TDM Hedwig's Nook Oneshots

The Estranged Love pt 3

Harry smiled as his eleven year old daughter ripped open her Hogwarts letter. Her four siblings, Lora, James, Albus, and Scorpious, watched in awe as she tore into the paper, but sighed when she looked down sadly. “I…” Harry pulled her close and she started giggling. “I got in!” She jumped up and down happily before jumping onto the couch.

        James sat quietly, eating a baby carrot. The oldest of three boys, James Sirius had been declared deaf by a healer at the age of three after an illness had caused him to have severe seizures. The seizures burst both of his eardrums, causing him to become deaf. He always signed, having never learned how to speak properly, and found it easiest to read signs rather than lips. All of his family knew how to sign though, so he never had to worry about trying to read lips at home. He was terrified about going to Hogwarts. He knew that he wouldn’t fit in, he would be the only deaf boy at the school. He was fairly certain that they wouldn’t even accept him into the school, even though his fathers constantly told him otherwise. He didn’t think that they were telling him the truth. After all, why would the school accept someone deaf, even if his nana Minnie was headmistress. Why would she accept him into the school? All of the teachers would have to learn sign language, which would just cause more problems for everyone.

        *Time skip 1 year, James is now going to Hogwarts*

        James wiggled around as he sat in his seat. The train was quickly approaching Hogwarts, and he was terrified. He didn’t know what to expect, and because he couldn’t hear, nobody sat with him on the train. Not even the other two triplets, Lora and Albus. He was entirely alone for most of the train ride, but then someone came up to his door and knocked. He couldn’t hear it, but his sister had taught him a spell to alert him to when someone knocked, and the door opened. It was another first year who seemed to be wearing some weird muggle contraption on his ears. When the other realized that he couldn’t hear him, he shook his head with a small smile on his face and began to quickly sign.

‘Hi, I’m Jonathan. I’m a muggle born first year. What’s your name?’ James sat up a little bit taller and began to sign slowly. ‘I’m James. I’m a pureblood first year.’ He smiled slightly as he finished the statement and the opposite boy smiled. ‘Hi James. It’s nice to meet you, I was afraid that I would be the only person who couldn’t hear at school!’ James chuckled and shook his head. ‘I’m completely deaf. You’re not the only one, that’s for sure!’ He was quite happy to have made a friend, especially one that could understand him when he signed. How new this was to him! It was exciting, however, and he immediately decided that he would send his owl, Obsidian, home with a letter the moment they got to the castle. ‘Do you have any pets? I have an owl named Yang!’ James nodded quickly, pointing at the pitch black owl on his shoulder. ‘Obsidian. He’s my baby.’ Jonathan nodded and smiled.

‘Can I sit in here? I’ve been with my sister but I don’t want to be with her friends anymore, they act like I’m not a person just because I’m deaf.’ James nodded and Jonathan pulled in a small trunk, a small white owl like the stuffed one that he slept with at night was sitting on top. She cooed and flew over to the window sill where Obsidian had hopped off of his shoulder and they began cooing together. It was almost as though they were plotting something with the way they sat together. ‘I think they like each other!’ James chuckled and nodded, petting the dark bird. ‘They’re kinda like Yin and Yang. It’s kind of adorable.’ Jonathan nodded and sat down on the bench across from James.

As the train got to the Hogsmeade train station, the two boys had officially run out of topics, and now they were two giggling messes, stumbling towards the boats. Jonathan had explained to James that the weird things on his ears were called hearing aids, they helped him hear people talk. He also explained that because of the fuzz over Hogwarts for all electronic devices, he wouldn’t be able to use the hearing aids in the building. He would be forced to pay close attention to the teacher, which would be difficult for him because he had a tendency to doodle, which meant that he wouldn’t be able to look at the teacher, causing problems. James just shook his head and patted the back of his new friend. He understood the pain of not being able to doodle, since drawing was his favorite pastime. He remembered the day that his dad and papa had given him his first sketch book.

*Flashback*

James sat on his bed, watching the clock on his bedside table. It was ten minutes until midnight, and he was eagerly awaiting the clock to strike. As the minutes ticked down, he smiled wider and wider, grinning when he finally saw the clock flash to 00:00. That was one of the plusses of having his clock set to military time, he could watch as it flashed to zero. It was like watching the world reset itself of a night. He smiled widely as a package appeared on the end of his bed. His parents had left him and his siblings with their godmothers and godfathers while they went on a trip for the weekend, so James was curled up in Hermione’s small two-room apartment, sighing. On the package was a golden and black wrapping, and when he ripped it open, he saw a deep green journal with scarlet words that read “We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” with his dad’s godfather’s name after it. He smiled to himself. “I love it…” He whispered to the air. “I’ll see you guys when you get home…”