Seer of the Keys ⟶ Harry Potter

Chapter Seven

At exactly 4:26 a.m. the next morning, Ananya began the morning prayer. She chanted softly, in order to let her dorm-mates sleep in, and moved as slow as possible for the same reason. She'd already cleansed her body, and soon enough she'd finished up and put away the rug. With nothing else to do, she took out her new potions book and went to read it in the cozy common room. It was empty, which was to be expected at such an early time, and she was glad that she had the time to think.

It took almost an hour for anyone to come out of their dorms, and it was the other prefect, a boy. Ananya remembered that he had introduced himself as Gabriel Reizon at the feast. He gave her a bright grin and bounded over, seemingly not bothered by the early hour. "Hello! I'm Gabriel, and you're...Ananya, was it?" He had dark skin and a light accent that sounded like her grandfather's.

"Yes, that's me. How're you today, Gabriel?" She held out a hand and he shook it.

"I'm great! I just finished my morning prayer, so I'm up and ready for a new year."

She tilted her head. "Fajr?" When he nodded, she continued, "I did mine too. Maybe we could do them together sometime."

Gabriel's face lit up like a lantern at witching hour, and held out a hand. "That would be great! Maybe we could do it together down here. Nobody comes down before six, unless they're like us."

They continued talking about prayers until a steady stream of students began to trickle out of the dorms and into the common room. Ananya saw Penny, out of the corner of her eye, skip over to the couch and plop beside her. "Hey, Ananya! Hi, Gabriel! How are you guys up so early?" Her bright demeanor didn't match her words in the slightest, but she ignored that to answer the question.

"We had morning prayers," she said. Gabriel nodded in confirmation and gave Penny a crinkly-eyed smile.

"That's cool. Are you going to breakfast yet?"

Gabriel shook his head. "Nope, I'm going down with Penelope. We're probably going to sit with her boyfriend Percy." He rolled his eyes teasingly at Penelope, who had just arrived in front of them. He stood and the two prefects left for the Great Hall. Ananya and Penny looked at each other and followed behind, trying not to get too lost. It only took them ten minutes to get to the beautiful doors, and they entered together. Ananya waved at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who waved back from the Gryffindor table. Penelope had told them that the first years couldn't sit with other tables, but everyone else could, which was a little disappointing, but it was the rule.

The two girls took a pair of seats at the very end of the Hufflepuffs, right in front of the teacher's table, and dug in. Ananya had been assured by Professor McGonagall (with a handy letter from the Headmaster himself) that all of the foods served in Hogwarts were both a mixture of Kosher and Halal—so as to cater to the tidy percent of Muslim and Jewish students. It was quite nice to not have to check labels before she ate anything, so she began to shovel food on her plate quickly but carefully. Soon enough, she had a large selection of foods to eat, like soft-scrambled eggs, peanut butter toast (with halal bread, of course), and lots of fruits.

Penny, finished with her meal, watched as Ananya devoured her plate without abandon. Honestly, it was a little weird for her to eat like that, but she had never been able to eat everything and anything that was offered, so she felt justified. Hurriedly, though, she drained her glass of water and gazed excitedly on as the used dishes disappeared. Finally, it was time for her first class of the day, which was listed right on the schedule their head of house had passed to her.

Charms, here she comes.

Author's note:

Hey all! Sorry for the long wait. I kind of dropped off around midway through and didn't really know where I was going with this, BUT! I finally got inspiration right before bed and here we are. This is a long-ish chapter (it has 805 words) compared to the others. It's mostly filler, sorry about that!

Of course, it goes in depth about Islam again, like with halal food and such. Hopefully this wasn't too boring, and I'll post chapter 8 sometime soon!

By the way, I'm in show choir this year, and we have a "camp" where we learn everything we'll need...so I'll be quite busy these next three days. Thanks for reading!!! <3

[graphic by wtflangdons ]