the beginning and try to read right through it. I would start with the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, two books written by one author that tell one story.” Harry said, “This will tell us what Christians believe?” Jack said, “Not so easily. If you want to a brief introduction as to why you might want to belief you could do a lot worse that to start with ‘Surprised by Joy’ and ‘Mere Christianity’ by CS Lewis.” “Is he related to you?” asked Harry. “Even though he was called ‘Jack’ I don’t believe we are related in any way,” said Jack Lewis. “What about life after death?” asked Harry? “When Riddle cursed me, killed the part of him that was in me, I was in some sort of state between life and death, and I saw what Dumbledore said was Riddle. He was a pathetic creature. What is life after death like? What happens when we are bad? What is the nature of the choices?” “There are no really good answers to some of those questions,” said Jack. “We have some ideas of the nature of the choice. There is another book by Lewis, ‘The Great Divorce’ that may give you some idea of the nature of the choice, as does his famous book ‘The Screwtape Letters’. The last book of his fairy tale series, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, gives you another parable of heaven, but I would read the whole series from the start not just the last book.” Jack tried to loan Harry all of the CS Lewis books, but Harry insisted on buying them. Jack told Harry that he would talk to him any time they could schedule a meeting. It was soon time for the church services. Although Harry did not realize it, the service was conventional, readings from the Old Testament and the New Testament, a reading from the Gospels of the New Testament, a sermon, and then a worship service. There was singing of modern English and American hymns, accompanied by a piano. There was an organ but it was not played at this service. There were about 70 people at the service. After the service Jack explained that there were usually between 50 and 100 people at the evening service, with 250 to 350 at the morning service. After the service Jean said, “I could get used to going to church there.” Sunday Jan 9 Jean Granger was at the Weasleys’ with Ron and Hermione. Over the next weeks she became more and more comfortable with Molly and the girls at the Burrow. Jean was delighted to be reconnecting with her daughter, and she ended up moving in with Ron and Hermione. Saturday Jan 15 Harry again went to church with Hermione and Jean, and Sunday the whole family was together at the New Burrow. Harry had some new plugs for Arthur, and Harry and Ron went out to the garage work shed to arrange the plugs. All the boys followed. Arthur was fascinated by how Muggles had to plug things in. Electricity and anything to do with computers was a total mystery to him, as magical as magic was to Muggles. Hermione had arranged the plugs on a series of boards hinged from one wall. Harry had a several pair of plugs that carried high voltages and amperages of electricity to run some of the machines at the shop that needed to be moved from place to place. They had just made some changes and standardized on one type of plug, so Harry had several now obsolete plug sets. The shop knew of the fascination that Bill’s father had with plugs and connections, and saved any interesting plug set for Bill or Harry to take to him. The put the plugs on a board, female side attached to the board and male side plugged in, with labels. Arthur had all the standard European and North American electrical plugs, again arranged so the female side or the side usually on the wall was on a board, the male side and maybe a short piece of wire was plugged into it. He also had generations of computer plugs, several permutations of parallel ports, serial ports, video cables, keyboard cables, USB plugs in almost every possible variation, there were many variations of telephone jacks. He had co-axial cable connections, all the new telephone type jacks that were now used for computer networks. There was even a network interface with stuff plugged into it, none of it working but just showing all the plugs and wires and connections. There were audio cables, DIN and mini-DIN and just about every possible audio jack, from ancient large plugs like the kind very old fashion manual telephone switchboards used to the smallest things the new cell phones used. As far as Arthur was concerned the most fascinating thing about Muggles was that they plugged things in. There were also a whole series of small battery chargers, with of course plugs on each end. One of Arthur’s prize possessions was a battery powered tool kit given to him as a Christmas present by Harry and Ginny. Using a magic wand you could do anything the drill or saw or sander or light could do, and do it better and quicker, but Arthur was fascinated by all the noise all the devices made and how they were powered. Arthur was very aware that the Dursley’s made drills, and drills went into this contraption and made holes! It was easy to make a hole with a wand, but Muggles could make holes with this large sort of noisy thing that went round and round and pulled out stuff as it worked; to Arthur a portable drill was as magical as any wand to a Muggle. Ginny had nursed James, and she gave James to Hermione to burp. This was the first time Hermione had ever burped a baby, and she was maybe not terrified but very concerned. When she had gotten a big bubble out of James she carefully put him down. James was wearing the jumper that Molly had knit for him for Christmas, and as she put James down Hermione noticed 3 small set of initials on the back, HJP JSP GMP. “What is this?” Hermione asked. “I knit a new jumper for each child and grandchild each year,” said Molly. “That is how I identify them, when they are tiny, parents and child’s initials. Harry James Potter, James Sirius Potter, Ginny Molly Potter. Sooner or later most of the jumpers are recycled, back from when we did not have any money and I could not afford new yarn for everybody each year. I still like the idea that each jumper has some old yarn in it.” I like saving some things,” said Hermione wistfully. “I have a few things from my father we are going to save, so if I ever have any children,” Hermione was beginning to tear up, then she started again, “…if we ever have children…I’m looking at this, and the photographs on the wall, and there isn’t any evidence that I was ever pregnant.” Molly was slowly beginning to tear up, and she said, “I never had a miscarriage, and none of the other daughter-in-laws had either. I did not realize how hard it could be.” She took a small knitted piece out of her knitting bag, the back of an infant’s jumper. On the back was RBW HJGW. She handed it to Hermione. “I was making it for your baby. I can’t throw it out, Hermione. I can’t take it apart and recycle it. It’s the only evidence I have of the grandchild we won’t have. I look at it …” Molly took a big breath, tears beginning to fall, “I … I … I look at it, and I feel so sorry for you and Ron and Jean.” Molly turned to look at Jean Granger, who was also beginning to tear up. “You were making this for …?” Hermione looked at the back of the little jumper that would never be knitted. Molly nodded her head. Hermione just totally lost it, and broke down in tears into Molly’s embrace. The two women embraced for a long time. When the men came back in Hermione was just breaking away from Molly. Ron said, “Why the long faces? Did somebody die or something?” “Honestly Ron sometimes I think you have the emotional sensitivity of a brick wall,” said Ginny. “Mom has the start of a jumper she was making for your baby, the one who did die.” Ron looked a little ashen, looked at Hermione and said, “I’m sorry.” “What if we never have a baby, Ron?” said Hermione. “What if I’m just a big brain but fail and fail at becoming a mother!” “Oh Hermione, you’ll never be a failure in my eyes,” said Ron. “I’m so sorry for the baby we won’t have, but I still think you are the most fantastic, smartest, most wounderfulest witch in the world.” “Wounderfulest?” asked Hermione, laughing and crying at the same time. Ron went over and hugged Hermione tightly. “You are absolutely the wounderfulest woman ever, smartest and bravest and wounderfulest.” After an extended period of hugging, Hermione and Ron sat down next to each other. Hermione had the back of the little jumper, and said “Your mother was knitting this for us, for our baby.” Hermione pointed out the RBW and HJGW, and then her finger went over the blank space. Ron looked at the back of the little jumper, and began to tear up. He looked at Hermione, and at Molly, and then the tears really began to flow. Ron and Hermione sat next to each other, Ron’s arm around Hermione, Hermione leaning against Ron, for the next hour, as conversation slowly started again. As Ron and Hermione got ready to leave, Hermione shyly handed back the little jumper back. Molly said, “Please keep it, Hermione. Here’s evidence of the pregnancy that did not last, with hopes that you will have one that will last soon.” |
| Reviews 59 |
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