A Birth day

"Brian is crazy about Khaat and Abbey both," Marcus laughed. "And he has always been really down to earth. He evens out Khaat's periodic anxieties and insecurities. He keeps her grounded and balanced. As far as my kids are concerned, my parents have done an exceptional job with them, and now I have five really great kids who are the very first to understand that my job is, literally, to save lives. They understand I protect important people, and they see that it is an incredibly important job. So they're able to be understanding and very patient with me. I have always felt truly blessed because I have such amazing smart and compassionate people who call me Dad. And now, we have a great house close to all our friends where the kids and my parents feel comfortable to come. I am very blessed."

"Right now, I'm feeling pretty good about this. We'll see how good I feel when its my turn, though," Anise laughed.

At that moment, they called for the next contestants. They called for Beauxbatons to battle Durmstrang.

"I guess that's me," she took a breath and then breathed out slowly to relax herself.

Aria listened and smiled nodding " defiantly shows" she said then heard him talk of his kids and she nodded at everything he had said " I agree they are great kids" she said with a smile " I love taking care of them but yes your parents did a wonderful job and I'm happy they feel safe at our home" she added then paused " oh sounds like Anise is up" she said hearing the announcement for Beauxbatons to battle Durmstrang.

Ruby heard her and chuckled then she heard the announcement and nodded " do your best" she said watching her take a deep breath readying herself for the duel ahead. " just remember what you learned with Angus and you'll be okay" she quickly gave her a hug and stepped back. "I'll be right here" she added.

Marcus looked and saw Angus already on his feet and standing at the glass, not wanting to miss a single thing.

"Excited dad," Marcus said softly to Aria, gesturing towards Angus. "You'd think these teens have always been their kids all along."

Anise's opponent was a somewhat thin, but well toned young man, and he was dressed in Durmstrang's trademark red tunics and black trousers. Angus was listening as the announcer was introducing the duelists. The Durmstrang lad had dark brown hair and handsome chiseled features. He was quite a lot taller than Anise was, and when they walked onto the center field, Anise looked like she was clearly disadvantaged by being so much smaller than her opponent.

Angus watched her stride carefully. She was walking with a strong, steady stride, determined to not show even the slightest weakness in her damaged knee. Angus was pleased. He did not want her opponent to target the knee as a weak spot where he could press an advantage. Angus knew immediately what she was doing. She was purposely looking poised and graceful, hoping that her opponent underestimated her.

"This'll be good. That Durmstrang guy actually has a sneer on his face, looking at her," Angus told Marcus and Aria. The tournament official called the two opponents to the center to shake hands before the duel and to explain the rules and the limits--No physical contact, and no damage any stronger than stunning. Then the official stepped back so the players could salute with their wands, bow. They were instructed to turn and each walk five paces and turn. It was a standard way to open a duel.

Both of them came together, saluted, bowed, and walked their five paces and turned. The Durmstrang student opened with throwing small baseball sized fireballs at Anise. Anise responded calmly and smoothly by dodging the fireballs and pelting him rapidly with bewitched snowballs. Then she responded by, most unusually, using a circumrota spell on her opponent. It was a spell normally used to spin an object around, but she used it to spin her opponent around and around and around rapidly.  He became quite dizzy and stumbled for a moment, but he seemed to shake himself off and reposition himself.

He fired an expelliarmus at her, and while it knocked her wand away, she immediately fired half a dozen basic spells at him that knocked him backwards over and over because he had not expected her speed at all and couldn't begin to keep up with her. It was a version of the rapidfire spellcasting that she had learned from Angus, and not only were spectators surprised by it, but it gained her a lot of applause and cheering from the crowd.

But that made her opponent angry. He was infuriated that she had gained that much attention. He fired a spell at her to blind her, and when it struck her, it robbed her completely of her eyesight. She was completely blind. She stopped short, shocked and frightened. The very instant it hit her, Robert and Madame Maxime both leaped to their feet, and they both took off at a dead run towards the locker room. Robert had already seen Anise needed a healer immediately. Angus, however, was already sprinting for the locker room as fast as his feet would carry him, not caring one particle for the rules about one coach per contestant. Marcus dashed off to catch up with Angus, having to work to even begin to keep up with him.

Dueling officials immediately stopped the match, and they instantly disqualified the Durmstrang student for cheating and for deliberately injuring an opponent. An official went to Anise and took her arm and led her off the field. The Durmstrang student stomped off the field and was immediately taken underwing by the Durmstrang headmaster who was clearly infuriated with their champion's behavior, leading to him blowing out in the very first round.

Aria smiled and nodded she agreed with Marcus as she watched Angus watch the duel. Ruby down below watched too she was watching the Durmstrang champion dueling with Anise , she saw everything going for Anise until the little twerp made a dirty move on her and she wanted to head in and freeze the twerp but she stayed where she was seeing the officials Robert and Madame Maxime round the corner and enter the locker room, now realising Angus would be on his way down she looked to Robert "As much as I want to check Anise , I'll leave so there is only one trainer keeping with the rules" she said and quickly stepped out of the locker room. " he needs more than disqualification, no one does our girl dirty." she said back and looked to Robert clearly a mother annoyed.

"If you want to come in, you come in with me," Robert said quietly to Ruby. "Under the circumstances, they would be hard pressed to not make an exception. If they try, I'll deal with them." He turned to go in to tend to Anise. As he turned to go in, Angus blasted past everyone and dashed into the locker room, and when Marcus got there, one of the tournament workers attempted to stop Marcus.

"I don't suggest you do that," Madame Maxime told the worker fiercely, taking strong strides herself toward the locker room. Her half-giant height was certainly intimidating. "If he doesn't move you out of the way, I will. Our champion has been seriously assaulted and deserves to have her family with her. Now, stand down this instant." She waved Marcus and Ruby to come in in, and Marcus didn't waste a moment going straight in.

Angus had found Anise, and by the time anyone else entered, he had her wrapped in a strong protective hug. She was clinging to him, crying and afraid, her face buried in his shoulder.

"Anise," Robert said quietly when he got to her. "I'm here. Let me see. Let's see what the actual damage is. Angus, can you take her over there to that pub table. The counter height chair will be a lot better for her so I can see what's going on." Angus walked her across the room to the pub table with everyone else tagging along including the chairman of the tournament, who had come into the room like he owned the whole stadium. Angus helped Anise get seated on the tall stool, and Robert put his bag on the table and started assessing. Robert saw straight away that Anise's entire body was trembling. He gestured to Angus, and Angus walked around behind the stool and wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind.

"Don't leave me," she told Angus very softly.

"We're not going anywhere, believe me," Angus said. Robert was silent for several minutes as he worked. Angus felt Anise start to calm, and he had a feeling that Robert had managed that with a calming spell. Robert continued to work quietly and efficiently. Partway through, he asked tournament officials if he could have St. Mungos send him some potions ingredients so he could brew a potion to reverse the damage. They approved, and they led Robert into a locked side room where there was an office and a floo. Robert was gone for about ten minutes but when he came back, he had a box with a small cauldron, some potions ingredients and some tools. He meticulously concocted a potion in the cauldron and put the teal blue colored liquid in a glass bottle and labeled it.

"This should do the trick," Robert told Anise. "We need to rise your eyes with it. Just lean your head back, and I will try not to get you entirely soaked."

"I don't care," she told him. "Please just fix it."

"I plan on it," Robert told her. He used an eyedropper and took his time to rinse both of her eyes, and as he rinsed her eyes a foul looking ugly green smoke rose up from her eyes, and as it lifted, she noticed she was finally seeing light again. "Good. Good girl. It's working." He continued to rinse her eyes until the smoke quit rising up from her face. "Are you seeing anything yet?"

"Yes, but it's blurry," she told him.

"I've removed the dark magic that caused the damage, but now the potion needs a bit of time now to actually repair the damage. My suggestion is that you find a comfortable chair, sit back, close your eyes and rest them and give the potion a chance to work. I'll stay here with you until its better..."

Angus heard more people coming in, and he turned to see it was the Durmstrang headmaster coming in. Angus took a deliberate stance between Anise and the headmaster, and Marcus stood right beside him. Madame Maxime knew this was actually an appropriate gesture on the headmaster's part, and she went to speak with him, wanting to head him off before he got anywhere close to Angus and Ruby.

"If he actually speaks to you, this is one time you need to absolutely must use every energy to be diplomatic," Marcus told Angus and Ruby softly. "This headmaster could not have been any part of encouraging this kind of behavior, so he will have no choice but to deal with his student severely. And since Durmstrang is often known for its cruelty, I suggest you let Madame Maxime handle this and you simply accept his gesture of apology when he offers it."

Ruby heard Robert and saw Marcus with angus dive into the locker room once she was told she could enter she quickly ran over to Anise hugging her too from the other side and taking her hand in her own " we're right here" she said softly to her moving to Anises side she let Robert work on Anise when he returned from the office with a floo and holding a box.

Aria saw Marcus leave and stayed with the group she looked to Kate when Robert had left but smiled " I'm sure they have everything under control" she said glancing at Jess who nodded she was right and smiled as Jack placed his hand on Sam's shoulder keeping him sat next to him.

Madame Maxime was speaking very softly to the Durmstrang headmaster and the tournament officials. Marcus could tell she was enraged by it all, and she was doing her level best to look cool, calm and collected.

"She's giving them all sorts of what for," Marcus said, amused. "I am quite sure that pissing off a half giant is just bad business and very risky.

"Yes, well, they haven't had to deal with me yet. I will be collected but that doesn't mean I won't let them know exactly what I think," Angus said. "Keep them away from her. I'm going to go help her to someplace more comfortable." He went back to Anise and spoke to her softly for a moment. Then he helped her to stand. He took his handkerchief and gently dabbed at her face to dry it. "There. Better. Now let's find something comfortable." He looked over the room, and he found a small seating group with some deep, comfortable looking oversized club chairs with ottomans. He took her there and helped her get comfortable.

Robert came over a minute later, with a cup of tea that he was stirring.

"Here, Anise. It's hot, so be careful. Drink it slowly, but do drink it. You'll feel better," he told her, placing the tea cup in her hands. Angus believed Robert had added a touch of some sort of potion to it. Madame Maxime walked over to Robert.


"Deputy Minister Lupin, might I have a word?" she asked him.

"Of course," Robert said. They walked a few steps away.

"How is our student, really?" she asked.

"The Durmstrang lad damaged her eyes with a version of a Bedazzling Hex. This version of it was designed to be much longer lasting," Robert said. "Had I not been here, she would have likely had a hard time finding anyone who was capable of treating it. As it is, though, she will recover. Be certain that if I hadn't been here, she might well have been blind forever."

"We are certainly in your debt, then. Thank you. What do we need to do now to help her, and how soon will she have her vision back?"

"If she rests for awhile, I expect that if she rests, she might have her vision back fully in a couple of hours. Perhaps by after lunch. I will stay with her and continue to treat her until she has her sight back. Her dad has ordered lunch for all of us in the box, so I think if she can just rest and get a good lunch, I will reassess then."

"You sound as if you expect her to need to stay here, then."

"Well, certainly. If all goes well and her vision returns, I expect that if they allow her to wear sunglasses to protect her eyes, she may well choose to try to continue in the tournament."

"What?" Madame Maxime frowned. "Return? Is that even a possibility? Will she even want to?"

"Oh, you don't know Anise so well, then. She does not surrender unless there is no possible way for her to continue. If there is even the slightest window of opportunity, she isn't going to give up so easily."

"I cannot imagine she would want to..." Madame Maxime shook her head. Robert smiled and walked back over to Anise.

"Hey, Anise, if the potion works as I think it should and you have your vision back, I think that if you wore sunglasses to protect your eyes, you might see well enough to compete--if you even want to try."

"I could?" she asked.

"I see no reason why not. I think, if you want to give it a chance, you should rest til lunch, take time to eat, and then we can see if you're going to be able to go back. I'll give it a shot if you want to wait and see."

"Yes! I need to know for myself if I could have lasted a full round or two," she told Robert. He looked at Madame Maxime.

"See? Told you," Robert grinned. "She is a fighter, through and through. Gets it from her family."

Madame Maxime looked at Angus and Ruby.

"The headmaster of Durmstrang would like just a moment, if, as her parents, you would indulge him," she said. Angus glanced to Marcus, and Marcus nodded slightly, but his look was also serious, as if to tell Angus to not blow this.

"Certainly," Angus said. He looked at Ruby. "By all means, come if you like or stay with Anise if that's what you prefer. You know what you do or don't want to do."

Ruby sat with Anise as she watched everything going on around her still holding Anises hand in her own. Soon Angus wanted to move her to someplace more comfortable and she nodded helping him move her to a comfortable chair. Then Robert handed her a cup of tea Ruby made sure she had hold of it before she moved a chair close to her again.

Seeing Madame Maxime talking to the headmaster she wanted to go and shout at him, but she kept her calm and looked at Angus as Madame Maxime walked over and spoke to Robert. When angus spoke she shook her head.

"nope, I'll leave this to you, I might say something I regret plus some one should stay with Anise, at least until she can see properly again" she said ow glaring at the headmaster but hearing Marcus " I can't be diplomatic right now" she added softly as she brushed some of Anises hair off her face gently.

"I'm going to go get a cup of coffee. I won't be far," Robert told Ruby, and then he walked to the trolley to get some coffee.

Angus nodded, and he turned and walked to the Durmstrang headmaster.

"Headmaster? I am Angus Donohue. I am Anise's father," Angus said.

"And I am Professor Emil Nygard," the headmaster said. Angus recognized the man's accent and knew at once he was Norwegian, and that he spoke excellent English. "I must apologize on behalf of the whole of Durmstrang. Madame Maxime says your healer believes your daughter will make a full recover. I am very relieved to hear it. I am well aware of the reputation that Durmstrang has, no thanks to Headmaster Karkaroff who did have some affection for the dark arts. He did us no favor during his tenure. We have not permitted any dark arts practitioners since that time, and we certainly do not teach dark arts at our school anymore. I did not have any idea our student knew that spell at all much less that level of it. Had I known, he would not have been chosen as our contestant no matter what his skill level was. The boy is being dealt with, I assure you he is not the sort of student we want at our school."

"I appreciate your apology and your words," Angus said, "but Headmaster, now that he does have such spell knowledge, is it not now more important than ever that his education rest in the hands of very skilled wizards and witches that can turn his predilection for them around and set him upon the right track? A young man with such a hair trigger that sets of rage and also has serious dark spell knowledge certainly has some of the same traits that Voldemort did. It seems to me that expelling him would potentially have extremely dangerous consequences."

"Well," the headmaster sighed, "you may be right. Your daughter is fortunate to have such a wise father. I hope someday I do get to see her in a full duel. She clearly has some advanced skills beyond her Beauxbaton's training."

"We are hoping she will yet compete later today," Angus said.

"Really! How marvelous!" the headmaster exclaimed, delighted. "Your healer must be skilled indeed, then."

"He is," Angus said. "He is the chief of staff for St. Mungos, and he also happens to be our ministry's Deputy Minister."

"Ah! Minister Lupin. I have heard of him but I have not had the pleasure. Perhaps I can at least introduce myself. I find I have much, much work to do to build white lighting allies because Headmaster Karkaroff's reputations dies hard."

"It certainly does," Angus agreed. "I met the man. He was definitely an intimidating figure."

"As were most death eaters," Nygard nodded. "He was, though, particularly ruthless."

"Agreed," Angus said.

"I will not keep you longer from your daughter. With your permission, I will send her a formal letter of apology. I do not wish to disturb her when she is already in such distress, but I would like to send her a letter."

"Certainly. I'm sure she would appreciate that," Angus said.

"And I wish her much success today in the tournament," Nygard said. "Good day, Mr. Donohue." Nygard saw Robert at the coffee trolley and he headed there to introduce himself. Angus returned to Ruby and Anise.

"He is a whitelighter," Angus told them. "He certainly did not approve of any of that business. I almost liked him. It's too soon to tell for certain though. He is going to send you a formal written apology, Anise, which I think is appropriate."

Ruby watched as Angus spoke to the Durmstrang headmaster. she saw Angus relax a little at something he had said and she relaxed a bit too now not feeling angry just relive Anise was okay. It was after the head master had left that Angus returned to her and he spoke of the head being a white lighter and she relaxed.

"That's a relive." she said and listened when Angus said the head was going to formally apologise to Anise " what do you think Anise, you going to accept his apology?" she asked taking the now empty cup from her and placing it down next to them on a small table. Ruby looked to Angus as he had said he almost liked the head. " I guess with Durmstrang's dark history makes sense not to trust fully." she added.