There is nothing more exciting this side of the Appalachian Mountains than the Crafts Care and Novelties store at Ilvermorny, the North American Wizarding School.
Tucked away in the southwestern corner of the Ilvermorny grounds, Crafts is run by former student Morris Rubra* and an outwardly spiteful Pukwudgie named Ed.
Ed works during daylight hours, but tires throughout the day and promptly falls asleep on the spot at dinnertime. Morris gently lowers his friend from where he stands snoring to a bed in the back room behind the counter and picks up the night shift.
Morris is a master craftsman and alum of Ilvermorny who inherited the shop near the turn of the twentieth century from a long line of wand-makers and apprentices that, rumor has it, goes back to Isolt Sayre's Horned Serpent wands. Besides this, there are many members of the Rubra family that are No-Maj carpenters. Born to Quercus and Salicornia Rubra, Morris is highly creative, making his first wand at age ten and gradually improving its design until it matched even the quality of his father's products. He served as an apprentice to the previous owner of Crafts shortly after graduation and became notorious for his discount to anyone who brings him a scoop of hot chocolate powder from the small tavern down the street, which has its own share of regular customers.
The small store is warm and inviting, small like a trading post. Morris is seated at the counter opposite the entry. Ed can be found throughout the store at different times. When either is sleeping, they rest in a large chair in the back room, which is also surrounded by various books and reading material that is either clearly bent and tagged and annotated or otherwise pristine as if they were never read.
Morris keeps a bookshelf behind the counter full of transaction records and design notes that never seems to be quite full no matter how many volumes of scribbles he adds to it. The counter itself contains many prototype wand designs and supplies, including a large supply of dragon heartstrings and unicorn hairs imported from his British friend Ollivander. This is rumored to be the largest supply of those materials this side of the Atlantic. As such, there are several intricate protections that only Ed knows how to unlock.
Many of his most famous wands have been requests from eager students and even some Ilvermorny staff. Some of these include what at first appears to be an ordinary pencil (these sold out rather quickly due to their unassuming appearance and have since been a staple of the store, especially near exam time), tongue depressors for the medical team, small ladles for the chefs, and a special request from one student who Transfigured it into a sword and ran around proclaiming that he was the son of Poseidon.
Even Morris's own glasses, which fill his face and magnify his eyes to uncanny and almost frightening proportions, are said to have their own core just like a wand. No one has been able to confirm this, but Morris often writes and reorganizes his bookshelf without any other guidance from a wand.
In the 1990s, some mischievous red-haired Hogwarts students travelled by unknown means to Crafts and were so impressed by the store that they set up a similar shop in Diagon Alley.
Morris and Ed are always eager to chat, so stop by with some hot chocolate powder sometime soon.
*Morris Rubra (from morus rubra, scientific name for red mulberry tree, common in eastern US). Quercus Rubra and Salicornia Rubra are also names of plants.