The blessed last Friday arrived, and the Nyama building was suddenly one of the busiest places on the street.  Any time of the years where students were entering or leaving school en masse was a Statute of Secrecy nightmare in New York.  To minimize notice, the Department of Sorcery devised the least subtle cover up ever: Three parades a year.  One on the first day of school, one on the last, and a "holiday parade" the day the students get out for Christmas break(students came back from break in trickles, so it was less obvious).  

And so, distracting quite brilliantly from the swarm of teenagers leaving the Nyama building, a procession of incredible parade floats and balloons passed by the street.  To kill two birds with one stone, many of them doubled as portkey rally points.  A traveling student would walk up to the float, and would be given a portkey to touch.  And they would vanish as some part of the float obscured them from view, making the vanishing act look like part of the show.  Maybe a large costumed mascot "eats" the student, or maybe a procession of girls dancing with fans would flock around them.  The entire affair was striking, ostentatious, and more necessary than it would be anywhere else in the Wizarding World.  New York's high population density makes hiding magic difficult, and so the best way to do it is to make it look like part of a show.  The muggles expect to see amazing stunts every year, and so they don't investigate or wonder how it might have happened.  


Richard was watching the parade go by from the window in the main stairwell balcony, overlooking the Atrium.  Today he looked more plain than usual, the end result of a month that had been particularly stressful on him.  He hadn't bothered(or may have even had a difficult time) metamorphosing as of late, and so his usual glamour was absent from his appearance.  He wore a blue cable-knit sweater with the sleeves rolled up, as well as a worn pair of jeans and his only pair of sneakers, and he had a rather stuffed looking backpack slung over one shoulder.  

He was waiting for his friends to arrive so they could all take a portkey together to Vancouver.