Chapter 10 is here, people! Hope you'll enjoy it :)


Friday morning was different from their previous mornings in the luxurious apartment, for three reasons.

The first was that Rachel was still not back, which made several of the girls think out several romantic scenarios and come up with ship-names for Rachel and the guy she had been out with and most likely gone home with; Sam. The guys were a bit more reserved when considering the situation, as were the girls not joining in the squealing.

That was the only fun and interesting difference. The second was that Ollivander was in no state to get out of bed. In fact he could not even move his legs. It was as if he was slowly fading away from them for a reason they could not understand.

The third difference that morning was that Godric was gone.

"He's not answering his phone", Maryse said after dialling the number they knew belonged to Ollivander's former apprentice.

"Where could he have gone?" Chris asked. "And why would he even leave?"

"I'm sure he'll be back", Ella said. "He doesn't seem like the type who runs away like that."

"Our most prominent problem today is that Ollivander is in no state to travel", Toby remarked. "We'll have no one at the café who'll be able to tell if a possible apprentice walks in."

"Do you think we might be able to guess?" Clarissa asked. "We know just about what age they should be in; maybe we could pinpoint some possibilities at least."

"If we had done that during the previous days we would have found more than fifty possible apprentices, not six", Indira replied. "That's the number of times that Godric's detection spell for people below thirty has activated, not counting our comings and goings."

"That's a chance of about one in ten guests", Catriona sighed.

"What if we keep the café closed for today, then?" Jade suggested. "Maybe Godric will be back tomorrow, or Ollivander might be doing better?"

"I don't think we can do that", Miranda said. "We need to find our apprentices as soon as possible and be out of that apartment so that we don't interfere with Emma's visit to it before she returned to Storybrooke. The sooner the better."

"Besides", Arianne filled in, "the amount of possible apprentices will certainly decline soon. I doubt all of those that we have found are here in New York for that long."

That settled it; they simply had to try to cope at the café without Ollivander or Godric there to alert them of possible apprentices. They had to figure that out on their own.


The first shift consisted of Jade, Filipi, Chris and Tessa. They were far more nervous today than on any other day, even than during the opening day, because of that now they would be responsible if they missed a possible apprentice, or several.

"Here we go", Chris whispered as the buzzer sounded for the first time that day. None of the others replied.

However, they were all surprised when the door to the café opened and Rachel entered, wearing the same clothes she had been wearing the day before. She smiled sheepishly at them.

"Good morning."

"What are you doing here?" Tessa asked, dropping the plate of cupcakes on the counter and hurrying over to the newcomer, followed by the three others.

"Keeping up my cover", Rachel replied. "In a way. I told Sam I live in one of the apartments here; living in a hotel for a year while studying doesn't seem economically ideal."

"Wait, Sam's here as well?" Jade asked, then rushed over to the window to peer down.

"He's probably gone", Rachel replied. "He was already late for work."

"I do wonder why", Filipi said and winked, causing Rachel to groan and hide her face in her hands.

"You'll have to tell us all about that later", Chris said, just as the buzzer sounded again. "Right now, we're in a bit of a situation."

"What situation?" Rachel asked and looked up.

"Ollivander's sick and Godric's gone", Filipi answered. "There's no one in the back to check for possible apprentices."

Rachel stared at them in surprise.

"Ollivander's sick? Is it bad?"

"He can't walk", Tessa replied, then grabbed Rachel's arm and pulled her into the backroom as steps approached out on the stairs. A middle-aged man entered and asked Chris for a coffee, black.

"What about potions?" Rachel asked. "Or healing spells, or herbs?"

"Not sure yet", Tessa replied. "Ollivander refuses to tell what he thinks it might be and there are a lot of things that might have caused this, according to Godric's books. We'll just have to keep an eye on him for a while."

Rachel nodded.

"So what's the plan?" she asked. "How are we going to find apprentices today?"

"We'll have to guess", Tessa replied, "and be lucky. Very lucky."


The morning continued, with most of the guests being far too old for qualifying as apprentices. On three occasions they gathered in the back room to discuss a certain guest, considering him or her as a possible apprentice, but in the end none of these three seemed to connect with them. Now they just hoped that they had not done the wrong thing.

At half past eleven Filipi buzzed another guest inside and they all listened intently as they heard the steps approaching. It seemed that whoever it was he or she was in a hurry.

"Business man", Jade guessed. A few moments later the door opened and a blonde woman stepped in. She seemed to be about twenty years old, with a round face and a wide mouth, her lips full and almost looking like they had been injected with Botox.

"Hi", she said with a wide smile, her eyes glittering.

"Hi, welcome", Filipi, who was manning the cashier, said. "What can we get you?"

"A large cup of strong coffee and a good story", the woman answered in a broad British accent. Then she held out her hand.

"I'm Imogen."

Filipi frowned, slightly confused, then took the hand.

"Filipi", she replied. "A coffee, you said?"

"Yep", Imogen said with a nod, "and a good story. I'm a journalist, you see, and I've been trying to find a some places to see in New York that aren't the typical ones you read about when reading about New York. And then I saw this café and I thought that's perfect."

"Wait, you want to write about this café?" Rachel asked and came out from the backroom. She had changed into her work clothes, but had so far remained in the back throughout the morning. Imogen now nodded.

"Yes. Who can I interview about it?"

"Well, I'd say all of us who work here have our own stories to tell", Rachel replied, "so the ideal thing might be to interview all of us. However, with our schedules that might be hard."

"I'm flexible", Imogen replied, "and I don't have to talk to you all at the same time. I can come back, you know."

Filipi glanced at Rachel, who looked back and nodded.

"Alright", she said, "I can start, if that's alright with you? I just need to finish up some stuff in the back."

"Brilliant", Imogen replied with a grin, then pulled out her wallet to pay for her coffee. "I'll sit... over there, in the corner."

She pointed while accepting the cup from Filipi, at which Rachel nodded. The moment she turned Rachel quickly put up the illusion by the counter, then signed to Jade and Chris, who were out in the café cleaning some of the tables, to join them in the back. Tessa was already there.

"You think she's one of them?" Tessa asked, frowning. "I think the guy we let walk out of here thirty minutes ago was more likely."

"Look, I'm not a hundred percent certain", Rachel replied, "but so far everyone who has been singled out by Ollivander as an apprentice has had something in common."

"British accents?" Jade suggested.

"Think about it", Rachel said. "Something that they all did when they came here."

"They wanted to stay", Filipi suddenly realized.

"Exactly!" Rachel said, sounding excited. "They've all had some excuse to remain here for far longer than anyone else, something that makes them want to stay."

"Hogwarts is their home", Chris said, catching on. "They feel a sense of belonging here, with us, because of the magic that surrounds them."

"It's not a bulletproof theory", Rachel said, seeing the sceptic faces of Tessa and Jade, "but it should give us less people to worry about than we've had earlier."

"I agree; it's a lot better than guessing and blindly fumbling about", Filipi said. "Let's..."

She was interrupted by the buzzer sounding again and quickly exited the backroom to buzz whoever it was in, breaking down the illusion as she waited and the others hurried back to their stations as well. Filipi seated herself opposite Imogen in the café and the blonde started asking her a series of questions about the place.

Then the door opened and two more women entered, one brunette and one blonde. Both of them were within the age range they had decided upon.

"Vera", the blonde said, looking around, "this feels... weird."

"What do you mean?" the brunette asked. Her accent was Scottish.

"I don't know", the blonde replied, "but something's off here. I just know it."


Feel free to review :) Next chapter will be a flashback chapter, like the prologue, where you get some information about what's happening in Storybrooke after Emma and Hook returned but this gang didn't.