A Birth day

Ruby watched him make the dough then smiled as he spoke " what that tall" she said and looked at him " your teasing me, right?" she said "Im not that tall, but guess she could take after lanky you." she said and smirked " and yes I know , she is growing fast, they do at this age, they don't stay babys for long, before you know it shes toddling and shouting papa all round the house." she said grinning to him " then the next thing shes bringing boys home and throwing temertantrums becuse we sent them away"

Seeing it was getting late Ruby sighed " guess its time we should hit the hay" she said and headed up the stairs. peeking in she saw Caprice still sleping soundly and smiled seeing Finn sat under the cot as if guarding her now. " good boy finn" she said leaving the door open a little so she would hear if she woke in the night.

"Stop it, Ru," he called to her, seeing her purposely leaving the nursery door and the bedroom door ajar so she could hear her. "I told you I have it tonight. If she wakes up, I'll take care of it. Trust me once in awhile, and go to sleep, would you?"

He went to the kitchen and made an enormous batch of strawberry pasties with a glistening sugar crust. Then he made a bacon and swiss quiche. He did not make potatoes or any sort of other dishes. He believed that perhaps a lighter breakfast would be best. He decided to make enough for Ruby to take most of the pasties up to the pack for those who decided they were up for a sweet treat with breakfast.

He went upstairs twice during the night. He knew just about when the baby would be waking. He took up bottles and fed her and then changed her and soothed her back to sleep, all with precious little fuss from her. She quickly went back to sleep, especially when he turned on her little music box that played a lullabye. Then he would return back to the kitchen and keep baking.

By morning, he had gotten the quiche out of the oven, set out some orange juice, made coffee, showered, shaved and had gotten the baby up, bathed, dressed, and fed. She was laying on the floor on a blanket on her tummy, and, he was very pleased that this morning she had figured out how to lift her head and was quite close to being able to roll over on her own. He fetched the morning paper, packaged up a couple cookies and a couple pasties for each boy and was now sitting with his first cup of coffee of the morning while the baby fussed a bit over Angus thinking she was not quite finished with tummy time.

Ruby chuckled and closed the door " alright" she said and headed to bed changing into her PJs she slipped into bed and sleep. She did wake hearing Caprice but also heard Angus and just smiled hearing the music box start to play lulling not just Caprice but herself back to sleep.

Next morning she woke and made her way down stairs seeing Caprice already down stairs she smiled " hey, shes lifting her head already" she said heading to grab some breakfast and finding Angus had beaten her to making it. " those look yummy" she said smiling a she looked at the pasties. " you all set for Hogwarts?" she asked picking up a cookie and making a cup of coffee before moving to sit with Angus as she ate. It was now Jack stopped by and looked at Caprice on the floor on her blanket

" wow shes coming along good guns" He said and smiled " so Ruby ready for the camp, I assumbed you want her to go up and meet Ginger and Anise's perents?" he asked Angus.

"Yeah. She's doing well," Angus said. "Hi, Jack. Yes, please go with her and help her get to know Phoebe and her husband and get a little acquainted with pack tradition and with how the girls have been raised and what they know and what they don't know. I'm not going to Hogwarts for several hours. Edward and Marcus and I are going first to start the demo workers on the Tyler house. I want to be sure that's done right, so we're going there first. Then we'll be back so I can start the landscapers on the rest of the tea garden in the back. I won't even be thinking of going to Hogwarts until that's done."

He opened the door between the two houses and saw Edward was ready to go. Edward had chosen his brown tweed suit. He had used it for a number of business occasions since his wedding, and he wanted to make sure he was not dressed a lot more informally than Angus.

"You look ready to go," Edward said, finishing the last of his pancakes. Simone was still eating.

"Are you expecting any sort of trouble today?" she asked them.

"Not that I know of," Edward said. "Should be routine. If things go well, we should be back perhaps around noon. Ruby will be with the werewolf pack today, so you'll be on your own."

"I'll be packing for us for our overnight trip to Paris to see Lena and the kids," she said. "If you don't muss your suit, you'll look just fine for this evening."

"I'm not going to be intending to muss it up," Edward said.

"If you get a chance, could you pick up my necklace at the jeweler's?"

"Of course," he smiled, kissing her. "I'll see you for lunch, my dear." Angus and Edward came back over to Angus's, and Angus picked up the baby bag and shrank the sling and shoved it in his pocket. He wasn't planning on using it, but he was going to take it all the same. Then he picked up Caprice and put her spring jacket on her. It was pale pink fleece that was printed with tiny flowers, and it had a hood to protect her from drafts while porting. He had put her in a pair of little pink overalls with purple flowers and a purple long sleeved tee shirt, with little purple sneakers.

"Give her to her grandpa," Edward said, taking her from Angus, just as Marcus knocked on the door. "Come in, Marcus. You're just in time. We're ready to go."

"I thought you would be," Marcus laughed. "Good morning, All. So where's our first stop?"

"The Tyler house," Angus said. "Ru, I know better than to ask you if you want them to save you a brick or some souvenir from that house. Anyway, you have a good time today, and we'll see you later."

Angus ported Edward, Marcus, and himself to the Tyler house. It was 5 am so it was still dark out.

"Looks like it could be any other muggle house," Edward said.

"It does, doesn't it?" Angus said.

"So show me these tunnels they have underneath it," he replied.

"They're dark in every sense of the word," Angus told him.

"I expect no less," Edward replied. Just to be on the safe side, he cast a protective shield spell all around Caprice to that if there was anything lingering in this house or in these tunnels, it could not touch her. Angus led them through the tunnels, and Edward grew angry seeing not only the cells but the cells that were labeled "Persuasion Rooms." The true evil was here, with all the dark arts devices that had likely been used on innocent people. Angus never said a word, but Edward clearly saw there were things here that bothered him. Edward didn't intend to ever ask Angus what had happened here, but he had a momentary flash of one of Angus's memories--of someone here, not Suzanne, casting some sort of twisted version of the cruciatus. He got the feeling the suffering from whatever this version had done was intense. Even as strong as he was, it was Angus' inability to tolerate the pain that had driven him to try to escape. And it was while he was in that attempt to escape that they had rescued him. Edward resisted the urge to want to go and stop Angus from remembering what had happened here because he heard Marcus's voice, as Marcus coached Angus to stay focused in the present and not let himself drift back into his memories.

"Stay focused, Mate," Marcus told Angus quietly. "We're getting rid of all this today. Remember that." He did not want Angus drifting back into his memories of what he had experienced here.

"I've got some bloody nerve bringing my daughter down here," Angus said.

"She's safe," Edward said, "and she's too little to know anything but how much she's loved. I think we should get out of here. This place isn't good for you, Lad. "

"I agree," Marcus said. "Leave the dark memories here, and let's go outside. The sun should be coming up. She can watch her first sunrise."

"At her age, all she'll know is that it takes too long," Edward teased. Angus took them through the house and the secret rooms there, and they went outside just as the demolition team was arriving. Angus was very, very specific about how he wanted things done and why. He took them through all of it, the tunnels, the secret rooms and passages, the house, and he was clear he wanted absolutely not one nail, not one board, not one brick left here. When the team saw the tunnels, they understood entirely why he wanted it completely gone, and they promised to clean out every single spark of dark energy from the property in the process.

With that job done, they ported back home to the back yard so that Angus could give the last of the instructions to the landscapers about the tea garden.

Ruby litened to Angus and nodded " of course" she said smiling as she watched as Angus headed for Edwards side of the duplex and she smiled at Caprice who seemed to watch him go then continue moving or trying to move around on the blanket. Jack chuckled and looked at Ruby " okay get your things I'll watch Caprice while you do that." he told her and she stood up to get her coat. returning she watched as Angus picked up Caprice .

Ruby walked over and kissed Angus's cheek " be careful, and that is one cute outfit." she said with a smile " and I'll see you when your home" she smiled at him stepping back as she saw Edward take caprice from him. She watched as Marcue entered and then they all left together. Jack looked at Ruby and together they walked out the door and up to where the camp was placed.

Once there Ruby looked and found Anise smiling she walked over " morning" she said " I hope your perents are okay with me coming today?" she asked her as Jack stood next to them both.

"Yeah, they're fine with it," Anise said. "Everyone knows why you're here. Fenrir has told them he wants to take them all home to the Forbidden Forest in the next day or so. They know Ginger has to leave the pack, and they have always known I wanted to go. So, they're okay with it. I think my mom, in her own way, is glad that Ginger and I have opportunities to try to live as humans. My dad gave up any ideas about making that work when he was about Sam's age. Mom's getting the rest of our laundry down off the clothesline and is going to pack it up. Somebody from your pack gave her an old canvas duffle bag, and she's trying to shrink Ginger's stuff and mine to get it all into one bag. Dad went out hunting with a couple of the males. I don't think he really wants to see me go."

Angus met with the landscapers and told them the very last of his instructions. The weeping cherry tree and the two bamboo trees were in. There was a little bitty koi pond with a fountain to be finished, and they had already put in a flagstone walk way. Today, they would be putting in a white gazebo, some tables and chairs, some lights, and a lot of flowering plants and some bushes. It would be a very long, very full day for the crew, so they had brought four or five extra men to get it all done in one day.

Once Edward and Angus felt they had the plans all straight and the way they felt it should be, the three of them left again. This time they were heading for Scotland---to Hogsmeade.

When they got to the school, they were taken to the headmaster's office, and Angus laid out the concern he had for security and that someone was betraying the boys to Tom Gelding and Suzanne. Angus told the headmaster very frankly that he saw that as a serious risk to the boys' safety. He did not want to have to remove them from the school right before their graduation. Neither did the headmaster. The headmaster believed he had a way to find out who was behind it. He promised to send Angus updates of his progress and promised the boys would be safe to finish their Hogwarts' career.

Angus left the care packages with the headmaster along with his little packages of pasties and cookies. The headmaster did question the care packages since all the other students were sending things home and Angus's family was the only one that was still sending things in. Angus just shrugged and said it had been Ruby's idea. The headmaster commented that it was his experience that sometimes first time moms tried too hard. Angus agreed. They parted ways on a friendly note.

They had at least one last stop to make. Edward needed to go to London to get Simone's necklace to take to Paris. She had a delicate gold and diamond necklace that she had dropped off to be repaired. The chain had broken, and the jeweler had promised it would be ready a couple days ago. Simone just hadn't gotten to London to get it. Angus, Marcus and Edward apparated to London, picked up her necklace and then stopped off at the Leaky. Edward believed Angus rather needed a firewhiskey, so he treated them all to fish and chips and a drink or two for lunch.

Ruby listened to Anise and smiled "okay so , should I go and speack to her?" she asked " sorry Im new to all this" she explained to her and glancing at Jack who chuckled and nodded "I guess thats how the males are" she looked to Jack who nodded. She moved down to the washing line and saw Anises mom taking down the washing. " morning" she said moving to help take it down with her " you know you can visit any time you want" she said placing some sheets down in the basket after she'd folded them.

" were open to visits from family, shes not leaving you but training to be abetter fighter to maintain the safty of the pack" Jack said leaning on a tree close by the line." thats goes for Ginger too, we'll maintain her treatment then train her, thik of it as our way of opologising for all you and the pack have suffered at mugle and the ministrys hands" he ofered Ruby smiled and nodded to her.

Phoebe turned to look at them.

"'Morning," she said. "You two really don't understand, do you? As much as my husband wants his daughters to be raised in the pack, these girls have absolutely no desire to live as animals, and I can't blame them. As I told one of you before, I am completely human. I am not a werewolf. My husband is, though, and I chose to live with him to be with him. My children, however, hate every moment of being werewolves. They absolutely hate it. My husband has always been unfailingly loyal to Fenrir, and he had our own children turned before they knew how to talk. We were living as humans, then, and he wanted to live with the pack. I was having none of it. So one day, while I was out getting groceries, he had Fenrir turn them before I got home. I was infuriated. Sure, I could have taken the girls and disappeared, but by then, the damage was done, and with the way werewolves were seen in those days, my husband sentenced all four of us to living out in the woods like animals.

"The girls don't remember being turned. They know how it was done because we've never kept it hidden from them, but if there is one thing that I have not forgiven my husband for, its' that. So, now that they have a chance to be free of it all, I absolutely would be the last to try to stop them. If something happens to him, I'm not staying in the woods, living caves, sleeping out in the rain and the snow. I'll finally be able to have a house again with heat and a real stove and something other than raw meat to eat. I want them to go with you. I want them to have a better life than I have, and they know it. When they go with you today, they're never coming back, and I know it. I hope they visit. I hope I can visit. I don't know if their father will. He's not dealing with it well.

"I don't want you to train them to return to the pack. Train them how to be women, how to succeed as human women at whatever it is they want to do with their lives. That's all I really ask," she said, laying the last of the laundry from the line down in the clothesbasket. "I thought Ginger was dead, and I hope to Merlin she recovers, but if this is what it took for both my daughters to be freer than I am, then I am glad it happened, and I'm glad they will be in safe hands."

Ruby listened and looked at Jack then nodded to Pheobe "I understand, we'll teach them how to be humans and proper women, but for the moment they are children and need room to grow." she said "we already have a room ready for them with all the supplies they need, both for school and anything else, they will be home schooled buy Angus, myself and the others if thats all right with you." she said " they will be taught how to live among the humans like Jack has."

Jack looked at Pheobe and nodded " I've been asked to help with there anger issues and keeping them on their wolfsbane." he added "and training can focus their minds so they can remain calm and not let their animal side take over, we did it with Rubys brother and hes doing well." He sid hoping to ateast understand what she wanted better and hoping that what he ahd just said was some what close to it.

"They already know several forms of meditation. I started teaching them meditation, tai chi, and yoga when they were children. It was just necessary. Its one thing to have a toddler that's a werewolf. That's rather like having an anklebiting demon around, but I had two of them, and my husband made three. You have no idea what I've had to do to stay alive living with werewolves that see no use for wolfsbane, with three of them in my own household. I can't force my husband to do much of anything but I did teach them anger management skills almost from the time they were toddlers. You'll find that, for their age, they have good control.

"Your elder--the slayer--I mentioned that I could send a little money every so often, and he turned me down. I did offer, though. He said it would not be needed, that they would be abundantly provided for. He told me to save it for the day I could have a house again. If I can send things, though, even just some little things--as any mother might want to do for her daughters--I would like that very much," she said. "I have a couple of things that I gave to him to hold for them. I got them each their own wands--at Ollivanders--so they're not cheap ones. And I got them each a good, handmade fighting knife. It's not a good thing to live in the woods without a knife. Your slayer has the wands and the knives. You don't know what a fear it is to hand a werewolf slayer the knives you've bought your daughters to protect them, but he has assured me he will not harm them. He has a reputation even with us of truthfulness, so I find I must take him at his word. I don't have much more to give them, I'm afraid. They have their clothes, the wands, their knives, a few photographs, and they each have a stuffed animal from when they were small. When one lives as a nomad, you keep very precious few things."

Edward lit up his pipe after lunch, as they were sipping on more firewhiskey but now doing it with full bellies. He looked at Angus, wanting to say the right words and not to provoke any wounds.

"Angus," he said, as the lunch crowd thinned out of the Leaky, "I was not attempting to pry, but I did see what happened to you in the tunnels."

Angus took a moment, sipped on his drink, and nodded. Marcus offered him a cigarette, and Angus took it and lit it, while Marcus lit one of his own. Angus took his time, inhaled, and then exhaled slowly, watching the smoke curl into circles as it rose to the ceiling.

"Not a problem," Angus replied finally, quietly. "We have no secrets, Edward."

"No. We don't. We never have. Just so you know, no one else that I know of could have done better than you did with that. You kept your head and stayed focused on getting out," Edward replied. "Do you know who cast that really odd version of the cruciatus?"

"No," Angus replied. "I've racked my brain trying to remember if I saw someone else, and I just don't remember. I see Suzanne. She was there, and some of her goons, but it wasn't any of them."

"It's very possible you weren't meant to see who cast it," Marcus said. "I've heard of weirder things. Do you know what this curse was supposed to do?"

"Hurt. It was supposed to bloody hurt," Angus replied, not wanting to talk about it.

"Does Ruby know what happened to you?"

"No. And I don't plan on ever telling her. She doesn't need to know that. I'm not keeping secrets, but I fail to see the point of what it would accomplish. It wont make her love me more or less. It would only cause her pain, and she would worry more every single bloody time I went out. And that's not good for anyone. If that's the only life I can ever give her, wondering if I am going to come home alive or not, then she would be far better without me. She'd be better with someone who worked in a bank or in a shop than to have the life that I would be giving her. That's why I don't tell her. I don't want to muck it all up."

"Just keep in mind, Lad, that any secret you keep..." Edward began.

"I know. I know. Any secret you keep can come to light at any time," Angus repeated the saying Edward had told him for years. "If it happens, it happens. I guess I'll cross that bridge if I come to it." Marcus added more to their glasses.