A Birth day

Jessie heard Sam and nodded " have at it" he said handing them to him and watching as he handed them to Angus " I think so since she dropped a book on my head" he said with a chuckle.

"didn't do any damage" Jess said and chuckled herself. When food was mentioned she smiled as Ruby marked and closed her book .

"I'm on it" she said as Aria joined her to dish up the lasagne into squares with some salad , Ruby sent over a plate to Poppy and two over to Angus, one for him and one for Jess while Aria walked over and knocked on it.

" Suppers ready , come and get some" she said smiling to them both " unless you want us to send some round for you and the babies?" she asked leaning on the door frame as she waited and watched Simone and Amari playing Amari now laughing happily.

"I'll bring some back for you," Simone told Edward. She left the babies with him and came over.

"We fed the babies just a little bit ago. They were hungry early, so we fed them a little earlier," she said. "I guess I don't feel it's always necessary to make them wait til the adults eat. If they're hungry before that, I think they should eat."

"That's entirely fine," Angus said. "Besides, those are the days when the adults can have a bit more of a relaxing meal for a change."

"Agreed," Simone said. "When the babies ate earlier, Edward put a split of champagne on ice for us to share over dessert tonight. The babies have had their baths already, and they're in their new summer pajamas, and they're playing with some lavender scented stuffies so it will help them wind down. They were awake and raring to go at 4 am today, so, personally, I honestly want them to go to sleep soon. I'd like to go to bed early myself."

"I'm sorry, Simone," Angus said, feeling for her. "You could bring them back, you know."

"And ruin our week or two with them? No. You can't have them back yet, not while we're still entitled to uninterrupted grandparent time," she scowled at him.

"Okay," he laughed. She went and fixed plates for herself and for Edward, including bowls of salad and plates of tiramisu. She floated them over to Edward.

"Thank you. This should hold us very well," she said. "We'll see you later." She went back to her side to eat supper with Edward.

By then, Ginger had Poppy's plate fixed, and she put it on a tray and floated it down to Poppy. By the time she got back, Anise had her plate fixed and Ginger's too. They took their places at the table. 

"Thank you, Ruby," Marcus said. "I think this should do us very well. Sam, Victor, jess? Go fix your plates."

"We're on it," Sam said, fixing a big bowl of salad and a plate with squares of both kinds of lasagna. Victor did the same, and they sat down with the girls at the table to eat.

Ruby listened to Edward and nodded smiling when he said he would keep the babies and not give up his grand father, grand babies time. " they tend to do that some times, and I'm betting they will fall asleep soon" she said looking at the clock and chuckled. Jessie heard that the food was ready and walke dover grabbing a plate he added some salad and sat down to eat as did Jess but she sat facing where she could see Angus if she was needed.

Aria chuckled seeing the babies with Simone " I'm glad they love their grand mother" she said seeing Caprice offer Amari her toy and pick up a second to play with. Returning to the main part of the duplex and gathered her food, taking her plate she sat down to eat. Hearing about the Champagne on ice she smiled. " enjoy it" she said with a smile she started eating the lasagne and salad.

Angus ate his salad first because of his love of Tara's antipasti salad. Then he ate what he could of his portions of lasagna. But when he had had enough, he set his plate aside. 

"You did really well," Marcus said. "All your salad, and probably 3/4 of both squares of lasagna. Well done."

"Now I'm stuffed," Angus said.

"Well, how about you and I wait on our tiramisu, and we'll have it shortly, when your lasagna settles a bit."

"That's a good idea," Angus said. He saw Ginger get up in the middle of her meal, and he was about to ask her about it until he saw her heading downstairs. She was going downstairs to see if Poppy wanted any more food or drink. She came back upstairs, got out a bowl, put a nice portion of more salad in it, and took it down to her. Only then did Ginger sit back down at her own meal.

"I appreciate all you're doing, Ginger," Marcus said.

"It's no trouble. She and I have a lot in common, and I like helping. So it works well. Besides, she said she'd do some sketches for me."

"Did you see the portrait of Minos?" Angus asked.

"We did!" Anise said. "Its incredible."

"We gave it to Minos, and he's made it his official royal portrait. He's hung it in his palace."

"Really! That's great," Sam said. "She's gonna have to pay up now."

"Pay up?" Angus asked.

"Sam and Poppy made a wager. She bet that Minos would hate it. and Sam bet that he would love it."

"So what were the stakes?"

"A chocolate frog. Nothing too terrible," Sam said. "She owes me a frog."

"Well, since she had about five of them in her bag, she has it to give you. Don't let her skirt out of it. A bet is a bet," Marcus laughed.

"Oh, she'll pay up. I'm not worried," Sam laughed.  It was just about then that Andrew arrived.

"Sorry I'm a little late," Andrew said. I found a wounded female vole today on the grounds. Actually, it was behind my cabin. So, I took it to Kate, and she and I tended to it. Kate's taken it inside the main house for tonight so she can try to make sure it makes it through the night. Otherwise I'd have been here on time."

"Well, isn't that ironic? We found a litter of five newborn voles today with no mother," Angus said.

"Kate thought this vole looked like she had just given birth. So maybe its the same mother. If not, maybe she'll nurse your litter when she recovers."

"That reminds me," Angus said. "Ginger, would you help Poppy with feeding the newborn voles?"

"Would I! Of course!" Ginger's face lit up as if Angus had given her a million dollars. 

"The formula is in the fridge. You know how to feed, so I don't need to tell you, And there are some disposable pipettes somewhere."

"Oh, I ordered a new box. They're coming tomorrow," Marcus said.

"Thank you," Angus said. Ginger bounced up to go look in the nesting box at the babies. "Finish your supper first, Ginger." 

"I'm almost done. Just a couple more bites."

"Then come back and finish. Then you can feed the babies."

"Oh, fine," she sighed, going back to the table.

Aria and Ruby smiled at how much Angus had eaten " that is good" Jess said accioing the clip board and marking it down. Ruby finished her food and took her plates into the kitchen. Ruby did the same and started to clean up the kitchen. Ruby saw Andrew arrive and smiled to him then looed at Poppy as he mentioned finding a female vole.

Jessie chuckled as he finished his food " wow that was fantastic, Tara makes a great lasagne " he said hearing tiramisu he held up his hands " like you Angus I'm stuffed" he said making Ruby chuckle.

"That's a first" she said making Jessie chuckle too as he watched her put the tiramisu in the fridge for every one should they want a piece. Aria pored herself a cup of coffee and sat down to drink it relaxing. She watched as Ginger jumped from her chair only to be told to finished her food before tending to the babies. " hes right their going no where and the formula is on the second shelf to the right, clearly marked" she said smiling.

Andrew read up on the chart and measured Angus's portion to determine how much he actually ate, charted it and then fixed himself a plate.

"I've got it, Jess. Feel free to go whenever you like. Come whenever you want in the morning. Take your time. I'm in no hurry," Andrew told her. Since Jess had things in good shape, he was free to eat some supper.

Ginger took the voles and the formula and the pipettes and went downstairs so she could help Poppy feed the babies. 

"You know, I appreciate the way Ginger is doing such a great job of taking care of Poppy, and Poppy clearly would rather not be tended by her dad. Can't say as I blame her," Marcus said.

"Are you kidding?" Sam asked him. "Ginger finally has a friend that's interested in the same things she is. They're getting on like they've known each other their whole lives. And when Faith and Evie are here, its like a regular girls' club down there. Vic and I are actually glad we have those boxes of paper to sort. Gives us something to do."

"And besides," Victor said, "I"ve learned our mum was really as classless as she looked. I found a shopping list of hers. Seems her favorite wine was some nasty muggle swill that cost a pound a bottle. And she used to fix fish and chips every Friday. They were disgusting, and now I know why. She bought the very cheapest frozen fish and chips dinners at the market, heated them in the oven and put them on plastic plates so we would think she cooked them."

"And even then she bollixed them up," Sam said. "They were just plain nasty. Vic and I tried to put the fish out once for the strays and even they wouldn't eat it."

"That sounds horrendous," Angus said.

"Thats why we said you made the best fish and chips we had."

"I really didn't have a lot of competition, did I?"

"Nope," Vic said. "We need to get back downstairs."

"I'll get your plates," Anise said, clearing the table. The boys both headed downstairs to get back to work on the boxes.  Marcus got up and made some fresh coffee, knowing it wouldn't go to waste, and then he wrote a quick note to Robert about the Highgrove clue. Robert responded with a note of his own, saying he'd be over shortly.

Jess listened to Andrew and smiled " thanks Andrew, everything is on here, hes had quite a lot to eat and hes rested " she said then after a curtesy check she nodded to Andrew " I'll leave him in your safe hands" smiling she waved to every one and headed out the door to the main house.

Ruby and Jessie both watched the girls head down and chuckled as Sam mentioned Ginger had some one she could relate too " that's a good thing for both of them" Ruby said as Aria nodded then chuckled again hearing that going threw paperwork was a good thing for the boys . This made Jessie lay his head on the table. Hearing the boys talk of how Suzzanne cooked Ruby shook her head. " I see that never changed" she said as Jessie looked up at them.

"that explains why the food got better when I left" he said " I thought it was just me, guess not." he said as Ruby chuckled and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"nope not you she really was that bad at cooking." She said " and yes Angus are the best fish and chips second to the leaky cauldron, according to Robert " she added with a chuckled as she looked to Angus.

"To come in second to the Leaky when it comes to Robert's judgment of fish and chips is exceptionally high praise," Angus laughed. "Their version is his favorite food on the planet, no doubt about it."

"Sam and Victor have said that as long as Angus is capable of making his fish and chips, they're never moving out," Anise said, sighing in frustration at thinking they'd never have a place of their own.

"Marcus," Angus said. "Get the hammer."

"What for?" Marcus asked.

"So you can hit me in the head so I can forget how to make fish and chips," Angus teased.

"Hell, no," Marcus replied. "Then you'd forget all the other things you make that the rest of us like. We'll just lock those little rugrats out of the house. That's what we'll do. We're wizards, remember? We'll hex those damned locks."

"What are we hexing?" Robert asked, coming in. 

"The locks, if the boy are serious that they're not moving out as long as Angus can make fish and chips."

"Can't blame them. Best fish and chips outside of London," Robert said. "So now, what am I looking at?" Anise handed Robert the paperwork that Jessie and the boys had found. "Hm..." Robert said.

"I thought perhaps it might be Highgrove Cemetery," Angus said.

"I think you're right," Robert said. "Or its at least good enough of an idea to put Michael onto checking it. He's done some checking on the graves of Charlotte and Gideon. It seems they're not actually buried in the plots that Gideon bought for them. When their estates were settled after their deaths, there was an estate auction, and, I must say I have never ever heard of this last bit. Their burial plots were auctioned off at that time. As the story goes, they're actually buried on some godforsaken plot of farmland in Shetland because it was on the cheap. What I don't understand is that there was more than enough money in Gideon's accounts to pay for any final obligations with a hefty sum leftover. And then, there was the money from selling off all their belongings and their house and their land and the burial plots. We're not sure where the money went, but for some reason, Suzanne never was allowed the opportunity to contest it, and I don't know why. Something there is just 100% rotten. We're still digging to see if we can come up with the answers. So far, though, the more we look the less sense it makes. I've spoken to Iya about it, and she seems to be 100% sure that all this is connected, rather like a spider's web. I don't have any reason to doubt her, but I have no proof of that either."

Ruby heard Angus and laughed " oh , no" she said then heard Robert enter and talk to Angus " oh defiantly" she said then saw him head over and take the papers Jessie and the boys had found and began talking about it and how they weren't in their own graves. " wow that's sad" Ruby said and looked to Jessie as Robert continued letting them know they might be on the right path. Hearing Robert talk about it and say it was like a spiders web she shivered " hope we don't find a black widow at the center" she said.

Aria looked at Robert and looked puzzled " hum, a paupers grave?" she said as he spoke of their estate being sold off. " worth looking into" she spoke as she ate her tiramisu from Tara at the table. She looked at them all as she finished. She looked to Robert and spoke again " Radagast went home, I hope to talk to my mother" she explained about hy he was missing " he'll be back in the morning"

"I think its far more than a black widow," Robert said. "I think what's at the center is whoever is controlling the elementals. Not sure why its connected to your bloodline but hopefully, as we go, we're going to find answers that..."

"Robert," Michael suddenly came in with papers in his hand. "Oh. Sorry. Knock, knock. Robert, you need to see this." Robert went over and read the papers. 

"What the absolute hell..." Robert frowned. "Where did you get this?"

"'In the 'I'll-tell-you-later' file," Michael replied. It was what Michael told Robert when he knew he could not reveal where he had found something unless he told only Robert. Some things were just not meant for other ears to hear.

"This is quite interesting," Robert said, looking at the rest of them. "Michael just found two distinctly different autopsy reports for Charlotte and Gideon--both. And they're drastically different from the official report that St. Mungos did and file with the Ministry. This other report has the same date, signed by the same hand, but this report says that both Charlotte and Gideon had a very serious injury to their magical systems. Neither of them would have been capable of doing magic at all. In fact, if this report is true, the damage to their magical systems would have been the cause of both their deaths. It's almost like the injury that Angus had, but no one was there to help them. And they died."

"Sounds like 2 exhumations to me," Marcus said.

"That's exactly what I'm going to try to arrange. That's going to take me a bit to do it legally, but I will do everything I can do to get it done," Robert said.