Chapter 2
Silence. Utter and complete. Darkness falling, swirling in purples and blues. What was going on here? Last he remembered was thunder. One big, monstrous thunder. And light gleamed through in small beams, opening wider exposing a room Ron wasn't familiar with.
It was a clean room lined with three beds on one side and three on the other. He seemed to be the only one in this particular ward. Well, not really. There was another patient beside him and his family was all around.
"Mum, what's going on here?" he asked.
His mother was responding, he was sure of it! But all she was doing was mouthing the words to him.
"What?"
Her face began to droop with what looked to him to be sadness and wariness. Mrs. Weasley sat herself down on the edge of his bed, patting his hand reassuringly.
"What does this mean? What happened back home? Why can't I hear you all?" he inquired furiously. He stared at each family member that was surrounding his bed. Fred and George standing next to the other, not daring to look at him, Ginny crying in a chair, Bill standing with Harry, Hermione furtively watching the tiled floor, Charlie sitting at the foot off the bed and his parents at either side.
A short, thin dark-skinned woman who looked about as old as the age of twenty-five stepped from behind the curtain that was surrounding a bed to his right. She had a pair of glasses, a small silver chair keeping them about her neck. She had a warm smile, aura, about her. "Hello Ronald." She over annunciated. He could kind of make out what she was saying.
Was he deaf? No, there must be something covering his ears. He checked to make sure that there was some bandage wrapped around his head. Nothing these mediwizards can't handle....right? If that was true, then why aren't there any bandages? A few cuts but no bandages.
"What's going on?" He gasped.
"I'm Katherine Nicholas. I run the Edward Edmonds ward here at St. Mungo's. You had an accident." She said slowly, making sure her new patient could understand her. "There was an explosion, you were caught in the main blast. There were a few cuts, nothing serious except that you're deaf."
Ron shrugged his shoulders not comprehending. He began to hyperventilate, eyes darting over the pristine ceiling and floor, over the beds and the one to his right. He stopped his nervous scanning to see a harmed Malfoy sitting, holding his arm.
"Oh great," he sighed.
"Maybe I should put this on Quick Quills." Katherine bustled over towards an area out of site, returning momentarily with a few sheets of parchments and a quill.
"Just read what I say and say whatever you feel." She mimed as she placed the writing utensils in front of him.
The injured boy nodded simply.
"Great. Testing. One, two, three. Good." She peered over at the sheets to see her words repeated perfectly on paper. "Well, you're probably wondering why you're here and what happened?"
He nodded. "Okay. Do you remember seeing a small orb?"
He nodded again. What did that have to do with anything?
"And it exploded?"
Yes! Of course it exploded! Could she hurry up with his diagnosis? How much longer until he could hear again?
"It seems that it was a magically enhanced 'bomb'."
Everyone in the room seemed puzzled. So, if they didn't know what it was, perhaps Harry must know about, seeing as how they knew all that was magical.
"A bomb is a Muggle weapon used to destroy land and sometimes people." He explained automatically, staring at Ron who was intently read.
"Yes, well, we're surprised at how many people who have gotten hurt since the end of You-Know-Who. You would think the Ministry would have gotten this under control." Murmured Katherine, who took a seat that stood by an empty bed.
"You really can't trust them now can you?" spoke Harry, contempt hanging in the background, obviously still upset about the lies they spread during their 5th year.
"Back to what's at hand. This 'bomb' was tampered with, more so than what was expected, and I'm glad to say that it caused a lot less destruction than what was to be had. All of you should be dead. But you, Ron, were not so lucky. Because of the tremendously loud noise, and magical essence that was left behind from the aforementioned tampering, you have obtained sensorineural hearing loss."
'What?' he wrote, causing the ink to smear.
Mrs. Nicholas took the quill from Ron, re-enchanting it.
"Sensorineural hearing loss is when there is damage to the sensory hairs or nerves of inner ear. As you may know the hairs are found in the inner ear, inside the cochlea. These hairs are placed in a certain order, spiraling throughout the cochlea, and vibrate when sound waves are being carried through. The sound is then transmitted through nerves that tell the brain what the sound is. Sensorineural hearing loss can range in mild to profound deafness. And you have profound, severe, deafness." She paused, letting the news sink into him.
'You're joking...this can't be.' He wrote.
"Please speak, dear. For one, I don't want to have to keep re-enchanting this thing and second you don't want to be deaf, blind and mute."
"Blind! I'm going to be blind and deaf?! No! I can't be."
He searched the mediwitch for answers, only to see her mentally kick herself. "That was so unprofessional of me. But yes. Eventually you will go blind."
"BLIND! I CAN'T BE BLIND AND DEAF!" he screamed. "Mum. I can't be blind. I cannot be deaf. How am I going to live? How will I be able to go to school? Will I be able to play Quidditch? Mum. Answer me. Someone answer me! How will I go on with life?" Tears started to blur his vision but he knew, sensed (as he would now have to learn how to strengthen, as his two most important senses would now be there no longer), his friends and family had no answers to give.
"You can live a normal life-" soothed the dark-skinned witch.
"So you're saying you can fix this all?"
"We really don't have any medical or magical advances that can correct complete deafness or blindness. If this were a case of mild in both areas then-"
"So I'm never going to be normal." If only he could hear himself. The cracks in his voice were heartbreaking. The real anger lurking between his pauses.
"You can be-"
"I'll be able to hear birds sing, my family's voices and still be able to see the deep greens of grass?"
"No."
"THEN I'LL NEVER BE NORMAL AGAIN!" he yelled.
"Okay, you won't be truly normal again but you can live life happily."
"No I can't. Mum." Ron held out his arms, his mother embracing him in as quick as a flash. "No, I can't." he mumbled into his mother's shirt.
"Oh, honey. We'll make you feel as normal as possible." The matriarch of the family comforted her son to the best of her ability. How were they ever going to bounce back from this? "Why is he going to go blind?"
"That essence, whatever was left over from the additional adjustments that were made, caused it. When heated to such an immense degree, the magic, most likely a potion, was converted to a poison which misted Ronald's-"
"-Ron-" Mr. Weasley corrected as he held his youngest son's hand.
"-Ron's eyes, deforming the pupils and some optical nerves."
"And you can't reverse this?" Charlie questioned softly.
"The potion is almost like a parasite, eating away at the pupils and some of the nerves attached. We can stop any further damage but...think of it like a highly venomous snake. Once bitten, some wounds will not heal because of the toxins have bound themselves to the flesh, forming a barrier between the scar tissue, thus preventing it to ever heal. And like I just said the possible potion converted itself, creating something none of us have ever seen before. And being a rather new resident here, I've studied and researched a lot, seen a lot of new magical mishaps. I so do hate to be the bearer of bad news."
The Weasley party, plus Hermione and Harry, were all dismayed.
"So, how do I-" Ron was unable to finish as someone burst into the ward.
"What happened? Is Ron okay?" called Percy. His hair was tousled and glasses slightly askew.
"Oh no you don't." George threatened. Fred stood next to him creating a wall between Percy and Ron. "Don't you dare come any closer!"
"Yeah, what caused you to be here." Fred added.
Even since Percy's betrayal two years back, the family was still a bit uneasy, and some unforgiving, about the subject. But Percy stood his ground, even gaining some, forcing the twins to be pushed back to the foot of Ron's hospital bed.
"I got an owl from Mum saying Ron was hurt. I got here as quick as I most possibly could!"
"'Mum' is it now?" muttered Bill but Percy ignored him, staring intently at his younger twin brothers.
"And you're here. Where were you when Ginny was near death in the beginning of this year?" Fred growled.
Ginny hiccuped from her chair as her tears finally broke. A chill ran down her spine at the mention of that fiasco. A Death Eater kidnapped her, Harry came and saved the day, ending with the Dark Lord's death at nightfall. And that's all she was willing to recall.
"I was trying to sort things through at the Ministry!"
"Oh sure. But that doesn't matter now, huh? Seeing as how your beloved Minister was proven wrong, the revival of He-Who-Still-Must-Not-Be-Named and his fortunate demised came to light. You're world must be topsy-turvy." Sneered George.
"Now, you're back here, running to Dad looking for guidance, running to Mum looking for comfort! Well, you don't deserve that seeing as how much grief you caused her and this family! Go back to your ministry! We've done two years of good without you."
"We don't need you!" finished George.
The room was filled with tension as the three siblings stood face-to-face, never breaking eye contact. All stood still until Ron read what was previously said (about the blindness) and let out a sob.
Percy rushed to Ron's side but Fred and George forced him away. Percy pushed back. George shoved and Fred punched. A group was forming around the three, people pulling others off the other, shirts ripping, Ron crying.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" shouted Hermione, Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Nicholas. Hermione and the older witch smiled at the other as the men settled down; Mrs.Weasley grasped Ron around the shoulder with her arm.
"Percy will stay." She enforced with a glare. "I appreciate you two trying to help but this is a time where we all should finally come together. No matter how late the other is to joining."
Ron was unfazed by the tiff. "How is this blindness true? I can see perfectly."
"Yes, you can because you're filled with multiple potions that can slow the deterioration. But I believe that by morning you'll need to wear glasses to see. And then.."
"What? Tell me."
"Blindness will follow."
Ron swallowed. "How much time do I have?"
"Um..a couple of weeks. A month tops."
This sent Ron into another fit of tears. "A month? I go back to school in a two weeks! How will I do my essays if I can't see them? How will I pass? How will I read?"
"Simple. With this. Accio Braille Machine."
A clunky black thing floated its way from somewhere upstairs into his wing, landing softly on his lap. Ron stared at it. "What is it?"
"It's a Braille Machine. These keys represent a letter of the alphabet in a pattern of raised dots. You learn the keys order and press them. They will replicate the bumps so you and others can read them." Percy informed from his new place kneeling on the floor, elbows on the bed, hands lying comfortably on Ron's leg.
"How did you know that?" asked Ron, looking up from the paper.
"We had a woman in the office who was blind."
"It's a Muggle invention." Hermione stated as she cautiously walked over to Ron.
"Yes, it is. We in the magical community have been unable to find another useful way for our patients, who are unable to see or hear, to successfully communicate. So, we depend on this, sign language and lip reading." Katherine reached out her hand and carried off with the parchment pieces and tucked them into her clipboard.
Ron could have reached over to take them back but she had already moved. "I need that."
"No you don't." she spoke slowly and clearly. "Everyone here will have to speak this way until he learns to lip read and sign language."
"And what is sign language?"
Once again someone else decided to explain though it wasn't someone Ron liked all too much.
"Sign language, Weasley, in a form a speech that uses the hands. It's a language all in it's own. The hands are used to give signals that are in turn translated into words rapidly by the person who needs it. And I say rapidly because with time you will be able to understand it with ease."
Ron stared blankly at him. Katherine showed him the paper, seeing as how Draco was speaking too fast for Ron to translate.
"How do you know so much about it Malfoy?"
"Because I used to have an uncle who was deaf and I had to learn some of it to communicate with him. Though I only know the first six letters in the alphabet and I know how to say a few phrases."
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy but I can handle it from here on out. Rest."
"But you just said I was fine."
"Yes. It seems that Mr. Malfoy here has sustained a nasty chemical burn but it's nothing that we couldn't handle. Just one last change of his bandages and his father can get him out of here tomorrow morning." She informed the Weasleys.
"Excuse me but that's none of their business as to why I'm here. But I guess I can't expect too much from you since you are just coming out of residency. No class. Especially with the way you let the cat out of the bag so unprofessionally." He demanded like the brat he was.
"Looks like Mr. Malfoy will be skipping his next dosage of painkillers." Katherine informed.
Harry, the twins and Ron had a small smirk of satisfaction on their faces.
"Back to what I was saying. I want you to really focus on the alphabet and study it as long as Braille."
"Why just the alphabet? Malfoy just said it's a whole language."
"Because-"
"Because sign language deals with the body as well as hand motions." Draco articulated. "Like 'thank you'," he demonstrated by touching his right hand to his chin and letting it touch his opened upward palm in an arch, "it deals with just more than hands and since you won't be able to see them, it's best to learn the alphabet first. You'll most likely have to feel the letters." Draco got up and neared the group but stopped short of entering territory that was specifically assigned to family.
"Oh," Ron whispered. It was a shock to see Malfoy so knowledgeable, helpful and considerate. He didn't have to slow down for him.
"So, you understood?" Malfoy asked.
"Kinda,"
"Okay, back to bed now." She watched as Malfoy retreated. "We can perform a spell on all those who want to automatically learn this. Ron will automatically be administered this so he won't have to spend so much time learning to communicate. He will have to memorize the layout of the house and school. Nothing can be changed once he learns the complete layout for that will be all he knows. You will have to label everything but we will give you a release form with everything that can help him out. Do you understand?"
"Spell to learn faster...learn layouts. Labeling." He sniffed.
"Good! You're a natural. We will give you a fast learning spell so you can study Braille, lip reading and sign language. A potion will help you clear your mind and focus while a pair of goggles will flash pictures over and over until your brain can do nothing but accept." She paused to see if he could comprehend.
"Potion to clear mind...accepting.....learning."
"Very good. Is there anyone here who wants to learn Braille and sign language?"
A group of hands flew into the air, voices agreeing.
"That was a rather dumb question to ask. I'll need to get more cots so you all can lay down and sleep. More goggles too! I'll be back shortly." She patted Ron's foot before leaving the ward.
Ron turned to Percy. "Why are you here?"
"Because you were hurt. Why do I have to keep saying that? I want to be here!"
"Me hurt? What about Ginny? That is why we ask."
"I wanted to be there but I was tied up at the Ministry-"
Ron held up his hand as soon as he recognized the word 'Ministry'. "You can sign it to me later."
Percy grinned sheepishly, noticing a small token of forgiveness when he saw it. Everyone remained silent, waiting for the squeaking wheels of carts that were for them to cease to a halt in their ward.
"Everyone find a cot." Instructed the previous mediwitch who had broken the news to them earlier as she closed the bed curtains around Malfoy.
There was a small rustle as people laid themselves down and of assistants taking out their wands, a pair of orange, plastic looking goggles and a cup of grey potion to each family member and friend of Ron.
Ron smiled at them as Mrs. Nicholas placed the Braille machine on the floor beneath his bed. He put the glasses on, pushing himself into a completely lateral laying position.
"You can call me Kate." Was the last thing anyone who was preparing to learning a new communication heard from the mediwitch.
Silence. Utter and complete. Darkness falling, swirling in purples and blues. What was going on here? Last he remembered was thunder. One big, monstrous thunder. And light gleamed through in small beams, opening wider exposing a room Ron wasn't familiar with.
It was a clean room lined with three beds on one side and three on the other. He seemed to be the only one in this particular ward. Well, not really. There was another patient beside him and his family was all around.
"Mum, what's going on here?" he asked.
His mother was responding, he was sure of it! But all she was doing was mouthing the words to him.
"What?"
Her face began to droop with what looked to him to be sadness and wariness. Mrs. Weasley sat herself down on the edge of his bed, patting his hand reassuringly.
"What does this mean? What happened back home? Why can't I hear you all?" he inquired furiously. He stared at each family member that was surrounding his bed. Fred and George standing next to the other, not daring to look at him, Ginny crying in a chair, Bill standing with Harry, Hermione furtively watching the tiled floor, Charlie sitting at the foot off the bed and his parents at either side.
A short, thin dark-skinned woman who looked about as old as the age of twenty-five stepped from behind the curtain that was surrounding a bed to his right. She had a pair of glasses, a small silver chair keeping them about her neck. She had a warm smile, aura, about her. "Hello Ronald." She over annunciated. He could kind of make out what she was saying.
Was he deaf? No, there must be something covering his ears. He checked to make sure that there was some bandage wrapped around his head. Nothing these mediwizards can't handle....right? If that was true, then why aren't there any bandages? A few cuts but no bandages.
"What's going on?" He gasped.
"I'm Katherine Nicholas. I run the Edward Edmonds ward here at St. Mungo's. You had an accident." She said slowly, making sure her new patient could understand her. "There was an explosion, you were caught in the main blast. There were a few cuts, nothing serious except that you're deaf."
Ron shrugged his shoulders not comprehending. He began to hyperventilate, eyes darting over the pristine ceiling and floor, over the beds and the one to his right. He stopped his nervous scanning to see a harmed Malfoy sitting, holding his arm.
"Oh great," he sighed.
"Maybe I should put this on Quick Quills." Katherine bustled over towards an area out of site, returning momentarily with a few sheets of parchments and a quill.
"Just read what I say and say whatever you feel." She mimed as she placed the writing utensils in front of him.
The injured boy nodded simply.
"Great. Testing. One, two, three. Good." She peered over at the sheets to see her words repeated perfectly on paper. "Well, you're probably wondering why you're here and what happened?"
He nodded. "Okay. Do you remember seeing a small orb?"
He nodded again. What did that have to do with anything?
"And it exploded?"
Yes! Of course it exploded! Could she hurry up with his diagnosis? How much longer until he could hear again?
"It seems that it was a magically enhanced 'bomb'."
Everyone in the room seemed puzzled. So, if they didn't know what it was, perhaps Harry must know about, seeing as how they knew all that was magical.
"A bomb is a Muggle weapon used to destroy land and sometimes people." He explained automatically, staring at Ron who was intently read.
"Yes, well, we're surprised at how many people who have gotten hurt since the end of You-Know-Who. You would think the Ministry would have gotten this under control." Murmured Katherine, who took a seat that stood by an empty bed.
"You really can't trust them now can you?" spoke Harry, contempt hanging in the background, obviously still upset about the lies they spread during their 5th year.
"Back to what's at hand. This 'bomb' was tampered with, more so than what was expected, and I'm glad to say that it caused a lot less destruction than what was to be had. All of you should be dead. But you, Ron, were not so lucky. Because of the tremendously loud noise, and magical essence that was left behind from the aforementioned tampering, you have obtained sensorineural hearing loss."
'What?' he wrote, causing the ink to smear.
Mrs. Nicholas took the quill from Ron, re-enchanting it.
"Sensorineural hearing loss is when there is damage to the sensory hairs or nerves of inner ear. As you may know the hairs are found in the inner ear, inside the cochlea. These hairs are placed in a certain order, spiraling throughout the cochlea, and vibrate when sound waves are being carried through. The sound is then transmitted through nerves that tell the brain what the sound is. Sensorineural hearing loss can range in mild to profound deafness. And you have profound, severe, deafness." She paused, letting the news sink into him.
'You're joking...this can't be.' He wrote.
"Please speak, dear. For one, I don't want to have to keep re-enchanting this thing and second you don't want to be deaf, blind and mute."
"Blind! I'm going to be blind and deaf?! No! I can't be."
He searched the mediwitch for answers, only to see her mentally kick herself. "That was so unprofessional of me. But yes. Eventually you will go blind."
"BLIND! I CAN'T BE BLIND AND DEAF!" he screamed. "Mum. I can't be blind. I cannot be deaf. How am I going to live? How will I be able to go to school? Will I be able to play Quidditch? Mum. Answer me. Someone answer me! How will I go on with life?" Tears started to blur his vision but he knew, sensed (as he would now have to learn how to strengthen, as his two most important senses would now be there no longer), his friends and family had no answers to give.
"You can live a normal life-" soothed the dark-skinned witch.
"So you're saying you can fix this all?"
"We really don't have any medical or magical advances that can correct complete deafness or blindness. If this were a case of mild in both areas then-"
"So I'm never going to be normal." If only he could hear himself. The cracks in his voice were heartbreaking. The real anger lurking between his pauses.
"You can be-"
"I'll be able to hear birds sing, my family's voices and still be able to see the deep greens of grass?"
"No."
"THEN I'LL NEVER BE NORMAL AGAIN!" he yelled.
"Okay, you won't be truly normal again but you can live life happily."
"No I can't. Mum." Ron held out his arms, his mother embracing him in as quick as a flash. "No, I can't." he mumbled into his mother's shirt.
"Oh, honey. We'll make you feel as normal as possible." The matriarch of the family comforted her son to the best of her ability. How were they ever going to bounce back from this? "Why is he going to go blind?"
"That essence, whatever was left over from the additional adjustments that were made, caused it. When heated to such an immense degree, the magic, most likely a potion, was converted to a poison which misted Ronald's-"
"-Ron-" Mr. Weasley corrected as he held his youngest son's hand.
"-Ron's eyes, deforming the pupils and some optical nerves."
"And you can't reverse this?" Charlie questioned softly.
"The potion is almost like a parasite, eating away at the pupils and some of the nerves attached. We can stop any further damage but...think of it like a highly venomous snake. Once bitten, some wounds will not heal because of the toxins have bound themselves to the flesh, forming a barrier between the scar tissue, thus preventing it to ever heal. And like I just said the possible potion converted itself, creating something none of us have ever seen before. And being a rather new resident here, I've studied and researched a lot, seen a lot of new magical mishaps. I so do hate to be the bearer of bad news."
The Weasley party, plus Hermione and Harry, were all dismayed.
"So, how do I-" Ron was unable to finish as someone burst into the ward.
"What happened? Is Ron okay?" called Percy. His hair was tousled and glasses slightly askew.
"Oh no you don't." George threatened. Fred stood next to him creating a wall between Percy and Ron. "Don't you dare come any closer!"
"Yeah, what caused you to be here." Fred added.
Even since Percy's betrayal two years back, the family was still a bit uneasy, and some unforgiving, about the subject. But Percy stood his ground, even gaining some, forcing the twins to be pushed back to the foot of Ron's hospital bed.
"I got an owl from Mum saying Ron was hurt. I got here as quick as I most possibly could!"
"'Mum' is it now?" muttered Bill but Percy ignored him, staring intently at his younger twin brothers.
"And you're here. Where were you when Ginny was near death in the beginning of this year?" Fred growled.
Ginny hiccuped from her chair as her tears finally broke. A chill ran down her spine at the mention of that fiasco. A Death Eater kidnapped her, Harry came and saved the day, ending with the Dark Lord's death at nightfall. And that's all she was willing to recall.
"I was trying to sort things through at the Ministry!"
"Oh sure. But that doesn't matter now, huh? Seeing as how your beloved Minister was proven wrong, the revival of He-Who-Still-Must-Not-Be-Named and his fortunate demised came to light. You're world must be topsy-turvy." Sneered George.
"Now, you're back here, running to Dad looking for guidance, running to Mum looking for comfort! Well, you don't deserve that seeing as how much grief you caused her and this family! Go back to your ministry! We've done two years of good without you."
"We don't need you!" finished George.
The room was filled with tension as the three siblings stood face-to-face, never breaking eye contact. All stood still until Ron read what was previously said (about the blindness) and let out a sob.
Percy rushed to Ron's side but Fred and George forced him away. Percy pushed back. George shoved and Fred punched. A group was forming around the three, people pulling others off the other, shirts ripping, Ron crying.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" shouted Hermione, Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Nicholas. Hermione and the older witch smiled at the other as the men settled down; Mrs.Weasley grasped Ron around the shoulder with her arm.
"Percy will stay." She enforced with a glare. "I appreciate you two trying to help but this is a time where we all should finally come together. No matter how late the other is to joining."
Ron was unfazed by the tiff. "How is this blindness true? I can see perfectly."
"Yes, you can because you're filled with multiple potions that can slow the deterioration. But I believe that by morning you'll need to wear glasses to see. And then.."
"What? Tell me."
"Blindness will follow."
Ron swallowed. "How much time do I have?"
"Um..a couple of weeks. A month tops."
This sent Ron into another fit of tears. "A month? I go back to school in a two weeks! How will I do my essays if I can't see them? How will I pass? How will I read?"
"Simple. With this. Accio Braille Machine."
A clunky black thing floated its way from somewhere upstairs into his wing, landing softly on his lap. Ron stared at it. "What is it?"
"It's a Braille Machine. These keys represent a letter of the alphabet in a pattern of raised dots. You learn the keys order and press them. They will replicate the bumps so you and others can read them." Percy informed from his new place kneeling on the floor, elbows on the bed, hands lying comfortably on Ron's leg.
"How did you know that?" asked Ron, looking up from the paper.
"We had a woman in the office who was blind."
"It's a Muggle invention." Hermione stated as she cautiously walked over to Ron.
"Yes, it is. We in the magical community have been unable to find another useful way for our patients, who are unable to see or hear, to successfully communicate. So, we depend on this, sign language and lip reading." Katherine reached out her hand and carried off with the parchment pieces and tucked them into her clipboard.
Ron could have reached over to take them back but she had already moved. "I need that."
"No you don't." she spoke slowly and clearly. "Everyone here will have to speak this way until he learns to lip read and sign language."
"And what is sign language?"
Once again someone else decided to explain though it wasn't someone Ron liked all too much.
"Sign language, Weasley, in a form a speech that uses the hands. It's a language all in it's own. The hands are used to give signals that are in turn translated into words rapidly by the person who needs it. And I say rapidly because with time you will be able to understand it with ease."
Ron stared blankly at him. Katherine showed him the paper, seeing as how Draco was speaking too fast for Ron to translate.
"How do you know so much about it Malfoy?"
"Because I used to have an uncle who was deaf and I had to learn some of it to communicate with him. Though I only know the first six letters in the alphabet and I know how to say a few phrases."
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy but I can handle it from here on out. Rest."
"But you just said I was fine."
"Yes. It seems that Mr. Malfoy here has sustained a nasty chemical burn but it's nothing that we couldn't handle. Just one last change of his bandages and his father can get him out of here tomorrow morning." She informed the Weasleys.
"Excuse me but that's none of their business as to why I'm here. But I guess I can't expect too much from you since you are just coming out of residency. No class. Especially with the way you let the cat out of the bag so unprofessionally." He demanded like the brat he was.
"Looks like Mr. Malfoy will be skipping his next dosage of painkillers." Katherine informed.
Harry, the twins and Ron had a small smirk of satisfaction on their faces.
"Back to what I was saying. I want you to really focus on the alphabet and study it as long as Braille."
"Why just the alphabet? Malfoy just said it's a whole language."
"Because-"
"Because sign language deals with the body as well as hand motions." Draco articulated. "Like 'thank you'," he demonstrated by touching his right hand to his chin and letting it touch his opened upward palm in an arch, "it deals with just more than hands and since you won't be able to see them, it's best to learn the alphabet first. You'll most likely have to feel the letters." Draco got up and neared the group but stopped short of entering territory that was specifically assigned to family.
"Oh," Ron whispered. It was a shock to see Malfoy so knowledgeable, helpful and considerate. He didn't have to slow down for him.
"So, you understood?" Malfoy asked.
"Kinda,"
"Okay, back to bed now." She watched as Malfoy retreated. "We can perform a spell on all those who want to automatically learn this. Ron will automatically be administered this so he won't have to spend so much time learning to communicate. He will have to memorize the layout of the house and school. Nothing can be changed once he learns the complete layout for that will be all he knows. You will have to label everything but we will give you a release form with everything that can help him out. Do you understand?"
"Spell to learn faster...learn layouts. Labeling." He sniffed.
"Good! You're a natural. We will give you a fast learning spell so you can study Braille, lip reading and sign language. A potion will help you clear your mind and focus while a pair of goggles will flash pictures over and over until your brain can do nothing but accept." She paused to see if he could comprehend.
"Potion to clear mind...accepting.....learning."
"Very good. Is there anyone here who wants to learn Braille and sign language?"
A group of hands flew into the air, voices agreeing.
"That was a rather dumb question to ask. I'll need to get more cots so you all can lay down and sleep. More goggles too! I'll be back shortly." She patted Ron's foot before leaving the ward.
Ron turned to Percy. "Why are you here?"
"Because you were hurt. Why do I have to keep saying that? I want to be here!"
"Me hurt? What about Ginny? That is why we ask."
"I wanted to be there but I was tied up at the Ministry-"
Ron held up his hand as soon as he recognized the word 'Ministry'. "You can sign it to me later."
Percy grinned sheepishly, noticing a small token of forgiveness when he saw it. Everyone remained silent, waiting for the squeaking wheels of carts that were for them to cease to a halt in their ward.
"Everyone find a cot." Instructed the previous mediwitch who had broken the news to them earlier as she closed the bed curtains around Malfoy.
There was a small rustle as people laid themselves down and of assistants taking out their wands, a pair of orange, plastic looking goggles and a cup of grey potion to each family member and friend of Ron.
Ron smiled at them as Mrs. Nicholas placed the Braille machine on the floor beneath his bed. He put the glasses on, pushing himself into a completely lateral laying position.
"You can call me Kate." Was the last thing anyone who was preparing to learning a new communication heard from the mediwitch.