Chapter Two: Potter Mania
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It didn't take long for Mrs. Potter to order James to put some clothes on. He ran out of the kitchen the way he had come, and I heard a thundering sound, suggesting he'd gone up a flight of stairs before shooting across a hall of some kind.
"Boys," Mrs. Potter laughed. "Would you like to sit down? You look lost on your feet,"
"Thank you,"
Her shoes clicked over to me, and she placed a hand on my shoulder, counting out loud the steps I would have to take to get to a chair. I put my hands out and felt the back of a wooden chair that went up to just past midway up my stomach. I pulled out the chair, careful to not let it scrape the floor, and sat down.
I heard Mrs. Potter sit down next to me and I turned to face her.
"Professor Dumbledore tells me you like to handle most things on your own," Mrs. Potter said. I could tell she was smiling.
"Yeah, I don't really want people babying me. Most people would call me stubborn, but I prefer to think of it as independence,"
Mrs. Potter laughed a sweet tinkling laugh and I smiled. "That sounds like something Nathaniel, my husband, would say,"
There was more thundering from upstairs.
"Sounds like James is dressed," I said tilting my head towards the noise.
"Do you mind the noise?" Mrs. Potter asked suddenly, sounding concerned.
"No, not at all, in fact that's like asking if you mind the colors," I said.
"Oh, alright, then you may end up loving it here, it's always so noisy,"
"Don't call me an 'it' mom," James was walking into the room. He must have put socks on, because I couldn't really hear his footsteps as he walked across the tile. "What's for breakfast?"
"When did you get up?"
"When you yelled my name," James answered simply. More muffled footsteps and the suction holding a fridge door closed was broken.
"But I told the house elves to get you up,"
"They tried to, believe me," James said exasperatedly.
"James!" I heard a chair scrape across the floor and Mrs. Potter's footsteps running out of the room.
"Where is she going?"
"To make sure the house elves don't try to drown themselves in the pool again,"
"Oh, that's nice,"
"Don't worry, I thought ahead. I specifically told them not to do anything that could cause injury,"
"How many are there?"
"Siff," he said through a mouthful of some sort of food.
"I'm sorry?"
I heard him gulp and gasp for breath, "Six," I wonder just how big this room is…
"So," I heard James walk over and sit down in the chair his mother had vacated. "What's your story?"
"My story?"
"Yeah, I mean, I don't want to be rude, but why aren't you at—er… with your parents?"
"Oh! Well, um…" I felt blood rushing to my face. I hadn't even thought of a story to keep people from asking questions.
"Say no more, you can tell me later, I mean, you're spending the summer here right? Plus, I'm sure we'll get to hang out at school,"
"You mean you don't mind that I can't see?" I said suddenly hopeful. I had been hoping to make some guy friends. They wouldn't bug me about needing help up the stairs and stuff as much as girls would.
"Why would I? You seem nice enough,"
"Thanks," I said grinning.
"So, how about I take you for a tour?" I heard him stand, so I got up as well.
"I'll show you where you'll be sleeping first,"
"What about your mom?"
"She'll be fine; she would've made me give you a tour anyway,"
"Alright," I stood awkwardly as James started to walk away. I took a few steps towards where James was, and then stopped. This isn't going to work…I've been around Hogwarts way longer than this…
"Here," James came back and hooked my arm around his.
"Sorry, I can normally walk around on my own,"
"No worries, you've only just arrived here,"
We began walking out of the kitchen and soon found ourselves on a carpet seven steps from the table. We kept walking and James turned us to the left eleven steps in on the carpet.
"Stairs here," he said.
"Okay," We got to the top and there were fourteen stairs. We turned right and headed down a corridor with a rug on the floor.
"Here's the bathroom," he said turning me left after ten steps. We walked in and he showed where everything was, which was a bit awkward.
"I bet you don't do this everyday," I said laughing.
"Oh no, I do it all the time," he said, probably with a smile.
We exited the bathroom and took another ten steps down the hall before going right through a doorway, and headed down another corridor. Six steps down this one, he stopped me and we turned left.
"And here is your room," he said opening a door. I reached out to find the handle. James caught my hand and put it there. It was cool to the touch and smooth. The handle was too.
"Your bed is strait ahead here," we walked in twelve steps before my leg bumped into a mattress. I felt the bed covers. They were the enlarged fluffy kind that you would find in a nice hotel. I moved my hand to the top of the bed and felt several big pillows with tassels.
"What color is the bed?" I asked, curious and wanting to see the room in my mind as much as I could.
"It's red, with gold lining," James said, clearly confused as to why color would mean anything to a blind person.
"And the room?"
"Scarlet until about a third of the way up the wall, from there is an inch thick gold lining. The rest is white,"
"I wasn't always blind," I said suddenly, facing the direction where my fingers were playing with a tassel. "In fact, it's all completely new to me," my eyes began welling up with unwanted tears.
I felt weight come down onto the bed and a hand upon my shoulder.
"I've only been this way for a few weeks," I continued. "I was living at the castle to get used to it for next year and so on. My parents were muggles, so they wouldn't have known about Hogwarts at all," I said picking my words carefully. My parents weren't dead, but I couldn't have people asking about them either.
"That sounds scary," James said. "How did you become blind?"
I traveled back in time 21 years to deliver a secret message to Dumbledore…Oh, and your son is one of my best friends…not to mention the fact that you're dead where I'm from…
I opened my mouth and closed it several times. I couldn't think of any good reasons that were possible. I can't tell him what really happened…it would cause awkward questions…I need to talk to Dumbledore about this…
"I'd rather not talk about that," I said, deciding to stay neutral.
We sat there quiet for a little while. The silence that was around us was unnerving. The quieter it was, the more nervous I got.
"Want to go see my room?" James asked finally breaking the silence.
"Sure," I said. I stood up and he led me down the hall. His room ended up being about five steps from mine.
He finished showing me around and I made a ton of mental notes. I focused on remembering how far my room was from the bathroom and the kitchen, as well as from James' room.
Two of the six house elves, Skippy and Twinkie, were assigned to me specifically. Both were girls and knew the house very well. All I had to do was whisper their names and they would be at my side. Skippy had bigger feet, so she made slightly more noise walking than Twinkie did, but Twinkie had bigger ears. Whenever she walked next to me, an ear would always flop over and knock into my arm. She was always muttering "Sorry, miss," in a high squeaky voice that rivaled Flitwick's.
James was always around, constantly making sure I was content. But the more he was around me, the less worried he got about saying things like "Want to go see this?" or "What about the blue one?" I wondered sometimes if he did this to get on my nerves. He always laughed at me when I said, "Let's look at this here," or something to that effect.
Mrs. Potter took us to Diagon Alley quite often as well. I knew them well enough now that I could tell their footsteps apart. I didn't have to hang off of someone's arm anymore; I just walked very close to them. James and I would walk into the random shops and just float around. Sometimes he'd even ask me my opinion on a girl.
"What about this one?" he said one time while we were at Flourish and Blotts. It was late August and we'd be going back to Hogwarts in two days.
"Description please,"
"Kind of tall, skinny, and blonde hair,"
"Freckles?"
"No, but fair skin,"
"What's her voice sound like?"
"I dunno,"
"Well, get closer,"
He led me over through some rows of books and got us close enough to hear someone laughing. It was a bad laugh. Like a donkey choking on water.
"Is she the one laughing?"
"Yeah,"
"James, that's a horrid choice,"
"But she's pretty!"
"You think they're all pretty!"
"What does that prove?"
"You're a prat,"
"You're picky," we walked along away from the blonde with the creepy laugh. "Oh, here's one! Red head, fair skin, and no freckles. She's kind of short."
"How short?"
"Your height,"
"Very funny," I said elbowing him. "But is she nice?"
"Here's a way to find out," James' feet ran from my side.
"James, that's not funny!" I shouted in his direction. "James! Get back here!"
No response. Perfect, I'm in a bookstore filled with people…and I'm blind…great…
I stumbled along the shelves, trying to find James. He wouldn't've gone far; just far enough that I couldn't catch him. I reached the end of the shelf and tripped over a book. I crashed to the floor, my hands flailing helplessly.
"Oh, are you alright?" a girl's voice was suddenly next to my ear. "I'm so sorry, I just left these books here, they're for school, and I was just looking for some others to get background knowledge of magic and stuff,"
I got myself off of the floor as she babbled on and put my hand on the shelf that was next to me.
"That's fine, it's not your fault," I said, breaking her midsentance. She's just like Hermione... "I'm Keena McIntosh, by the way,"
"Lily Evans," said the girl. Must be the red head James was on about… "Are you for Hogwarts?"
"Yes, I'll be starting my first year," I said nodding, and listening for James' footsteps.
"Oh, me too! Are your parents wizards?"
"No," I said shortly. "They're muggles, but I've been living with a wizard family. In fact, would you mind telling me if you can see a boy about two inches or so taller than myself? I think he's got black hair, probably messy. His mother is always telling him to brush it,"
"Okay," Lily said. She had a gentle voice that reminded me of Mrs. Potter. "What is his name?"
"James, James Potter. I sort of got separated from him,"
"That's not very responsible of him," Lily said in a disapproving tone. "Do you mind me asking why you're in a bookstore?"
"Why are you?" I countered. "I'm still going to have book work to do,"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything," Lily sounded slightly ashamed of asking. She was probably turning pink.
"No that's fine," I said. She sounds nice…perhaps too much so for me though…
"Oh, I see him, I think. Let me call his name," she yelled his name and I heard James' footsteps running over to us.
"There you are, Keena, I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"I'll bet you have," I muttered. Lily heard me and decided to put her two cents in.
"Why would you let yourself lose Keena here in the first place? It seems very irresponsible of you,"
"Well, what do we have here?" James' voice was suddenly losing its charm. "I didn't mean to lose her, I just did,"
"Can we not talk about me as if I'm not right here?"
"Sorry Keena," James said. "Oh, look, there's my mother. We'd better be going," James dragged me out of the store quickly.
"What did you do that for?" I asked wrenching myself from James' iron grip.
"She was yelling at me!"
"You left me in the middle of a crowded store to fend for myself! I was going to yell at you!"
"Yeah, but you've actually have a reason to be mad, she just jumped down my throat!"
"You're hopeless James,"
"Yep," he said. "Come on, we're supposed to be meeting Mum in the Leaky Cauldron,"
We made our way to the pub and went back home. That night, the house elves packed our bags and we got everything ready for Hogwarts. The night before we left, Mrs. Potter cried, and I could hear her hugging the life out of James.
"Mum, relax! I'll be back before you know it!" James' muffled voice came through his mother's arms.
"I know! But you're my little baby boy!" she sobbed.
"Jaime, let the boy go," Mr. Potter's solid voice came through. "We don't want him suffocating, do we Keena?"
"No sir, who would drag me around the castle?" I asked laughing.
We went to bed after a large bowl of ice cream. When I say large, I mean James and I had to share one to finish it. That's saying a lot; James eats like there's no tomorrow.
I fell asleep listening to the fan buzzing above my head.
Look out Hogwarts, here I come…
There's the end of Chapter two! I hope you liked it! I'll update ASAP! Please Review:-D