A Birth day

"Calm down you two," Angus shook his head. "He just left. Why do you both always think things are going to happen instantly? I don't get it. He didn't get into a tangle with anything. Give him a minute. Where did you think he went to get empty boxes? Think. We don't normally keep a plethora of them here on the estate, and you did see he used his wand and apparated out. That meant he left the estate to go get some. So, if you were Marcus Belby, and you needed empty boxes where would you go? If I were him, I would go to Honeydukes because today is Monday. Yesterday was Sunday because we had that lovely roast dinner. A shop like Honeydukes will have fewer customers on a Monday than any other day of the week because its right after the weekend. So, Jonathan will be having his new supplies delivered from his supplier on Mondays. Another reason he went to Honeydukes is that huge commercial size lots of candy making supplies require very sturdy boxes--very handy for moving things. That means he will have plenty of great quality empty boxes out behind Honeydukes, and I think there's a 95% chance that's where Marcus went. So, since he had to go to Scotland to get them, you two might need to cool your jets for a minute or two."

"Can't fault your logic, Angus," Edward said. "But when does the main house get orders from the supplier?"

"Tuesdays," Angus said. "We got a discount for doing it Tuesday because the restaurants all want their supplies on Mondays. So, if we waited til Tuesdays, we got a discount."

"How do you keep all those details straight?" Edward asked.

"I've done this job a decade or two," Angus laughed.

It was another three of four minutes before Marcus came back. 

"Dad helped me take a number of boxes to the flat," Marcus said. "So, I think we're good to go get to work."

"See?" Angus looked at Aria and Ruby. "Told you."

Both Ruby and Aria listened to Angus and then looked at each other and laughed " you make a good point, we'll wait" she said as Ruby chuckled and moved to the couch sitting down gently she pulled caprices blanket over her gently as both toddlers napped in the pen. She watched as Edward spoke to Angus and then they all chuckled.

"means hes good at his job" Ruby said smiling siting back to wait for Marcus's return with the boxes. Aria pored a cup of coffee for herself and sent one to Edward " might as well stock up on caffeine while I wait." Aria said as she sipped her coffee then added some sugar to it.

"Shall we go?" Marcus asked. 

"I'm ready any time," Simone smiled. He offered her his arm, and then motioned to Aria and Ruby.

"And when we get done, we'll head in to the muggle section of London for a good old fashioned pub crawl," Marcus teased.

"Sounds fine to me, but Edward will be disappointed he was left out," Simone laughed, knowing Marcus was teasing.

"We won't tell them that I'm making bolognaise while they're gone," Angus told Edward. 

"Good. That'll give it time to simmer. Well, if they snooze, they lose," Edward said, getting a couple of beers and opening them and handing one to Angus. "That's their own fault."

"You won't save us any?" Marcus laughed.

"Not a drop," Edward told him. "Not since you decided to do a pub crawl without us."

"We'd better get going before they lock us out completely," Marcus teased. "We'll see you lot later."

Marcus took them to the upscale penthouse flat he had. His was a two story flat on the top floor, not the only penthouse on this rooftop, though. It had a great view of the skyline, and it was largely glass. He could look out over London on three sides of his flat.  It was a luxurious 2 bedroom affair with four baths. 2 ensuites upstairs and 2 baths downstairs. But he hated it. It was largely black and chrome. And paid for. He owned it. His job, with high notch political figures, made him live more upscale than he liked during those years. And he'd had enough champagne and caviar to last him a lifetime. What he wanted now was the sort of home that was still being decorated. The sort of place he could come into the back door with mud on his shoes and no one would mind. A place where his kids would like coming. The sort of place where beer and pizza and paper plates were just fine, and where the tuxes were tucked far away. And this just wasn't it.

"Bedrooms are at the top of the stairs," Marcus said. "Master's on the left. Master bath is ensuite. Guest room is on the right, and it's ensuite too. Kitchen is down here. It's that door over there on the right. Two baths down here. One is just there on the left. And there's another at the far end of the kitchen. Make yourselves at home."  

He picked up a box and went over to the desk, and started taking things out of the desk and off the bookshelf behind it. He came across a box that had once held printer paper for a muggle computer printer. He opened the box. There were old photos in here. The one on the top was a picture of Ana. This copy had scratches all through it, right across her face til her face was nearly obliterated. Poppy had done that. She had been so rage filled that Ana had not just left Pavel. She had left her too. the day Marcus had gotten Poppy, it had been raining cats and dogs, so he'd brought her here for the night. She'd found the picture and taken her rage out on her mother's face--right before she started sobbing. Marcus had rescued Poppy then from herself. He'd picked her up and sat her with him on the sofa. She'd curled into his chest and cried for hours before she cried herself to sleep lying against him. He'd taken her to the guest room and put her in bed there and then had gone to bed himself. And she'd been his ever since.

Aria and Ruby sent there cups to the kitchen and quickly held onto Marcus as he teased about a pub crawl both women chuckled as he ported them to his flat. Aria paused and looked around her " its..nice but its not you" she said looking at him hearing him tell them what rooms where located in the flat. She watched him pick up a box as did Ruby a she headed up to the main bedroom to gather his bathroom items from it, Aria followed him into the study and watched him for a moment before she walked over to see what he was looking at " is that Ana, poppy's mother?" she asked seeing a beautiful woman smiling up from the image. " she looks beautiful in the picture" Aria said even with the face scratched out she could tell. placing her hand over it to break his line of sight of it. She took it and put it into his box " shes a memory, Poppy's happy now and is going to have a room of her own with us" she told him a she took down some books and smiled at the titles " these are good, this ones my favorite" she said chuckling a she looked at it.

Ruby finished in the bathroom and headed to the main bedroom , opening his closet she folded and shrank his clothing into the box making sure to not crease anything. Anything that was personal which was not much she noted she placed in the box and carried it down stairs " Simone you done?" shea called out with a chuckle.

"You're right," Marcus said. "Not me at all. However, it fit the job I had at the time and the needs that went along with it. I hated this place from day one, but it was a necessity. When I got this place, every time I was here, it said to me that I was never going to have the things I really wanted and that I was going to be alone, and my kids were going to hate me and were never going to know me."

When Aria looked into Ana's scratched out face and mentioned she was beautiful, Marcus smiled.

"Ana Levski is drop dead gorgeous--on the outside," he said. "I was hurt by her too many times to ever have any sort of reason to talk to her ever again. I'd be fine with Poppy talking to her because that's her mom, but Poppy tells me that, aside from some letters and the occasional gift from her mother, she hasn't had much contact with her." He fingered through the pictures. "This is Poppy's picture of her. I put it here for safe keeping--before Poppy ruined that one too. She is a gorgeous woman. I did love her once, but she did not return the feelings. And, just so you know, I don't have those feelings anymore."  

Aria was going through his books, and he was fine with that.

"I'll take the books. Our library is painfully devoid of books. I mentioned to Kate that we had plans for a library but I didn't have many books, and Kate told me she'd like to get rid of most of the books at the farmhouse. She said she believed she could furnish a library or ten. But she knew Robert wouldn't even begin to do that. But, there are always estate sales, and, Robert and Michael know exactly where to get rare first edition books. I'm going to ask them to help us fill the shelves. Oh, and somewhere I have a muggle turntable and about a hundred muggle music albums. I don't know if they're here or at my dad's or at the storage unit. But there is a lot of classical music and jazz and, well, a lot of different kinds--if we ever find it."

Simone was packing up the kitchen. She had taken advantage of her magic abilities and had used an enchantment to pack the nonperishable cans and jars and boxes of food. She had used another enchantment to pack all Marcus's bottles of wine and other alcoholic spirts. She was packing the dishes and cups and glassware by hand, wrapping each piece in packing paper before putting them in the box.

"Not yet," she replied to Ruby. "You could come and lend a hand. I'm packing most of the dishes and glassware. Could you pack the nonessential pots and pans and kitchen linens and the cleaning supplies, if you're done upstairs? Dishes and glasses just don't pack well with magic spells. They need to be done by hand if we don't want them broken. I'm leaving a couple place settings and a skillet and a pot, in cases someone staying here does need to cook. And I'm leaving a little booze for the same reason. I used a spell to pack the food, but I already know some of it is badly outdated and needs pitched. I just am not going through that right now. If Aria ever had any concerns of whether he brought many women here, she should see these pitiful canned goods. I know I found a jar of marmalade from 2012."

Aria listened to Marcus and smiled warmly to him she looked at the picture as he spoke of Anna being beautiful on the out side and how Poppy felt about her " of course , we could make a photo album for her so it can be kept in the library , so if she wants to look at it she can and if not its still close for her" she said then heard him talk about the books and she nodded " of course we need to fill those shelves" she aid and chuckled and for now these will take pride of place" she added then heard him talk of a turntable he had stored away " oh that will look and sound good in the den " she added " you can relax to some music after work" she added knowing having a place for himself would help him to relax and she wanted that for him.

Ruby heard Simone and placed down the box she held in the hallway before heading to the kitchen and chuckling " wow quite the job" she said taking up the packing with her " hum I see your point, its very sterile" she said looking around " these pans haven't even been used" she said holding up a pan still with its sticker on the bottom of it. she heard Simone mention the cans and of Aria worrying about women in the flat she chuckled " I agree sems he used this as a crash pad nothing more" she added taking out a pack of well gone chips and tossing them into a bin bag " eww." she said and chuckled " glad he out grew that habit."

"Good idea," Marcus said. "And I want the kids to put at least a couple shelves of books that they want to read--like shelves of their 'I-Want-to-Read-This Book' books, so that when they come, they have things they want to do. And Dad told me today that Poppy and Daria have both written him and asked for a couple beginning cookbooks. I think maybe Angus would be a good person to ask for help in picking those out. There are a lot of kids' cookbooks, but I dont' want to get them anything too juvenile."


Simone finished packing a box of coffee cups, and as they were talking about the expired foods, Simone opened the refrigerator, and a horrendous smell rolled out of the fridge at her. 

"Oh my god. What died in his fridge?" Simone laughed. She looked in the fridge. "Well its not the beer. So it has to be the eggs. There's a carton of eggs in here. Let me see when they're from. Oh, lovely. They're from 2021. I think he should just get a new fridge, quite honestly. Suppose its even worth trying to clean?"

Aria chuckled and nodded to him " that's sounds great and yes Angus is the perfect man to ask about cooking books for kids" she said " but once we find one I can help in the kitchen , or Angus if hes not busy." she smiled to him.

Ruby helped clear out the old tins and paused smelling what Simone smelled " oh my gosh , what is that smell" she said and looked over at Simone " yeah , i'm surprised the eggs didn't just hatch and walk away" she said chuckling as she held her nose taking the tray and tipping them into the bag and placing the tray into the sink. " I'll wash you clear " she said and took out a pair of rubber gloves and snapped them into place on her hands " now lets begin" she said and chuckled as she began to clean out the fridge.

They made quick work of taking everything out of the fridge and throwing it away. Then Simone got hot water and dishwashing liquid and washed out every little nook and cranny of the fridge and then made a list of things she needed--with baking soda at the top of the list--lots of baking soda. 

"I'll either come back myself or send Marcus back and have him put some baking soda in this fridge to take the odor out. I've cleaned it as much as I can for now. And I'll ask Angus if he knows a spell to stop the stench that's soaked into the fridge itself. Maybe he knows how to save the fridge but if not, this odor could be here to stay, and if it is, we need to just toss the fridge and replace it," Simone told Ruby. "Don't muggles have a garbage chute of something to toss rubbish down to get rid of it? Is that what we're supposed to do with it, do you suppose?"

Marcus took a walk through the upstairs. Everything was pretty much gone, except he found Ana's toothbrush. It was still in its hiding place in his upstairs bathroom. He had no reservation in pitching it now. At one time, he had left it in case she changed her mind. Now, it was out. Gone. And he had no need to look back.

Marcus went back to the living room and started shrinking the packed boxes to put them, for now in one of the larger boxes. It made sense to him to shrink and pack and see if he could manage to get it all out in one trip.

"Is there anything else?" Marcus called to them. "Do we have all the important stuff that you can find? If so, let's get the heck out of here."

Ruby helped clean the fridge and dried them pieces to put back into it " maybe a piece of charcoal's will take the smell away , oh I heard half a lemon works to neutralize the smell too" she added then looked at the bag of rubbish close by and nodded " yep usually its out in the hall way maybe Marcus knows where it is" she said as she looked over at Marcus shrinking the boxes as Aria walked out with a box filled with books and shrunk it down to add to the rest.

" did you check every where?" Aria asked Marcus as she brought out the box of books from the office and placed it with the others. " this place is nice but.. not a home, you thinking about renting it out for now rather than selling it " she said to Marcus as she moved and picked up the bag of rubbish carrying it to a silver pull door she dropped it down the shoot and looked to Simone and Ruby " been in this kinda place before" she told them and chuckled.