(no subject)
Private.
Until you've spent some time as a snake, you don't truly appreciate the value of eyelids. A snake's body is designed to cope very nicely without the things, while the human eye is most certainly not. Even with regular applications of unctuous substances and the ridiculous eyepatch to keep out the light, it's impossible to keep a lidless eye from trying to blink, and one ends up going through the most absurd facial contortions trying to achieve the impossible.
That, mercifully, has been remedied and now, when I look in the mirror, I no longer have the urge to go arrr at myself. Not that I can make out my reflection that clearly, which some would probably consider a positive result... Enough to shave (with the terribly helpful comments of the mirror, and Inkwit dividing his attention between aiding my sight and trying to eat the soap) - I can't quite see myself with a beard. I can only just see myself without.
The sight of a magpie foaming at the beak is probably quite disturbing. I'm tempted to send him out looking like that.
My left eye is improving daily - well enough that I can manage without the infernal voice charm thing Flitwick set up. I had been using Inkwit, but now that Bellatrix has surfaced, he's become skittish and even more easily distracted than usual. Not much use for anything beyond an early warning system to let me know when Poppy is about to emerge from the fireplace like an overstarched pantomime demon. My right, newly lidded... Poppy made mention of St Mungo's so many times I've started to think she might be on some sort of commission. It sounds as if the hospital has been - if not completely, then partially - restored to working order.
Do I want to go to St Mungo's? No, I do not. I'm considering insisting that Poppy carries the work out herself. Not because I'm afraid of hospitals - let me make that perfectly clear. Nor do I have any doubts about the skills of the mediwizards. But I have no desire to spend a week or more helpless on my back in that place. Lucius and I may have put down the main force of the Dark Lord's followers, but there are no guarantees we're safe, none at all. I don't intend to put myself out there for target practice.
It would also mean leaving Bellatrix here alone. Not that I'm likely to mention that to Poppy as a factor in my considerations - Bella was remarkably restrained during Poppy's visits to Kippenross, and I do believe the stitch-witch may still be unaware that I coaxed her into letting me undergo my treatment here so that I might be closer to Bellatrix. I have a feeling she wouldn't approve. As for William bloody Weasley... I still have every intention of destroying the knife and taking up the haunting, and if that means that I cannot return to Thorne, I think I'll survive. No one is asking him to get his hands dirty - he can keep his precious integrity intact and his family safe from the taint of exposure to her, and those who consort with her.
I made Bella certain promises, and I'm not about to throw them aside to assuage the outraged sensibilities of William Weasley, no matter how well-justified. He's not the only person in the world to have lost something of great value. Few people are born broken. It might not excuse any of the things that she's done, but Bellatrix has been sinned against, as well.
But I'll never tell. That's another promise I made.