A Birth day

Jack and Ruby heard Marcus and nodded but Jack spoke " he hurt our hippogriff?" Jack said and sighed " then I'm glad he's in the trash and Marcus is right there might be residual black magic on it " Jack fixed a plate and sat at the counter while he saw the others take plates and sir to eat.

Ruby sat at the table and ate her plate " this is great " she said as she ate. Quietly Aria ate with her , Ruby caught movement from the pen as Caprice pulled herself to her feet " some ones hungry" she said and chuckled as she stood up and walked over to Caprice Aria did the Sam for Dimond both now hungry and ready for food and sleep. Ruby gave Caprice her food while Aria fed Dimond next to her in the high chair.

Jack finished his food and placed the plate in the sink " that was really good Angus thanks, I should get back and don't worry Sam light duties once your back in roster, okay, enjoy the break, Victor I'll see you tomorrow" he said and chuckled to both boys before he left back to the main house.

"I didn't actually see him do it, but he was in the corral. And I heard him fire his wand, so i suppose so," Angus replied.

"Well, it was Robert who told him not to carry it about with him," Marcus said. "He said Kate has learned to handle magical artifacts very little just in case they have potential to damage her, and he thinks Angus might be wise to adopt the same practice, especially while he's so new at it."

"Thanks, Jack," Angus said when Jack got ready to go home. When Sam finished his supper, Angus got out some ice packs and a dose of pain potion, and he took Sam upstairs and tucked him into bed with ice packs on his chest, a dose of pain potion, and one of his favorite books. Then Angus left him to rest and came back downstairs.

"I'll give him ten minutes tops," Angus said. "He thinks he's going to read, but he clearly isn't used to pain potion."

"I'll give him five," Marcus laughed. Ginger and Anise came back about five minutes after that. Angus was surprised that Dennis wasn't with them.

"I figured your dad would come back with you," Angus said

"He appreciates the offer but they ate early tonight. Two of the men got an odd job last week helping an old man on the other side of the village. He has a farm, apparently, and sells a lot of fresh eggs and fresh chickens. Apparently, though, he had a fire a month ago and lost his barn and his chicken coops. He has to start all over. Two from our pack met him in the village, and they heard about his hard luck, so they went and cleared away the rubble from the fire. He was so grateful he paid them by giving them eight chickens from his freezer, so the women fixed them for the pack tonight," Anise replied.

"That's Old Man McGregor's place," Angus said surprised. "He barely scrapes by as it is. He doesn't have money to rebuild and to buy new chickens and start over."

"The pair from our pack offered to help him rebuild, but he wouldn't hear of it," Ginger said. "Or at least that's what Dad said."

"McGregor is a squib and a darned good farmer, and he has a lot of pride. He won't take charity."

"So what are you planning?" Marcus asked. "I know you."

"I'm gonna make sure he gets a new barn, a new coop, and new chickens," Angus said. "I'm gonna cut him a deal. I'll go see him first thing in the morning and talk to him."

"What makes you think he'll listen to you?"

"He likes me," Angus grinned. "And he likes my cinnamon rolls. I'll take him a few so he can have a fresh one and put a few in his freezer. That'll loosen him up."

Ruby listened as Angus took Sam upstairs to his room to rest then returned " I wouldn't give him even that , two tops" she said and chuckled. Jack nodded and waved as he headed back to the main house.

Ruby heard mention from Anise as they returned about Old Man McGregor's place and sighed shaking her head " did he say how it happened?" she asked then listened to Angus and nodded " I agree with that" she said " I think there are still some left from this afternoon in the fridge you could take" she said thinking if there was. Aria stood up and looked in the fridge.

" there's three left" she said and Ruby looked to Angus again.

"might need to make some." she said and smiled

"If you do that, I'll go do a fly over after dark to see what the barn and the coops look like," Angus said. "That'll give me an idea about what sort of a job it'll be and how much buttering up I'm going to have to do to get him to let me help. McGregor is used to getting up before light in the mornings because of all those years taking care of chickens, so I'll need to have those rolls to him before light."

"Ginger, you and Anise need to go tuck into some supper," Marcus said. "There's plenty, and its still hot. You'll both like it."

"Good. We're starving," Anise said. They fixed their plates and sat down to eat. While they ate, Victor came downstairs and told them about Sam. Anise was quiet about it, but Victor told her that Sam was asleep. Anise wasn't going to wake him up.

"I should have known," Anise finally sighed.

"Why?"

"I kept dreaming about that dude. Him and his green hair," she said, frustrated. "Every time I saw him, he gave me the creeps and then I'd dream about him."

"Well, he's gone for good," Angus said.

"Your dad here beat the snot out of him, and Jack and Jessie got rid of him," Marcus said.

"Good. Did you get a good lick in for me?" she asked.

"At least a couple of 'em," Angus smiled. "And you might have been right to be wary of him. I found one of Priscilla's medallions on him."

"So that's what it was!" She said. "I knew he gave he the creeps for some reason. That explains it. It was that dark arts crap. When did he leave?"

"Oh, maybe an hour or so ago. Why?"

"Because I felt the same shiver when I got back here to the house just a few minutes ago," she said.

"Your dad brought the medallion back. I put it away. Maybe you're picking up on its energies," Marcus said.

"That thing is in this house?" Anise frowned.

"Yeah, why?"

"Get rid of it tomorrow. Don't leave it here any longer than that," she told him. "It's got loads of bad juju."

"Is that a technical term?" Angus grinned.

"You know what I mean. Don't let it stay here more than overnight. It has to go."

Ruby heard Angus and nodded " I'll have a dozen made for morning don't worry" she said and walked into the kitchen and began to prepare the dough for the rolls. Ruby chuckled and nodded as she heard him mention to Ginger and Anise to get some food to eat while it was hot still. She also nodded when Victor mentioned Sam was sleeping and smiled " good he needs the rest." she said .

Both women listened as Angus told the girls about what he and Marcus had found and how Jack and Jessie had taken him away dumping him in a dumpster battered and bruised. " I believe Jack got a hit in too before he was dumped, physically in a dumpster but I agree let Robert get rid of it in the morning."

"Can I come with you to do a fly over?" Anise asked. "I need the broom practice."

"She does. She sucks at broom riding," Ginger laughed. "She's horrible at it."

"If you stay right with me," Angus told her.

"We'll put her in between us, close enough that we can help her if she gets into trouble," Marcus said.

"My broom is at Evan's though," she said.

"I have a couple. You can borrow one of mine," Angus said. "Finish eating and then we'll go."

When the girls had finished eating, Angus got out two of his brooms and Marcus's. He gave one of the brooms to Anise. "You'll need your jacket. Night flying this time of year is cold." He got his black duster out and his black hat, and Marcus got out a black leather jacket. Anise followed suit and got her own black leather jacket out.

"We won't be done long, Ru," Angus told her. "It's not that far. I'm sure he's in bed by now. He's always in bed by eight. Let's go." He and Marcus and Anise headed out to fly over McGregor's farm in the moonlight.

"You need help either with cleaning the kitchen or making the cinnamon rolls?" Ginger asked Ruby.

Ruby looked up as Angus spoke " okay dear , fly safly" she said with a smirk then as they left she ehard Ginger " oh that would be lovley" she said " the recipe's right there, Angus wrote it himself" she said and showed it to her. " just follow each step and you'll do great, I'll do six and with you here we can get the dozen knocked out before then get back" she said smiling to her.

Aria chuckled and smiled pulling faces at the babies now sat in their play pen happily giggling and chatting between them selves. Aria sat with her open book out reading about Manticore's and how a Manticore's skin repelled all known charms and it was extremely difficult to subdue a Manticore with magi but it was possible to take down a Manticore by dropping something large and heavy on top of it.

Angus and Marcus saw Anise really did need work on flying. She couldn't keep her broom level. And that had a tendency to send her all over the place. The more trouble she had, the more she was afraid of it. And the more afraid she was, the more trouble she had. Angus and Marcus both had to reach out to steady her broom frequently.

They flew over the farm, and all Angus saw was scorched earth where the barn and the coops used to be. There was a large pile of rubble that had been cleared away. It was waiting to be hauled off. Angus and Marcus saw there was also some fire damage to the house too. The back of the house where McGregor's bedroom had been, along with some other room, had been burned away.

The old man needed a hand, and Angus was going to make sure it happened. They flew back to the estate, and Marcus helped Anise narrowly avert a crisis in landing her broom. Frustrated, she came back in silently and put the broom in the closet and hurried downstairs.

'That never goes well," Ginger told Ruby. "I keep thinking that at some point it's going to click with her, and she'll be able to do it without any trouble, but that hasn't happened yet."

"I'll keep working with her," Angus said. "She'll get it. As for McGregor, I'm going to have to work with him too. Part of his house is even gone. Not sure how he's managing to live there. He needs more help than we thought."

Ruby put her three into the oven to cook when she heard Angus return and saw Anise head silently to her room " maybe she's over thinking it, that sometimes can cause problems flying I know it did with me" she said as she looked at the rolls that Ginger had made. " those look good Ginger." she said as she listened to Angus explain about the McGregor farm.

Aria looked up and listened too " sounds bad, maybe Jack can help send over some men to help fix up the house, but mention that he's a squib so no magic, with Jack being as big as he is he should be able to hall heavy stuff around" she said marking her page and closing her book again as she handed Dimond a toy to play with.

"Well, now, remember," Marcus said. "He knows about magic. He just can't do it. He's not a muggle, after all. And as far as Anise goes, I think she gets afraid and then that anxiety makes her flub it up. And then the flubs make her even more anxious. So it creates a cycle for her that she can't seem to break free of."

"I'll talk to Edward in the morning about McGregor," Angus said. "He sometimes has a way of handling curmudgeons like McGregor."

"Then we should take him along, by all means," Marcus said. "We'll talk to Jack before we go and then we'll update him when we get back."

"Well, we need to hire a few more crew members. We're coming into our own busy season here, and I don't want to take away mem from our crew because if I do, we won't get our things done."

"Well, you know, if we could get a big enough crew together, we could do an old fashioned barn raising. With a big crew, we could cut the time back quite a lot. Muggle Amish communities can get the job done in a week to ten days if they're organized. As wizards, you would surely think we could cut it back to three or four days if we had a big enough crew," Marcus said.

"Now that is an excellent idea," Angus said. "Let's invite Robert and Jack and Edward to breakfast bright and early and talk to them before we go to McGregor's. I'll make a hashbrown casserole, and maybe a couple quiches and a fruit salad. With Ruby's cinnamon rolls, they'll have a good breakfast and that'll be sure to put everyone in a decent mood."

"A little buttering up can't hurt, right?" Marcus laughed.

"Exactly."

"Well, then, I need to get into the kitchen. I have a lot of cooking to do."

"I'd help but that would be a bad idea," Marcus laughed. "Still, I could send a couple notes, one to Robert and one to Jack, inviting them to breakfast, maybe at 7 am?"

"Perfect," Angus said. "We'll have to have the girls to Evan's before that anyway."