A Birth day

"Okay. Let's be safe instead of sorry," Marcus said. He opened the floo.

"What's up, Kid?" Michael asked.

"I think this place was breeched at some point across the weekend when we weren't here," Marcus said. There's a new figurine tucked in a desk drawer here, and it doesn't belong to any of us. We haven't seen it before. We all know I'm not a seer, but this thing has bad juju written all over it."

"Well, for Merlin's sake, don't touch it," Robert said in the background.

"Wanna go see some bad juju, Robert?" Michael asked.

"Why not? I was only going to go to bed anyway," Robert teased.

"We'll be straight over," Michael said, closing the floo. It wasn't more than about two minutes when Michael and Robert arrived, and Michael had a backpack with him.

"Desk drawer you said?" Michael said.

"Yeah. Over here," Marcus took them to the drawer. Michael took a magnifying glass out of his pack and looked at it and curled up his lip in disgust. He took out a little glass bottle that had an eyedropper in it and dropped a few drops of the clear liquid onto the stones. The stones hissed and started to show little tiny glowing runes in bright florescent, ugly green.

"You're right. That's oozing with bad juju," Michael said.

"You develop seer's energies, Michael?" Robert asked.

"No. The stones themselves. The shape of them is pretty telling that they were carved with a dark arts intent right in them from the very start. And that green business? Someone's put teesy weensy dark runes in those stones. It might take me some time to translate them, but I don't think that's a cookie recipe."

"Can you remove it safely?" Robert asked.

"We'll find out," Michael said. He got out a jar that looked very similar to one of Robert's bug jars, except these had a strange looking lid. Angus frowned, not having seen one of those before.

"That's a containment jar," Marcus said.

"Yes, and it doesn't exist," Michael said, looking at everyone in the room. "Got it? Not even Lucian has been told about these jars."

"Some toys are on a need-to-know basis, and Lucian has not had a need to know," Robert said. "Especially since Michael is the only one authorized to remove certain dark items anyway."

"That's because I'm older than dirt, and at my age, I'm expendable," Michael said dryly.

"I'd like to refute that, but I can't," Robert said. "Our new useless minister believes that people over 60 are well past their prime and should resign or retire. And if they won't, then they're being moved into extremely dangerous assignments so that they'll be weeded out in short order. Or that's the minister's hope anyway. He's a complete moron, in my opinion. Can I help you, Michael?"

"Nope. Don't want you near it," Michael said. He drew a long pair of forceps out of his bag, picked up the figurine, chucked it into the jar and then took another bottle of potions and poured it into to the jar, submerging the figurine into a cloudy solution that soon turned clear. When it turned clear, Michael put the lid on the jar and cast a nonverbal spell over the jar.

"What'd you want in that drawer?"

"My colored pencils," Angus said.

"Can't let you use anything out of that drawer tonight until I can get a seer to make sure its clear," Michael said.

"Iya went to bed, but I can have her here first thing in the morning," Robert said.

"I bet one of your kids have colored pencils you could borrow tonight," Marcus said. "We just need to ask them.

"Go through the rest of the house, every shelf, every drawer. Make sure you don't find anything else that none of you own. I suspect this will be it, though," Michael said. "If you find anything more, you let me know immediately, and in the meantime we'll try to get these runes translated. I think you'll be safe enough tonight so long as you don't find any more surprises. It's a good thing you let us know so quickly. Well done."

"None of you were here for a few days," Robert said, watching Michael take the bag that Ruby handed him. "like most of the rest of us weren't either. We were in Tuscany, remember? What if that whole shipwreck was a hastily planned distraction to draw most of us off the grounds to Tuscany so that they had full access to this house?"

"I need to wake up Edward and warn him at once," Angus paled, trying to get up. Robert went to him quickly and eased him back.

"I'll go," Marcus said to Angus calmly. He turned to go wake up Edward to warn him.

"Let Marcus do it," Robert said. "I'll try to get you up tomorrow to see how well you're doing, but I don't want you trying it on your own until you're ready. I am not in the mood to have to re-stitch you a third time. Besides, you can't afford to lose any more blood."

"We need to go through any of the girls' things that they're taking back to Evan's in the morning before they leave for Evan's at the crack of moonlight tomorrow," Angus said, now firmly thinking about the kids.

"Make sure you check their things completely, Aria," Robert told her. "Check the linings of their bags, and any other out of the way little nook or cranny. And don't feel first. Look first. Try to avoid touching anything new."

Michael took a fresh pair of forceps out of his bag. These were still sealed in a plastic bag.

"These are clean," Michael said, laying them on the desk. "If you find something, you might be alright to put it temporarily in any empty jar with a lid, if you dont touch it, if you absolutely have to remove something before I can get there, but I'd rather you call me. Dont worry about the time. Just send for me."

"I'll send Pip over," Robert said. "Besides, he likes you lot. He told Kate you lot never make him feel like he's too little to be useful, and he rather likes that. Can't blame him. Anyway, he can stay with you tonight until we can get back over in the morning. If you need to send for Michael, just send Pip with a note."

"This has to be Priscilla's doing," Angus said.

"Well, much as I'm tempted to agree with you," Robert said. "We don't know that as fact yet. Maybe Iya can confirm that tomorrow. I'll try to have her over before you take the kids to Evan just in case there's something we need to get to the bottom of before they go."

"Thank you," Angus said, feeling tense, feeling like he didn't dare waste time in this bed for one more moment. He was struggling hard to follow Robert's instructions, but he was ready to go get his grandmother's wand out of his drawers upstairs, get dressed, and be ready to battle. "I will get that Voodoo Creeptist." He purposely had called her a voodoo creeptist, his own made up word, as opposed to calling her a voodoo priestess, as Priscilla called herself.

"The boys already went to bed so they can be up early because of the girls' leaving again in the morning," Marcus said.

"Go root them up. Do you mind? We need to know that all the kids are safe," Angus said.

"On it," Marcus nodded. "Stay put, or I'll stick you to the mattress when I come back down." Angus frowned at him, disapproving, and Marcus frowned right back at him, as a silent reply to him that he would indeed follow through. Then Marcus turned and went to wake up the boys.

"He can actually put you in your place," Robert laughed. "Good. I knew he was a better match for you than David. Oh, and so you know, Ruby, I presume you will be going to the Valentines Ball with Angus tomorrow. I don't know why, but they decided this year the atmosphere should focus on passion."

"That means that the press will be expecting Khaat's look, in particular, to slay," Angus said.

"Oh, indeed. That was mentioned in tonight's Daily Prophet gossip column. They came right out and said that the press was waiting with baited breath to see if she could deliver a look that said passion."

"So she intends to deliver, doesn't she?"

"She has two entirely different dresses that she's debating between. She's hoping that Marcus will help her choose before the ball tomorrow night. So, Ruby, if you were ever tempted to get an evening dress to slay, tomorrow would be the night. And, Aria, if you still want to go, perhaps you might ask Lucian if he would like to be your plus-one for the evening since Marcus will be working. I still want a guard on Angus anyway."

"I don't have my plus one," Michael said. "She's tied up, so if you get nowhere with Lucian, and you don't mind being with an old fart, you could go with me."

"I need to go early to do a thorough security check of the facility," Michael told Aria. "Is that a problem for you?"

Marcus had awakened the boys, and he helped them search their room carefully. They turned up nothing, which Marcus was greatly relieved by. During the search, Marcus explained to them what they were looking for and why and what the possible dangers were. The boys became highly concerned not only for the girls but particularly for Angus. They knew all too well that all of Suzanne's attentions were still focused on Angus. It didn't make them happy, but they were still committed to doing whatever they could to help Marcus protect him.

"You both need to leave that job to me," Marcus said.

"We know, but he's our dad. Look, our real mom has always been a crook. We've known that our entire lives," Sam said. "Ruby did try to step up and take care of us, but she was pretty limited in what she could do. Angus was the first person to ever dive in deep, really deep, to take care of us and to fight Suzanne for us. Now its our turn. We need to dive in deep, just like he did, to fight for him. Vic and I have talked about this, and you're not going to change our minds."

"Look, I can't stop you," Marcus said, "but you still need to help in the right way. I won't say anything to Angus and Ruby for right now, but you take your direction from me about this. I want you two to not overstep your limits. As long as you listen to what I tell you, I think Angus and Ruby will be alright with it, but you blow it just one time, and its all off. Got me?"

"Yeah," Victor said. "Fair enough. Oh, and we're taking the girls to the ball tomorrow. They won't hear of not being there to try to help."

"They don't have evening gowns or..."

"Yeah, well, they will," Sam said.

"They haven't asked Ruby or Angus."

"No, we know."

"That is going to be nothing but trouble if you four don't ask."

"We'll think about it, okay?"

"You'd better think seriously because I don't think you've really seen just how angry Angus can be. This is not the time to push him."

"Okay, we'll consider it," Victor said. Marcus shook his head, not happy with them, and he left to go search the bathrooms while the boys headed back to bed.

"I'll go get it," Michael sighed.

"She wanted to be sure she was unlikely to get the kids by accident," Angus said quietly. "There are obvious things that belong to the babies and the boys in our bathroom. None of those things are in the bathroom you're using."

"You think Priscilla has a heart?" Marcus asked.

"No. I know better. This is purely about strategy. She's not ready to use the kids, especially if any of those things would strike Diamond. That would be overplaying her hand. She's reserving them for amping up her efforts later on," Angus replied.

"I wager you're right, Angus," Robert said. "That's what I would do, especially if I needed a little more time to muster up more confederates to fight for me if things went off the rails."

Michael came down with a smaller containment jar with another golden spider. This one was smaller, but Michael had it secure nonetheless. He came downstairs and tucked it into his bag.

"Nothing against you lot, but it's late, I'm tired, and I have to be up early," Michael said. "I'm heading to bed."

"If you find anything more, you wake me," Robert said. "Marcus, did you warn the boys?"

"I did," Marcus said. "They know to come and get me if they find anything that looks unfamiliar."

"Good man," Robert nodded. "It sounds like you're all good for one night. I'll check back with you all in the morning. Goodnight." Robert and Michael left and headed back to the main house.

"Angus," Marcus said, as he locked up the house for the night now that Robert and Michael had gone, "do you want me to wake the girls?"

"No, I dont think so," Angus said. "Let's take a chance that they'll be alright til its time for them to wake up."

"I know when their alarm goes off. I'll go down and try to catch them before they have time to get into anything," Marcus said.

"I appreciate it," Angus said.

"I think we should all get some sleep because tomorrow is going to be a very long day," Marcus said.