A Birth day

Jack had just finished breaking up the crates the school things had been in when he eahrd Angus call him sensing the urgancy he dropped the box and ran over Jessie ran up amoment later " whats wrong I heard you yell for Jack from our cabin" he said wiping his wet hands on his pants as he stood looking at them . Seeing Anises face he had a feeling what had happened.

"something to do with the pack" Jack said and sniffed the air " hum, I smell sickness and death" he added and looked to Anise " we'll help" he simply said to her then looked at Angus " tell us what you need" he was now inside ready to help and if he found the ones that had made this pack sick he would tear them limb from limb.

"We need to get as many people as we can," Anise began. Angus raised his hand to calm her.

"Go in the house. Find Nigel," Angus told Anise in a calm and deliberate tone, looking directly into her face to steady her. "Ask him to get his bag and come along. He's needed straight away." She took off like a shot, racing for the big house. Angus looked at Jack and Jessie.

"Someone impersonated us and took a donation of meat to the pack, and Dennis thinks it was laced with poison. Most of the pack is seriously ill. Dennis said nothing they've tried has helped, and they think Fenrir and some of the elders may die before nightfall. The pack has moved into the darkest parts of the forest because they're too sick to go any further. Clearly, they're not safe there. We have to get them out of the forest and to a safe place and then treat them before they all die," Angus explained. "I don't know of a better place off the top of my head except to move them here at least temporarily."

Angus turned and shouted to Edward in the duplex..

"Edward! Come with us, and bring every warm body you can to help. Right now!"

"We need to go see if we can help with whatever the heck is going on," Marcus told Aria. He got up and raced out of the house.

"Ruby, I'll take Caprice if you want to go," Simone said, knowing Ruby was certainly younger than she was.

Jack watched as Angus spoke to Anise also noting his softer tone then watched as she ran to the duplex and heard Angus he gave a low growl " bet we can guess who" he said as Jessie put his hand on Jacks arm to calm him as Angus continued . " agreed" Jack said as he saw Marcus and Aria hurrying out the door .

"okay whats wrong?" Aria said to Angus " you all look like thunder" she said walking closer to them. Seeing the look on their faces she refocused and became serious as she stood with Marcus and accioed her black leather waist jacket ready for work or a fight. Jessie looked to Marcus as Yu walked over letting Chris head into the duplex as he wlked overto them with a small bag of herbs over his shoulder .

"I heard sickness and I brought fresh herbs, they might help" he said standing with Jessie " and chrish will stay with Simone" he added. Ruby heard Simone and smiled at her words picking up Caprice she placed her on Simones knee and kissed her cheek .

" hpfully we can help them, won't be too late" she said and transphigured her clothing to her fight clothing and headed out to where they others stod " im ready, simones got Caprice and Chris." she told Angus " no one messes with our pack on our lands." she told him her face twlling him she was serious about helping.

Nigel came dashing out of the house with Anise, and he had his bag on his shoulder. Kate and Michael were right on their heels, and they ran into the yard. Kate fired a signal into the air and began summoning all the grounds crew to the center of the yard.

"The girls' pack has been poisoned," Angus said. "They're seriously ill, and they're not safe. We have to evacuate them from the Forbidden Forest straight away. We'll bring them here."

"Robert says you should bring them to this part of the yard. Not the Northern sector," Nigel said. "He's got Kate and Michael making different arrangements for them while they're all so ill."

"Let's not waste any time. Let's go," Edward said. "We'll meet you all at the edge of the forest and follow you in, Angus." They all began apparating out separtely to go to the forest. Angus took Ruby's hand and Anise's and Nigel went with Edward.

When they all got to the woods, Angus led them to the clearing to the abandoned camp site.

"Fenrir says you can bring them," the little girl told Dennis quietly. Dennis nodded. He motioned to them, and Angus took the lead, following Dennis and the child on a long trek through the woods to the campsite.

The pack hadn't even set up tents. They were on bedrolls on the ground all rather huddled together around a large central cooking fire, but they'd been too sick to even try to brew much of anything on the fire. This was one of the most pitiful things Angus had ever seen. His heart ached for them. Nigel and Edward immediately went to the ones they believed looked the sickest. Nigel went to a baby not far from Caprice's age, and Edward went to Fenrir.

"Save my pack, Donohue," Fenrir said to Edward.

"We're going to give it our all," Edward promised him, checking Fenrir. He could tell that Fenrir had certainly been poisoned but it was, in all likelihood take Robert to analyze a sample of the meat, if there was any left, to identify the poison and formulate and antidote.

"Listen, Everyone," Nigel called. "Please start apparating back to the estate with anyone who does not appear to be in critical condition. Take them first. We'll try to stabilize the critical ones and move them once they're stable. Move quickly. Come right back, and take some more. Let's get them out, then we'll get their supplies moved after we move them."

Kate and Michael, meanwhile, had gathered every qizarding tent they could find, and the grounds crew was setting up six large wizarding tents, starting the furnaces for heat inside, and were setting up beds with blankets and pillows and other furniture to ready the tents for the pack members to they would have warm, weatherproof shelter close to the main house.

Aria, Ruby and Jack with Jessie and Yu all aperated to the woods each stood waiting until they were told to follow entering where the pack was Jack paused as did Jessie until Fenrir asked for help and then nodded. Jessie and Yu went to an old couple and began tending to them with the herbs Yu had brought, Jack walked to Fenrir "What did they look like?" he asked him "The men who brought the meat" he hoped he could find the men and reassure Fenrir that they were not from the estate.

Aria and Ruby found several people not too bad and began to port them to the open area back at the estate with tents "These are the beter of the bunch" Aria said as Ruby lead the group to a tent where they sat own. " okay second batch coming up" Aria said as Ruby ported back Aria changed into her dove form and flew back to the makeshift camp.

"This is my fault because I didn't ask enough questions of the pack members that accepted the donation and brought it back. I only thought about asking questions once we all started to get sick. I can point ou the men to you who brought the boxes, but they described the men as tall, stocky, dark hair, and one of them had a tattoo. One I am all too familiar with. It was a snake, and the body of the snake was twisted into a figure eight shape and had a skull on its tail."

"A Death Eater's mark?" Edward frowned,

"That's exactly what it was," Fenrir nodded. "I had one of them draw me a rough sketch. Let's not play games here, Donohue. I knew the Death Eaters because I was one of them. These younger men could not have been more than children at that time. Either someone is using that mark again, or some older members are using some sort of polyjuice to disguise themselves. But whichever it is, they certainly are not up to any good cause."

"I am not aware of even one member on our staff that would have a dark mark. We would have known by now if there were," Angus said.

"Your seers would have outed them by now anyway," Fenrir said. "Especially the Lupin woman. She'd have known that mark from a mile away."

"Yes. She would have," Angus nodded, knowing that Kate remembered the second wizarding war days well. She would certainly have sensed the presence of a death eater if any had turned up on estate grounds. Jack, if Fenrir identifies the men for you that brought the boxes, maybe, once everyone is settled, we can ask kate to do sketches from the men's memories of them, and maybe that will give you something better to work with." He left them to go help transport some more pack members back to the estate. Anise felt helpless since she couldn't apparate.

"Anise," Angus said, "Put out that fire and start packing any of their things that are not yet packed. That will help us get every trace of them out of here. I'll be back to help you as soon as I can." He gave her a fatherly kiss on the top of her head. "Be strong," he told her quietly. "We'll do everything we can to save them." She nodded, glad for his reassurance. He saw two women trying to stand to make it easier for someone to apparate them out. Angus went over and put a supportive arm around them and apparated them both out.

Jack listened to Fenrir and then to Edwrad and Angus " there are none" he said simply " I vet all the grounds men , not one has it, I'd know" he added then nodded at Angus words. Seeing Anise feeling helpless he walked over to her and handed her a box" here, gather the things in this I'll help" he told her then chuckled " you know I bet you'll be aperating all over the place soon if you want extra lessons I could help." he told her "just don't let your dad know, by the way, see Jessie, he ended up in a dumpster when he aperated" he whispered to her hoping to make her a litle less sad.

Jessie was helping Yu aply a poltice to a sore one of the old men had while Yu was crushing more herbs for potions to sooth some of the symptoms. It was now he saw some of the meat off to their right and picked it up " Yu, can you look at this or bag it for Robert" he asked as Yu turned to see what he was talking about , Yu quickly took the meat and placed it in a glowing bag before poring water over Jessie hand .

"you could have absorbed the poison or what ever was in the meat, you are stupid to do that, next time use a stick or call me" he said Jessie saw the worry on Yu's face and smiled noding reasuringly to him. Jack gathgered all the things and pushed dirt over th fire to put it out leaving nothing but a warm dirt pile.

Angus took the women to the estate, and Kate helped Angus get them into one of the tents and then shooed Angus out of the tent while she put the women into clean warm beds. They were trying to put couples into bedrooms together and children either with them or not far from them in a different bedroom. Single people were sometimes being grouped with their friends or by wherever they had room, but they were doing all they could to provide comfort straight away.


Angus apparated back and he saw Nigel motion to him. He went over to him. "I've got the two worst ones stablized," Nigel said. "I haven't checked that bloke that Edward's with yet, though."

"Edward will bring him," Angus said.

"Then if you help me, we'll get the critical ones moved now," Nigel said. Angus helped Edward move the critically ill ones, and Michael put them all together in one tent. Angus went back and went to Edward. "Nigel's ready for Fenrir at the camp at the estate."

"Good. Where am I taking him?"

"The western most tent. Michael will direct you from there," Angus said. Edward apparated Fenrir out. Angus went over to Ruby and Aria.

"I think the pack members are all out, unless you have any left?" Angus asked them. "If not, we can get their stuff all moved. Kate has one tent for all their stuff. It's the one off to the north, sort of set off by itself. I think she thinks that all the stuff will just get underfoot for now and that they can sort all that out when they feel better. Is there anything I can help you two with?"

Aria appeared in the camp as did Ruby who ported in each helping pack up the things laying around making sure not to leave anything they thought could be important or sentemental behind. Once all was packed Aria shrank the boxes and slipped them into her pocket while she flew back to the camp placing them in the tent and resizing them to fit toe space. Aria took one last look around as she ehard angus and nodded " I think thts everything and one" she told him and ported back to the camp after she had seen Fenrir leaving with Edward to the camp.

Now at the camp Aria moved around giving water to every one who neeed it Yu made some soup on a make shift cooking stove. He ustalised veg from the garden and fresh meat cheked by Jack who stood next to the large pot that bubbled with the stew like mixture.

Michael had made two more cook fires. He had a big cauldron on one, and he was making a beef bone broth that had, basically, Angus's rich red wine mixture to create a warm, very flavorful clear broth that would be easy for those who were seriously ill to drink and digest. Robert had been specific that food poisoning caused severe damage and distress to the stomach and digestive system, and Robert figured there would be many who needed to start with some sort of clear liquid. That was what had Michael making the beef broth.

It was also what had him tending a large cauldron at the other cook fire. This one held a very large batch of what he was calling a lemon cider. It was, for all purposes, a hot lemonade with some extra spices for flavor. This was an old family recipe of Robert's. Robert knew that, the high sugar content in lemonade often was very significantly helpful in reducing nausea. it also was hugely beneficial in reducing dehydration and in replacing lost vitamin C, fighting infection, regulating body temperature, and reducing anxiety. And the pack could surely use all of those things. Since the weather was cold and damp, though, Michael was heating the lemonade to provide some extra warmth and comfort.

Ginger had finished her tasks in the barn and she was taking some mugs of the hot lemonade to those who would try it. She looked up and saw Robert, on crutches, coming out of a tent. He knew they needed every healer they could get at the moment, and he was not going to be home sitting on his bed when there were, possibly, people dying in the back yard.

When Angus finished hauling the pack's things to the supply tent, Michael motioned to him. Angus went over.

"How can I help?"

"Do me a favor. Get some of those nice, cushioned patio chairs out and set them up around this fire here. It will give our folks a place to sit and take a break. And, if you get a moment, get some of those 8 cup enamelware coffee pots from the camping equipment. Brew up some tea in some of the blue ones and coffee in the red ones and set them into the coals. That way, our folks have tea, coffee, lemonade or beef broth to warm up with. If they get hungry, they can dish up some of Yu's stew that he's making. Simone is making some hot sandwiches in the duplex to send out. That'll help too. We're just going to keep the soup and sandwiches going all day long so that whenever someone is hungry, they can eat. That will save us from having to stop and cook any meals under these circumstances."

"I'll get the coffee and tea going and then, if someone doesn't beat me to it, I can go get more mugs and bowls and things from the camping supplies and check on the sandwiches to see if Simone's ready to send those out."

"Blankets," Nigel called, coming out of a tent. "We need more pillows and blankets."

"Coming right up," Angus said, trying to make a mental list now of all the things that were needed. He looked at saw Ruby there. "Ru, can you see if Owens can spare anyone from Paris to come lend a hand? We could use a few more people here to help us." As he was speaking, Sam came up to Angus.

"Hey, do we have some stuffed animals and some storybooks?" he asked Angus. "The little kids are really worked up because they're so sick. And, they're in different rooms than their mums and dads, and they don't like it."

"Um..." Angus was thinking. It was making his brain go in too many directions. He was now trying to remember a very long list of things that was needed in this central area: coffee pots, tea, coffee, mugs, milk, sugar, spoons, chairs, sandwiches...and what else was there? Oh, yes, bowls, blankets, pillows...And now, stuffed animals, storybooks, someone to read the bloody books...and that would require some camp stools to be distributed into the tents. And that reminded him of something else, Firewood. They would need lots of firewood for the furnaces in the tents. He stood still for a moment and took a deep breath and let it out slowly to stop his racing thoughts.

"Sam, do me a favor," Angus said, feeling a bit overwhelmed with such a long list of things to do. "Put a floo call into Evan. Evan is really good at organizing big chaotic messes, and I think he would be a big help here if you can muster him up."

"But what about..."

"Do what I tell you. Call Evan. I'll get to the toys and the books as soon as I can," he told Sam calmly, and then he headed off to go find...what was it again? Oh, yes, he reminded himself, at least eight of the 8 cup enamelware coffee pots--four red, four blue.