Shattered Illusions Chapter Six: Hot Showers, Sign Language, and Three Headed Dogs
Harry woke up early the next morning, Ron was still snoring softly on the bed next to him, so Harry decided to take a shower. He went and picked out clothes for the day and made his way to the showers. When he got there he stopped, somehow he knew he was only supposed to use cold water, but he wondered what it was like to use hot.
He bit his lip as he debated with himself. What could go wrong?
Harry finally made his decision and turned on the hot water and cold, making it warm. He quickly stripped his clothes and stepped in, gasping. Immediately his skin grew goose pimples all over and he shivered. The warm water was better than anything he imagined, he never wanted to leave.
Harry was sad when his shower was finished, for some reason he felt like he'd never be able to experience it again. He felt like it would be too risky. He quickly put his clothes on and left.
When Harry entered his dorm, Ron was just sitting up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Harry smiled and put his clothes through the chute.
"Mornin' Harry." Ron yawned. Harry tried to say 'good morning' back, but all that came out was a quiet croak.
"Merlin, I've never met anybody that couldn't talk." Ron said. "I thought maybe you were just too shy and didn't want to. But you really can't, can you?" Harry shook his head sadly.
"Well, that's ok. We will find a way for you to communicate." Ron said getting out of bed. "Wonder if Hermione ever went to the library to find a book on sign language." Harry shrugged and left to go wait in the common room.
When he entered, Hermione was already there. She was perched on the couch reading a book. Harry went up and sat down next to her.
'What book?' Harry signed hesitantly.
"Oh, hi Harry." Hermione said, "This is a book I found on sign language. They didn't really have anything there, but this one should be good enough. I already read half of it, sign language doesn't look too hard to learn. I'll give you the book tonight and you can read it, then I'll help you remember them. Maybe we can get Ron to learn as well, then there will be two people who you can talk to."
Harry nodded enthusiastically, just as Ron came down.
"Let's get breakfast, I'm starving." Ron said. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You're not starving, Ron." She said. "You're just really hungry."
"I guess." Ron responded. "Harry here must starving, look how skinny he is!"
"You really should start eating more." Hermione said, turning to him,"You are too skinny." Harry nodded, he'd have to keep that in mind. When they sat down, he put some eggs on his plate but didn't move to eat them.
It wasn't that he wasn't hungry, he was. Something just felt wrong about it.
"Go on Harry, why aren't you eating?" Ron asked, spraying crumbs through his mouth. Harry shrugged and picked up his fork, then began poking at the eggs on his plate. He looked up and saw the glare that Hermione was shooting at him.
'Eat.' She signed at him, then gave him a small smile. Harry looked back to his plate and stabbed a small piece, then popped it into his mouth. His tongue was slightly swollen and scarred, so he had to try to avoid certain parts when he ate. Harry ate three more bites before they went to class.
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Over the next week Harry, Hermione, and Ron all became rather close. Ron and Hermione seemed to have issues with each other. Ron thought Hermione was an annoying know-it-all, and Hermione was annoyed with Ron's study habits and how he ate, always talking through a mouthful of food.
Harry liked both of them a lot. Sure, sometimes Hermione could be annoying, but she helped him with learning more signs. They both had memorized most of the book she borrowed, and Harry was pretty fluent. There were still quite a bit of words he didn't know, but for those he just spelled it out if he could.
His writing improved a little bit. He tried to do better with that than anything else, especially after he got yelled at by his teachers. McGonagall and Snape mostly.
~Flashback~
Harry was sitting in Transfiguration next to Ron. McGonagall had given them an assignment from the book and Harry was almost done. Ron, having finished his already, was turned around in his seat talking to Seamus and Dean. Hermione however, trying to get ahead in her work, was already reading into the next chapter.
Harry had his tongue sticking out a little as he tried to concentrate on steadying his shaking hand. It had always had a tremor in it, but lately it was getting worse and made his already bad handwriting, almost unreadable.
"Mr. Potter." He heard from behind him. Harry turned slowly to see an angry looking McGonagall, she was holding up one of his assignments. "Is this some kind of joke?" Harry shook his head, he didn't understand.
"I'm not laughing." McGonagall growled, completely ignoring Harry's attempts to make her see. "I can't even read this." Harry felt tears prickling his eyes. He had spent the whole night working on his writing.
"Detention tonight with Mr. Filch." She snapped. Harry bowed his head and tried willing his tears away.
Potions was even worse.
Snape had just dismissed class and Harry was quickly gathering his things together when Snape stopped him.
"Stay after Mr. Potter." Snape growled. Harry swallowed and went up to Snape's desk. Once everyone was gone, Snape pulled out some parchment, looking furious.
"What is this?" He growled, holding it up. Harry scanned it, it was his assignment from the day before. He turned his head in shame.
"Your assignment, I assume?" Snape growled again. Harry nodded, not daring to look Snape in the face.
"This is disgraceful, it looks like a three year old wrote it!" Snape yelled, tearing the parchment in half. "You cannot even spell your own name right? What, too good to have to learn?" Harry shook his head. He knew his writing was bad.
"Detention on Saturday." Snape snapped, "Get out." Harry turned and grabbed his bag, then ran as fast as he could away.
He had survived both detentions. With Filch he had to clean the trophy room, with Snape he got stuck scrubbing cauldrons with a tooth brush.
~End flashback~
Harry shook his head. He had finally asked Hermione how to spell his name, so he could get that right at least. At first she was a bit shocked that he didn't know, especially when it was such an easy name. Harry had just told her that he was slow in the head and Hermione nodded in understanding. Harry felt so stupid, especially when he saw it written and how easy it was.
For classes so far they really hadn't done anything that required talking, most of the work was essays and assignment from the books, so none of his teachers realized that he couldn't talk.
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"Today we will be Transfiguring a piece of straw into a needle, I've already told you all the spell, so let's so who can do it correctly at the end of the class period." McGonagall said, then went to her desk.
All around him students were pointing their wands at their straw muttering. Nobody seemed to be getting it except Hermione, who got it on the second try.
"Very well Miss Granger!" McGonagall said. "Ten points to Gryffindor." Harry turned back to his and pointed his wand, then thought the spell. Nothing happened. He tried again and again.
"Mr. Potter, you have to actually say it." McGonagall snapped. Harry blushed and looked away until she left. Throughout the rest of the class, Harry could feel McGonagall's eyes on him, watching and waiting. For what, Harry didn't know.
Ten minutes before the end of the class Harry's straw had finally turned into a needle. He grabbed Ron's sleeve and showed his needle to his friend proudly.
"You get it finally Harry?" Ron asked smiling, "Good job, wordlessly?" Harry nodded. Suddenly McGonagall came up behind him.
"Turn it back." She suggested. "I'm not sure you actually did it, I didn't hear you utter a single word." Harry frowned and his excitement died. It took him the whole class time to turn it to a needle, he wasn't sure if he could turn it back.
He swallowed and pointed his wand, and attempted to turn it back. He turned his head in shame after three tires.
"As I thought. Twenty points from Gryffindor for cheating, a zero for the day, and a detention with Professor Snape tonight." McGonagall said.
"But Professor-" Ron tried.
"Not another word Mr. Weasley, unless you want a detention as well?" Ron shut his mouth quickly. McGonagall turned back to Harry. Harry felt sadness and disappointment well up. He knew he had turned the needle, he had done it right. But it still wasn't good enough. Harry looked up and flinched, McGonagall looked absolutely furious. Her face was even purple.
Harry felt emotional pain and fear well up, though he didn't know where the fear came from. Nobody noticed Harry slip away.
"There is one thing that I do not tolerate Mr. Potter, and that it cheating." She growled, taking a step towards Freak. Freak felt tears of fear well up in his eyes, but he sat absolutely still.
"What would your parents think?" She demanded, and that did it, the tears finally burned their way down Freak's face. "They would be ashamed of you." Freak held back a sob. "Lily was such a good student, so was your father. I don't know where you got it, but it wasn't from either of them. They would be horrified to see what you've become. Cheating indeed!" She finally turned away.
"Class dismissed." She snapped. Everyone in the room scrambled to get their stuff together and leave. Freak grabbed his stuff and ran, he hear Ron and Hermione calling after him, but he didn't stop, or even slow. He didn't stop until he made it to a bathroom out of the way.
Freak ran in and went to the corner, then sank to the floor crying silently.
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It was almost a month before any of his teacher mentioned anything to him again. McGonagall continued to think Harry cheated whenever he got a spell right. Flitwick seemed accept his muteness, and was quite happy when Harry was able to do the charms wordlessly.
Snape continued to be horrible to Harry, and only got worse to him over time. He would find any little thing to give Harry detention and take points for. After a particularly potion lesson, Ron and Hermione found Harry curled up in a corner of the bathroom, eyes red and puffy.
They stayed with him for a long time, talking to him and trying to calm him. By the time they left, it was after curfew.
The castle was cold at night, and it looked different. It was hard to find their way back and they ended up getting lost.
"Where are we?" Ron asked shivering. Harry shrugged, looking around as the torches lit around them. "It's kind of creepy, like we're not supposed to be here..."
"That's because we aren't supposed to be here!" Hermione said suddenly, "This is the third floor! It's forbidden!" Then she went on mumbling to herself about getting expelled and breaking rules. Suddenly Harry tripped over something. They looked down, it was Mrs. Norris.
"It's Mrs. Norris!" Ron said paling, "And-"
"Wherever she is, Filch is close by." Hermione finished for him. Suddenly they heard Filch's voice calling out. They panicked and ran down the hall, and tried to enter a door. It was locked so Hermione unlocked it with magic and they entered.
Harry was the first to notice what was in the room, but he was too frozen in fear to do anything. Slowly Ron and Hermione turned around and stopped dead. Then as if on cue, they all screamed loudly. Except Harry, his scream came out like a strangled gurgle. The three headed dog on the inside started growling and they spun around and flew out, slamming the door and locking it.
"Bloody hell." Ron muttered, "What's Dumbledore thinking?"
"It's guarding something." Hermione said.
"What? How did you know?" Ron asked.
"Didn't you see what it was standing on?" Hermione asked.
'I was looking at the heads' Harry signed.
"Yeah, in case you didn't realize, there were three!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"He was standing on a door." She said, then muttered the password. Harry hadn't even realized that they had made it back already.
"Now, before you come up with more ideas to get us expelled, I'm going to bed." She turned and left with a huff. Harry shrugged and he and Ron went up to go to bed.