you break my heart in the blink of an eye [susan]

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It was dark. Sander could have sworn his eyes were open, but everything was dark. He brought his hands up to his face, cautiously along the slope of his cheekbones until his fingers were on top of his eyes. There was gauze there, he realized - that must have been why it was so dark. Lysander used his fingers to explore for a seam in the gauze, but couldn't find one. He huffed quietly, before a memory dawned on him. He had put something in the newt's eye juice, and then it had exploded, and...and...now he couldn't see. Because that's what this was - this wasn't darkness caused by a lack of light permeating through the gauze. It was darkness caused by a total lack of any sensory input. His eyes weren't working. Sander took a deep breath in, and then let it out. Logic. He had to use logic. He was probably in the hospital wing, if he had been badly injured. Maybe they had given him a potion of some sort to block his eyes from seeing too much light so they could heal? Yes, that seemed reasonable, Sander decided. He couldn't be blind - that was impossible. And that left the improbable - that he had just been given a potion. Satisfied with his progress, Sander laid back down against the pillows, gauzed eyes staring straight up at a ceiling that he would never be able to see.

@susanvictoria

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Today was supposed to be the day. The day where Susan started the one month process of holding a mandrake leaf under her tongue in order to jump start the process of becoming an Animagus.  She had collected the leaf quietly from the Greenhouse where the Mandrakes were kept; she had plucked three just to be safe.  She had been alone in her dormitory, checking to make sure that she wouldn't be disturbed.  As she was about to pull the leaves from their hiding place, a girl had burst in, telling her there had been an accident in the Dungeons and that Lysander Scamander was in the Hospital Wing.  Putting all thoughts of her transformation on hold, Susan had rushed down to the Hospital, panic and fear clearly etched on her face.  She slowed her pace down, looking at Sanders' eyes covered in gauze.  She walked over to his bedside and sat down next to him, just looking at his face for a moment before speaking.  "Sander?" she said softly.  She wanted to reach out and grab his hand, but she would wait until he said something.  Then she'd know it was okay.


@lysander

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Lysander heard the door to the hospital wing open, and, despite the fact that he had just laid back, he sat straight back up, turning his face towards the noise. The tension that had been winding up in his shoulders released when he heard the voice. Spirals of cotton swathed him, and Sander’s lips turned up into a smile. “Susan.” He replied, voice a normal volume despite the fact that Susan’s had been softer. Maybe she knew what they were doing to his eyes, what kind of healing spells they were using to help fix them. “Do you know what they’re doing to my eyes?” Lysander asked his friend, never one to beat around the push. “I remember something exploding near them, but I don’t…Well, I don’t really know anything after that.” What time was it, for one thing? The worse thing about the gauze was that there was no light coming in through it, so he couldn’t get a gauge for what time of day it was, or how much time had passed since he had made that silly mistake in Potions class.

@susanvictoria

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Susan smiled, blinking back tears as Sander spoke. “Sander...do you remember anything that happened maybe before or after?” she asked him softly, giving one of his hands a squeeze. Sander didn’t realize that they weren’t doing anything to his eyes right now; he simply couldn’t see. “They’re uh...they’re saying that this accident...it’s seemed to have done something to your eyes,” she started, pulling her hand away and nervously twisting them in her lap. She took a deep breath and sighed. “Sander, they say that you’ve lost your sight….that you’re blind,” she said, then quickly added. “But they think it’s only temporary! They’re working hard on finding the right antidote for you.” She bit her lower lip, unsure if she had helped at all.


@lysander

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Lysander opened his mouth when Susan asked him if he remembered anything before or after the explosion. He could remember the before with perfect certainty – or at least as much certainty as human memory allowed – but afterwards was just…blank. “I don’t remember anything between now and then.” Maybe it was retrograde amnesia, and he’d remember it soon. The Ravenclaw was about to push for more information when his friend told him that the accident had done something to his eyes. He was…blind? No. That didn’t make sense. He could still hear colors, and blind people didn’t know about colors, right? He couldn’t be blind. Right before he could work himself into a panic, Susan added that they thought the blindness was only temporary, and Sander was able to relax. He took a deep breath before speaking. “Well, as long as it’s temporary, I’m fine.” Sander replied, his voice only shaking a little with residual panic. They’d find an antidote, and everything would be fine.

@susanvictoria

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Susan smiled as the silent tears streamed down her cheeks. She knew Sander couldn't see them and for once she was grateful; he didn't need to see how worried everyone really was about his condition. She could see the nurses huddled in a corner talking in low voices and wondered if they'd have to send him to Saint Mungos.  Maybe if that happened Casey would be willing to check in on his prognosis and let her know.  That'd be nice; he would do it too, she knew it.  She reached out and too Sanders hands in hers.  "You're right, of course it's only temporary," she told him, willing her voice to sound stronger than she felt.  She squeezed his hands tightly.  "Can you still hear the color of my voice?" she asked him softly.  If he could still hear colors, perhaps that would help in the recovery of his eyesight.


@lysander

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Despite was Susan was saying, Lysander was beginning to think that her constant assurance about how he was going to be fine meant something to the contrary. Still, he wasn’t ready to be worried about something that might, theoretically, be fixable. She asked about him about her voice, and Sander nodded. “Of course I can.” He responded. “Synesthesia is because of the wiring in my brain, not because of any physical organ.” Going deaf probably would take the colors away, but going blind – if he was blind – couldn’t. That thought comforted Sander slightly, and he smiled in what he assumed was Susan’s direction. “We said I’m going to be okay, so there’s no need to worry. I just need to figure out how to let my mum know I’m alright. Or have they already told her?” Sander couldn’t remember, but it would make sense if they had owled his mother first.

@susanvictoria

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Susan nodded, then realized Lysander couldn’t see her. “Of course, that’s good at least,” she said with a small smile. She frowned then, wondering if anyone had actually written to the Scamanders to tell them of their sons’ accident. She would assume they had of course, but she better ask. “I would imagine if Madame Blacksmith hasn’t, Professor Rivas has,” she told him, referring of course to the Head of Ravenclaw. It was his responsibility after all to write to parents of anything that happened to their children. “Let me go ask one of the nurses though,” she told him, giving his hand a light squeeze as she got up to go find one of the nurses to see if anyone had actually informed the magizoologists of their sons’ accident. She wondered though how difficult it would be for them to get in contact with his parents though, since they traveled so much. There definitely had to be a way though; a mother had to know about her son.

@lysander


ooc: you can decide who initially informed Luna and Rolf XD

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Sander wasn’t sure why, but this entire conversation felt entirely wrong to him. He wanted to see Susan, of course, but the operative word in that phrase was see. And without being able to read her body language, Sander found himself at a horrible disadvantage. He was already horrible at social cues to begin with, but not being able to see any of them was making everything worse. Susan said that she was going to go check with one of the nurses, and Lysander was tempted to tell her not to go. It was too late, though. It was strange, how time moved when Lysander couldn’t see anything around him. It felt like Susan had been gone for hours, but logically, Sander knew it had only been a few minutes, at most. After pondering a moment, Sander decided that he would pretend to be asleep. It would give him time to figure out how he was supposed to read people without visual cues, for the time he was going to be without vision. He nestled into his pillows, turning away from the chair that was probably on the side of his bed, and evened out his breathing, hoping that Susan wouldn’t call him on his bluff.

@susanvictoria