A Birth day

Simone had made a couple of bonfires to warm the pack members and then gone back to the yard, and Michael had gotten some folding camp chairs from the barn and he had put them around the bonfires and had put on a few pots of tea and coffee in case they needed to warm themselves. Nicky had sent some coolers of raw meat, knowing that they would not want cooked food, most of them.

Simone saw Kate arrive with the first bunch. She could tell they were cold, hungry, frightened and tired. She went over to the bunch of them.

"Welcome," she told them. "You're safe here for now. I'm sure you're cold and tired. We have hot drinks for you, and we have some food for you in case you're hungry. We have a camp for you set up that is well protected."

"Are they ready for us?" Kate asked.

"Getting there," Simone said.

"Come with me. I'll take you," Kate told them. They went with her, and in a few minutes, Michael looked up and saw Kate coming with a group of women and children.

"Jack, Kate's here with the first bunch," Michael called, as he finished setting up an improvised table with styrofoam cups for the tea and coffee and some paper plates for the meat. He had a couple of soup pots that he was starting to make some pots of cocoa and hot cider for the children in, and he was going to put the over the fire to heat. "There's coffee and tea on the fire for them, Jack, and I'm just heating some cocoa and hot cider," Michael told him.

"Their pack has 73 members without Fenrir, they told us," she told Jack quietly. "38 adults, 17 adolescents, 12 children, and 6 babies. Every one of us is going to bring 14 or 15. There are already people searching the forest, so we're going to try to bring them all in one trip for each of us. It looks like the men have packed things to carry everything they own. My guess is they don't have a lot to begin with but they surely don't want to leave any clues or evidence behind."

Back in the forest, Edward and Marcus helped Andrew get a group together and helped them to attach to each other and to Andrew. He had the rest of the adolescents and children along with a couple of women. When they were all together, Andrew ported them to the back yard. Victor saw this bunch come in as he was bringing medical supplies from the main house.

"Where are they?" Andrew asked Victor.

"This way," Victor said. He noticed the teens and the children were looking at him, surprised to see a fellow kid here. "Hi, Guys," Victor said. "It's cool. You can chill. We're on your side, okay? Come on. Your camp is this way, so follow us." The kids fell in line and followed Victor, seeming to bond quickly with someone their own age. He and Andrew brought back the second group.

"We've got the rest of the kids, Jack," Victor called when they arrived.

"Good work, Victor," Kate called. "There are a lot of hot drinks if you all could use a warm up. Coffee and tea over at that fire on the left, and cocoa and hot cider at the fire on the right. And there is meat in the coolers on the table if you're hungry." The kids headed for the hot drinks first. "Victor, can you stay with them and see if you can't help them to feel a little less frightened? Just being here may help."

"Sure," Victor said.

Marcus had chosen the weaker one of the ones that were left, wanting to get them out of harm's way immediately in case they were discovered before everyone could port out. Angus and Edward and the stronger men helped them to group around Marcus and to grab hold. Then Marcus ported them out. Angus and Edward split the rest of them between them, and they were hearing voices of the Ministry aurors who were gaining on them.

"Go, go, go," Edward told Angus. "They're here. We're out of time." Angus ordered everyone to hold on for all they were worth, and they complied as Angus ported them out. The remaining group were the strongest, the fighters, and Edward got them to latch hold and he ported them out just as he started to see the aurors in the distance. He got the last bunch out without a fraction of a second to spare.

Marcus and Edward and Angus all arrived in the yard at pretty much the same time. The pack's men were agitated to not see their women and children. For his part, Marcus was wishing Jack had been here in the yard to reassure them that everyone was safe. Edward and Angus's strategy was simple--they decided to just keep them moving, rather than to let them stop and get their bearings from being ported. The moment they had landed, Edward was issuing them into a march so they couldn't get too worked up, and Angus was urging his bunch and Marcus's to just follow along to the base camp.

"Not other than Marcus and Edward and me," Angus told him. "We had to get them all out in the first trip because the woods were crawling with people hunting them. We didn't have a second to spare. They were right on us." Angus, Marcus and Edward followed behind everyone.

As they were walking a small boy that was maybe four years old, Angus was guessing, was trying too hard to keep up, and he tripped and started to fall, about to land in a mud puddle. The child gave a little shriek of fear, but Angus reached out his hand and used a levitation spell and lifted the little boy up so he didn't end up in the mud. Angus expected the little boy to be afraid, but when he saw he was floating up in the air, the little boy started to giggle.

"Mama! I flied! I flied!" he giggled. His giggle was completely contagious and the others that were with them started to giggle too. One of the men had seen Angus's quick response to keep the boy from harm, and he went over to the little boy and plucked him out of the air and looked at Angus.

"Thank you," he told Angus quietly. Some quick looks went through the men of the pack, looking at each other and then at Angus. Angus was starting to think perhaps he had committed some sort of pack violation.

Edward knew differently. Edward knew that the pack had been trained by Fenrir to not trust humans. He suspected Fenrir had told them at length of human's lack of compassion and their long history of killing werewolves out of fear and just for sport. They were leery of human, but Angus's rare act of kindness and compassion had gone a long way with the men of the pack. They had not expected it, and they were surprised and appreciative. Edward predicted that this one little act of kindness would telegraph through the pack and help the whole pack to be less frightened of this little bunch of humans. They wouldn't trust all humans, but they might trust this little bunch who were trying to help them. And that would make everyone's job here easier.

Angus glanced over to Edward who merely nodded slightly at Angus, to try to send him a subtle message that what Angus had done was okay.

"Well, unless someone was hiding out in the bushes, we got them all," Angus told her quietly. "I'm hoping we can get Fenrir back to them soon. Most of them are entirely too young to be without him."

Sam and Victor were busy serving hot drinks, and a chestnut haired girl his own age took a cup of tea from him and looked at him with a shy smile. In her book, he was the most handsome boy she'd ever laid eyes on, and the sight of him made her heart skip a beat. She took the cup of tea he'd poured for her.

"Thanks," she said softly. "How'd you do...that?" She pointed at the scrapes that covered half his face.

"I fell," he said. "Got a leg cramp, and it made me fall."

"Yeah, I get 'em too," she said, understanding. She reached in her pocket and pulled out an old lip gloss pot and handed it to him. "It's not much, but it's an herbal thing one of the elder pack members taught me to make before she died. It'll take the sting out of it. It's just herbs in some beeswax, but it does help. Take it. I can make more."

"Um...thanks," he said, taking it. He took the little lid off and smelled it. It smelled like some of the herbs Angus used in the kitchen. "Smells like I should be able to eat it." She laughed.

"That would be gross," she said. "What's your name?"

"Sam. What's yours?"

"They call me Anise. My mum's into all sorts of herbs and spices, so I guess she named me after one of them," she shrugged. "Is your family here too?"

"Yeah. We live here. That's my mom, and that's my dad," he pointed out Ruby and Angus to her.

"Will I see you again? she asked.

"Maybe," he said.

"Anise," a woman called. "Come help with your brother." The girl turned and walked away, looking back to give Sam a shy smile as she went over to her mother.

"Did you notice something?" Angus asked Ruby. "They had no animosity for each other at all. Such a simple concept, but hate isn't biological. Hate has to be taught. Without it, all sorts of good things can happen--like that. Do you want me to go back to the house and get a bottle for the baby?"

"I think they have plenty of help for now," Angus told Ruby. "I think I'll be able to slip away from here soon too. We still have Fenrir to try to help."

"I'd wait on that," Michael told Angus, overhearing him.

"Why?"

"Did you notice that one of our own isn't out here?" Michael asked. Angus hadn't paid much attention but now that Michael mentioned it, he saw Robert wasn't here.

"He's talking to one of his friends, isn't he?" Angus asked, figuring he was still with Lee.

"Wouldn't have taken that long. He was going to go make a visit to Azkaban when he finished with that. I'd wait and see what he has to say when he gets back before you do much more," Michael said, deliberately not revealing names. Angus nodded. Sam finished pouring drinks, and he and Victor headed home, feeling like their work was done there temporarily. Angus walked back with them.

"You guys didn't get a chance to work on trying to remember details, did you?" Angus asked.

"Well, I've been thinking about it but I didn't have time to write it down."

"Then maybe you can do it when we get back," Angus told him. "Did you notice anything different about this teacher?"

"Aside from the fact that she almost always carried one of those steel travel cups with her? Not much. She told us she got that cup as a gift and that it held a blend of tea that she particularly liked. That was the biggest difference."

"Well, my guess is that was where the polyjuice was," Angus said as they reached the duplex and went inside. "In our day, we had an imposter too, and he kept a potions bottle in his pocket." Sam looked at Angus, wide eyed. He'd remembered something.

"That's it! It has to be!" Sam said.

"What?"

"When we were out in the woods, and you guys knocked her out, remember?"

"What about it?"

"Michael searched her and took everything he could find off her. What if there's something in there that would help prove she was a fraud. It has to be in there," Sam said.

"Oh, good work, Sam!" Angus said. "Of course. The polyjuice has to be somewhere. Well done. We'll talk to Michael as soon as he gets done with the pack. You might well be on the right track." He looked at Ruby. "Need help, or do you have it?"