A Birth day

Ruby smiled hearing Robert talk about talking to Anise. " that would be me and there's plenty left" she said smiling Once Robert had headed down to the girls room Ruby sat down. " guess I didn't read mine but I'm second stringer so , yeah" she said with a chuckle as Jessie walked in behind Lucian and over to Chris.

" got a message I should be close by in case of something happening?" he said but chuckled as he saw the picture Chris was drawing. " um a magic monster door, neat" he said and showed Angus and Marcus the drawing. Ruby chuckled and checked Angus smiling when she found he was warming up nicely as was Marcus.

Lucian staid back listening to the others talking and chuckled " good clause that, should ad that to the contracts of the people I work with from now on." he said and saw Aria walk over

"should do its a good one." she said poring out two bowls of bone broth and some fresh made bread taking both over to Angus and Marcus and setting them down next to each of them " if you want it." she said

"Yeah, well, don't call Michael if you ever end up with one," Marcus said.

"I did what needed to be done so it didn't burn this house down and making ten people homeless tonight," Michael said.

"Sam buggared up a spell and created a sentient bedroom door that snarls and bites and farts flames," Edward said. "So Michael chucked it into the pond with Marcus and Angus still attached."

"And I'm going to take care of the door shortly," Michael sighed. "Honestly. You people act like you've never seen a door with a mind of its own."

"Not one that farts balls of fire, I haven't," Angus admitted.

"And besides, a dip in the pond in sub zero temperatures is not my idea of a good hobby," Marcus said.

"I'm guessing your message came from Robert," Angus told Jessie. "Long story short, the girls share one large bottle of wolfsbane, and they broke it accidently. That left them without it. And, Anise showed up today in the northwest sector, made a full transformation in order to help a member of Fenrir's pack. I asked Robert where I should take her if she forgets and makes a transformation because I can't let her hurt anyone here. Robert was quick to tell me that I can't be the one to do that. He says that should be you or Jack or both. I'm not sure I want to put either of you at risk either, though."

"His point is well taken, Angus," Marcus said. "They're twice Anise's size at least, and they are already werewolves. A bite from her won't cause them any damage but it could certainly harm those of us who aren't werewolves. And that's his point. He believes they can handle her without incident far better than you can."

"I grounded her for slipping out of the house and not telling us so she could go join our team this afternoon, and she is not happy with me," Angus told Jessie.

Jessie listened and nodded " he's right and I know of a place , its a clearing Jack took me too once, it has an old cabin and campfire so we could keep her there till the moons phase is over , should it be needed, oh and message from Jack, just holler" he said and chuckled " he's dealing with some grounds men who need help with the barn " he said and looked back to Chris as he continued to draw as Ruby walked over with some bread and butter pudding for him. " thanks Ruby" Jessie said as Chris smiled and took the bowl.

"thought he could use some food." she said smiling to him. Lucian listened and chuckled as he stood by the door.

" I'll deal with the door you two warm up" he said and stepped out , walking over to the pond he drew his wand and lifted the door from the pond placing it against a rock " now stay there and don't burn anything or I'll dip you again" he said and aw it roll its eyes " I mean it" the door just blew a raspberry at him and he headed back to the duplex.

"Thank you, Lucian," Michael said. "That will keep it from undue stress until I can break the spell. In the meantime, I suggest you plan on replacing the door."

"I will," Angus said. "Thanks for the broth, Aria. Did you guys find the right roof shingles, Jessie? I can help you put the shingles on tomorrow."

"Oh, right," Edward rolled his eyes. "With your buggared up shoulder, Robert's going to be excited about you climbing ladders, hauling 50 pound bundles of shingles, and hammering roofing nails. I want to watch all his unbridled enthusiasm about that." Edward looked at Jessie. "He screwed up his shoulder when he got hurled off a cliff and was saved by Fenrir, so now he thinks he's in prime shape to re-roof a barn. If he thinks Robert's going to be jumping for joy, Angus might be sadly mistaken. I think he'd be better off to let the outdoor crew do their jobs, quite honestly. Speaking of things Robert isn't going to want you to do, I'll take the girls tomorrow to Tuscany to Evan's so that you don't have to try to hang onto the girls with your bad shoulder and port with you good one. I happen to have two decent shoulders, and I do know the way, so I'll take care of it."

"I hadn't even thought of taking them to Evan's in the morning yet," Angus admitted.

"Yes, well, think about it, and then un-think about it," Edward said. "I'll go fix the boys' door temporarily. Borrowing one of your twin size bed sheets, Ruby." He went up, took a bed sheet, transfigured it into a curtain and hung it in the doorway. The boys weren't excited about not having a real door, but Edward told them they were "damned lucky" to have a curtain overnight.

Lucian nodded to Edward as Jessie looked up and smiled " that's what Jack doing with the grounds men, he's showing them the right shingles" he said " should be finished tomorrow evening" he heard Edward with Angus and chuckled knowing when Edward spoke you listened. Seeing him head up the stairs Ruby nodded.

"second door on the right , use one of those" she said with a chuckle as she then looked at Angus as she placed Caprice down in her pen again to free play. Aria nodded to Angus and smiled to Marcus as she saw him eat the broth too.

"your welcome" she said sitting down to continue reading her paper as they waited for Robert to reappear from below once he had spoken to Anise about going on a mission she was not prepared for.

Angus continued to sip on his broth, and at one point, he was sure he heard Anise raise her voice to Robert but couldn't hear what she was saying.

"She really, really shouldn't do that," Angus said. "That won't go well for her if she keeps it up."

"Probably true," Marcus said.

"I saw Robert react to an auror once who tried to get into Robert's face," Angus said. "It really did not go well for him when he did not listen and kept lipping off to Robert. The auror had the gall to tell Robert to zip it, so Robert did."

"That doesn't sound good," Marcus frowned.

"Well, it wasn't. Robert hexed a steel zipper on this man's mouth and then zipped his mouth shut and simply pushed the zipper tab down to lock the zipper into a closed position."

"Oh, God, why didn't I see that coming?" Marcus laughed. "Did he change him back?"

"Certainly, after the man figured out how to unzip his mouth and issue an apology to Robert, but this man was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. It took him two days to figure out how to unzip himself."

"I bet his wife wasn't happy about that."

"Actually, she was elated. He was also at risk of losing his job because he was three pounds over the weight limit for aurors, and she was concerned he was going to end up unemployed because of having two danishes every morning at elevenses. By the time he could eat again, he'd lost four pounds and was no longer in danger of losing his position because of the extra poundage," Angus said. Marcus burst out laughing.

"Were these any of your danish, by chance?" Marcus asked.

"No. You know that little apothecary on the corner?" Angus asked, and Marcus nodded. "You know that display of cheap, over processed muggle pastries by the cash register? Yeah, he would buy a bunch of those each week and eat at least two every morning and sometimes two more every afternoon."

"Those are horrid," Marcus wrinkled his nose. "I've tried those. I think anyone who ever worked at the ministry has tried them at least once, and most of us have not had them a second time. Tiny Tastys or something, aren't they? As big as they are, I didn't see anything tiny about them."

"I did. They were very tiny in taste," Angus said. That made Marcus laugh again. "You guys ever taste those things?" Angus asked Lucian and Ruby and Aria.

Ruby hear the loud vices from the basement and went to go check but Aria stopped her gently making her sit back down " she's okay" she said then chuckled at Marcus and Angus's banter " once and only once" Aria said Lucian chuckled as he stood by the counter .

"um guilty as charged" he said " but like Aria even a good roast coffee couldn't rid the taste of those things, their banned from my office" he added with a smile. Ruby shook her head since she was never really into sweet things. " you got sense" Lucian said chuckling as did Aria. " you never want to try those things, Now the ones from sparks god I am surprised I ain't over the weight , those are delicious."

"You're wise for banning those Tiny Tastys. As for Sparks, Lizzie is quite the chef," Angus replied. "My favorites from there are the ones that aren't my recipes. She doesn't do those often enough to suit me, though. I issued her a contest with me for spring though. I told her to make some pastel flavored pastries."

"Pastel? Those are colors, not flavors," Marcus said.

"Therein lies the challenge," Angus grinned. "I want to see what she does, for example with a baby blue colored pastry."

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"I do, and I'm not telling," Angus said. "You'll see when I make them. I told her I was sure we could find some folks to do a blind taste test to decide which ones are the winners when the time comes. I'd like to have them ready by the end of February so that she can put them on the menu on the first day of Spring."

Robert came back upstairs and seemed unbothered.

"I heard her raise her voice," Angus said.

"She's fine," Robert replied. "She understands now, I think, but I do think that her mother's birthday bothers her more than she realizes, and the fact that Dennis would like to visit the grave is on her mind. You do what you want as her parents, but it might be a nice gesture to take Dennis and the girls to visit the grave."

"We can do that, I'm sure," Angus said.

"Now, let me tape up that shoulder and then raid your pudding," Robert said, taking a roll of sports tape from his coat pocket.

"Ru, would you get him some of that pudding, please?" Angus asked, as Angus slipped his shoulder out of his bathrobe.

"You've been working out. You've gained some size in your arm muscles. Nice job," Robert said.

Lucian chuckled and nodded " well I'm impartial so I could do the taste test" he said and chuckled " oh blue berry for the blue or a faint lavender? " he suggested " my mom and my wife's cooks so I get ideas" he smirked but stood upright as Robert entered the room and spoke to Angus." that good?" he asked as Jessie saw the look on Roberts face .

"yep its a good thing" Jessie said and breathed out not being needed " did she take her potion at least?" he asked as he stood up standing beside Chris who knelt at the low table beside Angus. Ruby heard Angus and chuckled as she nodded .

"all right" she said and stood up making her way to the kitchen she dished up some of the bread and butter pudding in to a bowl for Robert before returning and placing it next to him " there you go, there's more if you want seconds, I'll send some over to the main house for Nigel too." she said and smiled at Roberts compliment to Angus. Aria chuckled hearing Robert and seeing Ruby bring a bowl with a large slice of the pudding in it.

"That's definitely a thought," Angus smiled.

"Great pud, Ruby. Unusual bread." Robert said. "Just for the record, Angus, Fenrir was right."

"Panettone," Angus told Robert. "What was he right about?"

"Panettone--good choice. I know that shoulder is going to give you some grief, but hanging on to that rock and buggaring up your shoulder til help came was a much more desirable outcome than falling today. I know it had to hurt like the devil, but I'd rather fix it than to consider what the consequences might have been."

"Ah, yes, well, that was my assessment in the moment as well," Angus agreed.

"And, Anise does not like the terms of her contract, but she does now at least understand that every fighter we have got the positions they have because they worked hard and earned it. You are a first string fighter, one of a team of several fighters, and you got there by a lot of hard work. You earned it, just like Jack and Marcus and the others. The second stringers have earned their positions too because they are equally important and work every bit as hard as the rest of them. Every single person here is important, and Anise has the ability, if she keeps working to earn her spot as well. She just honestly needed to know she had some control over advancing that post or not. I do think she will fight for it because she is very driven. She will earn that second string position, I think."

"She isn't going to stop until she's a first stringer," Angus said.

"Ah, well, but that is where the real work begins, doesn't it?" Robert smiled.

"And, also for the record, Fenrir might be the oldest werewolf we know about, but in his pure werewolf form, he can still move like lightning."

"I did rather figure that might be the case, but it's good to know. It's what gives him some element of control in his pack. All the more reason to treat him with respect. However, in regards to that entire situation in the northwest, we do need to do some extensive exploration in this cave that, so far as Brian and I know, was not there prior to this. I think our intruders used magic to create that thing, and we need to find out if there is a passage in there that lets them slip in under our protection grid or how they are getting in without setting off our alarms."

"I did wonder about that," Marcus said.

"Well, for now, we have moved the protection grid back a distance so that the cave now falls outside the protection grid even though that remains Brian's property," Robert told them.

"That is a really smart move. So, unless the cave has another opening somewhere on the property that is inside the protection perimeters, that shuts them out, at least temporarily."

"Exactly so," Robert nodded. "However, I don't think I dare send a team in there to explore it unless its a team of first stringers. We don't know what awaits us when we go further back inside it to see how far and where it actually goes."

"So, that puts it basically to Marcus, Jack, Jessie, and me," Angus said.

"Well, not just you four. Specifically, it also should include Michael. Having a climber, I think, could be essential for this," Robert replied.

"Any second stringers?"

"Only those who feel comfortable with perhaps some energetic hiking and climbing," Robert said. "And that isn't going to be for everyone. Some folks have other strengths. And, before they ask, i might be willing to include Sam and Victor--maybe--because they're technically adults now. But, not the girls. They need to be in Tuscany doing their school work. They had to fight too hard to catch up academically in order to be able to compete to get into Beauxbaton's. I don't want them blowing that. That must be one of their top priorities right now. But--neither do I think that I will have a mammoth list of folks wanting to go look for criminals in a manmade cave either."

"Agreed," Angus said. "Can I safely presume we don't need to do that yet tonight?"

"Yes, you can presume that. Tomorrow, some time after breakfast, at the earliest would be a safe bet," Robert replied.

"We'll be ready," Marcus said. Robert looked at them all and refocused on Angus for a moment.

"You won't be as ready as you should be without calling it an early night, Lad," Robert told Angus quietly. "Most likely something about hanging off the edge of a cliff that was stressful, and a handful of rebellion from teens who want all the privileges of adulthood and not the responsibility of it. It can be quite fatiguing."

"I'll be fine," Angus said. "Besides, a hike would do me good tomorrow, and I miss climbing with Michael."

"Your shoulder isn't going to let you climb tomorrow, but Michael will certainly welcome an opportunity to do some heavy duty climbing as soon as the winter weather breaks," Robert said, standing up. "Thanks for a delicious dessert, but I have mountains to do yet before I can sleep, so I'm going to push on. Good work today, Everyone. You've all had a long, hard day, so get some sleep. How about I have Zoe send over breakfast for you all in the morning so you can start the first hour or so of the morning a bit more slowly?"

"I don't want to put her out by cooking for us," Angus said.

"It isn't putting her out, and you know it. It'll be here by seven-ish, so you can all have a bit of a lie-in before you all head off different directions," Robert said. "How about you cave explorers be ready to go by nine? That gives you time to eat and time to gather any equipment."

"That's fine," Marcus answered. "Thank you, Robert. I know we all appreciate it."

"I know. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight." He left them.

"One thing about it, he takes care of his teams," Marcus smiled.