A Birth day

Ruby looked at Jeffery she thought or tried to bout how she'd hurt Angus " I am not me" she said " I feel wrong, like...like my mothers still here somehow I hear her" she looked at Jeffery " I know she's not but I hear her, she's calling me useless, pathetic and I'll lose them all" she said bursting into tears once more "that I'm no good, I can't fight and I will lose because Im just at home and I didn't come to fight for them." this made her frown "what?" she said, "what did she do...what did she do?" Ruby paced and looked around the room franticly.

Stopping she looked at Jeffery " they broke in here a few nights back and took some photos of our family, Angus told me, it was after that this ..." she waved her hands "all started, I need to talk to Robert, she..my mother must have done something." she said still looking around the room.

"Stop," Jeffrey said. "Calm yourself. Even if you hear her, you have your own mind. You don't have to buy one thing she tells you. You can make a choice. You have to decide if you're going to buy what she tells you or if you're going to take a stand and put your faith into your friends and family. Ruby, you aren't new to Robert and his training. Surely he has told you that a lot of the effectiveness of magic has to do in intent. Even if she has full intent on hurting someone here, you have to make a choice about whether you intend to let her get away with it by believing what she's telling you. Or--you can render her magic completely useless by standing up against it.

"Don't you remember how Harry Potter defeated Voldemort in the ministry atrium? Voldemort was immensely powerful, certainly more powerful than your mother is. And Harry was just a boy then, but he defeated Voldemort by taking a stand against everything Voldemort was saying. There are all sorts of countercurses for this sort of thing but, Albus Dumbledore was quite correct when he said that the most powerful magic of all is love. Determination to take a stand for what you know is right. Now, get yourself together and decide what you want to believe in."

Ruby listened to Jeffery and noded as the voices continued she felt their hold lessen " its working , the more I think about just being with Angus and the boys the less I hear her" she said now closing her eyes and focusing on her breathing until there was silance and she breathed out. Looking at Jeffery she breathed out again " I have to opologise to Angus and the boys, now Im mad at my mother , but.." she paused " she won't get to me that way again" now she looked to Jeffery once more " do you think I should go with you?" she asked as there was a knock on the door. Standing she walked over and found Yu standing with some tea, the same tea " oh thank you Yu." she said and took it smiling and took a sip.

Yu loked at Jeffery and smiled "to sooth the nerves" he explained and left , Ruby sat and sipped her tea " its like I woke from a nightmare, one she created" she said "focus on positive things , I just hope I haven't damaged things with Angus." she felt her anger rising and paused sipping the tea to calm down " Im glad Jessie thought to call you, guess Jessie and myself are a like in many ways." The more she sipped the tea the calmer she felt and more like herself she became.

"Well, you've taken care of part of it," Jeffrey said. "I think you really do need to address the anxiety that you seem to carry a good portion of the time. You know what the truth is between you and Angus. You know what he's good at, and what he isn't. You don't need to keep mulling those things around in your head and questioning whether he cares or he doesn't or any of the other things that you already have the answers to. He's still here. He's over at Edward's but he didn't leave. Stop thinking second guessing and overthinking. That gets you in trouble every time you let it run away with you.

"I think Angus is the kind of guy, especially with the sort of upbringing he had--the good and the bad of it--that he's always going to be a strong provider and protector. That's just who he is. It's who he has always been. He would always welcome you being a partner with him in that, but he is absolutely not going to cope well with you telling him he's not good enough.

"I think apologies are a good start, but you need to work on you, and he needs a little time to see whether the real you is who he thought he knew or whether its the woman that he went to Honeydukes with. Does that make sense? As far as for where you want to work, that's up to you. If you want to be here, we might be able to work some sort of schedule out. If you want to come to Switzerland for a few days, then you need to be able to let him take care of all your children so you can focus in and then hopefully come back as the person you want to be. It's up to you."

Ruby nodded and smiled " I know he is strong and protective and I need to let him have that and loosen my thoughts about that more," she said then at his mention of him being at the main house she nodded again " I know, and I know he wouldn't let the kids go, I truly love him and never would say he wasn't a protector, I trust him with all my heart, I understand but that wasn't me in honeydukes," she said as she listened to him continue " yes, I think I would like that, have to get those thoughts gone once and for all, I've seen how happier Jessie is and I need to do it for the kids and Angus." she told him determined now to listen to Angus and not worry about things as she would know Angus had it in hand.

"I'll apologise tonight but leave him be until he's ready and well I guess I prove my trust in him again no thanks to my mother once more," she said and sighed deeply. " I need to forget about her and focus on my family and not make her mistakes..ever," she said smiling at him. Standing she moved to the door and opened it stepping out she moved to the boy's room and slowly opened the door to look in " um.. sorry guys about before, I didn't mean to snap at Angus and if you'll be okay for a moment I really ..realy need to explain and apologise to Angus." she said to them then she looked at Victor " yes was one slice short of a full cheese wheel but not any more, I promise you"

"From what I've heard about her," Jeffrey said, "I don't believe she's made mistakes. You might want to consider that she just really might be that calculating and manipulative and her actions are very, very intentional. If she's done all these things purposely, you might want to stop thinking about her actions as mistakes. When you allow yourself to consider these things she's doing are just mistakes, you open yourself up to believing that somewhere underneath it all, she is still the loving, nurturing mother you would ideally like her to be. Personally, I think that it is much more likely that maybe she just really is a foul, nasty woman. She has chosen to position herself to be in complete partnership with one of your husband's and Robert's biggest enemies, on a direct collision course with them, her eyes wide open. And from all that I know, Robert is not a man that most people would want to run afoul of.  And now she's taking deliberate strikes against your husband by using you as a weapon against him. As I see it, you owe her absolutely nothing and would be far wiser to guard yourself from."

Upstairs in their room, the boys had been starting to smell food cooking. They didn't know who was cooking, but they didn't think it was Ruby or Angus either one. And, frankly, they were starting to wonder if anyone was going to fix any supper. Sam and Victor looked up at Ruby when she opened the door, and they listened to what she had to say.

"Just one slice?" Victor asked her. "We're fine. You go and apologize, but I think you've got some major repair work to do. This is going to take a bit."

"You know, though, you might wanna give some thought to the fact that the woman she's become is even worse than the woman she was when any of us lived at home with her," Sam said. "When Dad was alive, she was basically a harmless dark arts nitwit, but this dude she's married to now, whoever he is, doesn't seem to be a good influence on her. This new guy's put her in touch with some really powerful dark arts people, and that makes our mom a powerful dark nitwit. For all you know, this new flame of hers could be just using her to get to Dad, and we can't afford to let that happen, not if we want this family to last. I don't what he's got against Dad, but he does seem to have some sort of agenda. Now, Vic and I aren't the most experienced guys, but even we can see that we all have to be on our guards to not pay one moment of attention to anything she might want with us."

"Maybe we can find some sort of spell or something to block her from our heads," Victor said.

"Yeah, maybe, but if we do that, then we close the door on her for good," Sam replied. "I'm not looking for a relationship with her, but if we let her continue to chatter at us at night, then we find out what she's up to because, as much of a dingbat as she is, she's never been smart enough to keep her mouth shut. And forewarned is forearmed, you know. I'm going to take her own game and use it against her."

"Well, you're right. There is that," Victor conceded. He looked at Ruby. "You really shouldn't do that, though. You need to have more of your own act together before you would be okay to do anything like that. That would not be good for you."

At Edwards, it was actually Simone who was cooking. She was fixing a huge beef and onion pie, a large hearty dish of colcannon that she had added crispy bacon and some scallions to, along with an orange cardamom crumb cake for dessert. She knew that Edward and the boys and she were all going to soon be hungry. Edward wasn't making any judgments about Angus or Ruby either one but he was choosing for now to just stay close to Angus, knowing that Angus was hurting and knowing there wasn't anything right now he could do to be any help to Ruby.  For his part, Angus was quiet. He had fixed a bottle for Caprice and was feeding her while he just walked the floors at Edward's, trying hard not to question whether all of this with Ruby had been just another mistake of his own doing.

Ruby moved and sat on one of the beds as Sam spoke this made her laugh and nod her head "Okay I was several slices short of a cheese wheel" she said chukaling at them " but I agree, she can't keep messing with us like that" she listened to them talking and smiled " Jeffery said almost the same thing and I agree I want nothing to do with her ether, but like a bad smell she keeps coming back and interfearing." she told them.

Hearing Victor talk she looked at him " that back in Hogsmead was not me, that was her control" she said " don't worry Jeffery taught me how to block her and Im feeling like my self again, with a sigh she spoke again " I think she snuck in while I was sleping , I don't remember dreaming at all last night." she told them then looked at both of them " and thats why I have decided to go to Jefferys clinic once a month, to get her and my mental health sorted once and for all, he can teach me how to perminatly keep her out so it will never happen again" she told them. " so yeah once a month it will be you guys and Angus and Caprice." she smiled " just don't go nuts" she chuckled and then stood up " okay I have a realy big Apology to give, But I will understand if he dosn't want anything to do with me just yet, but I also want to string our mother up by her tenders and make her squeal like a pig for this."

Moving to Edwards adjoing door she knocked then slowly pushed it open seeing Simone she took a breath in looking over at Angus "I am sorry for how I acted in Hogsmead , it was not me, " with a deep sigh she spoke again " it was my mother controling me" she told them. She looked at Angus with Caprice and spoke directly to him " Im sorry about everything that happened at Hogsmead, the asking Marcus and after, that wasn't me I know you protect our family, I trust you to do what needs to be done, and I understand if you want to stay here for a while, After what I heard her try and get me to say to you I wouldn't want to be any where near me nether, But I will now and forever love you with all my heart and trust you with out a dough" she looked to Edward and simone " I should get back to feed the boys dinner."

"If she and her husband are both out to get Angus like we think they are, then, they're not going to stop," Victor told her. "You're seriously going to have to toughen up. It isn't going to be good enough to just block her. You're going to have to not only know how to fight but you're going to have the guts to do it. I don't know the people in the main house well, but it seems to me that Jess has learned how to do all that, and she's a seer. She sees and hears all kinds of stuff. Maybe you need to see if she can coach you or something."

When she went over to Edward's, Angus just watched her come in. Edward went into the kitchen area so that Angus had a bit more privacy. He just listened to her.

"Understood," he told her quietly. "I'll come home tonight because of the kids, but I won't be sleeping in the bedroom, not for awhile. I need to know that the person that I'm talking to and the person that's in my bed isn't your mother. And I also have to know she isn't the one around the kids. I really can't bend on that. Phelps needs to stay--period. I'm glad you understand I'm going to need a little time. You don't need to feed the boys tonight. Simone has supper for us almost ready. She'll be putting it on the table in just a few minutes." Angus did not want Ruby's mother having any access to the boys but especially not any access at all to Caprice. The boys were old enough and smart enough to take care of themselves to a certain extent, but Caprice was entirely vulnerable. Angus wasn't going to be comfortable for awhile leaving Ruby alone with Caprice until he was sure that it wasn't Suzanne controlling Ruby. He did not want to have to spell that out for her but that was how he truly felt.

Ruby heard Angus and nodded " Understood and I'd do the same if I was in your shoes," she said "Jefferys agreed to me coming to his clinic once a month to train my mind so she can't do that again, and Sam and Victor both made a good suggestion that I work with Jess too, I will be asking her later," she told him. "But I understand you want Caprice safe and know it is me thats with her and not my mother, so I respect that," she said.

Hearing that simone was cooking she looked at her " Thankyou." she said to her " and I truly do not act that way" she said "and I will admit I feel very violated by her doing that to me."

"I can accept it wasn't you," Angus said. "And I do understand that bewitchings happen. I get that entirely. You need to understand that, for her and for Gelding, this is just one more shenanigan in a much bigger plan. This is not your fight. As much as it bothers you, to them you were a pawn in a 40 year war. This is up to me and up to Robert to do something about."

Simone put the large pot of colcannon into a serving bowl and put it on the table and took the beef and onion pie out of the oven.

"Its my pleasure," Simone said. "I know you don't act that way. I'm sure you do feel violated. I'm sure any of us would. Now, if you'd like to help, you could get some plates and silverware out. I have some of Kate's pottery plates in the cabinet right above you, and the silverware is in the drawer right in front of you. Glasses are in the cabinet to the left of the sink, and there is iced tea and lemonade in the fridge. You can either set the table or use some of the countertop as a buffet for now and let everyone fix their own plate.

"I don't have a sideboard<" Simone continued, "but I did see in a muggle secondhand store in London, they have an outstanding antique Irish Housekeepers cabinet that I dearly love. Edward told me I could have it, so he and I plan to go negotiate a much better price and get it. He said he can add a pull out table between the upper and lower cabinets, and then, I think, it will be a fine sideboard."