Clueless

"I can't always get in," she said. "Sometimes Marcus lets me in or he lets me play in Mama's big closet. We gots two big playrooms downstairs. But they're too big sometimes."

She followed Bella to the nursery, not really knowing how to help with making up beds or grown up chores. She simply sat down on a big stuffed floppy lion and watched. As Bella was finishing, Abbey sat up a bit straighter.

"Papa's home," she said suddenly with a big smile. "Bye!" She dashed off and down the stairs to find Robert just getting home, his raincoat wet from a cold October rain. She made a running jump to get into his arms, and he caught her, laughing.

"You're going to get wet," he laughed, as she put her arms around his neck, hugging him. "You don't care, do you?" She shook her head. "Did you have a good day?"

"No."

"Why?"

"'Kota was bad, and Mama brought more brothers in the house."

"Wait. What?" Robert frowned. He happened to know for a fact that Khaat wasn't pregnant. "She did what? Say that again."

"More brothers. I don't want no more brothers. Send 'em back, Papa."

"That's what I thought you said," he frowned, looking for another grownup to clarify what the devil was going on.

Angus could always tell when Robert got home because Abbey always knew. He took a big tureen of homemade cheddar cheese soup into the dining room and put it on the table, along with corned beef paninis and a large fresh salad. He set the table, hoping Bella was right and that she did, in fact have berries. That was just a must on the Lupin table.

Bella listened to her and began wondering if there was something they could do for Abbey. She knew she would have to talk to Angus about it or Khaat even but she wanted to do something nice for her. She smiled at her handy work then heard Abbey say that her dad was home. She laughed softly as she began going through the baby clothes finding all the little boy clothes that would fit the boys. She picked out an outfit for them to sleep in tonight and then an outfit for tomorrow.

She was just about to leave the nursery when Rose came in rubbing her eyes. Bella picked her daughter up in her arms and walked down the stairs as Rose fell asleep. She knew that she wasn't gonna be able to wake her up to feed her. She would have to sleep for a few hours before it would be possible to get her to eat dinner, so she took her into the sitting room. Finding a rocking chair she began rocking her humming a soft lullaby to her.

Once she was sure she was out it was then he wondered where she was going to put her. She kept rocking her softly still humming the lullaby as she tried to figure out something. She knew that she could always put her down in the cottage but Bella wouldn't leave her alone in there. As she was rocking her daughter she didn't realize but she was slowly starting to fall asleep herself.

It didn't take long for Abbey to spill the story to Robert about Dakota throwing out the berries. He looked at Angus quietly and said, "Send one of the house elves for more, please."

"Yes, Sir," Angus said. He sent Dottie to get more at once.

"Just a moment, Dear," Robert said to Abbey, setting her on the floor. He took off his wet raincoat and Angus took it straight away. "Is Khaat home yet?"

"No, Sir."

"And where is Brian?"

"Outside, Sir. He said a section of fence in the north section had to be replaced. He's been there most of the day."

"Send someone to go check on him. Shouldn't be taking him this long. In the meantime, I think I'll go have a word with Miss Dakota...."

"Robert," Angus said, "There's something you need to address first."

"Oh?"

"Um, well, we've gotten word about Maddie. Apparently she had twins. Not just one child."

"Well, that's a lead, at least."

"We've got better than that. Someone dropped the babies to Michael this morning. He has sons--and they're here. Kate's got them."

"Of course Kate's got them. I know my wife and babies. Where's Michael?" Robert frowned.

"I believe he went to the basement," Angus said.

"Call everyone else to get washed for dinner," Robert said. "I'll go see Dakota, check on the babies, and roust Michael out of the firewhiskey in the basement."

Angus sent the rest of the guards and staff to get Khaat's kids washed and to the table for dinner. Angus went to find Bella, and found her and Rose in the sitting room. He nudged Bella gently.

"You getting hungry?" he asked her. He figured it was perhaps best to let Rose sleep. "Why don't you just lay Rose on the sofa for now? She'll be fine. If she wakes up, she'll probably smell food and come looking."

Bella woke up when someone nudged her and looked up to see Angus standing there. She smiled nodded softly at his question. "Yes I'm starving actually. I didn't realize I doze off with Rose." She said standing with Rose in her arms. She walked to the sofa and put Rose down on it making sure that she was safe from accidentally falling off the sofa. She stood up after placing a kiss to her forehead and using her hand to cover a yawn.

"Sorry I don't know why but I'm just really tired today. It must of been all the running around today." She said with a small smile. "How's Michael doing? I haven't seen him after we went upstairs. Oh and the boy's beds are ready with sheets and blankets. So whenever they are ready for bed it's there."

She saw Rose stir slightly then it reminded her of Abbey. "Oh when I was upstairs with Abbey she was talking about how she built the fort in that closet. She also said that when she wanted a blanket that the blankets from up high would just fall off the shelf for her. The same with cookies, she said that Dakota couldn't do it only she could." She said wondering what they could do. "I kinda also wanna do something for Abbey, just her. She told me that sometimes she likes being by herself when being with the other children get to be too much. I was thinking of making her a hiding place where she could go when she wanted to be alone. One where only she would know about it so she wouldn't have to worry about anyone else messing it up or anything. What do you think? I wanted to run it by you and see what you think about it."

"Well, its been a long day," Angus said. "I know the feeling. I think he'll be fine now that Robert's home. Michael and Robert went to Hogwarts together and were both in Gryffindor. They've been best friends for, oh, over 50 years now. I think he'll be a big help to helping Michael adjust. I'm sure Kate is taking very good care of them. She's loving every part of being a grandma."

He listened to her tell him about the closet. "Oh. The fort. Yes, I guess I forgot that was there. Marcus, I think, let her escape off to the closet when the younger kids were getting to her. She used to play in Khaat's big walk in closet and used to play dress up in Khaat's designer evening gowns and stiletto heels, but it always risked a lot of damage to irreplaceable clothes and shoes. Marcus found the closet was just as acceptable to Abbey, so, he lets her in there sometimes. I think a place for her to get away is a great idea. It would surely be safer for her than the closet.

"So, Abbey's told you about some of her accidental magic, has she? Tends to happen more depending on how badly she wants something, and at this point, its still pretty random, but she's always had some bursts of accidental magic. Robert says its not entirely impossible. He calls it baby magic, but I don't think that's a technical term. So far, we haven't seen it in any of Khaat's other kids, but I'm learning that nothing in this family is routine.

"Abbey's bio dad was pretty powerful as an animagus. I don't understand it, but Abbey has been able to accidently shift to a Labrador pup since birth--literally. She doesn't have any control over it, but I do know that when she's around water, like the pool, she goes all animagus and then gets stuck that way until we change her back.

"She's also had some odd bits of accidental seer's stuff. Apparently that runs in Khaat's bloodline, back up through Kate and Khaat's grandmother and the other women of her family. Kate says Khaat did it as a very young child, and says, as family lore goes, so did the other generations before her. Kate doesn't use it much, but she's a good seer. When Albus Dumbledore died, he willed her his pensieve and the thought threads that were with it. She still has it.

"Why don't you come and eat? Keeping eight kids from destroying the dining room is always interesting. Come on. It'll be fun," he teased.

"Yes it has." She said with a smile. "That's good, I'm glad he has Robert as a friend. I think so as well which will be great. She's a really good grandma with all the kids."

"Yeah I saw it when we were in there and I saw how small it looked. I used to do the same in my mother's closet except I played with her jewelry and her summer hats. I thought it was something that she would enjoy, maybe have a small book shelf in there to put some books on? You know her better though so you'd know what she likes best." She said knowing he would really know what she liked best.

"Yeah, I figured everyone knew but I wanted to let you know just in case. Yeah she says that Dakota gets angry when it doesn't work for her." She said nodding at Robert's explanation of what he called baby magic. "I probably would call it something similar as well. Yeah but it's always so much fun to find out new things with them isn't it?"

"Wow that probably why she has those bursts of accidental magic. I remember seeing Abbey as a Labrador pup in the pool during the summer. Well that makes sense when she's around water and when it's something that she can't turn back from." She said smiling remembering seeing her as a pup in the pool.

"Really? Oh wow." She said surprised listening to everything. "Wow, that's wow..Sorry I'm not usually that inarticulate with words but I'm just amazed. Every time I learn something new with everyone I feel like I get a little bit closer to them. I was actually really surprised when Abbey was talking to me upstairs but it felt good hearing what she had to say."

"Yeah it is always interesting keeping them from destroying it. Well we will see how fun it really is for everyone." She said with a smile on her face. "I bet you'll get food on you first." She teased him grinning as she headed for the dining room.

"I think those sounds like good ideas. Abbey loves storybooks, so if its just a quiet little place where she can go and enjoy her books with her stuffed animals, I think she'd be delighted. We'll have to do some research to see if there's a way we can secure it from the other kids so that she can still have her privacy but have it someplace other than in a closet."

He listened to her talk about talking with Abbey. "She's fun, isn't she? She doesn't say much when she's with the other kids, but she does seem to like individual attention. She likes to help in the kitchen, so I try to bake cookies or something with her at least once a week.

"I am not the one usually getting hit first with the food. That's usually Brian. I think he thinks that, as the dad, he needs to try to bring some calm to the table. That, and he'd prefer the kids don't hit their grandfather with it. Robert just doesn't play with that," Angus laughed. "Robert doesn't say much, but he has a certain look that the kids know very well. It sorta lets them know they'd better not even think about it."

He led the way into the dining room where Khaat and Brian were getting kids into their places for dinner. Kate and Robert were, unusually, absent.

"We're missing a set of grandparents," Angus frowned.

"They're coming," Brian said. "They were just seeing to Michael's boys. I think Robert is turning the boys to Suki and Dottie for a little bit."

"You trust those two house elves with the babies?" Angus teased. "They'll spoil them rotten before we get to dessert."

"Your soup smells wonderful, Angus," Khaat said, making sure Abbey got some of the berries that Suki had gone to London to get.

Bella smiled when he said they were good ideas and then it gave her another. "I have some old stories books that she might like to read. Maybe when get everything set up for her to have a special place for herself I can bring them to her. It would be really nice to have something for her to have some quiet time away from the other children."

"Yes she is. I like talking with her maybe I can spend some time with her. We can make cookies or a cake depending on what she would like to do." She said with a small smile thinking that she needed to spend some more time with the children. "Actually I think I need to spend a little more time with all of them so I can get to know them better."

She laughed when she heard it was Brian usually getting hit with food. "I think we shall see who gets hit with food soon. I have a distinct feeling that one of the twins will accidentally hit Robert the one time they are at the table." She said giggling a little more. "Oh I know that kind of look, my mother used to give it to me when I was younger."

She followed him into the dining room where the kids were getting into their chairs for dinner. She smiled as she found her seat listening to the conversation. She giggled when Angus said that Suki and Dottie would spoil them rotten.

She heard footsteps coming from the living room signaling that Rose just woke up from her sleep. She walked in the dining room her hands cupped and walked up to Angus.

"Aggie, I founds a spider." She said as she lifted her hands and opened them revealing a daddy long legs. "He no bite. He big though." After showing him she closed her hands and walked to the back door. She opened it and placed it next to the door then walked back into the dining room with a big smile on her face.

Bella was trying not to laugh at her daughter's words at finding a spider and seem rather pleased with herself when she set it free.