The Greatest Kind of Magic

Liam Grady normally liked the way his father's car always managed to get to the front of a traffic queue. He had even learned to notice that split second when the world outside would blur, and the car would suddenly be ahead of all the others.

On this clear September the first, however, the car's mysterious power depressed him. He sighed sadly as they pulled into a parking space it had taken them seconds to find. The trip was over all too soon.

"Come on, Liam, we're here!" cried his sister enthusiastically. Tara was twelve years old and appeared to be incapable of communicating at any volume below a shout. In fact, as far as Liam could discern, her conversations with her friends consisted of an equal share of squeals and giggles. "Come on, come on!" she yelled, jumping up and down beside the car.

"Yeah. Coming."

"Oh Liam, stop sulking," snapped Mrs Grady. "We've discussed this a hundred times. I am sorry you have to change schools, but there is just no other way - Hogwarts is..."

"...The only safe place, I know," said Liam in a voice that had taken on a resigned monotone. "The situation is dangerous. My decision to attend a Muggle school makes me a target. Without proper magical training, I can't defend myself. Et cetera, et cetera. I know, Mum. But I don't have to like it."

"Liam, you will like it. The best time of my life was at Hogwarts! And you can finally learn some proper magic - you are finally allowed to have your own wand! And you'll make friends in no time, I know you will."

Liam shrugged. "Yeah. Whatever."

Without another word, he heaved his trunk onto a trolley and led the way into King's Cross Station. Once inside, however, he was forced to wait for the others, because he had no idea how to get onto Platform 9 ¾.

Tara, who was now starting her second year at Hogwarts, soon provided the answer. Without even blinking an eye, she charged through the barrier between platforms nine and ten and disappeared.

After getting over his initial surprise, Liam reluctantly followed.

Even in his gloomy state, he was forced to stare in wonder at what was revealed beyond the barrier. Smoke billowed from a great scarlet steam engine, a elic from less environmentally aware times. Hundreds of students, many of them in robes, bustled around the platform. Owls flapped and hooted overhead; a pale, dark-haired girl glided past with a snake draped over her shoulders; a large, extremely ugly toad hopped between Liam's feet. A round-faced boy around Liam's age, who knocked into Liam as he tried to get past, followed the toad. He yelled an apology over his shoulder and ran on in pursuit of his pet.

Tara had already spotted a friend and skipped away, but Liam waited for his parents. They helped him load his and Tara's trunks onto the train, and then returned to the platform to say their final goodbyes. Tara spotted them and came over. Mrs Grady gave her a hug. "Be good," she said. "Look after your brother!"

Tara giggled. "Mum, he's older than me! He should be looking after me!"

Mr Grady laughed. "You heard her, mate. You have to look after your sister now!"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," said Liam grimly. "She squeals loud enough to drive away any monsters, bullies or Death Eaters that even consider giving her a hard time."

"Liam, that wasn't funny," said Mrs Grady sternly. "I know you're not happy to be here, but please try and make the most of it. I'll see you both at Christmas!"

After a final round of hugs and kisses, she let them go. They farewelled Mr Grady and finally boarded the train. A long whistle blew and they were on their way. Liam saw his mother waving as King's Cross Station disappeared behind.

"Liam, Liam, come meet my friends!" squealed Tara. She was bouncing up and down with excitement. Not knowing what else to do, Liam followed her into a crowded, noisy compartment.

"Everyone, this is my brother Liam," announced Tara. "He's new this year. He used to go to a Muggle school!"

This was greeted with such delight, that Liam actually had to cover his ears until the noise subsided. Suddenly, he found himself being bombarded with questions. However, when he proved to be less than forthcoming with answers - mostly because the assembled second-years did not seem to have mastered the art of taking turns to speak - the spotlight gradually moved onto Tara. She was more than willing to supply all the explanations on her brother's behalf. After waiting for a few minutes, Liam excused himself and went in search of a quieter compartment.

Eventually, he found one occupied by just three people: the boy who had knocked into him at the station, and two girls: one with dirty blonde hair and dreamy eyes, the other - a pretty redhead with large brown eyes and freckles on her pale face.

"Can I sit here?" he asked. "Everywhere else is full."

Three pairs of eyes stared at him curiously. The redhead spoke first.

"Sure, come in," she said. "What's your name? I don't think I've met you before."

"You haven't. I'm new," replied Liam as he sat down next to the boy. "My name is Liam Grady."

"I'm Ginny Weasley," she said. "This is Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood," she indicated the boy and the other girl.

Luna Lovegood stared at Liam fixedly. "Aren't you a bit big for a first-year?" she asked vaguely. Ginny stifled a giggle.

"I'm going into sixth year," Liam explained.

At that moment, the compartment door slid open and two more students came in: a tall boy with the exact same shade of red hair as Ginny and a girl with bushy brown hair tied back in a careless ponytail. Both wore badges displaying the letter "P".

"I swear, Malfoy turns into a bigger git every year," growled the boy. "Or every day, more like. You'd think they'd take away his prefect badge after his father got chucked into Azkaban, but no..."

He appeared to notice Liam for the first time. "Who..."

"This is Liam Grady," introduced Ginny. "He's new. Liam, this is my brother Ron, and this is Hermione Granger."

"New? Wow, we've never had a new person before! What year will you be in?"

"Sixth."

"That's our year," said Ron. "Mine and Hermione's, I mean. And Neville's."

"Luna and I are in fifth year," explained Ginny.

"So, which school did you go to before?" asked Hermione. "Durmstrang? Beauxbatons? You don't have an accent..."

"Er, no. I went to a Muggle school."

As with Tara's friends, this announcement was met with gasps of astonishment, though they weren't quite as loud. And this time, Liam felt obliged to offer an explanation.

"Look, I was never really interested in magic," he said. "I went to a Muggle primary school, and I wanted to stay with my friends. And I like a lot of Muggle subjects, which Hogwarts doesn't offer."

He almost had to laugh at their astonished faces.

"But..." said Hermione in a tone of incredulous disbelief, "you're going into sixth year? With no magical training? You haven't even done your O.W.L.s!"

Liam laughed nervously. "Yeah, that took a bit of arguing. But I do know a bit of magic - my mum taught me at home. I lived at home; I had plenty of time after school and during holidays and stuff. They're sort of putting me on probation - if they see that I can't hack it, they'll drop me back to fifth year."

"So... your mum's a witch, then?"

"Yeah. Both my parents are. And my sister - she's here at Hogwarts. She's in second year."

"And... they let you go to a Muggle school?" asked Ron incredulously.

"Well... yeah. I mean, they weren't happy about it, but they didn't want to force me. And - well, to be quite honest with you, I'm not bad at music, and they knew that would go to waste if I went to Hogwarts. That was really the main reason I wanted to go to a Muggle school - because they actually offer music as a subject."

Liam felt a pang of frustration as he thought of his now-discontinued music lessons.

I'll forget everything I've learnt, he thought angrily.

"So why are you coming to Hogwarts now?" asked Ron, interrupting his miserable thoughts.

"Well..." Liam lowered his voice, "Because of Vol... You-Know-Who." He snorted. "Why else? Not safe for a kid like me. Wizard in a Muggle school? Makes me a bit of traitor, doesn't it? At least as far as that lot is concerned. Well... that's my mum's excuse, anyway. Now she's finally forced me to go to Hogwarts."

Liam tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but failed miserably. He felt guilty. "Look, it's nothing against you guys, I'm sure Hogwarts is great and all that, but I didn't want to leave my friends. Or my music. I couldn't even bring my CD player! Surely there has got to be some spell to make Muggle gadgets work in a magical field?"

Hermione pondered this seriously. "You know, I thought about this a couple of years ago, when we were trying to figure out how... oh never mind that, what I wanted to say was, I did come across some spells that might work in your case. If you want, I can look them up for you when we get to school."

"Really? That'd be great! Thanks a lot!"

Liam felt his spirits lift considerably. If Hermione figured out a way to make a CD player work at Hogwarts, his time there would be much more bearable. He had not been looking forward to three months with nothing but the horrible Wizarding Wireless Network to listen to.

The compartment door slid open once again. A dark-haired boy with glasses and brilliant green eyes entered.

"Hi, Harry!" said Neville in a voice that somehow sounded a little too cheerful. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," replied Harry shortly. "Did you have a good holiday, Neville?"

"Yeah, wasn't too bad. I got seven O.W.L.s! I even passed Potions! Can you believe it?"

"Hey, congratulations." Harry's voice had softened.

He turned to Ginny and Ron. "I've just been getting around to all the Gryffindors - Quidditch tryouts tomorrow evening."

"You're Quidditch captain, then?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah. I guess Dumbledore still thinks I'm good for something."

The last was said in a surprisingly bitter tone. Before Liam could wonder about it, however, Harry spotted him. "Who..." he began to ask, then stopped and stared, his eyes widening in surprise. "Liam... Grady?"

Liam nodded, trying to suppress his grin. "Harry Potter. Well, bugger me, it really was you."

Liam had recognised him instantly, of course - it was hard not to, when Harry's face had been plastered all over The Daily Prophet on a regular basis for the past two years. But Liam didn't just know him from newspapers - in his mind's eye he remembered that same face on the skinny frame of a ten-year-old boy, who was standing in a garbage bin while a bunch of other boys laughed and jeered. He remembered a quiet classmate, who never raised his hand or spoke out, who was always looking over his shoulder for his cousin's gang, who never got picked for sports teams, and who disappeared without a trace after primary school ended. It was only when Harry's face graced the pages of the Prophet, two years ago now, that Liam had finally made the connection between the shy, nervous boy he had known, and the famous hero, who had defeated the most powerful dark wizard who ever lived.

"What are you doing here?" asked Harry incredulously.

"Going to school, mate. My mum's forced me to go to Hogwarts. 'It's for your own good, Liam!'"

"Yeah, but... blimey! You're a wizard?"

"Unfortunately," said Liam sourly. "But you - I can't believe it really was you, in primary school. Famous Harry Potter and all that. You got bullied like crazy by that Dudley Dursley and his lot! I never would've guessed you were a wizard. I thought the name was just a coincidence." He grinned. "Besides, who would expect to find Harry Potter in a shithole Muggle school?"

Harry was still staring at him in disbelief. "Who would expect to find a wizard in a Muggle school? What on earth were you doing there?"

"Learning, of course. It's what schools are for, generally."

"Okay, time out," interrupted Ron. "You two know each other?"

"Well," replied Harry, "not know exactly. But we went to the same primary school. We weren't really friends though. I was too busy being bullied like crazy."

Liam felt a twinge of guilt, but he tried to justify himself. "Come on, mate, you can't blame me for not wanting to mess with Dudley. I was even shorter than you were, remember? And I actually picked you for football teams!"

"Yeah, I suppose you were alright," Harry said with a grin. "But I still don't get what you were doing there in the first place. I mean, it was a Muggle school!"

"Yeah, so? It's pretty common for wizards to send their kids to Muggle primary schools. I mean, we have to learn to read and write somewhere, don't we? Of course, I was the only weirdo that actually decided to go to a Muggle high school, as well."

"Wait, wait a second. You chose to go to a Muggle high school?"

Liam sighed and explained. He could see himself repeating this explanation over and over again in the next few weeks.

"So, how is old Dudley these days?" he asked when he'd finished. "Still beating the snot out of kids half his size?"

Harry laughed. "Pretty much. No, that's not true, he's been better this year. And he's lost a lot of weight, so he doesn't look quite so much like a pregnant hippopotamus..."

There was some laughter around the compartment. "But I can't believe you didn't spot I was a wizard," said Harry to Liam. "Don't you remember the kitchen roof incident?"

Liam did remember. He smiled at the memory of Dudley's gang's astonished faces as their quarry disappeared before their very noses - and appeared on the roof, clinging desperately to the metal chimney. "To be honest with you, I thought I did that. I really hated Dudley's gang, and I felt sorry for you."

"No, that was definitely me. I got into so much trouble for that!"

"Yeah, I got into a bit of trouble in high school because I kept on making things explode. My mum made me practice all sorts of spells until I learned to control it. It came in useful a few times, though!"

"So, which high school did you end up going to?'

"Stonewall."

"Really? I was meant to go there, but then I got the letter from Hogwarts..." he smiled. "Is it true they flush your head down the toilet on your first day?"

"Well," said Liam as a wicked grin spread over his face, "they tried."

"Oh? What happened?"

"Well," said Liam with a snigger, "they got me into the cubicle all right, and forced me down on my knees and all. So here I am, right, face to face with my reflection in a bloody toilet bowl. And I think to myself, if I let them do this to me now, they'll be picking on me for the rest of the year. There has got to be a way out of this!"

"What did you do?" inquired Ginny eagerly.

He had the attention of the entire compartment now. Without noticing himself doing it, he had stood up, and was gesticulating with his arms for full dramatic effect.

"The only thing I could think of," he said. "I took a deep breath and plunged my own head into the toilet. Then, before they could react, I yanked my arms free, braced my shoulders against the toilet seat and kicked up with both legs at once. Now that's a pretty hard move to pull off, with or without your head in the toilet, and I paid for it a second later when my knees hit the tiles. But it did the job, because I had managed to kick someone in a very sensitive place, and let me tell you, the stuff they were calling me would make your ears wither."

"Did they back off, then?" asked Hermione.

"Haha, not a chance. At least, I strongly doubt that they would have - I mean, they were really pissed now, and there was four of them, and me just a little pipsqueak with my head in the loo. No, I reckon it would have gone really badly for me if my wizard side hadn't chosen that moment to show itself. So, just as one of 'em yanks me out of the toilet by the scruff of my neck, "Baaarrp!" goes the toilet and before even I know what's happening, "Whoosh!" - vomits up everything that's gone down it for like, the past year. Well, as you can imagine, it was pretty disgusting. We were all covered from head to toe in crap, literally. And there was so much of the stuff, that it oozed right out of the toilet and flooded the entire first floor corridor. Took them weeks to get the smell out. But no one bothered me again, after that."

There was a moment of stunned silence. Then the entire compartment erupted with laughter and applause.

"Oh, that is gold," screamed Ron, wiping a tear from his eye. "I don't even care if it's not true, that was one brilliant story! 'Baarrp!'" he clutched his stomach.

Liam grinned. In fact the story was true, though it did, of course, have a few minor embellishments. Liam was actually feeling good now - the story appeared to have broken some kind of barrier, and he could almost imagine that he was back at Stonewall, fooling around with Davey, Sarah and Jessie. Perhaps Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad after all.

Soon after, a witch came by with the lunch trolley. Liam didn't have a lot of money, but Harry bought enough cakes and sweets for everybody to share. A little while after this, they were visited by two other sixth-year boys, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. After another round of introductions and explanations, Liam and Dean got into a heated debate about football. This eventually led to the topic of Quidditch, and the question of who would be on the Gryffindor house team. The only person who did not join in this conversation was Luna Lovegood, who as it turned out was the only non-Gryffindor in the compartment. Eventually, she excused herself and left, apparently growing tired of the endless Quidditch talk.

"McGonagall wants me back as Seeker," Harry was saying as the door closed behind Luna. "But if you still want the position, Ginny, we'll have to try out for it... I guess the rest of the team will have to judge..."

"No, no, don't worry, you're the best Seeker we'll ever have!" Ginny reassured him.

Harry blushed. "But you're not bad yourself, and I can't kick you off the team..."

"It's okay, I was going to try out for Chaser, anyway."

As the discussion continued, Liam was struck by a new worry: he did not know how students were sorted into Houses. Tara had refused to tell him, saying it was some kind of test, but that it should be a surprise. Now that Liam had met, and even sort of made friends with these Gryffindors, he wanted to be in the same House as them. But something told him that being sorted wouldn't be quite as simple as asking to go into the House of his choice. He wanted to ask the others about it, but didn't want to butt into the conversation. He decided to wait until the others had finished their discussion. Liam himself had no interest in Quidditch, and could contribute nothing.

"...it's Chasers we really need, though I wouldn't mind some better Beaters than Kirke and Sloper. Ron, you'll stay as Keeper, of course."

Ron's ears turned pink. "I'm not that good," he muttered, though he looked rather pleased. At this comment, the compartment burst into song:

"Weasley is our king,

Weasley is our king,

He won't let the Quaffle in,

Weasley is out king..."

"Enjoy it while it lasts, Weasley," drawled a cold voice from the compartment door. "We'll be scraping you off the Quidditch pitch, come our first match."

The intruder was a tall boy with a pale face and silvery-blonde hair. He was flanked by two other boys, both of whom appeared to be a few steps behind on the evolutionary ladder.

"Laugh it up, Malfoy," said Ginny. "You have yet to catch a snitch against Harry."

"I was talking to the other Weasley, Weasley. Keep your mouth shut when I'm not talking to you."

His eyes fell on Liam. "And who are you?"

Liam hesitated. But there seemed no harm in answering, so he began, "My name is Liam Grady. I'm..."

"He's new," interrupted Hermione. "He transferred from Yarrawanga College. In Australia."

"Australia?" said Malfoy coldly. "Where's his accent, then?"

Liam had to think fast. He didn't know why Hermione had lied, but a survival instinct born of five years at Stonewall High told him to play along.

"Oh, I'm English," he said. "I was just living in Australia for a few years because my dad works there. Now he's in Ireland, so I transferred here."

"Really."

Liam could tell that Malfoy was suspicious. The tension in the compartment could have cut diamond. Liam wanted Malfoy to leave.

He narrowed his eyes. He focused on that tension, reached out to the mutual hatred between Malfoy and the assembled Gryffindors. And he turned his own thoughts to fury. How dare he question me. It's none of his business, where I come from. I don't even want to be here, do I? I haven't even arrived at this school, and I'm already being harassed by this arsehole. Get out, Malfoy. GET THE FUCK OUT!

The lamp above the compartment door exploded, showering Malfoy and his cronies with glass. Malfoy took a step back in shock, and the compartment door slid shut before their faces. He could hear them trying to open it again, but it would not budge. Eventually, with many a swearword, they retreated.

Everybody was staring at Liam.

"Er..." said Harry, "was that you?"

Liam nodded.

"I thought you'd stopped making things explode?" asked Hermione.

"I said I'd learned to control it. I didn't say I'd stopped."

Liam could feel his face burning. He wanted desperately to change the subject.

"Why did you lie to him?" he asked Hermione.

Ron answered for her. "Look mate, you'd better be careful. I wouldn't spread it around that you went to a Muggle school. Malfoy is a nasty, slimy git and he can give you a very hard time. And I reckon if you keep making things explode like that, you'll get into a lot of trouble - so don't rely on it too much."

A strange, hollow feeling crept into the pit of Liam's stomach. "Oh. Um... thanks for the heads-up - but it'll get out anyway. About me going to a Muggle school, I mean. My sister has told all her friends, and with that lot... it's a wonder the whole school doesn't know by now."

"Liam... this is bad," said Hermione flatly.

"Look, there's nothing I can do about it now. But I'll be all right. Stonewall High is one of the toughest schools in England - I'm sure this Malfoy can't be as bad as some of the apes we had there. I'll be all right."

He had managed to sound confident, but his new classmates were clearly not convinced. And, as the train rolled closer to Hogwarts and dusk gathered outside, Liam was forced to admit that he was trying to reassure himself as much as them.