Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 78: Hard landing

"It's time for me to close up the workshop tonight," Figora said, "but I'll be here tomorrow and we can work on the next step of the pieces."

Harry had made a few versions of his staff tip and was pleased with how it turned out. He had pressed a pattern into the surface that reminded him of feathers and it made him smile to think of Hedwig's downy undercoat, but cast in metal and making a clear ringing noise when it struck surfaces. It wasn't exactly balanced, but close enough—Figora thought it would do the job.

Peter's ring was simple and broad, but had a texture of lines that reminded Harry of mountains or waves that ran all the way around the surface. Peter had also liked the texture of feathers that Harry had pressed into his piece.

Gemma's bracelet was harder to form out of wax and she got frustrated as she'd get one section done and then accidentally break another section. She kept trying, though, and in the end decided to keep it, even though it was a lot more free-form than what she hoped for. "F-O-R" space "M-U-M" she explained and then she drew a smiley face into Harry's palm.

"Harry, you can pick up your anagnóstis in the morning—I'll take a look at it tonight and let you know if I think we can make something similar," Figora told him.

They helped Figora clean up and then left the workshop. Harry had learned some new signs in the process as they learned how to talk about the tools they were using.

"Thank you so much, Figora," Harry said as they left. He had learned the signs for thank you, please, and sorry (earlier when he accidentally disconnected a fragile section of Gemma's bracelet).

She did ask me to look at it and the only way I can 'look' at things is with my fingers, he reminded himself.

After her initial dismay, she patted him on the shoulder reassuring him. When he kept apologizing, she took his hand, folded it into a fist, and rubbed it on his chest in a circle.

"Is that the sign for sorry?" he asked and she tapped twice on his back.

They said goodbye to Peter at his dormitory that he shared with Adam, Shannon, and some other older residents that Harry hadn't met yet. Harry was amazed at how much could be communicated just through touch even though he was just learning the language. Peter held Harry's wrist lightly as he attempted the sign that Gemma had just taught him for "see you later!" and laughed—Peter put his hands on Harry's shoulders to feel him laughing.

When they reached Montmorency, Harry did the Reveleo memento and realized that Tony and Arig weren't back yet.

"Gemma, I'm going down to the O&M room to see if Tony and Arig are still flying my broom." Harry tapped Gemma's arm to get her attention. She tapped twice, "okay," then grasped his hand and pulled it to her chest then made the "let's go" sign across his palm, asking "can I go, too?"

"Sure," Harry said and he took her arm again.

Outside the room, they checked the layout—it looked like it was set as it had been in the morning with the gym, but when they went inside, it was vacant.

"Oh, yeah, they said they'd probably be out in the park," Harry said as Gemma wrote a question mark on the back of his hand.

Outside, it was cool and dark. Harry liked that he didn't have to close his eyes against the sun as he had earlier in the day. It smelled like it was going to rain, too. He half expected the grass to be wet as they stepped onto it. Gemma was leading him across the grass. He'd only been on the paths in the park so far—but she must have seen them out in the middle of the field.

He tugged on her arm, asking her to stop and fished his staff out of his pocket so that he could use it on the grass—it was bumpy and he thought the staff might help him avoid falling into a gopher hole that maybe Gemma couldn't see in the dark.