Candy Cane Lane (OPEN)

[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

December 20, 2025

Thinking that most people's first stop into the village for presents probably wouldn't be the candy store, Kaylee hadn't really minded the thought of taking on more shifts at Honeydukes over her winter break from Hogwarts. Would most of her friends be receiving candy for the holidays? Maybe Definitely, but it was worth it. She would have more money to spend on presents for her family, which really meant a lot to her after not having been able to go home for Christmas the previous year. Now that they were all together again, she was determined to make it the best Christmas that they had ever had. It was her last year in school, too, so she wanted to make it count. Hogsmeade basically looked like a Christmas card anyway, so it wasn't hard to get into the holiday spirit. She had put on a Santa hat as an accessory for her work uniform, and it seemed to put most people in a good mood. Then again, who could be in a bad mood in a candy store, really? It might have gotten a little bit tiring occasionally, but there were worse things than smelling like Chocolate Frogs and fudge at the end of the day.

"Bye! Thank you! Happy holidays!" she smiled to a group of first-years as they walked out the door with their purchases, clearly making up for the fact that they wouldn't get school Hogsmeade trips for another two years on their second day of the winter break. There had been a steady stream of customers since she'd gotten there that morning, but she had been working at Honeydukes for long enough that it wasn't really a bother. Kaylee was used to it, and she kept smiling as someone else approached the counter.

OOC: OPEN!

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

Cordelia had only been working as a photographer for the Quibbler for a few months now, and she was just as confused about what she was supposed to be doing now as she was then. Her first task had been to go to Hogsmeade and find a female leprechaun. After much debate and some decent photographs of the infinitely more common male leprechaun, she had returned with little evidence of females existing. And they liked that. She had always know the reputation of the magazine wasn’t exactly normal, but now she was seeing it first-hand. But the editor liked her and the work she did, and they weren’t pushy at all with how she completed her work. Their goal was to eventually get her to write articles, but Cordelia knew that she wasn’t made to be a writer. That was the reason why she took pictures. She could tell more through the lens of a camera than she could with words.

For whatever reason, her editor liked sending her on assignments to Hogsmeade. The task today was to find a yeti that had been rumored to live in the mountains behind the village and school. According to her editor, this was an extremely well known story that had been floating around for years. They even showed her the sources that stated so. Cordelia didn’t have the heart to tell them that the sources were all spoken to in the Hog’s Head, which was obviously always full of drunkards. She had done her own research on yetis, and they never showed up in this area of Scotland. Plus she had never heard of these rumors before either. Even though she wasn’t a social butterfly, rumors about dangerous creatures always spread like wildfire at Hogwarts. This was definitely not some old tale that had been floating around for decades like her editor was making it out to be.

Regardless, she went to Hogsmeade with her camera and spent the morning on the edge of town creeping along the craggy edge of the nearby hills. Other than a deer, she saw nothing. There weren’t footprints, signs of large animals, or anything else of significance. She ended up taking long shots of the hills, hoping to get a few good pictures of the snow covered landscape. If anything, the editor could slap one of these onto the article with a giant question mark in the middle of it. Or play ‘Where’s Waldo’ with a non-existent yeti in it.

The Quibbler was exhausting to the point that they had also forced her to wear an ugly sweater with their logo on it. Thankfully her camera fell in front of the lettering when slung from her neck, and her jacket was typically zipped all the way up to her neck. Basically she had forgotten she had the piece of free advertising on. That was why she didn’t understand the snickering from a group of students as they walked past her to exit Honeydukes. She had unzipped her jacket when she entered, having been blasted by the sickly sweet sugar smell of the store. It took a moment, until she turned and saw her reflection in one of the displays. The pinkish-purple letters of ‘THE QUIBBLER’ dancing on the lime green sweater certainly stuck out, and apparently students did still think it was a funny thing to laugh at.

Quickly grabbing a handful of candies that her mum had requested from her for Christmas, Cordelia rushed up to the counter so she could check-out and go home. At least that was her intention, because she slipped on a puddle of snow slush in front of the counter and reached out for a stand of candy canes, pulling it down with a crash as she tried to steady herself. She stood in silence as she stared down at the candy cane massacre she had just committed, red and white flecks of hard candy shattered all over the floor and her boots. Looking back and forth between the ground and the girl working the cash register, her mouth opened to form words, but she couldn’t find them.

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

December 20, 2025

Kaylee tried to maintain her usual smile as she saw a girl whom she recognized as having been in the year above her at Hogwarts enter the store to the laughter of some of the kids who had just left. She wasn't sure what was so funny at first, but she saw that the girl was wearing a sweater with "THE QUIBBLER" on it. It wouldn't have been Kaylee's first choice, but she had heard about The Quibbler and knew that the magazine was known for being a little… out there. The articles were always speculating about the truth of some conspiracy theory or another, it seemed, and she didn't really buy into that.

She did feel bad, though, that the other girl was being laughed at, and the blonde seemed eager to make her getaway before anyone else could notice her unfortunate sweater. The other girl was so quick about it, in fact, that she slipped and fell right before she reached the counter and took a display of candy canes down with her.

Unfortunately, Kaylee hadn't been quick enough to react except to watch in horror. Luckily, the blonde girl got to her feet without a problem, but there was still the matter of the candy canes that were now shattered all over the floor. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" she gasped, only then seeing the puddle that someone must have tracked in. Making sure that there weren't any other wet spots on the floor, she grabbed her wand and went over to the older girl and the candy cane mess, her Santa hat bobbing along with her. "Don't worry about the candy canes," Kaylee urged the girl. "Are you okay?"

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

Hogwarts and Hogsmeade had to be cursed ground. That was the only way to explain how often it was that she had fallen in both places. One could argue that she wasn’t exactly the most careful of individuals, and Cordelia wouldn’t dispute that claim at all, but it had gotten to a point where she had been fall-free for the last six months since graduation. Thank Merlin she didn’t trip during the actual ceremony. That would have been one for the ages. Unfortunately it seemed like her bad luck was back, and she was having difficulty deciding in the moment if that was because of how fast she was moving through the candy shop, or because the puddle of slush hadn’t been taken care of. It was incredibly easy to blame the shop for the tumble, but she secretly knew that it was mostly her fault for trying to book it in and out.

“…f-f-fine,” Cordelia mumbled to the cashier as she awkwardly stepped over the rest of the puddle. She could feel the cold of the melting snow starting to soak into the back of her pants, so she immediately pulled her wand out and cast a warm air charm at them. For a split second, she contemplated zapping the puddle as well, but decided that was the store’s responsibility. The cashier was obviously concerned by the conundrum caused by Cordelia, and she was saying something about not worrying about the candy canes. Cordelia had sort of expected to be paying for them since she had caused the damage, but maybe she didn’t have to anymore? “Are y-you sure? I-I can p-p-pay for them…”

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

December 20, 2025

The blonde girl told her that she was fine, though she still seemed shaken up by what had happened as she stepped to avoid the puddle in which she'd already fallen once. As she began to dry off the back of her pants, Kaylee went and siphoned up the puddle on the floor so that there wouldn't be a repeat incident.

The girl also asked if she was sure about telling her that she didn't have to worry about the candy canes, and it was apparent then that she had a stutter like Zen's. She could pay for them, she said, and Kaylee shook her head. Even though it would sting, she didn't mind having that taken out of her pay. It wouldn't have happened if the puddle hadn't been there, and it was something that she should have noticed before a customer fell.

"No. No worries. Really. It's my fault. I should've seen that there was water on the floor," Kaylee reassured her, and she didn't want her to feel self-conscious about her speech, either. She could understand her just fine, and she knew that it wasn't something she could really help. Aside from the fact that she needed to clean up the spilled candy canes, too, Kaylee was more concerned about making sure that the blonde was okay. "Do you, um, want a towel or something, too? I can go get you one," Kaylee offered, knowing that she could grab a clean towel from somewhere in the back for her if she hadn't been able to dry herself off completely with magic.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

She ignored the cashier when she said not to worry about paying for the fallen candy canes, and placed an eyeballed estimate of how many had been destroyed in the fall. It looked bad now that she was standing over them. Setting down the candies she was already intending to buy on the counter, she grabbed a handful of still intact candy canes and put them next to the pile. “Uhhh…th-this is a s-s-stupid question…b-but none of these have n-nuts in them, r-right?” she asked as she pulled her coin purse out of an inner jacket pocket and looked into it to see how much she had on hand. Most of the candy her mum had her grab was nut-free, but she didn’t know about the candy canes or some of the other things she had grabbed for herself. Spending Christmas with a swollen tongue and a jab of an epipen wasn’t exactly her idea of a fun holiday season. It was already tough enough having to turn away food at her new job. The cookies were especially dangerous.

“No, I-I t-took care of it already,” Cordelia waved off the offer of a towel. Thankfully the warm air charm was an easy one to cast in a split-second, otherwise she would have been running out into the cold Christmas air, with her pants immediately freezing onto her. She couldn’t really expect to sit around and wait for them to dry inside Honeydukes, because that would be weird. And there was definitely no way to make the run to the Three Broomsticks without ice forming. So taking care of it now was better than the alternative. “How much?” she finally asked, stealing another glance down at the mess on the floor that she had caused. With how much there was down there, she was already starting to think of scaling back on the gift she still needed to buy Lily. But she wouldn’t really care at the end of the day, would she?

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

December 20, 2025

The blonde girl hesitated again, more focused on the damaged candy canes than anything else. She started off by saying that she had a stupid question—not that Kaylee thought that she would find it stupid, really—but she checked to make sure that none of them had nuts in them. Though she didn't elaborate upon what she was talking about, whether it was the candy canes or something else, Kaylee inferred that she meant the candy canes. As far as the other items that the blonde had gotten for herself, too, Kaylee couldn't see any that she recognized as having nuts in them anywhere.

"No," Kaylee began, "I know the candy canes don't have any nuts in them, and I don't think that any of the others you're buying do." She paused, though, not wanting to speak too soon. "You might wanna check the labels, though?" she suggested. "I'm not sure if there are any other warnings on there, like if they're processed somewhere that also processes nuts or something."

Apart from the blonde's question about the possibility of nuts, she said that she had taken care of the effects of having slipped on the wet floor. Kaylee nodded her head, glad for the other girl's sake that at least she wouldn't be uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

"How much?"

"Oh, um, let's see…" Kaylee spoke, realizing that she had gotten distracted. She moved back to the cash register, adding up the cost of only the candy that the blonde had intended to purchase—and intentionally leaving out how much the broken candy canes would have been. She then relayed the total to the blonde.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

Right…she probably should have checked the labels. There were some newer candies – untested by her ability to break out in hives in keel over at the drop of a hat if not careful – and the rest were ones she knew were safe. The candy canes were a toss-up, only because she knew sometimes the muggles had ones that were made near nut-based candies in the factory. A little here and there wasn’t actually going to kill her, and thankfully these were only going to be eaten around her Healer mother. Still, it was uncomfortable and she hated having to take potions and charms to get any sort of allergic reaction down. Completely avoiding nuts wasn’t impossible, but it certainly limited what she could put in her body.

“Good p-point…” she stuttered as she started flipping the wrappers around one by one as the girl rang everything up. They all seemed to be in the clear, candy canes included, as per the cashier’s knowledge. Unfortunately that meant she had to stick to the more bland kinds, like what she would find in her grandmother’s house in the back of a cabinet; long forgotten and melted together in one giant clump of multi-flavored hard candy goodness. The only downside to that was chipping a tooth while gnawing on it, which she may have done once or twice over the years. None of the ones she was buying today could become that though, so she was in the clear from both shattered teeth and anaphylactic shock today it seemed.

The cashier pounded in all the numbers for the candy, and Cordelia stood still at the counter after finishing her review of all the ingredients. The total came out a lot less than what she expected a stand of candy canes to be, and she looked back and forth between what she had broken and what she was actually keeping. “Th-That’s it?” she asked while pulling out the meager total from her wallet.

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

December 20, 2025

Kaylee waited as the customer checked the labels on everything that she was planning to purchase. It really wasn't an inconvenience to her, though it did take a little longer than it would have otherwise to ring everything up. It was better that than if the girl were to have an allergic reaction to anything in the candy, so Kaylee couldn't say that she minded.

Once she was sure that everything was free of nuts, the blonde, in obvious disbelief, asked if the total she had relayed to her was it. Kaylee just smiled and nodded, not letting slip what she'd done. "Yeah," she assured her. "That's it." The other girl would probably figure it out after she left, she guessed, but Kaylee also wasn't going to accept any sort of payment for it after the fact, either. Her having broken some candy canes was no problem and an honest mistake. She hadn't been fooling around in the shop—and there were plenty of customers (most of them younger students) who felt that Honeydukes was the ideal place for their horseplay.

"Do you want a bag for this, by the way?" Kaylee then checked. She assumed that that would likely be easiest for her, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

Even if she was decent with positive confrontations like this, Cordelia wasn’t sure if she would know what to exactly do in this sort of situation. Despite there being a wet spot for her to slip on, it was still her fault for bringing down the stand that the candy canes sat on. She could have grabbed onto the counter or something else if she had been quicker about it. The distraction of having to check all of the labels of the candy she was buying had obviously given the cashier enough time to sneak by with the prices without Cordelia watching her punch everything in. There was no way she would win this fight even though she felt like she was responsible for everything that had happened. Her inability to deal with things simply wouldn’t allow her to, and it seemed like the girl meant well.

She still tried though. “B-B-But what about…” Cordelia pointed with her head at the mess that was half-cleaned up. Her money was already being pushed across the counter to the cashier though, and she was cut off by the girl asking if she wanted a bag. “P-Please…” She chewed on the inside of her cheek nervously as the exchange happened, still worried about not paying for her accident. If her mum had been there, she would have made her pay for it and probably forced the cashier to accept it regardless. “Are y-you sure? L-Like I said…I-I can p-pay for this,” Cordelia repeated herself. This was still part of everything she had been working on. Getting comfortable in uncomfortable conversations and dealing with mistakes she had made for herself. She was going to be purposely stubborn mainly because the cashier was letting her get away without paying for all of it.

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

December 20, 2025

Though the mentality of, "The customer is always right," applied under some circumstances, Kaylee wasn't about to let the older girl pay for a bunch of candy canes. She hadn't intended to wreck them; she'd fallen, and there had been a domino effect. The good thing was that she wasn't hurt, and Kaylee didn't want the blonde to have to worry about what had happened. It was water under the bridge. Still, that didn't stop the girl from trying to convince her to let her pay for the candy canes.

"Are y-you sure? L-Like I said…I-I can p-pay for this."

Even if she could pay for it without a problem, Kaylee wasn't going to budge as she put the girl's items in a bag for her, making sure to organize everything so that nothing would get damaged or crushed. "I'm sure. It's just a few candy canes, and I've got it," she reassured her, her voice taking on a little firmness, though she remained upbeat. Nothing bad was going to come of it. "No worries," she repeated, handing the girl her bag. She paused then, glancing at her. "Would it help if I walk with you to the door?" she offered, her voice lower to keep from causing the girl any embarrassment. "I'll check to make sure the floor isn't slippery."

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

Everything about this exchange was frustrating. She didn’t normally insist like she was doing, and if she thought about it, probably never had before. What if the employee got in trouble? Not only was the floor wet right in front of the cash register, but there was a loss of an entire rack of candy canes. It was a lot more than ‘just a few’ as the cashier was saying. Cordelia was more worried about the poor girl getting fired than about shattered peppermint candies and a few extra sickles disappearing from her coin purse. But she didn’t know how to express that. Her flustered words weren’t going to be any more legible if she did figure it out, and she didn’t want this to get to the point where she became indignant over the fact that it was her fault. Drawing attention to the situation would cause the owner to look into it, which she was sure the cashier didn’t want. At this point, it was probably going to be brushed under the rug, but Cordelia had a hard time accepting that because of how worried she was.

All she could do was nod her head and move on. As she took her bag of candy, looking down at all of the contents inside it, she noticed a few sprinkles of smashed red-white candy cane under her one of her boots, another pang of guilt rocketing through her. The cashier then asked her if she needed help walking towards the door – just in case there was more water on the floor and so she wouldn’t slip. Her face burned red instantly as she shook her head side to side. “N-N-No. I-I’ll b-be fine…” Cordelia whispered out, almost to the point of not hearing it herself. “T-Thank you. Happy Christmas,” she said a little louder and more confidently as she turned to leave the candy store, watching every step carefully as she did so.

[The End?]

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