Product testing (Open to Hogwarts students and teachers)

After a few letters back and forth with the shop owner, Louise found the time to visit the village and set up a small table outside with boxes and boxes of the sweets and chocolates she'd commissioned. She charmed a banner over the shop door which read 'Louise Grey's confectionery, testers wanted for feedback.' She smiled up at it and began pulling out some of the boxes, putting the sweets on display so people could look before they ask for samples. She had a small pen to keep her polar bear chocolates in, they seemed happy to walk around inside it, some poking each other out of the way to look up at passing students.

Next to them were small cups of ice cream, each with one or two even smaller bears climbing over the different flavours. On the other side of the table she had a small section of 'diabetic' chocolates and gummy sweets, all in animal shapes, the gummy snakes all had different coloured centres and at the moment two cobras were attacking one another, butting heads making themselves wobble. She giggled and pulled them apart so they wouldn't fight anymore.

She had various other experimental sweets around the table and a pile of feedback sheets lay just in front of her, with scoring boxes next to each sweet's name and a feedback box near the bottom so people could comment. She was especially eager to see if anyone could tell the difference between her diabetic sweets and the regular ones, she hoped they were alright, she'd tasted some herself after she worked on the spell to replace sugar in them. She'd used muggle sweetener but it was easily identifiable and not very satisfying, so she devised a spell that would create the exact taste but wouldn't be dangerous to diabetics because it wasn't really there.

All she had to do now was wait for people to show up, she knew most students all crowded into Honeydukes so that was why she left her table outside so it wouldn't be drowned out by the sea of sweet craving children.

Sweet list:

Having not expected owls at her stand Louise tried to find something suitable for the owls to nibble on, but neither stayed too long. She read the letter from Professor Newbury, she smiled at his request and put a box together of a few different sweets and chocolates and wrote the address on the package and a small note from herself hoping the girl liked them. She put the box in her bag so she could go to the post office later and put the payment in a side pocket.

The flowers were even more unexpected but she couldn't help but smile at the letter, she doubted Josh would have sent them, she wondered if he would come today? She put them in an empty, longer box and set them on one side of the table, charming the box not to fall over.

Kira tried to stay on top of the things happening in Hogsmeade and Greenswitch Village, especially if any of the new things involved chocolate. For weeks, nobody opened up anything involving chocolate, there was just a new owner for the Hog's Head. Kira knew the pub and figured anyone who owned it wouldn't be selling chocolates. Unless the chocolates were filled with alcohol, but even that seemed improbable. Finally, she heard of Honeyduke's having some kind of a new opening and she immediately made plans to go. In her excitement of tasting new chocolatey goodness, she forgot to ask whose the new products would be.

She graded homework on Friday evening and finished up the next morning as soon as she woke up. After hurrying with her breakfast, the Professor grabbed her coat and bag and walked over to the charming village of Hogsmeade. The witch always loved Honeyduke's and couldn't wait to try their new products.

When she arrived, she saw the new products were Louise Grey's, the student who passed out in one her lessons. A small wave of guilt came over her and suddenly, she was very happy she was here. At least she could help the girl sell chocolates.

Everything looked amazing and Kira was impressed with the variety of chocolates and sweets. "Hello, dear." she greeted Louise with a smile and looked around. "There's so many things!" she observed excitedly. She was glad there were sweets there without chocolate, so she could send some to Diem.

after looking up and down the street for students Louise turned towards the side that lead up to Hogwarts and smiled. "Hello Professor." She greeted cheerfully, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I've been working on these all week and Honeyduke's were happy to try them out, so long as I provide them with the feedback they asked for. I have sample cups here if you'd like to try anything before you buy anything." She explained and took out an empty box. "If you like anything I can put a box together for you." She offered, hoping her sweets would be well received.

She listened to Louise and nodded, taking the empty box. "Everything looks delicious... Can I try one of those bears?" Kira said, pointing at the pen with what looked like chocolate polar bears. For sampling, she got the things she's never had before, one of each and munched them happily. Everything was incredibly good and Kira was certain this was what heaven would be like.

"What sort of sweets would you recommend? I'm not big on them, but my daughter's allergic to chocolate and I want to send her a packet." she explained. "And I'd like one cup of cherry ice cream please, I know she likes that flavour. I'll just put a freezing charm on it before I send it to Salem." she said as an afterthought.

Kira looked around some more, making note of what she liked and what she liked slightly less. Thankfully, she didn't have to be careful with money and she could buy whatever she wanted. Now that she was working at Salem as well, she was getting two paychecks and even though she had Diem to take care of, there was still plenty of money left over.

"Of course Professor. The colour chart next tot he pen shows you the flavours, matching their noses." She explained and picked up the one pointed out and placing it in a cup for the Professor to try, and scooped some of the cherry ice cream into another tub and putting a plastic lid over it and casting a freezing charm on it before putting it to one side to leave in the box.

"The gummy sweets are new, the ones in the blue bowl are something else I'm trying, they don't have any sugar in them, I used a spell to make them taste sweet." She explained, and got one of the larger boxes onto the table to show the gummy cobras she'd had made. "I don't' recommend more than one they try to eat each other...unless you want them to mix flavours which would be interesting." She smiled and levitated out a red cobra and put it in the smaller box where it curled up to sleep.
"I'll put some card dividers in so they don't try to eat the Jelly geckos. they're friendlier and they have a fizzy centre."

She held one up to show Miss Reid, the belly seemed to be sparkling in the sunshine. "I also have a liquid spray sweet, I've seen muggles make something similar but you blow a bubble and it becomes a solid ball of gum and you can catch it on the wand to eat it."

She demonstrated by pulling out a small blue bottle, taking out the bubble wand and blowing into it gently. A transparent blue bubble floated around in the air only to land on the wand again and became solid. She dropped it into her hand and smiled, it looked like a gum ball that you'd usually find in vending machines.
"Would you mind filling out a feedback form Professor? The more I get back the more I can make of all these." She gestured tot he half of the table that held the chocolate items, while making a separate box for the professor herself.

As Louise passed the boxes to Kira she smiled and spotted Professor Harrington approaching and waved. "Hello Professor." She was surprised to receive a hug but gladly returned it and giggled after the ruffling. "Thank you. Are you here to try the sweets I made? Small boxes are five knuts, medium boxes two sickles, and a large box is one Galleon. Professor Reid just bought two boxes." She added with a wide proud grin. "I'm hoping more students show up."

Louise giggled at that and began putting together a variety set of boxes, making sure nothing was a choking hazard, and they could easily bite and chew the sweets. "Hopefully not too hyper, they'll get tummy aches if they run around after too much sugar." She finished tying a bow on the last box and made another one up for the oldest boy. "There, all done and ready for hungry kids." She pushed the boxes forward then ducked under the table and put one of her Cherry azaleas on top. "I'm sure one sweet wouldn't hurt Professor, since you bought so many it's free." She beamed.

Thana decided since she got to try Lolly Lou's lollies before they went out, she should go and actually see her friends stall, to see what others thought of it, and besides, it gave her a chance to go speak to one of her best friends. She walked from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, enjoying the stroll in her eyes. She walked to where she knew her friends stall was going to be, noting. As she walked in two teachers, "Hey Professor Azalea. and Professor Kira" she said, "Hey Lolly Lou!" Thana said to her friend, before walking around and giving her a hug. 'Lolly Lou" as Thana called her best friend, was the only person Thana felt comfortable having physical contact with. "How's it going?" she asked her friend. "I see people are liking your sweets!" Thana exclaimed, happy to see that people were buying and giving feedback!

Louise almost jumped out of her skin hearing Thana shouting her new nickname and returned the hug tightly. "Hey Thana, glad you could make it." She grinned then turned back to her Professor, blushing at the praise, then after scanning the card with the borrowed reader she waved goodbye to Azalea. "Anytime Professor." She smiled and picked up the rose, putting it in her hair before turning back to her friend. "You enjoyed the box of sweets I gave you then? Oh! How did Skye like his box?" She asked, excited to hear if the boy had been cheered up, Merlin knew he deserved it.

Something caught her eye and she spun around looking for it and if it were possible her grin only widened. She waved to Louise hoping he could see her. "Monsieur Clement, It's wonderful to see you, How is everything at home?" She asked, still not having moved from Thana's hug.

"You enjoyed the box of sweets I gave you then? Oh! How did Skye like his box?" Thana heard Lolly Lou ask, she removed herself from their embrace. "Of course I enjoyed them, unfortunately I'm not here for me, I still have a whole lot to go. You shouldn't of given me so much, you know I am a health nut! " she told her friend before noticing she wasn't alone with her friend. "Hello Sir" she said, she was always respectful, even to people she didn't know. She watched Lolly Lou's and this mans interaction. They were obviously friends, "Skye loved his box, so I am here to buy him another one. Doctor's orders" she said before continuing. "I am here to buy for Skye and Lucas, Two boxes of any sweets please. Oh and Skye and Lucas would both love to try the Polar Bears" Thana said. "Oh and the diabetic lollies are perfect, perfect sweetness" She told Lolly Lou, before waiting her turn.

Esperanza had a few coins left from Angelo, he had been the best basically-a-big-brother-even-though-technically-not-really-and-has-no-obligation-to-be-nice-to-the-poor-little-orphaned-street-urchin ever! He had consoled her after her last attempt to contact her mom didn't work. Angelo let her stay at his house for a couple nights, fed her, and then gave her money so she could buy some food.
She had been staying in the caves near Hogsmead and came down to get food from The Three Broomsticks. Espe didn't have enough coins anymore to be able to buy lunch, so she thought she'd get some candy. She had enough for candy.
Seeing a stand outside the shop Espe headed over to quietly observe all the people, and the little animal candy. Giggling quietly at the fighting gummy snakes, Espe started mentally choosing which ones she wanted to buy, and how long she could make them last. These animal ones had the added benefit of entertaining her while she waited for Laila to return so they could continue on to the next searching ground. Eventually, Espe would end up at Hogwarts, and then her searches would be seriously hindered. The 10 year old hoped to find her Mama before then.
Seeing a break in conversation Espe politely requested:
"May I please have two boxes of the gummy snakes and a box of the polar bears?" she gently held the coins out to the older girl.

((OOC: I hope its ok that I joined this thread, even though I'm not a student. I thought since she was buying candy it would be ok? I can delete the post if you want me to, no worries))

The playful scolding made Louise smile and she tried to look a little apologetic but it faded quickly. "Oh well if it's doctor's orders." Louise quickly put together some more boxes to give to Thana to take back tot he hospital wing. "Tell them both I said hello won't you?"

Louise giggled at Louis's little joke and shook her head. "This is Thana, Monsieur, the friend I wrote home about, Thana this is Monsieur Clement, or Uncle Louis if no one else is in hearing range." She added quietly, making sure they could both hear that. "Also, you're not old sir. Old fashioned maybe but it's charming." She grinned and began looking through her stash for something he's like, obviously it couldn't be messy or look silly. "How about the spray candy? It will just look like breath freshener but it's really sweet flavors." She offered him, lifting a small vibrant coloured vile with a spray top.

When the little girl spoke Louise jumped having not noticed her, being busy talking. "Oh of course you can sweetie." She smiled and then looked over the child, she looked like a good meal wouldn't go a miss. She looked around hoping to see if the girl's mother or father was nearby, she looked a bit younger than the first years did.
Louise made up the boxes anyway and after thoroughly chewing her lip pushed the little girl's hand holding the coins away. "You keep that little one. Where's your Mummy sweetie?" She asked, handing the girl the boxes and crouching down so she was eye level.

((OOC: How could I possibly say no? <3 ))

Thana just smiled slightly as she got the boxes of chocolates. She saw Lou give the girl the lollies without taking money, Thana smiled at Louise.. She was a kind person, "Well I have to go, Goodluck with the shop and goodbye Monsieur Clement" she said to the man who had been introduced. She pulled out her purse and paid for the boxes, "Will 10 galleons cover it?" she said, putting them on the counter. Thana knew it was way to much, but Louise deserved it, especially with all her hard work. "Just keep sending up boxes to Skye" she said as way of explanation, and indicted slightly to the girl, Thana had paid for hers as well. "Bye Lolly Lou!" she said before walking out with her boxes. Thana had an armful, but didn't mind.

"You keep that little one. Where's your Mummy sweetie?" She asked

Espe looked at her, it didn't feel right to just get the candy for free.  With Angelo helping her out, she didn't need the free food as much.  Seeing the conviction in the older girls eyes Espe gave her a big smile, dimples and all.
"Thank you so much! Can I do anything to help?" Espe thought maybe helping out would help make up for the free candy.
At the mention of her Mama, Espe felt her insides shudder a little, but determined to keep the outside looking normal and easy Espe shrugged in a 'no-biggie' way.
"My Mummy went into one of the stores down the street, she said I could go get candy, and then meet her back outside her shop." Espe was a little ashamed at how good she was at lying.  And with her last trip to Spain and the tracking spells failing, Espe was feeling like hope of finding her Mama was lost.  Angelo looked pained every time she brought it up, like he knew something she didn't...
'Next time,' Espe thought, ' I will find out what he's hiding'

((OOC: Thanks! You're the bomb! ))

Louise found this little girl absolutly adorable she couldn't help but smile brightly. While she put together Louis's box of treats and handed it over to him she spoke to the girl.
"Alright then. Well you can stay here if you like till she comes to fetch you. Hmm help you say?" She tapped her chin thoughtfully and smiled over to Thana and Louis before looking back. "Well I need to know if all these sweets are any good. Perhaps you can tell me which ones could be changed? Or.." She paused wondering how to word this. "How good are you at rhyming? I could use some help getting people's attention here."

She looked back to Louis, and grinned. "I don't think you could get chubby even if you wanted to Monsieur." She teased back just as playfully. When the galleons dropped onto the table in front of her she was going to protest but Thana was obviously not taking no for an answer so she wisely shut her mouth and put the money in the box she'd been using. "Alright, tell them both I said hello."