A Birth day

Ruby heard them talking and Ruby nodded " all right I'll look in your desert folder in the pantry" she said and headed to the kitchen. Taking out the folder she found a recipe for a Creamy No-Bake Peach Tart along with some Fresh Blackberry Crumble Bars to go with it. Ruby smiled knowing these would be easy to make and just right for Jada too.

Aria listened to them talking and she couldn't fault Elwood's thoughts as he was right they all would protect Angus in a fight " maybe Robert could give you some gentel exercises to loosen the muscle "and get it working properly again." Aria suggested " or even Andrew could" she remembered he was the physiotherapist.

"He has been working a little with Andrew," Marcus said.

"I have," Angus said. "We've only done a few minutes at a time a couple times a day."

"Well, that might be all your shoulder can do initially," Marcus said.

"I'll try to step it up a little," Angus said.

"You might want to check with Andrew before you do that, though. Where is he today?"

"He is doing some errands for me," Elwood said. "I should have mentioned it. I expect he'll be here before too long. He shouldn't be much longer. While we're not on the subject of Christmas, could I change gears for a moment? is it possible for us to make an old fashioned fig pudding for Christmas? I don't recall anyone actually eating it unless it was veery well soaked in rum, but if it were nigh onto dripping with it, there wasn't much left. For me, it isn't about eating it, as much as it is the traditions of making it."

"Did you and Pearl celebrate Christmas?" Angus asked.

"Hell, no," Elwood said. "You have to remember that she killed our own daughter in order to drain her magical energies. She had abandoned any thought of faith years ago. I've always missed Christmas, but she always told me we didn't dare celebrate it because it would be entirely too much for me. She was full of so much horsecrap. It helped her to stay in denial that what she was doing was completely vile and reprehensible."

"Then this will be your first Christmas in a very long time."

"It will indeed."

"Then you're going to have to tell us what you miss about it."

"All of it. I've missed all of it," Elwood said.

Aria heard Angus and nodded " yeah maybe a little at a time" she said then heard Elwood and smiled " oh wait till you see Christmas here, tree, presents, decorations the whole thing" she said " oh whose turn is it to top the tree this year?" she asked looking to Angus as Ruby continued to cook in the kitchen.

Ruby looked at Elwood as he spoke of Figgy Pudding and having it this Christmas. She smiled turning a page in the folder to show the recipe for that pudding. Wiping her hands she walked over to Angus " we have everything to make it but I'd like to make it as a surprise for Elwood this year." she said softly to him " if that's okay with you?" she asked with a smile.

"That's fine," Angus nodded. "We'll have to start it well ahead of time, you know." He looked at Elwood. "What did you have for Christmas dinner?"

"Goose, of course," Elwood said. "What else should there be? When I was a lad, there was goose, the best chestnut stuffing anywhere, an enormous bowl of mash--but I should specify, Christmas mash."

"Wait. What's Christmas mash?" Angus asked.

"Potatoes, turnips and parsnips with some caramelized onions, garlic and butter that had been cooked and then pureed together and added to the mash. It was something my gran had concocted one Christmas when she hadn't had enough of any of the potatoes, turnips or parsnips to make a mash of one of them, so she blended them. And everyone loved it, and it became standard on our table."

"Sounds interesting," Angus said.

"Our table was loaded with food, and we had no shortage of family and friends around it. And my granddad always brought naughty crackers. They always had some little practical joke--like a sour candy or a bad joke of some sort. And then, my gran would get out a second batch, always filled with some kind things, a couple galleons, or a nice sweet of some sort--to sort of undo what she called his 'naughty humor.'"

"I think I would have liked your grandparents," Angus said.

"You would have. The very salt of the earth, they were."

At that moment, Andrew came in.

"Hello, All," Andrew said. He took a stack of envelopes and small packages to Elwood. "Done. All of it."

"Oh, nicely done, Lad. Thank you," Elwood smiled.

Ruby smiled to Angus and nodded to Angus " I'll start it today, that should give it plenty of time" she said with a smile and returned to the kitchen to start the pudding humming as she did enjoying the now Christmas prep. Hearing Elwood's description of his Christmas mash she chuckled " sounds delicious" she said with a chuckle.

Aria listened to Elwood and then saw Andrew arrive " didn't miss much" she said and chuckled as she finished her coffee and gathered those that were empty and took them to the kitchen to wash. Returning he saw all the envelopes now by Elwood that Andrew had given him.

"Andrew, got a question," Marcus said. "Should we be helping Angus do some rehab or something?"

"No, you should not," Andrew said firmly.

"Why not?"

"He damned near blew his shoulder out on Day 1," Andrew said. Angus sighed, hoping Andrew would not have revealed that.

"What?" Marcus frowned.

"I told him to do 20 repetitions of one exercise--just one. Told him to do the 20 repetitions just twice. Once in the morning and once towards evening, but that doesn't happen to be what he did. He did those repetitions a lot more than that, thinking I was being far too easy on him. So he did those repetitions twelve times on Day 1, and he nearly blew his shoulder out from overdoing it. Idiot. So now we have to go back and rest it again for a couple days and start again. And if he overdoes it again, I'm going to put his brain in a cast because, clearly, it's broken."

Angus scowled at Andrew, and Andrew scowled right back.

"Don't you need to take him out to meet Jada or something?" Angus asked Marcus. Marcus laughed and nodded and motioned Andrew to come with him. They went out to the garden.

Ruby looked over at Angus and sighed shaking her head at him but said nothing knowing that was just how Angus worked and what she loved about him. Aria looked to Elwood as she sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"typical Angus" she said softly " oh you want to play some more chess, I could use the mental exercise. " she asked and looked at the toddlers napping in the pen. " not much to do till they wake " she said " I can fetch the board from your room or accio Angus's?" she asked

"That would be lovely," Elwood said to Ruby, delighted.

"My chess set is in the box on the desk," Angus told Ruby. "Help yourself."

A couple minutes later, Marcus came in with Andrew and Jada, and he picked up Jada's bags and took Jada next door to go find her room. He believed she needed to know where her room as so she could get away for a little privacy if things got too chaotic for her.

Marcus came back downstairs alone.

"She's unpacking her few things," Marcus said. "I asked her how old she is, and she said she told Robert she was 27."

"27? There's no way she's 27," Angus said.

"Well, that's what I told her, and that's exactly what Robert told her. When I pressed her, she finally told me that she isn't honestly sure, but if she goes by what the orphanage believed, she would be almost eighteen. She says nobody honestly knows, though. She doesn't have any idea what her real name is or who her parents were. Nothing. She was simply dropped off there when she was small, and she doesn't remember much more than that."

"Then, by all the wizarding world would acknowledge, she is a child," Angus said. He looked at Ruby. "I hope Robert has some answers, or we're about to get Number 7."

Aria smiled and went to get Angus chess set. Once she had it she walked back and set it up in front of Elwood " okay, white moves first right" she said moving her pawn one square forward.

Ruby saw Marcus head up with Jada and return she also heard what he said and she shook her head at the age but agreed with Angus " I agree with you there Angus" she said with a smile " she'll defiantly need to be registered and figure out schooling, if there's to be any, but I think Robert will deal with that" she said as she sat down to watch Aria and Elwood's chess match beside her.

"You're right, of course," Elwood said to Ruby. "By all means, begin the game."

"Well, if my past experience in Paris running the organization there still holds true, when we got children in that were over seventeen, there honestly was no schooling to send them to. Remember, kids enter Hogwarts, if they get a letter at all, at age 11 and they finish at age 17--in their 7th year. By the time anyone can get any sort of legitimate birth certificate established, she's going to be too old to enter Hogwarts. The best we're going to be able to do for her is to make sure, to the best of our abilities, that she has a good strong background in magic, and with the half Fae issue, we might be better off to see if the Fae can be her magic tutors. Then, at some point, we'll need to help her find some sort of work where her mutism won't be an obstacle."

"Jada will be back down shortly. She doesn't have much to unpack. Right now, Simone is giving her the tour and showing her where things are so she can help herself. Angus's probably right," Marcus said. "Khaat used to struggle with those issues when she was on the Wizengamot. She'll be able to get along just fine in the right type of work. Your farm market idea might be just the ticket for her. She could work in the bakery department or stock shelves, or clean or do some of the bookkeeping or any of a hundred different jobs. Once people know she's mute, she might still be able to do some customer service if they don't expect her to speak. If they ask her yes or no questions, she'd do just fine, I bet. And, there would be one of us around to protect her if she needed it from any more faepyres."

"That," Elwood said, looking up from the game, "is an excellent thought. Oh, and as long as we're speaking of Jada, I saw something in the paper that might be up her alley. Someone is selling an old Romanian vardo, and I bet that with some refurbishment and an extension charm, it would make an ideal small house for her, and she could park it outside right behind the Fae garden. That puts her only a few footsteps away from the house, and immediately next to the Fae. I'm sure they'll be fierce protectors for her."

"That's a really good idea. Her own space but she can be as close to us as she chooses to be," Angus said.