the fact that it’s canon that lily evans had to hear james die. she’s only 21 and she’s rushing to barricade the door with anything she can grab hold of and trying to do everything she can to save harry. harry- it’s all for harry- she needs to save her son, her boy. but then she hears james’ voice- stupid, brave potter- his voice is much different from when they were only eleven, but it still has the same arrogance, the same air of authority that lily used to scoff at and still does. over the clamouring, lily listens as his voice stops. and then she has to hear the moment his body hits the ground. it’s sudden; like a marionette whose strings had been cut. james potter, who she had once sworn she would hate until the day she died. james potter, who managed to win her heart during their final years at hogwarts and has kept it ever since. james potter is gone. dead just like that. it’s agony and it’s grief. but then it’s only fear as she hears the stairs creak and knows that voldemort is coming for them too.
I had a blind professor, last semester, and I swung through his office to make up an exam. It was a while before I knew he was in there because he was sitting with the lights off. I finally went in, apologized, and took the exam by the light of a nearby window (which was fine). Forty-five minutes into dead silence he panicked and yelled in this booming voiced, “WAIT, YOU CAN SEE!!!” before diving across his desk to turn on the lights. I’m sure he was embarrassed but I thought it was endearing and it highlighted a large aspect of disabled life that I hadn’t previously considered.
Sort of relatedly I once had professor who was deaf, but she had learned to read lips and speak so she could communicate easily with hearing people who didn’t know sign language. One day she had gotten off topic and was talking a little about her personal life, so that one of the students said “Oh, I know, I grew up in Brooklyn too.”
She stared at him for a long time and then said “How do you know I’m from Brooklyn?”
And he said “You have a Brooklyn accent.”
She said “I do?” and the whole class nodded, and then she burst out laughing and said “I had no idea! The school where I learned to speak was in Brooklyn. I learned by moving my mouth and tongue the way my teachers did. So I guess it makes sense that I have their accent, I just never thought about it.”
My moms a sign language interpreter, and she’s signed with people from all over the US. According to her, when she signs with people from the south they sign with a “drawl.” They have slower hand movements and exaggerate certain parts of the sign. People from the Midwest sign very fast and people from the south sign very slow.
So we were at a restaurant once and my mom started interpreting for someone who was trying to order and she was like “oh you’re from the south!”
And they were like “how did you know that?”
And she said “you sign with a drawl.” And they were really surprised that it came through that much.
It’s really interesting that even when not speaking verbally accents and heritage come through.
