A Birth day

Aria smiled as Marcus explained how the kids were and she breathed out "That's good to know, and they know to contact us if they need anything, and I mean anything?" she said listening to them talk about thestrals She chuckled "Scared the bejeebers out of me when I saw one for the first time, but yeah they have an Eerie elegance about them." she said as she ate the chicken and noodles in front of her.

Ruby returned from settling Caprice and smiled as she saw the food was ready grabbing a plate she sat down poured a glass of wine and listened to the talk of theatres " I always thought they had a mysterious aura about them, but since I got to know one thing quite cute" she added and smiled she began to eat " this is delicious Angus thank you" she smiled across the table at him.

"They do know," Marcus smiled. "Actually, in a practical sense, they talk to my parents first, but they're all surprisingly good at writing back and forth with me, especially Poppy. I think she feels like she has a lot of time to make up for, a lot of years thinking that dumb twit Pavel was her dad. She's told me that finding out that she was actually a Belby and not a Levski was like a fairy tale come true for her. I wish Ana had a bit more time for her, but that's Ana. She's always been career minded."

"You're welcome," Angus smiled, when Ruby thanked him. "And there are plenty of leftovers for the kids for lunch tomorrow. I'll package them up in individual serving containers so that they're easy to pack tomorrow. Then all Sam and Victor need to do is to use a warming charm on them to heat them. I think the girl's summer jobs end at the end of this coming week, Friday at the end of the work day, I think. That doesn't give me much time to see if I can get Beauxbatons to consdier them, but if anyone can help with that, it would be Daniella."

"Well, you get truly desperate, I can ask my daughter to send an owl to Madame Maxine," Simone said. "My daughter has taught some dance classes at Beauxbatons and says Madam Maxine is still there. She might be able to get you a moment of her time perhaps, but I would let Michael see what Daniella can do first."

"Now, if you haven't met Madame Maxine," Marcus told Aria with an amused smile, "that would be the time to wear heels--if you were polished enough in them. But you definitely aren't ready for that yet. Let's hope, when that day comes, you're wearing your flats."

Aria listened to Marcu and smiled "Well. we will certainly make time for her now" she said smiling. listening to Angus and Marcus talking along with Simone about Beauxbatons she could not help but smile when Madame Maxine was mentioned she sighed and nodded "Yeah less I fell flat on my face in front of her, but maybe by the time I do have to meet her I'll be able to walk in heels, who knows" she said.

Ruby smiled eating her food and sat back in her chair once she was done "I'm sure there will be no problems with them going to Beauxbatons " she said "They good girls, and will do what they need to graduate." " but I do agree that Daniella would be a good choice to ask but keep Simone's daughter as a back up." she finished her plate and stood up collecting all those that were finished she carried them to the sink before returning to sit and finish her wine.

Angus got up and cut the gingerbread cake into squares and spooned over the hot lemon sauce while Simone poured tea and coffee and passed everyone a mug while Angus served the cake.

"Now this is fall," Edward smiled, taking his first bite of gingerbread cake. "A perfect end to a perfect meal. Well done. Lad."

"I'm happy to do it."

"Now if you could just find a way to do this for breakfast," Edward laughed.

"I probably could," Angus said. "I think I could convert the cake recipe into a waffle recipe, and I could thin the lemon sauce a little to make it a syrup, but I dont know that anyone would want a gingerbread waffle."

"Speak for yourself," Marcus said. "I'd be up for it."

"Me too," Edward said. "And those kids are sugar addicts. They'd absolutely be up for it."

"So if you get to see Madame Maxine, I presume you'd take a gift. What would you take?" Simone asked.

"Maybe a selection of petit fours," Angus said. "I don't know. I didn't actually give that much thought."

"Have you made petit fours?" she asked.

"In culinary school. They're pretty labor intensive, but they can be done," Angus said. "Making them for a half giantess, though, I presume I would alter them size wise to be more fitting."

"Makes sense," Simone nodded. "Well, let me know if I can help, if that's what you decide to do. You might do just as well to take her a batch of your cinnamon rolls since they're already giant sized."

"Now that's a good thought too," Edward said.

Just then, there was the sound of porting, and all four kids arrived home, with their bags in hand.

"Hi!" Sam said. "Miss us? What's for dessert?" That made Angus laugh.

"Gingerbread cake and hot lemon sauce. Shall I get you all some?" Simone asked.

"Absolutely!" Victor said. The kids hurried over and took places at the table.

Aria sat and listened to them talk about Madame Maxine "Those would be normal sise to her" she said " but if she has a sweet tooth they would be perfect. and shes a half giant?" she added some what suprised. She smiled to Simone as she handed out the coffees to every one but hearing porting she saw Ruby stand up and smile as the kids returned. " hey guys, nice to have you back" she said .

Ruby hearing Sams voice stood up and walked over to them giving each a welcome home hug " its good to have you home and yes we did miss you, just a little though" she said and chuckled " it is good to have you all home again, the gingerbread lemon dessert is to die for." she said seriously as she let them sit down at the table as thy each were given a plate with some on. It was now Finn ran in and jumpped up on Sam " I think he missed you too." she said chukaling.

"Yes, she's only a half giant, like Hagrid, but she certainly was larger than Hagrid the last I saw those two together," Angus said.

Sam greeted Finn as Simone served the dessert to the kids.

"So how did training go?" Angus asked.

"Pretty good, until I blew Evan up," Sam said. "That wasn't good."

"Accidents happen to all of us," Angus said. "Why was there even any fuel there at the training area?"

"Kieran told me to put those cans over by one of the tents before we got started after supper that night," Sam sighed. "But later, he denied it. Said he was nowhere near it and didn't tell me any such thing. Liar."

"That's not like Kieran to lie," Angus frowned.

"More like he didn't remember. He smelled like a brewery that night," Victor scowled, eating his cake.

"What?" Angus frowned even deeper. That was possible. Kieran had been sober now for many years, nearly a decade, by Angus's memory. "Did you tell anyone about it?"

"Nah. We're just kids. We were the youngest ones there. Who was going to believe us?" Sam sighed.

"Something's bothering you, Angus," Marcus said.

"Yes. It is," Angus said. "I think you guys seriously need to tell Robert everything. It could be important."

"Yeah, maybe. if I see him," Sam said, trying to blow Angus off.

"No, I'm serious. Robert needs to know," Angus said. He got up and wrote a note and sent it through the floo. In about five minutes, Robert sent a reply. It fluttered out of the floo and over to Angus. "Robert's coming over in about thirty minutes. Why don't you lot go get your showers and lay out your work clothes for tomorrow while you wait?" The kids quietly got up and left the table to go shower and take their bags to their rooms.

"Alright, so what is it?" Edward looked at Angus.

"Kieran was a severe alcoholic when I first met him, and apparently he was from the time he graduated Hogwarts until about ten years ago. Kieran has been absolutely, 100 percent alcohol free since then. We're missing something. I don't believe for one moment that Kieran has relapsed after a decade. Robert told him that so long as he stayed clean, he'd have this post in Colorado, and this means everything to him and Fiona. He wouldn't jeopardize it for that, not with all the new programming for the orphans there. Something isn't cricket about all this," Angus said. "I'm sure of it."

Ruby listened and sighed but hearing Angus talk about Kieran she looked just as puzzled at him "It does sound suspicious" she said Aria nodded too she'd know a few good Aurors that had hit the waggon but dried out some had fallen back off it but the ones with support like Kieran had she knew would not ever do that.

"I can pop over and ask around" Aria suggested but knew they would probably want to wait till they had spoken to Robert about it. " wonder if it was a shapeshifter or someone using polyjuice and not knowing he was sober." she hypothesised out loud. " oh it could be a lot of things" she finally said to herself Ruby chuckled and nodded.

"that's true but still warrants looking into" she said " I don't want anything to happen to my family" she looked to Angus " if you want to go and check for your self I'll stay with the kids" she added as they waited for Robert to arrive.

"I'll wait for Robert," Angus said. "It's rightfully my job to figure it out and take care of it. I'm still the one in charge of all the properties."

"I'll go with you if you go," Marcus said.

"You can't. You have Khaat to guard tomorrow," Angus said.

"Aria can go with her. She'll be fine. It isn't like Aria doesn't have her auror experience. Besides, I can show tell her exactly how to get her there and back without having to be out in Diagon Alley," Marcus said. "If you go, I'll go with you."

Robert showed up in thirty minutes, just as he had said he would, and he took the kids over to Edward's living room and talked with them for quite awhile. He wanted to talk to the kids without anyone else there. When he finished, he came back over to Angus's side, without the kids.

"I asked them to give us just a few minutes," Robert said. "I believe them. They gave me a critical piece of information. They said he smelled like stale beer--a lot of it. That's not possible. Kieran does not drink beer. Never has. He has some sort of sensitivity to the hops in beer that makes him have all sorts of really unpleasant stomach issues if he drinks beer. He could only drink single malt whiskey because single malt doesn't use hops at all. It adds yeast to the wort instead. Even if Kieran had relapsed, he would not have been able to do it with beer. I actually brought a little vial of stale beer and a vial of single malt and had Sam smell it. He could identify what he smelled--and it was the beer, not the whiskey. Whoever told him to put those fuel cans there, it might have looked like Kieran, but it wasn't Kieran at all. Good catch, Angus."

"So I need to go to Colorado," Angus said.

"Maybe. But if you do go, I have to come up with a reason for you to be there that won't tip off the real reason for your visit to whoever might still be there impersonating Kieran," Robert said. "Let me give this some thought overnight, and I'll get with you all in the morning. Marcus, you still good to take Khaat tomorrow?"

"I can, unless you want me to go to Colorado with Angus," Marcus said. "I thought perhaps Aria might do well with her if I needed to go with Angus."

"Now that's something I hadn't considered," Robert said. "What do you think, Aria? Ever do any protections work at all?"

Ruby and Aria sat waiting for Robert when he appeared and took the kids to the other side of the duplex Aria comforted Ruby with a smile and a touch of her hand "It'll be fine, and yes I can handle it with Marcus's instructions" she said to Angus and Ruby smiled back. Now seeing Robert return from his talk she listened and then nodded to Robert. " it's fine with me Marcus can run threw her itinerary with me and what to watch for, apart from heels" she said then looked to Marcus and Angus before answering Robert " yes, I did some with the ministry, but i have to admit not many." she said to him.

Ruby looked at Robert and sighed" that means someone infiltrated the colorado base" she said "Maybe we should get Jack to check the protection spells around here" she added hoping whom ever it was had not slipped into their compound.

"I think, more than likely, that's exactly what it means," Robert nodded to Ruby when she said someone had infiltrated the Colorado compound. "And that's a damned big compound to cover to try to hunt for someone. It would be nigh onto impossible to try to cover it all to do a search."

"Well, then it seems to me, that we need to go fishing," Angus said. Robert was silent for a moment, and he looked at Angus, looking very serious indeed."

"And now you're entering very dark and highly dangerous waters," Robert told him.

"Yes, I know," Angus said.

"Which is why I wouldn't want him going alone," Marcus replied, "but, from a practical standpoint, it makes a lot more sense."

"I could send Jack and maybe Michael with you," Robert said. "Look I don't have a firm plan in my head, and neither do you. Let's sleep on it, and we can try to formulate something in the morning. Marcus, you take Khaat and Aria to St. Mungos and you show them the safesty way in and out. Aria, he'll go with the two of you and then he'll return here in case we send them to Colorado. You plan on bringing Khaat home the way Marcus tells you to come back, and if he doesn't go, he'll come and get you. And, Marcus, make sure you use a safe word so that neither of them leave with anyone who isn't you."

"Understood," Marcus said.

"I'm going home, and I'm going to bed," he stifled a yawn. "If you hear anything new overnight, you let me know at once. Otherwise, I'll get with you lot sometime in the morning. Good work, Guys." He stood up and headed for the door. "I'll talk with the kids tomorrow to let them know that there's an excellent chance that someone took advantage of the fact that they were trainees. Get some sleep, you lot. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Robert. And thanks," Angus said, watching him leave. "Well, so much for peace and quiet. Looks like its back to business, isn't it?"

"Certainly sounds like it," Marcus nodded.