A Birth day

It wasn't more than a couple minutes before Angus came back downstairs with an empty dish that he put in the sink.

"Well, that must have done the trick because I don't hear anything now," Simone told him.

"Yeah, I think she was hungry," Angus said. "I fed her. and she went back to sleep. I actually thought perhaps she might want to come back down for a bit, but no. She simply laid back down and went back to sleep. So I left her there."

"That's for the best, then," Edward said. "Your cake is delicious, Angus. I don't think I've had this since Rosaria's birthday last August."

"She made her own birthday cake?" Angus asked.

"Well, you know how she is. She wanted it done right, so she made it herself," Edward laughed.

"Well, remind me this year, and I'll make it for her this year."

"That would be nice. She'd appreciate that," Edward said, as Angus sat down with his slice of cake and a cup of Italian roast coffee.

Ruby saw Angus return and smiled when he said she went to sleep after eating " that's good, sometimes sleep helps when your not well" she said as she finished her cake and took the plate to the sink to be washed. Walking back she smiled and sat down she didn't want to bring up what Edward and her had talked about " Dimond's been good and quiet" she said smiling as Dimond held up a doll she had and giggled.

Aria chuckled and nodded as she listened to them talking " this would be good as a buffet cake" she said looking to Edward then over to Marcus as she finished her piece of cake. Now done she stood up and walked to the kitchen " you know the pond by our cottage would make a wonderful place to have a ceremony" she said casually as she placed her plate in the sink.

Ruby looked up at Aria " it is a beautiful spot" she said " not fancy , but naturally beautiful." she tried not to sound forced.

Edward took his dishes out to the kitchen and heard Aria talking to Ruby about the idea of having a wedding by the pond. He didn't say a word because he knew he wasn't planning on trying to encourage Angus and Ruby into a more formalized ceremony. 

Marcus got up from the table, and he headed to the door to let Finn out. 

"I'll take him with me," Edward said to Marcus. "I think I'm going to go for a short walk. It's a nice evening for it."

"I'll go with you if we aren't gone for long," Marcus said.

"By all means," Edward said. "I doubt we'll be gone fore more than about 20 minutes." He headed outside, whistling for Finn, and Marcus went with him. Angus was glad that Marcus could enjoy just a few minutes of freedom without fear that Suzanne was going to do something stupid in the meantime.

Ruby left the kitchen and sat back down next to the play pen with Dimond happily playing in it and picked up her book to start reading it again. Aria walked out and sat with her word search. Aria saw Marcus talk to Edward and head out for a walk.

She looked at them knowing she would stay with Angus while Marcus was gone. Opening her book she started to finish her wordsearch then moved to another page while keeping her eyes on Angus while he said. " So now what?" she asked " I mean breakfast menu, just so I can make a start on prep for the morning?" she asked

"I don't know," Angus said honestly, picking up the evening paper. "I hadn't thought about that yet since we just finished supper. I don't think it's always necessary to have a huge breakfast, but I know that's what people have come to expect. Maybe I'll make an all-in-one sort of egg casserole. Those are best done the night before so they can set up in the fridge all night and just be baked off in the morning. those can be done, with some sheet pans of toast and just be done with. I think there's some fruit salad still in the fridge that needs to be eaten so maybe that'll be enough. 

He opened the paper and saw that the Daily Prophet had found Robert at the ministry that morning and had asked him about the incident with the reporters and photographers at Angus's. Robert had made it crystal clear that he was not happy with the security breech that Rita and her companions had caused by intruding onto the Quinn estate. He also made it clear that the death of Benjamin and Eileen Donohue had happened in Italy where they both had citizenship, and that it had been fully investigated by the Italian ministry of magic and had determined it to be a rightful case of self defense by Edward Donohue in his own home when Benjamin and Eileen had transformed into werewolves and had gone after other family members. Robert clarified he had been at Edward's that night had had witnessed it and had seen for himself that Angus had had nothing to do with his parents' deaths. Nor did he appreciate Rita Skeeter yet again trying to invent scandal where there was one, and he had actually called for an end to "shoddy, fictional storytelling by talentless reporters like Skeeter."  

Angus's eyes scanned on down the page to the weather and saw that the weather early in the morning was to be clear but by mid morning, strong storms were supposed to move in. 

"Looks like we should baton down the hatches tonight," Angus said. "Supposed to get some really strong storms tomorrow starting by the middle of the morning. The paper says the weather will be clear until about 10 or 11 am or so. I should warn the Fae so they don't take much damage. If it looks like it will be too bad, we could invite them inside for their own safety."

aria listened to Angus and nodded her head " I can do that once Marcus get back from his walk" she said listening to him and reading the front page as he read. " I'm guessing Rita made something up because she can't find an honest story?" she asked as Ruby looked up at Angus.

"what makes you say that?" she asked knowing Angus was probably right about the bad weather. " she looked at the darkening skies and sighed and nodded " I'll lock our windows tonight" she said as Aria stood up to stretch.

"I'll head over to the cottage once Marcus is back and let the people know to make sure to lock up thoroughly when they leave" she said knowing she would most likely double check herself it was locked up tight."

"Rita does that because that's just Rita," Angus said. "And also because Xenophilius Lovegood just honestly doesn't care what the content is of the Quibbler. He thinks people will read any sort of trashy gossip rag. A trashy woman working for a trashy rag by a man who believes trash sells. The harassment she used to do of Harry Potter back when Harry was in school was something that I never understood. I will never understand why Dumbledore and McGonagall let her get away with it. I never actually met Lily, but the Lily that is in the portrait of the headquarters office would have ripped Skeeter to shreds. And, if that were my son that she had gone after, I'd have likely done the same thing--or worse. Oh, well." he sighed, setting the paper aside. "I guess I'll go talk to Minos about the weather. I'll be right back." 


He went outside and talked to Minos for a few minutes and then came back inside. 

"Minos says they're good," Angus said. "He says he can weave some protection spells around the garden to keep them protected. He did warn me, though, that he's starting to get some information that suggests that there might be some other Fae that aren't very far away who might be up to no good. He wants us to be sure that we don't automatically think that all Fae are good Fae. I think he'll do his best to shield us from that because he knows we wouldn't have any way to tell the difference. I think he thinks they may be searching for Minos' lost gold. The sooner we help him find it, the safer Minos and his little flock will be. I'll try to get with him tomorrow after the rain about the map and see if we can't refine that a bit and maybe get a direction on where we should be searching. I don't want him or his people to be at risk, so the sooner we get that resolved, the sooner they'll be safe."

As he was speaking he heard the kids outside getting excited about something. He went to look, and it made him laugh. They'd found his copy of a muggle game called Twister. They were playing it outside on the grass, getting all tangled up, and laughing hysterically. He was glad to see them having a good time.

"I have no idea where they found that, but they're having a good time," Angus said.

Ruby and Aria listened to Angus Aria following Angus to the back door but staying at it while he spoke to Minos. Hearing him talk of Minos's fear she nodded " we'd better let the kids know about the other fae" Ruby said as she listened to Angus talk " oh defiantly, it needs to be found" she said then she too walked over to the back door hearing the kids laughing as they played twister " oh wow, looks like fun" she aid and chuckled as Anise fell when she had to put her hand on a green dot.

Aria chuckled and watched them playing " it does seem like fun, if a bit twisty" she said and chuckled at her words. She stepped out slightly and saw Victor with his foot on a red dot some what unbalanced but said nothing as she had a feeling one wrong move and he would be o his back.

"It can be a lot of fun," Angus said. "My friends and I used to like that game a lot. We used to play it in the summertime after a few too many beers. I'm not recommending that, though. Not necessarily. One of my friends borrowed my game to take to a wedding one summer, and he woke up in the morning in bed with a girl he didn't recognize, and she ended up pregnant with his triplets. He said they never did actually find their clothes. She never did get a chance to finish school. Being pregnant at Hogwarts just wasn't done back then. She had to drop out, and with triplets, she never got a chance to return. As for my friend, he did try to do the right thing, but they got along a lot like oil and water. He still does send her some cash every month, but they largely don't speak. He gets to see the kids every other weekend and in the summers, but I'm sure that will change when the kids are old enough to go to Hogwarts themselves."

He looked beyond the game to see Robert, Michael and Edward sitting by the pool with a couple of beers, and they appeared to be talking and laughing. 

"Its good to see Edward spending some time with Robert and Michael," Angus said. "They have a lot of the same interests. Edward and Simone bought season tickets to the London Symphony. There are a couple more major concert events for the orchestra before they take a summer break, and Edward was planning on trying to make it a nice night out by asking Robert, Kate, Michael, and Daniella for a night out with dinner and a concert. Edward and Simone like to go out after the show for dessert and coffee, but that's just their little thing. I like the symphony myself, but I haven't been there in ages."

Ruby looked at Aria " why don't you join them" she suggested " not like anythings going to happen right this minuet, and Aria can go with you" she said " or we can go over together" she said smiling while Aria picked up Dimond knowing Caprice was sleeping,

"I'll stay with her, go have some fun" she said smiling as Ruby looked to Angus. " it's been a while since we all laughed " she bounced Dimond. Ruby looked at Angus and motioned with her head .

"come on maybe I'll get you to join the game, with out the alcohol" she said teasingly to him a little as she stepped out and waited for him to join her. She watched the kids as they all tumbled to the ground making her laugh at hoe tangled they were.