Passed By

I look at the time for my train to Surrey. I still have fifteen minutes, but I begin to walk to platform ten, pushing my trolley, which is loaded with suitcases. I'm taking a job as a teacher in a town called Little Whinging.

"Station's always packed with Muggles, of course."

I've heard the word Muggle before. I turn.

A family - all of them with flaming red hair - are talking. A mother, twins, and a boy with glasses, about two years older than the twins. A boy carrying a rat.

I've seen that rat before.

That isn't a rat.

That's the man I saw seven years ago.

The man who turned into a rat.

I stare at it. It stares back at me.

I know who you are, I mouth at it. No one has noticed me.

Except the rat. He begins to squirm.

"It's all right, Scabbers," says the boy. "We'll be on the train soon."

"Oh, is baby Scabbers worried?" asks one of the twins, grinning. "Poor ickle Scabbers."

"His mummy will help him, won't you Percy?"

"Shut it, you too."

"Now, what's the name of the platform?" asks their mother.

"Nine and three quarters," says the boy carrying the rat. Nine and three quarters?

"Can we go see the platform, mum?" asks one of the twins.

"No, George, you'll cause trouble. You can't go either, Fred. Percy, you'd better go, we've only got five minutes."

"Right," says the boy - Percy. He turns toward me, and I quickly continue towards my platform. He stops in front of the barrier between platforms nine and ten and looks around. He doesn't notice me. A crowd of people walks in front of the barrier, but behind me. I can still see him.

He walks straight through the barrier.

That's almost as odd as a man turning into a rat.

I rest my hand against the barrier. Solid.

How strange.

* * *

Katherine Sage switched of the television set. She had no interest in fishing policies. She was more worried about the fugitive - Sirius Black.

He's innocent, she thought. But there's no way that I can possibly help him.

There was that number...

And who will believe me? A man turning into a rat - No one will believe it. The police won't believe it. I'll probably get locked up in a lunatic asylum.

I almost didn't believe it.

But it happened. I can trust my eyes.

And that stick ... shooting sparks ... and blowing up the street...

And that barrier - that boy - Percy - he walked straight through the barrier between platforms...

And that student - when I was teaching at the elementary school. He turned Ester's wig blue, I remember...

And wasn't it the same boy who ended up on the roof of the school kitchens? There was no way he could have climbed up there, no matter what the Headmistress said...

And...

There was an obvious answer to all of this - at least, it was obvious to her.

No one else would have believed it, of course. But Katherine Sage was known for being open-minded. Too open-minded, some of the other teachers said.

But still, there was only one way any of that could have happened.

And Katherine was willing to believe it.

She had, quite obviously, seen magic.