Blindness

Chapter 2: Blue-Violet Light

McGonagall watched him for three days, not wanting to believe it, unable to face the facts.

She watched Lily and James' precious son walk carefully down a street, cane stretched out in front of him, always escorted by his uncle or cousin to and from the muggle vehicles.

She watched him wait for doors to open for him, watched him coached on what food to be eaten at public restaurants, watched as muggles catered to his disability with the comfort of long familiarity.

He was smart, attending a school with peers twice his age, but his mind could never make up for his lack of sight.

Harry Potter could not wield a wand at a target he could not see. Harry Potter could not read spell tomes or take notes from a professor.

There were no wizarding books in braille. There were no blind wizarding children taught at Hogwarts. What few practicing magicals who were blind were not so from youth, but only lost their sight in their old age or in accidents later in life.

Maybe, with careful tutoring, he could be taught a few limited spells. Maybe he could prepare a pre-cut potion, or work with his hands in herbology. But the magical world was too dangerous for him to ever be alone.

He was Harry Potter. He was famous. The wizarding world would not know what to do with a blind savior.

What minions of the Dark Lord remained would find him easy pickings.

"It's for his own good." Albus Dumbledore said softly, when she relayed her findings. "He can not come to Hogwarts. Perhaps it is best that he simply disappear into the muggle world."

"There will be questions." Minerva said softly, and the venerable Headmaster sighed.

"Let it be known he is receiving private tutoring."

And in his mind, the Headmaster considered that the young Longbottom boy also fit the parameters of the prophecy.

He could have been mistaken all along.

And as easily as that, the problem of Harry Potter was pushed aside.

-O-O-

Petunia felt her heart break when she read the letter.

As much as she would have wished to keep her nephew with her, she had also known how much being denied would crush him.

But she told Harry anyway, that his world would not take him as she had always warned, and he only smiled.

He knew something they did not; magic had him in its grasp whether he was blind or not, and he would learn to use it one way or another.

-O-O-

Time passed; days, weeks, months. Harry Potter became a name known in muggle scholarly circles in Britain, a rising star, a genius child, the pride of the Her Majesty's Gifted Children Program.

And in the magical world, fate worked its delicate plans.

-O-O-

"How could you let this happen to my daughter?!"

The muggle man roared in distraught pain, standing over his child's hospital bed.

"Mr. Granger, this accident..." Professor McGonagall began.

"You told me the school was safe!" The man interrupted her, waving a fist.

"Calm down, sir, you might wake her." Madam Pomfrey gently broke in, and with a grimace the man lowered his voice and continued to rant in harsh whispers to his daughter's Head of House.