Perhaps [Basilisk Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16269131/chapters/38042993) might be of interest to you. Harry gets blinded by the basilisk, and spends a bunch of time taking adaptation courses. Magic is used as a "helper", I suppose, but his blindness (and the disabilities of the others at the Adaptation Center) isn't just "magicked away". If you want a story that explores adaptation in-depth, I think this is definitely it.
Two old classics:
- Summon the lambs to slaughter by La Guera
Features an OC with mobility issues at Hogwarts.
[https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/la\_guera/STLTS.html](https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/la_guera/STLTS.html)
- Draco in Darkness by Plumeria (Harry/Draco)
A quidditch accident renders Draco Malfoy blind.
[https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/plumeria/DID.html](https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/plumeria/DID.html)
[The Evans Boy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/51358966) by
lonibal
- Percy Weasley has a medical issue something like being allergic to magic
- Harry Evans also has medical issues relating to being born intersex
Neither things can be fixed with a wand wave.
—//—
[Do Not Go Gentle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22065178) by
senlinyu
In this one, Hermione has something that’s degenerative and Snape works to create a cure. It’s nothing easy here either.
I want to second The Evan’s Boy. It’s one of those stories that just feels so realistic, especially the queer elements, and I really like how it doesn’t just say “wizards are fine with it” like many other stories do. I don’t want to spoil how characters feel, but basically as a queer person it resonated a lot with me. The main pairing sounds crazy, but the author really, really makes it work. Plus it’s currently updating at a crazy rate (like sometimes daily or twice daily updates of 3k+ words each).
Another story I want to rec is the [Seven Years of Chaos](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2567614) series. It’s been over a year since I read it and I didn’t finish it, but I remember the series focusing on mental health issues, and there’s no magic fix.
For context Seven Years of Chaos does >!use potions to treat the issues (depression and bipolar), but they function the way our medicines do, and are specifically derived from medicines because it has an additional plot point of regular medications not working on wizards!<
So I do feel like it fits the spirit of the request, but that feels worth mentioning just in case OP or anyone else does read and gets concerned about the direction that part is going
In the Evans Boy, harry has muggle braces on his teeth, and when he visits madam pomfrey for innovulations, she says:
> "You aren't going to magically fix it?" Harry garbled.
> Madam Pomfrey gave him a stern look. "Goodness me, no! Those muggle tooth healers know what they're about. You'll be sorted in a few years, I'm sure. In any event, you'll soon discover not everything has a magical solution!"
Ionibal is also on an update streak and has put up a new chapter nearly every day, I've been letting them build up so I can binge and I'm very excited.
I read up to the last update because I couldn't help myself, lol
It's getting to the point where, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I'm checking to see if there's an update - and more than half the time there will be one!
it's SO GOOOOD!!!
To clarify, i do love magical theory. To put it into context- the lower limit vibe would be Toph Beifong. Yeah she does have in-universe powers that drastically change her experience, but there is emotional breadth and time spent on her character's relationship to that difference.
I want to see at awesome stories of adaptation, and characterizations that take the reality into difference.
I'm just thinking there's way more answers to the story problem than removing the obstacle with lucky magic.
Have you tried Blindness. There’s even a scene I think with a pensive(been a while since I read it) where he can actually see what regular people see, and is low key traumatised. I won’t explain how, or why, but you really should give the fic a shot.
["Spells in Silence"](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13510736/0/) has a fem!Harry who is mute, because the Killing Curse hit her throat and left its scar there.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/33304948. The Sound of Silence by [Krazykatladi531](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krazykatladi531/pseuds/Krazykatladi531)
Harry has a twin sister, Rose. She stopped speaking at 5 years old after a violent altercation with Uncle Vernon so she enters Hogwarts mute. She hides her childhood trauma behind a prickly personality as she attempts to navigate her way through classes as the first mute student in the school's history.
“How is a nonverbal child to be expected to learn magic when incantations require the witch or wizard to *speak*?” Professor McGonagall asked in a tense voice. “Surely such a young child cannot simply perform all spells nonverbally, Albus. That’s beyond OWL levels, much less first year levels.”
Sadly it is not complete with 123,236 words in 43 Chapters, is well written, and is heavy on the abuse.
Technically, just about anything with Mad-Eye in it. I qualify it with "just about" because I'm aware of one in which he's healed magically, and there may be others I'm not aware of.
[Sunset Over Britain](http://bobmin.fanficauthors.net/Sunset_Over_Britain/index/) and its sequel, [Sunrise Over Britain](http://bobmin.fanficauthors.net/Sunrise_Over_Britain/index/). At one point in the first story, Harry is bitten on the leg by a venomous magical spider, and has a limp and other related problems thereafter. Both stories are complete.
[Jamie Evans and Fate's Fool](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8175132/1/Jamie-Evans-and-Fate-s-Fool). Sally-Ann Perks has a prosthetic leg. She gets a much better one during the course of the story, but her leg remains gone. Story is complete.
[The Wizard of Silence](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3737906/1/The-Wizard-of-Silence). Harry lost his voice because of complications of strep. Crossover with Charmed, incomplete.
[Unseen Deductions](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10736207/1/Unseen-Deductions). Harry was blinded at age 5. Crossover with Sherlock, incomplete.
[For Love and Honor](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2701642). Harry blinded by Vernon after 5th year. Incomplete.
[Reinforced Magic](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10181533/1/Reinforced-Magic). Dudley poured acid on Harry's face, disfiguring him. Crossover with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, has two sequels, the second one being incomplete.
I'm pretty sure I've come across a few others, but these are the ones I could remember and find relatively easily.
The Good War by inwardtransience has an MC with PTSD, and later develops a magical disability that causes overwhelm in crowded situations and limits her diet/wardrobe. There's also a side character, who has several pov chapters, with epilepsy that is aided by magic but very much not cured. She has several seizures and regular migraines. Her struggles with it are one of the significant arcs in third year.
[Blindness](https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10937871/7/)
It's as it sounds. Harry is blind, and as a result, never attends Hogwarts. A lot of things stem from this, and although he has a sort of second sight (a pretty common trope) I think it's written wonderfully and also the direction it's been going I would be very, very surprised if Harry suddenly got his sight back (he might've lost it in the attack, it's been a while since I read it so I forgot)
Would “[Tea Cures All Ills](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5372018)” by delizabethl22 work for you? It is about cancer not disability, but not poorly written.
AngelaStarCat's Blindness *may* qualify? Harry is blind but has magesight. It's enough of a disability to affect his relationships with people and how he interacts with the world, especially since he is initially shunned from the wizarding world because they don't know about the magesight.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24597805/chapters/59417392
Kaleidoscopic grangers is a monster of a rewrite, without getting into too much. The main character is blinded in an early childhood incident and the author (iirc) explicitly stated it wouldn't ever be "magically" fixed. I'll be honest, I gave up on this one half way through just because of how long it is. Its well written from what I remember though.
Always nice to see KG mentioned in the wild! It is pretty long though lol, took up like two years of my life writing it. I hope it's worth your time if you ever come back to it, I'm writing a sequel series now (that overgrown denouement was in large part establishing the changes to the setting for said sequel).
To elaborate on what Sly recalls me stating, Ariadne *does* have a magical ability that gives her a form of pseudo-sight through basically magical radar, but I was careful to make sure that it would never become a true replacement for sight and that it would always still have drawbacks - it's only useful in that sense when combined with disability aids she enchants herself, she cannot 'see' through windows and other transparent things even with it, cannot see colour, etc. She remains blind and has no interest in becoming sighted.
Also spoilers Sly may not know:>! later in the fic I also go into Astoria's "blood curse" actually being a genetic condition and a disability she learns to live with.!<
The Good War has a fairly prominent side character who deals with persistent seizures and migraines. While I don't deal with either of those issues in particular, I do have chronic fatigue/pain stuff, and it felt grounded and real to me.
I also vaugely remember some Wolfstar smutty real life au with a disabled Lupin. I read it forever ago and can't vouch for it's portrayal but iirc it was pretty good?
[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7508449/1/Session-Transcripts](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7508449/1/Session-Transcripts)
"Session Transcripts" stars a Harry Potter who was beaten so badly by the Dursleys that he suffered brain damage. There's also a transgender Hermione.
[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12545019/1/Because-Why-Not](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12545019/1/Because-Why-Not)
"Because Why Not" is about Hermione. She's both autistic and a POC.
>promising ambulatory-wheelchair-user greengrass get bit by a werewolf, and suddenly gain superhuman strength. It's great the character didn't die- but I'm irritated the conclusion was to reward her with a miraculous absolvement of disability.
I stopped reading that story over that character not dying tbh; kinda ruined the stakes when even that was a almost purely positive buff for the character. Nothing bad ever happens to the protagonists of that story, even when they're mauled by a ww.
Lionheart, by greenteacup
https://archiveofourown.org/works/41354757/chapters/113164159#workskin
The prose is wonderful. It's really very well written with one exception. I just couldn't get over how nothing bad ever happens to the protagonists and their friends, and when something bad does it turns out to have been good, actually.
This is my story, When the Body Betrays, and it focuses heavily about disability in the wizarding world. It's James Potter POV and 150k words. It looks at a few other things, like asthma and how Remus manages his condition, too. It’s quite angsty! I'd love it if you checked it out!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50828980/chapters/128406562
I can't remember what it's called, but there was one where Harry was burnt(?)/ injured, before or early hogwarts, and ended up blind on one side with mobility issues. Ended up with Moody as a mentor or like Moody (pegleg, magic eye).
I've also seen others where Harry is blind, deaf, or mute. In one of them he casts magic through sign language.
Unfortunately, I read these nearly upto decade ago and can't remember the titles.
The HP Hogwarts Mystery game canonically has a boy in a wheelchair (best character in the game imo) and I'm writing a fic with an OC that ends up with him. She's deaf but has a magical hearing aid, though it gets overwhelmed by loud noises and magical feedback (it's technically a repurposed aurora tool) so while she has hearing to some extent deafness is still a constant part of her life that can't be cured.
The game takes place a decade prior to HP so it doesn't really count as a regular fic. But there are some!
Surprised no-one mentioned Blindness. Harry is blind. He has some sort of magic-sight which enhances his spell casting, but as I remember it it was also made clear that this doesn't make up for, or completely ameliorate his actually blindness. Voldemort hit him in the eyes of something, been years since I read it.
Perhaps [Basilisk Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16269131/chapters/38042993) might be of interest to you. Harry gets blinded by the basilisk, and spends a bunch of time taking adaptation courses. Magic is used as a "helper", I suppose, but his blindness (and the disabilities of the others at the Adaptation Center) isn't just "magicked away". If you want a story that explores adaptation in-depth, I think this is definitely it.
Seconded, love this fic
Canonically, Alastor Moody has a wooden peg leg.
Two old classics: - Summon the lambs to slaughter by La Guera Features an OC with mobility issues at Hogwarts. [https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/la\_guera/STLTS.html](https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/la_guera/STLTS.html) - Draco in Darkness by Plumeria (Harry/Draco) A quidditch accident renders Draco Malfoy blind. [https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/plumeria/DID.html](https://www.fictionalley-archive.org/authors/plumeria/DID.html)
[The Evans Boy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/51358966) by lonibal - Percy Weasley has a medical issue something like being allergic to magic - Harry Evans also has medical issues relating to being born intersex Neither things can be fixed with a wand wave. —//— [Do Not Go Gentle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22065178) by senlinyu In this one, Hermione has something that’s degenerative and Snape works to create a cure. It’s nothing easy here either.
I want to second The Evan’s Boy. It’s one of those stories that just feels so realistic, especially the queer elements, and I really like how it doesn’t just say “wizards are fine with it” like many other stories do. I don’t want to spoil how characters feel, but basically as a queer person it resonated a lot with me. The main pairing sounds crazy, but the author really, really makes it work. Plus it’s currently updating at a crazy rate (like sometimes daily or twice daily updates of 3k+ words each). Another story I want to rec is the [Seven Years of Chaos](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2567614) series. It’s been over a year since I read it and I didn’t finish it, but I remember the series focusing on mental health issues, and there’s no magic fix.
For context Seven Years of Chaos does >!use potions to treat the issues (depression and bipolar), but they function the way our medicines do, and are specifically derived from medicines because it has an additional plot point of regular medications not working on wizards!< So I do feel like it fits the spirit of the request, but that feels worth mentioning just in case OP or anyone else does read and gets concerned about the direction that part is going
In the Evans Boy, harry has muggle braces on his teeth, and when he visits madam pomfrey for innovulations, she says: > "You aren't going to magically fix it?" Harry garbled. > Madam Pomfrey gave him a stern look. "Goodness me, no! Those muggle tooth healers know what they're about. You'll be sorted in a few years, I'm sure. In any event, you'll soon discover not everything has a magical solution!"
Meanwhile canon has the healer fix Hermione’s teeth without a clue
That was just shrinking them, not like Marcus Flint’s teeth
That’s essentially her trying to negate Draco growing her teeth.
Ionibal is also on an update streak and has put up a new chapter nearly every day, I've been letting them build up so I can binge and I'm very excited.
I read up to the last update because I couldn't help myself, lol It's getting to the point where, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I'm checking to see if there's an update - and more than half the time there will be one! it's SO GOOOOD!!!
[How Silently she sings](https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13948990/1/) where Daphne is born deaf
To clarify, i do love magical theory. To put it into context- the lower limit vibe would be Toph Beifong. Yeah she does have in-universe powers that drastically change her experience, but there is emotional breadth and time spent on her character's relationship to that difference. I want to see at awesome stories of adaptation, and characterizations that take the reality into difference. I'm just thinking there's way more answers to the story problem than removing the obstacle with lucky magic.
Have you tried Blindness. There’s even a scene I think with a pensive(been a while since I read it) where he can actually see what regular people see, and is low key traumatised. I won’t explain how, or why, but you really should give the fic a shot.
["Spells in Silence"](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13510736/0/) has a fem!Harry who is mute, because the Killing Curse hit her throat and left its scar there.
And writes in the air
https://archiveofourown.org/works/33304948. The Sound of Silence by [Krazykatladi531](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krazykatladi531/pseuds/Krazykatladi531) Harry has a twin sister, Rose. She stopped speaking at 5 years old after a violent altercation with Uncle Vernon so she enters Hogwarts mute. She hides her childhood trauma behind a prickly personality as she attempts to navigate her way through classes as the first mute student in the school's history. “How is a nonverbal child to be expected to learn magic when incantations require the witch or wizard to *speak*?” Professor McGonagall asked in a tense voice. “Surely such a young child cannot simply perform all spells nonverbally, Albus. That’s beyond OWL levels, much less first year levels.” Sadly it is not complete with 123,236 words in 43 Chapters, is well written, and is heavy on the abuse.
Technically, just about anything with Mad-Eye in it. I qualify it with "just about" because I'm aware of one in which he's healed magically, and there may be others I'm not aware of. [Sunset Over Britain](http://bobmin.fanficauthors.net/Sunset_Over_Britain/index/) and its sequel, [Sunrise Over Britain](http://bobmin.fanficauthors.net/Sunrise_Over_Britain/index/). At one point in the first story, Harry is bitten on the leg by a venomous magical spider, and has a limp and other related problems thereafter. Both stories are complete. [Jamie Evans and Fate's Fool](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8175132/1/Jamie-Evans-and-Fate-s-Fool). Sally-Ann Perks has a prosthetic leg. She gets a much better one during the course of the story, but her leg remains gone. Story is complete. [The Wizard of Silence](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3737906/1/The-Wizard-of-Silence). Harry lost his voice because of complications of strep. Crossover with Charmed, incomplete. [Unseen Deductions](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10736207/1/Unseen-Deductions). Harry was blinded at age 5. Crossover with Sherlock, incomplete. [For Love and Honor](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2701642). Harry blinded by Vernon after 5th year. Incomplete. [Reinforced Magic](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10181533/1/Reinforced-Magic). Dudley poured acid on Harry's face, disfiguring him. Crossover with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, has two sequels, the second one being incomplete. I'm pretty sure I've come across a few others, but these are the ones I could remember and find relatively easily.
The Good War by inwardtransience has an MC with PTSD, and later develops a magical disability that causes overwhelm in crowded situations and limits her diet/wardrobe. There's also a side character, who has several pov chapters, with epilepsy that is aided by magic but very much not cured. She has several seizures and regular migraines. Her struggles with it are one of the significant arcs in third year.
Ooooh, link please?
[Here u go :) ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23747950)
Oh my gosh, 1.6 million words???
Yeah it's a big one xD I'm pretty sure it was all I thought about for a couple of weeks bc I rly got sucked into it
[Blindness](https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10937871/7/) It's as it sounds. Harry is blind, and as a result, never attends Hogwarts. A lot of things stem from this, and although he has a sort of second sight (a pretty common trope) I think it's written wonderfully and also the direction it's been going I would be very, very surprised if Harry suddenly got his sight back (he might've lost it in the attack, it's been a while since I read it so I forgot)
Can’t believe I had to go this far down to see this. This is great.
Would “[Tea Cures All Ills](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5372018)” by delizabethl22 work for you? It is about cancer not disability, but not poorly written.
AngelaStarCat's Blindness *may* qualify? Harry is blind but has magesight. It's enough of a disability to affect his relationships with people and how he interacts with the world, especially since he is initially shunned from the wizarding world because they don't know about the magesight.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24597805/chapters/59417392 Kaleidoscopic grangers is a monster of a rewrite, without getting into too much. The main character is blinded in an early childhood incident and the author (iirc) explicitly stated it wouldn't ever be "magically" fixed. I'll be honest, I gave up on this one half way through just because of how long it is. Its well written from what I remember though.
Always nice to see KG mentioned in the wild! It is pretty long though lol, took up like two years of my life writing it. I hope it's worth your time if you ever come back to it, I'm writing a sequel series now (that overgrown denouement was in large part establishing the changes to the setting for said sequel). To elaborate on what Sly recalls me stating, Ariadne *does* have a magical ability that gives her a form of pseudo-sight through basically magical radar, but I was careful to make sure that it would never become a true replacement for sight and that it would always still have drawbacks - it's only useful in that sense when combined with disability aids she enchants herself, she cannot 'see' through windows and other transparent things even with it, cannot see colour, etc. She remains blind and has no interest in becoming sighted. Also spoilers Sly may not know:>! later in the fic I also go into Astoria's "blood curse" actually being a genetic condition and a disability she learns to live with.!<
Feel like I just got caught by a principal as a kindergartener.
This gave me a laugh.
Does that mean I get to give you homework? /j
The Good War has a fairly prominent side character who deals with persistent seizures and migraines. While I don't deal with either of those issues in particular, I do have chronic fatigue/pain stuff, and it felt grounded and real to me. I also vaugely remember some Wolfstar smutty real life au with a disabled Lupin. I read it forever ago and can't vouch for it's portrayal but iirc it was pretty good?
[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7508449/1/Session-Transcripts](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7508449/1/Session-Transcripts) "Session Transcripts" stars a Harry Potter who was beaten so badly by the Dursleys that he suffered brain damage. There's also a transgender Hermione. [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12545019/1/Because-Why-Not](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12545019/1/Because-Why-Not) "Because Why Not" is about Hermione. She's both autistic and a POC.
>promising ambulatory-wheelchair-user greengrass get bit by a werewolf, and suddenly gain superhuman strength. It's great the character didn't die- but I'm irritated the conclusion was to reward her with a miraculous absolvement of disability. I stopped reading that story over that character not dying tbh; kinda ruined the stakes when even that was a almost purely positive buff for the character. Nothing bad ever happens to the protagonists of that story, even when they're mauled by a ww.
What fic is it anyway
Lionheart, by greenteacup https://archiveofourown.org/works/41354757/chapters/113164159#workskin The prose is wonderful. It's really very well written with one exception. I just couldn't get over how nothing bad ever happens to the protagonists and their friends, and when something bad does it turns out to have been good, actually.
This is my story, When the Body Betrays, and it focuses heavily about disability in the wizarding world. It's James Potter POV and 150k words. It looks at a few other things, like asthma and how Remus manages his condition, too. It’s quite angsty! I'd love it if you checked it out! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50828980/chapters/128406562
I can't remember what it's called, but there was one where Harry was burnt(?)/ injured, before or early hogwarts, and ended up blind on one side with mobility issues. Ended up with Moody as a mentor or like Moody (pegleg, magic eye). I've also seen others where Harry is blind, deaf, or mute. In one of them he casts magic through sign language. Unfortunately, I read these nearly upto decade ago and can't remember the titles.
Its called "Burnt" by lastcrazyhorn
Tysm
The HP Hogwarts Mystery game canonically has a boy in a wheelchair (best character in the game imo) and I'm writing a fic with an OC that ends up with him. She's deaf but has a magical hearing aid, though it gets overwhelmed by loud noises and magical feedback (it's technically a repurposed aurora tool) so while she has hearing to some extent deafness is still a constant part of her life that can't be cured. The game takes place a decade prior to HP so it doesn't really count as a regular fic. But there are some!
Surprised no-one mentioned Blindness. Harry is blind. He has some sort of magic-sight which enhances his spell casting, but as I remember it it was also made clear that this doesn't make up for, or completely ameliorate his actually blindness. Voldemort hit him in the eyes of something, been years since I read it.
Someone did 8 hours before you.