Small Packages

"Well, living with several seers teaches you a few things," Angus said. "I think they were looking for focus objects to help them see clearly not just for Rose and Bella but also into the estate, since it belongs to Khaat and her husband. I am quite certain, though, that the Lupin family will take no chances. By the way, I know I haven't said it, but thank you for going with me," Angus said, "I certainly wouldn't be going back in one piece if you hadn't. Yeah, I think I'll head home and let Bella stop worrying. I'm sure Ill be seeing you soon."

He left Watson to go track down the last remaining ends of getting rid of the old apartment building. He had no doubt that Watson would do just that. Angus ported home. The kitchen was empty and quiet--not something that was usual, and certainly would put them behind time in getting dinner ready that evening for so many people.

He sighed, hanging up his coat and hat near the back door and washed his hands. He was starting to realize, now that the emergency was off, that he was hurting and aching more than he had realized before. He had gotten slammed with spells before, but this was different. This had damned near killed him. He wasn't going to let on to Bella. He didn't want to worry her. He saw some apples in a large wooden bowl. He took the apples to the sink and was washing them when he heard Robert's voice behind him.

"Take the night off," he said quietly. Angus looked up, frowning. Robert had a glass of firewhiskey in his hand. "Here. It'll help. You took quite a jolt. Damned near didn't get you back. Might take you a day or so to get rid of the pain and the fatigue. Don't push it."

"I have a job to do, Robert," Angus said, taking the glass. He took a sip of it and realized Robert had added a bit of some sort of potion. He looked at him. "Does Bella know?

"Harmless. Just a drop of a pain potion," Robert said. " And, no, I haven't told her. Haven't been home long enough. Besides how the devil would I explain being with you anyway? And don't try to get me off track. It won't work. I know all about all the work you do here. Its why we hired those four house elves, remember? They can deal with cooking tonight and tomorrow if we need it. By the way, your grandfather is here."

"He is?"

"He decided to hang around when he brought back the seafood and heard you were in trouble. He brought your brothers to help with the outside chores."

Angus snorted, "What do they know about snow anymore? They've spent their lives on the Mediterranean."

"A little culture shock is good for the soul. Makes a man humble," Robert said. "Forces him to see all that he is not." He picked up the apples out of the sink, rolled them in a clean tea towel and put them back in the wooden bowl. "Now, take your drink, go find a sweater or a sweatshirt. Get those big mission boots off before you track up the rug with snow. Consider yourself grounded until I say otherwise."

"Grounded! I'm fine!" he protested. He wasn't fine. He was far from fine. Robert motioned him to sit down and he helped him get his knee high black leather mission boots off and set them over near the door, and brought over the pair of slip on canvas deck shoes Angus wore in the house. He'd also brought over a grey hooded sweatshirt that Angus had near the door but hadn't worn. It was chilly in the house. He slipped on the sweatshirt.

"Now you look ready to go spend some time with your new family. They'll be looking for you."

"My new family, huh? What if she really did know?" he asked Robert. "Give her a ring, and a couple hours later, I'm thinking I'm not even going to get home to her. But that's the job. I can't do that to her. I can't..."

"Stop it," Robert said, now being fatherly towards him. "There's never a convenient time to start a new life because the old one never quite lets go. If she wants to be in your life, she's going to choose you and the risk. And without her, you're going to be miserable. As she will be without you. You'll have to tell her the truth and let her get you over your cold feet, Son. Now, go in and warm up next to fire. It'll be good for you."

Angus sighed and took his firewhiskey and went in and sat down next to the fire. He had no idea where Bella was, but he figured she wasnt far from Rose.

"Well that's a good thing." He said with a smile. "Now we don't have to worry about them prying into anyone else's lives ever again. I don't think any of us should take any chances when it comes to something like this. Your welcome, thanks for letting me tag along." He looked at Angus and knew the man was good for his daughter. "I'm glad that man was here to help. Yeah she'll worry till she knows your safe. Yeah you'll be seeing me, have a good night Angus."


Bella paced the floor of her rooms that she shared with Angus. She was worried and the tea she made wasn't working to help calm her. She had tried reading, knitting, and anything but nothing was working. She wrung her hands over and over after she had left Angus at her parents house. She had paced between her room and the nursery where Rose slept but felt like Suki was going to smack her if she continued to do so. She was wearing her Victorian nightgown as she paced the bedroom floor. She sat down on the bed her hands resting in her lap as she tried to calm herself once more.

She sighed as yet again it didn't work, she got off the bed and pulled on her robe that went all the way down to her ankles. She went to the nursery to look in on Rose before she starting walking down the stairs. She had her eyes on the floor in front of her still worried. She knew that Angus' grandfather and brothers were there, they had been doing outside chores. She entered the kitchen looking at the watch on her wrist and wanted to smack herself for being so stupid. She had completely forgotten about dinner and knew it was going to be late getting to the table.

She went to grab her slippers from beside the door when she noticed Angus' boots by the door. She quickly walked out of the kitchen and towards the sitting room. She saw him sitting next to the fire with a glass in his hand, she felt all her worry leave her as she walked up to him. She put a stool next to him and sat down taking his hand in hers. "Hey, how are you feeling sweetheart?" She asked him looking at him really well. "You look like you've been through hell tonight. Finish your glass and I'll give you a massage to help loosen the knots you probably have in your back. It will also help loosen the muscles up and give you some relief once they aren't so bunched up. You can tell me all about tonight in the morning," She said looking at him. "You need to rest and I can handle breakfast if the house elves can do dinner tonight. So don't think to argue with me about either, I'll sic Edward on you then I'll rope in Evan and Tyler too."

((OOC: I had to look up to make sure that I had the right name for his grandfather. XD I put his brothers names in there since it was said they were there too. I hope that's ok.))

"Your dad was a good partner," he told her, taking a sip of his firewhiskey. "We got them, and I don't think they're going to escape easily this time." He listened to her suggestion of letting her massage his back.  It wasn't a bad idea, really, and he was beginning to realize how tired he really was.  

"I think Robert already decided to put the elves on fixing dinner.  I think I'll skip it, myself. Since I have the evening off, I think a hot shower sounds good. And maybe that massage.

"How's Rose?" he asked.  He was betting Robert was keeping her sleeping because of the close call she'd had.  He found himself yawning already.  He guessed it was perhaps either some of the aftereffects of the spell fired at him or Robert potion mixing with the whiskey. Either way, it was starting to take the edge off his pain.

"Sorry," he apologized for yawning. "I need to show you something before I doze off. Come with me."  He got up, feeling like he was going to be stiff by morning.  He took her upstairs to the bedroom that Robert and Kate used. He saw the glass jar sitting on Robert's dresser.  He picked it up and tapped the jar. The bugs flitted nervously.  "See this? These are the Grundge brothers. Or they were. Now they're bugs. I don't know if or when Robert will change them back.  And they're not getting out of the jar until Robert opens it because I'm sure he's hexed the lid. He always does. But that spell's worked pretty well for him over the years. Personally, I think he's probably more than capable of taking care of a jar of roaches. I'm liable to just stay out of it.  

"But, there's a family secret you need to know about.  I didn't tell your dad, but we had a silent partner today."  He went to a large wooden chest at the end of Robert's bed, took the gold coin around his neck and used it to open the chest with the help of a small spell.  He opened the chest and drew out the dark robe that Robert had.  "It's a bloody good disguise.  Under the robe were black gloves, a pair of black boots, and a black fabric bag.  "This part is what you can't tell anyone about--for Robert's safety." He opened the bag and drew out what looked like nothing more than a handful of a dark cloud.  "Its a mask. He worked on this thing for a long, long time til he got it right. But this thing is creepy as hell.  It makes it impossible for anyone to see his face at all.  And when its combined with the robe, he's completely hidden. See?" He put the mask over his face to show her how it obliterated any view of the wearer's face.  He took the mask back off, knowing it was a little weird, even by wizard standards. He handed it to her in case she wanted to see it.

"He made this a long time ago when it would have risked his life for anyone to see him. Now, it lets him go to places that, generally, the Minister of Magic shouldn't be seen in.  He was with us today.  Your dad knew, I think, that I just didn't dare tell him who it was.  I can tell you. Robert will always, always defend his family. No matter what.  This just gives him a way to do it."

"I'm surprised he went with you. It's been a while since he went on one." She said with a smile. "That's good I'm glad that they won't escape so easily."

"Well let's get you up stairs for your shower and massage. You look beat and I want to make sure that not everything is hurting tomorrow."

"She's fine, sleeping heavily. Suki's been with her since I've put her in the kid's bedroom." She said softly. She smiled when he started yawning and stood up putting the stool away. She held out his hand to help him out of the chair.

"It's ok sweetheart." She said when he apologized for yawning. "Alright then after that your going to get a shower." She said as she walked with him to Robert and Kate's bedroom. She peered inside the jar and saw three bugs. "Well roaches seem like a fitting transformation for them considering they were pests when they were bigger. I hope they stay that way for a while at least, well I don't care what happens to them as long as they can't hurt me and most importantly my daughter. I won't even care if they were fed to a bird." She said wanting nothing more than see them punished for what they did to her daughter.

"Okay. I think my dad knows that he didn't need to know who exactly it was." She said as she watched him open a large wooden chest using the coin around his neck. "It seems that coin has many things that it can do." She said with a smile then looked at the robe he pulled out. "Looks like a scary disguise as well, it would make anyone wanna run." She saw the gloves and boots with a fabric bag. "I won't tell anyone because it is for his safety. It probably comes in handy from time to time." She said looking at the bag he pulled out. "Well it looks odd looking. It does look creepy as well when you look at it, I would be scared if he came up behind me." She looked at him with the mask on and thought it was super creepy. She took the mask and felt the fabric before placing it in the chest.

"Well he's a smart man to have created this. Well I'm glad that he can protect his family when needed that way without it harming him. My father is good at keeping secrets, did you see his shed outback?" She said with a smile. "Alright let's go get you in the shower so I can give you that massage." She said taking his hand leading him towards the room.

"I did see his shed," Angus smiled, putting Robert's things back in the chest and locking it. "There are stories about this coin," he said, putting it back around his neck. "Its complicated. I think I'll shower first."

He didn't know it until he got out of the shower that he had a large, fist sized wand blast mark on his chest, right over his heart. He had hoped he could protect Bella from that, but it was going to take a few days to go away entirely, even with Robert's accelerated healing spells. Well, the mark explained to him what had happened, more or less, and how close it had been--more or less. So much for letting her think that, no matter what, he could handle it by himself. If he'd ever fooled her with that, he certainly wouldn't fool her now.

He draped his bath towel around his neck, like usual, hoping it might at least not be such a huge shock if she saw just an edge of the mark and not the whole thing at once. The truth was, though, he was feeling a bit better. The shower had helped.

"That helped," he said, coming out of the bathroom. He picked up his wand and fired it into the hearth to light the fire in the bedroom fireplace. He rather liked having a fireplace in the bedrooms on chilly nights. "You know, we can feed those bugs to Archangel if we get tired of them. Or let the cats chase them before they eat them. Or, we can let Robert put it with all the other bug jars. He's got lots of them at his farm. I think most of them really were bugs to begin with, but I don't know if he remembers anymore which are which.

"The short version of the story behind the coin is that Robert and his brother and some of their friends quietly formed a private organization to rescue missing wizarding children. When Remus died, Robert ended up with the whole organization. We still do what we always did. We find missing wizarding children and bring them home. The organization headquarters is in Paris because, well, that's where the heart of the problem has always been. The coin is the alarm and summoning charm for the organization, its a key, its whatever we've needed it to be. We all have one, and it just provides us a bit of extra insurance.

"Robert owns the organization, but Brian has been running the operation almost since he graduated Hogwarts. Brian and I were mates in school, and I needed a job. When he moved Khaat and Abbey here, he asked me to give him a hand here at the estate. And I've been here since. So, technically, here at the estate, I'm employed by the organization. And, I get paid for the auror work for the Ministry, and I get paid for whatever the ships bring in back home in Tuscany."

He sighed and sat down on the bed. "And, that's a round about way to explain a coin. Sorry. The detailed version is very long, very boring, and certainly not what you're interested in. Told you it was complicated. Anyway, since I haven't had anyone to spend it on, I've got enough for us to do, well, maybe not everything we want, but, maybe a lot. And we'll definitely have everything we'll ever need."

"I found out about shed a few weeks ago when I had to go find him." She said laughing softly. "Really stories?" He said looking at it. "Okay."

She took off her robe and started turning down the bed, she moved the comforter as well as the sheet back. She slipped off her slippers, she grabbed a bottle of lotion that helped ease muscle soreness. She was glad that he was home and that he was safe now. She was glad that the Grundge brothers were in a jar and hoped that they stayed in there for a while.

She heard the shower turn off and knew that he was going to be coming out of the bathroom in a minute. She sat down on the bed with the lotion ready to give him that massage she knew he needed.

"Good sweetheart." She said smiling as he came out of the bathroom. She patted the spot next to her on the bed for him to sit down. "That's sounds good to me, though I think they need a harsher punishment for what they did to Rose. Whatever he does to them I hope that they never return to their former selves." She said angry at those men for what they caused and wanted to squish them herself.

"That's wonderful that they made that organization." She said listening to him talk about Robert and his brother rescuing mission wizarding children. "That's a lot for one little coin to do but I'm glad that you had it and were able to get help when we needed it. I do believe that thing is very handy when it comes to anything you need it to be."

"Wow so Brian runs the organization, so you technically work for them." She said understanding the depth of everything. "You are a man of so many talents sweetheart." She smiled at him realizing how very strong and how much of a big heart he had. "So in all honesty you have three jobs just working here. That's impressive." She said with a grin.

"It's okay I think the short version is good. Maybe if I can't sleep one day you can tell me the long version to put me to sleep." She said with a laugh. "I've have some money stashed away as well it not a whole lot but it is some. I've been saving since working at the Leaky. I stuffed it into a very secure hiding place in my dads shed." She said with a smile.

"Alright let's get you, your back massage." She said taking the towel from around his neck and seeing the mark on his chest. "Merlin's beard Angus. They hit you with a spell?" She said her hand hovering over the mark but not touching it. "Oh baby, that has to hurt badly. Hang on stay there." She got off the bed and went into the bathroom grabbing a jar from the basket on the sink. She came back in opening it and seeing it was near empty but it was enough to put on him. "This stuff will help the bruise heal a little more faster." She said sticking her fingers in the jar and softly spreading it on his chest. "Jeez baby this is bad." Her fingers were light on his chest not wanting to harm him further.

"It ended up being a good thing that Robert just happened to be almost right beside me when it happened. He took care of it the instant it happened." He didn't want to tell her he'd nearly died and might well have if Robert hadn't been there. But she wasn't a fool either. She knew it wasn't good. "It was a little frightening for a second," he admitted. Okay, so that was about as open about it as he wanted to be tonight. Maybe tomorrow it would be easier to say the words. "I think that's why Robert gave me the rest of the night off, maybe tomorrow."

She put the ointment on the wound on his chest. It did take some of the sting out of it. He kissed her slowly. He didn't want to start something that, tonight, he couldn't finish. He was immensely relieved she hadn't panicked--not that she wasn't entitled to.

"I'm glad you and Rose are safe," he said. "I don't think they're going to get a chance for a third interference in our lives. What they face if Robert keeps the jar, is life in a tiny little jar forever. I know I wouldn't like that. And roaches can live for a bloody long time. I think that whole thing would be nigh onto crazymaking. If Robert turns them over to the Ministry, they'll be the fast track for a one way trip to Azkaban. Either way, I think its more than likely that their magical abilities will be blocked for good. They won't have a chance to do this anymore, ever.

"We need to get your money out of the shed in the morning," he said. "Your dad is planning on selling that house. We'll get your accounts set up right. I need to do some changing in my accounts too. I want to make sure that I leave my business accounts alone to deal with those issues, but I also want to make sure that you have access to one of the bigger accounts. And I want to establish a trust fund for Rose. I've got more than enough to do that, and its something I want to do."

He yawned again, unavoidably. He stretched out on the bed. He knew that it was a very strong possibility he might doze off. "Don't watch Rose and me sleep, will you? Go join the others for dinner at least. Its been a long day, and if I know you, you haven't eaten since we sampled those desserts. You should get something a little better than that."

"Yes it was a good thing Robert was there. My father is good at small things but this doesn't look small." She said looking at the mark knowing it was pretty bad. "I can imagine." She said softly she wondered how close a call it was but she knew it had to of been bad to scare even him. "Well with the size of the bruise I can't blame him for giving you tonight off. I'll take care of tomorrow so you can rest some more. You'll still be sore in the morning."

She kissed him back but pulled back knowing that he needed some rest and that massage she promised him.

She smiled at his words and ran her hand down the side of his face. "We're safe because of you and Robert." She said. "I know you'll always protect us. Well it's what they deserve to be completely blocked from their magical abilities. Since they are no longer a threat to us, I don't want to talk about them any more." She said softly not wanting to talk about the nasty brothers and what they did to them.

"Okay, I'll let him know that I'll be going to the house. I'll see about taking someone with me so that I'm not alone." She said softly wanting him to rest. "I don't blame him considering everything that happened there that he didn't know about. My accounts? I only have one. Did you hit your head when you were gone? Your not making much sense to me sweetheart. I know you want to set up a trust fund for Rose but all the rest hasn't made much sense." She gave him a confused look. "We can talk about this in the morning your so sleepy."

"I won't watch you or Rose sleep. I'll join them for dinner if you flip over so I can get the knots out of your back. I know you must have some knots in there." She said looking at him with a small smile. She waited for him to flip over so that she could work the knots out of his back. Then she would grab something small to eat then head to bed as well.

"No, no. With the money amount we're dealing with, we need to break it up into more than one account. Diversify it. It's financially safer that way. But, you're right. The banks are closed now, so we can deal with it in the morning." He gave in, finished his whiskey, and turned over so that she could help him keep from getting so stoved up. He had honestly thought that he was going to be able to hold out longer, but he fell into an exhausted sleep almost instantly.

Downstairs, the house elves had managed to put together a large kettle of a hearty cheese soup, and a platter full of assorted paninis, along with an enormous tossed salad. As the kids started to gather around the table, Robert went up and checked on Rose. She was still resting peacefully.

He hadn't seen or heard anything from Angus since he and Bella had gone upstairs, but he was sure they were probably not aware that dinner, albeit late, was finally ready. And, truth be told, he wanted to check on Angus anyway. He was sure that Bella didn't know any more than Angus had been unable to hide. He stopped at the door, hesitated, not wanting to interrupt something private between them, but, not hearing any sound, he tapped softly on the bedroom door.

She listened to him about the amount of money they were dealing with. "Okay, I understand now sweetie. Yes in the morning we'll deal with it." She said softly as she watched him turn over onto his stomach. She pour some of the lotion on her hands then rubbed it on his back. She slowly made her way around massaging out the knots that she found in his back. It took her approximately twenty minutes to get all the knots out and by that time she saw that Angus was out cold.

She got out of bed quietly and went to the bathroom to wash her hands of the lotion. She looked down at her clothing and knew it wasn't something that she should be wearing to dinner. So she went to the dresser and pulled out a pair of shorts with a short sleeve shirt. She slipped them on before going back to the bed and pulling up the sheet and comforter over Angus careful not to wake him. She knew that his mark was worse than what he had told her but she wanted him to tell her himself.

She heard a tap on the bedroom door and crossed the room to open it. Upon opening the door she saw Robert standing there. "Hello Robert. He's sleeping but if you still wanna check on him." She said with a smile. "He took a shower and I gave him a massage to get the knots out of his back. I saw the mark on his chest from where one of the Grundge brothers hit him in the chest." She wrung her hands as she looked towards the bed where he was sleeping. "He told me to get something to eat instead of watching over him and Rose while they slept."