Professor McGonagall walked into Professor Dumbledore's office and said, "We need to talk."
"What's the problem?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
"Did you ever hear of autism?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"I may have heard of it, but I don't know what it is," answered Professor Dumbledore.
"It may be best if I share my memory of what happened when I went to offer Jacob Frank a place in our school," Professor McGonagall said. She removed the memory from her head and showed it to Professor Dumbledore.
After viewing the memory, Professor Dumbledore said, "This boy already has some control over his magic. He is using it to run away at night. It's not fair to his parents if we don't take him in. They can't tell the muggle police that their son is a wizard. I think we both need to spend the next week reading everything we can about autism."
"But we can't have a student who still wears nappies," Professor McGonagall insisted.
"We could appoint a house elf to be in charge of Jacob's daily care. Right now, I want to find out more about what autism is," Professor Dumbledore responded.
A week later, the two professors walked up to the Franks' house. Mr. and Mrs. Frank both came to the door to let the professors in. After everyone introduced themselves, they sat down in the living room where Jacob was playing with his toys.
Professor Dumbledore looked at the Franks and said, "I just spent a week reading everything I can about autism and have come to the conclusion that when you meet one autistic person, you met one autistic person. No two people are the same, so maybe you could tell me about Jacob."
Mrs. Frank began slowly. "Every person gets stressed out by different things. Some people have a higher level of stress tolerance while others have a lower level. Each person handles stress in their own way. Some ways of dealing with stress are considered socially appropriate while some aren't. We're not so concerned about being socially appropriate. When a person is too stressed, sometimes the brain shuts everything out as a coping technique."
"How about we talk about Jacob?" suggested Mr. Frank.
Mrs. Frank continued. "Jacob is a delightful child. What you saw last week is not typical behavior. He was very tired after having two all nighters in a row, and he is off schedule since there is no school. Ninety percent of the time, Jacob is a happy, giggly, loving child. In many ways, he is like a baby; however, he has all the stereotypical autism behaviors. He flaps his hands, flicks his fingers, spins, makes noises, etc. He can be very manipulative. He pretends not to hear if what is being said isn't what he wants to hear, but if someone mentions food, Jacob responds immediately. When he chooses not to cooperate, he will not cooperate no matter what. His school report when he was five starts with the sentence 'Jacob appears to be untreatable.' He isn't untreatable; he just chose not to cooperate that year. Also, his speech is very unclear. I understand him without a problem, but most people don't. Because Jacob is aware that most strangers will not understand him, he doesn't waste time and energy talking to people who have not yet earned his trust."
"I wonder if we could help him with that," Professor Dumbledore said. "May I try something?"
"Of course," said Mrs. Frank.
Jacob has just arranged some toy figures and was sitting next to them flapping his hands and flicking his fingers. Professor Dumbledore asked the Franks if those figures have any special names.
"The red one is Elmo and the blue one is Cookie Monster," Mr. Frank said. "Those are his two favorites."
Professor Dumbledore sat on the floor next to Jacob. "Wow, Elmo and Cookie Monster look so happy standing over there," he said.
Jacob turned his back on Professor Dumbledore and looked at his mother. "Oscar," he said.
Mrs. Frank walked to the toy box and withdrew an Oscar figure. "Here he is," she said handing over the toy. Jacob looked at Oscar and put him back in the toy box.
"Is there a reason Oscar is banished to the toy box?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
"On the TV show, Oscar lives in a garbage can so Jacob will never stand him directly on the floor," his parents explained.
Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore took a small piece of wood out of his pocket. He pointed his wand at it and flicked a few times before passing it to Jacob.
"You can use this to help you talk," said Professor Dumbledore. Jacob pressed random letters. As soon as he stopped pressing buttons, his voice came out of the piece of wood saying the nonsense syllables that he spelled. Jacob laughed and tried again. He kept trying different combinations and laughing at the sounds. Finally, Professor Dumbledore took it away from him.
"I think this is too advanced," he said. "Let's try something else instead." He pointed his wand at the wood. It turned into a mirror. After a few flicks of the wand, he passed the mirror to Jacob. Jacob looked in the mirror, flicked his fingers, and flapped his hands.
"I look cute," the mirror said in Jacob's voice.
"How did that happen?" Mrs. Frank wondered.
"I put in the mirror the ability to read Jacob's mind. In my readings on autism, I read that people with autism think in pictures. What this mirror does is it reflects the thoughts into words."
"Dum-ble-dore," the mirror said. "Dumb means not smart. Bull is an animal. Door is what we walk through."
"Maybe its best if not all thoughts are said aloud," Mrs. Frank suggested.
"The trick is to guide his conversation while he is using his mirror," Professor Dumbledore explained. "I'll show you."
He sat down next to Jacob and said, "What do you do in school?"
Jacob looked in the mirror and the mirror said, "I eat cookies, potato chips, popcorn, and pretzels."
"Do you do anything else?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
"I go on a swing and play in the gym," Jacob answered via the mirror.
"Do you learn anything?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
"I don't know what learn means," the mirror responded.
"Your mother was telling me about your autism and what things are easy or hard for you. Do you want to participate in this conversation?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
"Why are you talking about me?" Jacob asked with the mirror.
"Because I want you to come to my school next year, and your parents don't know if we can teach you."
"Does your school have good food?" Jacob asked.
"We have lots of good food," Professor Dumbledore answered.
"Do you have cookies?" Jacob asked.
"We have treacle tarts. They're even better than cookies," Professor Dumbledore told him.
Jacob put down the mirror and hugged Professor Dumbledore.
"I think he's convinced," Professor Dumbledore laughed. "Now it's time to work on your parents."
He turned towards Mrs. Frank. "Can you continue talking about Jacob?"
"I mentioned his speech difficulty," Mrs. Frank said. "You seem to have that under control. There are other issues. Jacob doesn't usually sleep much at night."
"Why is that, Jacob?" asked Professor Dumbledore.
Jacob looked in his mirror. "I wake up and can't fall back asleep," the mirror said.
"There are potions that could help with that," Professor Dumbledore said.
"I don't want to give any medicines to Jacob that may have side effects. He does not take any medication on a regular basis," Mrs. Frank said.
"These potions don't have side effects and can be used on an as needed basis," Professor Dumbledore said. "Continue telling me Jacob's issues."
"Jacob could be violent at times," Mrs. Frank said. "He pulls hair, scratches, bites, kicks, and pinches."
"Why do you do that?" Professor Dumbledore asked Jacob.
"It feels good," Jacob said via the mirror. Professor Dumbledore flicked his wand at the mirror. Long hair came out at one end while soft skin attached itself to the other.
"Now you can pull hair, bite, scratch and pinch without hurting anyone," Professor Dumbledore told him. "What other issues do we need to work on?"
"Jacob is obsessed with food," Mrs. Frank said. "He takes other people's food, eats out of garbage cans, off the floor, and any food he sees. He eats more than me and my husband together at meals."
"Well, in Hogwarts, he can eat all the food he wants. There are no food shortages," Professor Dumbledore explained. "What other concerns do you have?"
"Jacob has some issues with his number two," Mrs. Frank said.
"I read about that in some of my readings," Professor Dumbledore said. "I would love to hear the explanation to this behavior, and I believe that now we could. Jacob, what's your problem with number two?"
"It feels yucky," Jacob said. "Like lots of worms or ants crawling out of my bottom. When I try to stop it with my hand, I get yucky stuff all over my hand, so I wipe it on whatever I see. Mummy doesn't like when I make a mess like that so instead I poop in a nappy."
"I'll appoint a house elf to take care of your personal needs," said Professor Dumbledore.
"What's a house elf?" asked Mrs. Frank.
"It's like a magical servant who is happy to do whatever you ask," Professor Dumbledore explained. "What other concerns do you have?"
"When Jacob starts crying, he doesn't stop," Mrs. Frank said. "Professor McGonagall got a small taste of it last week."
"Well, not that he can speak more, maybe that won't be an issue," Professor Dumbledore said. "Any other concerns?"
"Jacob doesn't like wearing clothes. It's a fight to get him dressed in the morning," Mr. Frank said.
"Our house elf can work on that," Professor Dumbledore said.
"The classes will be way above Jacob's level," Mrs. Frank observed. "He can't even read or write."
"Most of the classes are practical, doing spells," Professor Dumbledore explained. "Considering that Jacob is so good at charming his way though locked doors and windows, I don't think the actual spell work will be hard for him. If any particular class is difficult for him, he can drop the class and have a one on one session with me instead. If he ends up dropping all classes, I will send him home and assign a tutor, but I think Jacob has lots of magical potential and will do well."
"Can we see the school?" Mrs. Frank asked.
"I'm afraid not," said Professor Dumbledore. "You need to have magic to be able to see it."
"Then how will he get there?" Mrs. Frank asked.
"There is a train that leaves from Kings Cross Station on September 1st. It goes straight to Hogwarts. I will have the head boy and head girl escort him the whole time," Professor Dumbledore said.
"I'm still not so sure about this," Mrs. Frank complained.
"I am," said Mr. Frank. "I haven't had a good night sleep in eleven years, so even if Jacob gets kicked out after a week, I'll still have a week's worth of sleep to function on."
"Here is a list of school supplies with directions on how to get them," Professor McGonagall said while handing over a packet. "You won't be able to see the store you need, but Jacob will."
"I really don't like this," Mrs. Frank said.
"I'm afraid you're outvoted," Professor Dumbledore said. "I'll have Jacob's house elf give you weekly updates on how Jacob is doing." He gestured for Professor McGonagall to follow him and the two of them apparated out before Mrs. Frank could finish voicing her complaint.