Flitwick floated above the class (he did this to avoid the brunt of Neville’s mistakes), directing them to start their demonstrations in charms. One by one the students would walk to the center of the room, charm a magical dummy, and then use the reversal charms they learned in the last chapter. The remaining students would sit and gossip a little until it was their turn. Harry and Ron were arguing about the twins’ latest adventure. The boys had successfully levitated greenhouse two. How they had done this exactly did this led to the current debate.

Ron seemed to be stuck on his idea that they had used one large levitating charm that they learned first year. “Harry, you know the twins don’t have the knowledge to do any other grand levitating spell needed to levitate an entire greenhouse, not just the glass, but the plants as well! How else could they do it? They just put a lot of power into the spell.”

Harry snorted and chuckled. “Have you ever lifted anything with heavier than a desk with the levitating charm? If you do, you drain yourself very quickly. Even if you do the charm with another person you can only levitate it for a couple of seconds. The greenhouse was still floating the next day!” Ron slapped his hands on his ears.

“I’m not listening!” Ron countered.

“Come on, Ron. They had to have used amplifying stones and set several different kinds of levitating charms into the stones. There are plenty of rocks that could do this job around the greenhouse.” Hermione, who was writing some notes, spun around in her chair.

“This may be an interesting topic for you two, but be quiet. You’re practically shouting!” Her expression showed annoyed fury. Both boys stopped immediately and sat back into their respective chairs.

Harry waited for his turn, looking at Professor Flitwick, his brow furrowed in thought. Was I really that loud? thought Harry. I thought I was only talking at a normal level. Was Ron yelling? I can’t tell really. He just looked like he was talking! What is going on?

Professor Flitwick then motion to Harry for him to come down for his own charms quiz. With reluctance, the deaf boy went down.

~ * ~ * ~

“Well, young Potter,” wrote Professor Snape, “had any adventures lately?”

“Nothing worth mentioning, sir,” Harry replied without emotion.

Snape quirked an eyebrow, but wrote nothing in response. “Any more nightmares? Or other nighttime specters?”

“None, sir.” With this, Snape sighed and leaned back in his chair. Harry sat across from him in the same chair as last time. Snape sat in his chair, not expressing any more emotion. They sat there, both stoic and unmoving. Harry slowly became uncomfortable in the unmoving atmosphere. The air grew stiff and uncomfortable. At first Harry messed around with the folds of his robes. Then, he picked at the ornate carvings in the chair. It seemed that the ornate carvings were actually words, but not in a language he could read. Finally, Harry drew his attention to Snape’s desk. He scratched his shoe against the bottom molding of Snape’s desk. Slowly back and forth, Harry pushed his shoe sole against the wood and metal.

Suddenly Snape jumped up from his chair. “Stop it!” he exclaimed, expressing obvious rage and discomfort. Harry sat there completely confused. Snape sat back down and then proceeded to take several deep breaths, trying to calm down. Once the red had drained from his usually sallow face, Snape scratched something onto the parchment.

“Your shoe is making screeching noises against the metal. Please don’t do that.” Harry’s eyes went wide, and then looked down in shame. Once more he had failed. It was like charms class. Did he really miss out on that much?

The last four months hadn’t been the easiest in his life, but just in the last couple days, he had started noticing more and more discrepancies in his actions and what he thought was going on. “Why?” he cried out.

Snape flinched for a moment, then wrote, “Why what?”

Harry’s eyes were on fire, but he ignored them. “I mess up so much lately, sir. In Charms today, I was talking to Ron and all of the sudden Hermione tells us to stop yelling! I didn’t even know we were! And then just now with my shoe and the metal! Who knows what else I’m missing!” With that last dejected cry, Harry slouched back in his chair, putting his hands over his eyes. A gentle tap made him remove his hands.

Snape was standing over him, the parchment in his hand. “It’s not that noticeable, if you don’t know about it. It just makes you seem slightly—off.” Harry sniffed slightly at this. “Because of your lack of hearing, you don’t know how your voice sounds. Since you’re deafness has progressed since you came here, the odd inflections you do match how you’ve been.” Harry looked up at Snape. He stared at his potions professor. Suddenly, an important question came to him.

“Professor?” asked Harry, in what he hoped was timidly manner. (With the recent discoveries, how could he be sure now?) Snape sat down behind his desk and nodded at him to continue. “How did you figure out that I was deaf?”