Snape leaned over his desk once more, and interlaced his fingers. He reached out on his desk, grabbed the parchment, and started writing. After a minute, Harry realized that this question would be harder to answer and sat back in the chair.

He drew his wand and started muttering small charms. Sparks flew out of his wand, slowly morphing into shapes. First it was the date and time, and then morphed into different animals and people (even Snape appeared once). After a few moments, Harry muttered the counter charm and then started twirling his wand. Snape finally finished writing and handed the writing to him. Harry looked down on nearly a foot worth’s of writing.

“How did I figure out that you were deaf? I asked a question under the pretense that I was yawning. When you did not respond, I concluded that you were deaf. But I did this act of subterfuge on many suspicions that I have harbored.

“At first, I thought you just ignored certain questions or statements. After all, teenagers are famous for their selective hearing. But small things did not equate any more. The first instance was when Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley the younger were talking during breakfast. In the beginning of the conversation, you were fully participating, but you then turned your attention back to your plate. Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley asked you a question at one interval in their vociferous debate. You just continued to eat, completely ignoring any attention directed to you. Mr. Weasley, I believe, then said something about you being “obsessed with food.”

“The second instance was during my class. I was writing a few things on the board. I was explaining them to the class, when I asked a question without turning around. At first I asked Mr. Finnigan, then I proceeded to ask you. I found it odd that you didn’t respond, but I took it as an admittance of not knowing the subject at hand. At the end of class, I asked the question again. Mr. Finnigan still did not comprehend the material, but when I asked you you answered with the correct answer as if you had known the material your entire life. I found this highly odd, because Ms. Granger was ill that day, and we hadn’t used books during that class. I simply dismissed it as cheating of some sort.

“There were several more instances similar to these, but I didn’t think much of them. If anything, it furthered my idea that you were a slow-witted fool, who was only was passed because of you were the boy-who-lived. This semi-delusion of mine continued peacefully till the end of October. Lord Voldemort grew testy as the anniversary of his defeat grew close. He tried flaunting his new powers and started capturing more muggles and muggle-borns. One day he captured an entire school.

“It was an all-girls school for the deaf. It was a small school, no more than thirty students. Voldemort was pleased with them, except they couldn’t hear his taunting. Nevertheless, they were muggles and inferior to him. One by one, they were tortured and murdered. After the first one was killed, frenzy struck the remaining students. They started gesturing wildly. At first we all thought they were insane with fear, but then a few more intelligent Death Eaters realized that this was how they communicated with one another. This, unfortunately, led to more interesting torture. We tried telling them to stop; the fluttering noise of their hands was annoying some of us. (We were in a cavern that echoed horribly.) Some of them were staring at our faces while others had their backs turned to us. The ones who were facing us stopped, even though there was a small delay. The other ones kept on signaling.

“Another instance with you came up a few days later. I walked past you in the hall, as you were heading towards a class. Mr. Malfoy said a snide remark as you passed by him. You didn’t respond. My first thought was that you didn’t feel the urge to get yourself in trouble, but then Ms. Granger came up to you and gave a comment on what Mr. Malfoy had said. Your face had betrayed no emotion to what Mr. Malfoy had said, but when Ms. Granger repeated it, your face convoyed complete rage.

“I thought of the incident later that evening. As I was thinking of it, the October incident came to mind, though I wasn’t sure why. Then yesterday, everything fell into place. You didn’t respond right, and the delay between your responses. It fit. I just had to make sure.”

Harry slumped back in the chair. The parchment drifted out of his hand. He was a fool, and was thought of as such. He remembered the first two incidents. So, Hermione and Ron thought he was “obsessed with food?” The rest of the class snickered at him that day in potions, Malfoy particularly. He had wondered why, but now he knew. He was the buffoon. The guy they laughed at. They thought he was slow and stupid, probably the way he did Crabbe and Goyle. Harry just stared at the ceiling, wondering if he could just disappear.

As he stared at the ceiling, words were scrawled on them. Snape had put a spell on the ceiling to spell words, so he could talk like he did on the parchment.

“Potter, relax. I only guessed because I’ve had contact with deaf people. The only other people who have the intelligence to connect the two haven’t had contact with deaf people, or at least not enough to truly notice.”

“Are you sure no one has had contact? Do you go into the lives of every student.?” sighed Harry.

“No, Potter. The only people who have contact with deaf people are muggle-borns, as wizards rarely go deaf by natural causes. Ms. Granger would be the only person of that group who could figure out the problem, but she has no need to, unlike the werewolf incident. As I know she has limited contact with deaf people, she will most likely take an extremely long time to figure that out.”

Harry sat normally in his chair, taking deep breaths. Finally, it occurred. Harry choked a little, and the walls burst. Tears streamed down his face. He didn’t sob nor did he get over emotional. The tears just flowed. From behind his desk, Snape summoned a handkerchief and sent it over to Harry.

“I’ve failed! I am weak and I don’t deserve anything!” With that, Harry burst out of the room. Snape called after him before he realized that wouldn’t have any effect.