The Devil as a Father, Chapter 42

Lucifer held his family under lockdown, but he wanted them to learn practical warding and he was pleased with Ron's request to help his family. So after some thought and discussion with Chloe, he cast a spell that put the Burrow, as it was called under a fidelis that kept the location clear from everyone.

Then he took his beloved children, his students (who he was beginning to feel parental towards), Aradia and Goldie who was still stuffed from her last visit.

He called Lady Weasely via floo and they arrived. They walked happily to the door, while Lucifer looked over the wards, which had many strange holes in them.

Mrs. Weasley opened the door and exclaimed over there being so many children there. "How lovely, you have a regular school, my Lord."

"Yes, Lady Weasely," said Lucifer politely, giving her a bow, "They are a joy to teach, so intelligent, so skilled in many different ways."

And thinking about how Lady Weasley had treated Ron upon their first meeting, Lucifer immediately wrapped an arm around the lad, "Mrs. Weasley, Ron is going to be a business genius. We started the company that sells magic conversation devices, and Ron raised our sales 200%. He is a marvelous part of the company. He also rescued my little Daffodil from being kidnapped when we were shopping in a market. Brave, intelligent, and hardworking. He is a joy."

Mrs. Weasley looked shocked and stared at Ron, who had his head down.

Lucifer could tell Ron was still the family black sheep and resolved to stand up for him.

"All the children, but Trixie are learning various type of cooking. Ron helps as well and helps with Harry's restaurant, 'Magic Meals'.

"Ron cooks?" Mrs. Weasley. "I remember he baked some lovely things on our last visit."

"Yes," said Lucifer.

"He's especially good at breads and he made the breakfast muffins," piped in Harry, who followed his father's lead, and was going to stand up for Ron.

Mrs. Weasley stared at Ron for a bit and then gave a huge happy smile. "I'm so glad you are doing well, my son." She said.

Lucifer and Harry enjoyed seeing Ron's face light up.

Lucifer felt that was probably the best thing they'd done all day.

"Now my dear Lady, we are going to start to make measurements for the wards. If you would like to watch, I would be delighted to have you."

Meanwhile, Ron and Harry pulled out drawing pads and started sketching what they saw with their inner site. Meanwhile, Hermione and Trixie sat down and made calculations and discussed geometry and vectors.

Daffodil stared at the house and said, "Someone has put bad holes in the wards."

"Very good, my darling flower."

Rose stared at Lucifer. "I'm a darling flower too," she said very firmly.

Lucifer picked her up and said, "You both are my beautiful flowers. Never fear, my dear one."

Rose stared and him and then smiled and hugged him.

"Daddy," she said, "I can feel there are some kinds of bad magic here."

"What do you feel darling?"

"There are tracking spells on the boys, made by someone who hates them."

"What do you mean?" asked Lucifer, while Mrs. Weasely came over.

"Now child," she said, "You shouldn't pretend."

Lucifer looked at her a moment and then said, "My children don't lie to me, my Lady, especially about matters of magic. They have been attacked too much and hurt too much not to realize how important family is."

Now, he hunched down on the grass before Rose and Octi and asked, "Why do they feel like enemies?"

Octavius looked rather green, "I can feel nastiness and hatred for them eating at the wards and causing holes." Rose nodded solemnly

Lucifer sniffed the air.

Harry came over and looked with his own mage sight.

"This is old," he said, "Months and months. It was done by Lucius Malfoy, the same stench was in his dungeon."

Lady Weasley looked at Draco, and was surprised when all the children got in front of him. "Draco didn't do it," said Lucifer, "His magic smells of cinnamon and spice and has no ill intent."

"How can you smell magic?" asked Molly Weasley, diverted by this idea.

"It's part of mage sight that the children have all picked up. We can sense people's magic by sight, smell, and texture." Said Lucifer, eyeing the woman carefully. "And Daffodil can hear the song of their magic sometimes."

Ron went over and threw an arm around Draco's shoulders, "Draco is my friend Mom. He is nothing like his Father. Please don't think bad things about him because of his father. It makes him sad."

XXX

Draco could feel himself blushing with pride. They were all standing up for him, the son of a man who tortured people. He stood proud and then hugged Ron. "Thank you," he whispered.

He followed his nose and indeed smelled Malfoy magic. He used a new spell that Lord Morningstar had actually invented this morning, to outline the hole and show the colors of his ex-father's rage and cruelty on the wards.

Lord Morningstar looked at him with the kind of fatherly look he had wanted so much from his father once. "Well done, Draco. Can you find more?"

Draco grinned. He would show Ron's Mum that he was a good wizard. He walked around and found another hole, near the back door of the house. He quickly cast the ward reveal spell and called the others.

Rose reached him first and hugged him. "We love you Draco," she whispered in his ear. "Ron's Mum doesn't appreciate him very much. We'll show her we are good students." Draco realized they were more than friends or allies. This was what family should be.

Then Rose's eyes narrowed, and she called out, "Daddy, there is something else bad here."

Draco reached out with his senses, and could tell there was badness, but couldn't identify, and wouldn't have noticed if Rose hadn't first.

Lucifer and the children, tailed by Mrs. Weasley, were there now. Lucifer looked the backdoor area over sharply and then gave a dazzling Lucifer smile, which Draco now tried to copy in the bathroom mirror daily while he brushed his teeth magically.

"Children, come here and look, Rose has found a curse against the family. It's very old, and subtle, but definitely strong."

Draco watched as Lord Morningstar snapped his fingers and they could see an ugly nasty curse sitting there next to the door, by the hinges.

"What is it, it looked awful."

"It's a curse on your family finances, that you always be poor, and always have bad luck."

Ron nodded. "Mum and Dad work very hard to provide for all of us, but we always had financial difficulties. Mum never let us go hungry though."

Mrs. Weasley looked at Ron as though she'd never seen him before. Then she gave a little shake. "Is this something you can remove?" she asked.

"Yes, "said Lucifer, in an authoritative voice "But I want the children to learn about this as well." Draco watched happily as he snapped his fingers. Suddenly there was a three dimensional image of the curse hanging in the air before them.

"Okay my darling urchins," said Lucifer, "I want you to make sketches of this travesty." Pads of paper and multi-colored pencils appeared and all the children began to sketch furiously. Draco sketched and tried to see anything odd as he did his job. He found himself wanting to do his best.

He noticed Mrs. Weasley looked concerned even having the children near such a thing. She stared at the children who were happily sketching away and filling in colors. Draco began to like her a bit more. He was glad his Mum didn't yell at him in front of other people like that though.

As they sketched, Draco felt himself going into the state that Lucifer told him was mage trance. He felt the ill intent of the curse first, then realized that the curse impacted Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley the most. There was some kind of green spike that made its way to Mrs. Weasley.

"Sir," he said softly, because he was so not telling this to Mrs. Weasley. Lucifer came and looked at his pad, "See this, this makes a person greedy and discontent," he pointed to the wisp of green."

Lucifer looked at his sketch and then the curse. He hugged Draco. "Very well done, young Master Black. Your abilities are growing as is your wisdom."

Draco didn't say anything, but he felt like he had grown taller and could beat up whole armies.

When the children were done, Lucifer destroyed the curse, and had the children watch him while he did it. Then he made similar un-cast curses that were less strong, and had the children practice destroying them.

Even Rose could whack the curse away. Heck, even Trixie could remove it, and she wasn't supposed to be magic.

Mrs. Weasley was in awe of all this, especially because none of them were using their wands. Lord Morningstar said wands were useful when you needed detail work or you didn't have runes.

Xxx

Draco watched as Lord Morningstar and the others worked on destroying the curse. His eyes fell on Draco, and the boy cringed, sure he would expect him to use his blood relationship against the curse, and sore at heart at being related to his horrible father.

Lucifer smiled at him kindly, and Draco readied himself.

"Draco," said Lucifer, "I am sorry you have to see this. It has to hurt. Don't forget that you have renounced the house of Malfoy, and are now the heir to the House of Black, a much more noble household, as well as my friend and ally."

Draco felt tears burning his eyes, but refused to let go of his discipline. "You honor me Lord Morningstar. You are the best thing to happen to my Lady mother and myself, and you will always be our friend."

It was hard, but his lips didn't wobble, and his voice was clear.

He looked up relieved and saw Lady Weasley staring at him in shock.

She stood up and walked over to him. "I had no idea you and your mother went through all that. You are very brave, young man and to be honored for it."

Then she reached over and hugged, embarrassing him horribly, but he had stood worse things.

She stepped back and smiled down at him. He could see Ron staring, and the boy winked at him, and rolled his eyes. He had made such great friends.

Mrs. Weasley had lunch for the whole group and the children tucked in with pleasure. The woman was a great cook and Lucifer asked for several recipes she had used at lunch. Goldie was given her own plate and ate while stopping from time to time to trill her pleasure.

All the children ate with their best manners so as not to bring shame to the House of Morningstar, although, Lucifer didn't seem worried about their behavior at all. He was obviously proud of all of them.

After lunch, they made plans for new wards and blessings.

"Blessings?" asked Lady Weasley, thinking of rituals that might be illegal.

"I invented magic," said Lucifer, "and along with it specific blessings.

They all went into the kitchen and stood in a circle and clasped hands. Then Daffodil began to sing in a sweet angelic voice, "Bless the house, bless the hands, bless the hearts, woman and man, sister and brother, friend and beloved, bless below and bless above. Heal the injuries old and sad, heal the sorrows and make faces glad, bless the people with all good things, let the blessing now begin."

There was a burst of light and Molly sat down hard. Suddenly the house that seemed poor and unworthy of their family was bright and filled with the same joy she felt when she first came here as a bride. Her eyes stung with tears. Why on earth had she been so discontent? She had seven healthy children and a husband who loved her.

When her husband came home that night he told her that Ron had put 300 gallons in their account. While it might not seem like much to some people, it was enough to pay off what they owed on their land, and got them out of a debt that had worried them for years.

xx

The next day, when their math tutor didn't show up due to illness in the family, Lucifer decided to take over for a few days. First they did simple math review on how to determine the base price of items on sale.

Then the entire group went to a grocery store (which Lucifer covered with wards that would prevent everything from nuclear explosions to plague and evil angels) with clipboards each child had decorated, and went through the store doing price checking on items. They also made comments on things that appeared the same, but were "yucky" as Daffodil and Rose put it. After noticing a child with filthy hands putting his hands in bulk bins, they made notations on that too.

They not only learned to rapidly calculate the base price of items, but also learned that some items looked cheaper because they had bigger or brighter packaging. They also learned that 'no brand' was sometime 'yucky' or sometimes really good. So they also learned about quality, advertising and different foods.

When they were completed they went to 2 more grocery stores, now breaking up into teams. Draco took meat and went with Lucifer where he learned about marbling in meat, different cuts of meat and what they cooked best in, and discussed different brands that seemed cheaper but sold older tougher animals and ways to circumvent that and make them tender.

People in the last store watched all this with pleasure. The children were well behaved and well dressed, and Lucifer was, of course, wildly charming. "Now that we finished, what foods would you like to purchase based on our visits, not just inexpensive foods, but foods you are interested in or would like to know about."

The children then went in groups of three and picked out items. Harry brought several high quality lamb chops and legs of lamb with Draco and Hermione but told them on the sly not to mention it to the littles as Daffodil and Rose might freak out about killing cute baby lambs. They also purchased tons of London broils on sale because Lucifer said it was good in chili, but inexpensive. Harry would make it in the kitchen and feed homeless people with it.

When they all got in line, the Manager of the store watched with a big smile. "Future businessman and cooks, I think," he said, "You are doing a great job here, Sir, but I have to ask, why did you clean out my London Broil?"

Harry told him about Magic Meals and how he was planning on making chili for his homeless people to eat. The manager started to cough, and they could see he was trying not to cry. "That's great," he said, trying very hard to look macho and not moved at the thought of these cute children doing something for the homeless.

So Harry told them more about how Magic Meals was a non-profit and was able to make meals for hundreds of people every week, and that all the older children helped run the restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays for breakfast and lunch and then headed out in a van to distribute what Harry hadn't sold that day, and what he made especially for distribution. "The money we make in the restaurant goes into making the restaurant food and the rest goes to the homeless people at the encampment," said Harry.

"How many meals do have you made?" asked the Cashier, who also was blinking back tears.

"We make 300 meals a weekend, that's 15,600 meals since we started. It's been 1 year this week," said Draco.

"And we use utensils and carriers that are edible, so they can eat the containers if they like or toss them, knowing that they are biodegradable," said Hermione happily.

"And we started a vegetable, fruit and herbal garden, which is all organic. So we grow a lot of what we sell and what we give away, especially the herbs for cooking ," said Neville proudly. "Dad, er, Mr. Morningstar converted a floor of the Lux for us that has big windows. So it's an inside garden free of pollution. We control the lights and temperature by area, and we are learning a lot about gardening."

"And spices and herbs," said Rose happily. "We are learning about edible flowers too. We're going to make rose ice cream." She looked mischievous for a moment and whispered, "My name is Rose so it's named after me."

Lucifer smiled proudly at all of them.

"What kind of foods do you make for them?" asked one lady.

Harry grinned, "We make a hot dish like soup, or chili or pasta, and then give them sandwiches. We also serve tea and coffee or ice water. We make it a large serving so they can eat the sandwiches later."

Draco piped in, "We also give out food vouchers, but that's from er Mr. Morningstar. We still don't make enough to do that. It was his idea."

Lucifer winced, he should have known that Draco would notice that he was helping them along.

"Do you have an address people can send donations to?" asked one woman.

"Yes, Magic Meals, Post Office Box 666, Los Angeles, CA," said Lucifer. "Well children, we must get going so we can finish our math lesson."

They loaded up into the Magic Meals van and left and then turned into an alley and popped home. Then they took the elevator to the penthouse, and Lucifer started dinner. He was using a recipe Dan Espinoza had given him from his Abuelita and making ceviche shrimp tacos, along with other types of tacos in case the children didn't like the spicy meal.

Harry and Draco took the foods for their project down to Magic Meals, and started prepping for the weekend.

Chloe Morningstar and Ella Lopez came home after investigating a murder. Chloe wanted to discuss it with Lucifer privately because it was a crime against a child.

In the elevator on the way up she sent a mental call to her beloved. "Darling, we had a child murder today. It appears to be a ritual murder, and yes, we checked to make sure the child was truly dead." The use of the drug curare in Harry and Teddy's case had terrified all the people at the coroner's office and additional testing was now done for life signs.

She heard her husband's mental growl and felt the same rage.

Ella, standing besides her in the elevator, looked at her sadly, she was part of the extended family and her ring let her know Chloe and Lucifer were having a private conversation. She knew what it was about, because she had done the initial investigation.

The door opened and Daffodil stood there.

"Mummy," she said, and Chloe immediately scooped her into her arms and kissed her. "What's wrong sweetheart?" she asked.

"The bad angel has bad people worshipping him and they did this to give him power."

Chloe's eyes closed, and she called out to Lucifer.

He rushed to his wife and young child. "She knows about it," she whispered. "My innocent baby knows about that horrible murder." Daffodil looked at her adoptive mother and kissed her solemnly.

"Mommy, I can see some of the bad things, but I have you and Daddy and you love me. I know I'm safe."

Chloe's eyes filled with tears and she held the little treasure in her arms. Lucifer spread his arms around them both and Chloe saw his eyes were filled with tears as well.

"This is an abomination," said Lucifer, "that someone who was a celestial would demand worship and the life of a baby. And it's even worse that our little flower has to even know about it."

His wings popped out and surrounded them both.

Ella gasped, this was her first time seeing wings on Lucifer. Chloe and Daffodil both sighed as a sense of love and comfort filled them.

Ella gave a tremulous smile. This was so awesome. Lucifer looked up and opened one wing.

"Tuck in, Miss Lopez."

Ella scooted into his arms and gently held both Chloe and Daffodil. Finally after a long time, Lucifer drew his wings back and kissed his wife and daughter and gave Ella a kind smile.

She grinned back, "that was the best hug ever, and I am a hug connoisseur," she said, all her sadness on hold.

"This is beyond the ability of the police to fix," said Chloe.

"You are correct, my queen. I'm going to tell KynKyn and Amenadiel about it and then see if the three of us can't call an Angel's conclave to judge him."

"But Darling, you killed him to protect me. Won't that get you in trouble?"

"I suffered much for that, and even spent time in a hell loop because of it. The fact that he was going to kill you will be part of my defense. I have to Darling, to protect our little ones, to protect you and all the innocents out there. It must be done."