Harry, Hermione, and Dr. Granger stepped forward and Hermione gasped and Dr. Granger muttered a quiet, "oh." Harry could tell from the immediate quiet and gentle echoes that they were in a large open space. There was a scent of potions in the air and the temperature was cooler than it had been on the noisy, exhaust-filled street; it was less muggy, too.
Harry turned to Hermione, "What does it look like, Hermione?" he whispered, but his voice seemed to carry in this empty chamber.
"It's beautiful, Harry. It is open and filled with a soft light that reminds me of being underwater and looking up at the sun, it is shimmery and green and blue and yellow all at once. It's calming."
"Oh, it feels calming to me, too." Some of his trepidation about this training dissipated. "Where do you think we need to go?" Harry asked, breaking a bit of the spell they seemed to be under.
"Oh, yes. It looks like there is a desk over there and someone is sitting behind it."
Harry felt Hermione's arm move as if she were pointing. He stepped around her to switch places, grasping her arm when she had been holding onto his, and moved his staff to his left hand.
"Will you take me there, please?"
"Oh, sorry, Harry. I forgot. I… "
"It's okay, 'Mione."
Their footsteps echoed as they walked over to the desk; Dr. Granger's followed a little behind. Harry noticed that Dr. Granger, who had guided them so thoughtfully through the train and underground journey, was now hanging back a bit.
He probably feels more comfortable in the muggle world.
When Harry's staff, which he had been holding in front of him as he walked with Hermione, touched the base of the desk, it informed him, "You have reached the reception desk for the Perenelle Flamel Adaptation Center."
Harry let go of Hermione's arm and stepped forward to find the ledge with his hand. He was intrigued to find that there was a texture of raised dots on the surface of the desk and, momentarily distracted, he ran his fingers over it.
Braille. This is braille.
"Welcome to the Perenelle Flamel Adaptation Center. I'm Godric Burbage. How may I help you?" The voice greeting them was low and clear—and sincerely welcoming.
"Hi, I'm Harry Potter. I was told to come here for the Adaptation Training that starts today at 9 am."
As Harry was speaking, he heard the footsteps of people entering through the same entry point they had just come through and, for a brief moment, the sounds of Charing Cross Road rang through the space.
"Oh, yes. We're expecting you. I will let Healer Jordan know that you've arrived. If you could please take a seat—there are benches directly behind you and about 7 yards from here. You have companions with you?"
"Er, yes. My friend Hermione Granger and her father, Dr. Granger, helped me get here today."
"They are welcome to join you on the tour of the Center that will start at 9:30 am."
"Oh!" said both Hermione and her father.
"Thank you," said Harry and he turned around to find the waiting area.
"Would you like to go on the tour, Hermione and Dr. Granger?" asked Harry as they walked to the benches. "I know you want to get to the British Museum, so no worries if you want to head out. I'll be fine."
"What do you think, Hermione?"
Hermione guided Harry to the bench and he tapped his staff on the ground three times to collapse it and put it in his pocket.
"Dad, is it okay if we go on the tour? We can do the Museum on another day, and maybe we could visit Harry, too. Harry, we can visit you and maybe you can come to the museum with us!"
"Hermione, I'm really glad you want to go on the tour! And I definitely want to see you this summer… but I don't know about a museum… I think that it might be really dull for me to go to a museum."
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that, Harry. Yeah, I imagine it would be really visual."
"There are tons of things to do in London, right? I'm sure we can think of something else… like go see a band or just walk around. I haven't seen much of London."
There was an awkward silence until Hermione interjected, "I've always wanted to go to the British Library!"
"I'm surprised you haven't been already, actually."
"Me, too," agreed Dr. Granger, chuckling.
"Well, it's definitely on my list," Hermione said.
A door opened not far from them and someone walked toward them with sharp short steps that put Harry in mind of an athlete.
"Harry Potter?" A woman's warm voice called out gently.
"That's me," Harry said standing up and shaking his staff to extend it.
"Hi, I'm Healer Jordan. I'm here to welcome you to the Center and get you registered."
As she walked forward, Harry extended his hand and she grasped it, shaking it. It felt small, warm, and strong.
I was right, she is an athlete.
"Hi, and thank you," Harry said as he released her hand. He felt Hermione and her father stand up behind him.
"And are you Harry's uncle, Vernon Dursley?" asked Healer Jordan, her voice directed away from Harry.
"No, Healer. I'm Dr. Granger, Hermione is my daughter and she is a friend of Harry's and we brought Harry today as his Aunt and Uncle weren't able to," explained Dr. Granger.
Harry could hear the consternation in his voice.
"Oh, I see," said Healer Jordan as she flipped through pages on a clipboard. "Well, it looks like they did sign the consent forms we sent earlier, so all is in order."
Harry swallowed his surprise.
When did they get consent forms and why didn't they say anything about them? I wonder if they were in the letter from Dumbledore?
"Harry, will you take my arm? I'll lead you to the registration area," Healer Jordan said as she came alongside him and touched the back of his right hand with hers. He grasped her upper arm and followed her as she led him away.
"Dr. Granger and Hermione, you may wait here until it is time for the tour," Healer Jordan said over her shoulder.
"Harry, we're going through a door and then we'll turn left to walk down a corridor where we'll turn left again into the Center," she explained as she opened the door.
The aroma of potions was definitely stronger on the other side of the door, Harry noticed. It put him more in mind of the Hospital wing at Hogwarts than of St. Mungo's, of which he was glad.
The light in this area was also gentle like the light in the reception area—it didn't hurt his eyes. Harry wished he could see the colors that Hermione described… they sounded otherworldly. He wondered if that's what it would look like from beneath the lake at Hogwarts.
From the sound of it, he was pretty sure they were in a corridor, though a large one.
"This space sounds big," Harry observed.
"It is rather large, we share the space with other organizations with similar missions." Their footsteps were echoing through the hallway. Harry could hear other people walking farther along the corridor as well.
"Okay, we are going to turn left here and go through a door that opens to the right and into the Center. Here's a chair." Healer Jordan took Harry's hand and placed it on the back of a plush chair.
He collapsed his staff and put it in his pocket before sitting down in the stuffed chair. It was soft and he leaned forward to avoid being sucked into the cushions. Healer Jordan had walked around a desk and settled into a chair facing him. Harry lifted his chin up expectantly.
"Okay, we're just going to get you checked-in. We have most of the information we need from Madam Pomfrey at Hogwarts and Healer Smethwyck at St. Mungo's, but we're missing some information from your guardians. It's too bad they weren't able to make it today, but I'm hoping, er, I think… " she paused, rustling through some papers, "that you can provide some of the missing information."
"Sure, if I know it," agreed Harry.
"We need your medical records from your childhood from your muggle doctors and any hospitals you might have visited. Just the names are enough and then we can contact them."
Harry imagined a muggle doctor's office with a bunch of owls perched on desks and parchments scattering the surfaces and smiled.
"Oh, well that's easy. I've never been to a muggle doctor or hospital," Harry said. "I mean, for me. I've been inside the buildings, of course, but that was for when my cousin was sick and I went along. . ."
It dawned on Harry that this was probably odd.
Why did the Dursleys never take me to a doctor? Dudley went every year for a checkup just to see if he was growing and everything.
At the time, Harry had been relieved. Dudley always got shots at those visits and Harry was glad to escape that particular bit of torture.
"I mean, I had check-ups at school and that's how I got my glasses," Harry said, pushing his glasses higher on his nose.
His shoulders slumped as he let out a breath. He forced himself to sit up straight. "But I never had to go, I didn't get sick much and when I got sick, I always got better a lot faster than Dudley, so that's probably why they didn't take me… "
His heart was racing. If Dr. Granger and Healer Jordan started pestering the Dursleys about him, he was going to have a very rough time when he went back to Privet Drive.
"Oh, well, yes, I suppose you're right, Harry. Thank you, that's fine," she said, but from her tone, he didn't think it was.
"So, all that's left now is for me to tell you what to expect from your training… your Aunt and Uncle shared the literature we sent to them with you?"
This last bit caught Harry off guard.
"Er. Well, no," Harry confessed. "My aunt and uncle are muggles… so they don't really understand this stuff…"
"I see," said Healer Jordan, a quill scratched on parchment.
Harry sat quietly wondering when the Dursleys received the forms and literature from the Center and how he'd missed it completely.
If it had arrived by owl, there would have been an uproar!
Hedwig!
"Say, has my owl arrived here? She's a big snowy white owl. She should have arrived at my home before I left, but she didn't. Is she here?"
"Oh, I don't know, Harry. We can ask Godric if any new owls have arrived at the owlery when we see him on the tour." Healer Jordan seemed distracted.
"I'll also see that we get you a copy of the literature about the Center and the training. In the meantime, I'll give you a brief overview. The Perenelle Flamel Adaptation Center is a charitable foundation that was started to serve those injured in the war and to assist gravely injured wixen as they learned to adapt and acquire new skills so that they could return to the lives they wanted to lead. We've found that the four-week residency program works well for those who have recently sustained a life-changing injury such as yours. One of the benefits that people who have gone through the course mention most often is the confidence gained by learning how to live independently at the same time that they are bolstered up by a strong community of people who are going through similar challenges. I can tell you more about that, but it is nearly time for the tour and I want to tell you a bit about the weeks ahead. After the tour, we'll get you settled in your room and you'll meet your roommates. We'll eat lunch in the dining hall, and then in the afternoon, we'll get to know each other and you'll meet some of the mentors who will be working with you during training. A typical day will include one-on-one work with mentors to address the specific needs of individuals as well as group lessons that address more general concerns. You'll spend a good portion of your afternoons learning to read and write braille."
With a bit of discomfort, Harry remembered the leaflet about braille that he'd fished out of the bin—the one that he hadn't read yet.
"Okay, that was pretty brief and I'm sure that you have lots of questions, but we've run out of time and we need to return to reception to go on the tour. I think the tour will answer a lot of your questions and there will be time afterward to ask more." Healer Jordan said this while coming around the desk.
Harry stood up and she touched the back of his right hand with her left hand and he followed the curve of her arm up to just above her elbow where he grasped it gently.
He was looking forward to being with Hermione and Dr. Granger again, even if briefly. He was really glad to be away from the Dursleys, but he couldn't deny that he was nervous about a month with people he didn't know in an unfamiliar environment. And he wasn't sure he was up to learning how to read those raised dots. He took a deep breath and walked a step behind Healer Jordan as she led him from the room.