A Birth day

Ruby listened to Angus and Edward talking and sighed " well can some one tell me the options then, becuse I have a perfecty good spare room you can sleep in until your are cured" she said sitting on the grass close to the recliner and downing another mouth of fire whisky before passing it to Edward. "and by the way, as much fun as camping out is, camping out in a storm is no fun, all that rain and getting wet, both" she said shivering at the thought. " besides the boys would miss you and Caprice too, just being close will reassure them your going to be fine, so I say stop with the overthinking and just stay in the spare room until Bill and Fleur can cure you of this.. this thing" she said her voice showing the confidence she had in him not to do something stupid like run away from them.

Looking to edward she chuckled " if hes this stuborn god help me when Caprice starts walking and talking" she told him. " oh and the boys have practicaly decided they want to be fighters, becuse they see you and Angus fighting and not giving up, that and our mother is one hugh witch who needs a kick up the.." she paused and chuckled "well they want to fight and protect their family."

"I suggested your spare room a few minutes ago," Edward laughed out loud. "And my two guest rooms. I even suggested your cellar and mine. And he shot all of that down, saying he didn't know that perhaps Robert was wrong about how contagious it really is. Talk about overthinking. Angus believes completely in Robert's abilities as a healer--until now." He handed Angus the whiskey. "Here. Drink some more. You get enough of this, you'll stop all this nonsense." He looked at Ruby. "I have a plan. How about this? I'll feed him enough of this stuff that it numbs his brain, and then we'll just tuck him into bed."

"Don't be silly," Angus said. "I don't need to be drunk."

"Then get ahold of yourself. Stop panicking."

"Do I look like I'm panicking?"

"Outwardly? No. Ruby's making immense sense. I suggest that this time you take her advice," he told him. "Go home until Bill undoes this. Take your firewhiskey and enjoy it."

"The boys have already told Robert they both intend to become fighters," Edward told Ruby. "As long as that's their thought, they couldn't find someone better to train under than Robert, and they certainly couldn't find better family to help grow them up than everyone right here. If that's what they want to do, then I'll certainly support them."

Ruby looked at Edward and chuckled at his plan " oh that might work, but you and I both know his stubbornness will win out" she said taking a third drink at his saying did he look like he was panicking she laughed and nodded " oh, yes you do honey" she told him " so much so even I can see it, and if I make more sense than you, you must be" she told him then listened to Edward again " good, I'll still worry about them but hey moms do, but Im glad Roberts going to teach them, he's the best in my opinion" she now spoke easily thanks to the whiskey making her relax.

"Okay I have a baby back t the house that is probably driving the boys mad, so I'll say night to you Edward and see you soon I'll make the spare bed up and leave the door open for when you come home, be it of your own volition or by Edward dragging you," she said and stood up wobbling a little as she stood facing them. Moving to Edward she hugged him and smiled " I hope to see both of you in the morning" she toned it as if to say he'd better come home or she'd be annoyed at him befoe she turned and headed back to the house.

"I'll have him there shortly," Edward said to Ruby. "Go get yourself and the boys some supper if you haven't all eaten yet."

Inside, Sam had read the directions on the formula, he had done what he had seen Angus do about making a bottle and had made one for Caprice. He had watched Angus test the temperature on his wrist before he had fed Caprice, and, when Ruby came back in, Sam was sitting and feeding the baby successfully.

"She was becoming a complete spazz," Victor said, "so he just decided to take a chance that she was hungry. Apparently so, because she's been quiet since. So--is Dad coming home?"

"I told Vic he'd be home. In fact I bet him a dozen chocolate frogs that he'd be home," Sam said.

"And I bet him a dozen he won't be home until he's fixed this," Victor said. As Victor was speaking the crackle of wand fire sounded outside, and it drew Victor to the window. "There's some red headed guy outside, and he's got a blond woman with him. They both have suitcases. Suppose that's the guy?"

"Red headed? I bet," Sam said. "All the Weasleys have flaming red hair. Don't know who the woman is, though. She's not a Weasley--no red hair."

Angus and Edward had obviously heard the wandfire. and they'd seen Bill and Fleur arrive. It brought Kate and Robert outside to go greet them. Angus and Edward did not interrupt. They decided they would let Robert host the Weasleys, and when Bill was ready, they were sure that Robert would find them.

"Come on," Edward told Angus. "You need to go inside and get something to eat. You haven't eaten all day." He stood up, and he got Angus up whether Angus wanted it or not. He saw Robert and Kate walk Bill and Fleur to the main house, obviously wanting them to settle in first. Edward took Angus home and settled him in his chair and brought him a glass for his firewhiskey and poured him a double.

"You owe me a dozen frogs, Dude," Sam said. Victor just sighed.

Ruby smiled seeing sam sitting with Caprice feeding her " oh, that's good" she said " it's why I came back in" she told them correcting his hold of the bottle slightly " and by the way you owe him some chocolate frogs, we'll go to get them in the morning" she said and smiled at Victor as sam held Caprice. Hearing aperating she glance out the window and smiled " that is bill wheasly and fleur delacore , there here to fix the curse thats on your dad." she looked at them.

Seeing Edward return with Angus she smiled and looked to the boys then back to Edwrad " first room to the right is the spare room , its ready for Angus" she said moving to Sam and picking up Caprice to bring up her wind. " we saw Bill and fleur arrive"

"Well, we're not taking him with us," Victor told Ruby. "He'll get into Honeydukes, and he'll want more than the frogs. By the time I pay for the frogs, I'll be skint."

"Well, that's just rude of you," Sam said. "Didn't expect you to pay for more than the frogs. I have cash of my own."

"Let's give Robert a few minutes to talk with Bill and maybe show him that ring. Cursebreakers are a fairly serious lot when it comes to something that has been cursed. Weasleys know how to have a good time, but I bet Bill may want to see those dark soul marks before the night is over."

It wasn't more than about thirty minutes when Robert came over bringing Bill with him. Angus hadn't had much more of his drink. He was just sitting and thinking. Sam was struggling with Caprice because she needed burped and had had a tough time of it. Now her diaper was quite soiled, and Sam just hadn't gotten around to changing her yet. Caprice was put out with the whole business and was having an itty bitty baby meltdown when Robert arrived.

"Hello, All," Robert said. "This is Bill Weasley, and I asked him to come help. Bill, this is Ruby, Angus, and their boys Sam and Victor, and the noisy one here is Caprice, their newest."

"Hello," Bill said. "Nice to meet you all. Robert's shown me the ring. There's a story with that, but that can wait til a little later. Angus, could I see those marks of yours?"

"Sure," Angus said. Bill used a magic spell to remove the plasters without touching them. Then he studied the marks on Angus's fingers.

"That is quite interesting indeed," Bill said seriously. "Thank goodness the marks are still really small. That makes it a good deal easier to remove. The ring you found has been missing for nigh onto 75 years from a private collection of Egyptian relics. In ancient Egypt, there is a legend of a goddess, Neith. The Egyptians believed she was the great creator, the weaving of the universe, and she is said to re-weave the universe daily much like a spider weaves a web. The ring was not at one time thought to be a dark relic, but somehow over time, it has, itself, become contaminated with dark energies. I suspect that's why your witch had it. So, in order to insure that this curse is entirely gone, this needs two steps. The first one, we need to separate you from the curse, meaning we need to remove the marks. That takes a bit of a ritual and a spell. The ritual does take a bit of time. Then, I need to try to remove the dark energies from the ring. That's a different ritual. If I am successful at both, you'll be rid of the curse and the marks and the ring will never be able to be used for dark magic ever again. It will close the connection between the ring and the darkness forever. I think that's worth fighting for."

Robert didn't ask Sam for permission to take her. He just took her from Sam, wanting to quiet her so Bill could work. He helped himself to the baby supplies in the closet and changed her and burped her and then worked on trying to quiet her.

Ruby saw Robert and Bill arrive and smiled " pleasure," she said bouncing Caprice to try and quiet her. She stood and watched as Bill removed the plasters from Angus's fingers and could not help down at the dark lines like spiderwebs crossing his fingers. When Robert offered to take Caprice she let him gently place her in his arms and was pleased when she went quiet giving her time to move to stand next to Angus.

"Well I'm one person who thinks it is," she said looking at Angus and smiled at him then looking at Bill " so how long will it take to remove it?" she asked "because there's one person here who owes another some chocolate fogs." she glanced back at Sam and Victor before looking back at both men. " and what do you need to do it, we can supply it. " she asked

"If it were a fully developed curse, it could take eight to ten hours just to remove the marks," Bill told her, "but because Robert was so prompt in calling me, I think we could finish the first ritual and have these gone in maybe an hour or so. Cursebreaking is delicate, meticulous work. It's about trying to drive out negative energies from a white lighter. In Angus' case, I see no reason why he can't sleep through it if he chooses. I'm just going to be focused on his hand because it hasn't gotten farther than that.

"The ring is another matter. I really think the darkness has an exceptionally dark hold on this ring, and since the ring has been missing now for nearly 80 years, it could take me hours and hours to drive the negative energies out of that and close the portal to it. I won't need Angus present for that, but I will want to not be hundreds of miles away from him, just as a precaution."

"I've told Bill that he and I can go work in my potions lab at the farm if he likes so we won't be disturbed," Robert said.

"I don't think I'll need that for the work with Angus, but I think it's a good idea for that ring. I brought with me all I need for tonight's work with Angus. I can work right here, if that's alright. I'll just need some quiet for a bit."

"Perhaps you could let Edward and Simone keep Caprice for a bit while this is going on," Robert suggested.

"We're going to work on our papers anyway, so if she's done with her little hissy fit, she could hang with us," Sam said. "If she's not done, she's all yours, Ruby." That made Robert laugh.

"Spoken by a true big brother," Robert laughed.

Ruby listened to Bill and nodded "of course your welcome to do it here" she said then looked to Robert and chuckled "well all right " she said and looked to the boys smiling as they spoke " I think Edward and Simone would not mind taking her for the night, no offence but you need your sleep and well you have plenty of time to spend with her" she smiled and looked at Robert as she accused her baby bag with dypers and a change of clothes in it. Making the bag stop by Robert she nodded " would you mind" she asked.

Looking back to Bill she smiled " so coffee or tea?" she asked moving to the kitchen " oh I think there's some cookies left" she pulled out a cookie jack and set some on a plate and moved them to the coffee table. She looked over at Angus and smiled at him " see, things do have a way of working out." she said placing down two cups of coffee and cookies.

Robert put the baby bag in the moses basket, and he levitated it to come along beside him over to Edward's. Simone was just folding a load of laundry when Robert knocked and then let himself in with Caprice.

"Bill is wanting to rid Angus of the dark soul marks as soon as possible, and Ruby wants to be with him," Robert said.

"As well she should be," Edward said.

"I wonder if there are any willing grandparents that wouldn't mind having Caprice overnight til morning," Robert said.

"I thought they'd never ask," Simone brightened at once and took Caprice from Robert, as Edward plucked the basket with the baby bag out of the air and set it down on the sofa.

"How's he holding up?"

"He's alright," Robert said. "He's just very quiet right now. The best thing for him is to be rid of those marks so he can get a good night's sleep. I'll stay with them. Once Bill is done with that, he and I will go over to my potions lab at the farm to try to take the dark energies out of the ring. That could take several hours, according to Bill."

"I'll come with you if you want. I'll help if I can," Edward said.

"I'll let you know. For now, your family needs you right here," Robert said. Edward nodded. Robert went back over to Angus's and saw that Bill was setting us a few things to help him with the ritual to cast out the dark marks. The boys didn't really want to go, but Angus flicked one finger on his good hand at them as a silent request for them to go to their room. They went upstairs obediently, much as they didn't want to.

"I think I'm ready," Bill said a few minutes later. "You all can sit and relax for this one. I'll do the heavy lifting on this one. I doubt if you feel much of anything, Angus, since they're not big or deep either one. Enjoy your coffee if you like. Let's begin."

It took Bill about ninety minutes to rid himself of the marks, and at the very last, it caused a really hard burning pain in his hand. It made his hand twitch, but he never made a sound. A black cloud of smoke rose up from his two fingers as the dark marks burned out of his fingers and they faded and left him. Bill looked up at Angus.

"We did it,' Bill said.

"Nice work, Bill. Nicely done," Robert said. "Thank you." Bill laid his hand on Angus just to check for any dark energies.

"I think you're clear, Angus," Bill smiled at him. "Your part in this is over."

"Thank you," Angus said, knowing it might take a few minutes for him to unwind. "Look, Bill, I know you have reason to not want to help Fenrir Greyback..."

"That was a long time ago," Bill told Angus "If he's ever put behind bars, it needs to be for something he actually did, not because he's been put there wrongly. Yes. I will write my report about the ring and its affect on you for the Wizengamot, and I will look at all the rest of the witch's belongings for whatever help it might be. I think you should get a late supper and a good night's sleep, while Robert and I go over to the farm for the rest of tonight's work."

"I think you can take care of him from here, Ruby," Robert said, passing a small potions bottle to her. "Get him to take that before he goes to sleep. It's just one dose, but he'll feel worlds better in the morning. Any questions? Oh, and Simone and Edward are overjoyed to have Caprice overnight."