A Birth day

"Thanks," Anise grinned. "It was fun, actually."

"Well, yeah," Ginger told Aria. "We bought the table and chairs that you suggested to Anise, and we're going to switch the chairs for the chairs she bought. I saw a headboard in the other room that I like, and it's really marked down, but there's no frame with it. The shopkeeper said it just attaches to a standard metal bed frame. I'm hoping that Angus knows what the heck we need to get when I tell him about it because it's sort of out of my league. But I really like the headboard."

"Ginger," Anise hurried over to her. "There's a good sized sideboard in the clearance room that looks like its the same shade of wood in that headboard. I bet you could use it as a dresser. It has lots of drawers and storage space. It's a bit nicked up, and it has a weak leg, but I bet we can maybe fix it."

"I bet if Dad can't do it, Jack could," Victor said. "If you like it, get it, and we'll use it for some thing."

Ruby and Aria both chuckled and listened to Ginger " I think there's a frame in the storage Wearhouse" Ruby said with a smile " I could ask Angus if its okay for you to use it" she heard the mention of the side board and nodded " oh that would sound perfect , and yeah I know Jack is handy with carpentry stuff according to Jess" she said and this made Aria chuckle and nod.

" yeah I have seen it when Marcus and I were getting his things from it that had been stored there" she said as she looked at some old oil lamps and smiled " these would look great in the orangery." she aid and started to speak to the stall owner . After about ten minutes of haggling she smiled and they settled on a price. Aria paid for them and handed the same card for them to be delivered to.

Ruby smiled " okay so are we about ready for dinner , I thought we could try out one of the restaurants or a fast food joint, its your choice guys" she said smiling since it was there day after all.

"I have heard, endlessly, about how Robert is just blindly addicted to the fish and chips at the Leaky--whatever that is," Sam said. "Can we go there and try these so-called amazing fish and chips?"

"Ooooh. Good idea," Victor nodded, and the girls agreed.

"Fish and chips and pints," The girls said.

"Yeah!" Sam said. "Fish and chips and pints all 'round. I can't imagine anyone making better fish and chips than Dad, so I think we need to give them a try and then tell Robert his cheese slid off his cracker." That made the kids all laugh.

At the duplex, the attorney arrived, and Andrew brought Elwood downstairs in his wheelchair, at Elwood's request. Angus was going to excuse himself, but Elwood insisted that Angus and Marcus stay. He wanted no secrets. Not about this. Elwood showed the attorney the old will and explained the two vaults and the vault that Pearl knew nothing about.

"I have no one that gives a damn about me except these people in this house--my family that I didn't know I had," Elwood said. "The only thing I have is my books and the money in that vault. That's it. And when I leave here, I don't need any of it. If it weren't for Angus and Ruby, I'd be probably already dead by now. Anything I have, all of it, I'm leaving it to Angus and Ruby, on the condition they give some small token portions to my grandchildren and great grandchildren--whatever amount they see fit."

"Is there enough for them to make some bequests like that?"

"There is," Elwood said. "Oh, and the castle and the land it's on. That needs to be sold. It structurally can't be worth saving, but I will leave that to your judgment too, Angus. You seem like you have a very practical head on your shoulders. I'm sure you'll make the best choice. I'd be happy to see it all razed to the ground, but I will leave that to your wisdom, Lad, if you're willing to deal with it."

"If that's what you like, certainly," Angus said.

Ruby and Aria both laughed and nodded as the kids said they wanted fish and chips from the leaky cauldron. Ruby listened and nodded " alright if your all agreed , well go the leaky, Robert keeps a private room there so we can port right to it and eat in that room, unless you guys want to look around Hogsmeade for a while." she sid thinking it had been a while since she went there.

Aria chuckled and nodded " we'll have to bring back some for Robert and the others " she said as they walked to an empty alleyway and after checking she held Anise and Victors hand while Ruby held Ginger and Sams porting them to the front doors of the leaky. " okay lets go in. " I'll take you up to the room, I decided not to port into the room. not sure if Robert has any protection spells on it " Aria chukled and nodded she would check first.

While Ruby lead the guys to the counter to order she ehaded up to flights of stairs and up to the room touching the door it swung open and she smiled stepping in and over to the fire. Kneeling beside it she lit it and stepped back .

Ruby walked over to the counter " hi here, could we have four butter beers and four helpings of fish and chips please sent up to the special room" she said and the woman behind the counter smiled nodding.

"of course" she said sending four mugs over to butter beef barrels and start to fill themselves. " okay once you have your butter beer , we'll head up to the room." she said seeing Aria walk down and nod to her and she smiled. Now with butter beer in hand she walke dup the stairs to the room and opened the door " welcome to the special room guys, this is where Robert comes".

"We don't particularly need to go to Hogsmeade. I'm sure we haven't entirely finished the shops here in Diagon Alley, have we?" Sam asked. "Hogsmeade is a long way from the Leaky, so maybe we should finish Diagon Alley first and then, if we still want to go to Hogsmeade, we can go a different day."

The kids liked the hustle and bustle of the Leaky. It had an atmosphere all its own, and the food smelled great. Sam had intended to buy pints of beer. Real beer, but Ruby had bought butterbeer instead. But he did the math and realized that she had bought four fish and chips and four butterbeers, and there were six people. He ordered and paid for two more fish and chips and butterbeers and asked that they be sent up to the private room.

"I thought she made a mistake in her math," Anise told Sam very softly.

"No matter. I fixed it," Sam said taking the two extra butterbeers up and putting them on the table. They went upstairs behind Ruby and Aria and went in.

"Very nice," Ginger said. "I rather saw him as the kind that would sit down in the pub and chat unless he had something private to discuss."

"Well, Robert always has some sort of secret," Victor said. "I've rather pictured him as the eat-lunch-at-his desk sort of a chap."

"That's probably more true than not," Anise said. "When someone works 2 full time jobs, I don't think he has much time for anything other than working."

Aria watched and noted Sam pay for two more fish and chips and butter beers she walked over to him " yeah, she has these moments , I'll give you the money back and yeah I'll get the real beer." she added chuckling as she headed down to the counter again ordering six beers to be sent up.

Ruby heard Anise and Victor and chuckled " I believe he does both some times at his desk and some times down stairs, but he also likes quiet for , hum private informal meetings" she said as she sat down near the fire. Aria returned with a tray of real beer and set it down " okay one mug each guys" she said and saw the look on Ruby's face.

" come on there adults now not kids" she said smiling Ruby chuckled and nodded " I think sometimes you forget that." she added.

"yeah I guess I so, but from today your young adults " she added placing down the butter beer and picking up a real beer " here to adult hood" she said and chuckled as did Aria.

"and all the pitfalls that come with it" she added making Ruby laugh and nodded.

"oh too right" she said smiling as a knock came at the door and the waitress brought in six fish and chips placing them on the table by the door then with a smile she left " okay help your selves." Ruby said and sat back down." they grow up so fast2 Aria chuckled.

"well they have to some time." Aria told her as she turned and grabbed a plate of fish and chips.

"Not a problem," Sam told Aria. "I don't mind helping if I can. We haven't ever needed to do it much, so its good to do it when we can."

The kids smelled the fish and chips and most of them dashed some malt vinegar on their fish and chips and tucked in.

"It's good. It's really good," Sam said. "I still like Dad's."

"I like both these and Dad's," Anise said.

"If I remember right, Robert likes them both too."

"I saw Kate give Robert the devil once for buying fish and chips from here too often."

"Oh, God, I saw her make him something that looked like grass trimmings in water and send it with him for breakfast one morning."

"Oh, I remember that," Ginger said. "He left that on our countertop and ate breakfast at our house instead. I wouldn't have had that nasty liquid grass thingy either, no matter how nutritious it was supposed to be. Nasty, that was."

At the duplex, the attorney was finishing up his draft of Elwood's new will.

"Incidently, Mr. Sanders," the attorney said, as he was tucking the paperwork in his satchel," do you have any idea how much is in that vault."

"It isn't all that impressive. Only about 8 million galleons," Elwood shrugged. "Give or take a million. Pearl may have a stash somewhere where she had some money squirreled away, but right now, I have no idea where that would be. Hopefully Angus can find it, if it exists at all." Angus and Marcus looked at each other wide eyed. 8 million galleons translated to 39 million pounds or almost 52 million dollars. That was far more than Angus had any expectation of.

Aria smiled and nodded as Sam said he didn't mind pitching in " all being part of a team" she said smiling to him as she picked up her fish and chips " hum have to say their beer goes well with their batter and I agree both are good in their own way" she said as she ate a chip " hum crisp on the out side and fluffy on the inside" she said and chuckled.

Ruby nodded and picked up the last one for herself " oh we have to bring some back for Angus and the others" she said as she too tucked into her food and drank her beer. " and to answer your question yes we can return another day to check out what else is there , its always changing" she told them. " or we can return today once we've finished eating, there still open" she added as she enjoyed spending time with the kids and eating good food.

"I thought there was perhaps another second hand shop the other direction down the street, past Sparks," Victor said. "Maybe we should make a stop there just so we have it covered. And I know Angus said something about a muggle flea market." He looked at the muggle listings Angus had written down. "He's got two listed here. Was it Camden or Portabello Road. Why does that last one sound like a name of a pizza place?"

"Because Angus sometimes puts portabello mushrooms on the homemade pizzas," Ginger laughed. "but I think it was Camden he talked about having such good luck at. And at least that's here in London and not way up in Scotland."

"So Portabello Road was named after a pizza topping?" Sam asked.

"I doubt it," Victor laughed. "Muggles would be more apt to name a street Earl Grey than to name a street after a pizza topping. What do we have left to look for, anyway?"

"Sam and I still need a dresser. We both need nightstands, sofas, chairs, end tables, lamps, rugs, bookshelves, wall decorations, mattresses for those bedframes, and all sorts of things. We don't even have a good start," Anise said.

"We aren't going to get this all done in one day, are we?" Sam sighed.

"Not a chance," Ginger said. "You guys don't want to go, then Anise and I will do it."

"No!" Sam frowned. "There's not a chance I'm going to let you get fru fru lacey curtains or flowery bedspreads or some other sissy thing."

"Exactly," Victor said.

"Fine," Anise said, "but then don't give us attitude when we dont have it all finished today."

"Well, fine, then," Victor replied.

"Give it up, Vic. We aren't going to win this one," Sam said.

Ruby and Aria chuckled at hearing eh kids talking they both knew full well that it was going to take a while " nope you wont and even then you'll find you need things you don't have years down the road, look at the sideboard Angus found only a few weeks ago or was it months , feels like months but you'll always going to add to your home" she said smiling as she finished her food and set the plate on the tray ready to be taken back down.

" well I for one don't have a lot of things as I liked sleeping in a tent so this is new to me too, most of the things, if not all in the cottage came from Marcus" she said and chuckled " but I don't mind I can add my touch subtly in the kitchen and bed room." she said making Ruby nod and smile.

"oh I know you will" she said and both woman laughed.