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To start Minding Your Own Business—also called the Haunted Hogsmeade Shop quest—finish the main-story progression through Fire and Vice (the third Keeper-trial stage), reach the in-game winter season, and visit the boarded-up shop in Hogsmeade. Penny, the house-elf sweeping outside, gives you the quest. Cassandra Mason then offers the shop for 1,500 gold.
The quest was originally exclusive to PlayStation, but the June 2024 Summer Update made it available to Hogwarts Legacy owners on all supported platforms. If Penny is not outside the shop, check the update, your season, your Fire and Vice progress, and your gold balance.
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What you need before Penny appears
The game uses several conditions for this quest rather than a single level requirement. The documented gates are story progress, the in-game season, and the current game update. Have all three in place before searching Hogsmeade.
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| Check | Required condition | How to verify it |
|---|---|---|
| Story | Fire and Vice completed, representing the third Keeper-trial progression | Review your completed main quests and continue the Keeper storyline if this trial is unfinished. |
| Season | Winter has started in your save | Continue the main story until the world has moved into winter; Penny appears shortly after winter begins. |
| Game version | The June 2024 Summer Update or a later update installed | Let your platform finish updating before loading the save. |
| Money | 1,500 gold for Cassandra Mason’s shop offer | Check your current gold before traveling to Hogsmeade. |
A community wiki has listed level 18 as a possible requirement, but the stronger official and walkthrough sources do not establish a universal character-level gate. Do not grind to a particular level if the documented story, season, and update conditions are already satisfied.
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- EXPLORE AN OPEN WORLD. The wizarding world awaits you. Freely roam Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, and the surrounding Overland area.
- BE THE WITCH OR WIZARD YOU WANT TO BE. Learn spells, brew potions, grow plants, and tend to magical beasts along your journey. Get sorted into your house, forge relationships, and master skills to become the witch or wizard you want to be.
- EXPERIENCE A NEW WIZARDING WORLD ADVENTURE. Experience the wizarding world in an unexplored era to uncover a hidden truth from its past. Battle against trolls, Dark Wizards, goblins, and more as you face a dangerous villain threatening the fate of the wizarding world.
Step-by-step: starting Minding Your Own Business
1. Complete the Fire and Vice progression
Advance the main story through Fire and Vice, identified by walkthroughs as the third Keeper-trial stage. This is the story gate associated with the quest. If the trial is still active or has not been completed, Penny will not be the reliable starting point yet.
Quest availability is tied to completed progression, not merely having accepted the mission. Finish the objective chain, return to normal exploration, and then continue toward the winter season. You do not need to search every Hogsmeade shop while this prerequisite is incomplete.
2. Reach the winter season
After the required story progress, continue until winter begins in-game. The official Summer Update announcement says Penny appears shortly after the start of winter, so the trigger is seasonal as well as narrative.
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →If your map still reflects an earlier season, traveling repeatedly to Hogsmeade will not force the quest to appear. Advance the story that moves the calendar forward, then revisit the town after winter is active in the save.
3. Travel to the boarded-up shop in Hogsmeade
Enter Hogsmeade and head toward the town’s eastern or southeastern area. Look for a shop with its entrance boarded up. Penny is outside, sweeping near the storefront. She is the start NPC; Cassandra Mason does not begin the quest directly.
Use the building itself as your landmark rather than relying only on a quest marker. The shop may look inactive because it is boarded up, but Penny’s presence signals that the seasonal trigger has fired.
4. Speak with Penny
Interact with Penny and accept Minding Your Own Business. The conversation sends you to Cassandra Mason and changes the objective from finding the starting NPC to arranging the shop purchase.
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If you see Penny but no quest interaction, confirm that you have completed the relevant Fire and Vice progression and that winter has actually begun in the current save. A visible NPC without the expected dialogue usually indicates an unmet progression condition rather than a missing shop location.
5. Meet Cassandra Mason and bring 1,500 gold
Follow the objective to Cassandra Mason. She offers the Hogsmeade shop for 1,500 gold. The purchase is the financial entry point to the haunted-shop sequence, so keep that amount available before starting the conversation.
The 1,500-gold figure is the shop price stated in the Gamer Guides walkthrough. It is not a recurring fee, subscription, or published estimate of your total quest expenses; it is the amount Cassandra requests for the purchase.
6. Clear the haunted-shop sequence
Accept the offer and complete the quest objectives that follow. The sequence is a substantial side quest, and published guides do not provide a reliable measured completion time, so plan to play through it rather than expecting a short conversation-only unlock.
When the quest is complete, the shop becomes yours. You also receive the Shopkeeper cosmetic set. The official description says the shop lets you sell items and gear at better rates than elsewhere, making the reward useful after the story sequence rather than merely decorative.
Where exactly is Penny?
Penny stands outside the boarded-up shop in Hogsmeade, in the town’s eastern-to-southeastern area. She is sweeping with a broom, and that activity is the visual clue used by the official announcement and major walkthroughs.
- Enter Hogsmeade after winter has started.
- Search the eastern or southeastern streets for the boarded storefront.
- Approach the house-elf sweeping outside instead of trying to enter the shop first.
- Talk to Penny to receive the quest objective that leads to Cassandra Mason.
The shop’s boarded appearance is intentional. It is not evidence that the location is inaccessible or that you have found the wrong building.
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- Explore an Open World - The wizarding world awaits you. Freely roam Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, and the surrounding Overland area
- Be the Witch or Wizard You Want to be - Learn spells, brew potions, grow plants, and tend to magical beasts along your journey. Get sorted into your house, forge relationships, and master skills to become the witch or wizard you want to be
- Experience a New Wizarding World Adventure - Experience the wizarding world in an unexplored era to uncover a hidden truth from its past. Battle against trolls, Dark Wizards, goblins, and more as you face a dangerous villain threatening the fate of the wizarding world
Why the quest is not showing up
Most reports of a missing quest map to one of four checks: platform update, story progress, season timing, or cash on hand. Use the order below so you do not spend time searching for a character before the game is ready to spawn her.
| What you observe | Most useful check | Action |
|---|---|---|
| No Penny at the boarded shop | Winter has not started | Continue the main story until the winter season begins, then return to Hogsmeade. |
| The save is still before the third Keeper trial | Fire and Vice is incomplete | Finish that progression before expecting the side quest to trigger. |
| The game is an older installation | Summer Update is missing | Install the June 2024 update or a later version, then reload the save. |
| Penny appears but the purchase cannot proceed | Gold balance | Accumulate the 1,500 gold Cassandra requests and return to the objective. |
| Older guides say the quest is unavailable on your platform | Outdated exclusivity information | Use the updated game. The June 2024 update opened the quest to all supported platforms. |
Check the update before troubleshooting the save
The Summer Update changed availability, so older installations can produce advice that no longer matches the game. Close the game, allow the platform update to finish, and launch the updated version before judging whether Penny is missing.
Verify both story and season, not just one
Completing Fire and Vice alone is not enough if the save has not reached winter. Conversely, reaching winter without the required Keeper-trial progression does not establish the documented story gate. Confirm both conditions in the same save.
Do not treat a level number as a universal fix
Some community material mentions level 18, but the more authoritative availability descriptions do not consistently establish that as a requirement. If your story and season are correct, prioritize the update and location checks rather than farming experience solely to hit that number.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Platform availability after the Summer Update
Minding Your Own Business began as a PlayStation-exclusive quest. Official 2024 update coverage announced that the Haunted Hogsmeade Shop quest would be available to all Hogwarts Legacy owners on supported platforms. That means current PC, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation players should follow the same story, season, location, and gold checks after updating.
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The change is important when using older walkthroughs: a pre-update guide may describe the quest as unavailable outside PlayStation, while that restriction no longer describes the updated game. Platform ownership by itself is not the trigger; the Summer Update and the in-game progression conditions are.
“After downloading the Summer Update, players will find Penny the house elf sweeping outside this building shortly after the start of the winter season in game.”
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- We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for the response to Hogwarts Legacy from fans around the globe. The team is working hard to deliver the best possible experience on all platforms and we need more time to do this. Hogwarts Legacy will launch for PS4 and Xbox One May 5, 2023.
- EXPLORE AN OPEN WORLD. The wizarding world awaits you. Freely roam Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, and the surrounding Overland area.
- BE THE WITCH OR WIZARD YOU WANT TO BE. Learn spells, brew potions, grow plants, and tend to magical beasts along your journey. Get sorted into your house, forge relationships, and master skills to become the witch or wizard you want to be.
- EXPERIENCE A NEW WIZARDING WORLD ADVENTURE. Experience the wizarding world in an unexplored era to uncover a hidden truth from its past. Battle against trolls, Dark Wizards, goblins, and more as you face a dangerous villain threatening the fate of the wizarding world.
Chandler Wood, Avalanche Community Manager, quoted by Xbox Wire on June 6, 2024
Managing the 1,500-gold requirement
Cassandra Mason’s stated price is 1,500 gold. The game does not present this as a level check, and paying it starts the shop-purchase portion of the quest.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute- Check your gold before traveling to Cassandra so the objective does not stall at the conversation.
- If you are short, sell surplus equipment and items through the normal game economy, then return to the quest objective.
- Do not confuse the purchase price with the later benefit: the shop’s better selling rates apply after completion.
No dependable published statistic establishes how long the entire quest takes. Guides describe it as lengthy or substantial, but without a measured completion time. Reserve enough play time to finish the sequence rather than planning around an unverified minute count.
What completion unlocks
Completing Minding Your Own Business gives you ownership of the Hogsmeade shop. The official description identifies two additional benefits:
- You can sell items and gear through the shop at better rates than elsewhere.
- You receive the Shopkeeper cosmetic set.
These are completion rewards. They do not replace the prerequisite to meet Penny, and they do not make the shop available before the quest is cleared.
A reliable decision path
When the quest is absent, use this sequence instead of repeatedly circling Hogsmeade:
- Confirm the game has the June 2024 Summer Update or a later update.
- Confirm that Fire and Vice, the third Keeper-trial progression, is complete in the current save.
- Confirm that the in-game season is winter.
- Travel to the boarded-up shop in eastern or southeastern Hogsmeade.
- Look for Penny sweeping outside and speak with her.
- Follow the objective to Cassandra Mason and bring 1,500 gold.
If all six checks pass and Penny still does not offer the quest, reload the updated save and revisit the location after another piece of normal story progression. The documented conditions remain the useful baseline; an exact universal character level or completion-time target has not been established by the stronger sources.
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