*enters, Snape bracing against the door while getting out his wand to charm it shut* wow. The winds are at 100 klms per hour here. Blown away!
Alright, now I know that Oliver Wood has graduated. *chuckles* Kindly forgive me my error and replace Wood with Katie Bell, who somehow strikes me as the next quidditch captain (don't ask me why-- it's one of those things. heh).
Anyhow... first installment of the second part of this. Hm. I've had a lot of people asking for Draco to be good, as many for him to be evil, and a few telling me to do what I like. Very well... Let's.... educate him during the year, shall we? *evil glint in eyes*
Chapter 14 *hits play*
____________________
September 2nd was a Friday. And in the class schedule Harry had received, Fridays started with Double Potions. Harry woke up very early, used by now to be woken by the twittering of the birds and the shuffling of the house-elves' feet that were preparing the morning fires and other things for the day. He got dressed shakily with cold fingers. Butterflies danged in his stomach for that day was going to be the first of a series of charades. He had no idea what this day was holding for him. He outstretched his left hand for Sasha to slither on.
"You are nervousss, young masster?" the coral snake asked as she wrapped herself around the thin wrist snugly.
"Yes... very." Harry replied, stroking the triagonal head. Sasha's tongue flicked against Harry's skin in a light caress. Harry took out his wand. "I will cast a partial invisibility spell on you, Sasha, so that along with my robe sleeve over you you will not be seen."
"Don't explain... I trussst you." Sasha flicked her tongue and tasted the air, savouring the shifting of magical waves as Harry casted. Then, Harry pulled on his school robes.
He opened the door of his room and unfolded his cane, pocketing his wand. As he became more and more confident with his remaining senses, Harry used his wand less and less for orientation. He did not want people to know real things he depended on-- that would only reveal weaknesses beyond the obvious ones. Harry smirked as he walked towards the owlery to get Hedwig. Snape and his paranoia was starting to rub off on him.
He opened the hatch to the owlery and was greeted with the cozy air and low, soft noises of owls taking their rest there.
"Hedwig. Come here, girl." he said softly. Harry hadn't noticed, but he had started to spek in low, velvety tones lately that did not cover noise. Hedwig flew to Harry's outstretched arm and perched there. Harry smiled weakly. "Do you mind being my decoy, girl?" he asked the bird fondly, and Hedwig hooted lovingly, nudging Harry's earlobe to make her approval known. Harry stroked the soft, silky feathers, and turned to direct himself to breakfast.
***
"Alright there, Harry?"
Harry swore that the next person to ask him that would get hexed purple.
"Yes, Dennis, I am fine."
"Do you want me to lead you anywhere?" Dennis asked excitedly. Harry wondered if all this affair was a game to the younger student.
"No, Dennis, I can manage. But please step to the side, or my cane might hit you." Harry replied with more eagerness in the last part of his sentence than concern. Dennis hopped to the side and Harry walked warily past. He found that somehow, the limbs of classmates kept being in his way after the over-excited student had jumped to the side. He wondered if they were doing it on purpose or out of sheer clumsiness.
It was with these thoughts that he sat huffily to have his breakfast, which sprung up immediately as he touched his fork and knife.
"Oy Harry. You looked peeved." Ron's voice opposite him made him sigh.
"It is just that it was far easier when the castle was empty." he exclaimed and gave a piece of toast to Hedwig on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Harry. It will be better later. They are clustering around you is all." Hermione said bossily while eating her eggs.
"Think if I hex them radially, they will keep their distance?" Harry said with feeling and shoved a mouthful of toast and jam in his mouth. There was a pause around him that made him wonder momentarily, then Ron said in his usual tact:
"Man, you spooked us out, you just sounded like Snape!"
"RON!"
Harry only chuckled.
"Speaking of Snape, we have Double Potions coming up."
"Is that why you have Hedwig with you?" Ron asked. Harry nodded.
"Is she your sight familiar? I thought it was--"
"Shhh! You thought right, Hermione, but that has to remain secret. We can't have the Slytherins know I have... another one. I have charmed her to be invisible for this reason." Harry whispered so low that Ron and Hermione had to lean within centimeters to be able to hear him.
"Okay... but why?" it was Hermione that asked again.
"Because Voldemort thinks I see through Hedwig. And he has to continue to do so. Lives are at stake over this information." Harry whispered. Hermione and Ron looked at each other with numbness and understanding. They both realised that Harry was refering specifically to a single life at stake: Severus Snape's.
"What do we have to do?" Hermione asked.
"Just make sure nobody hears me speak in parseltongue during Potions or Divination, Ron."
Ron nodded, and when he saw Harry's expression remain expectant of an answer, he said:
"You got it, Harry.... though I can't believe we will be actually helping--"
"RON!"
***
Hedwig squawked her dissatisfaction to being in a dungeon.
"Mr. Potter-- the fact that the Headmaster has obliged me to tolerate your ... 'requirements' as of late does not entitle me to have your owl disrupt my lesson. 5 points from Gryffindor." the silky voice cut as razors across the cool atmosphere in the potions classroom.
"Yes, professor." Harry stroked her chest gently. Ron bristled, and set to cutting his sandalwood root with more malice than before.
Harry's nimble fingers felt the edge of the root and with precision sliced paper thin slices rivalring the quality of the ones professionals prepared. He then felt around, his fingers snaking around a vial.
"Sasha...?"
"It is dark purple, Harry." the snake promptly provided.
Thus Harry proceeded with his potion, and Snape watched the blind boy with the peripheral of his vision. A warm smugness permeated him as he strode through the classroom, proud of himself to have thought of such an effective solution for the Potter boy. He smirked to himself and wondered if shaping Harry Potter from a cripple to better-than-before was enough to release him from a debt he never liked to ponder on: James Potter's wizard's debt. Ah well.
As he walked past the Slytherin side of the classroom, he frowned. He saw Draco Malfoy preparing a lump of mirkwood root while eyeing Potter's table. Damn brat. Snape always saw the pranks little Malfoy and his cronies did against the Gryffindors in his class. And little Malfoy knew it. His body tensed as the mirkwood root would cause the potion that was being brewed to explode. It would be a tactical error to prevent Draco from pulling the prank, as his favoritism was evidence to his fellow Deatheaters and Voldemort that Snape was loyal. But he did not, in the same time, want the corrosive liquid all over half the Gryffindor's fifth years.
Draco flicked his wand and the mirkwood shot with speed towards Harry's cauldron. Snape pulled out his wand.
And Harry's hand closed around the small ingredient seconds before it hit the boiling surface. Ron stared slackjawed, Hermione blinked, ladle still on hand, Neville dropped his roots, Draco's eyes widened in shock and breathing stopped throughout the classroom. Snape found that he needed a great deal of willpower not to grin like Lupin had other times in the duelling room. The boy was really surpassing his wildest expectations. However, he managed to keep a straight face as Harry quietly set the root aside and continued working.
Snape was tempted... -so- tempted, to take 20 points from Slytherin...
...but that would be out-of-character for 'Snape The Death Eater'. So Snape took a deep breath, glared at Malfoy, then at Harry knowing that would have no effect on the boy, and in the rest of the hour decided that he would not deduct any more house points-- even for Neville.
Well, maybe a few, for Neville. The boy was a god damn menace.
Thankfully, the rest of the class went on peacefully, and Snape pretended he did not notice Hermione helping Neville so that his potion would not explode. He truly did not want deducting any points, as he could not express his satisfaction to Harry's level of achievement otherwise. He knew the young gryffindor well enough to be assured that Harry would notice.
"Harry! We can't let that- that Slytherin get away with what he tried to do in Potions!" Ron spluttered as Harry walked, back straight, cane tapping, a little, faint smirk playing at his lips.
"Don't worry, we won't."
"Harry, don't do anything that will get your into trouble." Hermione warned.
Harry laughed wryly.
"Hermione... I am already soaked. I have no fear of rain."
"So, what are we gonna do to him?" Ron asked eagerly, his eyes twinkling with excitement, his mind racing to try and imagine what other capacity Harry was not currently displaying.
Harry patted Hedwig and released the charm keeping her perched on his shoulder. The white owl flew away relieved.
"Something... original." Harry smirked. Ron grinned, and Hermione sighed worriedly.
***
Snape walked into Dumbledore's office quickly.
"What is it now, Albus?"
The Headmaster seemed amused and irritated in the same time.
"Cornelius Fudge is livid. About not being informed on Harry's situation."
Snape sneered.
"He is threatening to accuse us of acting against the interests of the wizarding world."
Snape scowled.
"However, since after the article about Harry and... ruminations and rumours around the circumstances of Harry's blindness, he is not willing to be called irresponsible as Minister."
Snape rolled his eyes.
"He is willing to consider that Voldemort has risen again."
At that, Snape decided to sit in the armchair with a flourish to listen further.
"He will heed the Order of the Phoenix, then?"
Dumbledore poured tea for two. "When he finds out about it."
Snape arched an eyebrow. "You haven't told him the Order is almost come together?"
"No. And I do not intend to."
"And why not? The man is malleable, and now he will accept whatever you tell him. He has no spine."
"But he has the power to prosecute you, being the closest specimen he can get his hands on to display his grip on the... upcoming crisis."
Snape scowled again and filled the rest of the older wizard's thought. "And if he attends an Order meeting, he will know that I am a member of it, and so he will disband it, and in the same time my cover with Voldemort will be blown."
Dumbledore only nodded and sipped from his cup. Snape clenched his teeth, various death-eaterish thoughts coarsing through his brain about Minister Fudge.
"Severus."
Snape's eyes focused again on the Headmaster.
"Yes?"
"I never found the moment to tell you how great a job I think you have been doing with Harry." Dumbledore smiled warmly, and Snape felt the same soothing, encompassing feeling that had reached him when he had taken on the challenge of a blind teen. This time though, he felt another, dark and cold inkling of an emotion seep into him, biting at him mercilessly.
"I do not deserve your praise, Headmaster." he said quietly, looking down in much the same way he had as a student, and prodigal ally...
"Why do you think that, Severus?" Dumbledore asked kindly.
"When you sent me to go bring Potter back in the utmost urgence..."
"Yes?"
"... I did not do it in the utmost urgence."
Silence ensued and Snape didnot dare look up. He knew he would break down to see disappointment and contempt in Albus-- the Headmaster of Hogwarts and his approval was all that Snape really lived for. He just continued.
"I... thought that you were exaggerating-- and you have to admit, Sybil never is reliable... and I was angry that .... well I went about half a day later." he swallowed.
The silence lingered somewhat, but was broken by the chink of china.
"You went there exactly 3 hours and 20 minutes after I have urged you to." Dumbledore's voice was almost neutral. Snape looked up in amazement. The elderly wizard nodded.
"Oh, I know. I've know about that, Severus."
"And... you still...?... you never told...?"
Dumbledore smiled sadly, his eyes still accepting and warm. Yet Snape winced inwardly at the sadness he could perceive. Sadness that he had put there, just as previously it had been pride.
"Yes, I still let you take up the responsibility of training Harry, and I never confronted you with... your lack of trust in my instincts, because I know that the hardest judge on you is your own self. You, my friend, have the capacity to devise the hardest, more tedious of punishments for you-- and in the same time make them so they offer, atone, return to the full, if possible, what you have deprived the wronged party. You had no need of me telling you anything-- or deprecating you.
Snape breathed in shakily.
"It haunts me that the boy could still be seeing if I had gotten a move on."
Dumbledore was thoughtful.
"The possibility does exist." he said, not cushioning the potion master's fear. "but you would have to ask Harry himself about that."
The horror that was momentarily etched on Snape's face was as rare as snow in the summer.
He almost shook his head, unable to say that he could not bring himself to telling Harry that.
But the headmaster's glance was relentless-- and Snape never could say no.
***
Draco was still perplexed about Harry. No matter how many times he did the math, it just did not fit. Harry was blind. Blind people were usually beggars and other weak specimens of humanity, thanking you for kicking them and thus paying some attention to them.
They were -not- capable individuals able to withstand you in any way.
So why did Harry Potter manage not only to understand that he was about to pull a prank on him, but also prevent it in that spectacular way? Causing him to look like he was not control of the situation in front of his little court, and earning a glare from Snape for not accomplishing his joke on Potter like he usually did.
He was so immersed in his thoughts he did not notice anything-- and he certainly heard nothing. It was child's play for Hermione and Ron to take out Crabbe and Goyle. Harry had requested that they leave Draco to him. They gently muttered 'Rictusempra'. Draco looked up only when the two lubering teens went down.
Harry grinned sinisterly at the blonde boy-- or towards him. He was standing alone in the quiet corridor near the dungeons, where Draco had been walking, his white cane near his body, his wand pointed to him-- to him. The green unfocused eyes glistened with logistic cool-- Harry was calculating -- and that made them terrible to see.
Harry's voice lashed out like a whip.
"Disocculo!"
And suddenly, Draco's world faded to black. He could see nothing. No matter how much he blinked, the blackness would not end.
Draco had never before been this scared in his life. He started flailing his hands about, whimpering, and when that did not salvage him, he screamed.
"Silencio." Ron's all-too-glad voice.
Suddenly Harry's voice was all too near, and Draco's flailing arms were slapped away with some hard stick-- Draco figured the cane would be it. It hurt.
"Do you think it's fun picking on the blind, Malfoy?" Harry's voice was steely and sneered, vaguely reminiscent of another. He tried to backstep, only to trip and fall over some obstacle. A hard wooden point was stuffed under his chin.
"I think I will agree with you. It is rather fun to pick on them, isn't it? It is rather fun to downput others and Eat Death, isn't it?" Harry's voice was unwavering and almost harsh.
"Only perhaps not as nice when the Death you Eat is your own, right, -pureblood-?" Hermione's voice.
Draco was crying, sniffling his apologies and asking to be pardoned. Even with silencio active. He heard a snort.
"In the end he's just not worth it." the redhead spat and got up, turning away. Hermione sighed and smiled at the youngest male Weasley, and followed. Harry was left pressing the tip of his wand under the soft of Draco's jaw.
"The charm will wear off with the gag, Malfoy. Just enough time for you to think a while-- if you can." the Boy-Who-Lived whispered in Draco's ear, and then was gone without so much as a hint of a footstep.
____________
And that's that. I am WAY too nervous about this...
bluebird161221: Ah, now I will know who to come after if that fate befalls me. *L*
Myk: Because you are expecting me to do well, and as a self-conscious person that I am, that creates anxiety. *L* it's shrink stuff.
Melissa Lupin: What do you think? was that a worthy prank?
Lady Lunar Phoenix: Because it is not an injury he got from the shards-- that was healed by Poppy. He got it from the hits in the head, and that's not as direct as what Fawkes can heal. It's his optical nerve that's hurt. That can't heal.
Kaat Shadow Lover: *as she's enjoying the bribe* Mental is somewhat a compliment. When ron says it, it is definately a compliment. *bows at compliments* you are making me blush! I am glad you liked the trick with Hedwig. As for his hand, the scars are healed in the sense that they are not dangerous or infectiable or anything anymore. But it's not a pretty sight. Harry wants to cover the injury more than he needs to-- of course, his arm is somewhat frailer after all this. But nothing really impeding. As for what I will do with it, wait and see :)
Jaimynsfire: nah, I admit it when I'm wrong-- I just forgot Wood's status.
Kaeli-Chan the Great: hmmm. *sphinx silence*
Zardiphillian Beryllix: Duly noted *g*
shitsumon: there you go. You now know what happened next. *chuckles*
Kamenran: true, so very true.
Lee Lee Potter: Thanks!!
Katy999: *notes it for future reference* I think the snitch does make a sound-- it does in the movie. I'll see.
phreakreader: thank you so very much. Cho Chang... should still be getting over Cedric.
bluestarfish: I hope Sev is satisfactory in this chapter as well :)
Mikee: patience, patience... I'll try not to hurt anyone... too much. ;)
Angel Baby: I think Dumbledore is JK's Supreme Wizard. I'm keeping him that way, even for blind wizards with lightning shaped scars :)
Laterose: Harry -is- weary and tired. But he gets stronger by the day. :)
Jordan: I should hope he will. :)
Pose: Thanks! It's what I am hoping to achieve AND maintain.
nightingale: *lavishes in the X-Large review* I live for these! As for Harry's reaction to the Dursley abuse, it is yet too early. Yes, it will definately come back to him. And you asked the crucial questions just as I was about to answer them. As for whether Harry's eyesight could be saved, you can guess. *g* if you see the clues in the first chapter.