Harry and Aminah walked out of the library together after their braille class. Aminah was headed to Council along with most everyone else, but Harry had a mind healer meeting with Besel. He felt a bit singled out, but tried to push down that feeling.
He walked the short distance to the Mont Blanc classroom with Aminah and hung outside the entrance for a little bit after she went in, hoping that Gemma would come by before he needed to go to meet with Besel. He kept casting the Reveleo memento spell to see if she was approaching, but she must have already gone in. It was right across the hall from the Braidwood room where she was learning BSL.
After a bit, he decided to head down to Healer Jordan's office. Maybe if he had time, he could duck into the owlery and see if Hedwig was back. He knew that she couldn't possibly be back yet, but it was something to do.
When he reached the owlery, he walked across the threshold and held his breath against the stench for a moment to delay the impact.
"Oh, are you here again?" the man in the painting greeted him.
"Um, yes," replied Harry walking up to the perch, hoping to hear Hedwig's familiar hoot. He angled his ear up, listening for her growling, but only heard other owls shifting on their perches.
He then Navigant'd to the window to listen to the sounds of the city below.
"Why do you bother with looking out the window when you can't see?" the portrait asked him.
Harry tensed his shoulders trying to deflect the judgment of the portrait.
I don't have to answer his stupid questions.
Down below in the heat of the day, the city was teaming. He could hear car horns, people yelling, trains, and planes speeding through the airways. The city was pulsing in contrast to the quiet sounds of the owlery behind him. There were aromas, too, that came up on the hot wind—diesel and baking bread, curry and fish, the tarmac and the damp-basement odor that had to be the Thames.
He Tempus'd his staff and decided he better head over to Healer Jordan's office. He wondered what they'd talk about today.
oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo
Harry was feeling a little weak as he was leaving the meeting with Besel. He had talked for a good hour and a half about what happened in the Chamber and the month that followed at the Dursleys and how it all made him feel. He didn't realize that he had felt so much and going through it all again made him feel that he had been running for hours. Now he was spent. He was glad it was almost time for dinner. He was hungry.
"Oh, Harry, could you come here for a moment?" It was Healer Jordan who asked him.
"Sure," he found his way to her desk—just outside the little room where he and Besel had been meeting.
"How was your time with Healer Geller?" Healer Jordan asked.
"It was… " he paused, searching for a word to describe it, "fine." It wasn't really 'fine' but he couldn't come up with anything else that wouldn't lead to more questions.
"Good, good," Healer Jordan responded and Harry got the feeling that other things were on her mind. "Go ahead and have a seat. I have talked to Professor Dumbledore… "
Harry caught his breath as he sank into the seat.
She continued, "… and he's going to send your head of house Professor McGonagall to visit the Dursleys with us this evening. He's asked us not to involve the Ministry of Magic at this point."
Harry was taking shallow breaths. He put his hands under his legs in an attempt to stop them trembling.
"I'm telling you this not to distress you… " He felt the implied, even though it clearly is… in her pause, "but because I think it is important that you know what is going on as it concerns your welfare."
"Okay, thanks," he mumbled.
Welfare, he didn't like that word. It was one that the Dursleys threw around with contempt and sometimes applied to him, though Healer Jordan was using it differently.
"How have you been?"
"Okay, I guess," he muttered.
"Have you had any other experiences like the one you had before you passed out?"
"No, I've been okay," he said, feeling the heat rising in his throat.
"And how about your roommates? How are things with them?"
"They are fine. Thanks for putting up the wall—it is nice not to get splashed while I sleep."
"Of course, that was an easy solution," Healer Jordan said. "Let me know if you need anything else, okay?"
"Okay, thanks," Harry said, moving forward in his seat with the hope that he'd be released soon.
"You can go now. I'll let you know how things go this evening," she said as she dismissed him.
"Okay, thank you," he said and muttered 'Navigant door' to his staff.
He had a little bit of time before the dining hall would open for dinner, so he went across the hall to the owlery (the portrait commented on his appearance again) and then down the stairs to the courtyard.
He wanted to be by himself for a little bit while he thought about what it would mean for Professor McGonagall to visit the Dursleys. If they hadn't let in Healer Jordan and Mr. Burbage, wouldn't they also refuse entry to Professor McGonagall? He could imagine the struggle they'd be having… they would hate the spectacle caused by wixen piling up on their doorstep but they would also not want to let them in the house.
Who would win out in the end?
He imagined that they would have a harder time putting off Professor McGonagall. He ran his hands over the herbs by the bench under the tree, releasing the rosemary scent that reminded him of chicken dinner and Yorkshire pudding. He reached a little further and found a plant with a fuzzy leaf that had a pungent odor. He broke off a leaf and brought it to his nose. It was almost overpowering and seemed to travel deep into his lungs opening them up and relieving the tightness that was constricting them. This one also reminded him of savory food and he tried to place it. The sun had moved in the courtyard and the shadows cast by the walls were making it a bit cooler, more tolerable than it had been earlier in the day. He wondered how long this nice warm weather would last. It seemed like they'd had some really beautiful days. He listened to little birds that were jumping around in the tree above him, chittering to each other and inhaled the aroma of the leaf again.
Noticing that the jittery feelings that he had while talking to Besel and then Healer Jordan were finally settling down, he decided to head to dinner.
After dinner, I get to go to the workshop and work on my staff and maybe find Godric to see when I can have flying lessons.
He took the leaf with him, lifting it to his nose on occasion.
oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo
Harry was behind Tony as they went through the buffet line and Tony's frustration with his new arms was palpable. Harry held back from offering to help and tried to wait as patiently as he could—he had to remember to stop tapping his foot nervously a couple times, though. He was glad that Mei had gone through first.
It was clearly really hard for Tony to grasp things with his new hands—he was still getting the mechanics down.
"Oh, Merlin's bollocks! Not again!" Tony groaned as another serving spoon clattered to the ground and Harry felt clumps of food pelt him.
Great, I'm already wearing dinner and I haven't even started eating yet.
"Sorry about that, Harry," Tony muttered.
"No problem, Tony. It's okay. You should have seen me the first time I made sausages."
"What, before you were blind?" Tony asked.
"No, last month. I burned my hand and the sausages," Harry offered. "And then when I was sweeping the kitchen afterward, I ran right into the broom closet door."
"What are you? A house elf?" Tony laughed.
"Er. No."
"Seriously, dude… " But Tony was interrupted by someone down the line wondering what the hold up was, and he started working on cleaning up his mess.
"Wingardium leviosa!" Tony said.
Harry stepped back. He wasn't sure what Tony was leviosa-ing.
"Scourgify serving spoon," Tony said.
"Oi! You can do magic now?"
"Yeah, both of my arms have bits of my wand in them to help with my magic and help me operate my arms. But since I'm always holding my wand now I have to be really careful about accidental magic."
"They broke up your wand and put it in your arms?" Harry felt a little sick hearing that.
"Yeah, it was that or muggle fake arms that aren't connected magically," Tony said, attempting again to scoop out something. He managed this time and Harry was able to move in next to him and discover that he had bits of leeks, spinach, and mushroom saute on him. It was the side to the cheese souffle. He scooped a bit onto his plate. He figured he'd do a scourgify charm after he ate dinner.
I hope they have a class on how to eat without wearing your food.
Tony had an easier time with the rolls, though Harry was pretty certain that Tony gave up on the tongs and just grabbed one in the end.
At the dinner table, Gemma was excited to share with Harry that she had met someone in her signing class who was deaf and blind and that he communicated with a sign language that was spelled into the hand and that she had started learning it. She started signing into his hand—some of the signs that she had learned. Harry sat with his hand held out in front of him while she made signs into his hand, but they were incomprehensible to him.
He felt his chest constricting again and held the leaf to his nose and it helped calm him. He could tell that she was super excited to share this with him, but once she had switched to signing in his hand from writing on the notebook, he had stopped being able to follow what she was saying. Also, he had fallen into a dark hole as he imagined what it would be like to be cut off from people like that—not being able to see them or hear them—only touch them and smell them…
Well, and taste, but that would be weird.
Gemma shook his hand and he realized that he hadn't been paying attention.
"What?" he asked.
She tapped him on the chest and then wrote, "O-K-?" on his palm.
He nodded, then said, "I was just thinking about how lonely it would be to not be able to hear or see people."
She tapped three times on his palm, "I understand," then wrote "W-A-N-T" space "T-O" space "M-E-E-T" space "P-E-T-E-R-?"
He paused. He knew Gemma was excited, but he felt really nervous. He and Gemma struggled to communicate, how would it work with Peter? But then he thought about how isolated he must feel and swallowed his fear and nodded.
She tugged at his hand. "What? Right now?" he asked.
She tapped "yes."
"Let me finish my dinner first, okay?"
She tapped "okay," impatiently on his hand and let him return to chasing the last bits of souffle around his plate with the roll and his fork.
He took a last sip of water and wiped his mouth with his napkin, and said, "Okay, let's go meet Peter."
He started to get up, then paused and asked, "Gemma, how do you communicate with Peter?"
She wrote in his palm, "H-E" space "S-I-G-N-S" space "W-A-S" space "D-E-A-F" space "J-U-S-T" space "B-L-I-N-D-E-D" space "P-O-T-I-O-N" space "A-C-C-I-D-E-N-T" space "E-R-U-M-P-E-N-T" space "H-O-R-N" space "P-O-W-D-E-R".
"What's Erumpent horn powder?" Harry asked. It sounded like something Hagrid would have in his pockets.
Gemma placed his hand on her shoulder and shrugged and they burst into laughter.
"What's so funny?" Mei asked.
Harry got his giggles under control, "Oh, I dunno. It's hard to explain."
"Fine," Mei said, huffing and he heard her wheels crunching over sand as she moved away from them and he wondered where she had been that morning that she had brought in sand. He felt a little bad, not just for making Mei feel left out but also realizing that they had been laughing at something that had blinded someone who was already deaf and sobered up.
Gemma took his hand and placed it on her arm and led him toward a table farther back in the dining hall. He hadn't really noticed people sitting at this table… they must have been pretty quiet.
Gemma had stopped and Harry let go of her arm to give her more range for signing. He wondered how she signed with Peter and listened carefully for clues. Gemma had pulled out a seat and sat down, then jumped up again and pulled one over for Harry and placed his hand on the back. He sat down. They were all very close and Harry's knees knocked into Gemma's and Peter's as he sat down. "Sorry," he muttered, then realized that Peter wouldn't know that he'd just said that. Peter reached out and touched his knee and Harry touched his hand and waved across it, like Gemma would do to him, in greeting. Peter patted his leg, which Harry took as a greeting and then it seemed like Gemma had his hands and they were talking. So, Harry waited patiently. Peter made some sounds—he wasn't mute like Gemma.
Gemma grabbed Harry's hand and wrote, "R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R" space "S-I-G-N-S" space "T-O-D-A-Y-?"
Harry nodded while he was wracking his brain for the signs that he and Gemma had worked on. He tapped his chin twice with his index finger and said, "who?" as a reminder. She tapped his hand twice, "yes."
He laughed and signed "where," remembering how it had sent them into fits earlier.
Peter still had his hand on Harry's knee and when he laughed, Peter scratched his knee which seemed like a kind of laughter. He imagined he was also touching Gemma so he'd know what she was doing and he hoped that Gemma had explained the joke. It seemed like she had because Peter had scratched his knee again enthusiastically. Occasionally Peter would take his hand off of Harry's knee and Harry guessed that he was signing with Gemma.
Gemma grabbed his hand and folded back his fingers so that only his index finger was out and made the sign for writing on Peter's palm.
Harry wrote, "H-I" space "P-E-T-E-R".
Peter tapped his knee with his other hand, then took Harry's hand and wrote "H-I" space "H-A-R-R-Y".
Harry took his hand and wrote "G-E-M-M-A" space "T-E-A-C-H" space "M-E" space "S-I-G-N-S".
Peter tapped on his knee, then scratched it.
Harry jumped a bit, "Oh!"
Gemma wrote a question mark on his palm.
"I just remembered that I need to go to the workshop to work on my staff. Do you and Peter want to go with me?"
He felt Gemma taking Peter's hand off his knee to sign with him and then Peter tapped twice on his leg. He wondered if that was a universal sign for "yes" or if Gemma had told him that's how they said it.
They stood up and Gemma ran two fingers across Harry's palm. He gathered that she'd lead Peter and he'd follow with his staff.
Harry was excited to work on his staff and also to ask Figora about the anagnóstis. Harry wondered about how Peter's staff worked—if it was just through vibrations or if there was some way for him to get more information. He wondered if Peter had learned how to read braille yet and why he wasn't in the braille lessons they were taking.
They walked through the dining hall and Harry heard Tony calling out to him, then his quick footsteps as he came alongside him. Harry stopped.
"Hey, Harry, are you going to try flying tonight?" Tony asked. He could hear Arig's crutches coming up behind them.
"No, I'm working on my staff tonight in the workshop. Godric said I'd need lessons first and we haven't figured out when yet."
"Can I borrow your broom, then, for a bit and do some flying with Arig?"
"Sure, you'll be careful with it, right?" Harry asked and he summoned it out of his staff. Harry ran his hands over it before handing it over to Tony.
"Sure, mate. Thanks!"
"Where are you going to be?" Harry asked.
"In the O&M room, probably out in the park," Tony said.
"Okay, I'll come by there after I'm done in the workshop."
"Okay, thanks, Harry!" Tony said, rushing off with Arig.
Harry continued on his way to the Giovanni Gonnelli Workshop. He bet that Gemma and Peter were wondering where he was. He imagined Gemma signing where and laughed to himself.
He could hear Figora talking as he entered the workshop and made his way over to his friends. He muttered Reveleo memento and learned that Gemma was in the room, but he hadn't yet added Figora or Peter to his staff's memories yet, so he added them. No one else was in the room. He was intrigued, though, as his staff identified people when he cast the Reveleo memento spell by giving a brief description of them if it didn't know them by name. It had described Figora as a part witch/part goblin. Peter was described as a young, dark-haired wizard of medium build.
Harry hadn't heard of people who were part goblin and part wixen before. He wondered if Figora had had to learn how to manage her wixen magic with her goblin magic like Mei was having to sort out and if it was as challenging.
Mei! He had forgotten that she might be interested in working on her broom seat.
Maybe she'll stop by if she is, he consoled himself.
"Hello, Harry," Figora greeted gruffly.
"Hi, Figora."
Gemma had put a hand on his arm, then pulled his hand over to Peter, he supposed so that Peter knew that he was there, too. Harry scratched lightly across Peter's hand as Peter had done to him.
"Hi, Gemma, Hi Peter."
"Your friends arrived before you," Figora observed and Harry heard the Scribunt loqui papers fluttering by her mouth, so gathered they had figured out how to communicate while he had been delayed.
"Yes, I… well, some other friends wanted to borrow my broom," Harry explained, knowing that Gemma would see the message and maybe let Peter know, too.
"So you wanted to add a metal tip to your staff?"
"Yes, and also Madam Flamel asked me to show you my anagnóstis," Harry said and he summoned it out of his staff and held it out to Figora.
She took it from his hand.
"Ahh, this is a fine instrument indeed," Figora said. "I would like very much to study it for a bit. May I keep it overnight? It is possible that I can duplicate it so that other students here can benefit from its powers. Also, I imagine you haven't learned yet of all its abilities. Say for instance, do you know that it can also be used by your friend, Peter as well as Gemma?"
"What? Really?" Harry said.
"Have him hold out his hand," Figora said.
Gemma seemed to have understood and Harry listened as Gemma was signing to Peter tactically about the anagnóstis. Gemma tapped Harry on his hand and held it out to her, then she made the sign for writing. He got his notebook out of his staff and handed it to her. He heard her put it down and gathered that she was guiding the anagnóstis to a bit of writing that they had written earlier. Peter made a sound that sounded pretty close to glee and Harry wondered what the anagnóstis was able to do for him.
"What's it doing, Gemma?" Harry asked.
"It's converting the text to a haptic language that Peter can understand through vibration," Figora explained.
"What's haptic mean?" Harry asked.
"It's the sense of touch and communication through touch" Figora explained. "It is as if someone is touching his hands as Gemma does to sign with him, but it takes the written text and converts it to sign. Gemma can understand it, too, when she's touching the anagnóstis."
"I didn't know it could do that. Does it know what each person needs when they touch it?"
"It is a very old instrument of magic. I believe it can translate any language it encounters to a language that the person who touches it can understand. If I were to place it on ancient Gobbledygook, it should be able to translate it into English for you and more modern day Gobbledygook for me. It could be a powerful and dangerous object in the wrong hands," Figora said.
"I'm surprised that Dumbledore was willing to part with it," Harry said softly.
"Yes, that is surprising."
Gemma tapped Harry on his arm to get his attention. He held out his palm to her and signed writing on it. "You need the pencil?" he asked. She tapped "yes," on his palm. Harry summoned it from his staff and handed it to her and Gemma and Peter moved over to another area at the workbench. Harry heard stools and the notebook and then the scratching of pencils and gathered that they were going to try out the anagnóstis for a while.
"Shall we get started on that tip for your staff, then?" Figora asked.
"Sure, what do I need to do?"
"Well, let's take a look at your staff and determine how big this tip needs to be."
Harry handed over his staff.
"Okay, come over here, Harry."
Harry followed the contour of the table over to Figora's voice, bumping into the staff that was protruding off the edge of the table. "Ophff," he said as it jabbed him in the belly.
"Oh, sorry, I should have warned you," Figora muttered. She seemed to be absorbed in something else.
"Okay, here's a tactile ruler—this one has braille numbers (but without the number sign before them—there isn't room). You're learning braille, right?"
"I'm just learning. We did start with numbers and letters, but I'm still getting the hang of them."
Harry felt the ruler that Figora handed him. It was metal and a bit thinner than the rulers he was used to and about a foot long. There were raised lines and he recognized the braille—he read an "a, b, and c" then reminded himself that in this context it was 1, 2, and 3. He was able to tell where the half inches were as well. It had a sliding bar that had a knob that could be tightened to secure the bar in place.
"Oi! This is brill! I can read this!"
"For this, you just need to be able to recognize 1 or 2 depending on how deep you want your tip to be," Figora explained. "Hold the ruler against the tip of your staff and decide if you want it to be one inch or two inches deep."
It was a bit awkward as he managed the staff that wanted to roll a bit, but he finally held the ruler against the tip and ran his fingers over it.
"I dunno. Maybe 1 ½ inches?" he said, sliding the bar to the spot that he wanted and tightening the knob.
"I think that would work just fine," Figora agreed. "So we're going to make a mold of the tip of your staff and then cast a goblin silver tip that will be fitted onto the tip. First, we're going to make a version of the tip out of wax, then we'll pour plaster around it. If you're interested in creating a design in the tip, this is the time to make it."
"What kind of design?" Harry asked.
"You could create a pattern, here are some designs that you can press into the wax," Figora handed Harry some pieces of clay that had geometric designs pressed into them.
"Once your wax model is complete and the plaster cast, then we pour in the molten goblin silver. The final step is to cut off the sprues and then polish the silver. Part of your model will include a screw fitting to attach it securely to your staff. The whole process will take a couple days."
"Oi. It sounds intense."
"Yes, it is and there are parts that you can't participate in because there are magical aspects that the goblins don't want to share, but the other parts that are part of an ancient world tradition shared by all cultures—muggle, wixen, and goblin alike," Figora shared. "Let's start working on the wax model of the tip."
Harry liked the feeling of the soft wax. Figora was eager to share the craft. Soon, Gemma and Peter were also working on small wax items as well. Gemma was crafting a bracelet and Peter was making a ring.