A Different Kind of Magic

Matt Ludiker

Zander

Soon we were on the train with our luggage safely stowed away.

I had found an empty car towards the back of the train after I'd escaped from the constant impatient look that Ashe would give me and Millie's blinding smiles.

A little while after I had pulled out this book about modern witches and wizards, my car door slid open and a tall boy about my age with blue eyes and untrimmed blonde hair stuck his head in and smiled at me.

"Mind if I share this car with ya? All the others are full or have snobs that look at you as if you were mud."

He looked pleasant enough and since mom had told me to make friends I figured I had better be nice to everyone I met. Not that I didn't like the boy's appearance, I liked him from the moment I saw him, but he normally wasn't the type I would let into my very small group of friends in elementary school.

"Um, sure." I moved Vance off the opposite seat. Earning an annoyed hoot from him

"Thank you," the boy said as he sat down on the newly cleared seat, "My name's Mathew Ludiker, but Matt for short. What's yours?"

"Zander Whitehurst," I replied with a half-smile.

"You come from a long line of wizards?"

"My Father was a wizard, other than that I haven't the foggiest," I replied absently as I read over the bio of another famous wizard that did something with Vampires.

"Same. Well, other than the father part. I really don't know why I got accepted," he said folding his arms and crossing his stretched out legs at the ankle.

"Ludiker. I believe I read that in here somewhere," I said flipping through the pages, "Yes, right here." I showed him the passage about a Nathan Ludiker finding a new way to ward off a few types of curses by using bat wings.

Matt's eyes widened. "Well! That's Uncle Nate! To think he comes over every Christmas and just now I find out he's a wizard! But then again..." he stopped as if something had occurred to him "He always did have peculiar presents for us kids..."

I smiled. "There you go then."

"But my parents aren't wizards so why would I be?"

"I read somewhere," I said putting down my book to sort through my book bag, "That sometimes the wizard gene I guess you'd call it will skip over people. Ah, yes here it is." I pulled out a book called Muggles and Wizards and began to read.

"A thing that happens a lot in history is a few Wizards or Squib will marry a muggle and there may be a wizard in their decedents. Sometimes it happens opposite were somehow a muggle is born into a wizard family (known as a Squib)..."

Matt gave a stunned smile. "Gee whiz!" he said, then paused, "How do you know all this?"

"Well, my older sister didn't get accepted into Hogwarts so she must not be a wizard but I was wondering about my younger sisters and was hoping..." I drifted off annoyed with myself for sharing this bit of information that I thought I might want to keep quiet at a wizarding school if I was to fit in.

"That you're not the only wizard out of your family." Matt finished for me.

I nodded.

"But how do they know you're a wizard if your family isn't?" Matt wondered.

"Right here below it," I said,

"This being a very common thing the headmaster at Hogwarts has a magic pen that will write down the name of the magical child when they are born and they will send the letter when the child has turned the right age..."