LONDON CALLING

"Tell them how many we've taken altogether over these last forty years," Kate said, as she tucked into her own plate.

"I can't because I've lost count," Robert replied to her. "I don't even know anymore."

"Well, I can tell you," Kate said, "Remember, this is from over 47 years of doing this battle with Gelding, though, too. The thirty one are just the ones we have right now. Over the last 47 years, we've had guardianship of a total of 237. Obviously, that means that 206 of them have grown up, but that does tend to be what children do. I, for one, and just glad we didn't have to take them all into our home, but a place for them to be is something we thought about way back in the day when Sirius and Lily and James and Remus were still around to help us debate the question."

"Has it been that many?" Robert frowned.

"Yes," she said firmly. "I do check the records regularly, and we do have a ledger of them at the farm. I've thought we should have a place that offers nursery school and primary school onsite so that we can keep them safe. We need to expose them to fine arts, and tasks, and animals, gardening, cooking, sports, books, and as many things as we can where they can experience all kinds of things so they can learn for themselves that not only are there good things in the world but that they, themselves, are enough, and that they don't have to meet anyone else's expectations. And I absolutely think it needs to be as much like a proper home as possible and not any sort of institution looking place at all."

"Well, I've always thought it should look like a little village, with normal, family sized cottages where the kids can live in small groups of maybe up to five or six kids at a time, with house parents that would live in those cottages and be responsible only for the kids in their homes, like real parents. A village that would have little narrow paved streets with trees and flowers and streetlights and a playground.

"And," Angus continued, "I've always thought that, for example, for a library, it should look like a quaint little bookstore where they can go and sit down in a comfortable chair and read. Perhaps the art shop would look like an art supply store. They wouldn't pay anything at any of the 'shops', but the whole thing could look like a little village," Angus said. "They could ride bikes or roller skates or skateboards to their friend's houses, like normal kids do--because they are normal kids. We could have a few gift shops so that if a friend is having a birthday, they could just go pick out something at one of the gift shops to give their friend, with no cost to the child that's giving the gift."

"God, I love that idea," Kate said, excited. "They would feel, then, that they had a real home because they would be in a real home and not any ginormous place that felt like an institution. Maybe for special places, like a candy shop or an ice cream shop, they could earn a kind of currency for those places based on good behavior or payment for tasks they do."

"I think that has enormous potential," Robert said. "What do the rest of you lot think?"

"

Jessie smiled and nodded " thats a good idea, they would love that totaly" he said now lent against the counter with his arms crossed " sorry guys I got to go patrol, Jack you coming too" he said and Jack nodded standing up and kissing Jes as he did so.

"I for one agree with you it sounds like it would be heaven for those kids and realy over 200 kids , thats a lot " Ruby said and glanced at Angus " would you do that?" she asked having no objections what so ever if he did decide to start.

"Yeah," Angus replied to Ruby. "I would. I remember what it was like to not feel like I was ever going to belong anywhere. I know how bloody awful that was to not feel like anybody was going to love me ever in my lifetime. Yeah. I would do that for any kid that needed it."

"Wait," Sam said. "You didn't belong either, Dad?"

"No. I didn't. My parents were a lot like yours were. Mine were just nasty people. They did not love me, not ever, and they didn't take care of me. Edward and my grandmother took me in and gave me a place. They were the ones that raised me, and its important to me that no kid ever has to feel that they don't belong and that they aren't loved. It's why I work for the organization."

"I thought you were going to say that's why you adopted us," Victor said.

"No. We adopted you because you're family and because that's what family does. We step up. We took you in because it's where you belong. You belong with us and because we love you. You don't ever have to feel that you don't belong because you have a family that will always love you and will welcome you always."

"Sounds like you're doing a good job at this parenting stuff," Robert told Angus.

Ruby sat and listened as Angus spoke to Sam and Victor she reatched over and took his hand in hers and smiled to him " and thats why I love him so much" she said smiling as she chuckled then lent over and kissed him gently. then nodded as Robert said he was doing a good job as a perent she could not disagree. " I feel the same way" Ruby said still holding his hand in her own.

Jessie paused out side on the grass and started his ti chi to calm himself and focus his mind. Moving slowly he focused on his breathing, even Jack joined him as they did their morning work out bfore the patrols.

"You should join Jessie and Jack sometime in his tai chi, Ruby," Robert suggested, seeing Jessie and Jack working on tai chi outside. "Not only is it exceptionally beneficial for pregnancy, but it does wonders to help people learn to master anxiety. It's phenomenal for exercise, for balance, for toning, and for all sorts of things. Yoga is good too, but A lot of my pregnancy patients are going to the morning tai chi class at St. Mungos. We've had to enchant the room to make it bigger to accommodate them all. Our tai chi instructor is working right now on developing a tai chi program for parents of babies. I think its going to be called Baby and Me, but There is all sorts of evidence that it can be great for learning different safe ways to carry babies with them comfortably and to regain movement and balance."

"Speaking of classes," Angus said, "your papers on Potions are due today, Boys. Are they finished?"

"They are," Robert said. "I've read them, and they're good. With your permission, I'll send their lessons packets and their papers all in one package off to the school, unless you have something you want to send along."

"No, that would be great," Angus said, knowing he had no magic to use to send a packet.

"Consider it done," Robert said.

Outside, one of the outdoor crew walked up to Jack and cleared his throat to gently interrupt Jack.

"Excuse me, but we have a new delivery of a new creature. It's in a huge crate, and it's marked hippgriff. And the name on the crate is Astra. We think it means she's a girl hippogriff. You want us to open it, or do you want to take care of it?"

Ruby looked out the window at Jack and Jessie doing their Ti Chi " hum never thought of that, I'll start doing it with them tomorrow morning" she said then saw a man walking over to them with a crate not far from them.

Jack stopped and looked at Jessie " keep going I'll deal with this" he said and Jessie kept moving. Jack looked at the man " okay, I'll deal with it but please put the crate in the barn." he said, " I know there's a spare stall ready for her, I'll let Robert and Kate know she's arrived." Jack looked at the rate and began to walk to the barn with the man.

(fyi--there is not only a female hippogriff in the crate but also a hippgriff egg. Wiki says that hippogriff eggs hatch within 24 hours of hatching)

Andrew got up and started to clear the table of the lunch leftovers and the dirty dishes, while the boys got a couple more of the caramel apple empanadas. They saw that Abbey clearly wasn't satisfied with just one, so Sam spoiled her a little and let her have a second one.

"Sanks!" she was excited to get two desserts at lunch. Robert just smiled. She was getting along swimmingly with the boys, as if they were big brother figures for her. Robert wasn't bothered by her having the occasional second dessert.

"Victor, are you ready to get that cast off?" Robert asked him.

"God, yes," Victor said, more than ready.

"Well, let's go downstairs and take care of that," Robert said, heading down to sickbay to take off his cast.

"Aggie," Abbey called. "I see'd punkins outside. We gots lots o' punkins."

"Yes, we do," Angus laughed. "The ones you see are sugar pumpkins because i use them to make all kinds of pumpkin goodies, like cookies and scones and pies. We also have some different pumpkins for Halloween."

"Like my books? They maked punkins."

"Yes. Like your books. They cut faces in their pumpkins, didn't they?" he asked her. She nodded.

"We make punkins?"

"If you want," he said. She nodded. He looked at Sam. "I bet you and Victor could do some awesome pumpkins."

"Can we carve a few? Abbey could come with us," Sam said.

"Interested in carving pumpkins this afternoon?" Angus looked at Ruby. "There are parts of it that Abbey can do, even at her age."

Jack once at the barn he opened the crate and was suprised that not only as there a hypogriff but an egg. " wow okay we need some one to watch that " he said just as porting was heard and he frowned but lead the hypogriff to the stall as the man brought the egg. Jack took it from him and placed it in a nest of straw. The hypogriff settled dwn around it as if protecting it and Jack moved back slowly so he could close the stall gate.

Jessie focused on his ti chi as he moved he felt a hand move to his arm raising it slightly another rested on his lower back stragtening his posture. "Slow deep breaths, focus your thoughts and mind so your senses sharpen" he heard Yu's soft voice behind him. It was now Yu moved to face him and followed his actions but more precise and flowing. "your body is an exstention of posative energy, let it flow as you move." he said softly his eyes never leaving Jessies.

Soon he stopped and made Jessie stop to " I will see Robert and let him know I am here." he said heading to the house and picking up his bag as he moved to the door and knocked before slipping off his shoes. Ruby smiled at Sam as he gave Abby another desert then they spoke of pumpkin carving and she smiled " oh I haven't done that in years" she said and smiled to Angus " I sure am intrested but please don't judge if it looks more like a durpy pumpkin" she said and chuckled to him.

Andrew opened the door to see a Chinese man at the door. He presumed this must be the new guy, but he wasn't sure how the man had gotten here, since Angus told him they were going to pick him up in Paris. Angus hadn't given Yulong a portkey for the estate because he planned to have someone bring him instead.

"Come in," Andrew told him. "I'm Andrew. I'm Angus's personal assistant. I believe you're expected. He's in the dining room."

"How many punkins we gots, Aggie?" Abbey asked.

"Lots," he told her, "but we're not going to carve all of them. I need to make some pumpkin butter and some other things."

"So where are these pumpkins?" Sam asked.

"Well, we have two different fields of them. If you go out to the fields, the ones that are the closest to the house are the sugar pumpkins. But--if have Jack take you out, go north. Not to the northwest sector. That's the dangerous one. Have Jack or Jessie take you out to the northeast sector, almost right to the northeastern corner of the estate. Edward planted a surprise out there. You'll have to hitch up a two horse team and a wagon and take the wagon with you. I think you'll find something out there that you'll like," Angus said. "Bring some back in some different sizes.

(In the very farthest field from the house, Edward planted some regular size pumpkins in the front half of that field. And in the back half, he planted some giant pumpkins--the kind that can weigh several hundreds of pounds per pumpkin. Avg weight on a giant pumpkin can be anywhere from 68 kg to over 910 kg. Those could be fun. rofl)

Yulong saw the door open and an man standing infront of him he nodded and bowed a little "I am Yulong I thnk you." he said stepping in leaving his shoes outside the door with his bag in his hand. He moved to the dinning room where he saw Angus and bowed to him. "i managed to finish my jobs early" he said to him "I beg your forgivness for ariving early and interupting you and your family." he said Ruby looked at Angus.

"This the gentelman?" she asked looking at Angus for confermation that this man was all right. Once she saw it she smiled " nice to meet you Yu, I'm Jessies sister Ruby" she said as she cleaned up Abby and took the dirty plates to the dishwasher. Yu movd forward placing his bag down out of the way " please alow me" he asid gathering the ret of the dishes and placing them into the washer and set it going.