My first fanfic. Please read and review :)

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to have created the Harry Potter world or any of its characters, nor am I writing this story for any profit or material gain. Milena and her family/friends are all original characters.

Milena remembered what it was like to see. She remembered the way the sun would paint the sky with pink and orange candyfloss hues at sunset, she remembered how the colour of the ocean in the tropics was an exquisite turquoise colour in the tropics, and a deep and ominous navy in her native England. She remembered what her mother and her sister looked like, though on reflection, it was highly likely that her sister had changed somewhat in the last five years.

Her life now, was different: it was dictated by the rhythmic tap of her cane; the lure of elusive smells and a cacophony of noises guided her through her daily life, and it was only here at home, when she felt her way over to the piano, that she could pretend that she was normal again, sighted again, that she would never again have to hear the half-whispered sympathetic coos from "caring" strangers.

Sitting at the piano now, her thoughts were interrupted by the jingling of many bracelets and the smell of the Body Shop's Nut body butter. Serena.

"I saw James today," she began, "he told me you guys had split up…"

"Did he tell you that he dumped me via email?" Mileena hissed angrily, "For no reason other than he 'didn't want to make me unhappy anymore'?"

"Lena, I'm sorry…" Serena began, but her sentence was cut short by a dark and angry chord that Milena's trembling hands had thundered out of the lower registers of the piano as she began to play Rachmaninov. Nothing calmed her like Rachmaninov.

Yes, her Irish boyfriend with his sparkling blue green eyes and infectious smile had broken up with her that morning. The thought that perhaps her friends had been lying about how gorgeous he had been was cold comfort to Milena, it was a risk she had to take with every new guy she met. It was a risk she took when picking out clothes every day.

She stopped playing , her heart beating tremulously, as the tears spilled from her sightless eyes. She pushed the piano stool back and stumbled to her bed, throwing herself upon the covers and sobbing freely. How did he go from loving her to having such cold indifference towards her in so short a time?

How could her sister be so cruel as to throw this fact in her face the very afternoon of?

These thoughts spiraled down deeper and darker until she found herself thinking the unthinkable questions: Why had this happened to her? Why couldn't the hoons have decided to throw shopping trolleys over a different bridge, or on a different day, or on a different car?

Why couldn't her father have picked a different dentist to them to visit?

Why couldn't her father have survived the crash?

Milena's breath came in ragged gasps as she clasped her pillow close to her and for the millionth time opened her eyes and wished to see anything other than blackness, but there was nothing. No father pouting at her with puppy-dog eyes and terrorizing her with impressions of what she would look like if she didn't get braces, no moon shining through her bedroom window, no bedroom window at all. Nothing.

Milena shut her eyes again and slowly drifted off to sleep, where her dreams were plagued by the sounds of breaking glass, tires screeching and her father's horrified cry.

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Awaking with a small cry, Milena gently swung herself out of her bed and decided to try to get herself a glass of water. Feeling her way across the room, she reached the bedroom door, but when she opened it and stepped into the corridor, she knew something was very wrong. Instead of smooth, warm floorboards, she felt cold stone beneath her bare feet. She took another step forward, reaching her arms out in front of her, feeling for any familiar landmark, but all she heard was a cackling laughter above her head.

Terrified, she spun around , but the door behind her seemed to have disappeared entirely.

The voice above her continued to laugh hysterically before singing out "See the student sleep walk, arms stretched out in front! She looks like a zombie, about to do a stunt!"

At the word "stunt", Milena's feet caught on some unseen hazard and before she could stop herself she was tumbling towards the cold stone floor and….

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"Will she be ok, Poppy?" asked a worried voice that Milena did not recognize

"I'm not sure," replied a second voice, also tinged with worry, "I don't even recognize this student!"

Both voices sounded like elderly women, and although sounding very caring, Milena was absolutely terrified as she had no idea where she was or why she wasn't in the hallway of her house

"Where am I?" she stammered, "Who are you?"

"Why isn't she looking at us?" asked a third voice Milena had not noticed before

"I don't think she can see!" replied the woman named Poppy, then she uttered words that made no sense to Milena at all:

"Occulus Reparo"

Milena felt a jolt pass through her body, and then she opened her eyes and shrieked.

There was light. There was colour. There was movement. It was all so overwhelming she didn't know what she was seeing at that moment, but that was irrelevant.

She could see.