Riley followed closely behind her sister as the five of them made their way towards the Hogwarts library.
Since it was the middle of the day, Sophia knew that she was not going to need any specific tool such as her invisibility cloak for this task.
As she began opening the big metal doors leading into the main entrance, she couldn't help but wonder what exactly was housed in that book. She was quickly roused out of her thoughts to hear someone say, very loud in her ear, "Hey guys, I'm going to go browse some of the shelves for that hidden book— you guys can wait here if you want".
Sophia, and the two boys, James and Albus, thought that that sounded like a great idea. Nodding hastily at one another, they quickly sat down at one of the many, many tables.
Suddenly the girl, who introduced herself to be Hermione and Ron's daughter, Rose Granger-Weasley reappeared, holding a rather small to medium-sized book in her hands, plopping it on the table she said, "Found this in the restricted section. I think it's what we're looking for."
On the front cover, it had what looked like a strange and bizarre symbol. Only Riley and Sophia seemed to recognize it. It was one of those symbols that looked exactly like a handicap placard. The book cover itself was blue but had what appeared to be gold trim along the edges while the entire symbol looked like it had been spray-painted white. Everybody agreed that it looked like a really cool and unique cover. The letters of the book however were in... it almost felt like a very pretty sunset orange of a deep red. This everyone agreed was most likely used to make the title stand out more, from just the traditional black lettering.
Then, one of the guys noticed something strange— tiny little bumps were placed under the large letters. Sophia explained to them that that was called Braille. She had remembered going on one sleigh ride with North way back when that she had met some deaf and even blind children at an orphanage. While she was waiting for North to finish up some last-minute tasks, she had become bored and began to walk around the place. In one of the rooms, she spotted a girl reading. Curious, she let herself in.
Tapping the young girl on the shoulder she asked. "Whatcha readin' there?" The girl turned her head in surprise.
"A- a book..."
"I know, I know... but what I mean is—"
The girl smiled warmly, then replied, "Oh, sorry... didn't mean to be rude. It's called: The Diary of Anne Frank."
"Oh, I see... forgive me for asking but, how old are you?"
"Hmmm... I'm 8," the girl replied after a moment of thought.
"Isn't that book a little bit too advanced for you?" Sophia asked innocently.
"Hmmm-mmm" the girl just shrugged and replied. "I- I just like the Holocaust, I guess." Sophia then decided that it was time to move on to a new subject.
"So..." she started, picking up a small chair and moving it close to the girl, "Tell me, what are those little dots all over your book about?"
"That's Braille" the girl pointed out.
Sophia looked intrigued, "Umm... what's Braille?"
"It's how I read," the young girl replied, "You see I was born blind so from the minute I was born, Mommy and Daddy made plans that they would someday enroll me in a special school."
"Oh, how sweet. But wait, then if you had parents— then how did you wind up in this orphanage?"
"Well, you see..." the young girl gulped then hung her head solemnly. "I did have parents- they did enroll me in school, everything was perfect... until one day tragedy struck. One night when I was about six or seven, I was home being watched over by my babysitter when, all of a sudden, we could hear two cops banging on the front door outside. Upon answering the door, the cops told my babysitter that my parents were driving home and had gotten into a terrible accident. Supposedly a drunk driver in a huge semi-truck failed to see a yellow light in time— he couldn't slow down in time and smashed right into them. The car was completely totaled."
"Oh, I'm so sorry that happened to you."
"It's okay, anyway back to the question you asked me earlier of what is Braille and how it works-See, I run my fingers over these tiny bumps and each one represents a letter. Put them all together and you have a word. Next thing you know you're reading!"
"Oh, so it's basically the same thing as when other people are learning to read?"
"Basically, yes" she finished.
Meanwhile, back in the present day of the Hogwarts library, Sophia had just finished explaining what Braille was to her tablemates.
"Hmmm..." they each thought that was somewhat cool.
As the brown-haired girl began flipping through the pages, she suddenly came to a bunch of mental disabilities and disorders. She flipped to what appeared to be the table of contents and looked intently as if on a great quest. She scrolled past all muggle-based words: Dyslexia, Dysphasia, Dyspraxia, Dysgraphia, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, and Asperger's Syndrome... but, so far no one could find the mystery disability.
"Anyone got an idea as to what these bloody books are talking about?" Albus asked.
"Albus, you're not even a Gryffindor- why are you here?" Sophia questioned.
"I wasn't interested in participating with my house group- so I figured I could help out here," he said sheepishly.
"Is that okay?" the brown-haired, bushy-haired girl asked, looking up from the book.
"He's my brother," James said triumphantly. "If he believes it's okay, then it's okay."
"Very well..." the girl holding the book replied.
"What are those disorders there?" Albus asked, a bit more forcefully.
"Let's see," the girl said, burying her nose back into the book. "It says here that Dyslexia is a disorder that affects a. person's ability to read and/or write."
"Hmmm..." the girl, who turned out to be Hermione's daughter hummed, diving deeper in. "Oh, all these words are two Latin words smushed together... interesting."
The whole group gasped. Turning to her, the two Potter kids, Albus and James exclaimed, "Blimey, how on earth do you know that?"
"Hehe," the girl giggled, looking rather smug, then said, "My mum taught me- long before I came to Hogwarts."
"Oh..." James looked rather impressed while his younger brother, Albus, seemed to only be rather annoyed and agitated. "Know-It-Alls" he muttered, so low only he could hear.
"Now then," she said, her eyes turning back to the book, "It says that the first one on this list isn't really a disease or a disorder, although, they can co-exist."
"Hmmm, how interesting." Everyone listened intently as she began reading the first few lines. "Dysphoria is... the profound state of uneasiness or dissatisfaction. It is the opposite of euphoria. In a psychiatric content, dysphoria may accompany depression, anxiety, or agitation."
"Oh..." came low, whispering, murmurs from the people around her.
"Under Dyspraxia, the definition reads... Dyspraxia is a neurological development disorder... it affects some motor skills- though, it is not associated with other things such as strokes or Cerebral Palsy." The girl paused, taking a breath in between readings.
Upon looking up, locking eyes with everyone else in the room, however, came an overwhelming sense of bewilderment from all, but two. Sophia and Riley just looked at each other, nodding their heads in satisfaction.
Hermione's daughter looked shocked but breathed a sigh, as she began to look for a much simpler way of explaining these terms and disorders.
Taking a breath she breathed out, "Let me start over; this time I'll make it simpler." She skipped over simplifying Dyslexia as she thought that it was already simplified enough.
"Dysgraphia is a term that refers to trouble with writing. Many experts view dysgraphia as challenges with a set of skills such as transcription. These skills - handwriting, typing, and spelling - allow us to produce writing. Trouble expressing your thoughts in writing isn't formally recognized as part of dysgraphia." The girl paused yet once again, this time, however, she very gingerly lifted her head and briefly looked around at her surroundings- just as a way to assure herself that everyone around her was listening before she continued.
Looking at the bottom of each definition, she found that, a much simpler version of each of the 'muggle' definitions were highlighted in a small, little rectangle which she began to read aloud after each long and timely, seemingly never-ending, lengthy definition had been read.
The first one she read aloud, it was highlighted in yellow, and read, "Dysgraphia is from the two Latin words 'Dys' meaning hard, and Graphia meaning write. So, simply put it means the trouble with writing." Hermione's daughter continued on doing this until she managed to get a few "Oh, now I get it"'s from her tablemates.
"Dyscalculia is a term used to describe specific learning disabilities that affect a child's ability to understand, learn, and perform math and number based operations".
She scrolled down the page until she reached the simplified definition that read "Dys . . ." She suddenly stopped, hesitating, to almost everyone's surprise, and replied, "I think we all know what 'Dys' means, yes?" The students around her nodded in unison. "Okay, now, I'm only going to define 'calcuilia' then." Not waiting or caring for everybody to nod with satisfaction and understanding around her, she began to read aloud, "Calculilia is Latin for..." she paused then said, "Well, basically it sounds a lot like calculator, so just think of it as being the trouble with math."
Skipping down a ways, she came down to where the rest of the definitions were starting with Cerebral Palsy. "Now, it says that Cerebral Palsy is a different kind of disability; it is not a mental one like the others listed above. Rather it is a physical disability meaning that you can see it with your eyes... Depending on what stage of Cerebral Palsy you have- different parts of the brain can be affected... Cerebral Palsy can happen in anyone, though premature babies (babies born before the 27th week) are most at risk." The girl paused a moment, taking this well-deserved opportunity to fill her lungs up with air. She sighed deeply as she continued reading the text.
Thinking that that was simplified enough she began reading the next definition until a voice stopped her dead in her tracks.
"What's premature mean?"
"Albus, you dunderhead!" his brother, James exclaimed, giving his brother a good slap upside the head. The girl just shook her head in disgust as she began to explain.
"Premature babies are tinier than normal full-term babies because they're born before the twenty-seventh week," the girl rolled her eyes, feeling quite irritated as she continued on with reading the book's definitions.
"Now, Autism is a developmental disorder that affects how the brain works- it is characterized by: repetitive movement, specific interest or interests, the need for and to stick to a rigid ritual and routine, prefers to be and/or play alone rather than with others".
The highlighted simplified definition read, "Autism affects how the brain is wired, it's characterized by repetitive movement (ex: rocking back and forth), specific interest or interests, a need for and to stick to a rigid ritual and routine, and they most often would prefer to be and/or play alone rather than with others."
The girl with her nose engrossed in the book paused, allowing for what she said to sink in. About five minutes passed before she continued.
"Asperger's Syndrome, now Asperger's Syndrome was taken out of the DSM-5 and combined into one diagnosis under the ASD Spectrum. It is a form of Autism though it is more High-functioning."
"Ummm... pardoned me for interrupting," Riley began, "but I don't think labels are okay at all when it comes to Autism, plus I know that it might bother some people."
"Interesting... and, how exactly do you know this?"
"Ummm... uh— lucky guess," she squeaked out, "That, and it might bring about a whole bunch of stereotypes surrounding it."
"Hmmm..." she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Interesting, how so?"
"Well for one, some people are assuming that just because some people on the spectrum can talk that they must have Asperger's Syndrome and are high functioning and that some kids and even adults who are mute or can't talk are low functioning when in reality it's a spectrum. There's no one way of justifying it, there's no 'one size fits all' situation going on— it's a spectrum, meaning that there are billions upon billions of different people in this world with different thought processes and you can't put all of those specific traits that are associated with Autism in one specific category or box."
"Yeah, ummm... okay?" came a muffled yet bewildered voice. "Moving on then" she scrolled down reading and glancing over disorder after disorder.
Once all the disorders and their matching definitions were read out, everyone was still in awe of the fact that these disorders even existed although, one question still remained on everyone's minds-Could one of these muggle disorders have somehow leaked out of the Muggle world and into their own, and if so- how?
"Riley, what do you think?" Sophia inquired, noticing she hadn't talked much.
"Ummm... uhhh," she muttered dumbfounded. Suddenly, they all jumped when they heard a voice booming throughout the school. A giant muscular man came bursting through the doors of the library.
"Riley, Professor Dumbledore be awaiting your services." The burly man picked the girl up, tossed her over his shoulder, and carried the kicking and screaming girl away.