Area 51

Merlin's Friends

Luckily, there weren't any long goodbyes as Helena and Merlin attempted to go out the door. According to Merlin, that was the only good thing about coming home on the weekends.

The walk to Henrietta's was short as usual. They walked inside to see Diana wiping the counters, with her school bag with her, and already dressed in her uniform.

"Hey guys. When are Jerry and Henry gonna get here?" Diana asked.

"So those are really people?" Helena asked.

"Well, yeah," Diana said. "Did someone tell you they weren't?" Helena shrugged.

"I just thought Merlin might have made them up to get out of trouble with Mom. She wants him to have some friends who are boys," Helena said. Diana chuckled a bit.

"Well, they don't really fit those requirements," Merlin admitted. "But you can't tell Mom."

"What do you mean?"

"Jerry's real name is Jeraldine, and Henry's is Henrietta," Merlin explained.

"Oh, well you don't have to worry about me telling. I think it's stupid that she wants us to make new friends," Helena said.

"Well, it's not wrong to make friends. In fact, there's yours right now," Diana said, indicating towards the door. Two girls stood in the doorway, one around thirteen, and one eleven. They both had dirty blonde hair, obviously straightened in an attempt to look nice. The younger girl didn't look very happy about that.

"Hey Merlin, hey Di. This is my little sister Julie. It's her first year," the taller girl said.

"This is my sister, Helena," Merlin said, pushing Helena forward a bit to meet Julie.

"Um, hi Julie," Helena said awkwardly.

"Hi," Julie said quietly, obviously not in the mood to talk. Helena took the hint, and backed away. The air in the room was awkward, but they all tried to ignore it.

"Which one was that?" Helena whispered into Merlin's ear.

"The older girl is my friend Jerry. And there's Henry right now," he said, indicating towards the back door, where a girl of some sort of Native American descent was standing.

"Sorry I'm late guys. My mom wanted to try this new braiding spell on me this morning, and it took forever," Henry said.

"It's alright," Diana said. "I was just about to get the usual shakes out of the fridge. My mom make all of them up this morning."

"Shakes?" Julie questioned, perking up a bit.

"Yeah," Jerry said. "It's our yearly tradition."

"But what about us too," Helena said, indicating towards Julie. "Did you make us some?"

"Yeah, I had Merlin and Jerry let me know what your favorites were. Blackberry cheesecake for Helena, and birthday cake for Julie," Diana said.

The shakes were brought out by Diana, who was wearing gloves as to not melt the shakes with her hot hands. Merlin, Diana, Jerry, and Henry all filled up a booth, so Julie and Helena were left to sit at some other table.

"So, Helena huh?" Julie said after a prolonged silence.

"Yeah. I got off easy compared to my brothers. My mom's favorite cousin went to Hogwarts and was in Slytherin, and my mom thought that was so cool, she decided to name my oldest brother Salazar, and then the one you just met is Merlin, who was also a Slytherin. Then, I guess she also liked the Ravenclaw house, and so I got named after Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter, and my little sister got named after Guinevere, who went to Hogwarts with Merlin supposedly," Helena explained.

"I thought Guinevere was a no-maj," Julie said.

"Some people think so, but my mom is a magical historian, and she found some really old Hogwarts records that a girl named Guinevere went to Hogwarts a year behind Merlin," Helena explained.

"Huh, well, my mom just named me after her favorite actress Julie Andrews. My mom's a no-maj, and she's really into Julie Andrews movies," she said.

Julie explained to Helena all about who Julie Andrews was and how she was in a ton of movies, one even about a witch named Mary Poppins, who lived in England and was a nanny for children.

"Were there not enough jobs for witches in 1910?" Helena asked.

"There probably were, but she had a passion for children I guess," Julie explained.

They finished their shakes while talking about their families for a while. It turned out that Julie wasn't so excited to go to school either.

"I'm just not happy about the whole having to get up in the morning thing," Julie had said.

"I just don't see the point in learning magic. It's not like I'm Harry Potter and I need to fight off dark wizards. I'm a normal kid, and there's no use for me to have magic at all," Helena tried to explain to her.

"Well, I guess we don't need it, but it's still exciting to learn how to do it. It's a lot more exciting than some boring no-maj job. Like, my mom has to work as a nurse. And they don't even use magic, so people die all the time that could be saved by magic. It's pointless to not use it," Julie said.

Helena could see her point, but she didn't really care. She had her own reasons for denying magic, even if it seemed cool, and she wanted to take some of the classes, she wasn't ready to admit that magic was a necessary part of her life.

Because it wasn't. Not really. Sure, magic could save people's lives in some cases, but she was just a normal girl in a normal town. As much as she wished for some excitement, she wouldn't be fighting any dark wizards or anything like that. It felt like she didn't deserve magic, when it would be so much better in the hands of no-maj doctors, or any squib, of which she knew none, but she knew she wouldn't mind being a squib too much.

As much as she tried to explain, Julie didn't really seem to understand, only saying in return that she of course deserved magic. The Montgomery family was a pureblood family, though not a famous one. She deserved to study magic as much, if not more than, any other student.

Helena couldn't even explain how much she didn't believe that. She never felt better than anyone else, even when her father had told her they were. Helena had worshipped Harry Potter basically her entire life.

He was her first crush, her role model. No matter what he did, he stayed humble. He always told reporters that he only did everything he did because of the help he received from others. Helena knew she couldn't live up to his magical ability, but maybe she could at least live up to him in the way of humility.