Hot Burrito #1 (Nova)

[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

With the students at Hogwarts free from school on their winter holidays, Samira had already Apparated outside the Pi Pâtisserie when she realized that maybe she should have chosen another time to come and purchase what she was there for. Granted, she had arranged for pick-up from Nova in advance and didn't really want to go to the trouble of sending her an owl to mention that she couldn't pick up her edibles at that time. She didn't really need her family to question what she was doing at the bakery, especially given that it was a family-run business with a good reputation. Nova just happened to have some… additional sales on the side.

Luckily, there weren't any other customers there when Sami walked in. It would make the conversation between her and Nova that much less awkward than it might've been. Though they sort of had to keep quiet about what the brownies were, they didn't have to dance around it quite as much, so that was helpful. Sami didn't see Nova immediately upon entering, though, so she hung back a step or two away from the entrance and off to the side, glancing at the selection of pastries, until Nova showed up.

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

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What her aunt didn’t know didn’t hurt her. Nova had been making extra sales on the side during her own free time and for friends of hers. She didn’t inherently think Decima would get angry at her since she never actually did any of these exchanges in front of customers, but she still had to be careful about it. Magical folk were always experimenting and taking potions of unknown effect, sometimes to their own physical and mental detriment, so she saw nothing wrong with making baked goods that muggles tended to enjoy and selling them to her peers that were interested in that sort of thing. Personally she liked that sort of stuff, whether it was by smoking or edible, and she had never been told not to by any of her family members. She was sure her ‘step-mother’ would have a few thoughts on it, but ultimately that woman held no control over what Nova did in her free time or at the bakery. The worst that could happen was having Decima tell her to do her sales after hours and not in the shop. But until that happened, she was going to continue to wheel and deal like she had been for the last few years. None of the people she sold to had let it slip and she liked it that way.

Today, Sami was supposed to swing by and get her order. Brownies, no less, which were about as innocuous of an edible as possible, and easily disguisable within the bakery. Obviously Nova didn’t keep the altered ones anywhere close to the regular ones she made because that would spell doom. With the store quiet though, she had no problem leaving out the small box that she had made up, and it was sitting next to the rest of the pick-up orders. Decima was already gone for the day so it was just the younger Vector running the shop on her own, which was starting to become a more frequent occurrence. She loved the freedom and trust that her aunt had in her with running the bakery.

Sitting in the back room and prepping work for the following morning, she heard the door to the bakery open with a jingle. Shifting one of the large bags of flour as she stood up and sped-walk to the front, she saw Sami standing in the shop. “Just you?” she asked as she peered into the store and saw that it was empty except the two of them. Quickly turning on her heels, she went back to where the box of brownies was and grabbed it. It was so much easier this way and in the off chance her aunt was working, it would avoid any questions if she handed over a box of brownies to someone. All it meant was losing out on the money since it would go into the cash register instead of her pocket. But that was better than the awkward questions about making pot brownies for customers.

“Can’t imagine Hogsmeade is busy this time of year, is it?” she asked Sami as she approached the counter and placed the box on it. Personally, she didn’t think she had visited the town once over the holidays ever. It was so out of the way and she had always been tied up here to even begin to think about taking a day off this time of year.

samira ali warsame ● 571 ● Fernando by Cher, Andy Garcia

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[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

It wasn’t long, however, before Nova emerged from the back of the bakery, checking, Sami presumed, to ensure that the coast was clear. “Just you?” she asked. That was still the case, as no one had walked in in the interim, and Sami gave a slight nod of her head and approached the counter before Nova was off into the back again. When she returned, she had a box of brownies in hand. It was poised to be a quick and easy transaction, as it needed to be. The more it is was ordinary, the faster it would be to avoid any questions. But simply taking the box of brownies, handing Nova her payment, and bolting would probably lead to some raised eyebrows.

“Can’t imagine Hogsmeade is busy this time of year, is it?” Nova questioned, setting the box down upon the countertop.

It wasn’t as busy as it could have been, Sami supposed, but it was still relatively busy. With the fact that the Hogwarts students weren’t confined to visiting on certain weekends, as they were during term time, it meant that there were a handful who were more eager to get their fill of Hogsmeade than usual. C’est La Vie, being one of the trendier boutiques, did get a lot of business regardless, but it also wasn’t everyone’s first choice. The price point tended to put it out of range for some of the students, from what Sami had been able to tell, too.

“It’s not brutal,” Sami acknowledged, expecting that it would be worse once the sales after the holidays came around. Diagon Alley and Horizont Alley were definitely busier, since they were more commercial than Hogsmeade was. She fished out the coins that she needed to pay Nova from her purse and handed them out to her so that she could take them. “Have you got many orders for the holidays?”

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

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Despite there being zero magical laws regarding what she was doing, there were muggle laws that she was always in violation of by obtaining what she needed for the baked goods. Luckily she had the ability to disappear at will, and if she really wanted to, for as long as she liked. That was the bonus to her life, and while it would be a massive let down to have to give up on her side hustle for a bit, she could live without it if need be. It still felt super-secret and sketchy making the brownies and then hand delivering them like this, even if they were ultimately harmless. She purposely made them by hand to avoid the side effects of her magic, which tended to amplify everything when she cast spells. There was still a bit since the stuff basically poured out of her whilst cooking and baking, but that was more manageable than using her normal cooking charms.

The small talk about the shops broke up the deal though, as their relationship went past buyer and dealer. She hated thinking of herself like that, despite it being exactly that. “Normal crowd I’d say. Gets worse right before school starts back up. All the parents went to send their kiddos off with boxes of pastries and cookies,” she breathed out as she leaned onto the counter heavily. That was only a few days from now, so pretty soon here it was going to be both her and her aunt baking full-time to get orders out. Which knowing from her own time at school, most of those boxes were empty by the time the Hogwarts Express reached Hogsmeade. Children had zero self-control over the Vector’s pastries, and that was only partially the family’s fault for that. “No offense to your boss, but I’ve always thought it was strange to have a store like C’est La Vie in Hogsmeade. It would do so much better here in Horizont or Diagon.” There couldn’t be that many students at Hogwarts that were shelling out money every month for new clothes they could only wear on the weekends. She didn’t really understand the thought process of being in that location.

samira ali warsame ● 367 ● Flash Mountain by Djo

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[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

Nova explained that it was the normal crowd. With the way that the school term was and the fact that nearly every magical child around attended Hogwarts from the age of eleven, schedules had a tendency to get very predictable. Hearing Nova mention, though, that there were parents who wanted to send their children back to Hogwarts with boxes of pastries from the shop made Sami feel almost jealous. Though she was glad to be free of Hogwarts and all of its rules, being a bona fide adult wasn’t everything that she expected it would be. That was life, though, she guessed, and at least she never had to think about writing another essay or—even worse—preparing for NEWTs. (On that note, maybe there were a few students deserving of pastries from the pâtisserie.)

It was obviously tiring, though, as Nova let out a huff and leaned onto the counter. “No offense to your boss, but I’ve always thought it was strange to have a store like C’est La Vie in Hogsmeade. It would do so much better here in Horizont or Diagon.”

Sami had to stifle a laugh at that. She understood Nova’s point, though being in more direct competition with somewhere as established as Madam Malkin’s would have made work worse for her, she assumed. There would have been even more people in and out to wreck the displays and leave makeup on the collars of garments. (Thankfully, magic made that easier to deal with, though it was still a pain.) “Yeah,” she agreed. “I’m surprised Adeline hasn’t expanded to Horizont Alley,” she agreed. It was prime real estate, and there were new shops popping up constantly. “Hogsmeade’s… Hogsmeade,” she said, not sure how else to describe it but sure that Nova would understand what she meant by that. “You know?” Hogsmeade was quaint and sleepy; it didn’t have the same excitement as London, except for maybe a third-year Hogwarts student running in with a permission slip on which the ink had barely dried. “Plus, it’s so creepy seeing the staff all the time…” Sami added, though Nova’s brother was among them. “I feel like I’d get detention for walking through the village with these,” she joked, motioning to the box of brownies.

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

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She apparently wasn’t the only one that thought Hogsmeade was a strange spot for a supposedly luxury clothes store. Even if that wasn’t what it intended to be, Nova viewed it that way. No shop with a French name was supposed to be taken without some level of understanding that it was quality. She would know, she worked at one. With the recent trend towards more normal businesses moving into Horizont, the oddities and ancient stores disappearing (finally), it absolutely could do with a second storefront or move to somewhere along the street. Considering the bakery’s prime location on the first corner, Nova had a pretty good feeling that she understood the flow of the shopping district better than most storeowners around her did. Certain places did better in different spots – like Fortescue’s being in Diagon or Honey’s Cat Café being in the slightly quieter Horizont. The quickly expanding and professional atmosphere of Horizont definitely fit a higher-end non-magical clothing store that catered to younger people. Because there was no reason for her to ever go to Hogsmeade unless she had a hankering for a special candy that only Honeyduke’s had or if she was meeting up with one of her siblings. And that rarely happened due to her own schedule.

“Trust me, I get it,” she responded in regard to Hogsmeade being what it was. The bakery, if it ever expanded with one Vector at each, would only be sustainable in the Hogsmeade location for the school year. Outside of that it would be a total money pit. They were far from being Honeyduke’s when it came to having the ability to ship out to other stores. Pastries and baked goods simply didn’t have that sort of shelf-life even with magic.

She laughed as Sami explained that it was weird seeing the Hogwarts staff around the town without being in school anymore. Nova sort of understood that. “My brother was teaching during my seventh year. Now that was weird. I never would have heard the end of it if I was baking like this back then.” It felt like she was always being watched, even if Archie didn’t mean for it to be that way. She could only assume that their younger siblings still felt that way, though her relationship with all of them was slightly more strained than it needed to be currently.

samira ali warsame ● 395 ● You Were Not There by Post Animal

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

Unfortunately, Sami had no control over where her workplace was located, especially not when it had been around longer than she'd been working there. It certainly was on the newer side of things, as Hogsmeade went, though. It wouldn't have been terrible if Hogsmeade didn't happen to be the one-stop location for nearly everyone who had anything to do with Hogwarts, though Nova's explanation that her brother had worked at Hogwarts even when she was in her seventh year made Sami realize that she'd had it a lot worse. It was probably close to how it had been for Shreya, she guessed, with her mother working as the school counselor.

"I've heard house-elves can get drunk on butterbeer, actually. Like, proper drunk," Sami noted, not that she had ever seen it herself to confirm. Her family didn't have elves, and it wasn't as though she had spent too much time around the ones back at school. She gritted her teeth slightly. "I'm, er… not sure what that would do to them…?" Picturing a high house-elf was certainly something, and it was kind of amusing to think about, but Sami wasn't sure that she cared to witness it for real.

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

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It had been impossible to avoid Archie during her seventh year, mostly because she took his class. At that level of arithmancy, that was no surprise at all, considering very few students took the class to begin with. Having a competent professor and someone that would help her with any questions at the drop of a hat was pretty nice, to be honest. From the outside she was sure it looked a bit like favoritism but that wasn’t her fault that her whole family had an obsession with numbers and the likes.

Her little daydream disappeared when she heard Sami say that apparently house elves could get sloshed on butterbeer. Now that was quite a statement, if she had ever heard one before. “No kidding?” Nova said in surprise. Her ‘step-mother’ had one, courtesy of her father before he went six feet under, but she had never conversed with the creature before. Knowing how that woman was though, the poor thing was probably worked to death constantly, if it was even alive still. Whilst morbid, her own husband died under mysterious circumstances. It wouldn’t be surprising if a house elf did as well. “I wonder…you know how a child having too much sugar can get them really hyper? If I had to bet, for house elves, their bodies process the sugar in the butterbeer as an intoxicant. Obviously candy wouldn’t do that to them because it doesn’t have enough. But pure liquid sugar like that?” Her theory seemed solid, though it was just that, a theory. Getting her hands on a willing house elf and doing rounds of testing between different sugary drinks and candies would be the only way to truly know, and she highly doubted that her step-mother’s house elf, if it was still breathing, would be allowed to be her test subject.

samira ali warsame ● 305 ● What A Time by Fickle Friends

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

House-elves probably wouldn't have been of much use to the people who kept (or "employed") them if they were drunk, Sami thought, so most people probably didn't care to test out whether or not they actually could get drunk. Nova considered that perhaps it was similar to how children could get hyper from consuming too much sugar, meaning that their bodies processed sugar as an intoxicant because it was essentially liquid sugar.

Sami nodded her head. Nova's theory made sense from what she had said, but did she honestly think that she had paid enough attention in any subject at school to know the answer to that? "Maybe?" The elves were small enough that too much of anything would probably do them in. "As often as people smuggled in firewhisky at Hogwarts," she said, because that was hardly a secret, "I don't think the school elves cared very much." They would have seen—and cleaned up the aftermath of—most of their parties.

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

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If any sentient creature within Hogwarts knew the most secrets, it was easily the house elves by a long shot. They handled all the cooking, cleaning, and general upkeep as silent watchers. Just doing students’ laundry and putting things back into their trunks would be enough to learn all the dirty little hidden things that students tried to keep to themselves. Second to them would be the paintings, but nobody really trusted what those busybodies ever had to say. They were bored out of their minds most of the time, so adding a little spice to their stories and rumors barely drew the attention of students or professors. Nova had always thought that the inhabitants of the moving paintings were a curious lot, considering how they still maintained a certain level of knowledge on their real lives and could continue ‘living’ as pieces of art. While confusing at times, she also had the ability to make food taste its absolute best, so there was clearly a lot more at play than the naked eye could see.

“They certainly didn’t care about my stash during my last two years,” she laughed. “Honestly, I think I only tried to act out at the end so that I could get on my brother’s nerves. Now he doesn’t really care that I do this.” The only stipulation for her side hustle? No selling to students. That was easy enough. What her customers did with their purchases after they left the bakery was none of her business. Nothing in the baked goods could seriously harm someone unless they had an allergy to tree nuts or gluten. If anything, engulfing a couple brownies would give a person more of a stomachache than a horrid high. In all of her testing she had never gone too far with anything she ended up selling, and none of her customers had complained about it yet.

samira ali warsame ● 316 ● Song by Artist

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[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

"They certainly didn’t care about my stash during my last two years," laughed Nova, a revelation that almost made Sami gasp. Trying to keep their whole conversation on the down-low, though, she giggled instead. "Honestly," Nova continued, "I think I only tried to act out at the end so that I could get on my brother's nerves. Now he doesn’t really care that I do this."

Sami nodded. "Luckily," she grinned, "my brother's not at Hogwarts until next September, and I can't say I've made plans to go back." Merlin, though, that would be a sight to see: Samira Warsame, of all people, as a member of the Hogwarts staff. "That's great that your brother is so supportive of your… entrepreneurship, though," she added. She was partially joking, but at least her brother wasn't going to rat her out for what she was doing.

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

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“Aww,” Nova fawned at the idea of being able to see a younger sibling start at Hogwarts after already graduating. All five of her younger siblings were in by the time it was time for her to leave, and her opinion on them hadn’t been the healthiest back then either. It was sort of hard trying to not feel betrayed over and over again, but her piece of shit father was dead so it didn’t really matter all that much anymore. Her ‘step-mother’ left her alone well enough, only skulking around right before the start of the semester with the little ones in tow, always making snide remarks before disappearing again for a few months. Contrary to what Harmony believed, Nova didn’t care about whatever inheritance had been left over. Hers was the store and there was nothing that woman could do about it. “Bring him by after he gets his wand. I can make a cookie to match it.” That was always one of her favorite times of the year, mostly because of the business, but like with the holidays, it seemed like most families were excited about getting the kids off to school. It was probably the complete lack of structure in her life at that time that made seeing it from the other side of the counter that made it seem that much more special.

When it came to her side hustle, or entrepreneurship as Sami eloquently put it, there really wasn’t much Archie could do about it at this point. No one was getting hurt by her products and she specifically made them for people she trusted. The only real loose cannon she was constantly worried about was the blabber-mouthed girl that worked at Flourish & Blotts. Nova had been in the same year as Mina, and seven years of carefully trying to step around the messes that girl made so that she also wasn’t lumped into the burn-out and fuck-up category because she liked smoking and edibles had been tiresome at times. She’d seemingly chilled out over the last few years but still stopped by way more often asking for more brownies than seemed reasonable for a normal bakery goer. And always at the wrong times too.

“I think his sense of what is dangerous and illegal is sort of warped from his years of being a Cursebreaker,” Nova reasoned. “But as long as I don’t sell to students, this whole thing is sort of ignored.” The last thing she needed to see was an owl cosigned by him and Professor McGonagall about a student being stoned in Arithmancy class on a cookie they had gotten from their older sibling that she sold regularly too. That would ruin her credibility, in her opinion.

samira ali warsame ● 458 ● Laid to Rest by Shadow of Intent

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

Nova gushed at the fact that her younger brother was almost old enough to start school at Hogwarts. Though Aaden definitely didn't think of himself as a little kid anymore, but Sami grinned at Nova's offer of baking him a cookie to match it. That would probably take a lot of effort on her part, but it would be cool. How many people at Hogwarts could say that they got baked goods custom made to look like their wands? Probably not very many.

On a less wholesome note, there was Nova's side business and her brother's thoughts on it. She mentioned that she thought that Archie's sense of what was actually dangerous and illegal was warped from having been a Curse-Breaker, which was, Sami thought, probably not untrue. Knowingly making a living out of stealing things that didn't really belong to you but had some sort of monetary value would do that. "But as long as I don't sell to students, this whole thing is sort of ignored."

"Ordering by owl post straight to the school would have been brilliant, though…" Sami laughed. "I'm not saying I'd have done it, but I'm not saying I wouldn't have done." Really, she questioned how she was never suspended from Hogwarts, though she had never been involved in anything related to the Dark Arts, either, and wouldn't have dreamed of it.

"Anyway, er…" Sami said, changing the subject, "I should probably let you get back to work…"

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

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Sami’s comment about owl delivery to Hogwarts brought up a great question: did the postal workers or the Ministry regulate any of that? She didn’t really want to be the one that tested it and found out the hard way. At the same time, magical folks were so caught up in making dangerous potions that could do the same thing as muggle drugs that it would make sense if weed brownies slipped by. A low dosage brownie had literally never hurt someone before and her argument could easily be that she shipped the wrong ones out, mixing them up with her personal stash. If she still had friends at school she could test it on, she definitely would give it a shot. Sending it to one of her younger siblings would absolutely get her on Harmony’s bad side, more than she already was. Like they wouldn’t be allowed to see she or Decima if that happened. “I definitely would have near the end…” she shrugged. “Anything to relax from studying. Merlin I was stressed out those final few months.” With other students not taking their exams as seriously as she had, her perception on what was important and what wasn’t had been extremely warped. The worst part was that she already knew at that point that she was going to be working at the bakery…so there really wasn’t even a point to acing her exams.

“Yeah, of course. Good luck with the holiday crowds,” Nova said. She could sympathize with that so much, and they were bound to get slammed on a few of the upcoming days. It happened without fail every year. As long as her aunt was here as well, then they could definitely tag-team everything. The impatience that came with the holidays meant Decima would work the counter and Nova would handle the baking. She wouldn’t have it any other way. “If you need anything else, just ring,” she added. “Especially if it gets hectic and those aren’t, you know, strong enough.”

samira ali warsame ● 335 ● Waking The Demon by BFMV

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[samira ali warsame]

Late December 2025
The Pi Pâtisserie, Horizont Alley

It wasn't a shock to hear Nova say that she "definitely would have" opted for a delivery of pot brownies towards the end of her time at Hogwarts if she could have received them via mail. NEWTs were brutal regardless of the subjects they were in, mostly since the students who weren't good enough to continue on were weeded out—no pun intended—by their OWL results at the end of their fifth year. The working world was different, obviously, but it was nowhere near what half the professors at Hogwarts had made it sound like over the years. Life outside of the school was no more dangerous than in it, to be frank, and working at C'est La Vie didn't exactly require Sami to use higher-level magical abilities.

Still, she wasn't trying to get sacked from working retail, and she was glad that Nova understood that, wishing her luck with the holiday shoppers. "If you need anything else, just ring," Nova told her. "Especially if it gets hectic and those aren't, you know, strong enough."

"Brilliant," Sami grinned, though she was pretty sure that she would be taking Nova up on that regardless. A little something to get her through the season sounded like a perfect idea. "See you."

nova hypatia vector