Chapter 4
Deception, Sleep Deprivation, and Dropping Dead
“The Skat-Hatokha Academy of Magic?” exclaimed Graham, both eyebrows raised. “You do know that makes your school sham, right? S-H-A-M.”
“Hey, I didn’t name it,” shrugged Nate, leaning against the stoop rail. “But whatever I did do, it worked. It’s been almost a month and not one letter!”
It was the third week of June, and all of New York was in summer mode. The Riverdale scenery had shifted to images of kids playing ball in the street while hotdog vendors and ice cream trucks shouted over one another for business. A broken fire hydrant sprayed over the sidewalk while Lorelei’s little sister, Rae, splashed water at five other kindergartners.
And about every other stoop on the street was littered with bored teenagers sprawled out on the steps, looking as though they were five minutes from death. And the stoop in front of Graham’s house was no different. Graham downed soda, can after can, which were beginning to stack into a pyramid. Lorelei fanned herself with this morning’s edition of the Village Voice, and Nate on the very bottom step, pushed his skateboard back and forth with his right foot, debating whether or not to actually ride it.
Nate’s shifting thoughts were soon interrupted by soaking wet, little munchkin crawling over him in an attempt to get to Lorelei.
“Hey, watch it, Short Stack!” he protested, wiping the water drops from his shorts before they could soak into the fabric. “If I want to get wet, don’t you think I would have run into that fire hydrant right after you?”
She turned around and stared at Nate with large, honey-colored eyes. Her expression was one of quiet thoughtfulness that was almost never seen on a child her age. She stared as though she couldn’t quite tell whether he was teasing her or if he was serious.
“Oh, so you’re ignoring me again today?” he teased.
At that last statement, the little girl threw her head back and laughed an almost cackling laugh, her hair clinging around her face in dirty blonde strings.
“Rae, get back here,” Lorelei ordered softly as she proceeded to dry her little sister’s hair.
Rae Macalister always reminded Nate of the creepy little kids that always appeared in bad horror movies. She was small for her age, much too quiet, and he was certain that she was aware of a lot more than she was letting on. Whenever he told this to Lorelei, though, she would remind him that Rae was a witch too, and being a scary little kid simply went along with the territory. She would also argue that he should be used to Rae by now anyway, since Lorelei took her pretty much everywhere she went.
This was the one part of the sisters’ relationship that Nate found odd. Lorelei and Rae were the exact number of year apart that Nate and his own brother, Carter, were; yet he could see absolutely no resemblance between the two sets of siblings. Before Carter had moved out, he could remember the two of them fighting, getting each other in trouble, and constantly telling one another to stay out of their business: what Nate considered to be a normal relationship between siblings. Lorelei, however, seemed to behave more like Rae’s mother than her older sister. She would walk her to and from school, make sure she had clothes, food, and everything else little kids were supposed to have. Lorelei would even take Rae with her most times when she left the house because she didn’t trust her own mother to watch her. It had been like that for years…
Who could say? Maybe it was a girl thing.
“Ice cream cake or pizza?” Graham asked suddenly, breaking Nate away from his thoughts.
“For what?” Nate wrinkled his nose. “Breakfast?”
“No, Nate,” Graham reiterated. “Which one do you want for your good-bye party?”
“What good-bye party?”
“Well, for you,” Graham clarified. “You see, in most cultures, when a friend leaves home for an extended period of time, those close to him throw a party to remember all the good times they had together. You are leaving for a new school this fall, right?”
At this, Lorelei gave a smug laugh.
“No, he’s not,” she interrupted as she wrapped a towel around her little sister.
“What?” Graham turned his attention towards Lorelei’s step, confused.
“Nate’s not actually going to go this school,” Lorelei explained condescendingly, as though Graham were an idiot for not having figured it out for himself. “He’s letting these people think he is, so the wheels of bureaucracy can continue to turn without anyone noticing. But his brilliant plan took about five minutes for him to come up with, so I’m still not sure how it will work.”
As with every long-winded explanation that came out of Lorelei’s mouth, a long moment of deathly silence was shared among all those who heard it.
“You’re really not going?” Graham finally said.
“Nope,” Nate answered plainly, as though they were talking about any boring subject.
“So, Nate, have you told your parents that you’re not leaving the country after all?” asked Graham.
This was followed by even more silence. The background noise from streets carried an almost eerie echo.
“No, not yet. I haven’t quite figured out how to explain all this away,” he replied, shifting himself up. “I feel kinda bad. Dad’s been calling everyone he can think of, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard my mom crying at night.”
“Well, if you feel so bad, why don’t you just tell them to stop worrying?” asked Lorelei, allowing Rae to settle on her lap. “Or at least just tell your mom so she’ll stop being sad.”
“Because as soon as I do, Mom will tell Dad, and Dad will tell Carter, and Carter will be on my ass like white on the KKK.”
Once again, Lorelei laughed, but with a more sincere sound to it.
“Yeah, that tends to be the problem with trying to screw with the government.” Lorelei smirked “It’s not the kind of thing you can keep quiet.”
“Oh, yeah; then why haven’t you told your parents about Skat-Hatokha yet, Lore? You’re just as much a part of all this!”
“Please, Nate! Delia wouldn’t notice if I shaved my head and showed up at the breakfast table chanting ‘Hare Krishna’!”
“Who’s joining the Hare Krishna’s?” a light voice asked from off to the side.
Nate swiftly turned his head when he recognized the voice. Sure enough, Alaia Grace stood leaning the railing, standing quietly as though she had been there all along, and relaxed, as though she believed she was as much a part of the group as anyone of them.
“Your mother is,” Lorelei answered sharply, but without even making eye contact.
Alaia scowled slightly in Lorelei direction, chewing on a piece of her hair. But after she realized Lorelei wasn’t going to notice her, she turn her attention to someone who most certainly would.
“I can’t believe how slow summer is going,” Alaia mused. “Why is it we always end up looking forward to school again?”
Nate nodded and laughed nervously. He then felt a sharp kick in his spine followed a disgusted sounding snort from Lorelei. It was no secret that she didn’t care for Alaia or the way she made Nate act. Alaia was beginning to notice this, and although she was very good at not showing it, Nate felt as though she relished in Lorelei’s spiteful feelings.
Suddenly, Rae’s ears perks at the sound of ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’ coming from down the street. Within minutes, a painfully white van plastered with Popsicle stickers appeared on the street. It had to stop every few feet, however, for every crowd of kids that ran in front of it.
“Ice cream truck’s here!” Alaia jumped to her feet, seeming more excited than Rae did. “My dad finally gave me my baby-sitting money before I left the house, so I’ll go buy us some treats.”
Once Alaia was out of earshot, Lorelei finally decided to speak up.
“Remind me why we’re letting the stripper hang out with us.”
“Stop calling her that!” Nate shouted in a tone that he rarely used on his best friend. “Alaia’s not a stripper”
“She named after one!” Lorelei shouted back, proving she was just as capable of fighting as Nate was. “And her mother-”
“SHUT UP!” Nate yelled, startling everyone around him. Lorelei shut her mouth and clamped her jaw tightly. As soon as Nate saw his friend’s expression, he knew he made a mistake in his words.
“You just don’t like her because of that bit her stepdad did about the ‘Catholic pagans’,” he laughed it off, as though he had been kidding the whole time.
Lorelei’s expression softened somewhat, but still remained cross as she glared at him. It was clear that she needed some time to cool off. Nate stood up, jumped onto his skateboard, and kicked down the sidewalk.
“Hey, Nate, where ya going?” Graham asked as his friend hopped on his skateboard, “
As Nate sped down the sidewalk, he shouted an answer that caused Lorelei to wrinkle her nose and brow so deeply, Nate saw the expression even as she became smaller and smaller.
“Lovely, Nate,” called a disgusted Lorelei, while drying off her little sister’s hair. Nate waved back to her, and even waved to Alaia as he rode past her.
“…he’d probably be around fourteen years old,” Ron explained to the man behind the hotdog cart. “He has brown hair. He may have been a customer of yours…”
While his friend tried to force every bit of broken English he could out of the hotdog salesman, Harry watched the crowds of children running up and down the street, searching for anyone who vaguely fit the description of the boy known as Nathaniel Rivers.
How hard could it be to find one fourteen-year-old felon? Normally everyone made it their business to know the neighborhood criminal at every moment of the day. Yet no one they had spoken to seemed to even know who Nathaniel Rivers was. None of the vendors spoke fluent English, most of the children they spoke to ran away from them, and everyone else they spoke with just laughed at their accents.
“Who is it that you’re looking for?” a light voice asked them.
To their left, just finishing trading several fistfuls of change for a half dozen ice cream bars, was a young girl. Her heart-shaped face was framed by styled blonde hair, and bright blue eyes looked over to them in a type of innocent trust. She was the first person they met who expressed an honest interest in helping them.
“I’m sorry, miss,” Harry clarified, to make sure she would be an honest lead. “What is that you are saying?”
“Well, I’m fourteen, and I know pretty much most of the kids my age from this neighborhood,” she explained to him. “So if you told me who you’re looking for, maybe I know him.”
“That’s very sweet of you, miss,” Harry answered. “The boy we’re looking for is named Rivers. Do you know anyone with that name?”
A funny little expression took over the girls face. One corner of her mouth turned up and her eyes looked upwards, as though she were looking for the answer to be spelled out in the clouds.
“Rivers?” she repeated, as the puzzled look on her face took on one of sudden recognition. “Oh, Nate! You must mean Nate.”
“Yes, Nate.” Harry nodded, relieved that they may have finally found a true lead. “Can you tell me where he is?”
“No problem,” she chirped. “He just left for the waffle restaurant down the street.”
“Bernie’s?”
The waffle restaurant that served as a meeting place for the wizards of the city? Harry could almost kick himself as he thought about how much easier life would have been if he and Ron had just stayed there drinking coffee and eating waffles with Chantal.
“That’s the one!” Alaia smiled at him. “If you leave now, he’ll probably still be there.”
“Thank you, miss,” he told her.
“You’re welcome!” she shouted back at him as she left them.
“Chipper little thing, isn’t she?” said Ron, as the girl skipped down the pavement.
Harry and Ron raced back down the sidewalk. They pushed their way through the crowds of children and flowing fire hydrants, making the journey that had taken them five hours just this morning in about fifteen minutes.
Bernie’s was more or less the same as it had been when he and Ron had first been there. There were a few more waitresses now, and after the cook tried handing out his number to a young woman at the counter, he was fairly sure he was human. A few of the booths were crowded with customers, and several of the stools were occupied, but the restaurant could hardly be considered bustling.
Harry scanned over the heads of everyone breathing in the building, searching for anyone who vaguely resembled the poor quality photograph he and Ron had been given at the Ministry. The first booth was filled with women, the next booth held an old man with a walker off to the side, and the family in the third booth spoke Korean. At the counter, all the occupants were male, but were either too old or too young to be Nate Rivers. And the cook at the counter was over forty, over weight, and had a beard, so he clearly was not Nate Rivers.
“Alright,” the cook called out as he began stacking plates on the counter. “I have a number three with strawberries and whipped cream…”
“Mine,” a waitress with graying hair that seemed to be lacquered into place called out, reaching out to balance the plate with a waiting hand.
“…Irish platter with an Irish coffee…”
“Mine also,” she answered, reaching for the plate with the other hand.
“…and one root beer float, brick style.”
“Over here, Franco,” someone called from an alcove towards the back of the restaurant.
Harry and Ron turned just in time to see the teenage owner of the voice race to the counter, in between them to one of the unoccupied stools.
“And, Rivers,” the cook told him as he handed him the ice cream drink. “You’re still three weeks late on paying your tab!”
“Bite me, Franco!” he retorted in a tone one might use in pleasant conversation.
Rivers? The one they had been running around all morning looking for? And now within thirty seconds of arriving at the restaurant, he came right up to them. The boy stirred the melting ice cream with a straw and slurped at the drink loudly. There couldn’t be that many Rivers boys running around in one neighborhood.
“Excuse me,” said Harry, approaching the boy slowly. “Might you be Nathaniel Rivers?”
“Who ‘ants ‘a know?” the boy asked before taking a huge gulp.
“My name is Harry Potter, and this is my friend, Ron Weasley. We are both Aurors from the Ministry of Magic.”
“Say wha’?” remarked Nate, raising one of his eyebrows.
“I’m sorry. We’ve come here to talk to about a school that is currently under Ministry investigation. One that we’ve recently been informed that you plan to be attending this autumn”
At that explanation, Nate grabbed hold of the counter and spun around, still holding the drink in his hand. When he made eye contact with Harry, he noticed that Nate had one bright brown eye and one blue. It had a very startling effect when Harry first saw it, and it took a moment for him to shift back into the conversation.
“You see, Mr. Rivers,” Harry took a seat on the stool next to Nate, trying to make the conversation seem a lot more casual to the watching restaurant patrons, “a lot of American student who fall under the new Education Compensation Act have received letters from this school, the Skat-Hatokha Academy of Magic. The only problem is that no one seems to have heard of it, and we just need to ask you a few routine quest-”
Harry’s words, though, were suddenly interrupted by the sound of the ice cream glass crashing against the tile floor. The broken shards and leftover remains of the drink scattered all around Nate’s sandaled feet, but he didn’t even seem to notice as his breath quickened and his hands began to shake. In fact, he was starting to look quite literally ill.
“Mr. Rivers,” Harry asked him. “Are you feeling alright?”
Still, not a word was spoken on Nate Rivers’ part.
“Didn’t you hear me, Nate?” Harry tried again. “I asked if you were alrigh-”
“YOU’RE NOT TAKING ME ALIVE!” he shouted, throwing himself from the stool onto the floor, loosing his footing on the way down and sprawling out across the dirty tile. But once on solid ground, Nate pushed himself to his feet and ran for the door.
Oh no, you don’t! Harry thought to himself as he pointed his concealed wand. He had already wasted enough time on this frivolous mission; he would be damned him this Rivers boy dragged this out any longer than need be.
With a wordless spell, Nate feel forward once again, this time sprawling across a round table in the middle of the floor, sending the family’s breakfast down to the floor with him. The father’s eyes first went down to Nate, who had just pulled himself back up to his knees, his face covered with maple syrup. But the, without a moments hesitations, the fathers eyes flashed straight towards Harry and the sleeve concealing his wand. It was becoming abundantly clear that this man was not one of those Muggles who simply wandered into the wizards’ restaurant, especially when he pulled a wand of his own.
While Harry tried to calm the hot-tempered man, trying to quell the growing levels of chaos, Nate, although dazed, realize the wonderful opportunity to escape. Only he forgot that from the inside of Bernie’s, you needed to pull the door open, and ran face first into the steal doorframe. He doubled back, swearing and sputtering as the blood poured from his nose. The other restaurant patrons found the situation hilarious. Harry might have thought so too, if the behavior didn’t seem so bizarre. Nate Rivers was not under arrest, or wanted for questioning or otherwise.
Seeing no alternative, Harry and Ron followed after him, remembering to pull the door open. Being completely surrounded by Muggles, using magic to catch up with the boy was simply not an option, especially given the gigantic gap between them. Having already gotten a vast head start, despite his injuries, Nate only continued to run farther and farther out of their line of vision. After running for two city blocks, he had completely vanished from sight, but still Harry and Ron ran forward until they had run out of breath, sprawled over and gasping on the sidewalk.
“Okay, my turn!” A familiar, light voice caused Harry to turn to his left, towards a townhouse stoop.
Sprawled out on the steps, were three kids who looked to be about Nate’s age, and a wet, little girl who couldn’t have been more than five. He recognized one of the older children as the blonde girl from before who had pointed him and Ron in Nate’s direction. The other two consisted of a tall, chubby boy with clothes much too warm for the weather, and a sour-faced girl with black hair who was drying the little girl’s hair with a beach towel.
“Okay,” the chubby boy said, tapping the blonde girl on the shoulder. “Would you rather…bite the head off a live tarantula or let a three-year-old pierce your lip?”
“One of those genius three-year-olds?” the blonde girl asked, chewing on her index nail.
“Nope, normal three-year-old.”
“Can he use professional equipment or are we just giving him a nail we found on the street?”
“Hmm,” the boy thought to himself, trying to decide on what would be fair. “They can use the piercing gun, but no antiseptic.”
“This is idiotic,” the black-haired girl grumbled, mostly to herself.
Harry almost found himself laughing at the game the kids were playing, and also felt himself relax. They already knew this blonde girl was Nate’s friend; he would surely speak to her again. All he and Ron would have to do was find her again and enquire as to his whereabouts.
Talking a break from the disgusting word game, the blonde girl stood up on her step and hung over the right side of the stoop, peering down behind a stack of garbage cans.
“Has the bleeding stopped yet?” she asked over the side of the railing.
Before Harry could fully process what she said, Nate Rivers sprung out from his hiding place and out into the busy street, cars honking as he raced through traffic. While running, he turned his head to measure the distance between him and Ron and Harry. Dried blood streaked across his face and he gulped for every breath.
“Should we make sure he’s okay?” asked the blonde.
“After ice cream,” answered the girl with black hair, taking an actual bite out of her vanilla bar.
Three days. Three days on the lam and Nate hadn’t stopped, slept, or blink. Those guys from the Ministry had almost caught him a few times. It had taken a couple tries, but Nate finally figured out how he could evade them.
At the same time, he also knew he couldn’t keep going like this.
That was what brought him to where he was now; sitting on a sidewalk bench, his head in his hands, on the verge of crying for the first time since he was seven and he broke his arm falling from the tree at the end of the block. One this very neighborhood, on this very street, in front of this very building-
“Nate, where have you been?”
Nate pulled his head out of his hands and looked up to the voice. To his right, stood none other than Lorelei, arms crossed in front of her, a white grocery bag in each hand. What were the chances of Lorelei finishing her grocery shopping just in time for her to meet her in front of her building? For that matter, who actually went grocery shopping at one in the morning? But Lorelei was here, so he really didn’t care about the why.
“Nate!” Lorelei exclaimed upon seeing the state of her friend, pulling him up off the bench and onto his feet. “What’s been going on? That Alaia girl can’t find you, so now she’s bugging me. You’re never home, and you look like you haven’t slept in three days!”
“Can’t sleep,” he explained in a shaken tone, “Magic Police after me.”
“Oh, Christ!” Lorelei groaned as she rolled her eyes.
“Can’t sleep,” he went on as his best friend led him into the back ally and up the metal staircase, “they’ll find me. Always find me.”
“Yes, Nate.” Lorelei agreed as she fumbled for her keys. “Well, you must have lost them, because they haven’t found you yet.”
“They know everything,” he stammered as Lorelei opened the door and led him inside. “I’m gonna go to jail!”
He buried his head in his hands and continued to panic, even as Lorelei continued to drag him towards the elevator doors, “I’m gonna go to jail! I’m gonna go to jail!”
“Nate, nobody’s going to jail, and there are no magic police.”
“Yes, there is,” insisted Nate, aware of how delusional he must have sounded as the elevator door closed. “I saw them. They wear robes, and have funny accents, and say things like ‘blimey’ and ‘ever-so’ and…Oh, Lore I wouldn’t survive in prison! I sort-of read The Shawshank Redemption!”
He was vaguely aware of Lorelei telling him to ‘grow a damn spine for God’s sake’, but finally was brought back to reality by a well-placed slap across his face. Nate was able to bring himself into a somewhat calmed state just in time to hear the elevator ding for the third floor. Again, Lorelei led him not far down the hallway, stopping in front of apartment 3-B.
“Hmm, why isn’t my key working?” Lorelei muttered to herself as she struggle with the doorknob. Finally, Lorelei simply turned the knob, finding the door unlocked. “Rae, did you unlock the door?”
Rae didn’t answer her. But maybe she couldn’t hear her. The TV was on in the living room and Nate could hear Lorelei’s radio playing from her bedroom. But the inside of the apartment itself was empty, as it was most nights when Lorelei’s mother wasn’t home. Nate wondered where she was performing tonight. Lorelei sat Nate down at the breakfast bar, steadying him to make sure he wouldn’t fall off the chair as soon as she left. Once she was sure, she began rummaging through the various kitchen cupboards while asking question after question.
“So these ‘Magic Police’, Nate; they started chasing you after you hit your head against the hard metal beam?”
“No, Lore,” he argued. “I hit my nose against the door frame. And the Magic Police were there before I hit my head!”
Lorelei jumped off the kitchen counter, holding what appeared to be a small spice jar. “My mistake. What exactly did the Magic Police say to you?”
Nate took a deep breath and began regaling his best friend with the entire sordid tale, right down to what country they were from and what agency they were from. Lorelei listened intently as she mixed various ingredients into a mug. She regarded him with a healthy dose of skepticism in her gaze, but there was also a kindness there too. Even if he couldn’t tell if she believed them, the kindness in her expression let him no any hostility they held towards each other yesterday were long since dissolved.
“Lore…” Nate groaned.
“Hmm…”
“Hey, Lorelei…” Rae’s quiet voice came hidden from the hallway.
“In a minute, Rae,” Lorelei shouted her sister. “I’m sorry, Nate. What were you saying?”
“You think I’m making this all up, don’t you?”
Lorelei shifted uncomfortably where she stood, stirring the mug in her hand. “It’s not that, Nate. It’s that these ‘Magic Police’ of yours sound like imaginary friends.”
“Magic Police are not our friends, Lore!” Nate shouted.
“Good enough, Nate,” Lorelei said, handing him the steaming mug. “Here, you can make friends with this.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure.” Lorelei shrugged. “Your brother told me about it. Mixed with other ingredients, it makes many different sleeping potions. But by itself, it’s still a powerful sedative.”
“When did you and Carter talk about potion ingredients?”
“Do you really care at this point?” Lorelei asked him, shaking the mug three inches away from his face.
Nate shook his head no, and accepted the offered drink. As he gulped it down, he noticed Rae had wondered into the kitchen.
“Lorelei, can policemen be burglars?”
“What are you talking about, Rae?” Lorelei asked, shaking her head, as though she couldn’t stand any more talk of imaginary friends.
“I just saw two men come out of my bedroom,” Rae explained in her uncharacteristic alto. “When burglars are in your house, you’re supposed to call the police, but the men said they are the police. Who do we call then?”
“Rae, have you be-”
Lorelei was suddenly interrupted by a crash and the sound of breaking glass. She glared off towards the direction of the noise. Slowly, she stepped backward towards the coat closet. Reaching inside, she pulled out a solid oak baseball bat and crept back forward.
“Rae, listen to me,” she told her sister. “I want you to go to the neighbors and tell them I said this was an emergency. Don’t come back to the apartment until I come and get you!”
Rae nodded in agreement and raced out the front door, slamming it behind her. Slowly, Lorelei crept down the hallway, bat hoisted high, a look that hungered for blood plastered across her face.
“Those poor ba…,” was Nate’s last conscious thought came to him as he drifted off to sleep.
Harry Potter and the Skat-Hatokha Reaction by OliveOil_Med
Chapter Notes: Harry and Ron finally encounter Nate Rivers only to learn he is not the type to go quietly. And after three days running the streets of New York City, Nate leans on his best friend for support. But no good deed goes unpunished.
Thanks, Joanna!