A Birth day

Jack heard the explosions and quickly dressed and dove out in time to see James shrink down he laughed uncontrollably and then drew his wand as he saw three of James' men heading for Angus "I'm here, we don't move as fast as you youngsters" he said and chukled as he moved to Angus's side.

Ruby looked at Angus and nodded "Of course, always" she said and took aim with her wand at one man and fired sending him flying backwards into a bush with thorns. " whose next?" she said looking at both men who were left. Aria laughed as she saw James shrink down.

"Now that shrinking a problem," she said chuckling as she also saw Jack join them and take down a man with his hands. She glanced at Marcus as he stood with Angus watching his back for any more men who would attack.

Angus had a strange thought. The one thing James had was an overabundance of pride. Maybe humiliating him would drive him off.

"I wonder..." he muttered outloud. Then he cast a spell and transfigured James into a little yellow duckling. Robert was surprised, and he stood for a moment and just blinked.

"Well, that's one way to shut him up," Robert said. "Take your duck and go home!" he shouted at James' followers. The duck seemed to have a different idea and started running all over the yard, making it difficult for his followers to catch him.

"Now, why don't we have a muggle movie camera right about now?" Marcus laughed. When one of the females got the duckling she glared at Robert.

"Change him back!" she demanded.

"I'm old. I'm afraid I don't remember the spell," Robert taunted her. "But if you catch me on a good day at St. Mungos, during office hours...."

"I'll kill you, Lupin!' she said.

"No you won't. You do that, and he'll be a duck forever," Robert said. "Now, bye bye." They started to leave, and she tucked the duckling into her pocket and apparated out.

"Does that spell wear off on it's own?" Angus asked him.

"Sometimes. Sometimes not so much," Robert laughed. "I suppose we'll have to wait and see. Everyone alright?"

Aria and Ruby both burst out laughing as Angus changed James into a duck. Jack winced at the sight of his brother running around as a duck. " Ouch been ther done that" he said and folded his arms chuckling as he could hear Aria busting with laughter. " Well that's one way to get rid of him" Ruby said walking over to Angus and Robert "Yes, we're all fine," she said as Aria opened the door for the kids to go to him.

"That's a new tactic, Is that what you call thinking on the fly?" she asked still trying not to laugh as she walked over to Robert and Angus " I would love to be a fly on the wall when the spell wears off." Aria looked around and then looked at Robert " I'll go with Jack and fix what James broke" she said as Jack walked over and folowed her out to the barrier to recast the protection spells.

"Well, it occured to me that the one thing James is not short on is arrogance, so I decided I didn't know a better way to deal with him than to humiliate him to his own pack, and there are lots of ways to do that."

"That's not bad thinking," Robert said. "I am not going to criticize Sam for his thinking. We've all wanted to do something like that, but the boy does need a class or two on battle strategy so that he understands there's a time and a place for it. Maybe I'll do a class with them all when they get back from Colorado next week."

"I hope I'm included in that," Evan said.

"If you want to be, then, yes. Of course," Robert said.

"Definitely," Evan nodded. The kids walked over to where they all were, and Sam looked at Robert and Angus.

"I know. I'm in trouble," Sam sighed.

"No, not necessarily, but you do need some training in strategy," Robert said. "We'll do a class or two when you get back from Colorado."

"Okay," Sam said. "I just don't like him."

"Neither do we, so you're in good company," Robert told him. "You can't lose your head, though. As you get experience, you'll find it gets easier and easier to keep your head. It'll come. I think you should get back to work, though, til five." The kids all nodded, knowing better than to give Robert static. They just turned and went back to the barn.

"Now, if only we could get them to clean their room and do their chores as easily has he motivates them," Angus said. Marcus laughed.

"And now you sound like the parent of teenagers," Marcus said.

Ruby stood listening as she saw the kids walk over to them as Sam spoke it was now she chuckled as Robert spoke to them telling them to get back to work and Marcus said Angus sounded like a perent to teens . " they still have to return to colorado soon" she said " I managed to get their bags repacked with a care pakage too" she added " and I did love the sight of James as a fluffy duck." she said and laughed " come on I'll make some fresh coffee, I think theres some cookies left over from the care pakage, you both have earned them." she said walking abck to th duplex to put the kettle on to make fresh coffe for every one.

Aria and Jack repaired the damage done my James and returned to the main house and duplex Aria walked over smelling fresh coffee while Jakc heade back to the main house. " that coffee smells nice , all repaire and doubley secured." she said " he broke a fence but we repaired it with help from the grounds crew" she sat down and picked up the pack of cards.

"Yeah, That's why I said i'd get with them on the strategy training when they get home next week," Robert told her. "I'll see you all later. Nice work, All." He turned and went back into the main house.

"You did fine, Aria," Angus told her. "We just never know when some arse hat is going to make an uninvited visit."

The coffee did smell good, but Angus was looking in the pantry and the fridge and the freezer, debating on what he was going to fix for supper. He laid out some packages of chicken pieces, some fresh ginger root, some fresh garlic, some scallions, some soy sauce, some sesame seeds and toasted sesame oil, some jasmine rice, some carrots, some fresh peas, some onions, and some muscavado sugar.

"Looks like stir fry to me," Simone said. "Can i help you prep anything?"

"If you like. If you don't mind dicing carrots into a small dice, and mincing the onions."

"Not a problem. Making fried rice?"

"I am," he said.

"Well, I can do that, if you want to handle the stir fry part," she said.

"You have a deal," he told her. "If I get enough time, I'll make some Chinese almond cookies."

"I've never made those," she said. "It never quite feels like Chinese food without them, though."

"They're not hard. They're basically a variation of a sugar cookie," he told her. "And I know I have some Chinese restaurant tea in the pantry. Its a blend of tea called ripe puerh."

"I drink the restaurant tea every time I go to a Chinese restaurant but I've never found it in the stores. But then again, I've never heard of that tea before either. So clearly, I've been buying the wrong thing."

"Well, if I get time to fix some, maybe it will be familiar to you," he said, starting to work on taking the skin off the chicken pieces.

Aria stayed with Angus and nodded "Always be prepared right?" she said and walked with them away. " Okay see you later," she said and headed into the duplex. " Thanks, Angus, I had a good teacher," she said and glanced at Marcus as they entered and grabbed a coffee. Ruby chuckled as she heard Aria and the others return she also saw Angus head to the kitchen to start cooking supper now that the fight with James was done in the meantime.

Standing Ruby walked over and watched as Simone and Angus started cooking stirfry. " I know it going to taste great." she said and smiled " I can help too if you want but I know too many cooks spoil the broth," she said and chuckled

"Exactly," Angus told her. "It's like a job where you never ever stop being on call."

When Ruby came to help, Angus looked at her. "You wanna make the almond cookies? There's a recipe for them in my book--I think. If not, there's a cookbook from a friend of mine that is a chef in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. It's on the bookshelf somewhere. I know it's in there."

He cleaned the chicken, and he made a marinade for the chicken and put the chicken in it and set it aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes. Then he got out an extra large steel wok, and set it on the stove to heat, with some peanut oil in the bottom. While it was heating, he made the sauce--a sweet, sticky ginger soy glaze with some sesame seeds and some toasted sesame oil for a bit of extra asian flavor. He sliced some scallions thinly and on the bias so they had a bigger surface area and set those aside. Then he sauteed some garlic and some onion in the peanut oil, removed them so they wouldn't burn, and added his chicken in batches. When the chicken was cooked, he mixed his marinade and the sauce together and heated them in the wok, and let them cook for a bit to reduce and get extra thick and sweet. Then he put the chicken, the garlic, and the onion back in and added the scallions, so all of it would be hot and coated with the rich, sticky sauce.

By then, Simone was just finishing the fried rice. She managed to set the table for supper while the rice had been cooking, and she found the tin of Chinese restaurant tea and had put on a pot for everyone to have with supper.

"There are some Chinese tea cups in the cabinet up above the fridge," Angus told Simone. "I dont' use them often, so I shoved them up there out of the way."

"Allow me," Edward said, taller than any of the rest of them. He had no trouble reaching up, opening the cabinet and getting the little cups with no handles out of the cabinet.

"We might have to keep this hot for a few minutes til the kids come home," Angus said. "They're a tad late today. Maybe they're finishing up the last of the evening feeding, and James's interruptions put them behind."

Ruby smiled and went to grab the recipe to make the cookies. She took out almond flour, 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes a Pinch kosher salt, 2 large eggs, divided, 1 teaspoon almond extract, 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, Thinly sliced almonds, for decoration. She placed the almond flour, salt, and butter into an electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes until it became coarse and chunky looking. She added one of the eggs and the almond extract then added the Sifted flour, sugar, and baking soda and add to the mixture. Mix on low speed until just combined. Then she flattened it into a disc placed it in plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator for two hours to chill.

Moving to clean up her work space she placed everything in the washer " I'll finish then in two hours." she said poring a cup of coffee fo herself.

"How about I use a chilling spell on them?" Angus offered. "Otherwise, Kieran and Fi will be here befrore that and the kids and Evan won't get any of the cookies with their meal tonight. I can use a chilling charm, and it will speed up the chilling process from 2 hours to twenty minutes. There is a spell that chills things instantly, but I don't like it because it seems to change the texture of the butter in the dough, and that affects the cookies when they bake. Two hours down to twenty minutes is about the best I can do." He opened the fridge and used a quick incantation and a flick of his wand, and then he closed the fridge again. "That should do it. By the time you finish your coffee, that dough should be ready."

The kids came through the door, dirty and tired.

"Go shower, Guys," Angus told them. "Supper will be ready by the time you all get back. Just don't dawdle."

"Can we eat first?" Sam asked.

"No," Victor said. "You smell like hippogriff poop."

"That's because that new clutzy guy Jack hired tripped me, and I fell into it," Sam scowled.

"Yeah, well, nobody's gonna wanna eat til you shower," Victor told him. "You reek."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay," Sam sighed, heading upstairs.

"Uh uh. me first. i'm not getting into that shower after you fill it full of hippogriff poop," Victor said.

"Now, look...' Sam was ready to start an arguement.

"Both of you--go," Marcus cut them short. "There are two showers upstairs. If you're not both in the shower in one minute, I'm going to apparate you both, naked, out to the backyard and hose you off with the garden hose." Both boys stood and froze and looked at Marcus, rather shellshocked at his suggestion. Marcus looked at them for a moment, and then looked at his watch. "You both have thirty seconds to make sure I hear water running. Whichever one of you doesn't want to be naked in the yard better get moving." The boys made a mad dash upstairs.

"So, would you have done it?" Evan asked.

"When it comes to kids? I don't ever tell them a consequence I don't mean and won't carry out. So, yes. I would do it. 100 percent," Marcus replied.

"Do they know that?"

"Well, it doesn't matter. They had enough doubt to get moving, and that was my whole point."