6 girls' stories at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each girl explores an aspect of a dark conspiracy bent on taking over the school and then the wizarding world of North America, but not if Thalia, Claire, Isadora, Sterling, Lizy, and...
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Ever since the previous year, Isadora had noticed the thoroughfare behind the stairs to the classrooms on the way to the great hall. No matter where a student was going, at some point during the day they were going to pass through that area. Except the Squib school, obviously.
When she first tried one of Üter's grandmother's secret recipes, she'd had a vision.
She was standing in the thoroughfare next to a table, decorated in tasteful desaturated colors, sort of a pale turquoise, silver, and white. White trays of various chocolates sat on the table behind her, as well as some clever wrought iron shelves. Üter was wearing a toque and pouring chocolate in a kitchen behind the table and Isadora was wearing a silver dress with a blue apron, smiling as she took money from one among dozens of students lined up to buy from her. Behind her was a twinkling silver sign, almost sighing, spelling the word of her shop: Joy.
Isadora wasn't planning to hang her hat on any Divination skills. At least Üter did wear a toque sometimes.
"I—I have to go to class," Üter said, trying to maneuver his short, pudgy body around the table without jostling anything, stuffing his toque in his pocket as he went.
"I put a book under the corner, it won't fall this time," Isadora said, glowering forward at nothing.
"Oh, okay! Good!" Üter said with a cheery smile. He toddled off, munching the handful of chocolates he'd swiped as he left. Isadora thought about calling out to him, and then changed her mind. He had been up all night mixing today's batch and had slept through breakfast. She at least owed him the occasional swiped chocolate, much as that idea irritated her.
She rested her face on her hands. The school was deserted. She'd taken a free period for this project if she could write up a report on it and show it was a successful use of her time, and all of a sudden worried she wouldn't have enough credits for the semester because at this point she'd have to turn in a blank piece of paper for her report. Behind her was a piece of paper on which she'd printed her shop name, Joy, in ugly block letters because what wasn't her forte was art.
Next to her was a chalkboard where an enchanted piece of chalk was doodling. It was a gift from her mother, who had a better idea of where Isadora could use a little help and did what she could to encourage her daughter. The chalk monitored how things were going and made recommendations on pricing based on customers who stopped by. Already three prices had been written and crossed out. The last price, laughably low, was being extravagantly rendered by the chalk. It was irritating.
"Knock it off," Isadora told the chalk. It screeched to a halt in the middle of a swirl, annoyed with her command, and dropped into the chalk tray.
She glared at the two stained baking sheets of chocolates in front of her. There was a bit missing where Üter had helped himself, and there were two rows of chocolates missing from where people had swiped a couple as they'd walked by to go to class. It was still early. Every day chocolates were swiped. That's how she knew she had a good product, and she even happened to know her prices were fair. Maybe it was a question of advertising, or her location. At any rate, she was going to be hard-pressed to break even by the end of the week, and she was fast coming to the end of her allowance. She shook herself, thinking of the gravity of this situation.
