LONDON CALLING

"How did you know I had sent a message to Robert?" Angus asked. "I didn't actually ask him to come along. I only asked him to come over here so I could see him before I went. that's all." There was a knock on the door, and then Robert let himself in.

"Dressed to go, are you?" Robert smiled. "Good. Alright, so Lee and I have figured out the best way for you to go and return, and I had Michael make a couple of portkeys. Lee is sending three of his men and Andrew. The three men will be guards. Andrew, of course, will be your attendant. I'm sending Marcus along as your fourth guard. Brian is going with Khaat to St Mungos this morning. Marcus knows the way and he has one of the portkeys." He handed the other one to Angus. "So here's what I think you should do. Take the portkey to Hogsmeade to the station, and you'll be able to hire two carriages from there. I suggest that you and Ruby and Marcus and Andrew ride in one carriage, and then the other three guards and the wheelchair would go in the second carriage. They can take you straight to the main entrance of the castle and wait for you. When you finish, you can simply reverse the process. If you get into any trouble at all, use your alarms. If you decide to bring the boys home for any reason, put the boys in the carriage with you, and then Marcus can ride up front with the driver, and Andrew can ride in the back. I wouldn't make extra side trips. I'd get back, as tempting as it might be since its the first you've been out since you got back from Romania, but let's not do it today."

"I wasn't even thinking of it," Angus said.

"Marcus will be here shortly. I'm putting him in charge of this detail to get you there and back," Robert said. "I think you should apparate from inside the house and apparate back inside so that Reginald won't have any way of knowing if you're here or not. I think if you can grip the arms of your chair, your guards can take hold of you, and you shouldn't have any trouble apparating with your chair since it is really lightweight."

"That's fine," Angus said.

A couple of minutes later, three of Lee's men arrived, along with Marcus.

"Looks like we're ready," Marcus said. "Shall we go?"

"Yes, please," Angus said.

When everyone was assembled, Marcus ported everyone to the train station in Hogsmeade. So far, so good. Marcus and the guards were already looking in every direction to make sure the coast was clear.

"Stay sharp," Marcus told the guards. They nodded, and Marcus left them to go to rent the carriages. He rented two coaches to take them to the castle. Marcus had had the choice of an open style cart or a closed coach, and he chose the closed coach. He did not want any chance of Tyler taking any wand shots anywhere along the way. It took a bit to get the coaches hired and for them to be ready to take on passengers. Angus absolutely hated that he could not get into or out of the carriage on his own, but he didn't say a syllable of complaint about it. The guards made quick easy work of levitating him into the carriage and then offered to help Ruby in. Marcus and Andrew took the their places in the rear facing seats in the same carriage while the other men loaded the wheelchair into the other coach and got in.

The coach ride itself was not unpleasant, though, and Angus did enjoy parts of it. Marcus did not want them to be too visible from the windows, so he encouraged them to simply sit back and enjoy the ride.

When they arrived, they were met at the entrance by the deputy headmaster.

"Mr and Mrs Donohue?" the man asked.

"Yes," Angus said. "I'm Angus Donohue, this is my wife, Ruby, and these are my assistants, Marcus and Andrew."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. You're right on time. The headmaster is expecting you. Has it been awhile since you've been here?"

"It's been three or four years for me," Angus said, "since the charity ball here for underprivileged students."

"Oh, yes. I've heard of that," The deputy headmaster said, leading them through the entrance hall. "That was before my time here, but I hear it was quite the affair."

"It was," Angus smiled. "Minister Lupin and the school raised quite a lot of money that night."

"That's what I understand," he said. When they reached the headmaster's tower, the deputy headmaster used a simple password to open the stairs and to get the stairs to accommodate Angus's chair. Marcus motioned Ruby to step onto the stairs with him first, so Andrew could then move Angus's chair onto the steps. That moved all of them upstairs to the headmaster's office.

"Mr and Mrs Donohue with their attendants to see you, Headmaster Ogden," the deputy headmaster announced them.

"Thank you," the headmaster said, rising and leaving his desk. He came down the six steps from his desk to the main floor of his office. "Welcome to Hogwarts. It's a pleasure to put some faces with the couple that has been sending me letters and taking such a strong interest in Sam and Victor." He motioned them to a seating area. "Sit down. May we offer you something to drink? Perhaps some tea?"

"No thank you, I'm fine," Angus said.

"I presume they are," the headmaster said. He looked up at the deputy headmaster, "Do you know?"

"They are, Headmaster," the deputy replied. "They had planned on going to the lake to swim this morning, and I asked them not to go until this afternoon after we finished our shopping trips to Diagon Alley for them. Shall I get them for you?"

"Not just yet," the headmaster said. "I think the adults need to talk first. So, can you tell me exactly what the family situation is so that i understand it?"

"Well, my wife and I are employed by Robert Lupin, and as you can imagine, the demands upon the Minister have not stopped just because he is no longer in office. He continues to get requests for assistance, especially from those who have perhaps found themselves being taken advantage of by dark arts practitioners. It was in the course of some of those requests for aid that we discovered that my in laws are not what they have let people to believe. We have reason to believe they have, in fact, committed some very serious crimes. The moment we were made aware that Mr. and Mrs. Tyler had applied for hardship funds for the boys we became concerned that they were not caring for Sam and Victor as they should. And, as you know, when I was able to confirm that, I sent you the monies that you received yesterday to provide for them."

"So you know, Mr. Donohue, that is the first funding we have ever received for the boys," the headmaster said. "They've gotten by with whatever clothing they had to bring with the, and then we've managed to scrape together some funds to help them, and sometimes the parents of their friends have donated some things for them. The boys are, for the most part, well behaved and well liked. They do slack a bit on their studies, especially on Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Sam would much prefer hanging out in the owlery with the owls, and Victor seems to have a knack for herbology. They're good boys, despite their parents. My apologies, Mrs. Donohue."

"Well, it was those concerns that made us reach out and apply for temporary custody. The boys deserve better, and we will make sure their needs are met. They will have a home with us. As of now, so you know, their parents are homeless, so we will be providing for them henceforth. I would appreciate it if the boys had no contact with either their mother or their father. Here is a copy of the custody order for your files." Angus handed him a copy of the custody papers, and the headmaster read them.

"Well, it all does seem to be in order," he replied to Angus.

"Yes, Mrs. Donohue," the headmaster said. "Your husband made that very clear in his letter to me last night. Since you were a student here, you will probably recall that their parents can't simply come onto school grounds and make off with them. Your husband advised us last night that the two of you had custody now and that the boys were not to have any contact with their parents. Obviously, I would presume that would include going with them. Since you and your husband now have custody, we would only release them to the two of you. However, the boys are old enough to go to Hogsmeade on the weekends. Do you have any opinions about that?"

"I would prefer to talk to the boys ourselves first," Angus said. "Since their parents are being sought by the authorities for possible serious criminal activity, I would want to make sure we've seen to the boys' safety. If we can do that somehow and still allow the boys to go to Hogsmeade with their friends, i have no objections. If we cannot keep them safe off school grounds, then I would be inclined to not give them such permissions."

"I have a question. Your address seems to be the same address as Minister Lupins' daughter and her husband. How does that work?"

"Brian Quinn's property is quite large, and my wife and i have our own home on those same grounds. The boys will have their own room in our home and will have every possible advantage. Is there any way my wife and I can see their grades to see how they fared over the last school year?"

"Certainly," the headmaster said. He picked up the boy's academic files and got out their transcripts of their grades and shared them with Ruby and Angus.

"Looks like I need to help them polish up their Defense Against the Dark Arts skills," Angus told Ruby. "The rest of it looks pretty good."

Angus wasn't sure exactly why Ruby was in such a hurry to see the boys. He did understand they were her brothers, but he didn't understand her pushing about it. But that seemed to be Ruby. When she got something on her mind, she could get pushy about it. He decided to just let go of the matter for now.

"Do you have any more questions or items of business at the moment, Mr. Donohue?" the headmaster asked.

"No, I can't think of anything, unless they have need of more money for more of their needs," Angus replied.

"No, your check was exceptionally generous," the headmaster said. "We will help them manage the money so that they have all they need with money leftover. Thank you." He looked at the deputy headmaster. "Please take the Donohues to the clocktower courtyard and let them visit for a bit with the boys."

"Of course, Headmaster," the deputy said.

"Thank you for all your help, Headmaster," Angus said, shaking hands with the headmaster, concluding their business. Andrew took charge of Angus's chair, and Marcus went with them, as they all went down to the clocktower courtyard. Angus was not going to involve himself in Ruby's visit with her brothers, except to be, hopefully, introduced to them. After that, he was planning on having Andrew move his chair out of the way so that she could visit with them in private.