Area 51

Connor Finnegan

Once all of their milkshakes had been gulped down, they all headed towards the back door of Henrietta's to board the bus. Helena grabbed her bag, and happily rejoined Merlin, glad to get away from Julie.

The ride was nowhere as fun as the one to Hogwarts probably was. There was a bus for every city in Nevada, so it wasn't like Helena could meet a ton of people on the bus and become life long friends. Helena could tell that Merlin and his whole group of friends wanted her to become life long friends with Julie, but Helena really wasn't sure how that was going to work out.

Helena selected a seat at the back of the bus, hoping to just sit alone for a little bit. A few minutes passed, and Helena was sure she'd be fine as the bus was leaving in just two minutes, and though a few more seats had filled up, Helena still sat alone.

At the last minute, one more boy shuffled on board the bus. He was in his uniform, but wearing a Gryffindor scarf around his neck, as if he could be heading to either Hogwarts or Sagebrush.

Helena was shocked at his choice of scarf, but still not enough for her to want him to sit with her. But of course, he sat down next to her anyway.

"Hey, I'm Connor," the boy told her, the biggest smile on his face as he said it.

"Hi Conner, it's nice to meet you," Helena said, but her tone betrayed that she wasn't very happy to see him. He noticed, and looked hurt for a split second, before returning to being happy.

"Well, what's your name?" Connor asked, deciding then and there to be persistent.

"It's Helena. Helena Montgomery," she told him.

"That's a nice name," he said, and she noticed he had a bit of an Irish twang to his words.

"Are you Irish of something?" Helena asked him.

"That I am. Me dad is Irish. We just moved here to open a restaurant. It's called Finnegan's," he said

"Finnegan's? As in Seamus Finnegan is your dad?" Helena asked, surprise baked into every word.

"You've found me out. Me dad said moving over here would mean less people knowing who he is. He was wrong," Connor said.

"So, he was trying to get away from all those dumb articles in Witch Weekly?" Helena asked him.

"Well, yeah. Do you know how many times they asked 'im if he every saw Harry in the shower?" Connor asked.

"Six times," Helena blurted out, before realizing he didn't mean for her to answer. He laughed for a long time, and Helena couldn't help but join in. Eventually, he took a deep breathe, and stopped laughing.

"Do you read Witch Weekly?" Connor asked her, smiling really big.

"Maybe," Helena said, blushing a little.

"Do you think Harry Potter is cute or something?" Connor teased her.

"I used to think so," Helena said.

"He doesn't look like he does in the pictures, you know," Connor said.

"What do you mean?" Helena asked, looking shocked.

"They use magic to make him look better. He looks a lot older in real life."

"You mean you've actually met Harry Potter?" Helena said a little too loudly.

"Well, yeah. He used to watch me all the time before James was born. I think that's why me dad moved us over here. Wouldn't want me to have to deal with the trouble Harry's kids'll cause," Connor told her, laughing a little.

"So you've met his kids?" Helena asked excitedly. "What are they like?"

"Um, well, James Sirius is about eight now. Then Albus is about to turn seven. Lily just turned six, I think," Connor said.

"Well yeah, but what are they like?" Helena persisted.

"James is pretty quiet actually. I remember when he was like four, and everyone was expecting him to get in a lot of trouble, but he never really did. He mostly stayed quiet for long periods of time. He still does," Connor started.

"What about Albus?" Helena questioned. "Is he more of a trouble maker?"

"Um, not exactly. None of Harry's kids really get in that much trouble. I think they're scared of their mam. Ginny's pretty scary," Connor said.

"Is Albus super quiet then too?" she asked.

"No, he's pretty loud. He hasn't really learned about volume control yet. He loves to talk to everyone. He once talked of me for an hour about everythin' he had for lunch," he said.

"Is Lily as cute as Witch Weekly says she is? I know Harry tries to keep them from being photographed much,"

"She's precious. She looks just like her mam. And James looks a lot like Harry, and so does Albus, but in different ways," he tried to explain.

The conversation went on like that for the rest of the bus ride, which was only about thirty minutes. As much as they all wished they could go straight to the school, they still had to make other stops to let those not going to school get on and off.

As much as Helena didn't want to admit it, she was glad she had made a friend. She just couldn't let her mom know about it, or she'd never hear the end of it. Maybe Connor could be her Ron Weasley.