If you were going to be a blind kid, it was best to be a blind kid in a place where everything was magic, right? That's what Matt had told himself when he got his Hogwarts letter. It had sort of helped with the nerves, but considering that he was in an orphanage anyway he kind of saw himself as out of place anywhere back then.
Sitting in the common room now he could barely remember feeling that lost. It was NEWT year and earlier his classmates had been complaining about how they'd like to go back to simpler times but Matt couldn't bring himself to agree with them. After losing his sight from a potion to his eyes at age 9 he'd started showing signs of magic which had manifested in his abilities to sense around him. The healers at St. Mungoes had some theories about how his magical abilities had fused with the potion's properties but no one really knew why he ended up with as much of a sense of his surroundings as he did. It was a confusing, difficult childhood in a Muggle orphanage and when he'd finally gotten to Hogwarts he'd felt at home for the first time since his father died.
He heard the door to the common room open behind him and he continued to sit gazing into the fire as Foggy came in, his breathing and movements familiar. He still remembered meeting Foggy on the Hogwarts Express on that very first day. The boy across from them had insisted that if you got sorted into different houses you couldn't possibly stay friends, and as stubborn eleven year olds they'd furiously rejected that notion. Everyone knew that Foggy from Hufflepuff and Matt from Slytherin were inseparable and they had long since stopped questioning when one turned up in the other's dorm, like now.
Foggy sat down on the sofa next to him with a huff. "My god, that did not go well. You'd think Professor McGonagall would let up a bit considering Gryffindor are so ahead on house points already."
Matt smiled with amusement. "Foggy you did fail to turn in the first assignment of the year and take Hufflepuff into negative house points for the first time in history."
"Details, details," Foggy brushed aside, "The important part is that she's given me a detention which just happens to be when that new girl is arriving from Beauxbatons! I need to be there when the hot French girl arrives!"
"You know she isn't actually French right? Her parents have just lived there for a while. She's just come back to Hogwarts for her NEWTs."
"Nah, I'm choosing to overlook that. She's French and therefore hot and I'm not gonna be there to be charming and meet her!" Foggy gave a dramatic wail and flung himself over the arm of the sofa. He knew Matt understood what he was doing even before his best friend laughed.
"At what point do I have to admit to you McGonagall has asked me to greet her and show her round?" It was moments like this Matt really wished he had his sight back, to see the disbelieving and irritated look on his best friend's face. He could imagine it well enough though, and the wail in Foggy's voice confirmed it for him.
"That's not fair! That is literally the unfairest thing I have ever heard. That's seriously, awfully unfair and I hate you."
"I could put a word in. Tell her all about my charming and funny best friend." Matt couldn't keep the grin off his face or the amusement out of his voice, and he could hear it echoed back to him in Foggy's voice too.
"Charming and funny? You would describe me to a girl as charming and funny?"
"What would you prefer I said, rugged and erotic?"
His best friend barked out a laugh. "Oh god no. I think you've got that covered though."
Matt snorted out a laugh. "I highly doubt that."
"No see here's the thing: you've been blind since before puberty my friend. You fail to see that you are a handsome motherfucker and yet, you still manage to pull all the hot girls. Seriously I don't know how you do it. At all."
A sixth year piped up from across the common room. "Turn down the gay over there assholes!"
"You'll never have what we have!" Foggy joked loudly in response, and Matt laughed.
"Anyway, Matt you totally need to help me with this McGonagall thing. She needs to let up. I don't understand why she hates me so much." Matt could hear the whine in his voice and could feel the sofa move and shift as Foggy gestured with his hands.
"You know exactly why she hates you. When are you gonna stop making sarcastic comments in class? And, you know, actually do the homework?"
"Alright but that was last year, we're serious now! Seriously Matt if we wanna go into Magical Law, and we totally do, then I need her on side to get me into the Ministry." They'd decided late last year to go for ministry positions. The applications weren't open yet but they needed seriously good grades to get there. Matt knew they were both capable of achieving them but Foggy needed to tone it down a bit sometimes if he wanted any hope of passing interviews. He had faith it was something he'd grow out of with time, though he hoped his best friend would never lose his sense of humour.
"Honestly Foggy I think the best thing you can do is to keep your head down and do the work from now on."
"Eh. Maybe." Foggy admitted with a smile that Matt could hear.
"And you should definitely go to this detention." He added seriously, moving to stand up. Foggy rose next to him and they started to walk towards the common room door ready to head up to dinner.
Foggy huffed. "You're just saying that because you get to go and see the pretty girl." He opened the common room door and quietly placed a hand on Matt's arm, telling him to hold back while two girls came through the door. Matt didn't need the assistance but appreciated the sentiment.
"How am I going to know if she's pretty?" He replied as he followed Foggy up the corridor, one hand lightly on his arm as they headed up towards the entrance hall. Their shoes echoed off the cold stone floors and it was easy to tell where people were walking.
"Don't start this we've just discussed this. You always know."
Matt smiled. "Yeah well, you might have it wrong, she might not be hot at all."
"Well I guess we'll find out on Thursday when she gets here. What's her name anyway did McGonagall tell you?"
"Karen."
