Carina woke up the next morning snuggled deep in soft, plushy blankets on a softer, plushier bed. She felt around her surroundings and realized the bed must be massive. She blinked over her glossy black eyes; blindfold still in place. As the sleep left her mind she could make out orange and yellow spots all around her. She focused on them harder and the blurred edges started to come into sharper focus. A bedside table, a large dresser, a fireplace and three doors came into glowing orange focus. One of the doors was opened and she could see bright red sink and large in-ground garden tub, and a yellow toilet. She knew these weren't the real colors of her bathroom; she was seeing heat coming off of the objects. The bathtub was filled to the brim with steaming hot water and bubbling with water jets.

Severus had taken extra care with Carina's surroundings now that she could only see heat. Everything had been charmed to stay varying degrees of warm at all times so she could see. She made her way slowly to the bathroom, accidentally bumping into a table corner along the way. While she was grateful for her father's care, Carina had no desire to be surrounded in this much heat so soon after burning alive. She knew she'd have to get used to it eventually but for the moment all she wanted was to submerge herself in cool water. She found her want on her bathroom sink after a great deal of fumbling and attempted to remove the heating charm from her bathtub. Nothing happened.

She tried again and frowned. It took her a moment to realize her wand was no longer in her hands. She looked down and saw a blotch of red at her feet. She knelt down and felt the floor as her fingers found a pile of hot ash. She hadn't even felt the wand burn.

"Dad! Pansy!" Carina cried. Footsteps came thundering.

"Carina, what hap-" Pansy stopped at her side. "Oh, shiite!" She whispered.

"What? What is it?" Severus asked, frantic.

"My wand.." Carina sniffled. "It just burned up in my hand."

"Oh, Carina, I'm so sorry." Severus held his distraught daughter.

"Don't worry, Sweety, we'll figure something out." Pansy reassured her.

"I had wondered if your magic would conflict with the earth magic and the dark spirit within you. It seems we have an answer." Severus said.

"Why doesn't my magic conflict with the earth magic in me or the rest of the pack?" Pansy asked.

Severus shook his head. " We may have earth spirits within us that give us certain abilities, but Carina was directly affected by ancient earth magic from the earth itself. It will always be a part of her now. In fact, with the earth spirit and the fire spirit with her, I wonder if she would even need the wand." He held his daughter at arms length. " I'll look into this for you, love but in the mean time, what were you trying to do?"

Carina sniffled feeling absolutely useless. "I'm just so hot. I wanted a cold bath, that's all."

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"Who the hell did this to you!?" Draco demanded from Carina as Pansy helped her to the Great hall for breakfast. Pansy snorted at how literal his question really was.

Carina grinned. "You should see the other guy."

"Seriously, Carina, what happened? You were perfectly NOT blind when you left Friday! Is it permanent?"

"Yes, and no. I can see a little..or rather sense where things are." A small yelp brought Draco's attention to Dante.

"This isn't the same dog you got for your coming out gift?"

"Yes, he is, Pansy thought he looked better as a wolf." Carina lied smoothly. Not that it mattered. Draco was already half covered in harmless puppy kisses.

"You are going to be a good seeing eye dog for our Carina, right?" He asked the squirming animal. "Yes you are!"

Carina rolled her smooth black eyes underneath the blindfold. She knew Lucifer was shaking his head angrily at the treatment of his monstrous hell hound where ever he was. To be honest, it worked rather well as far as timing went. She could hear other students whisper about how unfair it was that she got to have a puppy that could come to classes with her much less at all. At the opposite end of the hall she could see the dim yellow shape of her father leaning toward the headmaster. After a moment, Pansy and Draco helped Carina up to the staff table to take her seat at her father's side. Dumbledore stood and waited for everyone's attention.

"I understand how some of you may feel that it is not fair for one student to be allowed a familiar that was not on the approved familiar list at the school. Please understand that this isn't taken lightly. Miss Snape suffered an unfortunate accident over the weekend which has left her permanently blind. This dog is being trained as her seeing eye dog to help ease her into the difficult lifestyle that she will now have to face. There is no favoritism at play here, only the concern for the safety of a student. Now eat up, and please go about your day. And I urge you not to overwhelm Miss Snape over her circumstances."

Dumbledore sat down and everyone grumbled and began eating. Carina sat, completely overwhelmed for a different reason other than Dante. So overwhelmed in fact, that Dante sat on her feet whimpering at her. Her vision was swimming with red. Her new eyes registered the body heat of every living thing inside the wall, and the yellow of every living creature outside of the castle walls. Her head pounded and her father touched her arm.

"Carina?" He whispered.

"I don't think I can do this, Dad. It hurts so bad."

"Of course, love, I should have been more considerate. I'll have your sister help you back home for breakfast. This should have been a much slower transition, I am so sorry."

Carina could do nothing but nod. She put a hand over her eyes and tried to shut the offending color out but it was no use. Heat was everywhere and she couldn't avoid it. She felt the rustle of her father's robes as he stood and fetched Pansy. A minute later, she and Draco were helping her out of the hall.

"I guess I wasn't ready yet." She whimpered to them as Dante trotted alongside.

"Not to worry," Draco said. "Have you even had time to heal yet? I mean I don't know what happened but there's no question that it's too soon to be about."

"Ugh," Carina groaned. "you make me sound weak."

"Not at all!" Pansy insisted. "Draco's right. You have to make yourself ready to deal with...everything. You can't just throw yourself in and not expect to have some issues."

She sighed and groaned again. "How am I supposed to take my exams and test out of school now? How am I supposed to study?" A single hot, black tear ran down Carina's cheek and Pansy quickly brushed it away before Draco could notice it.

"Don't you worry." She said. " I'm sure your dad's gonna figure everything out. Until then, when Draco and I study, we'll read everything out loud for you."

"Absolutely." Draco agreed. "And I'm sure some of the others would be happy to help as well." He patted her arm.

Carina gave a sad smile. "Thank you."

"Don't muggles become blind sometimes? What do they do?" Draco asked frowning.

"They learn to read little bumps on paper. The arrangement of the bumps represent words so that they can read with their fingers."

"Well there you go!" Draco said.

Carina shook her head. "That won't work for me. My hands.. They don't feel much."

"Oh." Draco frowned again. "Why?"

"I'm no stranger to hard work and manual labor. My hands are rough and I've lost a lot of feeling in them." She shrugged.

"That's not even the worst of it." Pansy told him.

"How could it possibly get worse?"

"Her wand was destroyed...in the accident over the weekend."

"Merlin... Don't you worry, Carina we'll get it sorted."

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"The first step is recognizing what you're seeing." Lucifer walked with Carina through the forbidden forest in the middle of the night. "I simply want you to tell me what's around you. Do not call on any spirits. This skill must be a part of you alone."

Carina blinked and scanned the area. Dim yellow lines marked the trees around them. She tilted her head. "I've seen an infrared camera before. The trees don't usually show up like this."

"You're eyes are not built for heat alone. You will sense energy and life itself around you. About these trees. How tall are they? How wide? Do they bear fruit? Are they healthy? How deep do their roots grow? It's not enough to simply see them. You must be learn to sense the answers to these questions in a split second. If you are facing an enemy you must be able to see them, see if they are in good health, where the main arteries are, if they are strictly human, if they have magic, if so how strong is it, Have they been previously injured? If so, can you exploit that? Where is their week point? Are they a threat, are they a liar? See, Carina there is so much more to a person than whether they are simply there. So, I ask again. What more about these trees? How many of them hold nests?"

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Carina's first week of training had been exhausting. It was going quite well though. She was never one to pity herself and now was no different. She pushed herself hard and so did Lucifer. Severus was much gentler on her and after a single session with her father, Carina insisted Pansy help. She knew Pansy wouldn't let her affections or guilt at the long separation get in the way of making Carina as strong as possible. Severus found this difficult because of the way he'd treated Carina when she was still Hermione. He was still trying to right those wrongs and he couldn't bring himself to be that man again.

Dante remained ever vigilant at Carina's side. Once in the corridor proved that he wasn't the cuddly little pup he appeared to be. Ron had cornered Carina on the way to the great hall during lunch and made a scene.

"Where do you get off?" He said. "Mudbloods can't just decide they don't like their lives and pretend to be someone else, that's not the way life works!" Dante started to growl.

"You know damn well I'm not pretending at anything!"

"Oh right, so I suppose you finding out about Snape and Parkinson just after your parents is a coincidence? You can't just replace your life with a new one! What do you honestly think they could want with you anyway? You aren't one of them, you're just pretending! And now you're broken! You're not even good for anything now! Fat lot of good all that nagging and studying did you now eh? You can't even do that now!" He laughed and Dante snarled.

"Shit!" Ron gasped as the little puppy tripled in size in front of him. Dante was a full and ferocious wolf now, and Carina knew if she didn't calm him, he would get much much bigger, then he'd kill Ron.

"Now, now, Dante." She soothed as she touched his fur at her hip. "You mustn't waste your time on leaches. You'll get nothing useful or satisfying from it."

She wanted to let Dante kill him, but she settled for Ron nearly wetting himself as she turned on her heel. Dante gave one last snarling snap and led his master to her father's side in the great hall. Severus raised his brow at Dante's size.

"Any issues this morning, dear?" He asked politely.

"Just a minor annoyance, dad." She smirked.

"Any...messes needing cleaned up?"

"No, no. Almost, but sadly no."

Severus smirked and helped his daughter into her seat as Dante sat, still on guard, at her side. It was only a minute before he had his head on Minerva's lap, begging for scraps.