A Birth day

Aria hear Angus and nodded " okay" she said as she smiled seeing Tara, Faith and Evie clear the table while she and Ruby cleaned up the babies and placed them into the play pen both looking slightly sleepy. Aria looked at Ruby who nodded "okay off to bed the pair of you" she said picking up a sleepy Caprice. " e'll put the girls to bed" she said as Aria held Amari who lay over her shoulder almost asleep.

Ruby and Aria carried the babies up the stairs to the nursery. Laying them down they fella sleep ass their hes touched the pillow , Ruby covered Caprice and gently kissed her cheek before walking over and repeating the action with Mari before they both headed down to the living room leaving the nursery door slightly open. " there both sleeping now." Aria said smiling a she cleaned up the play pen for the next day then say down.

Tara made a pot of the almond tea while she and the girls did the dishes. Marcus took a cup of tea out for Angus and a tiny one for Minos. Minos seemed elated. He had gotten quite fond of the almond tea during their time living in the house. 

It was right about then that Robert arrived to check on Poppy and Simone. Robert asked for some privacy while he saw to Poppy, unless Marcus wanted to come. Marcus went downstairs with Marcus but not before he looked at Aria.

"Angus is with Minos, and they're having a little tea. I do believe Minos would set anyone on fire who thought they could mess with Angus, but do cast a glance out every now and then while I'm downstairs, won't you?" he asked her. He turned and followed Robert downstairs.

"Edward," Evan said, "you'll do what you want. You always do, but, personally, I think you owe Angus a huge apology. Even if you were right and he needed to marry, forcing him into it in your timing was just profoundly wrong. That was something that should have been left private between him and Ruby..."

"With all due respects," Edward began.

"No," Evan interrupted. "Screw the money. You always said Angus was far more important than the money..."

"He is," Edward frowned.

"Well, you had a crappy way to show it. What you showed him was that money trumped Angus by doing that. At least do the right thing now and apologize so you two can get past it. Step up and do the right damned thing," Evan said.

"I've told him the same thing--endlessly," Simone said.

"I'll think about it," Edward sighed.

"That is far better than what he's said to me," Simone said. "Thank you, Evan."


"Its time to mend fences," Evan said. "So lets do the job of healing the family. So start with your grandson."

"I said i'll think about it," Edward said.

The girls finished the dishes and asked Tara about a nighttime swim in the big pool. Tara nodded, so all four girls changed into their swim suits and then invited Tara and Ruby and Aria to go along.

Aria listened to Marcus and nodded " I'll do just that" she said smiling to him " give Poppy a hug from me too" she said smiling to him. as she saw him head downstairs to Poppy with Robert. After a while she picked up the necklace and walked to the door . Opening the door she stepped out and smiled to Minos " hey Minos" she said and moved to sit with Angus. She heard him talking to Minos as a young Fae flew up and looked at her placing her hand on Arias.

Inside Ruby heard the girls ask if she wanted to go night swimming but shook her had " some one needs to stay with in ear shot of the babies , but you go" she said smiling to them all " go and have fun" she said watching them all head to the pool.

Minos made a sign at Aria when she told the girls she couldn't go with them. it made Angus laugh.

"Minos says," Angus translated, "if you want to swim with the girls, he promises that the first nutbag that comes within a human sized mile of me while he and his people are on duty, he will only reduce them to ash enough that you would get the satisfaction of sweeping up the dust smudge that was left, if you like. And, no, nutbag was not my word. That was his word."

Marcus came upstairs, and Robert was continuing to reassure him that all was going very well indeed. He left Marcus then to go see to Simone over on Edward's side.

Marcus poured himself a mug of tea.

"You look stressed," Evan said to Marcus.

"She's still having discomfort even with the pain potion we gave her," Marcus said. "He added a pain relief spell, and he's going to check Angus' bottles of pain potion because he believes that Angus has a few different strengths. If Angus has the right strength on hand, he will let her use that. Otherwise he's going to have to brew some for her. It's a dad thing for me, I think. She's the tiniest of my kids, and she's the one who was gored by something that is roughly the size of an elephant. Right now, I'd like to have at the headmaster to ask him what the hell he was thinking by letting kids around something that vicious."

"Can't blame you a bit," Evan said.

Aria chuckled and shook her head " thank you Minos but In good " she said smiling to him , seeing Marcus return from seeing to Poppy she smiled and stood up placing the necklace in her pocket. I should go in side" she said and walked to the back door seeing the look on Marcus face and hearing what he had said she sighed wishing she could do something for her.

It was now she remembered what her mother use to do for her when ever she was laid up in bed. walking over to the book shelf she found a book on Fae's. heading down to the girls room she gently knocked on the door and poked her head around the door " hey poppy" she said softly a she saw her awake in the bed. " thought we could look at a book together, hope you don't mind?" shea sked moving to sit next to her on the bed as she showed her the book on Fae.

"That would be fine," Poppy said. "Dad's not gonna be happy. I suppose it was my own fault, actually. There's a new kid there, in Slytherin. He's bigger than me. I don't like him but he's a bully. I don't know his name but he gives me the creeps. He wears this really creepy necklace. Its a skull with an even creepier looking tophat on. I think he might be a third year or fourth. One or the other. But he's a complete pillock. He brought these cookies to transfigurations class, and everyone tried one. But almost everyone ended up in the infirmary because he'd spiked these cookies with some sort of hot pepper sauce that he said he brought from home. I heard him tell some other Slytherin he's a K-Jump. Whatever that is. 

"Anyway, he was picking on me, and I was trying to ignore him so I didn't get in trouble. And he was really mad because I was ignoring him. So he was chucking rocks at the graphorn, and the thing got mad and ran at me. I didn't have anything to do with it--but maybe I shouldn't have ignored this kid and maybe he'd have not thrown the rocks at the graphorn. So, maybe it was my fault."

Aria sat and listened to Poppy talking about what had happed when she said Kjump she frowned and then smiled to her " you mean Cajun, like me?" she asked but let her continue " hum, Slytherins are always trouble, that's why there house is full of dark wizards but you shouldn't let him bully you, talk you your head of house or head person" she said softly a she turned a page and smiled " hey look that's Minos" she said chuckling " with more fangs than fae dust" she chuckled. She had heard what Poppy had said about the boys description and kept her cool staying with Poppy until she knew she was sleeping again. Laying her head down off her shoulder where Poppy had fallen asleep she closed the book and left it on the night stand.

Walking up she headed to Marcus " I need to talk to you" she said softly to him " I was talking to poppy and she opened up to me about what had happened, a slithering boy, Cajun, with a necklace She discribed it having beads, These beaded necklaces are ritually prepared and ceremonially given to devotees. Each color combination represents a different Orisha of the Yoruba " she said " he's a practitioner of Voodoo and is bulling her." she told him.

"Angus told me it wasn't over," Marcus told Aria very quietly. "It appears he was right, and there are some new tricks this time. I'll tell him, but I need to tell Robert too. I don't think we can rule out that somehow Priscilla is still involved. Not sure how, but they've struck out at my daughter. Now they're messing with me. I promise you whoever is behind this, they will regret it. When you get a chance, tell me what you know, and I'll write the school or go see them and see what they tell me."

When Robert finished with Simone, Angus and Minos followed Robert out the door out to the front yard. They walked over to the pond and sat down on the bank, with Minos sitting on Angus's shoulder.

"What did you find in Switzerland, Robert?" Angus asked.

"She's still there," Robert said. "I even used Veritaserum on her, which Jeffrey was livid about. But--she told me she is honestly Suzanne. And it isn't possible to lie under Veritaserum."

"So what about the voodoo symbols? And the dreams I've had about multiple Suzannes..."

"Well, I've actually gone to Paris too, and I've used the same technique on Priscilla and Dominic. It seems they are who they say they are too...."

"That's impossible," Angus was frustrated.

"No, now, it is possible, but it only makes the situation more complicated. If it is some of Priscilla's followers with polyjuice. It is absolutely possible. But, if that's the case, then we/re not further ahead because we won't know who we can trust and who we can't."

"Why is it that when I talk to you, you have a way of making things sound more dire than they did before?" Angus frowned.

"Because its part of my job."

"And so what are we going to do so Marcus and Aria don't have to live with me forever?" Angus asked. Minos began making gestures at Robert, and Robert appeared to be listening. Minos was volunteering the Fae to guard Angus and the duplex on the night shift.

"That might actually work," Robert said. "I was going to see if perhaps Aria wanted to take part of the day and Marcus a second part of the day, but I hadn't come to a solution yet for the overnights. I do know Marcus could be to you in a few seconds if something came up. That might work for now, Minos. Thank you. I will talk to Aria and Marcus, but I will do that on my own because I really dont want them to feel that they have to say yes or no simply because they're in the same room you are. I'd rather them feel they have the ability to agree or disagree."

"Fair enough," Angus said.

"Why dont you ask them to step out for a minute so I can talk to them. And please do me the favor of not letting on one way or another. That will defeat me talking to them in private."

"Understood," Angus said, as Minos flew over to sit on Robert's shoulder, wanting to be there to confirm for Marcus and Aria that his people were able to take a shift. 

Angus went back inside.

"Robert is almost done here for the night, but he'd like to talk to you both," Angus told Aria and Marcus. "He's out at the pond."

Aria listened to Marcus and nodded " agreed and now they are going after our kids" she said looking at him " I think of her as my daughter just as much as you do, this should not have happened today but we did get some new info " she said her arms folded across her chest . " I was reading her a book on the Fae when she told me about the boy" she said hoping that was a good sign for poppy to open up that quick to her.

Ruby smiled to Tara as she spoke" you didn't have to clean up, and we do have a dish washer" she chuckled opening it to show them. " now we relax for the rest of the night now the girls have gone swimming" she said to Tara then smiled " enjoy the quiet." she said softly a she picked up her book and began to read.

"I am glad for new information," Marcus said. "Poppy's not been significantly hurt or sick before, so I'm sure this rattled her, and I know Robert's having to come up with stronger pain potion. That's a big wound on someone as small as she is. But, let's go see what Robert wants." He gestured for her to come along, and he went outside and went over to the pond.

"You wanted to see us?" Marcus asked.

"Yes. Thanks," Robert said. "I know you've been working on your house for months, and we didn't give you permission to move it here only to tell you that you could never move in. So, here's my suggestion, at least for the time being. I think, since you both have had some training, I'd like to see you split your time. If Aria takes a shift, and I presume it would be first or second, and then you take a shift, Marcus, Minos has said he and his people could take the overnight shift. I have considered asking Jessie and Yu if they're interested in taking a couple days a week--for your days' off, whenever we would schedule those. Hopefully Angus isn't going to need a bodyguard forever, but, it might be a schedule that would get us through. And, I know Angus would like to get back to working some of his time in his office at the main house. If that's the case, since the main house has never been breeched, he might be safe enough there with all of us that are always around there. I think it could be worth a try. You would both have the overnights off and a couple days a week. At least for the time being. And there's nothing saying that you can't be together at Angus's or that Angus couldnt be at your place if you want some evenings together, so long as you're focused on the job I'm paying you for. I haven't talked to Jessie or Yu yet because I wanted to talk to you first."

"I think that's a very generous offer, Robert," Marcus said.

"I like my team the way it is, so its to everyone's benefit if I find a way to make it work. You two should give it some thought and then get back with me. Fair?"

"Sounds fair to me," Marcus said. He looked at Aria. "What do you think?"