A Birth day

Lucian nodded to Robert and shook his hand respectfully " Yes I read the report on my investigations" he said then placed a quill and notepad on a table in front of them, He listened to what Robert had said as the quill began to move, making notes on the note pad. " I have to make notes, sorry," he said and looked at Angus when handed a cup of Tea " Thank you, Mr Quinn," he said "It's still very much too cold out" he turned back and looked down at Dimond as Nigel spoke " hum, could you send me a copy of the official report for the files, but from what you both have told me she is better being here, send her back now and she will be stunted in development even more," he said taking a sip of the tea " hum, nice tea, one of yours Mr Lupin?" he asked as his notebook continued to write what had been said on the table in front of them.

Ruby finished the salad and placed it into a large bowl minus a smaller Tupperware bowl with a lid for Nigel to take back with him so he could have something with the cottage pie. Aria looked at Lucian and chuckled "Not wrong there" she said as she finishe dher mug and sat back.

Lucian glanced at her and chuckled " my recomendation is that she should remain in your care Mr Quinn with the excelent care she's reciving and how shes flurishing I don't see why they would want to move her, but I will say this be prepared for Suzzane coming after hr and yourselves. " he had just finished talking as Ruby walked over to stand with Angus.

"oh we are, my mother has done enough damage, not just to Diamond but all of her kids." she said taking Angus's hand in her own.

"I've seen the reports and read the files mrs Quinn, I know it dosn't compare to what yu and your brothers actually went threw with her, but I can reasure you we will be keeping a close eye on her and Mr Gelding" he said with a reasuring smile to Ruby who nodded and relaxed.

Robert hadn't tasted the tea yet, so he took a sip.

"Actually, yes, I believe so. I think it's a sample of one I've made as a possible flavor for Sparks for them to use in January and February, and I'm calling it Black Forest Cake," Robert said.

"Lizzie's going to love it," Angus said.

"You think?" Robert asked.

"I'm positive," Angus said.

"If you send this child home now, as her home seems to be, without a proper nanny, I can't promise you that she's going to even survive if this lack of nutrition continues, let alone the lack of stimulation," Nigel said. "It's not my place to recommend that they be made to, minimally, get a proper nanny, but if someone isn't taking care of this child properly and, if she goes home, checking on her welfare, I can't guarantee she'll survive. If I simply compare Robert's documentation from the night he first saw her and where she is now, I can tell you she's much less dehydrated than she was..."

As the babies were in the playpen, Caprice started banging a toy on the playpen frame and making a loud screeching noise, and Diamond just laid there, not moving.

"See that? That was not normal. That should have frightened her. She should be up and moving and playing, and that noise should have her irked and screaming. And what did we see? Absolutely nothing. She hears perfectly well. I checked that. She's significantly delayed from lack of attention and stimulation. If she isn't brought up to task, she will be severely delayed in school, and that would be a crime because, she is capable, biologically, of being on task and being a normal child--but not ata this rate if she's left with them," Nigel said. "Donohue, offer her some food, would you?"

Angus made a bottle for her and got out some pureed pumpkin and heated it. He offered her the pumpkin, and Diamond had no clue how to eat something from a spoon. She wasn't interested in it, but when he offered her the bottle, she got fussy and started to cry because she didn't know how to reach for it. He had to pick her up and feed her, at which point she settled straight away and drank hungrily.

"That should have you concerned on every level," Nigel told Lucien. "She's physically older than Caprice, and she does far, far less. How often are you feeding her, Donohue?"

"Bottles every three or four hours, pureed meals three times a day, snacks four times a day, but the pureed foods are a struggle. She just doesn't know what to do with them. She is getting better with cereal feeders though," Angus said.

Lucian listened to Robert as he explained more about Dimond and showed him his pad was now almost full he swapped it for a larger on and it kept writing " I can see that, and my recomandation is the same as yours she is to stay here " he said he heard a bang and looked down at Caprice and chuckled but a frown crossed his brow as he watched Dimond in teh same pen not flintch or make a sound he heard Nigel talk more and nodded.

" shes eating as if she's younger, still on bottles?" he enquired and watched as Angus brought Caprice a bottle and she settled down drinking it herself. He gave a sigh and watched " she's not even complaining that Caprice has food and she dosn't" he said leaning down he picked her up and held her against him knowing being in the arms of a stranger should have her crying out and reatching for a familier person but she stayed quiet " hum.." he said simply and spoke to his quill " note, no responce to peing picked up by stranger, not normal behaviour" he said and it was written. Gently he placed hr back in the pen and looked to robert. He listened as Angus told him what and how often she ate "keep up the good work, my report will reflect she stay here and ask they make it unlimited custidy for the forseeable future." he said " if thats all right with you." he looked at Angus as he sipped his tea again.

"Its fine," Angus said. "I don't see another option. Just be aware that Suzanne will be attacking this house and me. I don't give a damn about myself. I do, however, care about my family. If we call for your help, I don't expect the Ministry to hesitate or give me static about it. I normally fight my own battles, and I will continue to do that. But if it goes badly and Suzanne or her husband get hurt in the process, that will have come entirely in a position of self defense on my part. And, I know you don't have this on record, but I spent most of last year in a wheelchair because of an attack on my life that was made by a man that Suzanne hired to try to kill me. And that was neither the first or the last attack she's made. She wants me very dead because I adopted her sons for the same sort of neglect, and Ruby, here, is her daughter. Ruby's brother now lives here in the cabin next door. I also killed her first husband, Reginald, in this very room a year ago because she sent him here to kill me. She blames me for her entire life going down the loo. In every single case, she brought it entirely on herself."

"I have every single incident well documented with more evidence than you can dream of. And the French minister has even more," Robert said. He looked at Aria. "How far do you trust him, Aria? He may need to know what Angus really does and the rest of the background on the Geldings? Can I trust him with that?" Angus already knew what Robert was thinking. And he believed he knew Aria well enough to know how she would answer.

"I think I know how this is going to go. I'll get my coat," Angus said, heading upstairs to get his duster and his hat. "Belby, I'm going out. You coming with?"

"Well, shit. I guess," Marcus replied. That made Nigel smirk a little.

Lucian looked at Angus and noded " In my eyes you have every right to defend your home, lands and family, they set foot here or wherever you are and attack, defend." he said simply." Also we are well aware and poised to help you protect everyone here and not" he said looking at Robert he waited and nodded to Aria who sighed and stood up to face Robert.

"Lucian is an unspeakable, we met on a mission, I wasn't supposed to know but I overheard him and well, he swore me to secrecy, so yea I trust him with my life and do and of all those I love a care for," she added making Lucian smirk a little. She saw the others grab their coats and smirked "Oh this is going to be fun" she said and sat down looking at a confused but amused Lucian.

Lucian stood and watched the others disappear and then looked back at Robert " I have a filing cabinet back in my office filled with reports and pictures and arrest reports from both of them, but I guessing that's just scratching the surface." he added his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for the other to return.

Angus came downstairs in his black duster, with his hat, and wearing black winter gloves, ready for porting, with Marcus right behind him, and he had a full length black leather trench coat and black gloves. Robert looked at them.

"Don't hold supper. Serve it when its ready," Angus told Ruby, knowing she'd already know where they were going. "There's something he wants you to see, Lucien. He believes its not going to be in even the unspeakable files." Angus knew Michael had done extensive work to keep any information about the organization out of ministry files. "Put your notes away. You won't need them for this." He drew out the larger sized old antique key with the ships wheel on the bow. "Grab hold. Let's go," he said, as Marcus took hold of Angus so Angus could activate the spell.

Ruby smiled seeing Angus walk down in his mission " okay dear" she said smiling. Lucian waved his hand over the quill and it set itself down he left it to lay on the table "Not going to need this on record" he said and shook his head "Have a feeling not" he added and looked at Marcus and Angus. Aria chuckled and motioned for him to take hold "you're going to need to hold very tight" she said watching him to just that to Marcus's sleeve before they ported out.

Ruby chuckled and sat down with Aria "He not ging to believe all this" she said and Aria laughed.

"who Lucian, he will, he's one of those men who if he can see it and touch it and it's for the right cause he will work with it." she said and sipped her tea "So how long till lunch?" she asked and Ruby chuckled.

Angus whisked them away, and they landed on the sidewalk in front of the unusual French townhouse on the little quiet street in Paris. The front entry was now restored as it had been, but there was a heavily damaged section of the east side of the house where the dining room and the kitchen had been and some of the upper floors above that. The rest of the house remained.

"This is one of the biggest secrets Kate and Robert have ever had in their entire lives," Angus told Lucien. "You'll see why in a moment." He walked up the sidewalk to the front door, stated the password to the enchanted door knocker, and the door opened for him. He motioned to Marcus and Angus.

Angus honestly was surprised to see that tonight, the older teens were here, working right alongside the adults with sleeping, washing, cleaning, and rebuilding. When they saw Angus, they flew to him and wrapped themselves around him in huge, strong hugs. These were kids that he had rescued years before when they were small, and they'd grown up, largely, with him working full time here, taking care of them every single day until he moved to take care of Brian's estate. There were eleven kids here tonight. They were healthy, strong, smart, and they dearly loved the organization that had saved their lives. They knew Marcus, and they greeted him warmly. They greeted Lucien too, even though they didn't know him in the least.

"How'd you lot get here?" Angus laughed.

"We told Kieran and Fi that we had to come. This was home until just a couple years ago. Of course we had to come," one of the older girls told him. "We wanted to help, so the Admiral said we could stay til the job was done."

"Where are you sleeping?" Angus frowned?"

"On the floor upstairs in the common room, in our sleeping bags. Owens is bringing takeout. We made him go find pizza," a 17 year old lad told him, laughing. "A stack of them, because if he doesn't bring enough he'll just bloody have to go back." That made Angus laugh, and he ruffled the boy's hair.

"Dining room was over there, until a couple days ago, with kitchen on right behind," Marcus told Lucien. "Come this way, down the hall. Male agents' dorm room on the left, Female agents' room is right next to that. Captains' quarters right at the end of the hall, and this is one of the things Robert wants you to see. In here." He opened the door to the room they called the Bridge. "This room is called the bridge. The house had so many nautical features when they bought it that the nautical terminology just stayed."

The people in the large wizards' portrait, still all looking at a map on the desk in the painting all straightened up and greeted them. There was Dumbledore, Robert, Kate, Sirius, Michael, Remus, Tonks, James, and Lily.

"This is one of the most sophisticated secret international agencies you'll find anywhere," The figure of Dumbledore said to Lucien. "If you're here it's because someone's in deep need of help. Whatever you see, keep it silent, and take it seriously because, so far, this organization has saved nigh onto 800 children in the last 40 years from one diabolical wizarding family that is soon going to be in the third generation of selling wizard children to muggles. The people here with me, we were the founders. The ones who are still alive risk everything they are to save children. I'm sure you don't understand yet. But you will."

Lucian looked at the house they now stood outside of he watched as the doors opened to Robert and he followed them inside. Seeing the children smiling and laughing made him smile too and he followed Angus he was greeted by several young children whom he spoke to and they all said they were happy, fed and glad to be going home. Now he saw Angus walk on and he heard his explanation " so your kirchen is the gally right" he said as they continued to walk.

Entering the bridge he paused and looked around, hearing a voice he looked up and saw all the figures standing in one painting. Walking over he stood in front of it as the dumbledor figure spoke. once he finished Lucian placed his arm across his chest as he spoke " I pledge my undying loyalty" he said and lowered his head in respect before turning to Robert, Angus and Marcus. " I understand, my nephew was rescued by strange men several years ago, he told me how he was brought to a building, fed cleaned and had his wounds tended to, his name is Jasper, Jasper Mcdaniel, he was about ten when snatched from his mother, my sister." he told them " I was investigating his kidnapping when I met Aria, then he returned home, have to say he kept saying something about the size of cinnamon buns, saying they were huge" he chuckled " My sister tried and tried but never could make them big enough, but getting back to all this " he waved his arms in the air " no one will ever know, on my honer and my life" he said walking over to the big table with a map on it.

"Yeah," Angus said. "These young ones must be new arrivals. They'll be leaving here tonight to go elsewhere because we can't house the young ones here, not with the place needing repairs. You want to see the work map? That's here." Angus flicked his fingers at a large old antique painting of a world map that was on the wall, above the credenza behind the desk. The map disappeared to show a very detailed map of Paris with blinking green and yellow and red lights in various spots on the map. On the left side of the map was a list of children's last names and their locations in the house. And on the right a very detailed list of every child that was in the organizations care currently and exactly where they were at the moment.

"See the green lights? Known locations where we have found criminal activity of this family in the past where our informants see no activity right now. The yellow lights are spots where our intel says there could soon be more activity that we might need to be involved in. And the few red dots? That's where we have problems. We have agents at those locations. Their names are the small red names on the map. That's so we can send backup to them at any given moment. The list of children on the left? Those are the kids in this building and where they are in the house. The big list of names are the kids we have in our care right now, whether they're here or not. We have sixteen in the building, and five of them are under age 12. They'll be leaving here soon now. The list of kids on the right has....let me check..."

"87," Remus said. "There's only 87 with us right now, and they're all showing residency at the ranch because we can't house them here."

"Except for the eleven that Kieran let come here to work," Angus said.

"Correct," Remus replied.

"And how many have we taken guardianship since we opened?" Marcus asked.

"In total?" Sirius asked. "395."

"And how many has Robert taken guardianship of?"

"Since we opened? 159," Sirius replied. "Currently, he has 24."

"Angus ran this operation here from the time he graduated Hogwarts until perhaps seven or eight years ago," James said. "Then he went to work for the Captain at his place, but he still supervises the operation for Robert and Kate and their son in law, Khaat's husband. He won't tell you this, but we will. He's directly fought the current head of this family more than any other agent we currently have. And they hate him for it. If they could manage to kill him, they would. Hands down. Which is why Mr. Belby here is his new best friend. That was deliberate on Robert's part because Angus's head is full of valuable information that Robert does not want to fall into the wrong hands. Angus and the other first string fighters he has are absolutely priceless to him and completely essential."

"This family has kidnapped and sold over 800 children in the last 40 years, and this organization does not stop until they find every single one and make sure they're safe and well cared for," Lily said. "And the family that is solely responsible for this is the Gelding family. Tom Gelding runs it now because he inherited it when his father challenged Robert to a duel to the death and lost. Tom wants Angus dead because Angus has interfered with him more than jsut about any single operative we have. And from what we hear, his new wife doesn't like Angus any better."