LONDON CALLING

Kaden looked at Jessie and chuckled " I'll come he has no sence of what should be packed." Kaden said moving to Jessie who just shrugged.

"Hey ushaly its get everything in one bag quick as possible." Jessie said making Kaden chuckled softly. Jack looked and stepped back from both of them,

"Dont look at me Im terrable thats why Jess does all our packing" he said making Kaden and Jessie laugh. Kaden looked at Kate and nodded to her.

"well thats settled. " he said and held out his arm for her " shall we." he asked being the gentelman he was and obviously had learned from Michael towards women.

"Yes, please. Thank you," Kate said, drawing her wand. She didn't believe Kaden had any idea where Michael lived, so she believed she would need to do the apparating. She flicked her wand and apparated them to Michael's front walk that led through his front garden to the doorstep to his stone cottage.

"I've always liked this little cottage," Kate told Kaden. "Robert and I bought it several years ago when Khaat was finishing Hogwarts, and we knew she was going to want to be on her own. This little place was for sale at a ridiculous price because it needed some updates, so we bought it and updated it, and Khaat lived here from the time that she graduated school until she moved in with Brian, right after Abbey was born. Michael was looking for a little place to call him so he could stop hopping from flat to flat, and when Khaat moved in with Brian, well, we offered it to him, and he's been here ever since. Just be a bit sociable with the furniture and you shouldn't have much problem. The furniture got enchanted several years ago when one of Khaat's spells went all wonky, and we've all gotten to like them. So here they all still are."

She walked up to the door, and was going to knock, but Snidely threw open the door, and seemed to be excited to see her. He hugged her, as well as any well mannered hat rack could do, and the dogs all started to bark, apparently glad for some company.

"Hello, Snidely," Kate laughed. "I'm glad to see you too. This is a friend. His name is Kaden. Be nice to him now, won't you?" The hat rack nodded, and gestured for Kate and Kaden to come in. "Snidely, Michael is going to be staying with us for a few days, and so we've come to pick up a few things for him. Can you find his duffel for us?" The hat rack nodded and dashed up the stairs, and Kate proceeded to greet Otto, Faline and all the puppies.

Kaden stood in awe of the chocolate box cottage that stood infront of him " its beautiful" he said softly as he followed listening to her tell him about the place and how long they had lived there. " to me this is perfection" he said and smiled seeing a hatrack hug Kate as it opened the door. When she introduced him to it he smiled " pleasure to meet you." he said politly then followed her inside.

He had to admit he was taken a little ababck by the foot stool dogs but he found them cute in their own way. " I bet their a hand full" he said as one jumped up on his knee. " um sorry but i think Milo would not like it if I brought you home." he said and looked at Kate "Thats my black and white Cornish Rex." he explained " hes very teratorial, but keeps me on the straight and narrow."

"It is a pretty little place," Kate said. "Michael enjoys puttering around in the flowerbeds, and when they're all in bloom, the place is splendid." She watched as Snidely dashed upstairs and brought back a duffle bag, and in it the hat rack had chucked some of Michael's clothes--a pair of pajamas, a robe, slippers, boxers, socks, plain white t shirts, some jeans, some shirts, a cardigan, a pair of sweats, and toiletries. "Oh, well done," Kate said, "Thank you, Snidely. You know his favorites. Well done indeed." The things weren't folded, but rather crammed into the bag. Kate understood that folding things might be out of the skills set for a hat rack, so she handed the bag to Kaden, hoping Kaden might be able to pack things more neatly and efficiently.

"You might be surprised at how well a cat and a dog can learn to get along," Kate laughed. "Especially when the dogs are upholstered. Cats often learn that if they make friends with the dogs, the dogs make a handy place to take a nap, particularly if the dog happens to sit in a sunny spot." She went over to the fireplace mantel and found Michael's pipe and a tin of tobacco, and she set them with the duffle bag.

"The study is through there, Kate pointed at the door that was on the left of the front door. "The study is in there. See if you can find the books that Robert was talking about, would you, please, Kaden? I'll see if I can find the dog carrier."

Snidely heard Kate mention the dog carrier, and he dashed off to the kitchen and came back with the dog carrier and the market basket that Michael used to carry the dog supplies in and presented both to her like he'd found a couple of trophies.

"You are completely indispensable, Snidely," she smiled. "Thank you so much. Now, while I try to find the puppies, would you be kind enough to show Kaden around the kitchen so he can gather up all the right things for the dogs?" Snidely got excited, loving to be of service. "Kaden, I defy you to find a butler in all of England that loves his job nearly so well as Snidely does," Kate said.

Kaden took the duffel bag from snidly and took everyth thing out placing them over the back of the couch before folding them correctly and placing them with in the bag again. He chuckled at Kates words " I dought there is any" he said " he'smc ertaily one of a kind." he moved from the shirts to the trousers and made sure everything was folded so no creases would appear on the clothing. Next socks and underwear, each rolled inside each oyther to save space. Finally he picked up a pipe and wrtapped it inside a pair of socks. " just so it dosn't break" he said explaining what he was doing as he saw snidly watching him closely. The last thing he placed in was the tobacco tin making sure it would not pop open he then pulled the zipp closed. Moving to the study he found the for mentioned books and gathered them up.

"okay I think we have everything" he said shrinking the books down to store in the duffel bag. He picked it up and stood waiting for Kate and the dogs.

"If you play poker, Snidely is a mean poker player," Kate laughed. "We've all lost quite a handful of change to him. We try not to play for big stakes because if we did, we'd lose it all to him." Kate found a shallow cardboard box with a blanket in it that served as a bed for the puppies, and she scooped up the dogs and loaded them into the carrier. Then she gathered up their bowls, their leashes, and the tins of finely minced black socks and finely minced argyle socks and put them into the market basket. She even found a box of freshly laundered socks that had not been diced up yet, and she tucked those into the market basket so that there was extra food for them.

Then, as a last thought, she double checked the fridge and the biscuit tins and packed up any foods that would surely go bad before Michael got home, and she packed those as well.

"I think we have it," she told Kaden. "I'd like to walk up to Honeydukes if you don't mind. Michael loves their fudge. I'd like to get him a bit and treat him with a little. You don't mind a quick trip to the candy store, do you?"

Kaden followed Kate taking and shrinking as much as he could to go in the bag. " not at all, I know some one else with a sweet tooth for that fudge too" he smiled " I belive Jessie got into it thanks to Michael, I should get some for him too." He left the duffel bag by the front door on a small table.

" I can see why Michae loves this place and the things in it, its homly" he said smiling as he looked around. " do you need a hand with the pups or have you got it" he asked picking one with light pink tasles on.

"I've got it, thanks," Kate smiled. "I found he had a tin full of freshly baked shortbread biscuits that he drizzled chocolate ganache over. They won't be fresh by the time he gets home, so I packed the whole tin. He will appreciate that I thought to bring them along. He likes to cook and bake for others. It will please him if he knows others are enjoying his biscuits. Alright, let's go over to Honeydukes." She picked up the dog carrier and the market basket and walked across the street to Honeydukes and went around to their front door and went in.

The aroma of fudge cooking hit Kate in the face, and she took in a deep breath and smiled.

"God, that smells good," she said to Kaden. "It's a good thing I don't get in here very often. I'd weigh 30 stone. Michael is right, you know. They make the best fudge. They have a secret recipe that they've been making here for generations. I have no idea what they do different, but I can't begin to make it taste like theirs."

She picked up a large handful of chocolate frogs and put them on the counter and then ordered some licorice wands and some ice mice, some Bertie Botts beans, and some other things. There was no shortage of people in her house with sweet tooths, so she made sure to get a great variety of their favorites, along with several different kinds of fudge.

"Pick what you want, Kaden," Kate told him. "My treat." She turned to look at him, and she saw a figure in a cloak go past the shop window outside, and it made her shiver. She got that old feeling of ice in her veins that always told her someone who practice the dark arts was nearby. It made her shiver. She went to the window and looked out, but the figure was gone.

"I must be seeing things," she said to Kaden. "I thought I saw someone, but there's no one there."

Kaden followed Kate into Honeydukes and he paused taking in the smells around him. He chuckled at Kates words but then shook his head " Thank you but, Im sorry but I don't have a sweet tooth." he told her " I love the smell I don't realy indulge myself" he said and looked at all the coulorful treats around. He moved to the fudge and picked out Jessies favorate, vanilla fudge placing several peices into a bag and closing it.

Kaden glanced at a reflection and then heard Kate speacking " well your not seeing things." he said walking over to her after paying for the fudge. " I saw someone watching us through the reflection." he placed the bag in his pocket. " I think for saft we should head back asap" he said softly to her, " could be the shape shifter, or one of Geldings men."

"Well, if you saw them too, then I wasn't seeing things," Kate said, not that she had ever seen things that weren't there. "That occurred to me too, Kaden. The only one we know it can't be is the shapeshifter that is locked in the box down in Robert's lab. Unless someone let her out, but I think that's unlikely. Yes, the sooner we get back to the farm, the better."

Kate paid for the purchases she and Kaden bought, and she left the shop, now feeling pressed to get back home. On a hunch, she walked partway down the alley back towards Michael's and saw the cloaked figure standing in Michaels yard, aiming a wand at the house, shouting an incantation.

"They're going to set his house on fire!" Kate exclaimed. "We've got to stop them!" She used her medallion to summon help, and then apparated the short distance back to Michael's house. "Kaden, don't let anything happen to Snidely or to the dogs! They mean the world to Michael. I'll try to draw their attention." She fired an expelliarmus spell at the figure in the yard, hoping to draw their fire before they could actually set the house on fire.