A Birth day

"God, I hate that sort of magic," Robert sighed. They followed them down the street and heard voices in the alley. When Robert turned the corner, he saw Marcus, Lee, and Angus. And clearly Angus was down. Robert hurried over to them and laid his hand on Angus and felt the dark spell that Angus had been hit with square in the chest. He drew his wand for this one, knowing this had been a huge blast of dark magic. "Finite!" Robert said, casting the spell, but the spell did not yield to him, and at that moment, a teeny little woman ran up behind Lee. She was young, maybe mid to late twenties at the most, and she was dressed rather oddly herself, wearing a dark dress, a gray trenchcoat, black stockings and granny boots--and massively oversized glasses with big black frames. Her mousy brown hair was pulled back like a schoolmarm, and she had a little strange Victorian beaded reticule with her.

"Tiggy," Lee said to her, "can you help?"

"I think so," she said, crouching beside Robert. She opened the reticule, rooted in it for a moment, clanking bottles together, and checking one after other until, at last she found one, and drew it out. It looked like a test tube with a screw on top. "This one. This should do it, with the enchantment."

"Go ahead," Lee said. She cast a creole enchantment on the tube, causing the liquid in the tube to swirl and glow.

"Ah, that's better," she said, reaching to hand it to Lee.

"Give it to him," Lee gestured to Robert. She handed the tube towards Robert, and he took it.

"If he drinks the whole thing, it should stop the curse, but he's going to have some after effects for a bit," she told him. Robert opened the tube and sniffed it, able to identify some of the ingredients, but not all of them. Still, Angus was in excruciating pain, and Robert didn't feel he had much to lose. He gave Angus the potion, and in a moment, the pain started to subside, and Angus visibly relaxed. Robert looked at the tiny woman.

"Thank you," Robert said.

"Robert, meet Tiggy," Lee said. "Jack, Marcus, this is Tiggy. She's the closest I have in New York to you. She's an absolute genius with potions. She's a potions master, and she's only 28."

"26, Sir," she corrected.

"Tig, this is Robert Lupin, Marcus Belby, and Jack Black Heart. And your patient is Angus Donohue. They're friends of ours," Lee finished the introductions.

"Nice to meet you, Gentlemen," Tiggy said. "Should I get a hotel room for us? He's going to need to rest for a bit."

"I think you should all come to my place when we can move him," Robert said. "I think you have a story to tell, don't you?"

"We do indeed," Lee said. Tiggy looked at Jack and Marcus.

"Your friend may need some help to stay on his feet for just a little bit," she told them, "but his pain should continue to decrease now." Marcus helped Angus sit up. Angus was filthy, covered in the mud and dirt from the puddle in the alley.

"I hope you still have a change at HQ," Marcus teased him gently.

"Me too," Angus said, trying to catch his breath.

"Let's go to headquarters, shall we?" Robert asked them, knowing Tiggy was the only one there who didn't know what headquarters was or where it was.

"Sounds like a good idea," Lee said. "Tig, could you send a message back to tell the rest that we'll see them in the morning?"

"Of course," she said. She opened her bag again, rooted in the bottles again and got another test tube out, one that looked like it was full of little glittering jewels. She opened the tube and poured out a little glittering blue gemstone and tapped it with her finger, telling it to wake up. The little gemstone floated up a few inches from her hand, spun in the air, and as it spun, it changed into a little glittering bluebird, with an open beak. "Hey, Nick, it's Tig. I'm with Lee, and we're with a couple of allies. Lee says we'll catch up with you in the morning. Be safe!" She snapped shut the beak of the little bird and then spoke to it to give it instructions. "Go find Nick, and don't be seen by any muggles!" The little bird fluttered off into the rainy night.

"Alright," Lee said. "We're all yours."

"What was that?" Robert asked.

"We call them message stones," Lee said. "They're brand new, but wee like them. I'll try to get you some to try out. Shall we get out of the rain?"

"Definitely. Jack, how about you do the driving for us all?" Robert asked. "Hopefully the organization has tea or coffee on."

"I'll stay with him," Marcus said. "I'll help him clean up a little."

"He's still got a locker in the Captain's quarters," Robert said. "He's probably still got clothes in there."

"Thanks. I'll check it out," Marcus said. "And I presume I can send a message home that we're safe for now?"

"Yes, but there isn't much you can tell them yet," Robert said. "Use the floo in the Captain's quarters."

"Ok," Marcus said. Robert took invited Tiggy to sit down in the Captain's office, and then he made himself comfortable behind the desk. Robert served coffee to Lee and Tiggy and got a cup for himself.

"Thank you, Jack," Robert said. "So, now, Lee. You clearly have been a few steps ahead of us on this matter. What can you tell us?"

While that was going on, Marcus got a basin of warm water, some soap, and a washcloth and a towel, and he helped Angus clean up. Then he got a change of clothes from Angus's locker and helped him change.

"Thanks, Jack," Lee said. "Well, we've been following this creole woman for some time. We know3 for certain she is responsible for the deaths of at least two and, most likely, three of my best operatives. We can prove two, but I want her for all three. And, I think she's been killing muggles too. There are at least eight unsolved muggle killings, and I honestly think she's been using them like lab rats, testing on them to try to make sure that her spells work."

"Who is she?"

"We don't know her real name yet. She's calling herself Marie Laveau."

"Why do I know that name?" Robert frowned.

"Because the real Marie Laveau was born in 1801 and died in 1881 and is still the most famous voodoo queen of all time. She's taken on Marie's identity and dresses as much like her as she can to create fear in the people that take voodoo seriously. It's gotten her a bit of a following."

"So what is she doing here?" Robert asked.

"I'm not sure, but if I had to hazard a guess, she's courted either Tom or Suzanne because their money is attractive to her. So she's agreed to do some sort of dark arts thing or another for them in exchange for money, and probably a lot of it," Lee said.

"Well, that would certainly fit with that we know of Suzanne's usual dealings," Robert replied.

Marcus saw that Angus had slipped into an exhausted sleep, now that the pain had stopped. Marcus went into the Captain's quarters and opened a floo connection.

"Hey, Ruby," Marcus called. "You awake?"

"That's the legend, yes," Lee said, "but whether she actually did have a snake is up for debate. We do know that this version of Marie Laveau lives in the New Orleans area, and we believe she actually has a place somewhere in the swamps. You need to understand that the swamps are so bloody dangerous that not only do muggles not venture into parts of them but even wizards don't venture into some parts. So, honestly, we aren't entirely sure where her base is. So, perhaps you can help us. What does Tom Gelding get out of this?"

"I don't think she's hooked up with Tom, quite honestly," Robert said. "I'll lay you any amount of money that all of this is some new scheme cooked up by Suzanne or at least, if it is Marie's, Suzanne is up to her eyeballs in it. And she's doing it because she isn't able to let go of her need to get revenge on Angus."

"Are you serious? Are we still back there?" Lee sighed.

"Oh, she just gets angrier and more dug in," Robert replied.

"We're fine," Marcus said. "Just wanted you to know. The others are in a meeting, and I thought I'd let you know that we're at the Paris headquarters. Your mother seems to have aligned herself with some sort of American dark arts woman. Lee is here and so is Robert and Jack, and they're in a meeting about all of this. I just wanted to let you know that we're fine and Angus was definitely on the right track. We got into a wee bit of a skirmish with her and some of Gelding's men earlier, and that woman threw a dark arts spell at Angus. Near as I can figure out, it functions somewhat like a cruciatus. Anyway, Robert's undone it, and Angus is fine. Robert thought he perhaps should rest a little and let us catch up with Lee and see what Lee knows about whatever this new woman that your mum is mixed up with."

"It's my pleasure," he told Ruby. "At any rate, we're safe for the moment. We'll see you a little later." He closed the floo and checked on Angus and then went to get himself a cup of coffee from the kitchen so he didn't disturb the meeting.

"I don't think this woman has any relation at all to the original Marie Laveau," Lee said. "I think she's just impersonating her because it makes her quite a draw for gullible tourists to New Orleans, whether the tourists are muggles or wizards. It's a bit like a hunter setting out bait, I think. She uses the name and the costuming, and it brings in all sorts of curiosity seekers into her web, and for some, its the last thing they see. I want her stopped, and I want her to answer for every single murder she's committed. Make no mistake, though. If Angus continues to try to pursue this woman by himself, he'll just end up one more notch on her belt."

"Well," Robert said, "I'll talk to him. He likely only wants her stopped because he doesn't want Suzanne's constant harassments, like she has done. Suzanne actually might be over her head this time. I'll talk to him to try to get him to let go. However, I can tell you what he's going to say. He's going to say that if we're wise, we'll let Suzanne use him as bait to draw this bigger fish into your net."

"And I can't say it wouldn't be tempting, but I don't want to begin to risk it until we're sure we have all the information we need, first of all, and that, second, we could keep him safe, if we were to even consider it."

"And if you were to do that, my first string would want in on it. They're used to looking out for each other, and they wouldn't let Angus offer himself up for bait for anybody unless they were there too to help keep him safe. That's just a given. The other thing that is a given is that if it doesn't have at least a reasonable chance of success, they aren't going to approve and neither will I."

"Well, first things first, we're still working on trying to figure out who this woman really is because then we can get the backstory on her and what we believe her abilities are," Lee said. "You lot interested in making a temporary base in New Orleans to help us?"

"I'll have to talk to them and see what they say," Robert said. "It would make sense for us to work together, but I still want to talk to them first."

"Well, that seems reasonable. How much time do you need?"

"A couple hours at the most," Robert said, "but why don't we make this a lunch meeting for everyone?

"That sounds good to me. Perhaps we should finish our coffee and then all head home so I and my crew can get some showers and a nap, and then shall I come to you, or do you want to come to New York?"

"You just come whenever the spirit moves you to come," Robert laughed. "As for me, I want to head home and make sure Angus gets home. Jack? Since you're the only other one of us Brits in here, what do you think? We'll discuss it with the others and then have a lunch meeting with Lee and any of his crew that he thinks to bring?"