Marriage is Murder

Steven looked at Michael " yeah, he found the guy who had killed his mother, he'd been intercepting everything I sent to him making him think I wasn't sending anything and had forgot him, I think he was after Andrews money but that's dealt with " Steven paused and took a deep breath in " Andrew killed him, it was self defense I was there and saw it and I'm not just saying that" he aid and looked at him his stance showing he meant his words " I hope I cleared a few things up in that respect but I think he felt you would get angry at him for it, he kept referring back to his...father, if I can call him that" Steven said

"Dennis Diamond was a bastard," Robert said, "Out and out. I found his criminal record in the Ministry. The aurors knew him very well for just about every crime you can think of. I haven't told Andrew all of that because my thought was that Andrew would wonder if he would inherit his father's genes. The money seems that, regardless of what Dennis said, was old money of Andrew's mother's that she inherited. Dennis battled the wizengamot for it after she died under mysterious circumstances. They gave it to him, and when Dennis died, it fell to Andrew. Andrew seems to have inherited far more of his mother than his father. And, personally, I do wonder if Dennis Diamond really even was his biological father. There is some question about that. Something nebulous in his parents' past about a love triangle, but we may never know the truth about that.

"At any rate, I am more relieved than you can possibly imagine. But I am going to go order the staff to go seek every inch of these grounds to make sure the protection net has not been penetrated. Theyre going to hate me for that, you know. Ordering every available staff member out into this weather. Cant' be helped. Students have ministry tracers on them. We need to be sure he wasn't traced. I tried to turn his trace off before I left the ministry, but I don't know if Zada Forbes has been that thorough or not."

Steven was relived but he sighed at Roberts words " then its good job he's dead or I'd put him there myself " he said and took a deep breath " I wonder if we could find out " he asked " and yeah there not going to be happy but jack and I will help as well " he said " let me just say hi to Cassidy and I'll find Jack and get his sorry butt out to check, if that's true did you do John as well " he asked knowing he probably has. Cassidy sat in the kitchen with a hot cup of coco and some marshmallow's dropping them in one by one.

Robert found Brian refilling Khaat's little energy potion bottles from Robert's large one in his potions lab. Robert frowned deeply.

"She still needs that?" he asked.

"Yes," Brian said. "She' starting to do pretty well with it, but she's a mess without it."

"Alright," Robert sighed. "I need you to leave that to me. I need you to head up a detail with every staff person we've got to go check every single inch of our protection net since Andrew left."

"I already braced them that would be coming. They're dressing now and getting ready to go out. They know to look for any signs of any tracers trying to penetrate. I'm going along. I'm not letting Khaat go. She's not strong enough and she's too vulnerable to catching a cold."

"Good," Robert said.

"But I am going," Kate said from behind Brian. dressed to face the bitter cold and the deep snow. "I can still wield a wand. I'm going. And so is Angus and Kieran and Fi. We've got just about every person we have here going. "

"Just stay warm," Robert told her. "Take Andrew. Let him find out what to look for. And wake up Michael. He'll be pissed off if we leave him behind."

"Will do," Brian said. "Kate, can you find Andrew?"

"Of course," Kate said.

Steven smiled seeing her sat there " well mine not ready?" he asked an she smiled up at him.

"you'll get yours when e come back in mister" she said and she chuckled as he moved to hold her tight against him " ok lets go and search" she said and picked up her winter coat and slipped it on while Steven slipped on his own again. Taking her hand he moved out side and over to the group that were gathered Jack and Jess moved with them too hoping not to find anything that would cause interest but they could understand Roberts worry.

Brian put on his heaviest winter coat and a pair of thick heavy gloves designed for subzero conditions. He borrowed one of Khaat's winter neck scarves, unable to find his. He found a burgundy colored one that wasn't specifically feminine and he added a tan suede Stetson.

Angus met him at the bottom of the stairs. He was dressed to go. "Is Khaat coming?" he asked.

"No," Brian said.

"Did you tell Robert everything?"

"No. Not yet. He'll find it for himself, I"m sure."

"You should have told him, Mate. She can't go on leaving 2/3 on every plate and not have us notice. She's lost her tan, and she's getting dark circles under her eyes. I catch a gimpse of it when I deliver the coffee in the mornings to your room before you both come out---before she has that glamour spell in place that hides it. How much are you taking in her clothes on her?"

"Shhh. Not here. I'll talk to you later."

"That's what I thought. If you dont' tell him, I will. He needs to diagnose what's going on with her. ASAP."

"I know. But lets get this lot together and do first things first."

Kate came downstairs with Michael and Andrew in tow, both dressed to face the bitterest cold. "We're ready. Where is everyone else?"

"In the large dining room, awaiting our fearless leader's instructions," Angus said.

John ran down wrapped up warmly " I'm coming too " he said and stood with Andrew and Robert and smiled at them " I want to help " he said "besides dad and cassidy are out there so should I " he looked at them and aperated out to Steven who smiled at him.

" does Robert know your out here? " he asked looking at John who nodded and he raised an eye brow.

" sort of " he said and looked back at the house " I told them I wanted to help " he said and Steven sighed.

" ok well wait and see what Robert says but if he says go back you go back got it" he said and saw John nod he agreed.

Brian recruited his staff and divided them. He saw that Andrew and John both wanted to go. "If you two go, you go in a pair. Andrew, you know the spell, right?"

"Yes, Sir," Andrew replied.

"Show it to John. I want you two to stick together like you were bewitched with a sticking spell. Under NO circumstances are you to leave the other. Not unless your life depends on it. And if that happens, I expect to see red sparks from your wands. I expect sparks if you see any sort of hole or irregularity in the net."

He turned his attention to the entire group. "Adults--use purple sparks. If you see green sparks? Those are mine. Those are your signal to return to the house immediately, no matter what. And--if you see red sparks, you go. You drop everything you're doing and you go. You all have been assigned a number of grids to inspect. Check carefully." He accio'd a clipboard to each one of them. "You will find each guard house has a grid list like this. When you finish your grids, leave your clipboards with your documented reports at the guardhouse assigned to protect your area. Owen will be picking up the clipboards and checking the paperwork and then turning them into me. And for pete's sake, don't forget to sign the bloody things. That just drives me bananas when you don't sign them.

"When you finish, you'll find there will be a large kettle of hot spiced cider and one of Kate's special recipe cocoa in the Great Hall--not the dining hall--in kettles on the hearth. Make sure you go get some and warm up. Does anyone have any questions?"

Steven looked at Cassidy and the others taking a clip board he looked at John and Andrew and saw John nod he would stay with Andrew. John looked at Andrew and sighed ." ok so whats the spell ?" he asked taking a clip board he looked at it " this way ere behind the barn " he said and walked towards it his wand out in front of him not that he could see much in the snow that was now falling around them , " I don't see anything do you? " he asked Andrew as he walked the length of the barn

Andrew showed John the spell to reveal flaws in the net and showed him how to either spread the beam of the spell out to cover a bigger area or how to concentrate it to perhaps look deeper at a suspected flaw in the protection net. He showed him what the net normally looked like when it was revealed--like a white sparkling haze that covered the air over the property. And a flaw generally looked like a hole in the net. At the edges of the property, the net needed to completely touch the ground. Things like doors, holes, caves, etc, needed to have extra coverage because they could be vortexes for penetration.

"So far, the net looks strong," Andrew said. "And any other color above the net is a spell trying to get in. Other colors inside the net are spells that have already gotten in. And, well, a hole is a hole, no matter how you cut it. John, you can't tell anybody you know this spell. Its an advanced spell for NEWTS. But you hang out around Robert long enough and, well, he sort of rubs off. Hanging around Brian gets you the same thing. Its not bad, but you do have to keep your mouth shut about it."