The Houses Competition

Ravenclaw

Charms

Theme'd (Sight/Loss of Sight)

[Action] Struggling to Breathe

2561 Words

AN: Minor AU (play around with the timeline/ages of characters in the first war w V, circa 1960s-ish); warning for character who loses her sight, and ableist thinking; warning for non-graphic discussion of graphic death

The first time Poppy lost her sense of sight, her breath hitched, and it felt as though she was drowning and floating all at the same time.

"–rainee Pomphrey, Healer Trainee Pomphrey. Can you hear me? This is Healer Jones. I need you to take a deep breath for me. Breathe. You need to push through the darkness."

Something, a hand, touches her own, and Poppy grasps it like the lifeline it is. With that tether to reality, she can focus on the words commanding her to take control.

"In-two-three-four. Hold. And out-four-five-six-seven-eight. Good. Again…" Breathing in time with the counts, Poppy tried to take stock of her situation. As a healer, it was expected that she be able to empathize with some of the more common types of issues her patients could experience. Hence her current situation. It was Hell Week in training where every day she would wake up with one of her senses missing. Today it was eyesight.

Her breath catching at the thought of this being only day one, she gripped the hand in hers tighter. She had to do this. She was too close to the finish line to give up because of some discomfort.

Those whose resolve remained after Hell Week all stood in a line, ready to give their oaths.

Healer Jones was telling the crowd about the importance of the profession and gave anecdotes of the trainees at their best and their worst, but Poppy was deaf to it all. Instead, her mind focused on her experience during Hell Week. Her day without sight had left a huge impression on her, and while she was prepared to help patients with a wide variety of ailments, Poppy knew that her passion would be on helping people whose vision had been impaired.

As the Hippocratic Oath began to be recited in chorus, Poppy resolved that she would do all she could to fix those who came through St Mungo's doors.

The first time she treated a patient for losing their sight, she kept calm.

"Oi, Healer Pomphrey, got a patient for ya in 203. Careful though. It's a doozy." One of the nurses (Poppy was still learning their names) nodded her head towards the relevant door and Poppy rushed in, just barely grabbing the man's chart. As she entered, she saw her patient unable to move and sounding like he was hyperventilating. A quick look at the chart confirmed that he'd been combative when he arrived with his friends and that a freeze spell had been deemed appropriate.

Scoffing quietly at the idea that such a spell might help calm a man who'd lost his sight, she came forward, narrating her every move.

"I'm Healer Pomphrey, and I'm going to put my hand in yours now, dear. If you need a break, just give it the best squeeze you can. Let's see what the matter is. Your name is Paul? That's a nice name. Hmm… looks like a case of Sandman's curse. I imagine your eyes are quite irritated right now. No worries. We'll have you out of here soon enough. Now, deep breaths for me. I can't have you passing out before I've fixed your problem, eh? Deep breaths. In," she paused. "And out. You've got this. Now, I'm going to reverse the freezing spell, so you can sit up while I see what can be done about those eyes. Everything will be fine. It's okay," Poppy crooned before suiting word to action.

One counter-curse and some Eye-Soothe drops later, and Paul was on his way, grateful to be able to see again. And Poppy felt even more firm in her resolution to fix that which was broken.

When the war came, there was no time for catching one's breath. Nothing came naturally when the spells doing the damage were so Dark that it seemed like no light could push through. It was during the war that she experienced blindness for the second time.

She'd been treating Alastor Moody. The Auror had suffered from numerous unknown curses, and she'd been called upon to try to save his sight. No one realized that the Death Eaters had begun using ancient spells, methods of warfare that put those providing treatment at risk as well.

As everything began to go dark, Poppy's hand gripped tight to the gurney.

"He's been booby-trapped! We need a cursebreaker in here!" she called out, hoping to protect her coworkers.

A hand reached out for her, and Poppy tried to avoid its touch. They couldn't afford for others to be out of commission too. "Come this way, Healer Pomphrey," the familiar voice of Healer Jones coaxed her. "We'll be careful, but now we need some room. Deep breaths now. Soon enough, we'll have both of you taken care of."

Sitting in what felt like an out of the way corner, Poppy breathed, and with every breath, she pictured another coworker, another friend, to help combat the darkness around her. She wondered how long her memory would grant her this reprieve. She'd read different reports. Some could picture their loved ones for years. Others lost the ability to retrieve images after months or even weeks.

What could she even do? All she'd ever trained for was healing. Could she even practice basic magic if she didn't know how to aim her wand?

Minutes, hours, days. Time held no meaning without light. All she knew was that eventually Healer Jones came to collect her.

"The patient?" a voice that might have been her own asked. Everything felt off in the unfamiliar darkness, and Hell Week could not prepare her for the helplessness that came from not knowing when or even if it would leave.

"He'll need a prosthetic or two, but thanks to your warning, we were able to save his life. None but you were…" The no-nonsense mentor never stuttered, never paused. Poppy thought she heard a catch in her throat.

She broke the quiet before it became too much. "The curse breaker? Was he able to identify what took my sight?"

"Curse Breaker McGregor? All hope is not lost. It is tied to the spell caster. Once he dies, everything will be well."

"What…What about a prosthetic?"

"The problem isn't your eyes but your mind; I'm sorry."

Healers ought not to wish death on anyone, but Poppy couldn't be that selfless. Knowing that someone had used such a spell, she felt no remorse for wishing the unknown assailant dead. Something about that made her feel as though the darkness had gone beyond her eyes and sullied her soul, but she stayed silent as her mentor gently led her to the Floo.

"You rest. I'll be by in a few days to check up," the woman said when they'd made it to her loft, and she'd convinced the other woman that she'd be fine. "At least Hell Week was good for something, eh?" Neither Healer laughed at the feeble joke, but the elder knew enough not to push.

A loud swoosh told Poppy that she was alone.

Days passed. At least, Poppy assumed days passed, as friends continued to visit. The magical world as she knew it wasn't made for blindness, and she'd had two visits before the idea to use the Wizarding Wireless to keep track of time came to mind.

Spell-casting was necessary in a largely magically-run home, and slowly, she learned to get close enough to what she was aiming for to use her non-wand hand to help with aim. Her friends kept her stocked, insisting that she could pay them back once she returned to work. Poppy carefully changed the topic whenever such things came up, the knowledge that her life would only resume when another's had ended was still not something she wanted to examine too deeply.

Eventually, she had placed sticking charms on all her furniture to make getting around easier, and a half-remembered spell from her time at Hogwarts allowed her to enjoy books again, even if the voice reading them was rather monotone, and the bulk of her library consisted of literature related to her (former) job.

The best part of her day came as the Wizarding Wireless played Nature's Lullabies, a serial filled with songs meant to put children to sleep, and she could pretend, if only briefly, that the darkness surrounding her was simply the result of night.

A month had passed before Poppy came up with the idea of creating spells to make life without sight easier. Per Healer Jones (now called Katie after her many visits off the clock), her attacker had booby-trapped more victims. Sometimes, he targeted sight. Other times, it was a different sense, but the end result was more people dying as Healers had to perform complicated spells to confirm their own safety before acting, and finding ways to help them all became a much-needed purpose.

An owl to Flourish and Blotts got her started on the basics of spell creation, and an old Healing textbook that spoke of the history of Healing and how superior it was to Muggle methods, gave her some ideas on where to start.

While Poppy could navigate her home well, she still didn't have any means to safely navigate the world outside her door. Muggles had sticks to tell them where things were. What if a shield charm could be modified to provide the same function?

There was a reason why Poppy had gone into practical Healing rather than research, and for a long time, it felt as though she'd never be able to safely leave home alone again. Finding out how to modify the spell hadn't been too difficult, but it required so much power to maintain that it was essentially useless.

Until one of her friends left her straw hat on the table.

Feeling the strange fibers, an idea began to form. Wands made it so that the average witch or wizard could perform all but the most powerful spells without being exhausted. What if the spell was woven into a secondary foci, like a hat made of wand cores?

Ollie Ollivander, father of Garrick Ollivander, was quite willing to help with the project as his own sight had begun to dim over the years. They practiced with all manner of cores and woods to create something that could help with sightless navigation. The first trials stayed completely silent. Then they were too loud. Attempts at a mental connection caused the wearer to be overwhelmed with information. Nothing seemed to work, and the more frustrated she got, the more Poppy just wanted to live her life.

So ol' Ollie suggested they take a walk around Diagon Alley.

"My eyes might be going, but they're still good enough for Diagon, dear. Come on. You deserve to get out for a bit. Don't worry. We'll get it in the end," he coaxed.

"Oh, very well. Let me grab a hat though." Poppy grabbed the first hat on the hook and felt the stitching along the brim. "Might as well get Magical Britain used to the latest fashion trend, eh?"

In her hands was their first attempt at a foci to hold the shield that could offer her some true independence. Modeled after a traditional Healer's hat given who had come up with the idea, the edge of it had subtle stitching made of unicorn's hair meant to hold the shield in place.

Ten minutes later, they were out in the world. Ollie had just begun to describe Fortescue's latest advertisement when a shriek filled the air. Poppy felt heat flash by her face as something knocked her to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Ollie's voice came from beside her ear. "That spell just missed you!"

Poppy rubbed her forehead and found that her fingers came back sticky. "I think I hit my head, but I should be fine. Where's the attacker?" she asked, pushing her hat out of the way, a useless habit from her days at St Mungo's.

Unidentified male approaching from twelve o'clock.

Wait, what? Who said that? Was that the attacker?

Unidentified male has his wand pointed towards you.

Over the voice answering her questions, the 'unidentified male' had begun to rant about how Healers had ruined his father's life, and Poppy suddenly knew that the person responsible for her position was in front of her. Slowly standing, she made a show out of how not all of her senses were working.

And as a result, the man lowered his wand.

At least, that's what the voice in her head claimed. Of course, it also proceeded to tell her about the deplorable state of his dental hygiene, so it obviously still needed some help with focusing on important details, but Poppy had to fight not to grin at this further proof that finally, the last ingredient had been found.

"Oh, Poppy! What are you doing out here?" Poppy recognized that voice. It belonged to one of the nurses who'd been on her shift at St Mungo's. She could only hope that the nurse wasn't in uniform.

Unidentified male has turned away; his arm is raised.

Poppy didn't think. She raised her own wand.

Wand is currently facing Flourish and Blotts Ice Cream Shop. Wand is currently facing one unidentified male.

"Dentes Extractionem!" she yelled.

There was a blinding light, teeth racing towards her, and then… nothing.

When Poppy first awoke, her hands recognized the rough material of a hospital blanket. Her ears could hear her colleagues talking. She could see… white?

After months of darkness, the light was welcome but strange, and it took her a while to remember to open her eyes.

Her breath caught at the faces of her friends surrounding her, and just like that morning in training, it was Katie who brought her back to the present.

"In-two-three-four. Out-two-three-four."

A smile stretched across her face as she remembered everything, the voice in her head…

"Ollie, Ollie! It worked; the spell just needed a blood bond. We've done it!"

The elderly face of the retired wandmaker grinned at her kindly. "Indeed, I assumed as much from your impressive wand work today, my dear, and with a certain criminal gone, your sight has been restored."

She bit her lip. That's right. Unidentified male had died at her hands using an overpowered tooth extraction charm. She killed someone.

Her mentor's hand squeezed her own.

"Because of you, so many of us can heal again without fear. You saved lives today."

Poppy swallowed, suddenly uncertain in this place that had been her comfort her entire adult life. She wanted to return to life as it was, but it suddenly seemed as impossible as when she'd been blind.

Blind. Who was she kidding? Her sight only formed in the first place due to that man's spell. Before him, the goal was to fix what was broken about a person. Now, she looked for ways to help the person navigate the world around them, regardless of their abilities.

"Healer Jones? I'm glad that so many of our colleagues will be able to return to the field. I'm afraid that, as for me, I need a short hiatus to work on a project of mine with Ollie here. Once that's done, perhaps I'll be in a better position to return or maybe I'll find another outlet for my healing expertise."

Now she could see.