"Why can't we hear what Gemma's saying today? Like we could last night?" Arig asked as they entered the dining hall.

"That's a spell that Healer Jordan casts when we're in a group, but it stops when she leaves the room," Harry explained, catching the paper fluttering by his mouth, and handing it to Gemma.

"So, Harry, how do you and Gemma communicate if you can't read the notes from her signing?" Arig asked as they settled into the chairs at their favorite table in the dining hall, the aromas of another English breakfast floating around them.

"She writes in my palm or we write on paper and I have an anagnóstis that reads things to me," Harry explained.

"Oh, that's cool," Arig said. Harry heard him tapping his crutches on the floor three times.

"So your crutches shrink down so that you can put them in your pocket, too," Harry stated.

"Yeah, I saw you do the same thing with your staff. Pretty nifty," Arig said.

"Do you have storage in your crutches, too?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, that's the best thing about them. I don't have to carry a book bag or anything," Arig said.

"That would be hard, huh, with crutches, to manage a book bag," Harry agreed.

"Yeah, it's always shifting and hitting my crutches," Arig said. "Yeah, I'll be getting a magical leg at some point."

"Huh?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I was answering Gemma. She asked," Arig said.

It sounded like there were only a couple in the dining hall, so Harry wasn't surprised when the table started vibrating and the whistle went off.

"Whoa, what's that?" Arig said.

"That's letting us know that our table can go up to the buffet. It's more of an issue when the dining hall is full. It doesn't sound like there's many people here," Harry said.

He felt Gemma getting up next to him and also started rising.

"Yeah, there's just one other guy down here at the table across the way. He's talking to himself, though," said Arig.

"Oh, who is it?" Harry asked.

Gemma took his hand and wrote, "A-D-A-M" space "F-I-T-Z", then tucked it in her arm and started leading him to the buffet.

"Oh, Gemma says that it is Adam and Fitz. Adam has vanishing sickness, so you can't see him. He's invisible. Fitz isn't by himself." Harry explained as Arig started following them.

"Oh, wow," Arig said, "I didn't know that was really a thing."

"The trays float, just so you know," Harry said as they approached the buffet.

"Oh, that's a relief. I was wondering how I was going to manage," Arig said.

oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo

"You spilled some fried tomatoes off your plate, did you know?" Arig asked as Harry was eating.

"Um, no. It's okay. They are super slippery," Harry said, trying to hide his embarrassment. He was just hoping that none had slid down his front.

He had been trying to corner the tomatoes with his toast, but apparently, some had gotten away.

"Oh, here comes Mei, Tony, and Aminah," Arig said.

Gemma, Harry, and Arig greeted them as they settled into the remaining chairs at their table.

"Is anyone else in self-defense this morning?" Harry asked and learned that they were all in it, except for Mei who was going to be working with someone on managing her Jiāorén magic.

"Who's your professor for that, Mei?" Aminah asked.

"It's one of my Jiāorén relatives, Hǎi rén," Mei said.

"Are you going to the South Sea for that lesson," Harry asked.

"Yeah, wanna come?" Mei teased.

"Not today, thanks," Harry said. He had finished up his breakfast and pushed back his chair.

"I'm going to go to the owlery before self-defense," he announced standing up.

Gemma tapped on his arm and Arig said, "Gemma says to wait for her, she wants to go with you," Arig said.

"Oh, okay, sure," he said as he sat back down.

It didn't take too long for Gemma to finish her plate and push it away from her. She tapped Harry on the arm to let him know she was ready.

"Do you mind if I tag along? I want to make sure my owl made it safely," Arig asked.

"Sure, no problem," Harry said as Gemma tugged impatiently on his arm.

"What is it, Gemma?" Harry asked.

She took his palm, "W-A-N-T" space "T-A-L-K" space "W-I-T-H" space "Y-O-U" space "A-L-O-N-E".

"Oh, okay," Harry said and added quietly, "We could talk in the courtyard?"

She tapped his arm twice, "okay."

They walked in silence to the owlery, where the odor seemed extra strong as they walked into the tower—it was already warmer than it had been on Tuesday.

"Oh, wow. This is weird. So this is some kind of portal?" Arig asked as he walked in.

"Watch out for the owl droppings, they are slippery," Harry warned as he heard Arig moving over to the window quickly. "Yeah, Gemma says the view is way above the city and that we can see Big Ben from here."

"You mean the Clock Tower? Oh, yeah, there it is, cool." Arig said from the window.

Harry heard Hedwig hoot and the burst of her wings as she descended. He was glad. He tugged gently on Gemma's arm and pointed up to the sound and she led him to the perch.

"Hiya, Hedwig," Harry said as he buried his face in her feathers, breathing in her piney scent. He pulled out some of the table scraps he'd saved for her and winced as she pecked at his fingers as she grabbed them.

After a quick greeting to Hedwig that consisted of her own table scraps, Gemma had gone over to the window with Arig to look at the city. They were pointing out sights in the city that they both recognized from what Harry could tell from Arig's side of the conversation. He seemed pretty at ease with them even though he was quite a bit older.

Maybe he also has younger siblings? Harry wondered.

Harry found the note attached to Hedwig's leg and took it off. He summoned the one he'd written to Ron and fastened it to Hedwig's leg. "You don't mind taking this to Ron, do you, Hedwig?" he asked as he scratched her head. She chortled and growled.

"Hey, your owl is a beauty!" Arig exclaimed.

"Thanks," Harry said, rubbing his cheek against her face as she nibbled on his earlobe.

"Did yours arrive?"

"Yeah, he's here. He's not glad to see me, though," Arig said, "ever since I was attacked… I guess I smell different."

"Oh, that's… " the thought made Harry sad for Arig. He'd hate it if Hedwig suddenly didn't like him as much. "That is total pants."

"Yeah."

Harry could tell now that even Hedwig felt a bit antsy around Arig. He let her fly up back to her perch.

The door of the owlery opened.

"Is Harry Potter in here?"

"Yes, I'm over here, Godric."

"Do you have a minute? Could you come with me?"

"Um, sure. Let me tell Gemma—just a second," Harry said as he shook out his staff and put the scroll away.

"I'll tell her, Harry," Arig offered. Gemma must have still been enthralled with the view of the city. She did spend a lot of time looking at it every time they came up to the tower.

"No, it's okay. I need to tell her," Harry said as he navigated to Gemma, he'd remembered to add her to his staff's memory along with the other people in the dining room that morning.

"Oh, okay," Arig said.

Harry touched Gemma's arm, "Gemma, I have to go. Godric needs to talk to me. I don't know how long it will take. Can I meet you at the O&M room and we can see if we have time to talk before class?"

"Okay," she tapped on his arm, and then three taps, "I understand."

"Thanks, Gemma. See you then," he said and she waved across the back of his hand.

Harry navigated to the doorway where he wiped off his shoes and followed the sound of Godric's staff across the corridor to Healer Jordan's office.

"We're just going to meet briefly with Healer Jordan in her office," Godric explained over his shoulder as they reached the door.

"Okay." He heard as Godric's staff tapped the door, then he opened it and passed through.

They settled into the chairs by Healer Jordan's desk as she greeted them both.

"Harry, Mr. Burbage and I just returned from visiting your guardians," Healer Jordan explained.

"Oh?"

"Well, I'll get right to the point. We encountered some resistance and I think we're going to need to involve the Ministry of Magic as well as Hogwarts as we work with them to make sure you are getting the best care," Healer Jordan explained.

"What do you mean, resistance?"

"They refused to let us in, despite our prearranged agreement to meet," Healer Jordan said.

Harry was impressed at how neutral she managed to keep her voice, given how frustrating that must have been. He wondered if she'd had any time to sleep when he considered all the extra time she was spending on him and there were sixteen other residents who likely had similar things that needed to be dealt with.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Harry said, flushing. "They aren't used to wixen."

Godric made a noise that he tried to pass off as a cough.

"Listen, Harry. Please understand. None of this is your fault. Okay? How have visits from the professors at Hogwarts gone in the past? Or from the families of your wixen friends?"

"Uh," Harry could only think of the visit from Madam Pomfrey the month before. "Well, okay, I guess? I mean, it was only Madam Pomfrey who took me there after … It was a pretty quick visit."

"What about when they delivered your letter?" Godric asked.

"Oh, well. That was… " Disastrous, he thought, remembering Hagrid knocking the door of the sea shack off the hinges.

"How did that visit go?" Healer Jordan pressed.

Harry sank into his chair trying to make himself small.

"I dunno. My aunt and uncle tried… to keep me from going to Hogwarts, but I got to go finally."

"And visits from your wixen friends? How are those?" Healer Jordan asked.

"Um. I haven't really had any visits… " He didn't suppose the visit by Fred, George, and Ron in the Ford Anglia counted.

"Okay, well. We'll reach out to the ministry and to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can figure out how to bridge this divide," Healer Jordan said. "How are you feeling today? Did you eat a good breakfast?"

"I'm fine. Yes, I ate breakfast," Harry said, straightening up a bit.

"Okay, well. Thanks. You can go on to your self-defense class now." Healer Jordan had dismissed him.

Harry stood up and asked his staff to take him to the door. As he went out into the corridor, he realized that he was feeling a little shaky. What would it mean if they brought in the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore? How would it change things? He tried to push the thoughts out of his head. There wasn't really anything he could do about it.

He found the wall of the corridor. It was cool as he pressed his hand against it. He leaned against it, collapsed his staff, then slid down to the floor. He needed to think for a moment.

He heard the door open again and held his breath. It was Godric and he walked by without noticing Harry. Harry breathed a sigh of relief once it sounded like Godric was out of earshot.

Like wearing my invisibility cloak…

He put his head against his knees and hugged his legs. He had never had people poking into his business like this before. Even when Hagrid had to track the Dursleys down out in the middle of the ocean. After he and Hagrid spent the day getting his things in Diagon Alley, Hagrid just put him on a train back to the Dursleys like it was no big deal.

He took in a deep shuddering breath. He was pretty certain no one else was in the corridor. He lifted his glasses and wiped his eyes (they had leaked a little) then stood up. The only way this was going to be okay for him was if he didn't have to go back to the Dursleys, but he didn't see how that was going to happen. He reminded himself sternly that he still had three and a half weeks away from the Dursleys.

Steeling himself, he asked his staff to take him to the O&M room for his self-defense class.

I'm going to need it more than ever if the Ministry, the Center, and Hogwarts are all visiting the Dursleys… they are going be pitch a fit when I return if they've had all sorts of wixen stomping through their house.

oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo

Ms. Midgeon was waiting outside the door of the O&M room when he approached it a few minutes later. He could hear her talking to someone and he remembered her voice from yesterday when he had face-planted in front of everyone. He had run into Adam and Fitz in the corridor and they had both asked how he was doing.

So embarrassing!

He asked his staff to tell him who was in the area and learned that Gemma was there and had started walking toward him. He turned to her and waited.

"Hi, Gemma," he said, smiling and offering his palm to her.

She took it and wrote, "H-O-W" space "K-N-O-W" space "I-T" space "W-A-S" space "M-E-?"

"My staff. I was able to add you to my staff's memory of people. I learned how to do it yesterday in Godric's class," Harry said. "Do we have time to talk? Do you know where the courtyard is?"

"Yes, yes" she tapped on his arm four times with a pause between each pair and then offered her arm to guide him. He Tempus'd his staff and learned that it was only 8:32—they did have time.

Gemma led him to the library and through the library to the door that led out to a courtyard—on the same level. As they walked through the courtyard, Harry caught a whiff of the owlery.

The air in the courtyard was a little cooler than it had been up in the tower. Harry supposed that was because of the tree and the walls shaded that it from the sun. He was able to open his eyes in the courtyard, unlike the library. He briefly wondered why the library was so bright if it looked out onto the courtyard. More windows?

Gemma led him to the bench under the tree and they sat down. Harry got his notebook and pencil and anagnóstis out of his staff. He also fetched the letter that Hedwig brought that morning, figuring he could read it while he waited for Gemma to write.

She drew a question mark on his palm.

"I think it is from Hermione. Hedwig brought it this morning. I'll read it while you write," Harry explained.

"Okay," she tapped on his arm and he heard her start to write in the notebook.

He unrolled the letter, then spread it on the bench so he could press the anagnóstis against it to read.

"Dear Harry," Hermione's voice sounded in his aftí as if she were next to him on the bench.

"I'm sorry your letters were accidentally destroyed. How did that happen? Was it that Ravenclaw who dumped us on into the sand? I wanted to warn you about her, but Healer Jordan was so strict about the whole privacy thing. I hope that she hasn't done anything else. She seems so angry at everyone. I guess I would be, too, if that happened to me, but still, it's not fair to take it out on people who are going through something similar. I imagine that's why she's there. Maybe she'll get the help she needs.

I hope that your classes are going well and that you've had a chance to rest and eat, too. I was worried about how thin and tired you looked. So the letter that was destroyed, it must have just been the one where I was explaining how Dad and I were going to collect you and take you to London. I don't think I said anything else.

I've been doing some research at our local (muggle) library about braille and I'm going to try to learn it. I sent away for a mail-order slate and stylus… "

Harry wondered, What's a slate and stylus?

"… so that I can learn. I'll send you a letter in braille when I get it. I know you have the anagnóstis, but I imagine it would be nice to just be able to read something without having to use a tool to access it. Though, from my research, it sounds like it is pretty hard to learn to read by touch.

I wrote to Ron and told him about the Center. He said that all the Weasleys are going to visit this weekend. I wanted to visit, too. Do you think that will be too many people? I could wait until later… Let me know. Take care, Hermione."

Harry thought it was the end of the letter, but as he picked up the anagnóstis it slid over another word "remembered", and he scanned the end of the paper and found a P.S. from Hermione.

"P.S. There was one thing that I had written in other letter. I just remembered. I told you about Quick Quote Quills that will write down what you're saying. They are not just for wixen with vision or other impairments—loads of people use them to make taking notes easier during interviews or at work. I guess they are not allowed at school unless you have special permission to use them, or all the students at Hogwarts would use them during classes. I wonder if you can get one through the Center or if you'd have to visit Diagon Alley. Maybe we can go there this weekend."

Harry rolled up Hermione's letter and straightened up, turning toward Gemma and listening to see if she was still writing. It sounded like she was done, too.

She touched his knee with the notebook and he took it.

"I wanted to talk to you about why you told Arig about how you were blinded when you just met him, but you wouldn't tell me. I guess it kind of stung and I thought we should talk about it because you are an important friend to me and I thought that maybe I was an important friend for you, too, even though we just met and everything."

Harry felt his gut seize up as he read Gemma's note. He could also feel lots of eraser crumbles on the page and realized that it had taken Gemma a long time to compose the short note because she kept re-writing it.

He had just told Arig right away about the Basilisk venom when he asked, but with everyone else, he had deflected the question.

Why did I do that?

"Gemma, I'm sorry. You are an important friend, even though we just met two days ago. I don't know why I could tell Arig when I didn't want to tell anyone else. I didn't want to tell you at first because I was afraid it would scare you and that you wouldn't want to go to Hogwarts if you heard about a big serpent in the dungeons. I didn't tell Tony or Mei because they were both pretty, well, mean at first. I don't know why I didn't tell Aminah. I guess, I figured since they were all at Hogwarts, they already knew, and that you would have heard about it from your brother. So, I really didn't need to tell it. It is kind of hard to think about."

She grabbed the paper that fluttered by his lips. After a little bit, she reached over and laid her hand on his wrist.

He motioned with the notebook, wondering if she wanted to write more. She hesitated, then took it and he heard her writing, then she gave it back to him.

"Okay, I guess I get it. But could you tell me the story, please? Is it weird that I want to know?"

"No, I think we all want to know what happened to each other, but it's kind of hard, too. You know?" he paused and took a deep breath.

"So, what happened was Ron's sister Ginny was trapped in the Chamber of Secrets below Hogwarts by… " he stopped. What's scarier—a basilisk or Voldemort? "… by a boy named Tom Riddle who was a student at Hogwarts fifty years earlier. He grew up to become Voldemort." He stopped again when he heard her draw in a sharp breath.

"Anyway, he had this diary and he enchanted it somehow and he got Ginny. So, Ron and I decided to go rescue her and we took Professor Lockhart with us, but he got hurt and couldn't help us and then Ron was trapped behind a pile of rocks, so only I could go on. And, well, Terry already told you that I can speak to snakes, so I could get into the chamber because of that. And so I… " he paused, his heart was racing as he was retelling the story. Gemma put her hand on his.

"… so I found Ginny, but Riddle was there and he was like a ghost but he was starting to get a body, I guess he was stealing Ginny's soul to do it… and he set the Basilisk on me. Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes came and gave me the Sorting Hat and there was a sword in it. And Fawkes blinded the Basilisk and I fought it, but when the sword went into its mouth, one of the fangs got me in the arm, and blood and venom got in my eyes. I thought I was going to die. But then Fawkes healed my arm with his tears. I stopped dying then. I couldn't see anything because of venom in my eyes, though I didn't know that was why. It stung so bad. And Fawkes brought the diary to me and I don't know why, but I stabbed the diary with the fang from the Basilisk and it made Riddle disappear and then Ginny started coming back to life. I didn't think to ask Fawkes about healing my eyes until after I knew Ginny was okay. And once he cried his tears in my eyes they stopped hurting so bad, but I still couldn't see. And yeah, Ginny and I went back to Ron and we got out of the Chamber. I thought that Madam Pomfrey and then the Healers at St. Mungo's would be able to heal my eyes, but they couldn't."

He let out a big breath and realized that he felt both exhausted and relieved.

A tear fell on his hand. He wasn't sure if it was his or Gemma's.