One Heart

"Okay, we've made our way to the stew," he said. It was made with chicken, mushrooms, and fresh vegetables all in a rich wine gravy. It was served with crusty bread. He handed her a bowl, with a piece of the bread. "Very few things better on a winter night than pure comfort food." He tasted the stew. "They're showing me up with the stew too, Amazing wine gravy. Okay, I have to meet this chef."

"I see no reason why we can't do it tomorrow," Angus said. "Sounds like a good idea. We can check out the market after breakfast." She asked about checking Brian's collection. "Sure. For the most part, he's got the wall art hanging all over the house. Some of the irreplaceable things he's locked away in the basement until they won't be demolished by the kids. There's an office downstairs that isn't used very often, so those pieces are temporarily safe."

He couldn't help but laugh when she asked about his books. "He is a ridiculous bookworm," Angus said. "The farmhouse sort of has a 2 story Victorian design, and its got a large turret. He put a spiral staircase that went from the basement all the way to the attic, put an open floorplan in it, and has books from the basement, all the way up into the attic. Four bloody floors of nothing but books--on just about anything that's ever suited his or Kate's interests. Now that's something he does go back and forth for in the farmhouse. He takes books back and forth from the estate to the farmhouse.

"And that potions lab? Its two floors. Apparently he found some unusual rock formations when he went to build the farmhouse, so, it gave him space to have a basement potions room that also goes down to a second level--a sub cellar level. Kate says he can do whatever he wants down there as long as it doesn't crawl up the stairs," Angus laughed. "That's also where all those bug jars of his end up. In the sub basement. The potions lab also has age enchantments on it to forbid anyone under seventeen inside. With the weapons there too, its just too dangerous for any sort of underaged kid to be. I go there probably more often than just about anybody other than Robert. He sends me on errands to get potions ingredients and things. You'll have to go with me the next time I go."

He looked at her. "You're right," he said, teasing. "That many could take awhile. Let's see, if we have one a year...well, Rose would be just about done at Hogwarts by the time the littlest one arrives. Sounds about right to me. What do you think? You didn't plan on us doing anything else with our lives, did you?"

She took another drink of her water when he said that they made their way to the stew. "It smells wonderful." She said setting her glass down. She took the bowl from him as well as the piece of bread. "I agree with you completely on that." She said taking a bite of the stew. She laughed when he said they were showing him up with the stew. "Maybe we can meet her together." She said with a smile at him.

"That's would be wonderful," She said with a grin. "Okay sounds good, I can't wait to see what they have." She said looking at Angus. "Yeah the ones that are hanging all over the house are beautiful. That may be a while before they won't get demolished by the kids. Well it's good that they are safe, I'll ask Brian first though if I can look at them."

She smiled at his laugh. "Yeah I usually see him with a book at night." She said with a smile. "I always liked the house with Victorian design. That is a lot of books, how long has he been collecting them? Four floors of books, I don't have even a third of that myself." She said astonished at how many floors of books that Robert had and couldn't even imagine how that looked when you walked in. She knew that she would love to see it for her own eyes but she couldn't imagine owning that many books.

"Two floors of a potions lab. So there's the basement then there's a sub level underneath that." She laughed when he said that Kate doesn't care what he does as long as it didn't crawl up. "That would be creepy to see something crawling up the stairs. I would rather not go anywhere near the sub basement, bugs kinda creep me out. Well that's good that there's an enchantment to keep younger kids out of it. Yeah weapons and potions definitely need to be protected. Well whenever you have to go back, I'll come but I'm not going anywhere near the sub basement." She said with a laugh.

She laughed when he teased her about being right. "Yeah it will take a while." She laughed at his words about not doing anything else with their lives. "Well that's if I don't end up with twins in one of the pregnancies." She said with a laugh.

"Kate is pretty unflappable," Angus said. "Did you know she dated Remus first before she dated Robert? They were all mates at school and she felt unable to commit to Remus, not because of the curse, but because Remus was all about adventure in school. Robert was the intellectual nerdy one and was working, part time, as a pharmacist in a muggle drug store. It was steady and paid fairly well, so Remus actually fixed them up on a date and the rest of it sort of wrote itself.

"But Kate learned way back in school to not be rattled by anything that happened with Remus or James or Sirius. There isn't much that frightens her. Its not that she's scared if something crawls up the stairs. She's tired of herding those things. Nor does she really want to know anymore what they are, so she makes him keep it downstairs."

He set his dish aside and took a drink of his mineral water again. He looked at the cake. "I really think we need champagne with the cake." He accio'd the open bottle of champagne and checked it to see if it had gone flat. It hadn't. He accio'd the glasses and refilled them.

He paused looking at the cake. "If I decorated cakes my entire life, I don't think I could do that," he said. "Beautiful. Do you want to cut it?" He offered her the knife.

"I wish I was, it's just things that crawl like those do creeps me out." She said then her eyes got wide. "She dated Remus before Robert? I didn't know that. I didn't know that they were all together in school. Robert always struck me as the nerdy one. Remus fixed them up?" She said surprised but she was curious about who Remus was.

"She's a lot braver than I would be with the bugs. I wouldn't want to go anywhere near them. I don't blame her for not wanting to know what they are." She said shivering slightly at the thought not wanting to know what kind of bugs Robert had.

She had finished her own food and placed her dish aside and smiled at his words. "Oh the camera," She said grabbing it off the floor behind her. She snapped a few pictures but wanted another one that was on a different angle. She got closer to Angus to get a different angle and was satisfied with it. "There now we can cut the cake but have pictures to show what it looked like." She said with a smile.

"Well my cake decorating skills are not that good." She said with a smile. "It is beautiful, I'm horrible at cutting cakes. Why don't you cut it?" She said remembering trying to cut Rose's cake but failing miserably.

"Robert is one year older than Remus, and I don't know exactly what possessed Remus to fix Kate up with him, but as I understand it, Robert bought the farm, and it was as close to a home as Remus had until he got married. That's why Khaat was so close to him. When she was growing up, she and Remus were so much alike that Remus did most of the job of raising her. They were just completely inseparable. She didn't get close to Robert until after Remus was killed."

He listened to her dislike of bugs. "Understandable," he said. "Robert had a fascination in school for transfiguration spells. He figured out how to change people to bugs and figured out it solved a multitude of problems. So, now, he's got jars in the cellar and I'm not sure he always remembers what was always a bug and what just ended up as a bug. But, the spell to make the lid stay on the jar came from Kate herding bugs once too often, I think."

She was a little hesitant to cut the cake. "Okay, so lets be more traditional and cut it together, then. Hand on the knife, and then I'll put my hand over yours. It's little enough that I think we should just whack it in quarters and then that leaves us two bits to save for our anniversary. There is something about saving part of the cake for some anniversary or another later, isn't there? If we levitate the camera, that should leave one hand free to take a picture or two."

Sounded more complicated than it should have been, but it was a wedding cake, after all. It also only left their dessert to be just a couple of bites a piece, but maybe that wasn't all bad.

She listened to him talk about how the farm was close to a home Remus had before getting married. She smiled glad that Khaat and Remus were close to one another. She herself only wished that she had Uncles or at least an Aunt, but both her parents were only children. "Do you know if she get into any trouble growing up?" She asked with a smile.

"Does he have transfiguration spell that makes them look less creepy?" She asked with a small laugh. "Well if they ended up as a bug and he forgot which one was a bug. I'm sure that leaving them as one isn't going to hurt anyone. That makes sense that it came from her, especially if they kept getting out of their jars." She said understanding why Kate came up with the spell to keep the lids sealed.

She put her left hand on the knife so he could put his hand over hers. She laughed when he said to just whack in quarters. "Yeah I think there is something about saving part of the cake for I think it was a one year anniversary. I think we'll have to ask Khaat or Kate about that. Okay sounds good." She said with a smile.

She only hoped that she wouldn't end up messing up the cuts. She decided that she'd let Angus control the cuts and just allow him to move the knife around.

"Most of trouble she ever got into was mischief that Remus led her straight into," Angus said. "I don't know if I told you, but when Brian met Khaat when he was about 8 or 9. There's longer story, but, he's got an older brother and an older sister. They were in Hogwarts at the time, and Brian and his parents were taking a long weekend at the fishing village near the Lupin farm.

"Khaat met Brian over that weekend, and they became friends, but Brian and his family got into a car accident near the village. His parents were killed. With no other family, Brian was a tough kid for a bit. The only person who could deal with him at all for the first couple of months was Robert, so Kate and Robert took him in and became his guardians.

"Brian was too attached to his parents to want to be adopted, but he did spend part of his childhood living with the Lupins--until he graduated and then went to work for Robert and moved to Paris.

"As Robert tells it, Brian was pretty rebellious for a year or two. Brian actually has quite a few fond memories, though, from those same years of him and Khaat and Remus using sticks to pretend they were dueling, and of going camping with Khaat and Remus in the woods on the farmland. I have to admit, their usual camping spot is a great spot. I can see why they'd pick it.

He wrapped his hand over hers and made two cuts into the cake to cut the tiny cake into quarters. He put two of the quarters on one dessert plate. He did remember, strangely enough, the part of giving a bite of cake to each other.

"Here," he said, picking up a little piece. "Try it. See if its another one of their recipes we're gonna have to get from them." He offered it to her. "You haven't told me about what your childhood was like. So, were you a tomboy or a girlie girl?"

She laughed softly when Angus said that Remus led Khaat in mischief. "No you didn't tell me that they met when Brian was 8 or 9. I didn't know they knew each other from that long ago." She listened to his story about Brian and Khaat meeting then becoming friends. She felt bad for Brian having lost his parents at a young age and remembering it too. She knew that if that happened to her she probably be the same way Brian had been. She didn't know what to say about everything that happened to Brian but she knew that he turned out to be a really good guy.

She laughed softly, at his words. "Well I'm glad that some of his rebellious years were fond ones." She said softly, she was glad that something wonderful turned out okay for Brian. "You'll have to show me sometime." She said with a smile.

She watched as two cuts were made into the cake. The pieces were tiny and she couldn't help but almost laugh softly. She watched as he put two of the pieces on a dessert plate.

"Well if it is then we have a lot of things to make." She said and ate the piece he offered her. "Yeah we're going to have to get the recipe." She picked up a piece like the one he offered her and did the same for him. "Well I was kind of a nerd to be honest. From what my parents told me was that I was very smart and learned very quickly. I wasn't really a girly girl because I didn't like dresses when I was younger. If I was forced to wear one I would have shorts underneath so I could pretend I was wearing a long shirt. When I did play outside I always tended to 'fall' down and get my clothes all muddy. So yeah I think I was pretty much a tomboy. I used to watch my father fix his cars he liked to collect." She said with a smile remembering some of the things she did when she was younger. "I was kinda boring growing up," She laughed softly knowing that her history was dull compared to everything else now.

He ate the bite of cake and nodded. "Oh, definitely. That's truly decadent."

He laughed when she talked about her childhood. "Oh, you're so going to fit right in with the Donohues," he said. "You'd better watch yourself or Edward's going to have you in training. A smart woman who grew up as a tomboy? You definitely are going to fit. He has always believed that Donohue women need to know how to defend themselves. He started with teaching my grandmother. He didn't want any chance that while he was off killing rogue werewolves that any of them would double back to hurt his wife or children. He took my grandmother with him once or twice, but, ironically, the better she got at fighting, the more he wanted her at home protecting the kids. Truth be told, the family was getting bigger too, and they needed someone who was pretty much fearless at home."

"I'm not against you knowing how to protect yourself. I'm all for it, but as long as we're living in a place that is as secure as the estate is, then its nothing that you have to rush. Knowing a few things? That's probably a good thing. I do want you to know all about how the estate and things work because those things were all designed to keep people safe. The more you know, the safer you and Rose are, whether I'm home or whether I'm on a mission of some sort.

"But not tonight," he said, wanting to sort of get off the subject. "I think we have better things to think of tonight." He picked up his champagne glass. "To many many years of being at least as happy as we are right now," he smiled.

She smiled at his words and laughed a little.

She laughed when he said that she was going to fit right in with his family. "Well I do need some training still. Well I'm glad that I'll fit in with the Donohue's. I think all women need to know how to defend themselves against anything. Really? That makes sense to train her to defend against any werewolf that may get away and try to hurt them. She must have been really good at fighting." She nodded when he said that the family had been getting bigger as well. "It makes sense to have someone at home protecting the family just in case something happened." She said understanding the logic of what his grandfather did.

"I know but I do want to learn how to protect myself. I haven't known for a long time how to protect myself except a few things. I'm willing to know all about the estate and how things work there, I've always been interested in it since I lived there. I didn't want to feel like I was pushing anything by asking." She said softly.

"Yeah there are several things to think of tonight." She said with smile. She picked up her own champagne glass. "And to the many adventures that we will have." She said with a smile.