Speak Up - Female Deaf Harry Potter AU

Hermione's help

Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast. "I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted. Everyone appeared to be shouting what they thought it would be. When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."

Ron was looking happier than he'd looked in days. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."

Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Hari. She looked tense and nervous, and Hari noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.

'What's wrong?' Hari quickly said. Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded Hari of someone, though she couldn't think who.

'What's wrong Ginny?' Hari suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.

"I've got to tell you something," Ginny whispered, looking though she was trying to be as small as possible.

'What?' 
Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan. "If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."

Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Hari chased after her, but in the confusion of students leaving the hall, lost her. 

The group was being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor. "Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be It was Hagrid.' Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."
'I agree sir' signed Hari, getting Ron, who looked confused, to translate, she wanted to slip away, she had an idea about the bathroom, and figured this would be her best chance.

"Thank you, Hari." said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night ......"

"That's right," said Ron, catching on. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go -"

"You know, Weasley, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class -" And he hurried off.

"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."
'Thanks, bye' signed Hari, She let the rest of the Gryffindors and Ron draw ahead of her, then darted down a side passage.

Professor McGonagall stepping infront of them, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines. "Potter! What are you doing?"

'I was going to see Hermione.' Hari signed 'I haven't seen her for ages, and I thought I'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready, and not to worry.'

Professor McGonagall was still staring at her, and for a moment, Hari thought she was going to explode. "Of course," she said, and Hari, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her eye. "Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been ... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."

Hari walked away, hardly daring to believe that she'd avoided detention.

She had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that she had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione. Madam Pomfrey let her in. No one ever really seemed to notice Hari anyway, she was small, even for her age, and the complete opposite of threatening.

"There's just no point talking to a petrified person, especially if you're signing." Madam Pomphrey said, and Hari had to admit she had a point when she'd taken a seat next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors, and that Hari might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do. Then Hari saw that, just like Draco, she also had a piece of paper clenched in her hand.

It was no easy task to get it out. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Hari was sure she was going to tear it. She tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.
It was a page torn from a very old library book. Hari smoothed it out eagerly.

Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.

And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Harry recognized as Hermione's. Pipes.

It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in her brain, and just like that she had a plan. She was certain she knew where the chamber was, she planned to sneak into the chamber, while the heir wasn't there, get rid of the basilisk in some way, and then deal with the heir later.