A Birth day

"Just get me the heck out of here," Anise said in a whisper to Angus.

"My pleasure," he purposely apparated them home and inside of the duplex. "I know you want to change clothes, Anise, so go do that, and then we'll eat."

"Okay," she said, heading downstairs.

"I knew she didn't want one more minute of that Beauxbaton's uniform and those heels," he told Ruby quietly, "but I didn't want her to see the party either. That's why I ported us inside. I figured we could keep that a surprise for a few more minutes. Now, you're welcome to stay and walk outside with her and me or you can go and get them ready to greet her, either by shouting surprise or by whatever way you'd like. You've done such a good job getting this ready, so I want you to have the option of how to kick it all off for the evening. I know she's got to be really hungry, so I won't have trouble getting her back outside."

Ruby was glad when Angus ported them right into the duplex she breathed out and smiled seeing Anise head to change " yeah, I guessed as much and its good, she should be comfortable but I don't blame her for wanting to get home quickly." she said and heard Angus " I'll stay and come out with you and Anise, Aria knows what to do and how I like it and what needs to be done" she said smiling as she sat down to wait for Anise to come back.

" Jack has the trophy, hes putting it on the center table but he's got guards so don't worry." Ruby said as he took out Anises bag and enlarged it again placing it down next to the couch. " I'm glad she is staying with Robert" she said smiling " I know Dennis is proud of hr too."

"Oh, you mean for her job? Well, I'm sure he would let her do whatever she wants, but the fact is that she's still legally a child. He did not want her to be pressured in any way about who she wants to work for. And, frankly, she's never wanted anything other than to be part of the organization. That's the only thing she's ever been able to see. i don't think she's going to change her mind either."

"Dennis and I did talk by letter once over the summer in a letter about this whole thing. He is very proud of her, but he wanted to stay rather hidden in this whole thing. He did not want to call attention to himself because if he did, it would have come to light about why her bio dad and her legal dad were both there, and why she needed a legal dad if she had her bio dad. And that would have brought a lot of focus on the werewolf pack, and that is something that would have been extremely dangerous to the pack. So, for security reasons, he wanted me to be the father the world saw, and I think he was probably right to handle things the way he did. She has no doubt that Dennis is proud of her, and she does understand why he is keeping a low profile. She's good with it, and that's what counts."

Anise came back upstairs in a pair of jeans, a pale orange tee shirt with small burnt orange pumpkins on it, a pair of sneakers and a long pumpkin colored chunky cardigan sweater that was a maxi length, brushing the top of her sneakers.

"I couldn't find my sweatshirt, so I just decided my new sweater would be okay," Anise said. "It's soft and comfortable anyway."

"I like it a lot," Angus said. "Maybe I should get one." She laughed.

"In pink," she teased.

"Come on," he laughed, motioning to her. "Let's go eat. Tomorrow we'll have to go and get you a new wand since we forgot to pick yours up."

"Oh, gosh, we did!" she said, a little rattled now, remembering he was right. She hadn't tried to accio it back during the match

"It's replaceable. Don't worry," he told her, motioning to her to follow him and then opening the door and going outside "How's the knee and how's the headache?"

"They both hurt a bit, especially when I had to hit the deck to avoid that git's fiendfyre spell. What an idjit. But it could be a whole lot worse. I'll certainly live," she said, following Angus as he crossed tye yard towards the shelter house. She was not paying any attention to the fact that there was nothing cooking in the kitchen and that he was leading her outside. That was purposeful on his part--to keep her attention on other things so she didn't really question anything.

Ruby heard Angus and nodded she agreed " exctly and yeah would be a bit complicated to explain, but aI guess he felt it was best ." she said then smiled as she saw Anise return from below " you look great" she said smiling as she walked over and took Angus hand so they could walk over to the shelter house together.

In the Arena Jack walked out and looked around seeing Anises wand on the ground he quickly walked over and picked it up before porting to the shelter house and placing down the trophy on the table beside the cake he placed her wand inside of it poking out for her to find with a chuckle.

Joseph stood next to the table in a smart suit his hands behind his back as he watched every one around him " nobody comes near this except for Angus Ruby , well you know whose aloud and whose not." he said and Joseph nodded he understood.

" yes sir" he said and smiled motioning to behind Jack as he had seen Angus and Ruby with Anise walk over to the shelter.

Ruby smiled as they got close to the shelter and looked to Angus.

Robert walked to the front of the shelterhouse and motioned everyone to come with him.

"A round of applause please for the first woman to earn the title of Supreme Dueller in 645 years, our very own Anise," Robert called, and everyone in the shelterhouse began to applaud. It was then that Anise noticed the shelter house, the decorations and all the people there.

"You guys," she said, looking at everyone, overwhelmed they would do that for her.

"Just a little family celebration--with your entire family," Robert said, gesturing that the pack had turned out for this too. Now it was safe for Dennis to hug her. He came forward out of the shelterhouse and she ran to him, and he swept her up off her feet in a huge strong hug and kissed her cheek. Then, even Fenrir gave her a hug. The pack gathered around her and extended their congratulations and their pride in her.

"Come and eat, Everyone," Robert called. "Come fix your plates and tuck in. Its been a long day, and we're all hungry. There's plenty here for us all and a couple more platoons, I think, so come fill up."

Ruby heard Robert and opened the door for Anise to walk in as she smiled to her. Once she was inside she let the door close behind them and looked to Angus " now that's worth a picture" she said seeing Aria with her muggle phone taking pictures and smiling.

Aria walked over to Angus and Ruby with two drinks in hand " here, you look like you could use it" she said smiling as she let them take them. " Jack put the trophy in its place and found Anise's wand and has Joseph guarding the trophy not that any one here would steal it. " she said

"Thanks, Aria," Angus said. "I can breathe a little now that she's safe again. I think you should all be proud that I didnt pound either the Slytherin or the DUMBstrang student into the ground like a tent stake." He purposely mispronounced Durmstrang as Dumbstrang.

Angus watched Anise fix her plate and decide to sit with Dennis and Fenrir and her pack. Angus was pleased. She didn't get to see them very often, and Ginger and Victor and Sam all seemed good with it.

"I'm glad Jack found her wand," Angus said. "That's her first wand, and she deserves now to hang onto that darned wand as a trophy of today's win. I'm going to take her to Ollivanders tomorrow and see if Ollivander can hook her up with a new wand so she can keep this one. Can we eat? Because if we can't eat, I'm gonna gnaw on one of these tables any minute now."

The meal was mammoth, charcoal grilled steaks. Nicky and Zoe were abel to deliver exactly the steak that each person wanted, with exactly the right done-ness. There were baked potatoes, the Mexican street corn, a savory roasted butternut squash with garlic and herbs, grilled asparagus wrapped in proscuitto slices, several different salads to pick from, a large bread basket with four different kinds of bread already sliced in thick hearty slices, a choice of spreads including butter, cheese spread, or jam. And then, for dessert, there was the wonderful cake with its congratulation message, and three different flavors of homemade ice cream to pick from.

Aria laughed and nodded when Angus spoke of pounding the two boys like tent pegs "oh trust me Ruby was chomping at the bit to do that too" she said as Ruby chuckled and nodded.

"yeah, nobody does our girl dirty" Ruby said and Aria chuckled. " I can get Jack to make a wall mounted holder for it so she can see it all the time." Ruby suggested " and we could put it in her room or the living room?" she said as they walked to where the food was . Ruby grabbed a plate and thanked Nicky and Zoe for the food and hard work. Aria grabbed two plates one for herself and one for Marcus.

Walking over to Marcus she handed him his plate so he could eat " Here, eat, its been a long day, glad its over and very happy she won" Aria said smiling

"I'll ask her what she thinks of that, and if she agrees, we'll hang it wherever she wants it hung," Angus said.

"Thanks. I'm starving," Marcus said. "That girl deserved to win. In my opinion, she works harder than just about any other person her age, and it showed today. She just simply outmatched them. Her skills were better. She earned that win today. I remember what skills Sam and Victor had last year before their organization training, and it only proves to me that wizarding schools are not doing nearly enough dueling education."

"I do want to have a private word with Robert," Angus said, tucking into his food. "I want to know if she's going to need more recovery time from all this. She's been through a lot this week, and I honestly want her to have a day or so of downtime. I honestly considering letting her play hooky on Monday. Let her stay home and do whatever the heck she wants. After how hard she's worked, she deserves it. Change of subjects--why do I cook when Zoe and Nicky can cook like this?"

"Because we'd just chain you to the cooker if you thought you'd ever give it up," Marcus shrugged, not missing a beat.

"Oh, is that how it goes, then?"

"Yes, so don't get any ideas," Marcus said. Marcus looked at Ruby. "You gonna support him letting her play hooky for a day on Monday?"

Ruby listened as she ate her food and could not fault his thinking she chuckled at Marcus and Angus's banter and nodded " she deserves a day off for all the hard work she did, but in the end its her choice if she wants to take Monday off, but as well that's if Robert clears her medically." she said knowing Anise probably given the choice would go into school if she could and was cleared by Robert.

Aria nodded to Marcus as he thanked her for the plate " yeah , know that feeling" she said a she too tucked into her food hearing Marcus and Angus she could not help but chuckle " oh do not say your giving up cooking" she said " be a sad day around here when you do" she added " who'd make all those giant cinnamon buns we all love" she added " which reminds me you haven't made those for quite a while."