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+----- Thread: PLOT: The Sweet Collapse : Butterwand Black Market (/showthread.php?tid=1130)
PLOT: The Sweet Collapse : Butterwand Black Market - The Narrator - 06-30-2026
30 March
Friday, 8:00pm
Friday, 8:00pm
What started as a handful of students complaining in the dusty clocktower before Christmas, quietly escalated into something much more organized. As a group, students took on roles, jobs were delegated, inventory grew and sales skyrocketed. It took time, but the Butterwand Black Market’s business was booming.
While some students acquired the candy, others handled storage and inventory. Orders were placed within common rooms, classrooms and parchment passed quietly in the hallways. Coins changed hands with the expert slight of hand of a seasoned magician.
For a time, the business was very successful.
Of course, most businesses experienced setbacks.
The staff was relentless in their pursuit. Not only did they want to find the candy, but it was clear that a group of ambitious students was in the middle of the mayhem. The staff responded with determination with surprise inspections, dorms searched, trunks emptied, book bags turned out, mail was checked and the nooks and crannies of the castle searched. More than one hiding place was found and emptied.
The students adapted. Caches were relocated. Then moved again. And again.
One week a stash might be tucked behind loose stones in the dungeons. The next it had vanished beneath a floorboard, inside an enchanted teapot, or into a magically expanded knitting basket that no professor thought to inspect.
Not everyone escaped unscathed.
Several students found themselves caught carrying contraband.
Detentions became routine, with evenings spent writing letters home, cataloguing confiscated sweets, and assisting Professor Blackwood in the soul-crushing task of sorting and destroying thousands of pieces of candy.
The operation carried on regardless.
Meanwhile, beyond the castle walls, another battle was quietly unfolding.
Rather than simply destroying every sweet that crossed the school gates, Hogwarts staff began working directly with Butterwand & Co. Recipes were scrutinized, ingredients tested, suppliers questioned and the facilities searched in an effort to discover what had caused the candies’ unusual side effects. Their goal was not only to stop the black market, but to solve the problem at the source.
Weeks passed.
The investigation slowly began to uncover problems.
As production stopped and existing stock was confiscated a new problem emerged.
Supply.
The candy became increasingly hard to find. Butterwand & Co. no longer had stock while they switched suppliers and tested the product. The only candy left was hiding in dark corners of the castle and disappearing quickly.
The occasional Rainbow Pop Lolly or Velvet Cloud Truffle became the subject of whispered negotiations. Naturally, prices climbed. Steadily.
A single piece of candy could now fetch several Galleons, completed homework assignments, favors to be collected later, or secrets more valuable than money. The black market was no longer growing. Every remaining sweet had become worth its weight in gold.
((OOC: Welcome back to the Butterwand Black Market. During this meeting any number of things can happen. Fighting between members, discussions about stock levels, rumors of students selling regular candy and passing it off as B&C sweets, anger over hoarding, trying to plan the theft of the confiscated candy, etc. etc. etc. Any and all students are welcome. If you have questions please find Professor Blackwood.))