Miles Kennedy, born in Hong Kong to a pair of non-magical civil servants, would quickly find himself in England at age three. Among the more creative kids at his age, Miles possessed an imagination that far outstripped many others at his age - as well as a propensity for that imagination to make itself known in the real world. His parents chalked the issues here and there up to either bad luck, or chance, or a half dozen other ready excuses. Nevertheless, strange little things would happen here or there up to when he turned about eleven and a letter came in the mail. It spoke of scholarships and a new school and the talents of their son, all these good things, and soon enough Miles was off attending Hogwarts.

He proved apt at all the things he found interesting, poor at those he didn't. Potions grew to be a favorite for Miles, as well as Charms, while the young student's Divination and Transfiguration grades would be middling at best. Care for Magical Beasts was a strange one for Miles, making the boy miss his cat while absolutely hating the arm’s length nature of the course to the various creatures. He had a small enough group of friends while lacking for enemies, a common enough problem for Hufflepuffs. Miles would become notable enough as an unofficial tutor for Potions, often breaking curfew rules into the night as he went over the various problematic portions of different recipes. During the summers, Miles returned home to London, enjoying the great joys of the family cat, Noodle, while also becoming well and truly immersed in the Muggle world of life. He would also begin experimenting, however quietly, with Potions at home. His father took the interest and contemplation as his son loving chemistry, which in some ways it was, and took to buying several books on the matter as well as various glasswares to facilitate the new interest. Miles took it all in stride, finding all the various principles and methods useful enough to begin bringing the tomes to Hogwarts and using some of the instruments in Potions. Such would earn him the ire of the upper crust Slytherins, sure, but would also net near perfect grades for the young student. Miles figured that would be a good enough tradeoff, all things considered. He would also finally get his own pet, a patchwork cat rescued from a shelter named Lickspittle. When he finally graduated however, there were few job postings available for an aspiring student of potions to take and, for a brief time, and Miles lived at home while trying to find what to do.

He would disappear from the wizarding world for something of a decade, taking no jobs with the Ministry, any schools, or any wizard company. Rumors abound that Kennedy was in Afghanistan, Iraq, and even Syria with a Muggle group Doctors Without Borders, largely propagated by a number of Muggle-born students who have found similar names in that group's volunteer ranks and similar faces in various photos. What is known is that Miles Kennedy returned to England fairly recently, taking up a posting in the Ministry as an aid to Aurors before finding himself sent to Hogwarts.

Mr Kennedy’s favorite memory would be his brewing of a potion of Liquid Luck as a Second Year, a task deemed by the Potions Master then to be nigh impossible, while solely using Muggle-made glassware and instrumentation. Done in the middle of the Hufflepuff Common Room, it absolutely baffled the more elitist students and proved a constant talking point for the students and, eventually, the living paintings. As such, the story almost gained a life of its own through the various retellings.