Waverly stood under the flickering blue lamplight at the kitchen door of Calaveras. She wore a bomber jacket featuring a tangle of Chinese Fireball dragons. Her hair was in two thick braids at her shoulders covered by a slouchy black stocking cap. She smoked a tidy gillyweed joint.
From her pocket she withdrew what looked like a normal golden galleon.
[1] She flipped it over in her fingers - thank you History of Magic - then tapped it with her wand. It started to glow dimly, and Waverly pocketed it again.
She had summoned
Tam Handrow. They weren’t exactly friends but they didn’t need to be chummy for them both to make some gold.
It wasn’t long before the door creaked open and a tall witch with an apron stepped out.
“Going for a smoke,” she called back in. “Be back in five.”
“Heya, Tam,” greeted Waverly.
Tam didn’t light a cigarette, but instead drew a brick-sized paper-wrapped package from a small bag at her hip. She handed over an envelope as well, sealed with black wax.
Waverly opened her satchel and reached for it, but Tam pulled it back and tisked at her.
Returning the correction with a pert look, Waverly traded for it with a heavy sack of gold.
Tam looked impressed.
“Damn, Roh, you moved it all. Where are you selling?”
Waverly shrugged smugly. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Yeah, I bloody well would,” Tam replied sternly.
A bit more cooperatively, Waverly replied, “the clubs. Magic and mixed.”
Tam narrowed her eyes and took a step forward. She was a big witch. Protective usually, but not one to mess about. “I hear you sell even
one to a muggle, we’re done.”
“I know the rules. I check wands,” Waverly insisted. She knew better than to get forty yards from the Statute of Secrecy. Not a single dart. Not even a puff. Tam relaxed a level - it was important her littles knew their place in the arrangment. Trouble rolled uphill.
“What’s this?” Waverly held up the envelope.
Tam eased up and arched an eyebrow. “Something new.
Lumos. It’s, uh,
enlightening. Euphoric hallucinations and that. Well, most of the time. Very potent. Lasts about six hours.”
Tam chuckled. She’d tried not a few times. “Trust me, it’s the shit.”
It was Waverly’s turn to be impressed. So far she’d only been dealing with gillyweed which was tame as you could get. Tam was trusting her with something heavy. (Waverly’d asked for Muse in the past, but Tam didn’t have access; locked down by another group.)
“Is it illegal?” Waverly asked.
“That going to be a problem?” Tam seemed to be getting irriated with her newest, youngest partner. If she couldn’t handle this…
Waverly shook her head and scoffed. “Of course not.”
“Good. Because if you get caught with this shit, you’d better forget my name, understand? Get it?”
“Got it.”
“Good.”
Waverly put the envelope in her bag, then asked, “How much?”
“Three galleons each tablet,” Tam replied. “Feel free to sample. No need to thank me. Pop off now. You bother me.”
Waverly sniffed. She made sure her bag was secured then Apparated away.
[Jan 15] It Makes You Lighter [Snapshot]