CHAPDISC: DH27, The Final Hiding Place (not about the EW, promise!)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184173

Pippin wrote:
> <snip> I wonder if the dragon's blindness is from a conjunctivus
curse, which Sirius says is used to control dragons. <snip>

Carol responds:
Interesting thought. The dragon, of course, is only partially blind,
not wholly blind, which would fit with conjunctivitis. But I'm not
sure that such spells would be needed given the even crueller
behavioral conditioning that the Goblins use to control the poor
beast. The partial blindness could be caused by long confinement
underground. After many years, perhaps centuries, of imprisonment in
the dark tunnels with no opportunity to hunt for prey (the Goblins
would have given it enough food to keep it alive while keeping it
chained to prevent its eating *them*), the dragon wouldn't have had
much use for eyesight. It could use its senses of smell and hearing to
detect the presence of food or Goblins or intruders. The food probably
was not particularly nutritious (the dragon's scales have turned "pale
and flaky," hardly a sign of good health). Certainly, it wouldn't have
received the benefit of the natural vitamin D in sunlight, and vitamin
D is directly related to eyesight and eye health.

http://www.action.org.uk/medicalresearch/vitamin_d_eye_infections.php

Carol, wondering how we all would have reacted to the escape on (and
of) the dragon if we hadn't already seen Mary GrandPre's depiction of
the dragon ride