December 17th, 1892 - this event
Clifford Hillicker

Daff was thrilled to be involved with Mr. Hillicker's event today. Not to mention she loved a good tree farm and everything to do with Christmas trees specifically. Not to mention it was good for business! Having her shop name on the event meant she might get more traffic in the shop itself. She'd worked hard on getting a ton of wreaths, boughs and decorations made, everything from completely done wreathes in multiple sizes to plain ones that could be personalized or put together by their exact requests on site. She had enough ribbon, berries and pine cones to sink a ship. Daff had also learned a charm to make everything look frosted with snow, even inside! She had even gone so far as to rope Elias into helping and lo and behold, he had shown her how to make something new, out of twigs of course, but she adored the different hues of the woods mixed in with sprigs of winter flowers and evergreen branches. It was something different and she had duplicated several to sell at the shop as well.

All in all it was a delightful turn of events for December. Getting everything to the tree farm had been a bit of a challenge, but she made it with everything miniaturized for transport early in the day, well before everything else was set to start so she could set up shop. "Mr. Hillicker!" She called as she spotted him after a few moments of wandering around in a enraptured haze.

She jotted up to him, cheeks pink from the chill in the air and the excitement. "Where would you like me to set up? Do you need any help setting anything else up? This place looks fantastic!" She knew Mr. Honeyduke had taken care of the treats and hot cocoa, which he was renowned for, but they had designed so many little places to stop and enjoy something new that Daff could hardly contain her excitement! Merlin she couldn't wait until everybody showed up! Perhaps she'd take a little tree home for her flat and a miniature one for Elais' workshop too. She hoped he'd be able to make it later, when he was done working. There was so much fun to be had today!

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Cliff was anxious today. He hated having people on the farm as it was (and really, people only included Imane and Algae), and the fact that he’d invited hoards of people to stomp through his property was nerve-wracking. Plus, what if no one showed up? Cliff didn’t have many friends, and the couple he did had promised to swing by, but two people (three, really, if he counted Ida, which was a stretch) weren’t going to make this event a success. He should just cancel it. That was the best option. Give Mr. Honeyduke back his sweets and pay him for the cocoa because his sister already had a chocolate mustache from sipping it.

Miss Potts’ voice broke through his haze and he turned toward her and blinked. Then blinked again as he caught her smile; Cliff shoved his hands into his pockets and frowned at her. If anyone was going to stop by it was going to be for her, as pleasant as she was to be around. “Good afternoon Ms. Potts.” He shuffled his feet as tilted his head to the side. “I have some space set aside for you near the entrance, so people can see everything when they first come in, and decide if they need anything else before leaving. Wasn’t sure what you needed, so there’s a booth and a thing with some hooks to hang things. We can move things around if you need more space.” Sure she had told him, but sometimes words went in one ear and out the other; there were several places along the way for her to display her work. Algae had dropped by a couple days prior to help him move some things around for Miss Potts, as well as what Mr. Honeyduke had provided.

“I still need to light the bonfires and make sure the hot cocoa is heated through.”He mumbled, running through a mental checklist. “Uh… thanks.” Cliff shuffled his feet again. “Think people will actually make the trek out?” He did live in the middle of nowhere.

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The following 1 user Likes Clifford Hillicker's post:1 user Likes Clifford Hillicker's post
   Daffodil Grimstone

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[Please feel free to hit Cliff at your leisure; he probably deserves it.]

Daff's breath fogged before her as she let out a delighted laugh. "What a good idea!" She chirped cheerfully. "I've everything right in here." She said about the oversized carpet bag that she had magically (both figuratively and literally) fit everything into. It was a lot.

"I'm sure I can make it work." Daff was a bit of a Jill of all trades in many respects. Too many hobbies and interests both in school and after led her to have a strange collection of capabilities in her repertoire. One of which was that she was very good at making things look presentable. Magic certainly helped and she knew all the tricks and charms to bend things to fit her vision; or work with whatever it was that she had to make it look nice!

Though it appeared that Mr. Hillicker was a little apprehensive about their chances of success today, Daff had few worries. "It will be wonderful! I closed shop and left a sign on the door and my sisters have information at the florist in Hogsmeade. Everything will be delightful!" Daff was convinced it would be perfectly fine. Even if she hadn't had this much faith in her own shop, Daff thought today was rather novel and something a lot of people would enjoy. "Once I get all of this set up, I can help with whatever else needs to be taken care of?" It wouldn't take long at all, a few flicks of her wand, some rearranging, nothing terrible.

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Cliff let out an uncomfortable laugh and suddenly he wished Algae was here to help Miss Potts instead of being wherever he was hiding in Irvingly. His friend was much more of a people person than he could ever wish to be, and he’d probably just smile and offer to help the woman. But he wasn’t Algernon, and instead he shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back and from his heels to his toes. His eyes trailed toward the bag she’d brought and he nodded. It looked large and he could only imagine what kind of things were inside of it. Everything. Cliff had seen her shop and it made his head spin.

“Do you erm… need help setting up?” Clifford wasn’t good at magic (something that probably drove Ida absolutely insane even if she’d never said anything about it, but they had decided she was the brains, he was the brawns and they could share the beauty.) He was tall, probably a half giant because his mum had never uttered a word about who his dad was, and could easily put up decorations.

Cliff stopped rocking as he cleared his throat, watching as she seemed to glow; Miss Potts certainly thought this was going to be better than he did, and while it didn’t ease the panic he felt in his chest, he tried to force a smile for the girl. “Yeah. I have a few friends who plan on stopping by —” Friends. Plural. Look at him. “My sister is buzzing with excitement, so when you see a blur of a child or feel someone creepily staring at you, it’s just Meena. She’s harmless, I swear.” Well, mostly harmless because she was a Hillicker after all, but he wasn’t going to get into that. “There are some fairies about, so I hope you didn’t bring that Bowtruckle. I don’t want them fighting” He knew Bowtruckles ate fairy eggs and he hated them. He still had plans to stomp on it. “So, what do you need me to do? Then I can probably use your help.”

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[Please feel free to hit Cliff at your leisure; he probably deserves it.]

Daff nodded along as Clifford explained about his sister and her space to set up. "Watch out for the tiny blur child and the fae, got it." Of all the things to need to worry about. She chuckled at the description. "Twiggy is safely tucked in her cherry tree at home." Despite the chill in the London air, the cherry tree on the roof hosted her bowtruckle and Twiggy seemed quite content hidden among the branches. Daff hoped to find her a couple of companions so she wouldn't be lonely, though the only other person she seemed to like was Elias. "I should have brough Winston though, he would have loved this." Her corgi enjoyed being outside in the snow almost as much as he liked sleeping.

"Let me get everything out and then perhaps you can help me arrange everything. Unless you would like to take care of whatever it is you need help with first? I'm flexible and I can probably handle setting up by myself." Once everything was out of her carpet bag, she would be able to rearrange and decorate the little booth with all of the things she had brought so that people could see what she had to offer. Then perhaps they should probably set up the supplies she had for people to decorate their own wreathes.

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Pleased that the stupid bowtruckle wasn’t on his farm, Cliff nodded, although his thoughts drifted to a cherry tree, and maybe how he should plant one. He had an apple tree plus a small vegetable garden for feeding himself and his siblings. Yeah. After this, that’s what he was going to do. “Winston?” He arched an eyebrow at Daffy. Sounded like a dog’s name. (As did Clifford, apparently.) He loved dogs but he couldn’t afford to keep one, although it was becoming harder and harder to deny his sister one. Hopefully today will drum up some business.

“Yeah. Put me to work. I’m pretty much done with what I need to do. Unless you cocoa?” He didn’t host a lot of people. In fact outside of Algae, who had just started appearing one day when they were both at Hogwarts, he didn’t invite anyone over. Algae rooted through his cabinets and took what he wanted, although he highly doubted Daffy wanted to do the same. “You can give it a test run. Make sure it’s hot enough.” For some reason Cliff cared about today going well. And it was making him nervous — a feeling he flat out didn’t like.

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[Please feel free to hit Cliff at your leisure; he probably deserves it.]

"My corgi," Daff chuckled. "He's quite the character." A lot of attitude in a little body. "Cocoa does sound delightful, but let's get all set up first." With is help it wouldn't take long at all. She could poke and fix and rearrange to her heart's content once it was all at least put up.

"I do want the full tour too, this place is utterly enchanting." A tree farm! She had to wonder if she could sneak Elias out here to take a look. He would probably love this. Daff pulled her carpet bag to her designated spot and started unloading. She could start picking his brain all about the trees while they set up and then really get down to business.

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