The months had seemed, in some ways, to crawl for Angus. He had gotten his mobility back, largely due to a new potion that Robert had made. He was grateful that Robert had not given up in trying to help Angus repair the damage done to his magical system. The wheelchair had finally been removed, and Andrew had helped him with reconditioning until he had turned out to be battle ready enough to take command of a Paris mission to stop on of Gelding's auctions. He hadn't been in command for awhile, and it felt good to be back in the saddle.
The boys had been home for Christmas and were now back again at school, digging in for the final months of their last year in Hogwarts. Their grades had come up significantly, and, so had their skills. They had gone from being in the lower half of their house, grade wise, to being in the upper ten students in all the Hogwarts students their age. Their head of house attributed it to having a stable home life and a supportive family now.
Since Christmas, the nursery had been repaired and the equipment that had been lost in the fire had been replaced. Things were are ready at the duplex as they were going to get. Angus had had some hesitation about taking last night's mission, but since Ruby had appeared to be doing alright, he had take the task. After all, he wasn't a healer anyway. No matter when 'Ralph' arrived, Angus wasn't going to be much help anyway, whether he was there or not. Ruby's checkups had gone well, and now, according to Robert, 'Ralph' decided when she was arriving. Robert had calculated it as closely as magic allowed, and he believed it could be at any time now. He believed that Angus could go to Paris through the overnight to handle the mission.
The rescue had already occured, and when day broke, the team was back at the headquarters with one of the largest groups they'd ever had. What Angus secretly harbored was that he had slipped off from his team on his own for nearly twenty minutes during the mission, and he had tailed Gelding through the dark, narrow and twisted alleyways of an old section of Paris. He saw Gelding getting into the back of a car, determined to get away yet again. Infuriated, Angus had fired a fireball spell at the car, and the car had exploded. It wasn't until the car was being consumed in flame, after the initial blast, that Angus saw there were two men in the front seat, and a woman in the back with Gelding. He had caught a mere glance at the faces, and he wasn't sure but thought that the woman in the back with Gelding had been Suzanne. He had reconsidered and had had all intentions of putting out the flames, but muggles from the area were descending en masse to the area, and Angus had had to flee or risk getting caught. he had rejoined the team, and hadn't said a syllable to anyone. At this point, they had dealt a series of serious blows to Gelding and his organization. They had gotten, they believed, all the 'inventory' Gelding currently had, they had destroyed the newest and biggest warehouse Gelding was using, and, perhaps, had destroyed Gelding and his new wife.
He was back at the safehouse now, tending to issues in the aftermath. Making sure that the kids were tended to and making sure all the members of the mission team were back and accounted for. With any luck, he'd be able to head home in a few short hours.
Robert was upstairs at Brian's in his little workroom, working on a medicinal potion for Michael. Michael had somehow come down with a really nasty cold that Robert believed could very easily turn into the flu. Michael had insisted on going with the mission team to Paris, but Robert was hoping that Michael would go home after the work was done. He was hoping to take the potion to Michael in Hogsmeade as soon as Michael got back from the night's work.
This particular potion, though, was tricky business to brew. It could be very effective against a cold but even St. Mungo's didn't use it much because it was expensive to make and exceptionally difficult to make by all but the most experienced potions makers. The last ingredient in the potion had to be added with great precision and care because unless it was added one single drop at a time, the mixture would curdle, and he would have to start all over. And it had taken all bloody night to get this far. He was just leveling the pipette over the cauldron, when someone knocked on the door. He sighed heavily, frustrated. Now was not the moment. He checked his mixture in the cauldron and was relieved to see that it had not curdled.
"Come," he called, trying not to get too distracted with whatever this interruption was.
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