Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 63: Of interviews with the Dursleys and mind healers

When he reached Healer Jordan's office Harry deliberated about if he should knock on the door or just wait out in the hallway until she came looking for him. Finally, he sucked in a nervous breath, and then stuck out his hand to find the door and softly rapped twice on it.

It opened and Harry stood there for a second, thinking that Healer Jordan would greet him. When she didn't, he said, "Hello?" to the void before him.

"Come on in, Harry!" her voice came from a distance, as if she was across the room, so he walked in hesitantly.

"I'm just finishing up with another resident, so go ahead and sit in a chair and I'll be with you in a moment," she said.

Harry stood there for a moment, and then said, "Navigant empty chair" to his staff and found one of the chairs in the waiting area to sit in.

He minimized his staff, but didn't put it in his pocket. He sat twirling it between his fingers as he tried to calm his beating heart—he felt he'd been called to the Headmaster's office. He wished he had something to do while to take his mind off the waiting. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to concentrate on reading at this point and anyway, all he had to read were his textbooks and the leaflets.

He thought about what he had in his staff—after all, he had emptied his trunk into the staff. He opened the compartment and uttered, "Accio exploding snap cards" and held out his hand. The pack of cards that Ron had given him landed neatly in his palm and he closed the compartment on the staff and put the staff in his pocket. He could smell their distinctive faintly burnt odor and felt the well-worn deck remembering the cover image that had Egyptian stylized-eye that seemed to shimmer through a patina of tarnished gold. He could feel the raised image on the cards and ran his finger over the eye a few times. He untied the string that held the pack together and started feeling the cards to see if he could discern the images on the other side, but they didn't seem to be embossed in the same way that the cover image was. They were essentially blank to him.

Harry heard Healer Jordan again and realized that she must have cast some kind of silencing charm so that he couldn't overhear the conversation. It sounded like they were coming this way, so Harry tied up the cards again and stowed them in his staff. He shook it out to extend it, but didn't stand up, instead placed it in front of him and leaned against it.

"Thank you very much, Healer Jordan, I really appreciate your time," Martha was saying as she walked toward the door.

"It's no problem, Martha, that's why I'm here," Healer Jordan reassured.

"Okay, well thanks! Oh, and... Hi, Harry," Martha greeted.

"Hi, Martha," Harry responded and then he heard the door open and close behind her.

"Harry, I need to step out a moment before I meet with you. I'll be right back," Healer Jordan said.

"Oh, okay."

"You can help yourself to tea while you wait. Ask your staff to show you the way to the tea service," she said as she walked away, to the back of her office area.

"Okay, thanks," Harry said to her receding footsteps. He stood up and said, "Navigant tea service" and then went over to what turned out to be a tea cart. It had similar charms on it as the buffet in the dining hall, and by passing his hand over the cart, he was able to locate the cups and saucers, the teapot, sugar, and milk. He poured himself a cup of tea, though he got a fair amount in the saucer. He found the napkins and mopped up the mess before adding sugar and milk. He stood by the tea cart sipping his tea because he wasn't sure he could walk back to his chair with the delicate teacup teetering in the saucer without dumping the whole thing while he used the staff to find his way.