Chapter 107: The Slip, Hoverboard, Leader (2/2)
”Oh, this? This is a hoverboard,” smiled Quinn, leaning forward that made his speed increase and overtook Eddie.
He rotated after he got past Eddie and faced him while moving and was now moving along the board's breadth instead of the length.
”It uses similar charms employed to make brooms. Though I have made changes to them. This baby isn't as fast as a broom and can only hover a few feet above the ground, but it has much better control with a silky smooth ride. And if you can hold onto it, you can scale any surface as it can grip onto surfaces while hovering over them. It is pretty easy to control it by shifting your weight to change speeds and brake.”
Eddie looked at the hoverboard painted in Ravenclaw colors with fascination and wonder.
”Holy shit, this is amazing! Are you planning to sell these? I want to buy one,” asked Eddie as he continued to run.
”You can have one,” smiled Quinn before saying. ”But, I am not going to sell these.”
Eddie looked up at Quinn's face and spoke in surprise. ”But why?! This will probably sell more than brooms. I think parents would buy these instead of toy brooms. You have to sell these.”
”Don't you think I thought of that? I already know if I sell these, they will fly off the shelves. But I can't sell them,” sighed Quinn before revealing his reasoning. ”If they go out, people will stop walking. And that is how people get fat.” He looked at his feet and declared. ”This invention of mine is too dangerous for the magical kind. I'm doing this for the sake of the world.”
Brooms were big and long, so people didn't use them in their daily lives. But Quinn's hoverboards were small and compact. If he sold them, Quinn was sure that obesity would increase among the magical kind. People would stop walking and literally stand on his invention to get places.
”Also, this looks almost exactly the same as the non-magical skateboard. I'm sure that most of the governments would ban it because if people bought these, one of them could easily get into the hands of a non-magical person.”
”Then change the shape into something else, problem solved,” shrugged Eddie, without realizing that Quinn was very slowly increasing his speed, and he was subconsciously trying to keep up with it.
”I know that, but as I'm not going to sell these, I don't need to. I will change the shape of the one I'll give you, so it won't cause you trouble.”
The only reason Quinn had brought the hoverboard out was that he was injured and needed to act like nothing was out of place. The first thing he did in the morning was the workout with Eddie. And Quinn never skipped a workout, so to make sure that Eddie didn't notice anything was wrong with him, Quinn decided to sacrifice Eddie's comfort by pushing his workout intensity up a notch while pretending to be a trainer monitoring him.
”Now, come on. Move those legs. I want to see enough sweat to fill a glass, but remember to stay hydrated.”
Eddie groaned as he picked up the pace. ”This sucks!”
”Yeah, show me that spirit! Whine more if it helps, I don't care.”
”You suck!”
”Aww, thank you for the compliment.”
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- (Scene Break) -
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Rivers Lock returned from his low-level clerk job at the ministry to his humble home. He opened his letterbox to check to see if he had some mail waiting for him. Taking out the contents, Rivers shuffled through the various pamphlets, advertisements, subscriptions and some personal letters.
”Hmm?”
Rivers looked at a cheap envelope with nothing written on it, not even the sender's name or who it was addressed to.
He opened the envelope and retrieved a folded parchment with words written in untidy scribbles.
As Rivers read the parchment and his eyes widened in shock. He immediately folded the parchment, looked around the street, and hurriedly entered his home.
...
Inside his home, Rivers sat down on his dining table. And once again read the letter that was left in his letterbox.
”This is fascinating. I didn't know this existed,” muttered Rivers to himself as he re-read the contents. ”The Shrieking Shack has a secret passageway that opens up beneath the Whomping Willow!”
Rivers Lock, pureblood, was a man in his mid-twenties who worked at the ministry as a low-level clerk. His daily job was collecting the memos from his office area and charm them into airplanes, so they would reach their destination across different parts of the office. A job that caused him to face a lot of abuse when someone didn't get the memo or pretended to not get the charmed memos.
It was a menial and repetitive job that had no scope of future progress, and Rivers only did it because he needed to pay the bills.
On the personal side of his life, Rivers lived a lonely life, alone without a significant other or even a pet. He didn't have much contact with his family because they liked his older brother better because of his more noteworthy ministry job, while he was stuck as a lowly clerk.
That was the Rivers Lock, which was presented to the public for everyone to see. A person with low self-esteem, who didn't stand up for himself, let others walk all over him, let others take advantage of him, didn't know how to socially navigate a work environment... someone others wouldn't give a single look of significance.
He was just another face in the crowd, forgotten after a single glance.
In actuality, Rivers Lock was anything but how he showed himself to the world.
A person with low self-esteem? No, Rivers Lock was a person with overflowing confidence in himself and pride that he was better than others.
He wasn't a person who didn't stand up for himself. If you crossed Rivers Lock, he would make sure that things would come around to bite them back. He didn't forget easily and held grudges.
It would seem that others were taking advantage of Rivers, but it only was because Rivers did nothing about it. If he wanted, they would end up losing instead of taking advantage.
He wasn't a socially inept person. Rivers knew exactly what he was doing. He made sure that people wouldn't give him another glance, that they wouldn't think of him as competent. It was all just for show.
All of it was a façade so that people wouldn't find the real him. The real him that the world wouldn't accept because they couldn't understand him.
So Rivers Lock hid away and put on a mask, something that wouldn't gain him much attention, so that he wouldn't have to pretend much. He didn't make friends because that would be more pretending. He didn't get into relations because he wasn't interested. His family didn't seem to take an interest in him, and that was fine with Rivers.
But, unfortunately, or fortunately, Rivers found that he couldn't hide his authentic self. He needed an outlet that would let him vent the things that were locked away.
To achieve that, he created Novellus Accionites.
Somewhere he could be himself but at the same time remain in the shadows.
Rivers knew what he was doing, and because of that, some Aurors or even some members of Novellus Accionites knew who he was.
He was able to control an entire terrorist group without ever revealing his identity, not a single aspect that would point out that Rivers Lock was the one who started Novellus Accionites.
And right now, the anonymous leader of Novellus Accionites was sitting on a vital piece of information that allowed him to get inside the castle, which was said to be the most secure place in the country.
Rivers rubbed his finger over the bottom of the parchment, and while he considered the information in the letter extremely useful, he didn't like the fact that this letter was delivered to his home.
The sender had somehow figured out his identity that he had been able to hide from hundreds of people and the authorities that were out to get him.
”Peter Pettigrew,” muttered Rivers with a flat voice as he stared at the sender's name at the end of the letter, with not a single emotion on his face.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Rolling on a hoverboard with style.
Ivy Potter - Smarter of the Potter twins - Conflicted with the knowledge.
Eddie Carmichael - Passed the tryouts - ”I hate moving!”
Rivers Lock - Leader of Novellus Accionites - Anonymous
AlanL - Editor - So Quinn doesn't want people to get fat, huh? He's soo noble…
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