Recently, I've been having more waking dreams and have been writing them down. So, here's one, fresh out of dreamland about two high school kids that are big into magic. So big, that they hunt down things that have to deal with anything magic. Which includes an odd book at an antique store. One with hand written pages and deals with black magic spells. (Although, it's really green magic, as it uses plants over blood.)

I do recommend using the MSWord file over the below text. Formatting doesn't quite come out, like it should in pure text.

So, here for your enjoyment, is the short story, 'That old, black magic of mine.'

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That old black magic of mine.

By: Jup-Reindeer
Copyright December 2011.
Rated: G.

This is a day out of the lives of two best friends. A Saturday in the lives of Sam and Max. Both are of high school age. Both have been best friends since their elementary years. The friendship was bonded over their dedication to reading Harry Potter books. Which, in turn, has enchanted their curiosity towards all things magical. From the slight of hand, street performer stuff to the grand illusionists with big name recognition to the realms of the supernatural, itself. Their acquisitions for all things magic had posters of Houdini and Potter and Angel, bound all over the walls of their bedrooms. Statues of wizards and dragons and other bric-a-brac were decorating their shelving spaces. All the common magic gift sets were apart of their inventory. Sam even went so far as to have a selection of exotic creatures, caged in his back yard that he kept well care of. They knew all the niche market places that might stock the unusual items that reflected their sole, dedicated passion.

Which, just so happened to include antique stores...

“Check this out.” said Max, rather excitedly as he was thumbing through the book shelves that were slightly out of sight, amid the various clutter of large furnishings for sale. He was talking to Sam, whom was browsing for a particular classic style of Ouija board, when he heard Max calling out and answered back, “Did that Life and Times of Houdini book show up or something?”
“Better.” replied Max. “Far better. It looks to be quite the authentic thing, too.” He had pulled out this ratty bound book that looked like it's days had far exceeded it's expected lifetime quota. The pages were barely staying inside the bindings and everything was hand written. Plus, it held a slightly retched scent of having been stored around a swamp, during it's previous years of existence. “It's quite literally like a diary of spells. This didn't come from some publishing house, my friend.”
Sam didn't require any further information. “How much do you think they are asking?”
“Knowing this place,” answered Max. “It will probably be a King's ransom. It's worth it. I just hope we can pay it. Something like this, doesn't come along, every fortnight.” Without further hesitation, he closed up the book and walked it up to the register, where an elderly man was awaiting.
The expression that the cashier gave them was a bit hard to describe. For, the cleaver psychologist could have read a combination of fear, excitement, concern and lust for money into the various muscle movements. “I see that you found our little treasure out. And, it's your lucky day. We're running an unadvertised sale for today, only. That particular book would normally run for six hundred dollars for being a unique artifact.” He took a quick appraising glance at the two lads and chanced what they were willing to pay...and able to pay, before continuing. “However, this being the 'Super Madness Twilight Sale Day' and all that, I am prepared to offer you the sales price of a lifetime and sell you this one of a kind book for a mere twenty-nine, ninety-nine. What do you say, my fine young lads. How can you pass up this opportunity of a lifetime?” He enhanced his sales pitch with some hand gesturing...for effect.
The two boys went through their pocketbooks and scrounged up the asking price, without uttering a sound.
This changed the cashier's expression to shear delight. It also loosened his lips to admitting a bit of known history. “A very strange item, indeed. It was inside a suitcase that was found by scuba divers at the bottom of the local river. Someone had weighted it down with bricks, as if trying to insure that it would never be discovered. The book defied being soaked, despite the conditions. The divers couldn't even explain how they found it. As they were employed by the police, looking for a body during an investigation into a murder. They sold it to me, not even haggling for the price. Seemed very glad, just to get the thing off of their hands. And, ever since it arrived, this place has felt a bit off. Odd sounds, when nobody was around. Distant voices. I could swear that they were whispering dark secrets.” As if he started thinking about the things he was suddenly saying, he cut short with, “Yes. A great find, you two have, there. Enjoy. Do come back, soon. We always have strange, unique items arriving on a regular basis. You just never know what you'll find...”
Sam and Max paid the cashier and took their find out the door as the cashier continued his 'thank you' speech. They walked down the sidewalk, half giggly with excitement at taking a peek into what secret magic spells the book may be containing.

Later that day, at Sam's house...

“Would you look at some of this?” Max said as he thumbed through the pages with a careful touch. “Spells for making crops grow. Spells for controlling the rain. Spells for cursing an enemy with warts. Spells for putting people into comas. Spells for...” and he grew slightly distant for a couple seconds. “...for finding your true love. If I could enchant Wendy into becoming my true love.”
Sam joked at that, right off the bat. “Ask me, that Wendy girl cast a spell over you into becoming a clumsy buffoon, long ago. Find a spell to break the spells of girls named Wendy in there and then we'll be talking about something.”
“No. I'm serious.” defended Max. “This would be a great way to prove if this book has any merit to it's writings. Besides, I have always wanted the chance to get a few words in with Wendy, before she always shoved me aside. We've got to do this, Sam. According to the book, we need only collect a few ingredients that grow naturally in the woods or can be found at the grocers. Says to mix the items in a stone bowl and pound it all into a fine powder while chanting several lines. And then, Wendy can be mine.”
Sam could almost swear that he saw the heart shaped pupils in Max's eyes and concluded that it was pointless to talk him out of even trying this. Besides, Sam had to see if the magic would really work or not. So, he agreed to assist Max in casting the spell as he grabbed a backpack and put the stone bowl & pestle set from his shelf into it.

The two boys went down to the grocers and bought several dollars worth in seasonings before proceeding to the woods.

The sun had taking a fair amount of it's daily journey across the open skies by the time the two kids had gathered the various leaves and roots from the wooded landscape. Placing the several dozen assortments into the bowl, Sam took the pestle and repeatedly bashed and smashed the fragile leaves, roots and seasonings into a fine substance as Max kept his nose in the book, yelling the strange words into the open air, repeatedly.
After five minutes of pounding and chanting, Sam began to have doubts about the whole thing and interrupted Max's chanting with a notion that had been residing in his head since they left his house. “Max? How can you even be sure that Wendy is meant to be your true lover? Could there be something more to the spell that we've overlooked? I mean, if it was going to happen, there should have been a sign by...”
As if on cue, the bowl caught fire. If only for one brief second. It's bright blue flame cast forth burning embers into the air that sparkled as they danced about. Higher and higher into the air, went the embers as the two boys were left awe struck. Max kept the image of Wendy in his thoughts, throughout it all.
As the sparks left the visibility of the two boys, Sam chose to inquire about what else the book had to say. “So...now what?”
“Says here that the spell will seek out my true love.” answered Max. “The impact will be so absolute that we both will know it, upon first sight. Nothing will stand in the way of our eternal love.”
“And, that love is for Wendy?” asked Sam, once more.
“Well, duh.” remarked Max. “It can't be anyone else. I love Wendy and I know that to be an absolute.”
The rather curious nature of the burning embers of love that Sam and Max had cast out into the world is that they were not so particular about whom to play match maker to. Had Sam and Max proceeded to cast the spell in front of Wendy, then Max very likely would have gotten his heart's desire. A million other places could have produced a million other results. Yet, the boys were in a hurry to test out their found spell and had cast it in the same place that most of their ingredients were found in. Nor, were they even paying any attention to the path that the burning embers had taken. For, they did seek out the very first living being that held any interest in the formerly chanting caster. And, she was spying on them from a tree branch, high above the pair.
Sam got up to see about reading from the book, in hopes of better understanding how the spell worked as Max finger pointed at the passages, word for word. And, neither of them gave immediate notice to the descending eyewitness, whom had dancing embers floating like a slight whirlwind, all around her.
Sam tried to point out, “There's nothing in there about choosing whom your true love is, Max. I knew that we needed to study this book a bit more before giving anything a try in it.”
“Relax.” stated Max. “Even if we goofed the first time, there is always a counter spell to undo any thing that we have done. That's like 'Rule Number One' for spell casting. Anything that can be done, can be undone. So, if I get some ugly girl coming my way, we'll simply cast the undo spell and try again for Wendy. Besides, I'm absolutely positive that...”
Max drifted off in mid-sentence as he felt a sudden push into his thigh and looked down.
Sam's eyes took the clue and went from the book to a rather small creature. In fact, it was a raccoon. A raccoon with glowing embers, dancing about in it's fur.
They stayed absolutely still as this raccoon kept brushing along Max's thigh and seemingly inspecting him with her eyes.
The silence was soon cut with both of them stating at once, “Find the counter spell.”
Sam carefully began to thumb through the spell book for a solution to the love spell. That is, until Max vocalized with, “I'm...feeling very funny.”
“Not a good time to joke, Max.” spoke Sam. Then, he took his eyes from the book and saw the sparkling embers were dancing around Max. “You're...glowing.”
“I...know.” said Max. “What does it...mean?”
The raccoon started to chatter away with excitement as she pushed her muzzle up inside Max's pants thigh.
“It means bad mojo, Max. Bad mojo.” stated Sam. He tried to return his attention to the book. But, Max wound up being too attention grabbing.
“I'm scared, Sam. So scared.” said Max as Sam witnessed his shirt crinkling around the chest region.
“Hang in there, pal.” half assured Sam. “We'll figure...this...”
He couldn't finish the sentence as he watched Max's shirt literally consume Max's head. It was like an all too real magic act going on, right in front of him. Max's clothes slowly deflated as the female raccoon scurried up the now vacated pants leg.
Sam didn't quite know what to make of it. For, what was just a few seconds ago, his friend's clothes, was now just this slight pile with some squirming movements, going on around the upper portion of the pants. Sam carefully reached over and pulled the limp shirt away.
The magic act had just completed itself. For, under the partially limp shirt was now two raccoons, playfully snuggling each other.
Sam stared and then gave it a shot. “Max?” He spoke it in a curious vocal tone.
The larger of the two raccoons looked up and chattered at him. It held no resemblance to English. Yet, Sam took it to be an understood reply. Then, the female nipped his chin and the two rolled out of the underwear and came to a stop in a small pile of leaves.
“I'll...undo this wretched spell, Max. This, I promise to you.” vowed Sam. And, he went back to work on browsing the book for any mention of a counter procedure.
Inside of three minutes, the active raccoons had gotten it into their heads that Sam was being far too serious about the situation and were literally climbing up his shirt to pull him away from the book.
Sam found himself suddenly overrun with the squirming, sparkling pair and was forced to play and cuddle with them. He couldn't begin to explain why a wild creature was being so gentle to his touch or why his friend was denying him the time to hunt down a cure. Between the playful wrestling and the belly scratchings, Sam had no choice but to play with his new found pets. He didn't even think about the careful placement of Max's new claws that weren't scratching up his arm as the male raccoon clung and hung upside down from Sam's raised arm. The three of them just whittled away the afternoon in play, the way that woodland creatures might do.
Before the sun had a chance to set, Sam took charge. He easily found the pair were exceptionally easygoing about being handled. So easygoing that when Sam lowered Max into his backpack, the female insisted on crawling inside and gave no pouts, when the zipper was used to entrap them inside the bag with the book, Max's clothes and the bowl/pestle set.

The pair were as quiet as mice on the way home to Sam's place. And, kept the hushed tones as Sam snuck past his parents and into his room. When Sam unzipped the backpack, he found that the pair had done their best to snuggle into the clothes and against each other. He was rather glad that neither of them were full sized. Or, the weight might have been making his back ache a bit. Not to mention if they would have even fit into the backpack.
When Sam peeled away the garments from the pair, he found that all of the glittering embers from the spell had completely disappeared. And, this concerned Sam. For, he had a suspicion that the longer the magic was with them, the stronger it would get. And, this might mean that every last ember of magic was now contained, inside the pair. He also found it very interesting how the pair had cuddled. Each one had the others head, semi-hidden under their striped tails. They seemed very content, so Sam didn't try cracking a joke about butt sniffers.
Sam used the evening to further browse over the book. It had many strange spells. However, whomever the author was, never did the research into discovering outright cures to any of it. Although, he did momentarily pause on the one about metamorphosis of living things into mice. For mice would be far easier to conceal and care for over raccoons. He quickly dismissed the notion in favor of trying to avoid complications.
And, when Sam was too tired to keep an eye open, he glanced over at the napping pair and turned out the lights. He knew that raccoons were especially nocturnal and there might be problems with this. He wasn't sure what else to do, at this point. Luckily, they hadn't made a peep, all night long.
It was in the morning that Sam awoke to a small surprise. He tried to open his eyes and found raccoon fur against them. He took a strong sniff and it was full of their scent.
Luckily, Max seemed to sense the awakening of Sam and slid off as Sam began to squirm. Still, Sam had no appreciation for the point blank sensation of the lower half of a raccoon, gliding over his face. And, the female was still firmly entombing Sam's throat, acting like a raccoon scarf. Sam resisted the urge to grasp and fling her away. For, he knew that a raccoon could easily slice his throat open at this range, with ease.
Thankfully, this now being a Sunday, Sam had the time to go into the backyard and build a cage that went alongside the other cages for his small population. He kept a few pet mice and several rabbits. Which would make a pair of loving raccoons, somewhat tolerable for argument's sake.
The raccoons kept to themselves, fully at play throughout the whole day as he hammered away on the frame and wrapped the whole thing in chicken wire. It wasn't a whole lot of space. But, it could contain the two without too much crowding.
When Sam took a lunch break, he had to make an extra sandwich to share with the pair. It was even delightful to see how well they handled it, all by themselves.
Sam thought about it for a minute as the two raccoons sat up, grasping the sandwich by each side and slowly took bites out of it, until they met in the middle. “Well...Max. I guess that you are doing well enough, right now. So...I might as well call you Max. And, you always wanted Wendy. So, let's call her Wendy, then.”
Sam did what he could to make the cage more comfortable. And, in the daylight hours, it was working out.
The nights were the problem.
They made such a ruckus that Sam couldn't keep justifying their regular storage in the cage.
So, he would smuggle them in and out of the house, each evening and morning. Something about the three of them, being together was making this work. He even grew to tolerate how the pair were always snuggling against his head, in bed. While they never actually suffocated him in his sleep, it was never fully settling to discover which part of the male raccoon was going to be flush against his nose, each morning. Despite never wanting to know what a raccoon's ear smelled like, he was forced to learn it.

As the months went by and things were ironed out, Sam came to make it a religion of studying that book, inside and out. He was convinced that there was something...some kind of cure that was just not obvious. And, he would with great caution, give several spells a try. And, for one reason or another, nothing worked on breaking the love spell that had turned his Human friend, turned pet, back into a Human. It was as if there was some unbreakable barrier, preventing his efforts.

Also, the highly concerned parents of Max had proceeded to lead an all out effort to locate their missing child.
With the lack of evidence and an easy lie that Sam was able to pass, the case was eventually dropped into being inactive.

One night, almost to the first year's anniversary of purchasing the book, Sam pushed himself past his limitations and fell asleep, head first into the open book. Of course, the pair of raccoons had book ended around his ears and curled up.
At some point during the early hours of the morning, Sam had the craziest dream that stuck with him into his waking hours. He was running through some thick brush in a wooded landscape. Running wild and free. He could literally smell the scent of the raccoon pair as he ran and he found them in a clearing, in his dream.
When he awoke and pulled his ears away from the two raccoon bellies, he looked down through groggy eyes. It took a minute to see that the book now had a new set of pages in it.
They were not written in English. In fact, they looked like no language that Sam had ever seen, before. He couldn't understand what had happened. And, was forced to work with the time schedule to meet his daily, morning classes at school.
The raccoons went back into their backyard cage.
Sam did his morning routines of hygiene and tidiness before taking the morning bus to the campus.
What he didn't know was that the raccoons had plans of their own.
In his absence, they had managed to unhook the cage door's catch, which was a skill that they had never displayed, before.
They broke into the house. And, his room.
The new pages were ripped from the magic book's binding. And, taken.
They navigated the winding road structure to find Sam's school.
Along the way, they gathered small samplings of a few plants and held it in their cheeks, chewing up the substances, all the while.
Sam sat at his history course's desk until the lunch bell rang.
Sam always liked to make his way to the outdoor benches, rather then hang around in the lunch room. By doing this, he somewhat isolated himself from the crowd.
He was too focused on simply enjoying the day and his sandwich to notice the distant raccoons. Or, the small hole that they scratched into the dirt. Nor, the chewed up substances that were spat into the hole.
He never heard the raccoon chattering. Or, saw the glowing embers enter the air. Or, fly at him. Or, enchant his body.
He only noticed as the sandwich didn't quite land in his mouth. Then, the world was blocked by his shirt. So, that he could clearly see his underwear.
Then, and only then, did he suddenly have a crystal clear vision. He had to seek out Max and Wendy. And, he took a strong whiff through his nostrils. Aside from the strong smell of his own crotch and a few other scents, he caught the all too familiar raccoon scent. Without a thought, he pushed down the pants leg and into the open air.

Nobody noticed a raccoon, slipping out from a pile of formerly occupied clothes.
It didn't make a major scene as the raccoon, ran across the vacant soccer field.
And, nobody really took notice as three raccoons, scurried away from sight and became one with the nearby wilderness.
An investigation was opened into the missing child, whose only sign of having been there were some discarded garments on an outdoor bench. However, a long term results over the lack of evidence would only churn out another unsolved case and another 'lost life'.
As for Sam, Max and Wendy? Well, they lived long, happy lives in the embrace of Nature. Living without care. Always being together. Living free.
And, for the first time, Sam even liked having his nose wake up in Max's crotch.