Dottie looks over at Tina as they drag a couple of very large suitcases over a grassy field to a Renaissance Faire just outside Birmingham. She's still not sure why she allowed Tina to talk her into first buying a muggle house, and then actually trying to sell their wares here. But, then Tina has been living in Imber for many years, so she understands the muggle world a little better than Dottie does.
"Tina, why are we doing this again?"
"Don't you remember telling me about that Morgana lady, who was teaching Jimmy how to make better wands?"
"I do, but surely we'd be better off going to a magical market?"
"Maybe, but we don't know until we've been there, besides I've already paid a galleon for our stall, so it would be a shame to waste that money. What I was thinking is that you could practice your embroidery out front while I'm busy with fitting the dresses we've brought with us. But first of all, we need to look around to see how much other people are selling clothes for."
"Why? We know that a dress is two galleons."
Tina thinks for a moment, "I think that's roughly £10, but we don't know what they value it at. The last thing I want to happen is that we sell all our stock because we're too cheap."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
"Tina," Dottie hisses as she fingers a dress, "how is this worth 8 galleons?"
Tina smiles at the stall owner, "How did you get your stitching so neat?"
The stall owner smiles back, "Oh, I used my trusty sewing machine for that. The embroidery is all done by hand though, that's why I'm more expensive than everyone else."
"I see, thank you. We're about to set up our own stall, so maybe you'd like to take a look later."
"I'm sure I will, I'm sure I will."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
"Dottie, how long do you think it would take you to embroider a single colour bird, butterfly, or flower about as wide as two fingers?"
"Probably about 30 minutes, why?"
"Without magic?"
"Depends on if I break a needle or not, but still around that long."
"I didn't mean no magic on your tools, but to do the stitches."
"Oh, if I can put unbreakable charms on my needles and thread, then 30 minutes."
"Great, if I give you some swatches of calico, would you be able to start embroidering some different small designs on them. As you complete each one we can stick it on the price board, as things people can pay 1 galleon, no… make that £6 for you to embroider it on their clothes while they wait."
"I can't charge that, nobody would pay that! What are you going to be doing?"
"Gloves for 1 Galleon and 7 sickles, about £8 I think, and maybe some of those strange collars we saw, especially if you could embroider some patterns on them once I've cut them to size. I was thinking that I'd charge £5 for a made to measure, and £10 if they want it embroidered with one design. Also, if nobody wants to pay for your services, you can just work on your normal embroidery."
"I suppose. But, still I think we're over charging for this."
"If we are, then we've paid a Galleon to find out and also be part of this experience for the weekend."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
"This is amazing thank you. How did you get so quick at embroidery, and without a hoop."
Dottie looks up at her 6th customer while her fingers flick the needle in and out of the girls sleeve, "Practice, lots and lots of practice. I've done all the embroidery on the dresses we're selling while Tina makes them."
"Oh, wow! I've done a bit of embroidery, but nothing as complicated as that. How long do the dresses take?"
"These dresses probably only take me a few hours, if I'm doing something for the families like the Malfoy's, then it will probably take me a week. Longer if it's for a party."
"Wow, how long have you been doing this for?"
"Hmm, probably around 40 years. Of course, when I started a design like this would have taken me a couple of hours to get right. And you have to get them right, otherwise you don't get paid."
"I, um, wow. Erm, do you take commissions?"
Dottie looks down for a moment so that she can move to the next wing, "What do you mean?"
"Like, um, if I sent you a dress, could you embroider it and mail it back?"
"I don't know, I normally work with Tina on her dresses."
"Oh, right, you said that earlier. I've got a slot booked tomorrow for her to fit the dress I bought. I'm amazed that you're selling them for so cheap, the fabric is amazing and there's the undergarments that come with them."
"We're only selling the petticoats and slips, stays need to be made to measure."
"What are stays?"
"Um, feminine support with boning?"
"Oh, you mean a corset?"
"No, no. Corsets are only for formal usage, where they need to look good with the dress pinned in place around it. Stays are purely undergarments, and supply support. Both Tina and myself are wearing stays. If I was going to a party, I might wear a corset so that I have a bit more hip movement for dancing though. There you go, your butterfly is finished."
"Really, that's amazing, do you have a card that I can take?"
"Um, no, this is our first faire and we didn't know how well it would go. That will be um, 6 pounds, and I'll need you to vacate the stool for the next customer."
"Oh, sorry, here you go."
Dottie hands over 4 pound notes when she gets given a £10 note, and then writes it down on a sheet of parchment with a quill. Something that she's got used to before she got so busy with the embroidery. Glancing up at the sheet of paper that someone tacked to their price list with a list of names for embroidery, fitting, and chokers. Her own list already far longer than she could hope to do over the weekend.
"Rodger, rose on lapel?"
A young man in a poorly made jacket walks over, takes the jacket off, and sits down.
"Would you be able to put it here please?"
Dottie frowns, it would be on the jacket, wouldn't it.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Dottie grabs her mead and takes a long swig before looking at Tina, "Tina, we need help, and I need more red, black, and yellow thread."
Tiredly Tina nods, "You're right, and I'm going to have to raid my day stock. I thought I'd built up enough of a backlog for this. Maybe Rosie?"
Dottie nods, "I can see why you'd think of her. Though she's unlikely to move to Birmingham."
"One of us could side along her in the morning if she's game." Raising her voice, Tina calls over to the bar, "Oi, Buckling! Has Rosie been in yet?"
Rosie calls back, "Are you blind, I'm right here."
"Sorry, it's been a long day. Do you want to earn some money tomorrow?"
Rosie grabs her drink and sits down at their table, "What do you mean?"
Dottie mock glares at Tina, "Tina remembered something that Morgana and her children said about Renaissance fairs, so when we bought houses in Birmingham she found about a nearby one and paid for a stall there. Only, we've sold out of dresses, I've been working my fingers raw with embroidery, and we weren't able to make most of the chokers that people wanted."
"So what do you want me for?"
Tina takes a swig of her drink, "I'd like you to come with us tomorrow and take care of the money side of things, as well as measuring people up for chokers and taking the details we need to send the finished items to them."
"How much were you thinking of paying me? After all, I have Sam to think of too."
"Bring her along if you want, and I was thinking that after replacing my fabric stocks and Dottie's thread, everything else we take tomorrow could be split three ways."
"That doesn't help me."
"Oh, right, erm, Dottie is charging £6 for a small piece of embroidery. Gloves are £7, a 'choker' is £5, or £10 if it's embroidered, and £6 to have a dress fitted on top of the price of the dress. You'd need to take measurements for the chokers and gloves, as if it's as busy as it was today, we won't have time to make them."
"And how much are the dresses?"
"£40, though I'm going to have all of my day stock tomorrow so most of them are more expensive than the ones we've been selling."
Rosie whistles, "I don't go into the muggle world much these days, but I know that your work is worth much more than that."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
The next day is going swimmingly, after a slightly rocky start with needing to teach Rosie how to take measurements. Events conspire to upturn the applecart when Amelia Bones strolls up to them, wearing Celtic warriors clothing, and discretely flashes her badge.
"DMLE. Can I talk to you to in private please?"
Tina's eyes widen and she glances over to Dottie, who's in the middle of an embroidery, "Could you wait 15 minutes for Dottie to finish her current job?"
Amelia looks over, "I can."
During the 15 minutes it takes for Dottie to finish the current job, Amelia is approached 5 times to ask about her equipment and outfit, leaving her more than a little flustered. Especially, when one man asks if she knows Dr Danann.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
In the curtained off area, Amelia confronts the two witches, "Our detectors have been registering magic use here, so I'm investigating a potential breach of the Statute."
Dottie and Tina both raise their hands, "We've been careful to only renew the charms on our tools back here, when there's no muggles around. Course, we need to do the charms for Rosie's tools, because she doesn't have magic. Also, Sam, her daughter, was getting hot, so she got a cooling charm."
"I see, and what about the fact that Rosie is a muggle?"
"No she isn't, she lives in Imber."
"She quite clearly is a muggle, as she doesn't even have as much magic as a squib."
Dottie desperately says, "But she also already knows about magic, so she's not subject to the statute."
"You know that the court won't see it that way. Would you be willing to swear an oath to the fact that she lives in Imber?" Tina immediately draws her wand and lifts it, "That won't be necessary, but thanks. I'll be back in 30 minutes, make sure that they're both free."
Dottie and Tina share a glance as Amelia disappears into the mist, before going outside.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Rosie waits nervously inside the tent once she's found Sam, they've closed the stall for a late lunch, so that everyone can look around the faire before things start to close. Suddenly the director of the DMLE appears standing next to her. Stifling a squeak, she jumps away and looks at the woman nervously, is she going to leave with her memories intact?
Amelia instead kneels down in front of Sam, "Hi, are you Sam?"
Sam nods, "I am, are you going to make me forget?"
Amelia looks at the young girl, "Do you want to forget?"
"Not really, I'd miss my friends."
"Won't you miss them when they go to school?"
Sam shakes her head, "Not really, Mrs Kiddell said that she'd teach me embroidery, and Mr Cooper said he'd teach me to weave. Then my friends will be back during the evenings."
"Well, I need to remove the memories of everyone that doesn't have magic unless they have family that's magical." Sam starts to cry, so Amelia holds up an apple, "If you eat this, you will be given magic, but you must be a good little witch and take care of it, and practice the exercises I give you later. Do you think you could do that?"
Sam nods eagerly and holds out her hand, "I will, I'm a good girl."
"Alright, it tastes bad, but it will only work if you eat it all."
Sam fair snatches the apple and almost shoves it down her throat, only going just slowly enough to chew each bite two or three times. As she's doing that, Amelia holds another crab apple up to Rosie with a smile on her face.
When Rosie looks at her doubtfully, Amelia says, "I'll get my boyfriend to come and teach you both, and prove that he can actually teach children properly." Sam doubles over in pain as the apple starts to take effect, "This is supposed to happen, it's magic spreading through her body. Also, this is a one time offer, as Sam having magic covers you for the statute."
Hearing that, Rosie fair snatches the apple and is only a little more dignified than her daughter was, as she eats it.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
By the end of the day, both Dottie and Tina have earnt a weeks wages in two days, while Rosie has earnt a mere 3 days wages.