Disclaimer: I do not own either Shorts or Harry Potter

Chapter Two: The Magic Rock

Helvetica tried to find a reason not to visit Toe in the hospital, but in the end her father forced her to anyway. Once back to school, both she and her enemy found that they were separated from the others, forced into exile at the detention table—not that it mattered, since neither of them had any friends.

But as Helvetica made fun of Toe for his casts, a curly haired boy in their class named Loogie sidled up, stole Toe's bread, and ruffled his hair. Why did that nerd get a friend and not her? It wasn't fair. Still, the girl forced a cruel smile and her torments increased.

*~B~*

Regulus straitened the tie to his Muggle suit.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

He and Marius were standing outside a Muggle restaurant. It had been almost a year since he had first woken up from his coma—nine years since his mission from the Dark Lord. Marius clapped the young man on the back with a laugh.

"What do you think would happen? Come on, let's go inside."

They went in and were seating at a table that was in the back. Marius sat down with his back to the rest of the restaurant and Regulus sat across from him. A waitress came and took their order before walking off. Regulus watched her retreating back sullenly.

"Look at them," he said quietly. "They don't even know that magic exists."

"But why don't they?" Marius asked. Regulus didn't answer. "You separated yourselves from them. Look at them. Really look at them, young Regulus. Do they look any different from you or me?"

"I guess not," the dark haired man sighed.

"The only difference is that they don't have magic. But because of that, they have had to adapt and invent things to do what magic does. The Muggles had trains before we did because they had no apparition like wizards did. They invented trains and wizard-kind took the design and used it for themselves. And what about indoor plumbing? They invented that as well."

Regulus hummed thoughtfully and drummed his fingers on the table. He had been raised to believe that Muggles were dirty, sniveling creatures, but maybe that wasn't actually the case. His family had openly supported wizard supremacy, but look where that got them. As he had been reading through the newspapers, Regulus learned that two years after his father had died, the Dark Lord had fallen and most of the Blacks were imprisoned, including his brother Sirius. When he had found this out, he had been shocked.

Regulus slapped the paper down in front of Marius.

"The thing is, he had run away and joined the light side years before the Dark Lord fell. He couldn't have joined the Dark Lord at any point, or I would've known—having been a Death Eater myself. Plus, before I went on my mission to destroy the Dark Lord, Sirius had shouted at me and cut off all connections with me because I had joined the Dark side."

He sat down in a chair at the table.

"Did he even get a trial?" he wondered aloud, snatching the paper back up and reading through it. "I don't see anything in here about one…"

The young man had dug a little deeper, reading different papers and none of them mentioned a date for a trial. Then, he concluded that his brother had been wrongly accused of being a follower of the Dark Lord. Most people must have suspected this at first, but knowing his family's reputation for the Dark Arts, Regulus guessed that the Wizarding community had finally accepted that Sirius had been tricking them for years.

*~B~*

A few hours later found Helvetica and Cole getting ready in their home. Their father was holding a costume ball for his company—a big event, apparently. Both children were required to dress nicely. Helvetica put on her best black dress, white hair piece, and black and white sneakers. Her brother…put on his football uniform. Well, at least it was clean.

The two of them watched couples flood in, and seeing men and women smiling arm in arm, Helvetica thought of Toby Thompson—the only boy in the class that spoke to her…she didn't stop to consider that the only reason was because she had him stuffed in a trash can every day. The girl ran back upstairs to grab her gloves that she had forgotten and drew to a halt at the sight of her black box. She hesitated, and then picked it up.

"Hello?" came Toe's voice after the dial tone ended, signaling that the boy had picked up.

"Your parents are coming to my dad's costume party tonight," the girl said primly, picking up her nail file and rubbing it across her cuticles.

"I know."

"You coming too?" she asked after a moment.

"No." He didn't sound happy.

Helvetica hesitated, and then hissed, "Good."

"Bye."

"Wait!" Helvetica didn't know what compelled her to say that to the boy who obviously did not want to speak with her, but she couldn't help herself. Once she realized the mess she had gotten herself into, she scrounged for something else to say. "Have you told your parents about me?"

"What would I tell them? Mom, Dad, there's a girl at school that stuffs me in a trash can every day! You know? The one who broke my arms."

Helvetica laughed mirthlessly. If she recalled correctly, he was the reason they had gone tumbling out of that window. "That's funny." Her smile fell. "Don't come over, and don't say anything about me!"

"I won't say anything about you."

Satisfied, yet unhappy, Helvetica left her room and walked down the stairs to stand by her brother. He noticed her long face and said, "You look stupid."

"So do you," she retorted quickly, a smile flitting across her face.

"Now, children, what did I tell you?" their father interrupted as the three of them watched their house guests. "That is no way to treat a person. Courtesy, consideration, respect. You know it. Now do it."

With identical fake smiles, the children replied, "Yes, dad."

The doorbell rang and the man went off to answer it. Helvetica drifted along silently behind him. After pulling his head back inside, Mr. Black turned and looked at his daughter. "Some kids just rang the doorbell and ran off," he said. "You haven't been making enemies again, have you?"

Helvetica considered lying, but then tried to tell the truth—all of it, including her small crush for the boy. Unfortunately she only got as far as, "See, there's this boy—" before her father cut her off.

"If they come back let me handle it. Not you. Understood?" without waiting for a reply, he patted her on the shoulder and walked off once more. Helvetica slumped.

Then, she perked up again with curiosity. Silently the girl made her way to the door and went onto the stone porch, looking around. Seeing nothing but the sparkling fountain and green bushes, the girl looked down to find a silver pouch. She stooped and picked it up, looking at it. She guessed that it belonged to one of her father's guests, and they had dropped it while coming in.

While still looking at the glittering purse, Helvetica felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and, catching sight of a familiar tan face, slapped the bag across it.

"Ow!" Toe cried, clutching his eye. As Helvetica pulled the purse back, she realized there was a heavy weight like a rock in it. Oh well. "What'd you do that one for?!"

"I warned you to stay away, Toe Thompson!" Helvetica shouted in reply.

"My name is Toby!"

"Helvetica!" the door swung open and out popped her dad, impeccable suit and all. "Why all the shouting?"

"Oh!" Helvetica turned to her dad. "This is Toe." Then, quieter, she added, "I mean, Toby. He brought me my…math homework!" she smiled and held out the small pouch. "He was just bringing it to me."

She slapped the purse into the boy's stomach. He let out an "oof" and nodded as if to confirm her story, still holding a cast encased arm up to his eye.

"Please accept my apology, young man," Mr. Black said with cold eyes that belied his smile. "I'm afraid that my daughter has a terrible habit of bringing unwanted attention to herself."

"Dad," Helvetica grumbled.

"Hel," her dad interrupted. Her expression grew colder, as if battling to match his. As it was, they engaged in a miniature staring contest, but her father naturally won the battle of wills. "Take him inside, put some ice on his head. We'll talk about this later."

Her face drawn into an angry pout, Helvetica grabbed the boy and began to drag him inside.

"Let's go, Hell," Toe teased.

Helvetica punched him in the stomach. She brought him into the kitchen where the cook and temporary hired help were bustling about. There, she got a bag of ice, wrapped it in a red rag, and brought it over to the boy. He regarded her warily.

"Now stay still," she said before jabbing the ice violently onto his eye. He grunted and squealed and when she pulled away, rubbed his eye gingerly. Dropping the ice, rag and all, the girl asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I was just coming to get my mom's purse," the boy replied, leaning over the counter to grab the purse. His hand closed around a colorful stone and the bag slipped as he jerked away and exclaimed, "Thanks!"

"Wait, don't go!" she shouted, grabbing his cast and finding her hand landing on a cool stone.

"Let go of the wishing rock!"

"Wishing rock?" she asked, jerking her hand up. Toe fell back and Helvetica found herself holding a rainbow colored rock that had the appearance of glass. "How does it work?"

As she looked at it, she could feel a sort of power pulsing within it. Her fingers and toes tingled and although the rock was cool to the touch, her hand began to feel very warm.

"I said fishing rock," Toe argued, trying to reach over to grab it but finding his way blocked by Cole. Cole smiled, picked up the boy, and dumped him in a trash can. Then he smiled at his sister expectantly.

Deciding that this was not how she was wanting her night to go, Helvetica mumbled, "Ugh, you stupid excuse for a brother." Cole's smile fell and he looked confused momentarily. "I wish you were—gah, I wish you were a stupid little dung beetle!"

There was a pop, and Helvetica found herself staring at a dung beetle. Her mouth dropped open. "Wow," she breathed. Toe, knowing something was happening, attempted to stand up, taking the sleek metal trash can with him. As he stumbled forward, he hit Helvetica in the face and she found herself falling backwards, the magic rock flying out of her hand.

Toe rolled off of her and continued to struggle to slide out of the trash can. Helvetica felt something touch her hand and looked to see a large beetle scuttling away towards a buffet. He came to a rest in the small, dark space. Helvetica crawled over.

"I'm gonna change you back," she assured him. "Just—stay here so you don't get smushed."

There was the creak of springs and a hand grabbed her shoulder. Hel looked up to see Toe standing over her, who hissed, "Give me my rock back."

"My brother's a bug," was her anguished reply.

"So what's new?"

"The rock's out there somewhere." She jerked her head towards the banquet room, which adjoined the kitchen. "Stay here while I go get it."

"We go together," Toe argued, slipping his arm into hers. His cast scratched against her arm.

They entered the room and found her father giving a speech. As he did so, he was taking the occasional snack off of a tray that a waiter held out to him. Finally, his hand closed around a small, cool rock. As he inattentively brought it up to his mouth, Toe and Hel let out identical gasps.

"I wish all of you had that same 'go-for-the-throat' spirit," the man ended.

The rock in his hand began to glow and he looked at it with disgust, realizing that it was not, in fact, food. Instantly, everyone in the room began fighting. The only ones that seemed to be unaffected were Mr. Black, Toe and Hel, Mr. Noseworthy, and Toe's parents. So, it was easy to say that the room went mad.

"What are you doing?" Mr. Black asked.

Someone bowled into him and knocked the rock out of his hand. The rainbow colored stone slid across the floor to Toe's parents, where they dropped down to grab it. Toe got it first, grabbing it in a tight fist.

"Thompson, do you know what's happening?" Mr. Black shouted.

Mr. Thompson grabbed the rock out of his son's hand and said, "I believe Team A has found the solution."

"No," his wife argued. "That's our solution!"

Helvetica grabbed it from them and held it out to her father.

"We've got the rock now, Dad," she said. "Now we can have everything we want. Just wish for it!"

"Ah, so this is your doing, Helvetica?"

"No, Dad, if you would just listen—"

"We're here to talk about a box! A blackbox! Not a round colorful object. The blackbox needs to do everything!"

"That's what this does, Dad!" Helvetica held the rock out to her father.

"That's it, Helvetica, this is the last straw! Go to your room and don't ever come out!"

"No!" she shrieked. "I wish you would just listen to me for a change!"

The man stopped, staring at her and lifting his hands up to his ears. At seeing his change in demeanor, Hel turned and said, "I wish for a rocket bike."

She began to climb atop it and Toe came up to her, speaking swiftly and softly, "Helvetica, I know what it's like to feel ignored. To feel like you don't have any friends. But, Helvetica, I'm your friend."

She hesitated, and then replied, "I don't need friends."

She smiled at him, showing off a mouth now free from braces. Then she kicked off the brakes and sped down the road. She wasn't sure where she was going. All she knew was that she wanted to get far away. She still clutched the rock in her hand. It pulsed with energy, warming her hand. In a moment of distraction, she looked at it. Then, she looked up to see a curb looming at her. The bike hit the curb and she went flying into the air.

She landed in a trash can with a groan. She laid there for a minute before realizing that the rock was gone. She crawled back onto the road and looked up in time to see Toby running off with the rock. She ran after him.

"Give it back!" she cried.

Toby spun his arm and the rock went flying off into the air over the nearest house. Hel's mouth dropped open in outrage. Upset and angry, she stomped back to her house. There, she found that everyone had left. Her dad stood in the doorway, as if waiting for her.

"Where is that funny little rock of yours?" he asked.

"He threw it," Helvetica mumbled. "Clear over there somewhere."

She pointed to the nearby houses.

"Did he?"

~LittleMissMycroft