Weekly Drabble Challenge - Theme: Spirituality - Results

[lily_evans34]

With my luck, Ritta will close this right as I'm about to post... >.>

Name: lily_evans34
House: Ravenclaw
Title: Uncertainty
Rating: 1st - 2nd years
Warnings: Atheism?
Word Count: 427
Authors Notes: I hope this is acceptable. Basically... the only way I can regard spirituality is with 'or lack thereof' attached.

“Do you believe in God?”

It was an easy enough question, Susan noted absently. She was lying on her back in her four-poster bed, staring at the ceiling without interest, when Hannah had posed her question. It was only seven in the evening, but they had retired early from dinner. The Great Hall, once so lively and stimulating, had recently become the embodiment of every other aspect of Susan’s seventh year at Hogwarts: sombre, dismal, hopeless.

“Why do you ask?”

Grudgingly, (for she was quite tired, despite the early hour), Susan sat up and glanced around the room. Hannah was sitting in her bed, legs crossed, holding her Charms textbook and flipping through the pages disinterestedly. Her brow was furrowed, and she appeared to be deep in concentration.

“No reason,” she replied, though she didn’t meet Susan’s eye when she spoke. “I was just wondering, you know… Just, with everything that’s happening and all… There’s a point, isn’t there? There has to be.”

Finally she looked up, and Susan was taken aback to see Hannah’s expression. She tried to pinpoint it to something more specific than desperation, but that was the only word she could come up with.

There’s a point, isn’t there?

Susan closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t have an answer to Hannah’s question, or, moreover, why she had never thought about it before. Everyone believed in God, didn’t they? Shouldn’t they?

She thought fleetingly of her aunt, murdered the previous year. It would be comforting, to think that there was something better out there. To think that she had died for a reason, and that everything would work out in the end. Was it really that easy to believe? She wanted to. She wanted to more than anything. The notion of God was something that she had been subconsciously raised with, though she had never been taught one way or another. For the first time, she wished she had been. It would be easier to accept everything if she had someone to guide her.

She thought of her parents, hundreds of miles away. Were they safe? She couldn’t be certain. She couldn’t be certain of anything, anymore. Was there really a reason for why her family and friends were dying – in this constant danger?

And then she thought of Harry Potter. She thought of Dumbledore. The man who had been the epitome of goodness had fallen at the hand of someone who sought murder, vengeance. How could anyone justify that?

Do you believe in God?

“No,” she finally answered. “I don’t.”

[mudbloodproud]

Name: mudbloodproud
House: Hufflepuff
Title: If This is...
Rating: 3rd-5th years
Warnings: mild language, though it refers to a place
Word Count: 406
Authors Notes: I, too, had no inspiration for this drabble. Then this morning, I thought, why not write about the afterlife. Hope that isn't stretching the prompt too far.

If this is Hell, it’s not so bad, Sirius thought as he looked around. He knew he was dead, he remembered falling through the Veil. What he never expected was to find himself standing in a beautiful garden.

He was raised listening to his mother preach on how only pureblood wizards got to go to Heaven. Everyone else went to Hell.

“You must keep to the pureblood way-of-life, Sirius, or else you will end up burning for all eternity.” He heard those words from her mouth from the time he was a baby.

Sirius wondered when the burning began. Maybe this was just a tease. Wouldn’t that be the perfect torture, make you think you are in a wonderful place, then the fire appears.

Sirius looked around. Walking towards him, he could see a group of people. When he spotted his brother, he knew this had to be hell. But, as that thought ran through his mind, he recognized others, his Uncle Alphard, and two people who brought not only a smile to his face, but hope that maybe he was in Heaven, James and Lily. Surely, they were not in Hell.

Though, by his mother’s definition, they would qualify as candidates, one being a Mudblood and one who was a blood-traitor. Maybe the fires were still to come.

“Where am I?” he asked as soon as they got close enough to hear him.

“Well, brother,” Regulus began, “our dear old mother had it all wrong. You can believe in something besides the pureblood way-of-life and still go to Heaven.” Regulus had reached his side and drew Sirius into a hug.

Sirius looked at Lily. He knew she would not lie to him. “Lily?” he asked.

Smiling, Lily stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around him. ‘Welcome to the afterlife. This is not Hell, Sirius,” she said reassuringly. ‘You are in Heaven with the rest of us.”

James gently pushed Lily out of the way so he too could hug his best friend. “I’m glad you are here. This place has been so boring, it needs some livening up.”

Sirius, still in shock, looked around. He couldn’t believe the flames of Hell were not going to be dancing at his feet at any moment. Even with their reassurances, he had a hard time discounting the preaching of his mother.

Finally, he said, “Well if this is Hell, at least I am not here alone.”

[mugglemathdork]

++First Place::
Master of the Inner Eye by Equinox Chick

++Second Place::
Prodigal by Gonz

++Third Place::
Uncertainty by lily_evans34

++Honourable Mention::
The Gentle Shepherd by eternalangel

Points will be posted shortly.
~Ebil One