Jacob lifted his wand and watched as his caldron flew down the stairway and into his hands.
Padma Patil looked at him curiously. "What potion are you brewing in here?" she asked.
Jacob did a drum roll with his hands on the caldron.
"I guess I should be used to this," Padma said. "Parvati always liked to work to music. I always preferred it to be quiet when I work."
Not liking the way the drum sounded with his hands, Jacob tried using his wand. It sounded much better, except that he only had one wand and two hands. He wordlessly takes Luna's wand and does his drum roll again, using two wands.
"I was going to use my wand," Luna said. "But I guess your drumming will scare away the nargles that were surrounding you until now. I was wondering why they are always attracted to you."
Cho Chang looked at Jacob. "Your drumming isn't bad, but it's hard to work with all the noise."
Her friend Marietta joined in. "You could break the wands if you use it like that. Besides, we're all trying to get some studying done."
Jacob reluctantly returned Luna's wand. He picked up his mirror and said, "Most things that I used for drumsticks over the years broke. My mum has a whole cupboard full of broken valuables that were once either my drums or drumsticks. When I come home for Christmas, I plan to fix everything."
"You're not allowed to do magic outside of school," Cho said.
"Why not?" Jacob asked. "I've been doing it my whole life."
"Aren't your parents muggles?" Luna asked.
"What's that again?" Jacob asked.
Marietta answered, "It means your parents aren't magical."
"My parents aren't magical," Jacob said.
"You could bring things over to my house to fix," Luna said. "My dad is magical."
"How would I get there?" Jacob asked.
"Floo," Luna said.
"What's that?" Jacob wanted to know.
"It won't work for you," Terry Boots said. "Your muggle house isn't connected to the floo network."
"I guess you won't be able to bring things to me, but maybe you could owl it," Luna said.
"I don't have an owl," Jacob complained.
"Wait until you're seventeen," Terry said.
"Where do you live?" Anthony asked.
"London," Jacob answered.
"Bring your stuff to The Leaky Caldron. They won't be able to trace you there," Anthony suggested.
Jacob looked around to see what he could use for drumsticks. He saw that at the table closest to him, Terry Boots, Michael Corner, and Anthony Goldstein were writing essays. Unable to resist, Jacob lifted a wand from the table with his wand.
"Hey, give me back my wand," Terry yelled. "I need it!"
Anthony and Michael laughed. Jacob reluctantly returned the wand and summoned the quill.
"I need my quill too," Terry yelled.
"How are you using your wand and quill the same time?" Jacob asked.
Here's an extra quill," Anthony said.
"You could have one of mine too," Michael offered.
Jacob levitated both quills and transfigured them into drumsticks. He started drumming again.
"Can you stop?" one of the sixth years demanded. "You don't know how hard it is to concentrate on nonverbal spells with all that noise."
A few people laughed.
"What's so funny?" the sixth year said.
"Jacob just summoned his caldron nonverbally. He summoned Luna's wand nonverbally. He returned Luna's wand nonverbally. He summoned Terry's wand nonverbally and returned it before summoning his quill nonverbally which he also returned. He summoned to quills and transfigured them midair to drumsticks. You're complaining that nonverbal spells are hard?" Anthony said fighting back laughter.
Jacob continued drumming.
"Will you stop?" Terry yelled.
When Jacob didn't stop, Terry put his hands on top of the caldron, blocking the drumsticks. Jacob reluctantly put down his sticks in order to pick up his mirror.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"We can't concentrate on our work with your noise," Terry complained.
"You need to learn to block out everything around you," Jacob said. "Pretend that the only things in the room are you and whatever you are working on. That way you could concentrate on whatever you want wherever you want."
"And that, my friends, is the definition of autism," Michael said with a grin.
Jacob resumed his drumming. Penelope walked over to him and sat down next to him. When Jacob didn't acknowledge her, she put her hands on his caldron. Jacob reluctantly stopped drumming again.
"Now what?" he complained.
"Why do you need to do this?" Penelope asked.
"It's too quiet here," Jacob explained.
"We need it quiet so everyone could work," Penelope told him. "Don't you have any homework?"
"I'm already ahead in Tranfigurations and Charms, and I can't do any reading or writing homework," Jacob whined.
"How about we do some reading lessons?" suggested Penelope.
"No, thank you," Jacob said.
Penelope brought a book over to Jacob.
"What does this say?" she asked him.
"I don't know," said Jacob.
She picked up another book. "What does this say?" she asked.
Jacob put down his mirror to focus on the book. "A," he said. He looked down again and said, "Hiss." He continued looking down and said "tah". He threw the book down in frustration. Several Ravenclaws laughed.
"Very good!" Penelope exclaimed. "You just read a word and a half. It says 'A History of Magic".
Jacob picked up his caldron, drumsticks, and mirror and walked back upstairs. He continued drumming until his roommates came upstairs for the night. He reluctantly put away his drum set and allowed a house elf to get him ready for bed.