A Birth day

"It will," Marcus said.

"It's going to be a long day," Angus said. "Oh, wait. I should tuck a little pain potion in, in case her knee gives her fits."

"I have a small vial with three full doses already in my pocket," Marcus said. "We're covered."

"Thanks," Angus said.

"We should go," Marcus said.

"How do we help you find your locker room?" Angus asked Anise.

"I was told I needed to go to the box seats with you, and someone from the school will pick me up from there," Anise said. "You should come with me so you know where I'll be, though."

"I can do that," Angus said. "Let's go see how many people are porting directly with us."

"We may need to use wands and apparate instead," Marcus said, "because I dont' think we have enough portkeys to port."

"We can split up and pop in, in small groups," Edward said. "Simone and I can both get there without problems, and I know Evan and Tara can. I'm sure Jack probably can, and maybe some others."

"Angus and I can find it by apparating." Marcus said. "Aria or Ruby? Do either of you find it by apparating? If we break up into small groups, we can manage to make sure everyone gets there easily."

"I have just a little something for you," Ginger said quietly to Anise.

"For me?" Anise asked.

"It's just a little thing, but it might be helpful, I thought," Ginger said. She handed Anise a pair of aviator style sunglasses, with blue lenses, done in light blue acrylic frame. "They're designed to cut down on not only overly bright sunlight, but they really are good to cut glare."

"I love them!" Anise said. "Perfect! Thank you."

"Come on, you lot. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?" Angus said, opening the front door and motioning everyone to follow him outside. He was surprised to see such a big crowd gathering to go along to Dartmoor.

Ruby looked to Angus as she heard them ask if they knew how to get to the place by aperating Aria nodded " I do, I can take whom ever you need" she said as Ruby moved to Angus and stood with him.

Once in the box at the stadium Ruby looked out of the large window " wow " she simply said never having been to anything like this before Aria chuckled as she appeared beside her and looked at how many had showed up, the whole stadium was packed.

"full house" she said as she glanced over to see Jack and Jess flanking Sam as they appeared and made him sit down between them. Ruby looked over to Sam and sighed waving to Jess and Jack who both smiled back to her. Aria noted who had come with them and saw Fenrir and Denise both stood with the pack.

"must be over a hundred people here to support Anise" she said and Ruby nodded.

"yeah but remember win or lose she is our champion" Ruby said and Aria smiled nodding.

"of course she is , but I'm routing for her to win, she's really good." she said softly to her.

Anise saw all the people in the yard, and she automatically shied closer to Angus, now feeling very nervous indeed. Angus took her hand automatically and he whispered something in her ear. It made her laugh hysterically. That took the edge off. Robert and Michael began to break up the people into small groups with people who could find their way to Dartmoor. Angus looked at the people there and saw Kate pick up Abbey, who was dressed in a light blue fleece track suit with light blue sneakers. The back of her jacket had the Beaubatons crest and the school name. Abbey's own name was on the front. The jacket had a hood and a zippered front, and under it, she had a Beauxbatons tee shirt. Her long blonde hair was done up in bubble braids and tied with light blue satin ribbon. She was adorable. She wasn't going to miss it."

"Aggie!" she shouted at Angus. "We go watch Annie win!" Angus laughed and nodded.

"Absolutely," Angus said.

"Annie?" Simone added.

"That is three year old pronunciation of Anise. Annie is as close as she gets right now," Marcus laughed.

"I'm surprised she's interested at her age," Simone said.

"Abbey is very, very devoted to family," Angus said. "If it was just any old sport event, she wouldn't be interested." Abbey waved to Angus, as Robert drew his wand and flicked it, apparating his group of people out.

"Let's go," Angus said. Elwood, Andrew, Victor, Ginger and Anise all grabbed hold. Angus thought that others were grabbing on, but he was focusing on drawing his wand and where Dartmoor was. Then he apparated his group out.

Seeing the others appear Ruby smiled " hey Abby" she said and walke dover to Robert and Kate " glad you could make it" she said smiling as she heard more aperating and saw Angus with his group appear close by.

Anise walked the length of the boxes they had been given checking all was secure and safe for them , finding it secure she walked back to where she now saw Marcus and a large group forming as every one aperated in. " checked the boxes all secure" she said to Marcus. " this place is three boxes long , nobody can enter with out clearance" she added " plus there is two guards ether end thanks to Lucian" she said as he appeared in front of them. " speak of the devil" she said with a smile.

"hey wouldn't miss this " he said and chuckled as he then acknowledged Marcus and moved to Angus to let him know all was good and that he was their should he be needed.

As people arrived, they began to pick seats in the boxes. Angus was pleased with the seats that Madame Maxime had picked for them. The center of the three boxes was right at the midfield line. That was the box for Anise's family. Madame Maxime had arranged for the dividing wall to be taken out of the box on the left and the box on the right, making one very large VIP box.

"I want you to be here. You and Ruby and Dad. Right here in the center, on the midfield line so I can look straight up and find you," Anise told Angus.

"That's fine," Angus said.

"Bonjour, Mr. Donohue," A voice called him. He looked and saw Madame Maxime had come up to the box herself.

"Madame Maxime, bonjour," Angus said. "Merci. The seats are fantastic."

"Only the best for the family of our lady champion," she smiled. "Anise, how are you feeling? How is your knee?"

"I feel fine," Anise smiled. "Thank you for asking."

"Excellent!" she smiled. "I am so proud of you. You and Ginger have come so far from the young women I met last summer. Well done. Introduce me to your family?"

"Certainly," Anise said. Anise introduced Madame Maxime to everyone there.

"You know, I finally figured out who she looks like in that uniform," Marcus said quietly to Angus.

"Who?"

"Fleur Delacour. Well, Fleur Weasley now. She could be a dead ringer for what Fleur looked like at thee Triwizard tournament at Hogwarts back in 94," Marcus said.

"God, you're right. I didn't connect that at all, but you're right," Angus said. "Fleur was the champion for Beauxbatons that year, and now Anise is filling her shoes. She could be almost Fleur's twin."

"Are you going to be her support person today?" Marcus asked.

"Well, the school's description was that they hoped the support person would have a strong bond with their student and that they would be a very firm coach for her dueling skills," Angus said.

"And that was you. You should be her support person," Marcus told him.

"But Ruby's her mother now."

"I know, but she wasn't her dueling coach," Marcus replied. "Ruby has a lot of ways she can support her. She can use the pad of paper I have in my pocket and she can send her little notes of encouragement through you if she wants."

"Maybe," Angus shrugged.

Ruby moved and sat with Angus when Madame Maxime arrived she smiled to her and nodded as she complimented Anise and spoke to Angus she also over heard Marcus talk to Angus " hes right I'm good being right here, you did a lot with her" she said and smiled to him " this is her time to shine and you should be at her side too" she added taking his hand in her own.

Aria watched Madame Maxime talk to the others and looked around the box as others slowly arrived Jess and Jack stood not far while Sam stayed sat between them. Jack sporting a scarf in Beauxbatons colors while Jess had a fleece on to keep her warm. Ruby smiled to Angus.

" I'll make signs of encouragement, its you she wants down their" she added " go be her coach and don't worry about us." she said softly to him

"You know, the more I think about it, I'm not honestly good with that either," Angus said. "We are a two-parent household, and I expect us to continue showing the kids how that's done. I want you to provide her some support too. Let's split it up. You go with her this morning, and I'll go this afternoon. It'll be fine. You can come back and join us for lunch, and then I'll go back with her this afternoon...."

As he was speaking, he heard chaos erupting down on the field. He looked down to see a stray dog had somehow gotten in, and he was racing down the field like he was looking for a shortcut to China. And then he heard a dog that seemed much closer. He glanced to his left and saw a certain little labrador pup racing through the box seats.

"Oh no," Marcus said.

"Abigail!" Robert called. Angus knew that when Abbey was in her labrador form, she didn't mind so very well. Angus fired an immediate accio spell and the naughty pup shot up into the air and was swept right to him. He caught her easily and wrapped her into his chest where the pup promptly started licking his face excitedly, her tail happily swishing back and forth.

"Your papa is not going to be very happy, Abs," Angus laughed. "You know that, right?"

Robert and Brian both walked over to Angus.

"Thanks for the quick thinking," Brian said.

"Let's wait a little to change her back," Robert said. "at least until they get that darned stray dog off the field. If she sees him still having a good time down there, she'll just revert back to a pup."

"Probably wise," Brian sighed. He reached for her, and the pup growled at Brian. Angus was wide eyed for a moment.

"Now, that is not nice," Angus said. "Be nice to Daddy."

"She just doesn't see you very often," Brian said. "I'm fine with it. You want to hang onto her until they get the stray dog?"

"That's fine. I'll bring her back when that's handled," Angus said. He looked at Ruby. "Now, you will definitely need to go with Anise unless I take Abbey along to the locker room."

Ruby heard Angus and smiled nodding " okay we can do that" she said then gasped at the chaos that erupted below them she looked down and chuckled seeing two dogs running around it was now she saw Angus call to one and accioed it to his arms " Abby" she said and looked to Angus " I've not seen her in her puppy form" she said as Aria walked over to Abby.

" Angus is right, you can't run off like that" she added as she glanced down to see several men herding the dog out of the arena. " first time I have seen men herding a dog, usually its the dog doing the herding" she said and chuckled.

Ruby heard Angus and chuckled smiling she nodded " okay I'll go" she said as she rubbed Abby's head gently before she walked over to Anise " I'm going to go down with you for the first half, don't worry you'll do great." she said smiling to Anise

"Thanks, Ru," Angus told Ruby. Then he looked at Anise. "You've got this," Angus told Anise. "You are far better prepared than some of your competition, I'm quite sure. I'm wagering most of them only have what they learned in school and very little more practice or experience than that. Just have fun with it. that's all you need to do." He kissed her forehead. And watch your knee."

"Let me look at the sports tape quickly before you head down to the locker room," Robert said. He had her sit so he could lift her pant leg and check her knee. "It looks really good. The knee looks fine, and the tape is in good shape. Thanks for adding some extra, Marcus. Good job. That should hold her. If it starts to work loose, you let us know straight away, and one of us will come down and add some more." Anise nodded. "Good luck," Robert told her.

"We should go. This way," Madame Maxime said, leading the way to take Ruby and Anise to the locker room. "You will be sharing the locker room with 4 other female competitors. We don't normally have an even split of men and women, but somehow, that's how they qualified. So the men are in one locker room, and the women are in the other. We've done our best to make the room comfortable for the contestants, so I think it should be decent, at least."

"So, my coach needs to be a female all day?" Anise asked. "It'll be good this morning, but..."

"No, no. We have changed the front part of the locker room to be a nice sitting room area, but the clothes lockers and showers and such, those are separated from the sitting area, and we have a tournament official supervising the changing area."

"Ok," she said, feeling more comfortable that they were trying to do their best with good accommodations.

Ruby smiled to Angus and nodded , she heard Robert and waited until he had checked the strapping on Anises knee and cleared her to continue. Now with Madame Maxime she walked at Anises side down to the changing rooms. She listened to Madame Maxime explain about how things were laid out hearing Anise she waited till Madame Maxime had finished and shook her head.

" Angus said he will be down this afternoon to help you" she said " I'm just first shift" she said and smiled " not that you need it" she added and gave her a hug then sat with her as they waited.

Aria stood in the box and looked at the arena " have you ever competed in this sort of thing?" she asked Marcus as she glanced around seeing all the people watching the competition.