PROMPTS:
#3 - Winter winds
#12 - Sentence: S/he's too quiet these days
The winter winds blew against the trees outside the Manor, causing their branches to scrap against the windows or the leaves to rustle and blow in all different directions. However, Scorpius had never gotten to experience any of these things. Never had he had the chance to hear the calming crash of the waves against the shorelines when his parents would take him out to the beach when he was a child or heard the happy songs of birds in the mornings. He didn't even have the privilege to know what his voice, or his mother and fathers voices, sounded like.
Scorpius Malfoy was born deaf, though neither Draco nor Astoria noticed until he was almost a year old. They'd think that he just wasn't interested in what sounds either of them were making, being a bit more interested and curious in the movements that they would do to capture his attention. When it came to his first birthday and he still hadn't uttered a single word, whereas all their friends' children had at least said two by then, they started to become worried. Draco and Astoria began to reflect back on the past months and began to understand that that was the reason why he never cared for sound – because he couldn't hear it. Still, the both of them were in denial over their son possibly having any disability since he was such a perfect child and so, as soon as they could, they took him to St Mungos to have a check up on his hearing.
The results were proof enough. The Healer had destroyed their little shreds of hope by telling them that Scorpius had sensorineural hearing loss, which meant that the inner nerves that transmitted sound to the brain was damaged. It was permanent, they had been told. No way to fix or improve it. The hair cells in the cochlea were damaged and they would forever remain that way, unable to be repaired.
"But-but Muggles, they have those things that help their deaf children, don't they?" Astoria had pleaded desperately. Draco had looked shell shocked still, and wasn't even going as far as asking for a Muggle treatment to do anything to help the son that was gazing dazedly around the room. It was the last thing Astoria wanted to do, Draco knew, but it would probably help her to feel less guilt if it worked than if either of them had refused even to go down the road of Muggles.
"Unfortunately Mrs Malfoy, hearing aids will do nothing to help your son's hearing because of the damaged cell hairs, and spells are too risky to do due to it being so near to the brain." Healer Archer grimaced when Astoria made a choked noise and watched as she buried her faced into her husband's shoulder. He continued to stare straight ahead as if he wasn't in the room with them. "We offer cochlea implants-" He began saying.
She quickly pulled her face away from Draco and looked at the Healer with wild eyes and tear stained cheeks. "We'll do that then – I don't care how much it is." She fished a purse out of her bag that was slung over her shoulder and began to count up a ridiculous amount of Galleons.
"-but we'd have to do another exam on Scorpius and he might not benefit from it if it is discovered that his hearing nerves aren't functioning normally," he finished.
Astoria agreed to Scorpius having another test to see if he was able to benefit from a hearing aid while stifling back sobs. Draco and his wife both exited the room at the request of the Healer as he performed the next test, though it didn't take long. For the few minutes that they both were gone, Draco had come out of his daze long enough to comfort Astoria and calm her down, but that was all for naught since tears began to escape as soon as the Healer's head began to shake.
Healer Archer had begun to explain to them that having a cochlea implant wasn't always the best anyway, to try to soothe Scorpius's mother as well as his father. He had told them that his hearing would be given back through electrical impulses from the implant, but then he'd also have to attend speech therapy and even with the implant he may find it hard to communicate. Archer also explained that for the implant to be put in place they would've had to cut his head open and once placed, they would be unable to remove it later in life for whatever reason. This, however, hadn't served to make Astoria calmer and instead she became more distraught over the thought of her baby boy's head being opened. Draco had to step in then, as it was getting late and their son was staring confusedly at his mother's hysterics. He had reassured her that they would do the best they could for Scorpius with his deafness and that even if he had passed the last exam and was able to have the implant, then that would've taken away his options if Scorpius had decided when he was older that he didn't want it.
"The surgery might've not gone correctly either," the Healer had said. "There's a high success rate, but it's not 100%. Nerve cells in the face could be damaged; he could come out worse than not being able to hear."
Draco, who had been mostly stoic the whole time, let his guard falter for a second at that. He was terribly upset that his son had been confirmed as deaf, though he hadn't let much on, but thinking that Scorpius could've come out of that operation being unable to ever move his face again or something worse, broke his heart even more.
He had quickly bid the Healer farewell, scooped a silent and confused Scorpius into his arms, and practically dragged a wailing Astoria out of the hospital.
Almost the very next day, Astoria and Draco made dozens of owls and Floo calls to people all over the country, then when they decided that they should broaden their choices even more, all over Europe. They asked everyone they knew and every clinic for deaf people to try to find the best sign language teacher that money could buy – they wanted him to learn quickly and easily so that he'd be on the same speaking level as any other child his age. Both of them wanted a good teacher so that they could also learn at the same speed as Scorpius, or maybe faster so that he could learn from them and speak better, and to be able to communicate with their son without any problems. A teacher, who was acclaimed to be the best in Europe, was found in France less than a week later with outstanding results and a fee that the Malfoys could more than pay. It was arranged for her to stay alternate months in Malfoy Manor so that she didn't have to travel continually back and forth by portkey, and for the months that she wasn't with them, she would leave a set of instructions and activities for them to try with Scorpius to help improve his signing. With that sorted, Draco and Astoria moved on to owling every magical school they had heard of to see if there was hope for Scorpius being able to practice magic, like a normal little boy. They had gone for months with hardly any replies from the schools and hope for him being able to learn magic at all was little more than a match in a black cave. Draco would've taught his son himself, but non-verbal magic was a very difficult thing to accomplish and that would be the only way that Scorpius would ever be able to do magic since he didn't know how to speak. He could only do certain spells non-verbally as well, so teaching his son to do it with a range of spells would've surpassed his ability, and he wasn't so certain whether he'd have to take different steps to teach Scorpius to do it. After two months with no confirmation from any schools, they had given up and made the difficult decision to raise him as if he had been born a Squib, so that when he was older he would be able to leave the Wizarding World - which he wouldn't have much use in - and leave to live in the Muggle world. It broke both of their hearts to have to think like that, but they knew from their own experiences that the Wizarding World depended on magic a lot and he wouldn't be able to perform any spells. After the age of eleven, his accidental magic outbursts would've ended and so he'd be suited for a Muggle life when he was older.
"He's too quiet these days," Astoria said to Draco one summer morning years later.
"He's always been quiet Astoria; he doesn't know how to speak. This house is eerily silent most of the time," Draco snapped as he scribbled something down on one of the many papers that were littering his desk. After a moment, he realised how insensitive he had been and reached for his wife's hands, trying not to feel even worse by looking into her appalled face. He sighed, sounding truly remorseful. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I love Scorpius with all my heart - I didn't mean that at all. All these contracts and paperwork..." he trailed off.
She nodded but didn't say anything for a few minutes. She was upset that he had been so easily insensitive and when he was angry or stressed, as he had been recently, he unconsciously knew the right words that would scar deep. Of course Astoria had known that it had never been a loud house filled with children's voices like she had dreamed it to be, but when she had said he was too quiet she didn't mean it in that sense...
She gently laid one of her hands on his shoulder. "I know," she whispered, holding back tears. Draco reached up to wipe away some that had escaped. "I don't understand why he's suddenly stopped signing though."
He placed his quill down on his desk and stood to look out his study window at Scorpius who was sitting in the garden reading one of his books. "I would have suggested the thought that the books are making him wonder whether things sound the same way they are described in books, but this muteness is recent," he said.
Astoria nodded. It was a plausible idea, she thought. Scorpius had sometimes asked her questions about the way things sounded, but they had stopped a few years ago when he had decided that he didn't care to know because he could never imagine it. He had signed to her what he thought when she had asked him why he didn't ask any questions about sound anymore, and it broke her heart to think about it. She couldn't imagine never being able to recall how bees sounded as they buzzed past her, the way her family sounded or even the simple click of a switch – it was impossible for anyone to comprehend. The closest she could ever get to understanding him without being deaf herself was – although it could be thought of as insensitive – thinking that his whole life was like a silent film, though she knew that real life would be harder to understand. "Did he meet anyone at Diagon Alley when you went last week? Anyone who could've scared him?"
Draco's eyebrows furrowed and he looked concerned for a moment before his lips twitched up into an almost-smile. "We actually happened to bump into the Potters and Weasleys on their school run. Scorpius seemed to be rather taken with Rose Weasley," he mused.
"I don't understand." Astoria shook her head. "There were no fights were there? I thought all of you were civil to each other and you wouldn't stand in the way of the children being friends. How did meeting her make him to not want to speak anymore?"
His frown returned. "When I was speaking with...them, I noticed that their children were all trying to speak to Scorpius and - bless the poor boy – he had no idea how to respond. There was a few of them too – about five or six of them – and they all crowded around him. I told them that he couldn't hear them, so they started shouting. As if he wasn't intimidated enough before that!"
Her hand flew to her mouth in sympathy; she imagined that she would've felt the exact same way as he if she were in that situation. "I'm guessing signing didn't help him, did it?"
"No...They all just looked even more confused. Rose had that same curious expression her mother used to have though, but being curious didn't help any of them to know what he was saying. Their parents managed to get them to quieten down whilst I tried to soothe Scorpius, and after that we left."
Astoria nodded her head; now she understood. Scorpius didn't want to sign anymore because he thought that no one would ever know what he was saying other than his parents, which she could understand wasn't the greatest thing in the world. He wanted new friends - of course he did - but it was extremely difficult to come across children who knew how to sign. She tried to think up a good explanation to sign to Scorpius to try to convince him not to stop talking just because a couple of other children didn't know what he was saying, but they were the only ones he'd ever been with who hadn't known that he was deaf. Maybe he had thought that they were more interesting because he had never met any of them before, whereas all his other friends he had known for all his life and they had been taught to sign just for him. Neither of them could force him into talking but they also couldn't keep him so isolated from everyone else that the sort of reaction he experienced in Diagon alley was unusual.
"Well...what if we proved that they do know what he's saying?" Astoria asked, hopeful.
Draco raised an eyebrow and studied his wife's face. "You mean trick him into believing that they know?"
"Sort of," she said. "But it wouldn't be tricking. Not completely. You said he seemed to like Rose, well, if we taught Rose a few phrases and then introduced them, he would see that there are people who know. Moreover, she would genuinely know too because she would've learned. You said she was like her mother, so Rose would be our best hope for a new friend."
"A Malfoy being friends with a Weasley," Draco chuckled, turning away from the window. "I thought I'd never see the day."