Brian had overslept. Figures that he’d only set the alarm on his watch… which was still in eastern standard time. It wouldn’t be going off for another four hours. If only he were in Kentucky, he’d be in good shape.

As it was, Brian was heading to King’s Cross Station, dragging his trunk behind him, with very little time to spare. It hadn’t been fun getting his luggage on and off the tube. Once inside, he found the station to be very crowded. He pulled out the enveloped that Q had handed him earlier this summer and checked over it again.

Yes, the odd phrasing hadn’t changed. Platform 9 and ¾. Still, everything Q had told him up until now had been right. If he hadn’t seen all the magic around him in Diagon Alley, he would probably assume that this was a very elaborate, very expensive, prank.

Maybe it was just a British thing.

He set off again with his trunk, finally finding platform nine. There was no train through, which was odd considering that the Hogwarts Express should be leaving in only five minutes. So Brian continued.

Now he was standing at platform ten. There was no train here, either.

He turned around to ask someone for help.

“Excuse me,” Brian said. “Could you tell me where I can get on the Hogwarts Express?”

The man looked up from his newspaper. “The what?”

“I’m supposed to be leaving for school today.”

“What school?” he peered at Brian over his glasses, eying the trunk.

“Hogwarts.”

“I’ve never heard of it. Where is this school?”

Brian opened his mouth. Then he closed it. Where exactly was Hogwarts located? He checked the piece of paper he was still holding. There was no address. Choosing to ignore the question, he tried a different approach. “The train is supposed to be leaving from platform 9 ¾.

Now the man looked slightly disgruntled. “What the bloody hell do you mean, 9 and ¾?

Brian tried to show him the piece of paper, but the man raised the newspaper in front of his face, not so subtlety signaling the end of the conversation.

As Brian turned around, he heard the man utter “Americans.” He wondered what would happen if he missed the train. Would there be another? Since Brian didn’t know the school’s location, it would be difficult to get there.

Despite the fact that there were no trains at either platform, he noticed how many people were around. Most of them were adults, probably parents, looking sad, as if they’d just said goodbye to someone. Then he spotted another teenager. She had a trunk, too! The girl also looked like she was in a hurry, so she had to be going the same place Brian was trying to find.

He looked down to grab the handle of his trunk in order to follow her, but somehow, in that second span of time, the student disappeared. Brian looked around.

“How do I get to Hogwarts?” he said to himself.

“Hogwarts, you say?” someone spoke behind him.

He turned to see a boy around his own age. “Yeah, have you heard of it?”

He nodded. “We’re headed there ourselves.”

Brian looked to the other boy standing with him, and only then realized they were twins. “Can you show me where to go?”

“Sure! It’s magic, see. You have to go through the wall.”

“Through the wall?” Brian was skeptical. Still, it made since, in a nonsensical sort of way. That would be between platforms nine and ten, after all.

“You have to go at a bit of a run, though,” the second twin pointed.

Brian was staring at a brick wall. This seemed absurd, but it couldn’t be difficult for a wizard to put a spell on a wall. And he wasn’t the kind to turn down a dare, which is what this seemed like. The twins had grins on their faces.

“Ok. Here goes!” Brian managed to run with his trunk, closing his eyes right before he reached the wall.

He waited for the feeling of passing through. Instead, he felt himself hitting a wall and heard a crash as he fell backward. His trunk snapped open, with several of the contents spilling out.

Brian heard laughter as the twins stepped over him.

“Thanks, mate, we needed a good laugh!”

“Boys! If you miss that train, I’ll turn your wands to splinters!”

“Yes, mum!” they said simultaneously and stepped through the wall with no difficultly. Brian blinked several times to assure himself he’d actually seen it. Then he looked to see others reactions, but no one in the station seemed to have noticed.

“I’m so sorry about that,” the blonde woman who had just scolded the twins turned to Brian.

Brian sat up, almost knocking into a girl who was knelt next to him. She was discreetly waving a wand behind her jacket, saying words that Brian had never heard before. All of Brian’s possessions flew back into the trunk and it snapped to a close once more.

“Um… thanks,” he said.

She smiled and stood, saying goodbye to the woman, who was surely her mother. Then she followed where the twins had gone. Why was Brian the only one who hadn’t been able to get through the wall? Did this mean there had been some sort of mistake? Maybe he wasn’t supposed to be going to this school, after all.

“Nick, take this poor boy to the platform, he’s obviously having difficulty. Hurry now! And don’t forget to write!” she gave her son a kiss. Then she hurried off, dabbing her eyes.

A tall, thin boy with curtains of blonde hair stood laughing. He gave a final chuckle and then offered his hand to help me up. “They played that prank on me when I started school… although, you look a bit old for a first year.”

Luckily this remark didn’t seem to require an answer. Brian was more than aware of how late they were, and he didn’t want to have come all this way for nothing. “How come everyone but me can get in?”

“You need platform 9 and ¾. It’s a little to the right of where you were aiming… I’d say you were only a fourth there. Follow me.” Nick grabbed his things and walked through the wall.

This time, Brian followed without difficulty. He was amazed when he looked at his new surroundings. It looked like a completely different station. This was an outdoor platform, the sky a light shade of blue, and a train awaiting them. There was already steam coming from the front, so they hurried onto one of the cars.

“Well, I’ll see you at the sorting ceremony,” Nick said, and he began to depart.

“Um, right,” Brian said uncertainly.

Just then, the boy from Diagon Alley stepped out in front of them, a scowl on his face. “If it isn’t the muggle loving side of the family,” he sneered. “Oh, and I see you’ve made yourself a squib friend. You really will hang with any crowd, won’t you?”

Nick certainly had a large family, Brian thought.

“Shut up, Timberlake.”

“Ooh, where’d you come up with that? It’s so creative, I should write the Daily Prophet.”

Nick pulled out his wand. “Out of my way,” he said quietly but firmly.

Timberlake simply drew his own. “What are you going to do?”

Nick started to say something, but he lowered his wand. “You’re not even worth it.” He began to turn around and go past a compartment filled with several girls peering out into the corridor to see if a fight was going to happen.

Although his opponent’s back was turned, Timberlake began to mutter a spell. Brian knew no magic, but he had suffered attention from bullies growing up, as he was shorter than most of the boys his age. Thinking fast, he pulled the door to the compartment so that it stood between Nick and Timberlake. The spell reflected off the glass and there was a whoosh of wind and a yelp from Timberlake. His wand dissolved to dust.

Timberlake angrily looked up at Brian. However, his expression froze, and he seemed to be staring at Brian’s face.

Nick interrupted their odd exchange by raising his wand again. “Nice spell, Timberlake. Looks like you’re going to have to begin classes without a wand until you can get an owl to Ollivander.”

Timberlake, staring at Nick’s weapon, was forced to turn around and proceed down the hallway. Now Nick turned to Brian. “Thanks a lot. Mum would’ve killed me… We don’t exactly have extra sickles lying around for school supplies.”

This time, he invited Brian to join him in finding a compartment. They were finally able to find an empty one.

“Who is that guy?”

“Draco,” Nick made gagging noises, taking a seat opposite from Brian.

“And he’s your cousin?”

Nick nodded. “We’ve all got the blonde hair to prove it, I suppose.”

“Not the twins. Weren’t they your brothers?”

“Alex and AJ? They are, too, but they’ve been into the Hair-dye Spells for Dummies recently. Dark hair today, yesterday it was more an orange.”

Brian nodded. Then he took the conversation back to Draco. “I met him in Diagon Alley… What’s a squib?”

“Someone who can’t do magic.”

“I thought they were called muggles?”

“Oh, no, squib’s come from wizarding families. Unlike muggles, they know about the magical world, but they can’t perform magic themselves… How old are you? You don’t seem eleven.”

“I’m seventeen.”

“A seventh year? How come we’ve never met before? Which house are you in?”

Brian was confused. “My house is in Kentucky…”

“Kentucky? Is that a town in America? I mean which Hogwarts house.”

“Oh, this is my first year at Hogwarts.”

Nick asked again how this was possible. Brian started to explain when the compartment door opened. A woman in a witch’s hat began offering them treats. Brian purchased some Berty Botts Every Flavor Beans, although most of them were very peculiar in taste.