"Healer Jordan, could you please take me to the reception desk so that I can ask Mr. Burbage about my owl?" Harry asked as they walked back down the corridor.
"Sure, Harry," Healer Jordan said. "Oh, and I meant to tell you that there will be a weekend event in a few weeks when we invite your families and friends to come and learn how to do all these things including how to be a sighted guide. That information was sent out with the forms."
"Oh."
"Here's the reception desk," Healer Jordan announced as she took Harry's hand from her arm and placed it on the ledge of the desk. "Godric, Harry has a question for you. Harry, I need to leave you here to go get our tour started. Your friends are coming over."
"Thank you."
"Mr. Burbage?" Harry asked the air in front of him, not really sure where Godric was as he hadn't heard him move since they arrived.
"Yes, Harry?" His voice was nearer than Harry was anticipating. Hermione and her father were talking quietly not far from him.
"Oh, well, I was wondering if my owl Hedwig had arrived here? I was expecting her at my house last night, but she didn't arrive and this morning I had to leave. So I'm hoping that she found me here—do you know?"
"Oh, well, we'll have to check the owlery after the tour. I haven't heard that a new owl arrived, but often there are several who do show up when we start the residency program," Mr. Burbage explained.
"All right, thank you," Harry turned away from the desk, shook out his staff, and walked toward Hermione's voice.
"How was the registration?" Hermione asked, touching his arm.
"Okay, I guess. They wanted to know stuff about my medical history," Harry shrugged.
"Oh."
"Yeah," said Harry, "Healer Jordan said that there is going to be a weekend when we can invite friends and family to come and learn about how to be a… a sighted guide," Harry searched for the phrase. "Would you want to come to that?"
"Oh, yes. I'll see if I can come. Did they say which weekend?"
"No, I guess they sent the information to the Dursleys," Harry grimaced, and then remembered that Hermione's father was standing right there, "I'm sure we can ask," he hurried on.
"Did you find out if Hedwig has arrived here?"
"They don't know yet, but said we can check the owlery after the tour."
There was the tinkling sound of a clear, bright bell and the voices in the reception area died down. Harry turned toward the bell.
"If you could all gather around, we are ready to begin our tour of the Perenelle Flamel Adaptation Center," Healer Jordan's voice rang through the reception area. The gathering crowd seemed larger than he thought it would be.
I don't know how big I was expecting it to be. How many newly blinded wizards can there be?
He had never noticed any before this happened to him.
Hermione moved closer to Harry and started to take his hand. He squeezed it, then ran his hand up her arm to find the spot just above her elbow, and grasped her arm gently. She moved closer to Healer Jordan's voice and Harry could feel more people around them, hear their breath (someone's breath was rather labored). Harry was pretty certain that it was Dr. Granger who stood behind them.
"Welcome to the Perenelle Flamel Adaptation Center and the beginning of our four-week residency program for those of you adapting to a life-altering event. We are going to lead you on a tour of facilities with your families so that they can experience where you'll be for the next month and, we hope, feel comfortable leaving you in our care. Before we start, I would like to remind you to respect each other's privacy and not discuss the private concerns of individuals with others."
Harry felt heat rising in his neck as if Healer Jordan's voice was directed at him.
Is she worried that I'm going to talk about other people? I don't even know who else is here.
He wondered and then thought about it some more…
Or that other people are going to talk about me?
This thought made his shoulders sag a bit.
Maybe this just what they remind people every time they start—not to talk about each other—part of their policy.
Hermione reached for his hand on her arm with her other hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
He wished that Hermione could stay with him during the whole program. He heard someone to their left who sounded like a child and he wondered if there were kids younger than him in the program.
Would their parents stay with them?
He couldn't imagine the Dursleys in this very magical place and that made him glad.
"We're going to enter the Center through the main entrance directly behind me and travel up the corridor to the dining hall. Please follow me." Healer Jordan started walking toward the door that she and Harry had gone through earlier and the crowd slowly followed after her.
Hermione said, "thank you," to someone as they passed through the door. At one point his staff, which he was holding a little bit in front of him as an extra buffer in the group, hit something that sounded like metal… a wheelchair? There was a lot of swishing fabric like robes and he heard a few staffs like his tapping among the hushed conversations. Some people near Harry and Hermione were commenting on the corridor and how beautiful the lighting was.
"Hermione, is the light in here like the light in the entrance? It seems different to me. I can hardly tell that there is light in here."
"You can tell the difference? … Er… Yes, but darker as if you've gone deeper in the water and are farther from the light."
Harry was pretty certain that they had traveled past the door that Harry and Healer Jordan had gone into for his registration.
The group paused and up ahead, Harry could hear a creaking and groaning and realized that heavy doors were being opened—by magic? Now the group was going through a doorway that seemed to accommodate a lot of people at once. The space was large and echoey, the light brighter (Harry closed his eyes) and larger than the reception area. It had a pleasant fragrance—like a garden near a bakery.
"Oh, Harry," said Hermione in a hushed voice, "I wish you could see this, it is so beautiful!"
Harry sucked in his breath sharply. He knew she didn't mean it, but the comment kind of stung.
"Oh, Harry, I'm sorry. That was stupid of me."
"It's okay, Hermione. I wish I could see it, too."
"It's just hard to get used to."
"Believe me, I know," said Harry, taking a deep breath. "Why don't you describe it to me?"
He could feel her turning to look around as they were walking slowly down the center of the large room.
"Well, it is like the Great Hall at Hogwarts in some ways in that it is a large open space, but instead of heavy wood panels and portraits, there are floor to ceiling windows that look out on a peaceful lake fringed with trees—as if we're in the middle of the country, not in the heart of London. The walls are fluted white marble that arch up near the ceiling like the necks of swans or the ribs of a whale. The light is reflecting off the lake so that there is the same shimmering water feel in here, too, as there was in the reception area. There are about twenty round tables organized on a grid, each with six chairs—with white linens and vases of lilies in the center. There are ten on either side of this large aisle that we're walking through. It goes straight through and at the end of the hall is another grand entrance like the one we just passed through. It's very elegant, open, and peaceful."
"Thanks, Hermione. It's almost like I can see it when you describe it like that. I can smell the lilies."
Healer Jordan had stopped and the group settled around her.
"We'll take our meals in here—breakfast at 7 am, lunch at noon, and dinner at 6 pm—every day. Our meals are specially prepared to provide a healthy diet and also fixed to accommodate the needs of each individual. If you have any dietary restrictions or special requests our kitchen staff is happy to work with you. Daily menus are posted at the entrance the night before and available in audio and braille. Please follow me as we move through the dining hall and take the rear exit to proceed to our classroom spaces."
The group's footsteps echoed through the space along with the pleasant murmurings. It sounded as though many of the families agreed with Hermione, though Harry had picked up on one voice that stood out from the others and did not seem impressed.
Harry was pretty sure it was the person using a wheelchair. They sounded young, but maybe older than Harry. He was pretty sure it was a girl, though her voice was low and a bit gravely.
"A healthy diet!" she was exclaiming petulantly. "What does that mean? Carrot sticks and cucumbers? Mum, you can't leave me here."
Harry lost track of her as the group moved through the doors at the back of the hall and into a darker space.
I imagine all this light is magical—I wonder if it changes throughout the day?
Healer Jordan was leading them through another corridor that she described as the classroom wing. Hermione filled Harry in on some of the details… there were doors on either side of the corridor that led to classrooms—a total of four. Healer Jordan led them into the last one on the right and the light in here was so bright that Harry had to close his eyes against it.
"Oh, ow. It's bright in here."
"Harry, it's like being outside. The room doesn't seem to have walls. It is like we're on the edge of the lake and behind us is a grove of aspen trees. I feel like we've left England and we're in the Alps. There are benches here arranged in a circle, rough-hewn out of logs, instead of desks and chairs. I've never seen a classroom like this!" Hermione exclaimed and he could hear some envy in her voice.
"It's cool in here as if there's a breeze, too," noticed Harry as he slid his foot forward on the sloping floor. "What is the floor made of? It doesn't feel even."
In front of him, the girl he had noticed before was harrumphing, clearly not happy with the classroom space even as others around her were also exclaiming as Hermione was.
"It's cold in here and I don't like being on a mountain top," she complained loudly.
"In this classroom, we often gather as a community to support our emotional health… " (the girl snorted audibly) "… and begin the journey toward holistic healing and adapting," Healer Jordan explained in her amplified voice.
"The rooms can be changed magically to accommodate the needs of the students on any given day," Healer Jordan explained. "And we'll give students as much advance notice as possible so that they know what to expect. The people who come to our Center are often used to being defined by their limitations and told what they cannot do by others who may or may not completely understand the challenges they are facing. At the Perenelle Flamel Adaptation Center, we like to focus on what we can do, and finding ways to get around obstacles that are keeping us from doing what we want to do."
Healer Jordan went on, but at this point Harry was thinking about flying on his broom and imagining skimming the lake (he could hear the gentle lapping of the waves nearby) with his hand as he zoomed over the surface.