LONDON CALLING

"Yes, please," Angus told Jessie. "Thanks. I'll have the boys take care of him as soon as they finish their breakfast. They cooked, so they should have a chance to eat before they tackle Finn's issues." He looked at Ruby. "Let's go get breakfast since they've gone to all the trouble of cooking." He got up and went inside, and he found that the boys had made scrambled eggs and toast. It was simple, but the boys were coming along in their egg making skills. "Very nice, Guys," Angus told them. "Nice, crispy bacon, and your eggs are quite good. Good job. Thanks for cooking this morning. Now, when you finish, go take care of Finn, and we'll go into London later this morning. Do you know what you're going to do with your costumes?"

"I think so," Sam said. "I think I'm going as Beedle the Bard."

"And my friends think I look a lot like Newt Scamander," Victor said. "Apparently they took some sort of a house vote and I got chosen to go as Newt Scamander. They said I should get an overcoat like Newt's and have all sorts of stuffed animals sticking out of the pockets and one on my shoulder."

"Newt, huh? Well, I might have some ideas about that," Angus said with a bit of a grin. "Leave that to me for the moment. I need to go talk to Robert or Michael anyway this morning. Let me see what I can do. We might be able to jazz that Newt costume up a little." He was just finishing his breakfast when Andrew arrived. He and Andrew went upstairs so Andrew could help him shower, shave and dress. He asked Andrew to send a note to ask Robert or Michael to give him a hand with his Halloween costume. Andrew was happy to send the note, and by the time Andrew was finishing with him, Robert arrived.

Angus discussed with Robert his frustration w/ not being able to go to the carnival on his feet. Robert discussed several different ideas about transportation that Angus might use, and Robert suggested a griffin. He suggested Angus go as Godric Gryffindor. As well as Angus could fly a hippogriff, Robert had no doubt Angus could skillfully fly a griffin too. And, since he and Kate were going, he and Kate could stay close in case Kate needed to have a conversation at any point with the griffin. Since the griffin's upper body was an eagle, Robert was sure Kate could communicate with it. Robert suggested that Ruby could go perhaps as Rowena Ravenclaw.

Jessie chuckled and headed to the barn " come on Finn" he said and let the dog walk beside him as he gathered all the things to wash him with and placed them not far from the tub.

Ruby looked back into the kitchen and nodded " looks good" she said as they walked inside and sat down to eat. Now eating she smiled " its really good guys, well done" she smiled as she finished the whole plate and then taking it to the washer. It was now she saw Robert walk over and talk to Angus as she cleaned up the kitchen when he sugested Rowena Ravenclaw she thought about is and chuckled " sure sounds a good idea." she said with a smile.

Yu walked the grounds, twice each time he saw more and more men, he sent them so they ere spaced out and filling gaps in the security he had found. Now he came across Jack by the barn. " is the little one doing well?" he asked as Jack smiled and nodded.

"yep he is , Jessie is taking care of him right now, but hes eating and drinking from his mother so alls good " Yu nodded and moved inside the barn, he psued seeing all the creatures happily living there. Hering a noise he moved to a stall where the hypogriff mother was pacing while Jessie checked the foal over as she drew close to the stall door Yu put out his hand and bowed gently, she walked over and placed her head in his hand making him smile. " he's just making sure your young is doing well" he said softly to her and if in responce she nodded.

"huh never seen a hypogriff respond to some one?" Jessie said Yu looked at him " Evan Jack dosn't get that responce."

Yu smiled and patted the females head " I respect her, she can feel that." he said taking out a suger lump to feed her with. " you give respect they return it with trust, never break that and they will be loyal." he opened the stall do for Jessie to step out. " it is how I see every thing." Yu said as he passed.

"realy?" Jessie asked and sa Yu nod his head.

The boys finished breakfast and took off to go wash the dog, and Andrew cleaned up the breakfast dishes. Robert left to go to work, and that left Angus on his own. He saw Kate heading to the barn, probably to check on the new hippogriff, and he used his outdoor chair to head over that direction.

He rolled his chair into the barn and up to the staff for the new hippogriff. Kate saw him there, and she opened the door so he could see the new arrival.

"God, Kate, he's amazing," Angus said.

"He's a fine little fellow," she smiled. "And our new mum is very happy. I gave her a lovely big pork tenderloin for her breakfast and I gave the new baby a fortified mix of minced meats, and they're now very happily full."

"Good," he said. "Anything different with the care of a little one like that?"

"No, not really, We'll supplement his foods and his mom's for the first few days because hippogriff moms tend to feed their young like a mom feeding a baby bird, but that will wear off in three or four days. And then we'll be feeding both of them pretty much the same diet," she said.

"Kate, I've got a question. Hogwarts is having a costume contest by house, and Victor's housemates have asked him to be Newt Scamander because he looks so much like him."

"Oh, how wonderful," Kate smiled. "He'll be splendid."

"Well, they suggested he put stuffed magical creatures in his pockets and on his shoulders. What if we gave him some real magical creatures to take?"

"Oh, now that would be something, wouldn't it?" She seemed delighted. "Maybe a pygmy puff, and our little niffler, and maybe Fudge? I suppose he could always borrow Archangel if we have a word with him beforehand. But we have enough animals that we should be able to do that, I should think, so long as he promises to look after them well."

"I'm sure he would," Angus said. "And they are insisting that Ruby and I go, so I could always give him a hand if he needs it."

"Well, and I think I lot of us are going, so we can all step in if we need to," she said. "What's same wanting to be?"

"Beedle the bard," he replied. She laughed out loud.

"Capital! Now that is a creative idea. What about you and Ruby?"

"Depends on whether Robert can find me a griffin to ride. I really don't want ot take the wheelchair."

"If he can't, I can," she said.

"Well, Robert and I talked about Godric Gryffindor for me and maybe Rowena Ravenclaw for Ruby. What are you two doing?"

"Robert really has his heart set on a pirate captain, and he's asked me to go as a fortune teller," she laughed.

"He needs a parrot," Angus laughed.

"Don't tell him, but I'm already working on renting one for him. He won't be amused, but he shall have one," she gave him a mischievous smile. "Suppose Edward and Simone will go?"

"I don't think they'd miss it," Angus said. "I should fix some sort of a Halloween supper that night before the carnival, with maybe some pumpkin cookies or some caramel apples or something."

"Let's do it early, so we can send some Halloween treats to the boys at the school. We can make enough that they can share with their houses. I'll be happy to help with that.

"Aren't you doing a costume for Abbey?"

"It's nearly finished. She wanted to be a cornish pixie. Too bad we cant let her tag along with Sam and Victor because her costume actually would work very well with Victor's."

"I think they're counting on having some time with her at the carnival. Oh, enough party talk. I really need to get back into the kitchen, so I'll see if I cant get into the kitchen on my feet. I haven't figured out how to ride in this chair and take the other one over to the main house at the same time."

"Well, go in and sit, and I'm sure we can get your chair to you," she said.

"Thanks," he said, heading to the main house, knowing that kitchen help had been scarce lately. He figured perhaps they were waiting for him to take that on again, so he was going to try to step up before they started pressuring him to do it. He wasn't at all sure what he was going to fix for lunch and supper, though. Not at all.

Sam and Victor finished with the dog, who took off like a shot, running into the yard and shaking off the water while the boys started to clean up the tub and the supplies.

Jessie filled the bath with warm water for them and placed the shampoo next to it. Seeing them walking over he motioned for Finn to get in the tub which he did then sat waiting for sam and Victor to start washing him down. Jessie stepped back and let them wash Finn " don't get the water or shampoo in his eyes." he told them and stood holding the two towels for them once he was clean.

Ruby looked at Angus as he spoke about the fair again and what they had been requested to wear or suggested they could wear. " I like the idea of Rowena Ravenclaw," she said knowing she'd have to find a picture of her to get an idea of how to dress for the fair. When he spoke to Kate she smiled and chuckled " I think that's a marvellous idea, will so add to the costume."

"Robert has a copy of the history of Hogwarts over in the library at the farm," Kate said, "and I know there are pictures of the founders' paintings in there. But, you might do well at the costume shop in Diagon Alley. I'm sure there have been other people over the years that have dressed as the founders. I can tell you that in the portrait of her as a young woman, she's wearing a royal blue dress. In the portrait of her when she's older, she's wearing a black dress. And don't forget she has that lovely, distinctive headpiece with the oval sapphire in it. I bet if we can't find a copy of that headpiece, Michael certainly knows where we can get one. He'll need to help us come up with a replica of the Gryffindor sword anyway. Alright, I think I'm finished here. I need to go take Angus his indoor chair, unless you'd prefer to do that? He's headed off to the kitchen."

Angus made his way to the main house and he made a brief check of the pantry and of the fridge. Things were getting pretty low, so he knew he needed to get another inventory done so that he knew what they were out of. And he needed to order supplies today. It couldn't wait one more day. He also knew that the pumpkins were being harvested today, so he wanted to do two days' worth of cooking so that he had the kitchen free tomorrow for processing hundreds of sugar pumpkins. Lizzie usually came to help him, and many times she closed up Sparks for the day and brought her entire restaurant crew for the massive process.

He worked on the idea of a large kettle of chili and perhaps Monte Cristo sandwiches for lunch, and he had two big boxes of frozen fish filets he could use for supper tonight, if he could come up with something to go with the fish filets. He got out his clipboard and a pen and thought he would try to start on a pantry inventory, depending on how long he could manage to stand to do it.

Ruby listened to Kate and smiled " oh good idea I could ask him about that." she said and chuckled " he certainly would know where to get a copy of it" When Kate mentioned Angus's indoor chair she smiled " I'll do that, I'm going inside anyway" she told her and moved the indoor chair into the duplex and over to Angus " her's your indoor chair." she said to him placing it next to the outdoor one he was using.

You and Jessie had seen Kate come to the barn but stayed to one side knowing they were there to calm the animal and keep it healthy. Once she had left again Jessie picked up a pitchfork and started to muck out another hippogriffs stall Yu joined him with a second and together they had it clean in minutes.

"Thanks," Angus told her. "I was hoping I could do a good portion of this inventory without it, but I don't think so. Somehow we've gotten low on all kinds of things. I have to do a whole new inventory of the pantry, the fridge and the freezer. And I have to take all the expired perishable foods from Edward's fridge and pantry, do an inventory, and get them restocked today too. I could use your help, and Andrew' and, if the boys aren't busy, we could use them for a couple hours too. You could take one boy with you, and Andrew could take one with him. Maybe we could get it all knocked out before lunch.

"And," he continued, "I'm debating on a big pot of chili and a stack of Monte Cristo sandwiches for lunch. What do you think? We've got two big boxes of fish fillets that need to be used, so we could do those for supper with...I dont know yet. Some sort of sides." He sighed. "I have to step up with kitchen duty. People haven't been stepping in over the last few days, and Kate's just been largely stuck with it all. That's not fair to her, not when it's my job, medical leave or not, so I really need to take that off her hands."

Ruby sat Angus in his chair " Angus slow down, I'd love to help as would the boys and you know Andrew will help too" she said her voice soft as she spoke. " let them finish washing Finn and we'll start them doing some inventory , Yes I'll have one with me as we'll do Edwards fridge and pantry and add fresh stock" she told him "we'll get together a list for order" She saw a clean Finn run in and rub himself all over the floor to dry his fur more. " looks like they're done with Finn." Ruby could not contain her laugh when Jessie walked in somewhat wet.

"sorry he shook all over me, the boys are in a fit of hysterics outside," he said with a smile. " mind if I use your bathroom to dry off a little he asked and chuckled " hey I've had worse from ruby, remember when you washed me down with the garden hose," he said and Ruby nodded laughing.

"oh I do you had a run-in with a skunk, phew you stank," she said and looked at Angus.

Angus tried not to laugh when Jessie came in, wet from Finn's shaking. He listened to them talking about Jessie getting skunked, and it did make him laugh.

"So the moral of the story it that it could always be worse," Angus said. "Oh, while you're both here, just a heads up that pumpkin harvest is going on today, and that means that this kitchen will be in full pumpkin processing mode starting probably at about midnight tonight and it will run until the sugar pumpkins are all processed. Lizzie's planning on bringing the full Sparks crew to help, so its going to be a very, very busy place, and you'll probably be eating some version of pumpkin something-or-other all day tomorrow while we're cleaning and roasting and processing pumpkins tomorrow."

Kate came in and saw Angus with his clipboard, a sure sign of inventory.

"Oh, Angus, I'm sorry," she said. "I meant to get to that."

"It's fine, Kate," Angus said, "I've got it. We'll knock out the inventory and I'll get the order in and start lunch."

"What can I take off your hands, then?"

"Maybe later you could go with Ruby and help with getting the costumes for the boys and Ruby and me?"

"If you don't mind going with me?" Kate asked Ruby. "And if we don't find what we want, we can go get Robert's history book and see if our outfitters can conjure something for us. What do you think?"

Ruby listened to Angus and smiled Jessie nodded " okay pumkin day from midnight, good thing I like pumkin" he asid and Rubby chuckled. Seeing Kate enter she listened to Angus again then to kate as she asked if it was okay she go with her " I'd love that and Roberts book is a good idea for insperation, I like that idea very much" she said glancing at Jessie who held up his hands.

"oh no no way, Im on duty and Angus, your so right it could have been worse I could have nbeen dunked into the bath." he said and chuckled as he headed up to the bathroom to dry off. Ruby looked at Kate and shook her head " so we're on pumpkin porcessing tonight" she looked to Angus " what sort of things are we making?" she asked not having done this before.