A Birth day

Edward took it upon himself because of the hour to go get the girls from Evan's. No one had seemed to remember to go get them, and since they didn't have their apparating license yet, neither girl could apparate or port yet. The boys were still working, and with Angus and Marcus out on whatever Caprice had taken them to do, the girls were apparently temporarily stuck at Evan's. Edward saw that Ruby and Aria were, of course, caught up with the babies again, so he simply went and fetched them himself and brought them home.

The girls went inside, and Simone brought the cookies over, along with four of Angus's sheet pans now washed clean. She got the ice cream out and made the ice cream sandwiches and wrapped each one up separately in cling film and stacked them nicely in the freezer. Smelling that the chicken and vegetables was now in danger of becoming overcooked, she took the supper out of the oven and carved both chickens and put the meat on a large serving platter. She put the roasted vegetables into one large serving bowl and got out plates and cutlery and set up the sideboard. She put the chicken and the vegetables on there too as the boys came in.

"Smells great. I'm starving," Sam said.

"Well, your dad and Marcus are out on something or another," Simone said, "but the chicken would have burned if we'd have left it much longer. Why don't you lot all come and eat, and I'll dice up some of this for the babies. Angus and Marcus can reheat some when they get home. Do you have homework tonight, Girls?"

"Potions quiz tomorrow," Anise sighed.

"Yeah, we're supposed to concoct the standard antidotes for common poisons tomorrow and demonstrate our abilities to make it, but so far, no one in the entire class has managed to make it correctly even the first time. We're going to flunk it, I just know it."

"Well, don't lose hope," Simone said. "After supper, if you ask, I'm sure Edward can help you get it right. He's very good at such things."

"Yes, well, he hasn't had us as potions students yet either," Anise sighed.

"There's a trick to that one," Sam said. "We had to make that one too at Hogwarts."

"What's the trick?"

"I don't remember," Sam said. The girls scowled at him, both aggravated.

"We'll ask Edward. Don't worry," Simone smiled. "Come eat, Ruby and Aria. The babies are fine for the moment.

As Angus and Marcus and Jack landed, they saw what looked very much like the same sort of cottage that Hagrid had had at Hogwarts. This one did appear to have another couple rooms or two cobbled onto it, but, overall, it looked the same. The fields looked like they were already plowed and ready for planting, and a very large thatched barn, and around it was a fenced corral. Angus was not the least bit surprised to see everything was Hagrid sized. It did look signficantly different than they had at Hogwarts, which largely was scaled to human size, but still, seeing it all at Hagrid size felt comforting to him.

"Hagrid!" Angus called as he went up the steps and knocked on the door. "Kate sent us." The door opened and the same old Hagrid was there with a bright smile.

"Look at you three. None of you has changed a bit," Hagrid said. "Well, come on in and let's see her. Pot of tea is on if you want some. Make yourselves at home. Cups are sitting over there on the hutch."

Marcus opened the bag and took out the jar with the fairy and handed it to Hagrid.

"Awe, poor little lass. She's all spent, she is," Hagrid said, taking the jar to the table and setting it there. He opened the jar, but the fairy had no ability to move. "Give me a second to see what we're looking at."

"Well, I think we should be very glad that Caprice is looking out for the wee ones," Simone said, "and that she has the ability to let someone know that Abbey was in trouble. I'm sure we'd have had more people looking for her had we known she was missing. I hope Robert is going to look after her to make sure she doesn't catch a cold from being outside so long in cold weather. It can be so harsh on someone so small. That's going to be a job, taking care of a toddler in a cast, especially someone who has as much energy and fearlessness as Abbey does. I rather expect her to want Angus to be there for her for the next few days while she' likely very ouchy about all of this. She's going to have some significant pain for a bit, and she's used to Angus taking care of her when she's not feeling well."

"Your house is great, Hagrid. Your hut at Hogwarts always felt like home to me," Angus said. "So does this."

"Well, you know you're all welcome here any time," Hagrid said, studying the fairy. He opened the other jar and studied the eggs. "Look here. See how these eggs are rather cloudy and pale and muddy looking? Not supposed to be that color. They're supposed to be clear and shiny, with opalescent colors. We should be able to see the larva. And they should be yellow. As they get close to hatching, they'll have some stripes, a little like a bee. This little lass had trouble laying her eggs. She spent nigh onto all her energy to lay her eggs. By the coloring of the eggs, and by her limp condition, I'd say she's been poisoned. Somehow she's gotten something toxic. Hard tellin' what it was though. Best do a look about where you found her. Could be anything. A reveal charm might tell you. Let's see if I can make her a wee drop of an herb tea that might pull her through. One of you might have to try to feed her. My fingers are just too big."

"I'll do it," Angus said. "Well, I'll try."

"Alright. Give me a little to brew the tea, and we'll see if she'll take it. Gotta be delicate with fairies because they're so fragile. Oh, and never, never thank a fairy. She'll think you owe her for life. Gotta be careful what you say to them. They don't speak English, but they sure do understand it."

"Here. Come give a hand, Jack. Take a stem of each of these dried herbs from these jars and five of those seed pods from the last jar," Hagrid told Jack, setting five jars down for Jack. "Put it all in my mortar and pestle and grind them up to as fine a powder as you can get. Silky like. We need it to all dissolve completely in the water because I don't have a filter fine enough to run it through to get any undissolved bits out. When you get that done, you'll need two cups of water--from one of my clean tea cups. Put it in the small saucepan and bring it to a full boil. Then we'll take it off the fire and cool it for her. While its cooling, get my honey pot from my table and add two spoons of honey to that tea mixture and stir it so that it all dissolves. When you get it to the point when its completely clear, we'll try to feed her as much of it as she'll drink. If she starts to perk up, then we're on the right track."

"What sort of thing could have poisoned her. Are they sensitive to poisonous plants?" Angus asked.

"Well, fairies are very smart about what plants are safe and what aren't. They won't touch a poisonous plant."

"Then maybe an insecticide?"

"Maybe. If its colorless and odorless and tasteless," Hagrid replied.

"Or a spell?"

"Yeah. Could be," Hagrid agreed.

"We'll do our best to find whatever it is," Angus said. "So you three all work for Remus's brother, then?"

"We do," Angus said.

"Professor Slughorn taught both those boys when they were students. Wicked smart, they both were. but Kate was top in her class in divination, and Robert couldn't be beat in potions. Remus? He and Sirius were thick as thieves and far more into adventuring. Remus could get good grades without trying. You could do a lot worse than to work for the Lupins."

"It's never boring, that's for sure," Angus said. Hagrid laughed.

"Now, that is a guarantee with that family. So tell me. Any of you married? Got bairn?"

"Lots of 'em," Marcus said. "I've got five."

"I've got six in my house right now," Angus said. "Two adopted, three who are technically fosters, and one that is biologically mine."

"What about you, Jack?" Hagrid asked.

"I bet Christmas is pure chaos with all of those," Hagrid laughed. "Sounds perfect. Really." He looked over Jack's herb tea. "Couldn't have done better myself. Did Kate send a thimble or something to feed her with?"

"Better. A teacup from a dollhouse," Angus said, getting it out, along with an eyedropper. He put a couple drops in the cup and set the cup on the table long enough to gently lift the fairy up out of the jar on the open palm of his hand. He wasn't sure she was even conscious. He stroked her hair very gently, and she managed to open her eyes for him. He showed her the tiny mug of tea, and offered it to her. He fed her some minusculely tiny sips patiently, until the cup was empty. He saw her shiver. Marcus took the piece of cotton and cut a couple pieces of it to be blanket sized for her and he layered them and covered her to keep her warm. Her little body's glowing light flickered more brightly for a moment.

"That's a good sign," Hagrid said quietly. "She likes the sweet taste. I think she knows we're trying to help her, and I think she appreciates kindness. Not every fairy does. You could try to give her a bit more tea, but I wouldn't feed her a whole second mug unless she really wants it. It's okay to give her a bit of a rest in between. Let's see how she does. I would think we would know shortly."

"Keep them warm. Not overly hot," Hagrid said. "Comfortably warm, like 22 to 27. Mother nature will do the rest. When the eggs hatch, they'll need some sort of sweet flowers to spin their cocoons on. Something that will have particularly sweet nectar when they hatch as fairies. I'd make sure you have some buttercups, milkweed, honeysuckle. If butterflies like it, fairy larva and fairies will like it too. And when they come out of their cocoons, they will very hungry. Within a day or so, they'll be ready to eat fruits and vegetables, milk, honey, sweets. And once they've fed good for a time or two, they'll be ready to look after themselves. You should be able to turn them loose somewhere so long as they're not around augeries or other creatures that will eat them."

"And what will happen to this little one here?"

"She might go with them by then if she's well enough. If she's still depending on you for food and drink, she might end up being damaged enough by the poison that she might not be able to live in the wild again. If that happens, well, she'll just need a caretaker who will be kind to her and look after her for the rest of her days, however long that is."

"I know a three year old girl who risked her life to try to rescue her tonight," Angus said. "If she had her way, she'd have me get a proper dollhouse for her and everything she needed to be happy."

"Well, let's see how it goes. She's certainly going to need looking after for a time. She'd be welcome to say here, but I'd have to try to do it with tweezers and a magnifying glass. I know about fairies but I'm way too big for the job. I can send a book with you, though. It was written years ago by a past professor of Care of Magical Creatures professor. It might be some help. Just send it back when you're done with it, if you would, please. He's got a chapter about making an improvised shelter in a terrarium. but you do as you like, as long as she's comfortable." He looked at the fairy again.

"Her light is brighter, and its more steady. I think you're on the right track. I wouldn't overwhelm her by exposing her to a big crowd of people. The same faces will do her well. Sunshine, starlight, as much nature as you can get. I think, if you're careful, you could take her home with you. Jack, there's a clean bottle up on the shelf. Pour the rest of that tea in the bottle and take it with you. I'll write the recipe down for you so you can make fresh for her. She'll need fresh every 36 hours or so because it won't keep much longer than that."

"I'm sure we can manage," Angus said. "If we can't, Robert can."

"Of that, I am sure," Hagrid replied.

"Hagrid, could I invite you to come and eat with us sometime?" Angus asked. "You'd find a lot of old friends there who would be delighted to see you."

"Are you sure? A big oaf like me?"

"A half giant who has an even bigger heart. I bet you don't get out much these days."

"Well that's true enough," Hagrid admitted. "Alright. You tell me where and when, and I'll be there."

"It's a deal," Angus smiled.

"Take her and her eggs home now, and keep them warm. Let me know how she does."

"We will. Thank you," Angus said. "We appreciate it."

"My pleasure," Hagrid said.