A Birth day

"Ruby made a lovely salad, but we ate all of that," Simone laughed.

"Figures," Nigel said. "Oh, I'm to tell you that Michael is fixing his chicken cacciatore tonight, and he'll send some over. Nicky is making Tiramisu and a chocolate stracciatella for dessert.  Someone said that is not to be missed. Does he really cook?"

"Oh, does he ever," Simone said. "And I have heard that his chicken cacciatore is one of his signature dishes. I am looking forward to that.

Angus was nearly asleep in the sun when some of the girls' textbooks started to fling themselves around the deck and two of them smacked Angus in the foot. It woke him with a jolt. Marcus put himself deliberately between Angus and the flying textbook.

"Anise," Marcus said, his voice calm and steady, "stop and breathe."

"I can't do it! I'm too stupid. I'm never gonna get it, and now the books are having a fit..." she was ranting.

"Anise, stop. Breathe," Marcus said, kicking a geography book away from Angus, causing it to land in the yard.

"Stop it," Ginger scowled at Anise. "Every time you get irked at your work, the books go all bananas. Stop it..." A classical music textbook flung itself at Angus's face, and Marcus picked up a piece of firewood where it was stacked nearby and used it rather like a cricket bat and smacked the book away, but the book raced back up onto the deck, going after him to try to bite him. Angus picked up a plant that was in a clay pot and bashed the book with it, breaking the pot.

Nigel was tempted to go intervene, but he decided to just watch instead.  

"Someone's having a burst of accidental magic," Nigel said. "I presume that would be one of your lassies out there."

Ruby chuckled hearing Simone talk of the salad "It was just salad" she said but hearing about the chicken cacciatore and Tiramisu and a chocolate stracciatella for dessert. " from what I understand he does cook quite well." she said " and it sounds delicious" she said then glance out the window to see the books flying around. She moved to the back door and looked out dodging a book that flew at her she looked to Nigel as he spoke and nodded.


Ruby looked to Anise and smiled " relax Anise, I had truble grasping school work too" she told her Im sure there are others too that couldn't get it" she admited " I was quite the rebel in school, I also belive Jack put aa frog in the headmasters desk..or was that Robert?" she said chukaling.

"Ruby's right. It's okay to not get something," Angus said. "I heard Jack was responsible for the frog. Robert, as I heard tell, deliberately tinkered with the map in the Hogwarts' History of Magic classroom and scrambled all the countries around before class on the day that his OWLs were scheduled. They had to postpone them for a couple hours while they fixed all the maps in the school. So they got a long breakfast that day. As I heard tell, Dumbledore was far to amused by Robert's ingenuity to hold much against Robert."

"So what exactly was it that got Michael Tremaine almost expelled? I heard Robert make reference to it not long ago while Edward and I were over at the main house," Simone asked, going out.

"Oh. That," Angus laughed. "Robert was rather strategic about his pranks, and Michael had a style all his own. Michael was very, very gifted with charms and transfigurations, so he swiped a huge bag of dried beans from the kitchen one night in his second year, and he'd also swiped a book on transfiguration from the library. Then he transfigured each of those little beans into a spider and he set some loose in every professor's private quarters. Since Michael was only a second year, though, he buggared his spell, and since the spiders were made from beans, every darned one of those little buggars had a farting problem and produced some of the noisiest and foulest smelling gas problems that school has ever seen. Took them days to catch all of them."

"Oh no! He didn't!" Simone laughed.

"Oh, yes, he did," Angus nodded.

"Well, see that just goes to show you, Anise, that every one of us struggles with something," Simone said. "Whatever it is, we'll help you get through it."

Ruby listened and chuckled "Oh they still talk about that, well they did when I was there," she said then burst out laughing as Angus told them about Michael and Roberts's time at Hogwarts. She heard Simone and nodded that she had heard it too. " so you see your not alone in this we can help" she said picking up a transphiguration book that was trying to bite Marcu's foot and closed it stopping it from moving." just ask" she said simply as she moved to the table and sat down to look at her work " ah , I know this one " she said "ether I or Angus can give you hints until, you get it." she said smiling as she accioed th other books and placed them back on the table.

Jack watched out of the window at the books flying around and chuckled . He looked to Nickay " another teen not getting her homework" he said " been there, twice" he told her as he opened the door to fins potions bok laid by the door. Picking it up he walked over to them " some one lose something?" he asked holding up the book.

"Ruby's right," Angus said "You don't need to struggle so hard. When it feels like it's too hard, just ask us. We'll help." Then Jack showed up with a book and Ginger sighed.

"Thanks. Anise, again," Ginger said. "That one dashed off when she bolloxed up figuring out the calculations for a potions recipe problem. She always buggars the math up."

"I can never get the math," Anise said.

"So show me what the problem is," Nigel said. Anise started to try to tell him but it just simply made no sense to her to even try to explain it to him. "Well, I can tell you what your problem is. You can't visualize it like that. Simone, could we borrow Edward's upstairs room for half a tick?"

"Of course," Simone said.

"Bring your book and come with me. It's not nearly as hard as you think," Nigel told her. He took her and went upstairs to Edward's tower room.

"What's he going to do?" Ginger asked.

"He's going to show her what that formula actually looks like so she can visualize it," Marcus said. "Once she can see it in her head, it will be a lot easier for anyone who wants to help her with potions calculations."

"There is the whole business of accidental magic, though," Angus said. "That proves the girls are capable of magic and have never been taught. That's a lot of years of magic to catch them up on."

"The pack probably believed that they needed to embrace their natural abilities," Marcus suggested.

"Maybe, but magic is as natural to a witch or a wizard as the claws and teeth are to a werewolf. It's all part of them. They deserve t know it all."

"And they'll learn."

"So who hexed the books?" Ginger asked.

"Nobody," Angus said. "Anise made the books do that herself accidently without realizing she did it."

"So you mean you think we could actually learn to do magic too?' Ginger asked.

"I believe so, yes," Angus replied.

"Wow," Ginger said, impressed with the fact that they might be able to learn how to cast spells too.

Jack looked to Anise and then to Ginger he stayed quiet and watched as Nigel took Anise inside "Ah visual learning, good thing" he said " I learned that way." he chuckled but hearing Ginger he laughed again " Ginger, watch" He took out his own wand and sent a spark dancing " I can do magic and I'm a werewolf too, I went to Hogwarts as a werewolf to learn magic , but if anywhere was best for you guys to learn , its right here" he said then chuckled " okay book fest is over and Im due a cookie " he said and walked back to the main house .

Ruby chuckled and nodded her head " Jessie was the same , hated math and I think broom flying, me I was like Anise could not grasp maths , still can't, but when Im showed it I can do it, its memory recollection." she said the thought about it " no its called Observational learning, thats it" she said smiling then looked to Angus.

"Whatever its called, as long as she finds a way to get it, that's all that matters," Angus said, moving to shift his aching shoulder, but the instant he moved it, pain skyrocked in every direction. He froze for a moment, closing his eyes. Marcus cast the incantation on Angus' magic wrap again to start it cooling again.

"It's not going to move that way, Mate," Marcus said gently.

"Yeah, I forgot. It cramped and I just automatically tried to move it," Angus replied.

"We missed your noon pain potion in all the confusion today," Andrew said. "I'll get you some, but you probably should get out of the sun in case you go to sleep."

"I'll take care of that," Marcus said.

"Ru," Angus said, "if I go to sleep, please check through and see that they're either on schedule with their assignments or catching up. One or the other. After all, I did say that Anise could go tree climbing with Michael if she did her homework."

Marcus helped Angus inside as an owl flew over and dropped a box on the deck. Simone picked it up and saw it was addressed to Ginger and Anise--from Phoebe. Ginger opened it and she found a letter to each of them and a few little gifts. Phoebe had bought Ginger another nice tatting shuttle and some more threads, and she had bought Anise a lovely little leather belt pouch for her to wear when she went out in the woods, for when Anise came across pretty stones or other little keepsakes.

'That's a tatting shuttle," Simone was fascinated at seeing it. "My granny used to tat. You know how to make lace with it, Ginger?"

"I do," Ginger said. "Learned it from some of the older women in the pack before they passed. "Its not hard, just meticulous. And I rather like that it's small, so its easy to take along to have something to do if I"m away from camp. And once I learned how to do it, I learned to make all sorts of handmade lace."

"You'll have to show us some of your lace," Simone said.

"I could show you how to do it and you could make some of your own," Ginger said.

Ruby listened to Angus and nodded "Of course" she said and paused hearing Angus wince and his pause knowing that was a sign of pain. She breathed out when Marcus cast a spell on the magic wrap and Angus was back to himself again explaining what happened. She saw the owl drop the box as Marcus helped Angus inside the duplex and at hearing it was from their mother she smiled again "what's a tatting shuttle?" she asked having not heard of it before. "sorry, I've just not heard of it." she picked up the books and caried them into the house placing them on the dinning table for the girls to sort out and use.

Jessie and Yu walked back from the patrl finding nothing out of shape so much so they began to wonder if things were going to stay that way or shift to something bad.

Ginger held up the beautiful little wooden oblong that was a new tatting shuttle for her.

"This one is handmade," she said, showing her that the shuttle was actually two wooden oblongs held together by a short little wooden peg between them. "The thread gets wound up in the shuttle, and then you use the shuttle to weave the thread to make lace. Some other ways to make handmade lace are with needles, or by crocheting or with wooden bobbins. I know how to do all of those, but I ended up having to move with the pack once in a hurry and I had to leave my bobbins behind. We were allowed to do little crafts at our leisure in camp so long as they travelled easily."

"I bet Kate knows how to do those. She might be interested in seeing some of your work. Or she might know where to get new bobbins," Simone said.

"Oh, that's alright. I couldn't afford them anyway," Ginger said.

"How many do you need?"

"Well, they need to come in pairs, but the more pairs one has, the bigger and more elaborate the pieces can be," she said.

"Well, we might need to see what Kate knows, then," Simone said. "What do you think, Ruby? This house full of women can always use more lace. So does Anise have any small crafts like this?" The question make Ginger laugh a little.

"Well, yes. She makes fishing lures. Tying flies, I think its called. And she likes to make her own arrowheads for hunting when she can find the flint to do it. She hadn't learned how to do the fletching yet, but she hoped to learn that soon."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me that she would be interested in that?" Simone laughed.

Marcus had taken Angus back to bed, and Andrew had given him his pain potion, and it had quickly made him sleepy. He was more comfortable, though. It wasn't long before Anise and Nigel came back downstairs and outside.

"Potion lesson is complete," Nigel said, "but the girl needs a wee break. I suggest she be allowed to go climb a tree or two on condition that she come back and finish her lessons, and I just saw Michael out in the kitchen garden, probably gathering herbs for his cacciatore."

"Could I?" Anise asked Ruby, having had about all the books she could stand for awhile. She looked behind her. "Where's the baby going?" She pointed to the fact that the baby was moving across the floor. Well, to be more precise, the mat was moving across the floor and the baby was on it and simply being carried by the mat.

Ruby listened to Ginger and Simone then nodded "Ah I have heard of the needle method more than the shuttle, but I get it" she said and smiled "Those will look beautiful." she said pausing as she saw Anise return with Nigel. When Anise asked where the baby was going Ruby looked at Caprice and gasped "Wow" she said and quickly moved to get hold of her off the mat. With her free hand she lifted the mat to find a book "Rouge book" she said and chuckled making Caprice giggle too.

Placing Caprice in her bouncing chair she picked up the book " One of yours Anise" she said chukaling as she handed it over to her. " and okay but not too late okay, unless you want to come for a run?" she asked possibly knowing she would want to climb a tre than run.