A Birth day

Ruby and Aria sat and listened to Cutter talking and Aria rolled her eyes at the news knowing it was expected and nothing they hadn't dealt with before. Once Cutter signed off she looked at every one " So whats the next move, we know hes trying the legal route but we also know that's definatly not going to work" she said sitting back as she sipped her mug of coffee she watched them. Ruby stood up and went to check on Caprice and Diamond in the playpen Caprice was playing with one of her soft dolls while Diamond was sitting watching her.

" well if he's doing that he'll have a fight on his hands for sure," she said and turned to face Edward, Marcus and Angus to look at them. " we knew he'd try something, guess it sooner rather than later" she added as she smiled down to Caprice and Dimond.

"Well, I honestly think I need to relay the message to Robert and then wait for any further instructions. Robert will deal with the attorneys since he was the one who put Diamond here in the first place. I'll mention the account book to him and see what he wants to do with that. He might not want to do anything, but even so, it seems like it might be more of a mission for Michael--except that, I think, that Jack and I are probably the only ones who have been into more than just the foyer and Gelding's office. That was a long time ago, but I'm sure I could still find my way around if I had to, and I'm sure Jack could too. Still, knowing a floor plan does not make either of us qualified burglars."

"I doubt he'll send anyone in anywhere until the weather clears," Marcus said.

Angus opened the floo, and he got Robert and he relayed Cutter's message.

"I'll talk to Michael," Robert said. "He can tell me more about Piper, I'm sure. We won't act more on that until we have more intel, but it would be nice to reduce his income because that would reduce his power. Marcus, you stay with Angus. Nobody's going to take him from here without my say so. Got that? You do whatever it takes to protect him. Aria, if you have any buddies still in the auror department, see if you can get any leads on any crooked aurors--but do it very quietly. I don't want that spreading that I'm trying to find any crooked ones, so make sure you talk only to whoever you know that can keep their mouths shut. And make sure that you keep security tight at the duplex. I don't want anyone actually slipping in there and taking either one of those babies. They might think they know which one, but, honestly, some morons think all babies look alike. If you think the babies are in danger at any time at all, you bring them both here to me immediately."

"I can protect my grandchildren, Robert," Edward said firmly.

"Of that, I have no doubt. Still, if we have any leads that Gelding's men are coming, we'll move the babies to reduce risk," Robert replied.

Aria and Ruby both loked as Angus spoke to Robert Ruby was glad Robert was going to deal with the issue of the lawyer for Diamond and that the wizagamot had placed her with them legaly. She lent down and picked up Diamond who lay against her shoulder.

Aria looked at Marcus then to Angus as he spoke to Robert " good hes on it" she said " but yeah nothings geting in or out while this storm is still here," she patted finn on his head and looked at the snow that was piling up outside the doors again.

"I might still have a buddy or two in the auror pool," Angus said.

"That's true, and Brian still trains for them, but that doesn't mean that either of you will have the same sort of influence that Aria might have," Robert replied. "Still, if she doesn't have any friends left in the aurors, we may use you or Brian as back up plans."

"Answer the man," Marcus nudged Aria. "Do you still have anyone there you can trust or not?"

"It's fine, Marcus," Angus said, feeling perhaps Aria didn't want to be part of this mission. "I'll..."

"No, we won't," Marcus said, asserting that he wasn't letting Angus go try to break into the auror department. "I'd prefer neither of us welcome the new year in, in a cell. Let's do try to avoid that, shall we?"

"Any news on the weather, Robert? When is this supposed to clear?" Marcus asked.

"Muggles feel it could stop by late tomorrow afternoon or early evening," Robert said. "That's what their technology says, if it can be relied upon. I don't have anything new from our sources at the ministry, but I will try to find out. Get some sleep, you all. I know you've had some long days, and it is getting late."

"It is indeed," Edward agreed. "Keep us posted, Robert."

"I will indeed."

Aria looked at Marcus then to Angus and chuckled " of courese I have freinds I didn't work for them all those years with out making connections, theres this one guy Wheatly, Charles Wheatly, he works partly in records and aquisitions, oh but I do know some one who can help us hes an Auror, Senior Auror Lucien Wheeler, good at his job too." she said and walked to the floo casting the floo powder she spoke his name and a man with long hair and a six aclock shadow appeared. " hey Lucy" she said and she chuckled hearing the groan from the othr side.

"okay Aria whats you want Im busy here, we got some sort of massive mission going on?" he said then looked past her " you with the Donohughs and wow the Quinns too?" he asked.

"yep" she said and he rubbed his face " hey, you still seeing that chick secetary?" she asked and he looked up at her .

"wow , no, not any more, she cheated on me with a trainnee of all people, anyway what the reason you contact me after all this time?" he said  glancing behind her as Aria stepeed to one side.

" well I'll let Angus talk to you and explain." she turned and faced Angus " hes all yours " she said smiling

"Thanks," Angus grinned. "Hello, Mr. Wheeler, I'm Angus Donohue. I could use your help with a child welfare situation." Marcus handed him the paper copy of the emergency custody order signed by the Chief Warlock. My fiancee's mother is married to one of the biggest criminals in our world, and now my fiancee has a ten month old half sister who was in need of care the other night because the baby's parents were the ones who were responsible for trying to destroy the ministry a few nights ago.

"Long story short," Angus continued, holding up the Wizengamot judgement entry to that Wheeler could see it, "the Wizengamot gave us temporary custody because her parents are in the nick right now. However, we have word from some reliable sources that someone in the Ministry has started to take some action to try to have me arrested on charges of kidnapping this child and hope to take the baby. You might be interested in knowing that this baby is way underweight and way below her developmental markers. At ten months, she only weighs about 13 pounds and barely has the developmental tasks of a 6 month old mastered. She clearly is fragile right now and was while she was with her parents. She needs a lot of medical care, so I'm not excited to return her under those conditions, for her own welfare.

"I want to know who this auror is and what his or her connection is to Tom and Suzanne Gelding. I certainly don't want to jeopardize you or your job at the Ministry, but is there any way you can perhaps find out who this crooked auror is? I'd prefer not to end up in jail for the Wizengamot's decision. Can you help us at all?"

Marcus deliberately took Diamond and handed her to Angus so that Wheeler could see the baby.

"This is Diamond Gelding. Believe it or not, she's over 10 months old. She's the size and development of a 6 month old," Angus said. "I think sending her home could be lifethreatening for her."

Lucien listened to Abngus as he spoke about the situation he took the paper work and read it as Angus spoke more about things when he looked up and saw a small baby in Angus arms he frowned at seeing how small she was " hum, I can see that Mr Quinn, and your paperwork is all in order, I'll look into whose trying to muddy the waters." he said as he placed the papers into his inside jacket pocket shrinking them down. " and don't worry Aria knows its not the first time I investigated one of our own, and you don't owe me anything for this, by the way Aria seems some one is trying to say your in bed with a Belby, roomers Im quelling for now."

Aria stood up and walked over to the floo " Lucien this is about Angus right now, but yeah , I work for Robert Lupin, you got a problem with that?" she asked and heard him laugh as he shook his head.

" nope none, hes a real good fella, did us right" he said then looked to Angus " look after that babe, I'll be in contact in a day or so, this mission I was getting ready for is now on the back burner, don't worry Sir they got no recorse." He gave a wave and signed off . Aria looked to Angus and nodded.

"He'll do it too" she said " last time he found a rat in our department the poor guy left he was so scared of Lucien, don't know what he found on the guy but it got him to rat out who he worked for turned out it was a salvager who wanted good peices." she explained " damn near wet himself as he ran out the building" she chuckled.

"I appreciate it," Angus said, as the floo closed. He looked at Aria. "Thank you. I appreciate the help. It's one thing if I end up in jail in Paris for the dungbombs. I legitimately did do that. I'll take what comes there, if it comes. But, I am so sick of Suzanne believing that money now will let her twist the law to suit her own purposes. We all know Tom is no prize but in what few conversations I've had with him, he has legitimately been surprised by Suzanne's actions. I'm guessing that if I confronted him about Diamond's health, he would not be happy. He sees his children as possible successors to the family business, so he has a vested interest in making sure that they all live to adulthood. He is not going to want to know that this one has been horrendously neglected right from day one. I do not want us to keep this baby. That will only mark this family for nothing but nonstop trouble from Suzanne and Tom until they get her back."

"I think its interesting that we haven't heard from her lately about the boys," Edward said.

"I'm not. The boys are 18 now. She has no hold on any of her children anymore except Diamond, and even that has been temporarily taken from her," Angus said. "And the boys have been crystal clear with her that she is nothing to them anymore." He looked at Ruby. "I don't know if they told you but they worked together on a letter that they sent a little while back that told her that they are legal age, they are Donohues now, and that we are their parents now. They told her that they were never going to call her their mother again, and that if she tried to contact them, they would take out a restraining order. I don't know where they got that legal information, but they want absolutely nothing to do with her ever again."

"That means she's only going to believe even more that you've taken every one of her children from her," Marcus sighed.

"Pretty much, even though it isn't true," Angus said.

"I'll talk to the boys tomorrow and make sure they know not to take any stupid chances when the snow lifts," Marcus said.

Aria heard Angus and placed a hand on his shoulder "Lucien will find out who it is and stop them trust me , hes good at what he does" she reasured him then she listened to him talk of the boys and how suzzane had stoped bothering them over the boys " so the only thing she has is Diamond , but if shes been this way with Jessie and the boys and Ruby , shes not going to change. " Aria pointed out to him.

Ruby took Diamond from Angus and placed her back in the playpen with Caprice who smiled at her and Diamond.

Lucien once he had shut down the floo stood up from his desk and walked to the door to his office " Henry come here a sec" he called to a yougn boy. Once he was inside he closed the door " go to the upper floor and listen I want to know if you hear these words Diamond Gelding, Angus Donhugh or Ruby Donhugh" he told him " but nobody , and I mean nobody should know your there for me , got that" he said and the boy nodded " now go, do this and I'll let you have that day off you want with your girl" the boy smiled and ran out of the office as another man walked in, this was Franklin Stewart (Frank).

"wheres he off to in a hurry?" he asked Lucien looked at the man who noded and turned around closing the door " business?" he asked and Lucien nodded.

"big business Frank, just got a new case, its big , we might have a mole in the ministry and we need to keep it hush hush" he noted how Frank folded his arms across his chest as he listened. " this is Donugh, Lupin big" he told him.

"Well, you're right, of course," Angus told Aria. "She hasn't changed except to just get more dug in about it. As for Lucien, I trust your choice of operatives, and so does Robert. He wouldn't have asked you to pick someone if he had any hesitancy at all. He has connections there, of course, in his position there, but I know he just does not have the time to get to know as many of the people that work there as he used to have. It's all he can do to hold down that job, the job at St. Mungos and all he does for the Paris organization. He is learning to delegate things now more than he used to, and I am glad for that."

"You should be aware, though," Marcus told Aria, "that now that the all four of the teens here have had the organization's fighting training, if Suzanne ever struck out against Angus like she is constantly threatening to do, I do think they would absolutely try to strike out against Suzanne. The only thing that would prevent Anise and Ginger from doing it now is the fact that they don't apparate or port yet. The boys can do both now, and if they went after Suzanne, you can be sure that Anise and Ginger would be right with them. Keep your eyes and ears open around the kids so that if they decide to go act on their own, we can either try to stop them or go with them to make sure they get home safely.

"I was with Robert when he let the boys sign the employment contract with the organization. He made sure he read every section to them. And when it got to the section about following his orders, he was very clear. I remember he read it and looked at them both and said, 'This is the don't-be-stupid section. Got that?' And they both nodded before they signed it. So if they go rogue, he's going to hang them up by their toenails."

"He'll have to take a number because I'll do worse than that to them," Angus said. "And Ruby will probably help me."

"I saw Kate scare the bejeebers out of a trainee once," Marcus said. "The young man didn't follow orders and went out on his own, and Kate got ahold of him and she unleashed a whole new batch of hellfire on him. She told him that if he had enough gonads to do something so stupid, he had way too many gonads. She leveled her wand at his anatomy and told him he wasn't going to be able to use any gonads for anything ever again. He was so afraid, he passed out cold right then and there. Robert had to have a talk with him when he came around to reassure him that all of his body parts were still there and functioning."

"God, I remember that," Angus laughed. "Poor boy peed himself."

"Did he? I didn't notice that," Marcus said.

"He certainly did," Angus said. "I had to loan him some of my clothes so he could go shower and change."