Marriage is Murder

"I don't know if you saw I made cinnamon rolls last night or not. I let them sit to rise. They're just ready to bake," Angus said. He found them and put them in the oven. "I presume you and Cassidy will take care of the kids at least for the morning because I don't know how much nanny stuff a house elf really does. I didn't have a nanny. I had family, so this is new ground for me."

"You'll learn," Michael said, coming in. He poured himself a mug of tea. "its been a long time since I worked with house elves. I've gotten into the habit of just making the house take care of itself."

"Can't say that I've gotten into that either," Angus said. "Khaat has too much of her mother in her to let magic do everything. And Kate prefers to do most things by hand."

"Thank you," Angus said.  Michael began to set the table for breakfast.  He also made a mixed fruit juice for breakfast that was made from a number of different juices and put it on the table. It was a new blend, but he believed they'd like it.

"I'm sure we can process the meat after breakfast, but do please leave it outside until we can do that.  It might well get quite messy before we can clean it up.  By the way, I'm confused. I thought Brant was to go get the elves. Then last night, Steven, I though you were going to go do it instead, and its after 5, and I see no elves whatsoever.  Who's going to pick up the elves? The Gringotts goblins do not take tardiness lightly."

"Hold your tongue," Edward said to Steven rather quickly. Edward knew that some house elves took great pride in their 'uniforms' and chose to wear the rags even when offered better. "We'll work through that."

Edward went into the living room.

"You are the master?" one of the elves asked Edward.

"No," Edward said. "He'll be along shortly. The lady of the house is bedridden from a serious injury, but you will meet her so that you can serve her. Her husband is the master of the estate. He is your employer. But know who you serve. You serve the Chief Warlock and her husband and their children. And as long as you serve her, you also serve the Minister and anyone else who lives in this home or who is a guest here."

Brian came downstairs, rather on the run, knowing he was running late. He was not looking like any estate master the elves had ever seen. He wore jeans, a denim shirt and was fastening his watch around his wrist as he ran down the stairs, two at a time.

"And here would be the master of the house now," Edward said. The house elves looked confused. They were expecting the old money, former Slytherin families that were piled high in tradition. The young man in front of them was about as far from their expectations as it got.

However, the older man and woman who followed was more fitting of their expectations. Then they recognized the man. He was the Minister of Magic--the man who had been missing since an assassination attempt. He was known to be in hiding, but no one knew why. And here he was. Not so hidden at the moment.

"Welcome," Brian said to them. "We appreciate you all joining our household. We can definitely use your help. It is a very large house with many, many people."

"Do please stop taking everything personally," Kate sighed, speaking calmly, seeing Steven immediately becoming offended. "If you haven't dealt with house elves before, then I suggest you watch and learn instead."

She was so sick and tired of seeing it that she was losing patience. If it wasn't Jack it was Steven. Now Jack seemed to be learning to choose to be human, only for Steven to get bent out of shape. Kate was pissed. She didn't know why Robert put up with them this long.

Brian had missed all of this because he was busy starting to orient the house elves.

Kate had noticed Jack had come back in for breakfast. "Perhaps you and Jess would help get the kids up and ready for breakfast? It looked like Angus and Michael are starting to put plates on the table." She pointed to the dining room table to Michael and Angus who were starting to set the kids' plates on the table. "You know they don't like cold eggs very well."

Brian learned a bit about the elves as they introduced themselves. There were two female house elves--Dotty and Suki--and two males--Jobey and Zodey.

Edward assisted Brian with some very delicate negotiations regarding Brian's desire to pay them something, his desire to supply them a decent quarters for themselves, and then, the touchiest of all, a willingness on Brian's part to give them better clothes if they would take them. It took long, delicate negotiations to get it done without offending them.

They agreed to the living quarters and found the ones that had been made for them were acceptable. They refused pay but did agree to accept to eat the same foods that the rest of the house ate. And they agreed to let Brian take a white pillow case for each of them and transfigure the pillow cases to what looked like a sort of a nightshirt, but it was a bit more tasteful than a pillowcase.

Brian finally introduced the elves to everyone else, and encouraged everyone to help them get to know their way around and to help them see what the tasks of the house were. He didn't expect the elves to do everything, but he preferred everyone find a way to work together.