Marriage is Murder

"Well, what happens to Pavel Levski will certainly be up to Ana," Marcus said. "So far, I am not willing for Poppy to be subjected to him anymore. I'd like to not expose Ana's son--who is a bit older than Poppy--to Pavel either. Some of you might remember he was a professional Quidditch player awhile back and then sort of disappeared. Well, that's because he got up to his eyeballs in booze and just stayed there. He's usually well marinated daily. I think Ana is considering throwing Pavel out of her house. If that happens, then Poppy could and should, continue to live with her mother.

"I am considering getting a flat or something where Poppy has her own room at my place too, where she can get to know me and feel safe. I'm sure my parents will make room for her at their place too, but I don't see her staying there often. Just from time to time to meet her grandparents and her sister and her other brothers."

"I have to ask. Are you going to introduce her to the Harpy?" Angus asked.

"Not right away," Marcus said. "But it will be nice to have a woman in my life again that can rub two brain cells together and come up with an intelligent thought. I think we both are realizing that when we both decided to return to terrible marriages instead of staying together, we both made really poor judgements. Right now, we'd like to see where that relationship might have gone if we'd given it more time."

"She's welcome here, Marcus," Khaat said. "You know that, right? Your home is here, and that makes this her home too. She's welcome here like all our other kids. If you want a room for her, she'll have one."

Marcus smiled. "Thank you. She's really pretty shy. She's not going to have an easy time adjusting to Hogwarts. She's perfectly happy in her room, reading and writing and drawing. She's going to be out of her element at a place like Hogwarts."

"She reads?"

"Incessantly," Marcus laughed.

"Then we must take her over to the farm and show her Daddy's library."

"Oh, no, no," Marcus laughed. "We'd never get her out."

At the mention of marriages Brant felt like an Ice cold wave had washed over him. He slipped off the table and stood for a moment and listened to them before he walked past Marcus.

" Good for you Marcus,... if you'll excuse me, I....I." He said his voice thought soft was hard and cold as he walked out of the room. On hearing every one, he could not help but sigh at how one mans happiness at finding his daughter, had come when his had entered a dark side. He knew inside it would never have worked between him and the woman the government had said he was to marry, but running away after he'd told her he would not stand in her way. He knew she was still in love with her dead husband, that was some one he could not compete with.

Walking up to the study door he knocked on it, he wanted to talk to some one and he felt the best one to talk to was Robert as after all he was his boss and he hoped friend. It hurt him what she did and how she done it, he could  feel his need to be alone, to leave the hurt behind creeping in again and knew it was just his own insecurity's creeping back into his mind.

Jack smiled and looked at Marcus "Ow, that would be so good for her, give her a bolt hole if she needs it right?" He asked as he sipped his coffee. Steven walked down half way into the conversation and chuckled.

" I have a small flat where John goes in the alley, lets him have some Independence, so far hes not let me down" he said as he crossed to the fridge and took out an apple and bit into it. " ow yum, these are delicious." He said grinning.

"Come," Robert called, preoccupied on trying to do Ministry tasks. He needed Gideon out of control there, and the reports he was getting from the Unspeakables were disconcerting. Robert's thoughts about how to get Gideon out of the Ministry were turning to dark ideas indeed--ideas he would not ask anyone to carry out but himself. But, the knock on the door meant he was about to be interrupted. He closed his files of paperwork to keep that information away from any other eyes.

"Breakfast is ready," Angus said, floating the serving dishes to the table. "We'd better feed these kids before they get cranky."

Brant heard Robert and slowly opened the door he saw him sat behind a large imposing desk even though if he wasn't sat there he alone was imposing. He took a deep breath and entered the room.

"I don't suppose you read the news lately, its not flattering to you one bit?" He said as he walked over letting the door close behind him. He reached into his inner pocket and drew out the folded letter with a solicitors name and the words 'decree nisi' emblazoned over the top and the red seal on the bottom.

"I have a... problem, well... I don't know if it is or not." He said his voice though soft was unshaken, more confused. " I received this in the last post yesterday, its from my solicitors, its got my head all twisted around, I...I don't know if I should stay and do nothing, or find her and ask her why...." He placed the letter and documents down on the desk and slid them over to him hoping he could understand them better. He sat down in a chair facing Robert and said nothing else. His hands clasped in front of him rested on his lap. He felt inside like he sat in front of the head master back at Hogwarts for doing something wrong.

Jess stood up and nodded as she headed up the stairs to the nursery finding them all dresses and waiting thanks to Cassidy she took their hands and lead them down for breakfast each giggling and laughing as they walked. Jess caught sight of the study and sighed knowing and hearing voices mainly Brant's.

The papers hadn't been flattering to Lupins for a long time. Robert was used to it, generally. Robert read the decree but nothing in it surprised him. He closed it and slid it back across to Brant.

"This isn't about you, you know," Robert said. "You're missing some of the facts, it seems. Hallie went with Khaat and Marcus to the illegal potions lab, and had to fight their way out. Marcus killed a werewolf, and it apparently went against Hallie's sensitivities. Apparently she hoped she could be an auror and never kill. Whatever.

"Anyway, when she started to have symptoms of a miscarriage, Khaat was right there, and Hallie refused to let her help her. Hallie wasted too much time and by the time she finally went to St. Mungos, it was too late to help her keep her pregnancy.

"That didn't help her marriage to Theodore Rookwood. They filed for divorce. However, the circumstances of their divorce did not meet the law's allowance for it, so the Ministry issued warrants for her arrest and Theo's. That would have meant that Hallie and Theodore would both go to Azkaban.

"Amelia Cooper is not going to stand to see her child go to prison, so she abandoned everything and dashed off with Hallie into hiding to help Hallie evade a prison sentence.

"If you want my opinion, I'd leave it alone. Amelia Cooper didn't leave you, per se. What she's running from is any chance that she's going to be found and that her daughter would go to Azkaban. As far as you're concerned, you're not in violation of the law. Cooper is. They won't be after you.

"As much as it isn't what you expected, I certainly would leave it alone. Get yourself back into things you enjoy. And--we could use help to get the last of the crops out of the fields and into storage before its gets too cold do to it. Get yourself back into life again in a healthy way and don't let yourself sit and overthink it. It wasn't about you or anything you did or didn't do. It was about a mother feeling like she had to protect her child."

Brant sat and listened to Robert he more he heard the less the tension sat in his body until he finally he sat back in the chair and breathed out. He took back the documents and nodded.

"I'll head out after breakfast, I need to do some manual work for a while." He said and looked at Robert. " I never thought about it any way sir, I just needed you to confirm what I already felt it was." He said his eyes were fixed on Roberts. "Life's too short to worry over the small things, right now Khaat and the family are a bigger issue." He stood up and nodded to Robert but he spoke again as he turned slightly to one side. "Even I know part of an Aurors job is to kill and protect both go hand in hand, like mine is to make potions and protect this family...no matter what it costs." His back straitened as he looked at him.

"Ow the labs now fully stocked. " He told him " Do you want a breakfast tray sending up, I believe Angus made pancakes?" He asked as his hand gripped the door handle ready for him to leave the room he saw Jess looking in his direction and smiled giving her a nod before he looked back at Robert still sat behind his desk. " Thank you, sir...for listening." he knew he would send the papers back to his solicitors and not worry about it again.

He moved out of the office and down to the kitchen transfiguring his clothes to jeans and a light cotton shirt. " just grabbing a quick snack, going out to the fields to help." He said Steven looked up and chuckled.

"Wait for me, I'll come too, I didn't know you were a laborer type?" He asked Brant chuckled and bit into an apple and looked at him over his shoulder.

"Things and people change Steven" He said looking at Angus. " be back by dinner" he said and left the house, " Steven stood and looked to Angus then to the door Brant had gone out of before he too left.

"No thanks," Robert said. "I'll go down and join them at the table. They can usually use another hand with the kids. Brant--keep it in perspective. You weren't looking for love when this started. You were looking to stay out of jail yourself. The fact is that we've got a law that puts unlikely people together just because Gideon can do it. If you have someone in your life, let it be for the right reasons. But don't spend your time aching for something that you were having to force to try to work anyway. I haven't forgotten that this law needs repealed."

He rose from his seat to go downstairs to breakfast. He was glad to see Brant taking his direction and going out to help in the fields. A few good hard days in the fields, and they'd have all the crops out. But it wasn't going to happen in one day. There were too many fields left, but once the harvest was in, then they'd be well set for food for all winter and then some. Brian had planned well this year, and Robert was proud of him.

Angus had been working with the house elves to make plans to can some homemade jams and jellies and sauces, and other products so that it helped them in the kitchen. With Brian's permission, Angus had added a "summer kitchen" to the grounds--a large building with a huge kitchen for canning and with an enormous pantry to store months and months of food for the huge number of people they fed.

Robert followed Brant downstairs and saw the men getting ready to go out. "Check the store of firewood," Robert said. "Its going to take you at least another three to five days to get the rest of the harvest out, even with the house elves to help. Watch the weather and make sure you have time before it gets too cold. And once you get the fields clear, then build up the firewood so we have enough to get through the winter. That may take you several more days to get that wood processed."

Brant paused at the door and nodded to Robert about the wood as did Steven, "You do the wood, I'll do the fields, ow and Robert, sir..there is nobody else." Brant said to Steven who chuckled and nodded but frowned seeing the look on Brant's face as he had spoken.

"Sure, you take the easy job." He said more as a joke as he knew the fields were not easy in any shape or form and he also knew Brant had things to work out. Steven looked to Robert. "Whats with the stick up his ass?" He asked then shrugged his shoulders "No, don't want to know, he can work it all out in the fields." He said regretting he'd even asked that question. Jess shook her head and lifted Dakota into her chair while Cassidy did the others.

Soon all were sat down and ready to eat there food. "Okay I think were all ready" she said sitting down between the others now starting to feed the kids one by one.

Robert didn't reply. Brant, of course, hadn't listened. He hadn't obeyed Robert's orders. Robert had told them to do the fields first. He also had specified that the house elves were also helping with the fields. He hadn't seen Jack and didn't know where Jack was, but he needed Jack for the fields too.

He said nothing but he was silently wishing that just once they would do what he told them.

"I'll go work the fields too," Brian said. "And if you can get someone to take the kitchen today, I'll take Angus with me."

"I'll get it covered," Kate said. "I'll get Michael to help, and then I'll go work the fields too. We need all the hands we can get. We need to get the crops harvested while they're ripe. The wood can wait."

"I can help, Papa!" Abbey nodded, looking at her grandfather. "I can pick berries!"

"Yes you could, my darling," he laughed. "No, you stay here and help Uncle Michael bake cookies. I'll go work outside with your daddy."

"Do you want me to say something to Brant?" Angus asked.

"Hell, no," Robert said. "He had his instructions. I didn't stutter. This is his issue. I'm not repeating myself. Leave him alone."

Khaat looked at Marcus. "We'll go out too. I can't do as much as I used to, but I'll do what I can."

"You don't overstress yourself," Robert frowned. "If you go help, you don't even try to keep up. You just work at your own pace. I don't need your pain completely out of control."

She didn't reply immediately. Her pain was out of control most of the time. She looked at Marcus. Marcus merely glanced at her, not willing to rat her out, and he looked at Robert.

"I'll keep her out of trouble," Marcus said.

"I love to garden," Edward said. "I could help for awhile."

"Either that or help with the kids?" Robert asked.

"I have more Donohues I could bring to help," he said.

"We might need them," Robert replied.

Steven looked at Robert and sighed shaking his head. "Okay and I think Jacks out in the fields already helping" Steven stopped as Jess continued "hes been out since early this morning." Jess said as she gave one of the kids a clean spoon as the last had been thrown to the floor.


Just then Jack walked in his hands and face dirty " who left early?" he asked and looked at Robert " morning thanks for the help, those house elves know how to work, were on scheduled for the first field, Brant's taken over for now I just came in for something to drink then I'm back out. " He said as he moved to the sink in his now dirty tank top his muscles rippling as he moved making Jess's face flush and Cassidy chuckle.

"Hey quiet it, your like a pair of love sick teens." Steven said to Jess who went back to feeding the kids again. "Okay I'm out of here, that extra help would come in handy to bring the harvest in early, " he said