A new member,

Jess looked at Jack worried but he just smiled down at her " you'll be careful right?" she asked him and he chuckled lightly.

"its the spiders you'll have to worry about , not me." he saw the look on her face and caressed her cheek " yes I'll be careful" he told her seeing her relax at his words. " Robert I'm ready when you are, if Angus can cook up two large steaks for when we get back that would be good." he said knowing he'd be hungry again on his return.

"I'm going with you," Kate told Robert.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Robert frowned.

"I still know the business end of a wand," she said.

"Alright, but stay close to me," he said. He looked at Brian and Khaat. "You two stay behind this time. I'm sure Abbey will keep you lot busy enough as it is. She's had a nap, so she's probably ready for play."

"We'll be fine," Brian said. Angus set a spell for the dining room to clean up and the dishes to wash themselves, and he readied himself to go. Kate got Abbey out of her high chair and put her on the floor, and gave her a sippy cup of water.

"Be a good girl for Gram, won't you, Pet?" she kissed Abbey's cheek. Abbey nodded. Brian accio'd the box of crayons.

"Abbey, here. Want to draw?" Brian asked.

"You're not going to let her draw on the wall again, are you?" Khaat groaned.

"Why not? It's easy enough to rid the walls of the marks later," he said. "You worry too much. This house was made to be lived in."

"We're ready when you are," Angus told Robert.

"Wands at the ready, then," Robert said. "Hold on to me, Kate. Angus and Jack, we'll see you both there." He ported out, taking Kate with him

Jess kissed Jack and watched as he moved to Angus then left with the others.

Jack found himself stood once more in the sewers and gave a sigh" can we one day have an assignment not in a smelly sewer, maybe some place dry and warm, with palm trees and maybe drinks with umbrellas?" he said jokingly

"We'll try to remember that," Robert replied. He, Angus and Kate lit their wands, and they began looking down the corridor that Robert had seen the spiders retreat into. They could see the scratchings in the muck on the floors and the walls from the spider legs. They were on the right track.

"I really don't want an encounter but I do want to seal up this pathway. If it goes as far as I think it goes, we could be in for a really long walk," Robert said.

"You can't think we'll walk all the way to Scotland, do you?" Kate asked, thinking not even Robert would want them to walk all that distance.

"No," Robert said. "I'm be satisfied, for now, to chase them out of the Diagon Alley neighborhood of London. It will take days to track them back to Scotland, but if we get them to leave London alone, that in itself will be something, at least. And that will be exercise enough for one afternoon. Keep your eyes open for any sight of James or of any sort of deviation to the spiders' route."

"So far, so good," Kate said.

Back at the house, Khaat felt she needed to make herself useful. She left Brian to mind Abbey who was busy scribbling on the walls, and Khaat went into the kitchen. She took a basket and got out a number of baking potatoes and some roasting ears of corn and prepared some potatoes and corn to roast on the grill, and she made two different compound butters--one with parsley and salt and grated parmesan cheese for the corn, and another with garlic and salt and chives for the potatoes.

Then she took a simple quick bread recipe and made a savory monkey bread to go with it all. She was going to leave the grilling itself to Angus when he got back. She knew she needed to make a dessert of some sort but she honestly didn't have any ideas.

Jack coughed and nodded " yes sir" he said and started to move threw the passage his nose picking up the smell of the spiders but it was faint as if they'd not returned since their encounter. Jack heard the mention of James but could not smell him any where taking it to mean ether he could hide his scent or that he'd left to lick his wounds some place else.

Jess moved to the kitchen and watched Khaat prepare some food " they will be okay" she said sitting down facing her. " you know there all very good at what they do, oh and what about Zeppole for desert its Italian fried dough dusted with powdered sugar and filled with cream or fresh fruit, that way they can eat what they want." Jess suggested

"I know," Khaat said. "I just needed to feel useful, that's all. Zeppole sound fine. I haven't had those since my honeymoon. Brian took me to a little place in Corsica, and they made us these wonderful little bite sized zeppole that were stuffed with milk chocolate and served it with a raspberry dipping sauce. It was a lovely ending to a perfect meal. We've said we'd like to go back there if we ever got the chance."

She began cleaning up the mess from making the potatoes and corn and then decided to make a hot vegetable salad. She made a combination of carrots, sweet bell pepper slices, sweet onion, zucchini, and yellow squash, and added herbs, spices, olive oil and salt and closed them all into a package of aluminum foil, deciding to just put them on the grill in the foil and let them roast in the coals. She would finish them when the meat was ready by just adding a simple balsamic vinaigrette to them.

"I think I'll let Angus do whatever meat he wants, however he wants to do it," she said. "But it never hurts to lend a hand. He's liable to be tired by the time they get back from trying to track those spiders down in those sewers."

"I'm not finding anything, Robert," Kate said.

"No, me neither," Robert said, "except that the spiders came this way. I didn't see any trace of them heading off into any of the other passage ways. Jack, are you finding anything? Angus?"

"Nothing except spider tracks," Angus said. "I figured we'd find James' tracks, but I don't see anything other than the spider trail."

Jess sat and listened to Khaat and nodded " I know how you feel, I want to go with Jack but I know I'll just get in the way. " she nodded her head at Khaat's suggestion to let Angus decide on desert.

Jack looked around the sewer and shook his head "Nothing, scents faint, James is gone, so hes not been back." Jack said running his hand over the slimy walls. " as for the spiders I agree, I think they were only here because of James, and what he'd promised."

"I always worry a little when they're out on a mission," I said. "Not a lot, but I do feel better when they're all back safe and sound. If you're alright doing the zeppoli, I'll go and put some wood in the grill out back. It won't take me long."

She went outside and started hauling wood for the grill. It wasn't more than a moment before Brian came out.

"I'll do that," he told her quietly.

"You shouldn't," she said. "You shouldn't risk spreading that toxin."

"I'm fine, and besides, I have you and Jess here if I'm not," he smiled. He kissed her forehead. "You're stressing."

"I don't like the idea of a werewolf that big with me on his mind."

"Neither do I, but I'm just glad Jack is here. I think Jack can handle his brother. I'll load the grill if you get some newspaper and soak some wood chips."

"Don't overdo it," she cautioned him. She went back to the kitchen. "Brian chased me out of the woodpile," she told Jess. "He'd rather load the grill himself. He sent me into soak some wood chips and gather up some newspaper." She got out a bag of hickory chips and poured them into a bowl and poured some firewhiskey over them to soak and then gathered up a stack of newspaper to help start the fire with.

Robert checked his watch. He figured they had certainly walked the distance of Diagon Alley by now, and they had seen nothing.

"I should think this would be far enough, at least for now, don't you?" Robert asked.

"How do you plan on stopping them from coming back through?" Kate asked.

"I think perhaps a bit of a shield might work for now. If you all will lend me hand with casting it. A simple Protego shield would work, I should think. How about I start it, and you all join in, and we'll stop when we see it's all set." Robert fired a protego spell from his wand, and Kate and Angus fired their wands to strengthen the spell.

"Jack, see if you can close the circle across the tunnel with your protego spell," Kate told him.

Jess started the Zeppole Combining all the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl She then add in eggs, vanilla and ricotta and stir to the consistency of a thick batter. When the oil was hot she started frying it in small batches of 3 or 4 at a time, using 1 tablespoon of batter for each zeppola. The batter puffed up when dropped in the hot oil. After about 3 minutes or until deeply and evenly browned on all sides she flipped them over. Once cooked Jess Transfer the fried zeppole to paper towels to absorb excess oil and garnish them liberally with powdered sugar.

Jack heard Robert and nodded " okay" he said taking out his wand and readied himself to cast the protego spell when Robert told him to.

"Close the circle, Jack, and let's go home," Robert told him.

Brian loaded the grill with wood, and Khaat took him the newspaper. Brian used the newspaper to help him start the wood burning, and he managed it himself for a bit, knowing it needed some time for the fire to get to the right heat to do any cooking.

"Come sit," she told him. "I'll watch it for a bit." He went over and sat down on a patio chair tiredly, rubbing his aching leg. She reached over and to draw off the pain from his leg and his arm. "You've overdone it. I can feel it," she told him.

"Just don't tell your father, and we'll be fine," he said.

"Don't blame me if he sees it anyway," she said.

"That fire was hot work. I really could use a beer," he said.

"I'll get it if you stay right there," she said.

"I will," he said. She went back to the kitchen.

"Your zeppoli look good, Jess," she said, getting out a bottle of beer and uncapping it. "Brian's overdoing it, of course. What do you think the chances are that my father isn't going to notice?" She looked at the beer and then, on second thought, got out a second and popped the cap on it. "I think I'll have one too. You want one while I'm at it, Jess?"