LONDON CALLING

Ruby smiled and then laughed " yes thats the right words " she could not help chuckle at his expreshion of 'looking like the south end of a northbound cow' " that sounds about right for hear too" she said sitting down " and its why I agreed I know hes good at what he does, and hes only protecting his family and thats every one not just me and our child ether and good idea never know when my father will strike." she shook her hed and looked abck at the duplex for a moment then the kitchen " welp I better get to cooking for supper" she told him " an army marches on its stomach, so they say." she smiled.

Returning to the kitchen she placed down some eggs, self-raising flour,  grated Zuccini,  onion, finely chopped some rindless bacon, chopped, grated cheddar cheese and some vegetable oil to make the zuccini slices for dinner.

Lee apparated over to the duplex, and Andrew, having relayed the message, apparated back as well.

"Do you need any sort of help with anything for supper tonight?" Michael asked Ruby, coming into the kitchen. "I don't think we'll need to make because I don't think anyone got into the desserts that Lizzie sent from Sparks earlier, but I'll be happy to help out with whatever you need."

Angus had dozed off uncontrollably over at the duplex, and Lee sat down with Angus's meticulous paperwork, and studied it all out. Angus had seemed to cover all his bases better than Lee had thought he might. Angus had clearly given this all a good deal of thought.

There were some new envelopes that Angus had not opened yet before he had dozed off. Lee opened them and had begun to study them. It made no sense. It looked like Reginald had gotten paid very well for his evil jobs. But, in another envelope, there were copies of applications that Reginald had filled out for financial assistance for school expenses for Ruby's younger brothers. Lee didn't see where Reginald needed it. They had a number of hidden bank accounts that had money. But yet, Ruby's brothers had been issued used robes from a used clothing bank for the needy. They'd gotten all sorts of used clothing, used textbooks, used cauldrons, everything. Lee was infuriated. He kept digging, and then he had found that Ruby's mother had taken signficant money from one of the accounts had been buying jewelry--expensive jewelry with it--and lots of it. Their home was in debt. The house payments hadn't been made in some time, and the bank was threatening foreclosure. Clearly, Tyler wanted to look like he was impoverished. That, Lee believed, was a smoke screen to hide what he truly did for a living and how much money he really did have. And Ruby's mother was spending money lavishly on jewelry and clothes. Lee figured it was to help her to rise up in Gelding's organization, independent of whatever Reginald was doing. And it also looked like Reginald had been looking at perhaps buying a home in South America, of all places.

Lee woke Angus and showed him of Reginald's deliberate scheming to make Ruby's brothers look impoverished. Angus was outraged. He immediately asked for Lee's help in sending a check to Hogwarts with enough money to pay for new robes, new clothes, new books, new cauldrons, new wands, and everything else they might need, along with a bit of spending money for each boy. He sent it, with a letter to the headmaster explaining that Ruby was the boys' older sister and he was Ruby's husband, and that they had just found out about 'the boys' unfortunate financial situation,' and asked that the funds be used at once to put the boys' situation to rights, and that, if the boys needed anything at all, the school had but to ask. He signed the note 'Sincerely, Angus and Ruby Donohue." And he sent the funds and the letter off at once. He hoped Ruby wouldn't mind that he had taken measures to take care of the boys immediately and he had stepped in and paid for it out of his own pocket.

Ruby smiled at Michael and nodded " I would love some help" she said " I have a sort of meal but nothing to go with it." she said looking at what she'd made "I think coffee and tea should be okay to drink but if you want to add a cold drnk please do." she thought about the desrt from sparks and nodded " I agree we can use them for supper" she said placing them on a plate and placing them on a shelf in the fridge ready to just go on the table. " oh I made short bread bucuits to have with tea coffee or hot chocolate after if any one wants some." she showed him them on a plate under a clear glosh.

" I realy shouldn't over do my self but..it helps take my mind off things" she said with a smile " at least Im not making bread...yet" she chuckled but continued to make ready the supper food . " maybe make some fresh fruit juice we can have in teh morning, please." she asked

"Hm...Let me check the fridge," he said. He went into the walk in fridge and came back with a container of some beautiful looking sea bass fillets. "This will be perfect. These fillets are beautiful, and we should use them anyway while they're looking this fresh. I can do a quick grill on them. I'll do a very hasty southwestern style corn relish--which is sort of like a corn chutney--it will have a smoky and zesty taste but it won't be hot. I'll spoon a little on each fillet when we serve it and I'll leave more relish on the table in case someone wants to add more. It'll be a perfect pairing with the zucchini, and it won't take more than a few minutes once I get the grill heated up outside. The shortbread looks great."

He went outside and filled the large grill with charcoal and got it started so that the coals had time to heat up to the right temperature to grill the fish. Michael went back inside and got the fish ready to take outside and got his barbeque equipment ready. He was just about ready to start floating things out when an owl came to the window. He took an envelope from the owl and fed it a treat. The envelope was addressed to Ruby Donohue.

"Letter for you, Ruby," Michael said.

The letter read: "Ruby, the headmaster just told us about the money you sent, and he says its enough to buy both of us all new robes, new uniforms, new winter cloaks, new gloves, new hats, new textbooks and all new equipment--including new cauldrons. (Victor's cauldron cracked at the beginning of last year, so we've been trying to share mine, and the thing is rusted almost clear through. We'll be glad to get our new ones.) And all new clothes and shoes. Our heads of house are going to take us out shopping so that everything fits. They say there is more than enough money for us to each finally have our own owls, maybe even dress robes for the Yule Ball, with plenty of spending money left over. We won't misuse it, we promise.

"Hey, when did you get married? Who is this chap? He must be rich, is he? Would we like him, and when do we get to meet him? Thanks again, Sam."

Ruby looked at the sea bass and nodded " that would be perfect and the sooner we use it the least likly for it to go off" she said just as the owl entered the window with a leter.She paid little attenshion untill Michel said it ws for her. Opening it she quietly read and smiled " that man is heaven sent" she said and looekd at Michael " He sent money to my brothrs to get them new things for school, sounds like my perents wern't even providing for the twins, Victor wrote he was glad becuse his coldern cracked and they've been sharing Sam's, if I had known I would have helped but I guess thats something my perents failed to do." she now smiled feeling warm and happy that Angus had taken it upon himself to take on her brothers welfare.

" Okay I have to pop over there , i won't stay long" she told Micahel and aperated over to the duplex. Walking over to Angus she lent down letter in hand and kissed him deeply and passiononatly " thank you, We got this from my brothers." she sat next to him and handed him the letter to read. " it seems my perents neglected them too, but thank you for what you did for them , it will make things a whole lot better."

"You're welcome," he kissed her. "Ru, I've been looking into your parents' assets. Your dad has some decent sized accounts, and your mom has been putting a heavy drain on one of the to buy designer dresses and shoes and diamond jewelry. She's been buying herself diamonds, and your dad is looking at putting a bid on a 8 bedroom house in South America. And, he's applied for hardship monies for your brothers so that they've been outfitted with used clothing and school supplies from charity rooms. It's a damned shell game to try to hide from the authorities what sort of work your parents actually do. And its bulls***. So you know, I just now sent the evidence I have on your parents to Robert, and he's on his way right now to some of his contacts in the wizengamot. I'm--in both our names--seeking emergency temporary custody of your brothers. I think this will be more than enough evidence now to get custody. If that happens, I will tell the school that they are not to allow any contact whatsoever between them and your parents. I don't know if your brothers will be pissed off at me or not, but I really don't care. They don't need the likes of your parents in their lives."

Ruby sat and listened to him talk when he was done she smiled " they won't, they actualy asked to meet you and thank you them selves , so they know whose looking out for them, and good they deserve to know how they should have been looked after and we can do that for them." she thought for a moment and smiled again " I agree, we should have full custody of them, and your right all that money and they spent it on them selves leaving us kids in the gutter, no, our child won't know that only love, and my brothers will know what having a true brother in law whose selfless means" she placed the letter down next to him " here I'll leave the letter so you can read it for your self, it looks like Victor wrote the leter and Sam put a note at the bottom of his own." she said.

Ruby looked at Andrew and smiled " you'd love them both, there typical boys, they love to climb trees, although Sam can be a bit quiet to start but once you get him out of his shell hes quite the talker." she said with a smile. Standing she kissed Angus again " I should get back don;t want to be here to long" she said then remebered her potion" I'll just grab my potion from the bathroom" she said and headed up the stairs, returning with teh bottle in her hand.

"I will try to wind this up as soon as I can, Ru," he told her, yawning tiredly, "so you can be home again." Andrew didn't say a word, but he was concerned that Angus was trying to push past his fatigue to keep going at this. Andrew didn't know Robert well, but he was guessing that Robert would not want Angus to be working this hard quite yet. Angus was glad Ruby had remembered her potion. After she went back to the other building, he considered her brothers, and how angry he was at her parents' inexcusable behavior towards the boys. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

So, he contacted the bank that held the mortgage on Reginald and Suzanne's house and he deliberately bought it out from underneath them at the foreclosure price and arranged payment. If Reginald thought he could play games with his own children, Angus was going to show him what the consequences of that were going to be.

Lee cautioned him about doing too many aggressive acts against Reginald and Suzanne, but Angus didn't care. This act of stripping Reginald of his house was about the boys and the numerous indignities the boys had surely suffered at school and how many times he knew they had had to deal with being made fun of because of Reginald's game playing. Reginald was not going to look like he was capable of being a larger fish in Gelding's pond if he couldn't even manage to keep ownership of a middle class house. Their careers with Gelding might well be in jeopardy now, and Angus wasn't disappointed. Then he scribbled a note to Ruby.

"Oh, by the way, I just bought your parents' house. They've got 30 days to find someplace else to live or they're going to be sleeping on a park bench somewhere. As I see it, that's what happens when you can't manage to take care of your kids."

Ruby apperated back to the kitchen and started to hed up to their room but was stopped by a note floating to her . Opening it she could not help but laugh out loud in a fit of laughter." Oh Angus thats the best yet" she said even though she knew he could not hear her. " its what he deserves." she could not help laugh all the way to their room with tears rolling down her face from laughing so much. Soon she stopped and just smiled as she went to shower ready for supper.

Walking down to the kitchen again she smiled at Michael " hows the fish coming ,sorry for poofing away like that" she said " oh do you want a laugh, Angus just bought my perents morgage from the bank, so now we own their house" she said tying not to burst out in laughter again. Focusing her self she smield " turns out my father and mother have been splerging on themselves and leaving my brothers with nothing. Angus sent some money to Hogwarts to get them new things becuse they only had used and part warm items, now though they had brand new and some spending money to go with it." she explained " and I love that man to bits more for it." she chuckled smiling.

"Okay, I would completely expect him to take care of your brothers if he found out they were being mistreated like that. That's just who he is," Michael said. "But the house? That was just a great touch. Fish is almost ready to serve. I just have to get it off the grill. Give me just a couple minutes."

He had some serving platters, and he took off each fillet with much care and spooned some of southwestern corn relish on top of each fillet and a squeeze of fresh lime, putting several fillets on each platter. He floated in one platter after another until he had about 4 large platters of sea bass fillets, and each platter held 6-8 fillets of sea bass.

"Watch out for flying fish," he called as the fillets started to float into the kitchen. " I'll be in to fix a tray for the duplex if you want to call the others for supper."

Lee returned to the main house, knowing the supper would soon be ready, and Lee wanted to try to take a moment to update Robert whenever Robert arrived home from a day at St. Mungo's. Angus asked Andrew to brew a pot of coffee, and Andrew sat down on the arm on Angus's recliner and looked at him square in the face.

"You're doing everything that Robert and Nigel told you not to do," Andrew said. "The reason you want coffee is that you've overdone it, and you're drained. You need to shut it down for the night and get some rest straight after supper."

"Well, maybe you're right," Angus sighed. As he was starting to close up his notes and books, one of the outside crew members knocked on the door. Andrew let him in.

"There's a woman at the gate who insists on seeing you. Haven't ever seen her before. Blonde woman. Wears too much perfume." He handed her a business card. It read: Suzanne Tyler, Event Planner.

"I just bet she plans events," Angus said sarcastically.

"You don't need to see her just because she's shown up," Andrew said. "You know why she's here."

"Of course I do," Angus said. "Andrew, transform my clothes, would you? I'd like some sort of clothes that says power and money. Then we're going to let her in."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."