After Harry and Nio put away the bucket, rags, and ladder, Harry returned his little friend to the Agapanthus in the front yard and tried to express how thankful he was for his help. The little snake had saved him from a tirade from his Aunt. He also didn't feel quite so alone with Nio draped around his neck and while Hedwig also gave him a feeling of companionship and a connection to the magical world, with Nio, he had someone to talk to.
Granted their conversations so far had been focused on the layout of the garden and figuring out what they were talking about. Even with a shared language, there was a lot that didn't translate between the serpent and human perspectives. Still, the conversations were a relief from the toxic spew or stony silence Harry endured with the Dursleys.
A bit forlorn after leaving his friend, and with his legs shaking from hunger and weariness, Harry made his way to the ironing board to start in on the napkins before Vernon got home. It was always better to be employed in some task when his uncle arrived.
He knew that he'd be able to get something to eat once the Dursleys left to fetch Dudley from Smeltings. He assumed that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would go out for dinner with Dudley, and so, arrive home late.
Maybe I won't even have to see Dudley until tomorrow. Saturday. A month ago I was still at Hogwarts, I didn't know about the Basilisk, Ginny was okay, and I was able to see. A lot can change in a month, he thought.
Finally, after enduring a lengthy invective from Uncle Vernon about what he could and couldn't do while they were gone, Harry heard the car squealing out of the driveway and he was able to finally breathe easily.
Maybe the directions for the staff will include some household cleaning spells and I'll be able to speed through the ironing! Oi! Ron would take the mickey out of me if he knew I was fantasizing about learning spells for doing chores, he thought laughing at himself and craving time with his friend.
For a second, he was in Gryffindor tower, goofing around with Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville—pushing and shoving each other, telling bad jokes, and laughing until his sides hurt. He thrust the bruising thought away, the tower seemed so distant, so unattainable. He forced himself to focus on finding something to eat so that he wouldn't be trembling when he read through the literature from the hospital, eager though he was to get started.
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Up in his room—he still felt safest in his room, even knowing he had the run of the whole house for a couple of hours—Harry pulled the literature and the anagnóstis out from under the floorboards.
He sat down on his bed and spread the leaflets out on the table by his bed. He didn't know where to start, so ran the anagnóstis over the three pieces of literature to see what they said. He figured out that one of them was upside down, righted it and tried again.
A pompous wizard (not unlike Percy Weasley) said the titles as he slid the anagnóstis over the fronts of the leaflets. They were titled: Getting Around: Using Your Guidance Staff, Why Learn Muggle Braille? For the Low Vision or Vision Impaired Witch or Wizard, and Adjusting to Your Magical Malady. Harry decided to get started with learning how to use his staff and pushed the other two aside. After determining there was no other useful information on the front page, he opened the leaflet and a voice erupted into his room, much louder than his anagnóstis. "THIS IS A LISTENING LEAFLET FOR THE WITCH OR WIZARD LIVING WITH VISION LOSS. TO ADJUST THE VOLUME, STROKE THE PAGE EITHER UP (LOUDER) OR DOWN (QUIETER). TAP IT TWICE TO TURN THE AUDIO ON OR OFF."
Harry immediately stroked the page down and was relieved when the volume of the voice was more tolerable. He was also thankful that he never opened the leaflets while the Dursleys were in the house. The leaflet kept going. Harry decided that he preferred the anagnóstis as he could more easily control the pace and tapped the leaflet twice. He wondered if the volume on his anagnóstis could be adjusted in the same way and was pleased to learn that it could, then he walked swiftly to the corner of his room where he kept his staff and tried to adjust the volume on it as well on it. He cast "Tempus" and was pleased with the softer "Quarter to two" response.
Eager to learn more, he returned to the table and the leaflet and continued to read with the anagnóstis.
"Your guidance staff is equipped with the latest in assistive charmwork to allow you to navigate easily around any obstacles in your path. Unlike your wand, the staff needs to be in contact with objects for many spells to work in order to prevent accidental magic." Harry nodded as he had already figured this out.
"A newly developed feature that we are excited to introduce with this model is that your staff is equipped with an extendable storage place that makes transporting items easier. Open the storage by pressing your thumb on the triangle formed by three dots, 3 inches down from the top of the staff. To retrieve items you've placed in the extendable storage, use the summoning charm, Accio, to retrieve the item. To close the storage, press your ring finger on the triad dots.
To walk around a room using your staff to guide you, simply grasp it by the handle as you would a wand (think of it as an extension of your pointer finger). If you are outside or in a spacious environment, hold the staff in front of you at about belly-button height and swing it in a gentle arc hovering a little above the floor, and move it a little wider than your shoulders. As you advance your left foot, swing the staff to the right and tap, then swing back to left as your right foot advances and tap. If you are inside or in close quarters, hold the staff more parallel to your body and swing in a smaller arc, advancing the foot opposite to the arc. This motion activates the charms in the staff that will provide information about your surroundings. You can ask it to give you more or less information by tapping the staff twice with two fingers in rapid succession for more information or twice with one finger for less information. However, if your staff senses danger, it will alert you immediately.
Your guidance staff is paired with an aftí listening instrument for your ear that you will find in the extendable storage area of your staff so that only you can hear the guiding voice. It is charmed with a cloaking charm, so once it is in place, no one will be able to see it. The aftí is designed to be comfortable, waterproof, and require very little care and maintenance."
Harry set down the anagnóstis and tried opening the storage area and summon the aftí out of it. It didn't work. He went back to leaflet to read the directions again and listen carefully to the pronunciation of the spell and the inflection for the listening instrument aftí and tried again and after several attempts was finally able to extract it.
A very small, metal c-shaped ring winged into his hand. He felt it carefully and found that it was completely smooth with no marks that he could discern. He put it back in and tried summoning it again and found that it was much easier after he'd felt the aftí and had an idea of what he was summoning.
Harry went back to the leaflet to figure out how to wear it and figured out that it should be pinched over the helix of his ear. It took him awhile to figure out what part of his ear that was, but when he got it to fit it he couldn't tell it was there except when he touched it with his fingers. He was surprised, though, when he got it in place and he picked up the anagnóstis to read the leaflet again, now the voice was not speaking aloud in the room, but in his ear!
He decided to try out the staff with the aftí in place.
First, he tried holding the staff as he held his wand and swinging it in an arc, stepping forward with the opposite foot. It didn't speak until he remembered to extend his index finger down the length of the staff. Then, the voice from the aftí started describing the furniture in his room and he adjusted the volume to a comfortable level. It was a little weird to have this voice speaking right in his ear, but he could appreciate how useful it could be. He imagined he'd be able to hear it even in a really loud environment and it was nice not to have to worry about the Dursleys hearing it.
Harry listened to the descriptions and started moving around the room, "single bed on your left, wardrobe, straight head." Harry continued walking and swinging the staff in an arc, the staff lightly striking the furniture legs in his room. He tried increasing and decreasing the amount of information and found that he could set it up so that it just made the staff vibrate a bit in his hand right before he hit something so that he could avoid hitting things before the staff even struck it. He imagined that this would be handy if he was walking around people (again, the Dursleys—he could imagine what Uncle Vernon's response would be if he tapped him with his staff). Even without the voice describing the furniture and the room, the feedback from the staff tapping on the walls and furniture was helpful. With the navigator on, the staff told him where the door was and how to find the doorknob.
He decided to go back to reading the leaflet:
If you need more information or don't understand something, simply squeeze the staff twice in rapid succession and your staff will give you more information about what it is touching or, if you hold the staff in the air, it will give you a visual description of the room or space where you are standing. Two more rapid squeezes will return it to the previous setting.
To ask your staff to guide you to a location, cast the "navigant" spell and state the address or the item you want to walk toward.
When you walk among Muggles, your staff will appear to be a Muggle white cane for the blind or visually impaired.
Your staff can be shrunk to fit easily in a pocket by tapping it three times on the ground while it is held at a perpendicular angle. To restore it to its normal size, shake three times quickly in front of you. To Muggles, it will appear as if you're folding or unfolding a collapsible cane. If you'd like it to still give you directions while it is shrunk, simply hold it with your thumb and middle finger.
When first adapting to your vision loss, keep in mind that while this staff is designed to give you as much independence as possible, it is not a replacement for sight and you will need to proceed with caution, rely on your remaining senses, and don't be afraid to ask for assistance when you need it.
Harry felt a bit deflated upon hearing this last bit as he was starting to imagine all the things he'd be able to do with his staff now that he was learning how to use it. He was even imagining flying on his broom.
He shrugged off the stifling feeling that was threatening to envelop him. He stood up and said, "Navigant cupboard under the stairs," and waited for the instructions. But it didn't seem to work. So, he tried again taking care to pronounce "Navigant" as the leaflet had said it and thought about the cupboard under the stairs.
This time, it worked and he followed the staff's directions out of his room to the stairs. He was so used to finding the top stair with his toes, the railing with his hand, and then counting the stairs down that he didn't need the staff to tell him that he'd reached the bottom step, but he could understand how it would be helpful if he was in an environment he didn't know so well. It then directed him to the door of the cupboard under the stairs and told him where to find the keyhole.
He touched the staff to the door and said, "Alohomora" and he could feel the lock slide open under his hand when the door popped open.
His fingers swiftly found the three triangular spaced dots on the staff. He placed all the items in his trunk inside his staff—he was amazed by how much it could hold and it didn't get any heavier. In fact, it was quite light even though it felt solid, as though it had been carved from a strong tree branch.
He had a fleeting moment where he wondered if he could go inside the staff, but then worried about how he'd get out, so didn't try it. Maybe sometime he'd explore that possibility with Ron and Hermione. He closed his trunk and then realized he didn't know the spell to lock the cupboard again.
He was a bit frantic for a little bit until it dawned on him he could summon the key that Aunt Petunia kept hanging on a nail in the broom closet, high up. He tried saying it, "Accio key to the cupboard under the stairs" and the first few times it didn't work, but he worked on pronouncing Accio exactly as it was pronounced in the leaflet and really focusing on the key, and finally, it came.
He locked the cupboard and it took him awhile to put the key back on the hook (but he was able to levitate a chair over to help him reach it). He wondered if there was a counterspell to the summoning charm—something to replace things.
Maybe now that I have my textbooks and can read them, I'll be able to find the counterspell.
It was so liberating to be able to use his magic without fear of reprimand, either from the Dursleys or the Ministry of Magic. Harry was torn between finishing reading the leaflets and getting out of the house. He thought of the park and what it would be like to just go play… to swing, to see-saw, to climb the jungle gym.
Go to the park, for sure! When am I ever going to get the chance again?