A Birth day

Jessie chuckled seeing the look on Cris's face a he saw Kate " he loves her like a grandmother too" he said walking to the door and smiling as he saw Cris show Kate his sketchbook and the smile he saw on Cris face from something she said to him.

"Hes got use to taking his wolfsbane potion in the morning before breakfast and we try to give him something that will take the flavor away but not nutralize the potion" Yu said as he returned from putting the bags in each room " the kids bags are in their room" he said with a smile. " have you thought of what to make for lunch for the boys and girls?" he asked.

"I actually thought about some coronation chicken sandwiches, and maybe a tossed salad with vegetables and fruit in it, and perhaps some sort of simple cookie. Nothing too difficult or too heavy," Angus said. "I might send to Sparks and see if Lizzie has any good artisanal bread. Maybe I could avoid baking bread if she'd send me a loaf. I really would like the kids to eat healthy, especially on the days this summer when it gets hot. I don't want them in the heat and the loading up on junk food.

"I want them to learn how to eat light and healthy. I didn't figure Cris would give you issue with the wolfsbane. I explained it to him, and I know Robert did too. Cris was absolute that he didn't want that monster who hurt Sergio's son to hurt anybody else, so I don't think you'll have trouble with him on that, even though it does taste bad. You're blessed to have such a bright boy. He's got a good heart, and when he cares for somebody, he goes all in. He cares for them with all he has. I really don't want him to become afraid of the moon, like Remus did. That was Remus's boggart. Not a lot of people know that, but Khaat and Brian knew. That's how I know. Cris doesn't need to have the same fear that Remus did."

"You want me to send a note to Lizzie for you?" Marcus asked Angus.

"Could you? If she's got no bread, I'll maybe make some soda bread or something," Angus said.

"Certainly," Marcus said, going to send a note to Lizzie.

Both Jessie and Yu smiled and nodded " oh hes bright alright and yes , hes not going to fear the moon, we'll show him that its nothing to be scared of." Jessie said as Yu busied getting things ready for Angus to make his coronation chicken sandwiches, tossed salad with vegetables and fruit. " Im sure Yu could make some bread if they don;t have any but you and I know , Lizzie always has those things in." he said and saw Jack returning from his patrol " okay my turn." he said and dove out the door to head down the path for his patrol.

Yu stood and lay out the dishes that would be needed for Angus and the guys lunch. He heard Marcus and decided to wait to start any bread incase Lizzie had some to send over. " we're teaching Cris some english words in writing, just so if he can't say it he can write it, hes doing realy well" he said to Angus " I would not be suprised as you say he will be ahead of his class when he starts school."

Marcus didn't go far from the floo, and it wasn't more than a few minutes when a delivery person arrived at the door with a couple loaves of bread, a dozen fresh croissants, and two dozen fresh baked assorted cookies. Marcus paid for it and tipped the delivery person, who left again.

"I think you struck the motherlode," Marcus said, taking things out of the delivery bag. "It looks like a loaf of sourdough, and one that is a whole wheat with rosemary. Plus a dozen croissants and a big box of assorted cookies."

"Well," Angus said. "I guess we don't have to bake at all, then. We just need to do the salad and the chicken. Nice. I'll get the chicken in the oven to roast, and then, would you like to do the salad, Yu? There's a recipe for a raspberry vinaigrette in my notebook, or you certainly could do one of your own. Whatever you like. I've got some fresh limes. I could take those limes and make a limeade for lunch. It's like a lemonade but made with limes. I got the recipe from a Mexican friend of mine who was working as a chef in San Antonio. It gets really, really hot there in the summertime, sometimes over 45 degrees C. So they have all sorts of cold drink recipes, and limeade can be really popular."

"You know," Marcus said, "you could always engage a language tutor for him. I'm sure we could find one for him. He learns quickly, so you might be surprised at how fast he could learn English with the right tutor. The former Minster of Magic in Bulgaria that I worked for would surely know who would be trustworthy. Robert might know someone too."

"Cris already knows there are times when he knows you don't quite catch what he says and you nod. He knows that if he really wanted to pull a fast one, he could get you to nod to just about anything," Angus laughed. "He promised me he would not do that, though. He'll come and ask me if there's something he needs to communicate and you just aren't getting it. And that's fine with me. I figured that was a better solution than him just doing whatever he wanted."

Yu watched as Marcus took in several bread packages and tipped the dilivery man. He smiled as he walked over and helped Marcus with them and take them to the kitchen ready for lunch " I'll make the salad with the raspberry vinaigrette it sounds quite delicious and maybe we could" he said "But I think Jessie is getting a kick out of learning a new langage too so they learn together, it's allowing them to bond" he said and smiled at them both as he gathered together the salad ingredients and the vinaigrette things and began to build it together.

Soon the salad was done as was the vinaigrette Yu left them separate so they could be added closer to the time and he placed them into a bottle so it could be poured over the top.

Angus took some chicken breasts, oiled and seasoned them and put them on a sheet pan to roast in the oven. Then he minced a shallot and diced some dried apricots and made the sauce and set it all aside for the chicken to finish roasting.

He made a sugar syrup with sugar and water and then zested half a dozen fresh limes and then juiced them and combined it all together with just a wee pinch of salt to bring out the flavor in the limes and mixed it all up and put it in a pitcher with some ice to help it cool faster.

"Limeade is done," he said, taking the chicken out of the oven. "And as soon as the chicken is cool, I can finish the coronation chicken. And your salad looks great. I think we're in good shape..." He was interrupted by the sound of a number of voices rising in alarm. Angus went to the door and flung it open to see the hippogriff flying off by itself. "Bloody hell," Angus sighed. "They've gone and pissed him off somehow, and now he's making a break for it." He adcio'd his broom.

"Wait! You can't fly with one hand, can you?" Marcus frowned.

"I'm about to find out if I can fly with two hands," Angus said. "He used to listen to me if I hung with him long enough that he could cool off. He's a ticky bastard. He gets in a snit really easy, and then he gets really bullheaded. If I fall off the damned broom, do try to use an arresto momentum to keep me from crashing, would you?"

"If you're not in Norway by then," Marcus scowled, following Angus out into the yard. Kate ran outside.

"Where is he?" Kate shouted.

"I'm gonna try to go get him," Angus shouted back. Kate looked at the rest of them.

"What's the matter with you? Get your bloody brooms and go with him!" she shouted at anyone who was watching the hippogriff just fly off.

Yu staid with Cris while Jessie accioed a broom and took off after the hypogriff and Angus close behind. Jessie quickly caught up to him" what do you want me to do?" he sked as Jess joined them on his left hand side.

" Why he bolt , hes ushaly calm" she said as she flew level with Angus. Jessie flew a little ahead of Angus trying to slow the hypogriff down enough so that Angus could get on him and slowlhim down. Jessie looked at the ground and noticed they were not too far from the grounds but clost to th protective barrier. " he'll be out the barier soon" Jess said n as two others joined him in slowling the hypogriff down.

"Make sure my bloody broom isn't smashed to bits, would you? It's the only one I've got," Angus said, glad the others were working to try to slow Swift down. Such a stupid thing to think about, he'd realized, as soon as the words were out of his mouth. His broom was far from one of the most expensive brooms, but the old well worn broom had gotten him through school. He'd just never replaced it because he'd gotten rather attached to the thing.

"Never mind. Forget that. If I can just get onto him, I can try to get him back in control," Angus said. "Stay close but not close enough for him to swat you with one of his wings because if he can, he absolutely will while he's all jumped up. Be careful." It was hard enough to get onto a hippogriff, much less a moving one, and an angry one at that. Their work on slowing him down most likely would safe Angus's life.

He wasn't sure at all that his bad arm would be of any help at all. He would need to leap onto the hippogriff and hang on with both hands til he got into any riding position at all, and getting onto a completely pissed off hippogriff was a lot like trying to shut the mouth of a fire breathing dragon. It was a completely suicidal thing to do. But, he had a long record with this beast, helping to break him in and train him from the time Robert had first gotten the beast, and if the hippogriff would tolerate anybody leaping on in mid air, Angus figured it would be him. It was the main reason he'd dashed out after the bloody big pain-in-the-butt bird.

Angus took a deep breath, being far more frightened of doing this than he had been of scuba diving with one hand. It scared the shit out of him, and it filled him vivid visuals of him falling down to the ground and shattering his shoulder again and having Robert and Nigel having to rebuild it yet again. That was about as far from a comforting thought as it got. He threw himself off the broom and onto the hippogriff, wrapping both hands around the beast's neck, feeling the pain in his muscles in his bad arm and shoulder as they pulled and strained as he forced both arms, both hands to try to keep himself on this cheeky beast. He worked fast and hard to get himself up into a proper position and steadied, hoping Swift wouldn't try to buck him off in mid air.

"Nice work, Guys. Good job. I'm good--I think," Angus shouted to the others. "We've got this now--I hope. I think we should just let him wear himself out but let's not let him fly any further away that over Robert's farm. Once he gets over the farm, you lot see if you can all fly on his left and close in on him a bit to help steer him back to the right. If we can steer him into turning around, we can head him home. He's flying a fair distance, so he should be calmed down by the time we get back to the estate."

Jessie and Jess both heard Angus Jess laughed at his mention of the broom then retraction of his statment both worked in tandem to drqw the hypogriff close to Angus so he could climb up on him. Jessie closed the gap and moved in front of him as he watched Anngus jump he grabbed his brom shrinking it and slipping it into his pocket while Jess watched Angus once he was seated on the hypogriff they worked in tandem to turn him back to Roberts farm.

"He's turning back and slowing, I think hes tiring" Jessie said as Jess made sure it kept turning back. " wonder what caudsed it to go bonkers?" Jessie asked as he flew next to Angus on his own broom.

Angus was glad that Swift had had the good sense to follow the other flyers and turn for home. He sensed that Swift was definitely irked by something and had no desire to return to the barn.

"Jessie, why don't you land and see if you can find one of those big pikes that we get from the fishmongers? There might be one in the walk in, in the main house. The bigger, the better. Use a warming spell to bring it up to room temperature and then let's see if we can lure him back to the corral with a nice big fish." The thing that had occurred to Angus was that a pike was often a huge fish, and a fish that big would be easily seen from the air. Swift, with its eagle vision, would be enticed by a fish that big if it was being offered. And if Jessie were standing in the corral with it, holding it up, that would get Swift to land back home in the corral where he belonged. Then, after being abundantly fed, Swift would be less inclined to try to fly off again if his stomach was full. The hippogriff was going to be more apt to want to lie down and nap. Then Angus could maybe have the ground crew groom Swift, and that additional pampering might calm him even further.

The other flyers had continued to seem to want answers as to why Swift was so angry, saying he was usually so calm. That had not been Angus's experience with Swift at all. Over the years, Angus, Kate and Robert had spent countless hours trying to coax Swift into having a more relaxed and calmed personality. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. As much as it was amazing to fly one of them, Angus had always found hippogriffs and griffins to be touchy, moody buggars who didn't seem to be a reason to be unreasonable.

"Swift doesn't need a reason to be cranky," Angus told them. "He's just a moody old fart."