A Birth day

"Well, since it's late, you probably wont find Barnett in her office til morning," Robert told her. "You can certainly check there, though. Michael has informants he can talk to, and I can check some other records that Barnett won't have access to. Edward, could you look into the business records? Talk to the the people at the vineyard and the shipyard that will have the best information."

"Edward, is it worth sending a wire to Sergio and Ana to see if they know of anything that might be helpful?" Simone asked.

"Couldn't hurt," Edward said. "I'll send something."

"He'll come,' Marcus said. "I don't know Sergio well, but from is last visit here, his and Ana's devotion to Angus are pretty unshakable. If they find out he's in trouble, they'll come."

"Another couple hands could't hurt," Robert said.

"Unless they're behind it," Simone said.

"Sergio and Ana? Absolutely not. I'd swear my life on it," Edward said. "But checking Angus's friends is a good idea."

"Are there any old flames we should check?"

"Nah," Edward said. "Ana and that shapeshifter were the only other serious ones, and the shapeshifter is dead. Ana's got no axe to grind with him. There were some women he had a date or two with but nothing serious."

"I suggest, then, that we all get a little sleep so we can hit it again hard in the morning," Robert said. "I know it feels a little wrong to do that, but if we use up all our energies by misspending them, we won't be ready to actually go and do something when that opportunity breaks. Get some sleep you lot, and we'll start again in a few hours."

"I'll reinforce Anise's sleep spell so she sleeps through the night, then," Nigel said.

"She could use the rest anyway," Robert nodded. "Anything else for tonight? Or do we have our directions for now? If so, I need to get a little sleep myself. I really don't want to be up two nights in a row if I can help it at all."

Ruby looked to Simone as she spoke " could you lok after .." she didn't get time to finish her words as there was the sound of aperating out side and in walked a tall woman her hair short and tricolored , she wore a black leather jacket that reatched down to her thighs along with thigh high heeled boots emblasened across one pocket was teh symbol of the ministry of magic Auror department in her hand sat her wand. A dark wood with light wood spireled around it finishing with a tip of silver. She slipped it into her holder that was strapped to her thigh and waited where she had appeared before turning to the duplex she saw and walked up to its door but before she could reatch for the door Jessie ran over wand at the read as Jack walked over.

"Who are you and how did you get past the barrier?" he asked. Turning with purpose she looked at them both before she spoke.

"Easy lad , Im here on business, not to fight, my name is Auror Aria Barnett." she looked to Jack and nodded her head " you can see I hide nothing" she said and opened her arms and coat to show nothing but her wand.

" keep your wand holstered" Jack told her and she nodded as she let the folds of her coat fall across her again. Ruby saw her out side then looked to Robert.

"looks like your right becuse shes right here" she motioned to the window where she saw Jessie with his wand trainned on her and Jack talking to her.

Robert wasn't sure what brought Barnett at this late hour, but he was about to find out. As the deputy minister, he still outranked her. He went to the door and opened it. Lee stood to his feet, knowing an auror was going to very likely be a little surprised to see the President of the MACUSA in this little log home at this hour. Nigel went downstairs to tend to Anise, and Marcus was standing with Lee, unsure if he needed to be at the ready or not. His basic philosophy was, though, better to be at the ready than not, until he knew otherwise.

"Barnett," Robert said. "I'm surprised to see you here so late. Come in." He looked at Jack and Jessie. "Thank you, Gentlemen. You can stand down. I've got it. So, what brings you, Barnett?"

Ruby smiled seeing Aria but could tell from her face it was business so stayed with Simone and Caprice as she saw Robert walk to the door. Aria looked up at Robert and nodded "Minister, I thought you might want to look at these.., well files, you might want to look over them considering the situation, and please. " she held up her hand before he could say anything to her "they're declassified so not governed by the classifications or secrets Act." She said nodding to Jessie and Jack as Jessie put his wand away and Jack folded his arms in a relaxed pose. Walking to the door she reached into her pocket taking out a small pile of yellow folders.

Stepping inside she placed them down on a table and enlarged them, she saw the empty bed and "Let me guess , the Aurors that came rousted him from his bed, stupid fools?" she asked the last part she almost whispered in disgust at their actions then nodded to Lee " Mr Shepard good to see you again, I passsed you in Paris , oh about two years ago." she acknowledged him then looked to Robert again " I know you have acsess to the clasified files but these I found in our archives all are about Mr Donohugh and his activity, all leagal with your self ."

"That's precisely what they did," Robert said, going to the table to look at the files she'd brought. "He's barely two days out from a complete shoulder reconstruction. I brought him home because I have no less than five healers living on this property who are all more than qualified to provide him round the clock medical care. You may not know, but most patients with his kind of injury are hospitalized for three to five days. He needs continuous medical care that, right now, I am forbidden from providing him. I don't bloody care that the minister's signature is on the warrant. The harm that comes to him because of this will be on their hands, and I will have their badges--every last one of them."

"Nice seeing you again, Auror Barnett," Lee said quietly. "I remember. Look, I know I'm the Yankee in this but surely there has to be some sort of loophole that allows you to keep a suspect in protective custody in some alternate setting, especially during a medical emergency. I have any number of aurors at my disposal that I would gladly loan to your auror department to guard Angus. We could return him to his bed, to his healers, and your lads or mine, we could surely work something out that he's never out of their sight, could we not? As it is, one of his surgeons is a Brit, who works for me, who is ready to contact the Daily Prophet as well as our wizarding newspaper in New York to tell them how the Ministry's aurors were ready to fire upon him and Angus's bodyguard so they could whisk him out of his hospital bed to take him to Azkaban. I daresay that won't look very impressive on the minister's success record, never mind that Angus is the grandson of a wizarding hero that's in just about every wizarding history book I've ever read. Angus is innocent. He could not have committed these murders because he was here all night last night and had awake medical staff with him all night long. He never left. So when the truth comes out, your department risks having more than just a little egg on their faces. It seems to me that some sort of compromise might well rescue your department from a massive embarrassment and saves your minister's reputation."

Lee wanted to actually say it wouldn't look good for a minister that didn't have a success record at all, but he chose to be more diplomatic than that. Robert didn't say a word. He was sitting at the table reading the files. Some of the names involved were names he knew. And some of the most notorious of them were dead, serving time in Azkaban already, or had turned state's evidence and were now informants for the Unspeakables. He wasn't sure that Barnett had information about the latter, but Robert certainly did. As he was reading the files, he was eliminating a good many of the names that had been associated with Angus.

Aria looked to Lee and nodded as he spoke to her she stood upright and folded her arms as if thinking "There might be something I can do, leave it with me, there are about twelve of us that feel he was dealt with wrongly he should have been put under house arrest and watched by us, not taken as he was, but I need one of your men to come with me" she said speaking to Robert " someone other than your self who works for the ministry." she looked to Lee " Im afraid what I'm going to do you can not be implicated in, Minister Lupin here, needs you right here" she said then looked at Robert as he looked at the files " I will leave these her with you to loook over " she then walked to the floo and sent a small note instantly six Aurors apeared all bowing to Robert.

Aria smiled and looked to Robert " well Minister whom shall acompany us to retrive your man.?" She spoke to two of the Aurors who moved to take up positions by the bed " they will remain as guards even though he is not here he will by morning,." again she held her hand up " I know the department of Aurors is not in your good books, so let me make it right so you can focus on finding the person or persons behind the murders, if you agree. she asked

"Alright," Robert said. "That's fine. I can offer you Michael Tremaine. He can certainly go along. I could offer you Brian Quinn, and I'm sure you know Brian. He's not a full time employee at the Ministry, but he has had a steady contract for the last several years as the trainer for the aurors."

"You'll likely have to wait on Brian til he gets home," Michael said. "I can go with Barnett now. The sooner we get him out of that hellhole the better."

"Let me get you a dose of pain potion to take with you. He's going to need it before he gets on that damned boat to come back across the North Sea," Robert said. He went over to the med cart and got the pain potion he'd blended as Edward accio'd a small empty vial that could hold just one dose of potion. He handed the vial to Robert who carefully poured a dose into the vial. He capped it and then was careful to show Barnett the bottle so she could see precisely what he had put into it.

"One dose will get him home because it is a new time released formula," Robert told her. "He may sleep but if he can rest, then that's fine." Michael got into the cabinet and got out some savory biscuits in case Angus's stomach was upset from the pain.

"Good thought, Michael," Robert said. "He might not need them, though. Still, better to have them."

"He didn't have any sort of shoes or shirt," Marcus said, "Just pajama bottoms." Marcus shrank one of Angus's adaptive shirts and the canvas slip on shoes that he had near the door and he handed them to Michael who put them in his shirt pocket.

"He isn't going to care," Michael said, "but I'll take them."

"Thank you, Barnett. If I don't have to take him back to surgery, all this will be worth it," Robert said. "If it's alright with you, I'll give you these files when you return."

Aria listened to Robert at the choices she had "We'll take Mr Tremaine, I've heard of a Tremaine and I hope he is the one I heard of because it will be an honour" she said glancing at him and watching as he gathered the necessary items. Walking over to Roebrt she picked up the pain potion " I will make sure he receives it" she said then looked at Ruby " He'll be home so don't worry." she said and this made Ruby smile and relax.

Hearing Robert again she nodded "As do we , it won't look good for that to happen." waiting on Michael she looked to the others in her group " go ahead and ready everything in advance we need to be in and out quickly" on man was about to say something but she just gave him a look " do this and we right an injustice to this family, now go, we'll meet you there," she said and they left except the two who would be Angus guard on his return. " Now Mr Tremaine are you ready?" she asked, " We'll aperate to the boat and go from there, leave the talking to me when we get there." she took hold of his sleeve and looked to Robert " have the kettle on" she said her sleave pulled up to reveal a small Phoenix tatto and she nodded puling down her sleeve.

"As a great man once said Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, there is no hope for any of us." she quoted then aperated out of the Duplex and arriving at the boat moor where her fellow Aurors were waiting for them. " After you Mr Tremaine." she said mtioning to the boat they had to take .

"I'll take that as a compliment because I am the only Tremaine I know of," Michael said to Barnett. "I'm always ready." Robert nodded, noticing the Order tattoo she had. When they apparated out, Robert looked at the two aurors that remained.

"Well, if you're going to be here all night, you could at least introduce yourselves," he told them. "You might want us to let you blend in with the furniture, but that's not how I work, and since he's not here you could both stand down for a bit."

"I'll brew some tea," Kate said, "and maybe put some sandwiches together."

"Robert, we're going to need you when he gets here," Edward said. "You should get some sleep soon."

"I will. Ruby, when these gentlemen finish introducing themselves, would you please take them on a full tour of both sides of the duplex please? Show them everything so that they can honestly say later that we had nothing to hide," Robert said. "They may very well want to go separately so that one of them remains on guard while the other takes the tour. However they want, that's fine."

Ruby looked at the two remaining men and nodded at Roberts and leaving Caprice with Simone as she walked over. "I'm Jacob Ma'am and this is Malcolm" he motioned to the other man, "l think a Tour would be good, so we know the layout of the grounds," he said then looked to Robert. " Sir, we're here just as a formality, Aria is our senior officer and she is good," he said as Ruby motioned for him to follow her. Walking around the two homes he made note of where the entrances and exits were "All doors and windows are locked ?" he asked and Ruby nodded.

"always at night." she told him "Oh we have a dog too, Finn, he's very sweet," she said just as Finn ran over and sat in front of Jacob who smiled knelt and began rubbing him behind his ears "Yeah he's a big softly." Ruby said smiling. " okay the only place left is the basement where our two girls are staying, it's their bedroom," she said and Jacob looked at the door to it.

"that's fine we can let that pass for the sake of the girls," he said walking over to Malcom and relaying the layout so he knew. Malcolm nodded and looked to Robert as he spoke of sandwiches "That sounds perfect, thank you sir." he said and sat down. Aria sat on the boat as they were shipped over to Askaban.

" so Mr Tremaine, you been here before ?" she asked as the boat split a wave as they drew close to the large dark and foboding trianguler building.