A Birth day

Ruby laughed as Michael spoke of the alterations to the barrier " well I for one won't" Ruby said " I like my hair and clothing" she added then Jack spoke up and he looked at Michael as he ran his hand over his hairless head.

"one flaw in that, for one don't have to worry about the hair issue," he said smiling at Michael "but the coloured skin might be an issue for a wearwolf, I'm not forgetting my key," he added holding his up as it hung on a chain around his throat. Ruby laughed and nodded " yeah I keep mine close toto" she took it out of her pocket along with a bunch of keys still laughing at the thought of her mother being a diferent color and hairless. " you know that might actaly be an improvement for her." Ruby said.

"We all know you're bald on top, but you do have eyebrows, eyelashes, and probably you do have hair elsewhere," Michael said. "When I say that person would lose all their hair--I meant all their hair---everywhere. All of it."

"If your mother ends up jinxed by that," Angus said, "I can promise you Tom Gelding will not be amused. And I can also promise you that they will have separate bedrooms for the duration. He won't be able to look at her, much less touch her." he saw Abbey and Molly come into the kitchen.

"Aggie," Abbey said, "can Molly eat wich us tonight?"

"If it's okay with her mama or her papa, then of course," Angus said. They dashed off together to the kitchen. "Looks like Abbey has a friend her own age."

"She and Molly have been thick as thieves since Molly arrived," Kate said. "They think they're twins." Everyone knew they weren't twins because Abbey had her mother's blonde hair and fair skin, and Molly was a light skinned black biracial girl with brown hair with some natural red highlights because of her black Jamaican father and her fair skinned red headed Irish mother.

"Goes to prove that hatred has to be taught," Robert said. "I don't want anyone ever telling those girls they aren't twins. It isn't that they don't see their skin and hair is different. They see it. They just accept each other as equals just as they are. I wish more people were like that."

"Speaking of girls, how's that werewolf girl in the basement?"

"She's asleep right now," Robert said. "She's weak and she's completely exhausted. Jeffrey's with her so I could grab a bite to eat. When I finish, I'll go down so he can come up and eat. Oh, and Angus, I got word that the ministry has accepted our evidence. They're going to free Fenrir tomorrow. That isn't going to make his pack any safer for awhile, but I'm going to pick him up tomorrow at Azkaban and bring him here. He can take care of his pack here til either the public stops hunting them or until we can find them a better place to live. You're welcome to go along since you were involved with this from the start."

"I would like that. Thank you," Angus said, glad that Robert had thought of asking him. "Oh, no problems with Ruby and I watching a movie or two tonight?"

"Just one," Robert said.

"What's that?"

"The rest of us might want to come too."

"The more the merrier I say,' Angus said. "So long as you bring popcorn and sodas for all. What do you think, Ru?"

Jak laughed and shook his head "okay I relent , I'll carry my port key" he said and looked to Jess who chukled to him " you got yours?" he asked and she nodded her head .

Ruby heard Angus and chuckled nodding her ehad " oh I don't dought it" she said " and thats fine with me" Ruby said watching Abby and Molly enter the room she smiled at her as she ran happily back to tell Molly she could eat with them. Riby nodded at Angus's words " I agree, it is taught by the actions of the perents, if the perents are prejudiced then so will the children." she said softly.

Nicky came back with both girls.

"You really don't mind Molly eating with you?" Nicky asked.

"Certainly not," Robert said. "She's welcome at our table any time, just like you and Shannon are."

"Thank you, Robert. It is unusual but much appreciated that the staff is treated as equally well as family. Then, shall I fix plates for them?" he asked.

"If you don't mind the girls eating with us adults, go right ahead, by all means," Robert said. "You and Shannon are welcome to join us as well if you like."

"I would much prefer they be with the adults," Nicky said.

"Well, so would we," Kate told him. "They'll be fine." Nicky fixed their plate, and Angus got up and sat both girls at the table, with Abbey on his left and Molly on the other side of Abbey. He didn't use a booster for either of them, feeling it was worth a try to see if they could manage a seat at the table without a booster. Nicky set plates in front of them and brought out a pink straw cup and a teal straw cup, both with milk for the girls. He gave Abbey the pink cup and gave Molly the teal cup. The little girls giggled but they tucked right into their plates. Abbey looked at her plantain chip and looked at Angus.

"Wassit?" she asked him.

"'Nana," Molly told her.

"Noooo. No look like nana," Abbey frowned. Molly picked up a plantain chip from her own plate and ate it.

"See?" she asked Abbey. "Nana. You eats it. Its good." Abbey took one of her own plantain chips and tried it. She looked at Molly wide eyed.

"Nana!" Abbey said. Molly nodded.

"I'm not needed to decipher dinner any more," Angus laughed.

"Well, not tonight, anyway," Robert laughed. "So, Ruby, what sort of movie do you think you might like to see? The people here have a wide array of interests. We have some that prefer comedies, some prefer a really good whodunit, some others prefer horror films, and there are some..." he looked at Kate and Simone," who prefer musicals or romance movies."

Ruby sat quietly and listened to everyone talk around the table she was happy to have the family around her. She looked at Angus and saw the smile on his face when he spoke to Nicky, she too smiled then she heard Robert ask what sort of movie she would like to see. She thought for a moment then spoke "well I do like romance movies but also documenteries about penguins and those about big cats of the jungles, but tonight I'll go with whatever Angus chooses but not Horror I'm not a big horror fan" she said looking over at him. " though if the girls are joining us we could put on some Disney I hear its meant to be good." she said looking between the girls as they ate.

Jack looked at Nicaky as he spoke " to answer your earlier question, we're not family ether, just met helped and stayed, he treats us as family coz we treat him as family, well the head of the family" he said and chuckled Jess nodded her head " Jess met him when we rescued her from kidnappers, myself he found me after my brother's attack and took me in, helped me heal and well met the love of my life." Jess chukled and kissed his cheek " so blood has nothing to do with family here, aceptance makes a family for us." he said biting some of the jerky and moaning at the flavours he tasted.

"Well, Shannon and I have worked in the private sector for families before, but we clearly were just staff," Nicky said. "This is a very different environment, and we do appreciate not being shuffled off to a basement bedroom that the three of us share. Our cabin is marvelous."

"We're glad you like it," Robert said.

"So, if you're all watching movies tonight, I will make some popcorn and have Shannon set up some ice buckets with bottles of soda. Is there anything else you'd like?"

"No, that should do it," Angus said. "Thanks." Nicky excused himself to go make popcorn.

When supper was over, Angus took the girls downstairs and they picked out an animated movie they wanted to see, about a princess and a frog. Angus picked out two other movies. He picked out a comedy, an action movie, a western, and a suspense movie. As he was picking out movies, Shannon was setting up a table with ice buckets with sodas, glasses, individual bowls for serving popcorn, lots of napkins, a bowl with candy bars, a large bowl with buttered popcorn, one with freshly made caramel corn, and one with cheese popcorn.

Angus had seen a magazine photo of a muggle theater that actually had beds in it instead of seats, and so he transfigured the theater chairs to deep, comfortable red velvet theater beds instead, and he accio'd fluffy pillows and soft, cuddly blankets for each theater bed. His own thought was that if everyone dozed off for the night there, what was the harm? Especially when he had picked out enough movies to hold them til morning anyway.

Ruby listened to them all talking and smiled as she loked over at simone with Caprice " I can take her if you want to eat" she said as she'd finished her food nd now wanted to hold her again. Hearing Angus talking she glanced over at him and heard the mention of popcorn and soda mentioned " Im sure it won't last long" she said and chuckled "but yes thank you for thinking of that." she said.

Seeing every one move down stairs to the movie room she was suprised when she saw Angus change the chairs to layback chairs and added cushions with blankets, she smiled "Thats good idea, I have a feeling some of us might not last the whole movie." she said softly to him. She saw the choice of movies and smiled not seeing any Horror as she'd had her fill of Horror and would not have chosen any herself. She sat down in a chair next to Angus and watched the start of the frog princes movie. " I love this one , the music is wonderful." she said softly to him so not to disterb the girls who were watching.

Robert carried a couple of popcorn bowls, one for him and one for Kate, and Kate got the sodas. As they made themselves comfortable, Kate noticed Michael wasn't here. She looked around and didn't see him anywhere.

"Where's Michael?" she asked Robert quietly.

"He's got a date in Paris," Robert replied. "We won't see him til tomorrow sometime."

"Good for him," she smiled, curling up with him.

"I'm glad you like it," Angus told Ruby. Animated movies were definitely not his thing but he had chosen it for the kids, so he would deal with it. He was sure there were other guys that didn't get excited about cartoon movies, but they were here too because their women were. Abbey and Molly were sharing one of the theater beds, the one next to Angus, and they both in their pajamas and were completely engrossed in the movie.
Brian and Khaat finally made it downstairs, after a late day at work for Khaat, and they took the theater bed behind Abbey and Molly. Khaat had gotten some beers the popcorn and, and Brian had brought a large box of chocolate coated malted milk balls for him and Khaat to share. He gave a little handful of them to each Molly and Abbey and then settled in with Khaat again. Knowing Angus didn't care for cartoon movies any more than he did, he floated a beer over to Angus. Angus plucked the floating bottle out of the air, saw it was a beer, and looked back and gave Brian a thumbs up signal for thinking of beer through the kiddie movie.

Ruby chuckled as she looked at Angus " I was talking about the reclining seats more than the movie" she whispered " but I do like being like this with you too" she added as she lay a sleeping Caprice down between them once she accioed the bassinette. She saw the bottle of beer and chuckled to her self knowing it was only fare since he had to sit threw the movie for the kids. " we can put something like a who done it on next" she told him " I like those"

Looking at the screen she watched the movie but stole gances at Angus when she could and when she checked Caprice. Jess and Jack sat cuddling in one seat together covered with a blanket two seats down from them as was Jessie and Yu.

"Well, I didn't pick one of those tonight," Angus said. "I picked a comedy next in case the kids were still awake, and then I picked an action movie, and because some of the guys like them, I picked a Western after that, and, if anyone is still awake after that, I picked a suspense movie. I doubt I will be able to stay up that long since Robert and I are going to Azkaban in the morning. The travel is always the worst of that. There's no easy way to get there because it's out on a godforsaken unplottable island in the north sea. The only way is a ministry ship with a crew that has the permissions to sail the distance, and the sea between the coast and the island is on a deliberately rough path to discourage anyone but the Ministry ships from even attempting the trip. The last time we went, I had to take the helm of the ship because the crew member that was at the wheel got seasick. I hope Robert takes some seasick remedy with him this time just in case. I really don't relish having to deal with a seasick werewolf if Fenrir gets seasick."

"Aggie," someone tugged on his sleeve. He looked over to see Abbey standing next to him. "We can has sodas? Pweeze?"

"You can split one, but you can't have a whole one. And then you need to go to lemonade. Deal?" he asked softly. She nodded. He turned and looked at Ruby. "Be right back. I'm on Soda Patrol, apparently." He got up, and Abbey went with him. He accio'd a couple of straw cups, opened a soda and split it between the straw cups and took the cups back to Abbey and Molly.

"Thanks!" Molly told Angus.

"You're very welcome," he smiled, making sure both girls were tucked in on their theater bed and had their snacks and a place to put their drinks without spilling them. Then he went back to his place with Ruby.