Chapter 3: Rocks & Trees

Dot and Harry's team caught up with Flik. "Hey, Flik! Flik! Wait up!" Dot called. "Hey, slow down, Mr. Flik!" Intress called. "Oh. Hello, princess." Flik said. "You can call me Dot." Dot said. "I'm Harry. Harry Potter." Harry said. "I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley." Ron said. "I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione said. "Neville Longbottom." Neville said. "I'm Ginerva Weasley. Call me Ginny." Ginny said. "I'm Luna Lovegood." Luna said. "Seamus Finnegan. And my partner, Dean Thomas." Seamus said, resting his elbow on Dean's shoulder. "Sup." Dean said. "I'm Cho Chang." Cho said. "George Weasley at your service." George said with a bow. "I'm Angelina Johnson. I'm his girlfriend." Angelina said. "I'm Parvati Patil." Parvati said. "And I'm Padma Patil." Padma said. "We're twins." They said together. "Sly Cooper, world's former greatest thief, at your service." Sly said. "Inspector Carmelita Fox. I'm with INTERPOL. And Sly's wife." Carmelita said. "I'm Tom. And this is Sarah, Kaz and Peyton." Tom said. "I'm Maxxor, leader of the OverWorlders. And this is my mate, Intress, my best friend, Tangath Toborn, and my high Muge, Najarin." Maxxor said. "I'm Munkustrap and these are the Jellicle Cats. My mate, Demeter. Rum Tum Tugger. Bombalurina. Jemima. Mistoffelees. And Victoria." Munkustrap introduced.

"Here, you forgot this." Dot said, holding up Flik's telescope. "Thanks. You can keep it. I can make another one." Flik said. "I like your inventions." Dot said. "Yeah, Flik, you're quite the genius." Kaz said. "Really? Well, you're the first. I'm beginning to think nothing I do works." Flik said. "This works." Dot said, demonstrating the telescope. "Yeah, your telescope is revolutionary." Sly said. "It's a big help where we're all from too." Carmelita said. "Great. One success. I'm never gonna make a difference." Flik said with doubt. "Me neither. I'm a royal ant and I can't even fly yet. I'm too little." Dot said. "Oh, Dot." Hermione said, feeling bad for Dot. "Being little's not such a bad thing." Flik said. "Yes, it is." Dot argued. "No, it's not." Flik argued back. "Is too!" Dot argued. "Is not." Flik argued. "Is too." Dot argued. "Is not." Flik argued. And they just continued like that for seconds. "Oh, knock it off!" Harry exclaimed.

Just then, Flik thought of something. "A seed. I need…I need a seed." He said. He tried to reach for one of the seeds in his carrier, but he couldn't reach them, making him groan in frustration. "You…need some help there, Flik?" Padma asked, trying not to laugh. But then, Flik found an alternative. "Here, here." He said, picking up a rock. "Pretend…Pretend that that's a seed." He said as he handed the rock to Dot in exchange for the telescope. "Uh, Flik?" Carmelita said. "It's a rock." Dot said. "Oh, I know it's a rock. I know. But let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed, all right? We'll just use our imaginations." Flik said. "Imaginations? I think I see where he's going with this." Tugger said. "Now, do you see our tree?" Flik asked, gesturing to the tree. "Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain, and voilà!" He explained. Harry's group was amazed by this explanation.

"This rock will be a tree?" Dot asked in confusion. "Seed to tree. You've got to work with me here, all right? Okay." Flik said, taking the rock. "You might not feel like you can do much now, but that's because, well, you're not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed." Flik said. "Flik's right, Dot. We were all just the same when we were still seeds. Sly trained most of his life to follow his family's legacy. Maxxor, he studied everything he needed to learn in order to become a leader. Even the great wizards and witches in our world, they were once the same thing we were. Students. We had to learn everything they had to learn as seeds. And in due time, all of us became the great trees we are now." Harry explained. "But it's a rock." Dot said, practically unconvinced and missing the point. "I KNOW IT'S A ROCK! Don't you think I know a rock when I see a rock? I've spent a lot of time around rocks!" Flik snapped. "Whoa! Calm down, Flik." Intress said. "Yeah, don't get so worked up." Demeter said. "You're weird, but I like you." Dot said. "Yeah, Flik. We like you too." Ron said. "Us weird people stick together." Hermione said.