Chapter 6
Dewey, Chetham, and Howe
Nate raced for the front door. Throwing himself around the corner of the hallway, he leapt at the entrance to stop what he could predict was about to happen. Don’t knock! Don’t knock! Don’t knock! he thought to himself in a panic.
But it was too late. It only took two pounds on the door for it to come crashing back down to the entryway floor, just in time for Nate to see it. The Chinese delivery man stared down at the floor, confused, and then looked up at Nate as though Nate would give him some clue as to what had just happened. Nate simply shrugged; it had been shoddy workmanship, sure, but there was only so much a person could do when their only supplies were duct tape and chewing gum.
Just pretend nothing is going on. If you say nothing strange is going on, then nothing is. This was the single useful piece of information he could ever remember his older brother giving him. It was something he had also had plenty of opportunity to put into practice in his life. The Department of Magic wouldn’t normally get involved unless there was a huge disaster.
“How much?” Nate asked, stepping carefully onto the door so he could get to the opening in the wall where the delivery man stood waiting.
“Um,” the man stammered unable to take his eyes off that fallen door, looking further into the apartment to see if he could find any more damage to the Macalister home. “Fifteen ninety-six.”
While the delivery man looked in over his head, Nate dug into the pockets of his baggy jeans for crumpled bills. Under the critical gaze, Nate tried his hardest to keep up the façade of normalcy he had answered the door with. Though, he had to admit to himself that this was not the easiest thing to do, especially with all that had happened in the apartment in the past night and everything that had led up to it.
“Here you go,” Nate said, shoving the dollar bills into the delivery man’s hand and snatching the food containers away. “Keep the rest.”
“This is only ten””
But the delivery man never got a chance to finish his complaint, as Nate was already racing across the freshly swept floors and back to the scene of the action. In the back of his mind, Nate wondered why the delivery man did not follow him into the apartment to get the rest of his money, but then he remembered that what just happened to this man must have been the start of ever horror movie ever made. Nate was sure that this man believed as soon as he followed Nate through the doorway, he would fall through a trapdoor into a coal shaft and be torn to pieces by burning charcoal midgets.
“Okay,” Nate gasped as he jumped over the armrest of the couch and onto the cushions. “What’d I miss?” Nate then suddenly realized he had landed on a sharp corner of the TV remote, but he was too enthralled in what was happening in front of him to do anything about it.
“Did you make sure he gave us extra dumplings?” Lorelei asked, taking on of the mooshus from him. She weighed two of them in her hands and then handed the smaller to Rae, who was leaning against her.
“Yeah, yeah, now what happened?”
“Well,” Lorelei began as she snapped her chopsticks apart and took her first bite of lo mein, “the guy just woke up from the coma, and his best friend reminded him of everything that happened, and now he’s practically crying!”
“What!” Nate exclaimed, mouth half full of crab Rangoon. “I was only gone for a minute!”
On the television, the ancient, rather dull cartoons that signaled the beginning of a new day just as much as the rising sun did were playing in an attempt to occupy Rae, but even she could not be distracted from the scene playing just off to the side.
“This can’t be happening,” gasped the redheaded man, Ron. “What was the universe thinking, putting me in charge of another human life?”
“Calm down, Ron,” Harry, the Auror with round glasses, tried to reassure his best friend. “Look, it’s not half as bad as you’re making it out to be. I mean, you’ve been very involved in Teddy’s life, and you’re great with James.”
“Yeah, that’s because at the end of the day, I can give Teddy and James back!”
Nate and Lorelei had been watching this ‘entertainment’ for several hours now. Nate had no idea what they were talking about half the time. It was almost like watching Mexican soap operas even when you didn’t speak any Spanish.
Despite the fact he had been more or less ignored this whole time, Nate had learned quite a bit about the people who had broken into his best friend’s apartment. So far, he had gathered that the redhead having a nervous breakdown on the living room floor was Ron Weasley. He was married to some chick named Hermione (or not, which might be why he was acting the way he did).
The dark-haired one with glasses was Harry Potter. He had a wife named Ginny, who was either Ron’s sister or cousin, or possibly both, giving Nate a very creepy hillbilly feeling. Harry already had a kid name James, and apparently there was another kid named Teddy that he had his wife fed several times a week for some reason.
Anyway, right after this Ron guy had passed out, the other one, Harry, seemed to have completely forgotten the three other children there. Had this been any other type of home invasion, Nate and Lorelei probably would have had the good sense to grab Rae, bolt out the door, and not stop running until they reached Niagara Falls. But all this drama was just too juicy to not grab a front row seat. Besides, British people were funny when they swore. And now that Ron was finally contributing, it was all the more entertaining.
So much better than early morning cartoons!
Rae, who had been watching the scene in a distracted sort of manner up until now, pushed herself up off the sofa cushions, the plastic wrap from her fortune cookie crinkling as she tore it apart. Poking Ron in the shoulder, she was able to stop the pathetic hysteric long enough to get her message across.
“You can have my cookie.” she said, holding up her open palm, in her childish attempt to cheer him up.
“Thanks,” he answered, breaking the treat in half and reading the message inside. “Bright new beginnings bringing both joys and sorrows await you. OH, MERLIN!”
Ron threw his arms around the little girl and Rae stumbled violently as she struggled to keep her balance against the hysterical man in her living room. Nate’s eyes widened in the same sort of shocked expression one would see on faces in a movie theater and Lorelei jumped up to the back of the sofa and sat perched there like a cat. Rae glanced back at the two older children, confused, silently begging for some silent clue of what to do. But Nate had never had to encounter anything like this in fourteen years of life, and he doubted there was anything remotely useful he could have told his friend’s sister.
But Lorelei did not seem to enjoy the idea of contemplating any situation, and chucked a crinkled magazine at Ron’s forehead. The corner of it cracked sharply, and Ron yelped. “What is the matter with you?”
“You tell me. You’re both still in my house, and neither of you have been shot,” Lorelei snapped, earning a frightened, wide-eyed look from both of the men.
“You would have shot us?”
“Legally, she could have, and gotten off scot-free,” Nate answered in a tone that might have been better suited in a more casual conversation. “And Lore’s a sociopath. If anyone could shoot a guy without needing to think about it, she could.”
Lorelei offered a stiff smile and a forced-sounding giggle. “Oh, you’re just saying that.” She spoke almost as though Nate had paid her a compliment. Ron’s eyes grew even wider, his face paling, creating a stark contrast with the freckles on his face. Most likely, the fear Lorelei had instilled in the man had been solely for her own amusement.
“Mr. Rivers.” Harry stood his feet, the vast height difference towering over him. Harry did not seem as easily shaken by Lorelei’s little mind games. “If you would not mind.”
“‘Kay.” Nate reclined back against the sofa. “Ron, Harry, let’s do this.”
“Mr. Weasley,” Harry corrected him before pointing to himself, “and Mr. Potter.”
“Whatevers,” Lorelei groaned as she leaned back against the wall.
The newly deemed Mr. Potter looked up at Lorelei as though he had just realize she was there.
“Miss Macalister,” the Auror, Harry, directed at her, “if you wouldn’t mind…”
Lorelei looked pointedly at the British Auror, chopsticks pressed against her lips, waiting for him to spell out what he wanted in specifics.
“We have some rather delicate topics to cover with Mr. Rivers, so if you would not mind leaving us alone to discuss them…”
“It’s my house.” Lorelei answered sternly, glaring up at him, appearing as far from intimidated as a person could possibly be. If the nuns at her school couldn’t get her to play well with others, these two strangers certainly didn’t have a chance.
“Lore, please,” Nate pleaded his friend as he looked up to meet her. “With these guys, it’s always just easier to let them have their way.
Lorelei cast him with a critical gaze before finally releasing a sigh of resignation as she slide down from her perch.
“Rae, you know what we haven’t done in ages?” Lorelei said, yanking her sister away from Mr. Weasley. “Go to six A.M. mass.”
“We’ve never done that.” Rae answered, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn.
“All the more reason to start.” Lorelei herded her sister into the hallway. “After all that’s happened tonight, we have a lot to ask forgiveness for. C’mon, go get dressed.”
To be honest, Nate was surprised that Lorelei had gone along with it as easily as she had. He hadn’t been kidding when he said his she could have shot someone. In the third grade, she once tackled the class bully to the pavement and rubbed his face into a pile of dog crap because he put a gum wrapper in her hair. In a way, it was kind of disappointing that nothing entertaining happened. He bet that other sociopaths didn’t get people breaking into their homes.
For a long time, they waited for the sisters to emerge from their room and leave through the front (and only) door. Nate could only imagine that she and Rae were hauled up in one of their rooms with their ears pressed against the door. Not that the two Aurors looking down at him had to know that.
“Mr. Rivers,” Mr. Potter got his attention once he finally decided that the girls had been given enough time, “do you have anything you would like to tell us?”
Nate ground his teeth as he turned his head as slowly as possible, looking up to meet the increasingly annoyed looking officer. Thank God the other one, Mr. Weasley, was still pretty shaken; Mr. Potter was doing well playing the role of interrogator all on his own.
“Like?” Nate asked, soon being reminded very quickly that members of the law enforcement community did not appreciate a sense of humor. “Okay, okay, relax.”
Dear, Nathaniel Rivers,
We are pleased to inform you that you have earned a spot at the Skat-Hatokha Academy of Magic. We are aware that you, along with many other American students, now fall under the new Education Compensation Act, and we are more than happy to open our doors to as many of those who are willing.
Seeing as the letter is quite late in arrival, we understand you may desire some time to consider your decision. If you have already sent a conformation letter to an alternative school, please state so in your letter.
Conversely, it will be proper to send any letters to any other schools informing them that they will not be seeing you in the coming semester, should you instead prefer to attend Skat-Hatokha.
Mark Dewey, Patrick Chetham, and Joseph Howe
In school, Nate had prided himself on never reading anything anymore than he had to. This one letter, however, must have been read over more than a dozen times, and Nate still wasn’t completely sure he understood what the message was trying to convey
“No way mom and dad are letting me keep this,” said Nate, glancing back at the ruffled little bird. And this is what I worry about first? he soon thought to himself afterwards.
“Don’t look at me,” Lorelei told him. “I couldn’t even to keep sea monkeys alive for more than a week.”
The scruffy little bird swanked and scratched at the dresser while Nate went back to his seat at the desk. He sat down heavily and look around from the scratches he had doodled onto the oak, including his an Lorelei’s initials, the cups of pens and the stack of papers, almost dusty from lack of use, to the old backpack he had used all through middle school, scuffed, torn, and covered in scribbles.
“Well,” Lorelei asked expectantly, “what does it say?”
But Lorelei never got a verbal answer. Nate found himself in a clouded fog of thought. Large, complicated words never really sat well with him. Even in his own brain, thoughts rarely appeared as anything that could remotely resemble anything concrete. Usually his ideas and all other things that began inside his head could only be described as nonsense action-words one would normally only encounter in bad comic books.
Like right now.
All of a sudden, Nate felt a little spark inside his head; the same little spark he got whenever he got a good idea for an invention. It was all placed directly in front of him, just waiting for him to piece it all together. It would have been a crime not to act on the impulses spinning in his head this time.
Before Nate could completely get a grasp on what he was doing,one of his barely used notebooks was thrown open in front of him and he was scribbling across the clean lines of paper.
Dear Minerva McGonigal,
While I apprsiate the guesture of inviting me to attend your”
“Say, Lore,” Nate called over his shoulder. “What’s a big word for fancy, caviar-snorting boarding school?”
“Um…prestigious.”
”presstigus school of wizardry, I regret to inform you that I will not be joining your student body this fall. In being aware of the new education guidelines that the Minestry of Magic is imposeing, I here by offer my letter of intent to attend”
Eventually, Lorelei was beginning to realize that this was clearly not a letter being written in resignation. Her curiosity perked, she slid off the side of the bed and sauntered her way to Nate’s side.
“Nate, what exactly do you think you’re doing?” asked Lorelei, poking her head over his shoulder.
”the Skat-Hatokha Academy of Magic.
“Oh, I KNOW you are not serious!” Lorelei exclaimed, taking a few steps back, as though whatever Nate was thinking was contagious.
“Read the letters, Lore,” Nate explained, spinning his chair around, “The letter said I have to attend a school. They never said I have to attend this Hogwarts place. As long as they have it down that I'm going somewhere, they’ll leave us alone!”
Us? Wasn’t it just a little while ago that Nate had criticized his friend for her use of ‘we’ when she spoke of the situation? Now he himself was doing it.
“But Nate, this place isn’t even real! It’s fraud,” Lorelei insisted, glancing back down at Nate’s summer reading. “And I’m pretty sure just by being in the room with you, I’m an accessory.”
But Nate didn’t listen, still overcome with what he thought was the brilliance of his own plan.
Nathaniel Jacob Rivers
“This is without a doubt the most half-baked idea you’ve ever had,” Lorelei told him, ripping the written note out of the notebook and crumpling it in her fist. “And it would be just plain irresponsible to stand by and allow you to go through with this!”
“So, you’re not going to let me do it?” asked Nate, confused at why his friend couldn’t see what he saw.
“No, I just want it on the record.” she replied, turning the notebook toward her.
At first, Nate was unsure of what his best friend was planning to do. But slowly, he watched as Lorelei, in her neat script, wrote out a new, much better letter to be delivered to these strangers. Nate’s face took on a broad smile as he leaned back in his chair and watched her write.
Dear Minerva McGonagall,
I received your letter of invitation, and first of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to your prestigious school. I am honored that despite my somewhat questionable record”
“Hey!” Nate interrupted, irked by the insult.
“Yes?” Lorelei asked, as though she half-heartedly expected some kind of defense.
“I got nothin’,” he confessed after a moment’s thought. “Continue.”
”that you would consider me as a student.
However, I regret to inform you that I will not be joining you this fall. I am however, aware of the new standards imposed by both in the System and the Ministry of Magic in regards to students in my particular situation. That is why I am hereby sending my letter of intent to attend the”
Left alone, at least in the metaphorical sense, Nate had no choice but to think about the plan. Of course, the more mechanical ideas had yet to come to him, such as how he would pull off the finer details of explaining this new school to the people in his life and what he would do if it all fell through. But at the moment, he was simply flying too high in his own mind to dwell on such depressing thoughts.
Nate was distracted from this little escapade once again by the noisy squawk and scratches coming from his dresser. The scruffy spotted owl scratched its talons across the dresser, tilting its head as though staring critically at the goings-on in the room.
"You better not squeal on us," he sharply instructed the screech owl. "Or...squawk, or...whatever it is you do!"
The bird ignored the threat, turning its head down to clean its feathers.
”Skat-Hatokha Academy of Magic. Please refer any further questions on the subject of my future education to the board of directors: Mark Dewey, Patrick Cheatham, and Joseph Howe.
Sighing, Lorelei reached back towards Nate, the pen still in her hand. “Sign, please.”
Snatching the pen from her fingers, Nate bent over the desk and carefully wrote his bolding printed signature below Lorelei’s script.
“So…we just give it to her?” wondered Lorelei aloud, glancing back towards the window and to the tawny colored owl,
“I guess.” answered Nate, taking the letter and signing his name once again.
Nate made his way towards the owl, slowly, folding the letter into thirds and hoping the owl knew where it was going. He held the letter an inch in front of its beak, and jumped back when the bird snapped at him for the letter.
“Um…go get ‘em, buddy!” Nate ordered, gesturing largely with his arms.
The owl turned, and in a slightly clumsy and bulky way, flew through the window and out over the New York skyline. Nate ran after it, and threw himself through the open window so fast, Lorelei was sure he was going to fall out.
“Oh, my God,” Nate exclaimed as he hung out his window. “The frickin’ owl is actually delivering the letter!”
This shouldn’t have really been a shock to Nate. When he was younger, he would watch his older brother, Carter, get mail delivered by owl all the time. Owls still came to the house from time to time, but Nate couldn’t recall when he had last used the owl post himself.
As Nate watch the little owl slowly become smaller and smaller, Lorelei stood back against the opposite wall and sighed, her mouth twisting into not quite a smile while at the same time, gritting her teeth.
“This is either going to end really bad, or really, really bad.”
As soon as he was sure he had told everything there was to tell, Nate took a deep breath and reclined back against the couch. The longer he told the story, the more ridiculous it began to sound, even to him. And he had actually been there when it had all happened.
“Mr. Rivers,” Mr. Potter said, rubbing the space between his eyes, the same way he had seen his parents do whenever they had asked him for an explanation on any subject. “That is…quite a story.”
Nate shrugged. He knew it was the truth. He could find a way to make a blender shoot ninja stars, but over the years, he had learned that he could not make up a decent lie to save his soul. He had a permanent record full of outlandish excuses to attest to that.
“You know that given your…record, you could get into a lot of trouble for lying to law enforcement.” Ron”Mr. Weasley”finally joined in on the interrogation. Not nearly as intimidating as Mr. Potter had been moments before, but still making his presence known in his own way.
“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God, or my ass gets packed off to juvie.”
“Have you heard back from this Board of Directors yet?” Mr. Potter asked him.
Nate shook his head. It had already been more than two weeks since he sent that letter. It already felt like such a long time ago.
“Do you know where this Skat-Hatokha school is?” he pressed further.
Again, Nate did not have an answer. He could already tell things were starting to look bad on his part. This story seemed so much more believable when it was actually happening.
“How do you plan on getting there?” Mr. Potter was refusing to leave no stone unturned.
“I dunno,” Nate replied, shrugging his shoulders and trying to look calm and collected. “I guess when it gets closer to the school year, they’ll tell me.”
“Along with sending you your list of books and school supplies?”
“If that’s what schools do.” Nate didn’t really know how this thing worked. He had been two years old when his brother started at Hardscabble Creek, and eight when the last letter came. But by the time Nate had actually been old enough to understand what those letters were all about, he and Carter barely had anything to say to one another.
“Even though they have yet to contact you about you accepting your place in their school?”
Alright, things had just gone from looking kinda bad to being really bad.
“Mr. Rivers, it has been a very long week. And to be honest, I have felt from the beginning that this investigation has been a waste of time. I would not even be here if it weren’t for the higher-ups in the Ministry who could see a conspiracy in a lemonade stand.”
Or maybe not so bad.
“I don’t think there is anything criminal occurring in this situation,” Mr. Potter confessed lightly, then taking on his more serious tone once again. “Is there anything criminal you would like to confess to now? If you lie to me again, I promise that I will do everything possible to make sure whatever justice system takes you will not go easy on you.”
“I didn’t break any laws,” Nate answered as calmly as he possibly could.
“Are you certain?” Mr. Weasley finally took another turn to speak.
“Scout’s honor.” Nate was never a scout either.
“Well then, I believe that is all,” Mr. Potter said as he brushed his Muggle clothes. “Do you have anything else you want to ask?”
“Yeah,” Nate answered as he pointed to the fallen front door in the entryway. “The duct tape and the gum really isn’t going to cut it.”
Mr. Potter pulled his wand from his sleeve, and with a wordless charm, the front door flew back up to rest securely along the hinges. The duct tape and chewed gum fell uselessly to the floor.
“We cool?” Nate asked.
“Um, certainly,” Mr. Weasley answered, though sounding unsure if he had answered the sentence correctly. “Although don’t be surprised if we contact you later with some follow-up questions.
“But between you and me,” Mr. Potter confessed in a hushed tone, “the chances of that happening are slim to none.”
“Sweetness!” Nate breathed, feeling much more relieved. “So…you’re leaving now?”
Without answering, a loud crack filled the room, and the two Aurors disappeared instantly from his vision, almost as though they were as anxious to leave the apartment as Nate was to see them leave.
For the first time in his life. Nate had no idea how to feel. Nothing about this situation had played out the way any person would believe a police investigation was supposed to go. Nate had been hunted down like a dog, and then the men had simply just taken his word for everything he said and left him like a couple of twelve-year-olds racing out of school at the last bell.
All that panic, all that worry, and…nothing happened. He still wasn’t getting packed off to the U.K., and for another thing, he was not being arrested, which made any day a good day. On the other hand, he had also gotten a bloody nose, nearly been run over by New York traffic, been in a forced state of paranoid alertness for eighty-six hours straight, and drugged with who knows what at the hands of a sociopath because of all of this. He didn’t know whether to feel relieved or pissed off.
Then, the front door opened, creaking, but it didn’t fall down like it had been doing all night. The Aurors really had fixed the door a lot better than he had managed to. He really had to get his hands on a wand at the very least.
“They gone?” Lorelei asked, poking her head through the cracked doorway. Below her, the blond crown of Rae’s head poked through the crack as well.
Nate nodded, and Lorelei and Rae entered their apartment. They had changed out of their pajamas into the expensive-looking designer celebrity’s kids’ clothes that only got taken out for church and when someone died. The two of them must have gone out through the fire escape. Lorelei would leave her home that way even when she didn’t have to.
“Is Delia home yet?” Lorelei asked, kicking her shoes into the kitchen.
Nate shook his head no. Up until then, the thought of where Ms. Macalister was had not even entered his mind. Lorelei made an observant hum as she took a seat beside him on the couch, a sound that seemed completely devoid of worry or concern over where her mother might be.
“Rae, go back to bed,” Lorelei ordered her sister in a soft tone as she took a seat beside Nate on the sofa. “It’s been a long night.”
In an odd display for a five-year-old child, Rae did not whine or complain. She simply nodded and made a loud yawn as she stumbled her way down the hall.
“Delia said she’d be home before five,” Lorelei said, though it seemed to be more to herself than to her friend beside her. “Although, with everything that happened last night, her flakiness is probably a good thing.”
“You look nice,” Nate complimented his friend’s appearance. “And you smell like church.” Incense, acidic wine, and fig perfume transferred from old ladies.
“Thanks.” Lorelei offered Nate a soft, yet exhausted-looking smile. “Do you want coffee?”
Nate nodded, knowing Lorelei would still brew whether he wanted any or not. Truth be told, he still could not stand the taste of coffee. All the adults in his life told him it was an acquired taste, and he could now stand to drink about three swallows of the brew before he felt like gagging. Lorelei, however, could drink coffee by the gallon. He wondered how long it had taken her to get used to it.
The morning news had started and Nate flipped to his favorite station: the one that had really liberal standards about what the weather girl was allowed to wear on the air. Soon enough, the apartment was thick with the smell of roasted coffee beans and the steam from the hot water had begun to create a light condensation over the entire kitchen.
Lorelei took a seat beside him and set her cup down on the coffee table to wipe a damp strand of hair out of her eyes.
Suddenly, the newly-fixed front door opened once again. The sound brought a reaction of panic to Nate’s body, but he relaxed once he saw it was a woman this time. Strands of brown hair flew all around her face in messy curls and she wore a short black dress that most women could only wish that they could still wear in public. She was wobbly on her feet, but in no way appeared drunk.
“Morning, Delia,” Lorelei greeted her mother without looking up.
Delia Macalister looked over to her daughter on the sofa with an almost puzzled look on her face, as though even at this point in her life, she still found it surprising that she even had children.
“Lorelei, you’re up early,” Ms. Macalister remarked, showing no annoyance that most parents would have felt towards their child using their first name. She rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes, smearing her black makeup from cheek to cheek like streaks of coal.
“Rae and I went to mass. Father Powell asked us when the three of us are all going to show up together.”
“When Father Powell is a single, working mother, then he can lecture me about my church attendance,” Ms. Macalister sniped as she glanced around the kitchen, pulling her heels off her feet. “Is there any coffee still?”
Lorelei pointed to the coffee maker, still having yet to make actual eye contact.
“Oh, Nate! It’s so nice to see you! Have you been here all night?”
“No, Ms. Macalister. I just came for breakfast,” he answered, even though he had actually shown up at the Macalister apartment six hours before breakfast had even been a thought.
Ms. Macalister had always posed several mysteries to Nate. She and his own mother had always been friendly with one another, but the age difference between the two women seemed to stop them from becoming truly friends. This, though, was not the sole reason why his best friend’s mother always seemed an arm’s length away from him. For one thing, in all the times he had come over to visit Lorelei, it would be a rare occasion for Ms. Macalister to be there as well. And this did not change after her divorce from her husband.
In many ways, Delia Macalister seemed more to Lorelei like a roommate than a mother. In fact, it was Lorelei herself that first made this observation to Nate.
“I think I’m going to take my coffee to my room and read the paper. Then I really should try and get some sleep. You girls and Nate don’t need a ride anywhere today, do you?”
Lorelei shook her head.
“School forms I need to sign?” she asked.
“It’s summer.” Lorelei snapped cynically.
“Money for groceries?”
“I went shopping last night.”
“Anything I might have forgotten?”
Lorelei took a moments to think. Ordinary teenagers might have used such an opportune question to garner extra allowance or permission to stay out late. Lorelei Macalister did not think like an ordinary teenager.
“Rae says her shoes are pinching her. I’m gonna need some money so I can take her to buy new ones.”
Ms. Macalister blew vapors of steam from the surface of her coffee and took a sip herself. “Are you going today?
“No.”
“Well, I’ll remember to leave you some money before I go out tonight.”
“I’ll leave you a note,” Lorelei told her mother.
“Has your father’s check come yet?” her mother asked expectantly, almost resembling a child asking how many days until their birthday.
“Nope.”
“Well, it will probably be here in the next few days.”
“Whatevers.” Lorelei leaned back against the sofa cushions, finishing off the last of her own coffee.
“I’ll see you later, Lorelei,” Ms. Macalister called to her daughter as she made her way down the hallway. “You and Nate have a nice morning.”
“Yup,” Lorelei answered.
From across the apartment, a door slammed loudly, soon followed by the previous silence the Macalister household had been held in.
“She didn’t notice anything was wrong,” Nate commented once Ms. Macalister had left with her coffee. “At least those British guys did a good job cleaning up.”
“Yes, that is officially the new Macalister family standard considering break-ins,” Lorelei replied. “They’re welcome as long as they clean up after themselves once their done stealing everything we own.”
Nate didn’t have an answer to that, so he just drank his coffee and made a face. It tasted like boiled erasers. “But it did sound like they believe this school exists too. That means they’re not going to be coming back at least.
“They won’t be breaking into your house anymore,” he added, thinking that would somehow make Lorelei able to see the positive.
“Too bad,” Lorelei breathed, taking a quiet sip of her coffee. “It was probably the closest thing Rae has had to parental supervision since…ever.”
“Oh, God!” Nate suddenly realized, the word ‘parental’ triggering a panic. “I haven’t been home all this time! I thought those dudes might come looking for me there, and I didn’t even call my parents! They’ve probably called the police, and there’s an Amber Alert, and the borders are closed, and there’s””
“Chill,” Lorelei stopped him before he could have a fourteen-year-old heart attack. “Your parents called my house the first night you were gone. I told them Rae and I had a visitation week with Walter in Boston and you were coming with us. It’s not like Delia will be hanging around to tell them any different.”
Upon hearing this news, Nate felt his heart rate slow back into a more comfortable pace.
“Thanks, Lore,” Nate said, grateful at first, but then eyeing his friend suspiciously. “What’s all this going to cost me?”
“You’re still not going to this Skat-place, right?
“Nah,” Nate answered, gagging on his last swallow of coffee, his taste buds informing him that he had had enough for one day.
“Good.” Lorelei took a long, relaxed sip of her own drink and reclined against the back of the sofa. Her cup was empty now, so Nate gave her his to finish.
Harry Potter and the Skat-Hatokha Reaction by OliveOil_Med
Chapter Notes: In the battle-torn Macalister apartment, Nate gives a statment.
Thank you, Joanna!