Hear With My Eyes Speak With My Hands

Chapter 5

Tea Time Chat

"Severus?"

Snape gave Dumbledore a glare but kept his arms firmly crossed in front of him. "I know you heard me, I am very serious. I wish for you to teach me Sign Langauge. How else am I to communicate with that child?"

Dumbledore hid a small smile behind his cup of tea. Severus' glare intesified. That meant his eyes were giving him away. Ah, well...

"Very well, Severus, I'm very happy that you've taken such a view on this. I know that if Harry cannot learn everything, he will learn all that he can. But there are a few more problems with Mr. Potter refusing to go back to his relatives."

Snape realized that this was obviously not going to be as cut and dry as he wanted so he sat down in a chair. "Do you mean the fact Muggles will have to deal with Wizarding Child Protection Agents?"

"That is the easy part. The hard part is... the spell protecting Mr. Potter from Voldemort or any of his followers is tied in with him and his relatives. His Aunt is of his mothers blood, so I... cast a charm between herself and Harry. So long as he is within his family's house, he shall be safe. Of course leaving for Hogwart's isn't a problem, he's quite safe within these walls. But once a year he must go back or the spell will weaken and break." Dumbledore took another drink from his cup. "And if it breaks, how to protect Harry when he is not within these walls is going to become difficult. And we can't allow him to go back to a neglectful family, than even I would be in grave trouble with the W.C.P. for failing to report such a situation."

Snape frowned. Placing the child somewhere safe during the summer would be a difficult task indeed. And finding a legal gaurdian even more difficult.

"Albus, you just said that it would be difficult to keep him safe outside these walls. Am I to assume this means you've gone against all better judgement and have decided to keep him enrolled?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"You put it into perspective the night of the sorting, Severus. He wouldn't have been sorted if he couldn't be taught something. We are just going to have to put a lot of effort into teaching him. It's a shame there is no school to teach children like him, but it's so rare that a wizarding child be disabled in such a way that it might be impossible to teach them. We forget that even we wizards do not have the potions or spells to fix everything." Dumbledore shook his head and put his tea down. "He may not be able to graduate in seven years, but we will do our best by him. I already have an appointment with St. Mungo's to have a look at him. His appointment is next week."

"Do you really think that St. Mungo's will be able to help him?" Severus frowned disbelievingly.

"I don't know... I'd like to think so but somehow I am fairly sure that it is connected with what happened the night that Voldemort attacked. And we can't be sure if it can be undone."

Snape pulled out his wand and with a flick a cup of tea was poured into a cup for himself. "When will you begin teaching my 'sign langauge', than?"

"I do believe starting now wouldn't go amiss." Dumbledore smiled and began his first lesson.

Author Notes: Can we say, incredibly short? I wanted to post SOMETHING for Christmas. I swear this story is not dead. It's just taken me this long to do something about it. Not to mention the people who I was in contact with who knew what I didn't about being deaf, I've lost contact with. Sigh.

And have I mentioned how amazed I am at the amount of reviews I've gotten on this story. I really appreciate them. If I didn't I wouldn't have kicked myself outta my writers block the way I did. I will write more. Honest!

Bows to my readers Thank you.