A Birth day

"It's my pleasure, Ruby. I wouldn't have it any other way. We'll be keeping a close eye on him until some of the healing has taken place. I don't want more complications. That old cow did him no favors, that's for certain," Robert said. "Blasting spells are for inanimate objects like wood and rock and that sort of thing. Not flesh. She didn't attempt to kill him outright, but when these things happen, it isn't unusual for a victim to die from bleeding out. A damned diabolical thing to do. He was bleeding internally from the time she hit him, and he didn't know it. That's why he lost so much when I opened him up yesterday afternoon. If he'd waited much longer to get to me, we'd be in a completely different situation today. I can't put any of the blame on him, of course. He had no way of knowing the trouble he was in. I'm definitely having a word with Edward when he gets home."

The girls went over to the counter and fixed their plates, eager to take a little of everything, and Tara soon joined them.

Angus woke slowly, feeling like he had been been perhaps raised from the dead. He felt heavy and sluggish.

"'Morning," Robert told him. "Good to see you awake. Here. How about a little fuel first?" Robert picked up the coffee mug, and he fed him a few sips. For Angus, it felt like life. He was glad to find himself still at home. He wasn't sure where he had expected to be. "That will get better as the morning goes on," Robert smiled at him.

"What will?"

"That whole 'where-the-hell-have-I-been' sensation. You've been through, actually, two bits of surgery, technically. Now, before you ask, no being up and around without someone helping you until I say otherwise. Understand me?" Angus nodded.

"What time is it?" Angus asked.

"Not quite seven on Sunday morning."

"All if that was just yesterday?" Angus asked.

"You managed to cram a lot into 24 hours," Robert laughed. "When you get your eyes open, we'll help you with some breakfast."

When Yulong came in and made his report, Robert nodded. "Thank you, Yu. If you or Jack have time, when the girls are done eating, I'd like someone to show them the grounds. You could perhaps saddle up some horses and take them on horseback of you have time. It'll be a good deal easier than walking it. There really is a lot for them to see and do but Ginger's never seen it, and Evie and Faith are new here."

"Can we take Pip or Archangel with us?" Ginger asked him.

"Take them both. It would be good for them to get to stretch their wings," Robert told them.

Yu watched as Angus woke from his sleep and then looked to Robert and nodded " of course, it would be my pleasure " he said " I will return once they have eaten" he added and turned to leave heading to the barn to get several horses saddled ready for them and to fetch archangel and Pip. Now with five hourses saddled he walked them all out into the yard tieing them up infront of the duplex as he waited for the girls.

Ruby had hard Robert and smiled " I know and I agree she is." she said brushing her hand over Angus cheek before moving back to the couch " but if she comes any where close to my family again I won't hold back the next time" she told him and smiled seeing Angus wake from his sleep. She waved to Yu as he spoke to Robert then left as she watched Caprice she chuckled seeing her play with her toys. " Girls the hourses are out side if you want to go riding" she said smiling to them.

"Awesome," Ginger said. Ginger and Evie and Faith all went out to go riding. "Anise says this place is something else."

"You haven't seen it?" Evie asked.

"Not yet. I wasn't up to it. I want to see it now, though. Yu, is it as big as everyone says it is? Brian told me once not to go off by myself because it said it was big and said there were some dangerous bits."

Archangel had found his old magical fish toy and now he flew over Yulong and dropped the toy fish on Yulong's head. The toy fish would dive and swim like a real fish when it was tossed in the pond so that Archangel could go and fetch the fish from the pond. And Pip sat in a nearby tree and screeched impatiently at Yulong impatiently. He was ready to fly.

Marcus helped Angus get some breakfast and then helped him wash up and refresh himself and when all that was done, he poured Angus some fresh coffee. By that time Evan had come down and had had breakfast

Yu saw the girls leave the house and smiled " yes its big and Brian wasn't exajerating the size" he said " thats why we use horses to get around or aperation" he said catching the toy as it fell on his head , he looked up at Arch and chuckled " I know once were close to the pond I'll throw it and Pip were heading out now you can fly ahead if you wish" he told him and watched as he flew away.

Turning to Evie he held the rains to a tan gelding " this is sandy, she will take care of you today" he turned to Faith and handed her rains to a pinto " this is shadow" to Ginger he gave "This is Sliver and Anise you have hunter" he said handing the girls their rains " I do hope you all know how to ride" he asked climbing easily on the back of a black throughbread. " this horse is called midnight " he said watching the girls hoping they could mount quickly. Seeing Faith and Evie having issues he gave a soft whistle and the hourses went down onto there stomachs lowering so the girls could climb on before they stood back up.

None of the three of the girls could remember when they had had a better morning. It was wonderful. All of it, the ride on the horses, the eagle, the owl, and all the beauty of the estate. They loved it all. They loved the woods, the beautiful gardens, the pond, the log cabins, the rocky cliffs and the sharp drop offs. There wasn't one part of it that they didn't like. Yulong was a good guide and a good host, and he gave them a lot of good information and showed them a lot of things they could do. All three of them were understanding what Edward and Angus loved here because they loved it too.

"Ginger, you could come to Tuscany, I'm sure," Evie said, "but I really want to be able to spend some of my summer here."

"If we had some of both, we'd have it all, wouldn't we?" Ginger asked.  

After breakfast, Robert came over and sat down by Angus. He checked the incision, and for now, it seemed to be holding. He put the dressing and the magic wrap back on it.

"Angus, what was this business about you being cursed?" Robert asked. "I'm afraid I've only heard fragments."

"My Uncle Jonathan said it's the reason I've been hated, supposedly since before I was born," Angus told him.

"Wait. Who's Jonathan?"

"A great uncle to me. Second brother to Edward. Edward is actually the youngest of five."

"I see. Go on," Robert said.

"So Jonathan said my mother made a deal with a dark arts woman to help her get pregnant, and it resulted in her being pregnant with me but it also cursed me. Said I was going to bring ruin to my family, and they've hated me for it ever since."

"Ruin? That's pretty vague."

"Well, the exact words he used were misery, poverty, pain, and death."

"Ah, well, that is more specific then. And neither you nor Edward heard this story before? Do you believe it?"

"No. This was a first for both Edward and me. Do I believe I'm cursed? No. I don't, but it does appear that they believe it. Asshats, all of them."

"Angus," Robert frowned, "maybe, in some twisted way, it had some truth to it. Think for just one moment. I think it is pretty clear that not all your family members are white lighters. Some of them have been into some dark dealings."

"Like my parents."

"Yes. We knew that before they died," Robert agreed. "And clearly Basil and Gloria were into dark doings too. Angus, it seems to me that when someone aligns with darkness, their values become flipped. They no longer value the same things we white lighters value. You have some remarkable skills, Lad, and you have always used them for decent things. To a dark arts follower, though, those things are a threat. That's not news to you, but perhaps, what was spoken over you wasn't a curse. Perhaps it was a prophesy that would have been a horrendous threat to a dark arts practitioner. Look at what you've stood for. You have been part of ending the dark arts dealings in your extended family. Those members of your family have indeed suffered misery. They've suffered that misery, poverty, pain and death, and those things were not brought on by you, no matter what they think it looked like. They brought it on themselves. Perhaps it was a prophesy that the days of dark arts dealings were going to be coming to an end, and if that's the case, then if you were some part of that, I'd say you had a legacy to be proud of in your family, and exactly the sort of man Edward raised you to be, and exactly the man I entrusted to take care of my family and to protect every damned thing I own."

"Answer me this. And be honest. Have you ever, even one time, seen any evidence of any sort of darkness or curse? Would you have seen it if it was there? And would you have told me if you did?"

"I have always been honest with you. I have never lied to you. I have never ever seen any curse or any dark thing in you. Not once. And, yes, I'd have seen it."

"And if you're right, then there's nothing to be done about it, then."

"Not by you, Lad," Robert said. "There's an Americanism that seems to fit here. I think their belief that you're cursed is entirely on them. You didn't make them think it, and it isn't up to you to remove it from them. As the Americans say, not your circus, not your monkeys. That's on them."

"Thank you," Angus said quietly.

Ruby sat and listened as ngus spoke of what he ahd been told about his suposid cures, she shook her ehad and sighed as she siped her tea. She lietened as Robert spoke and she had to agree with him if they did dark arts then his curse was the reverse , in that he would put things right , but to them it would mean the end for the dark users. " Makes sense" she said softly " becuse they think your cursed yet they use dark magic so your white magic to them is bad so cursed" she said hoping she'd got that right.

Yu walked with the Ginger and the girls on the hourses around the grounds then he saw what time it was. " so you enjoyed the tour?" he said turning his hourse towards the duplex and making his hourse canter towards it. " Im sure you can do this when ever you can while your here."

"That's essentially it," Robert told Ruby. "I don't know the Donohue clan well, I admit. However, from what I've been able to figure out, the only fighters are Edward and Angus."

"That's right," Angus said. "The others know enough that they might be able to defend themselves if they were attacked, but none of them have ever wanted to take it up as a profession, except Edward and my grandmother Caprice and me, and my grandmother stepped away from it for the most part when she and Edward took me in."

"So it makes sense that if anyone were supposedly marked to bring all sorts of destruction would be you or Edward, and since Edward was making money hand over fist, they would dismiss that and put that negative stuff on you," Robert said. Or, some dark arts seer could have legitimately seen a future vision of you battling a dark arts practitioner. Either way, I don't see any sign of a curse, not as such. Remember, of all the wizarding hospitals in the world, St. Mungo's is one of the oldest, and we get people every bloody day. We see dark arts spells and curses like muggles see flu. I'd better be able to detect them, or I wouldn't be worth crap at my job there. If you were carrying anything like that, I'd certainly know it."

"Well, as I said, I didn't believe I was cursed and even if I did, if that child were mine, I would have been searching heaven and hell both to look for a cure. If they really believed it, why didn't they tell Edward or Caprice? Why didn't they just say something?"

"That's not the way it works with dark arts, Lad. They would have been looking for some way to stop you or to separate you from the family. You're eight. They're asshats--completely."

"We did," Evie said to Yulong. "Thank you so much! This place is incredible. No wonder Uncle Angus and Great Granddad like it so much. I think we need to talk to Uncle Tyler about getting more riding lessons before we get back here this summer. Uncle Tyler runs the stables and the equestrian program. We've had just a few riding lessons, but we need to get back on them so we're ready for summer."

"And if you want to be an animal healer, I can't think of a better place to learn it than here," Faith told Ginger as Pip flew down and landed on Ginger's shoulder with a grasshopper in his beak.

"Looks like he found a snack," Evie laughed. The little owl tossed the bug up in the air and then swallowed it with one satisfying chomp, and Ginger reached up and petted him.

"I'd love to have an owl like him," Faith said.

"He's a great little owl," Ginger said, "but Kate says there are limits on how far he can fly and how much he can carry because he's so little. Still, he runs little errands all over the estate, and he's a great little companion."

"Dad said we could have an owl if we could agree on what kind we wanted," Evie said.

"That's easy. Let's just get one of each," Faith teased.

Ruby looked at Robert as he confirmed her thoughts , Angus's relatives had it all backwards. She finished her tea and picked up Caprice " well for me the only cursing you do is when you stub your toe or some one annoys you badly" she said and chukled as she handed Caprice her bottle to drink.

Yu smiled to the girls " Im glad , and yes, talk to your family, you come and find me and I will take you riding." he said as he watched Pip return he could not help but chuckle as Pip swollowed the cricket. " Yep , he is a goo companion , I would sugest talking to Kate about owls , she has some in the barn or she will know who has the perfect one for you." he said getting down from his horse and walking him over to the bar " now we should put the horse's away in the stables.

"That's about the only time anyone hears him curse," Robert laughed, agreeing with Ruby. As Robert was speaking a letter floated in from the floo and landed on Angus's lap. Angus looked at the handwriting.

"Just a letter from Sam," Angus said.

"Shall I open it for you?" Robert asked.

"Please," Angus replied. Robert opened the envelope and took the letter out and handed it to Angus, who read it. "Ah. It's the details of when they're going to be arriving back at King's Cross after their Hogwarts graduation. They'll be arriving at King's Cross on June 1st at 4:07 pm. We'll have to pick them up, of course, and their trunks and such. That's just a couple weeks away. It's hard to think that they're that close to being finished."

"Will they be 18 then?"

"No, not quite yet. Their birthday is in late August, if I'm remembering correctly."

"Virgos, then. That seems to fit them pretty well, actually. Virgos are creative, quick thinkers. They like to be helpful and useful, and they tend to be fixers. They like to fix things for people, and they also are exceptionally observant people. I think that fits both of them pretty well from what I've seen," Robert said.

"I hadn't thought about a zodiac sign, but if you say so," Angus said.

"So, since you're on medical leave--again," Robert said. "Do you want me to hire them on for work on the estate?"

"I figured I'd be back to work by the time they got home," Angus said.

"Um. No. You won't be," Robert said. "Not til I say so. So, back to the question, do you want me to hire them to work on the estate?"

"How will that impact them going to Colorado?"

"It won't. If they want to go, I'll send them," Robert said. "But they can start off where a lot of others do. They can work the grounds. They can work in the barn and wherever else they're needed."

"Ruby?" Angus asked. "It's all I've heard them talk about, unless you have some other ideas maybe?"

The girls helped Yulong put the horses away, and then they decided it was warm enough to go swimming in the estate's large pool. They came back in, and Ginger looked at Angus and Ruby and Robert, not sure who to ask.

"Are we allowed to swim in the big pool?" she asked.

"It's fine with me if it's alright with Ruby and Angus," Robert said.

"Have at it, unless Ruby objects for some reason," Angus told her. Ginger looked at Ruby

Ruby chuckled with Robert as he had spoken but paused when she saw the letter float threw the window to Angus she was how ever relived when he said it was from sam. Hearing them speack of the boys birthday she nodded " your right " she said " we could send Jessie and Yu to meet them and bring them here" she said hearing Caprice finish her bottle . Placing the now empty bottle down she placed her on her shulder and patted her back as she listened to them talk again. " you know them working here could give them a tase of what the assosiation is all about and see if they actialy want to be part of it" she added jut as Caprice belched.

Seeing the girls enter she turned to look at them then looked to Angus as Ginger spoke about going swimming. When angus looked to her she smiled " of course not, but if it starts to get too cold, you come home , okay" she told her