His brother's large owl had perched on the kitchen tap while Francis had read the note aloud to Gabrielle, who studied a delivery note on a roll of parchment, listing an address, and the item that was being imported. 

"... He's gone to Peterborough to oversee the delivery of another of his cars from America, which means he'll almost certainly be in trouble again by tonight...."

Catherine, his sister in law was a Muggle, but with a wizard husband and three witch daughters, she had practice in coercing her husband's strong owl in delivering notes to her brother in law down the road. She'd much prefer to telephone, Francis knew, but telephones didn't seem to live very long in either magical household.

Gabrielle was none too pleased, what with imports coming under her eye as a Department Head in cooperation with some of the other Departments, and Francis wondered when his brother would ever learn - he seemed hell-bent on pursuing his business in Britain even though his products were against the law of the Ministry.

After sending a note back to Catherine with the big brown owl, the couple had left for the address on the delivery note.




"I don't get it, I really don't." Francis uttered to himself as they got their bearings after apparating into a field nearby that had looked safe enough on the map. "It's as if he lost his marbles when he was in America. I mean he's always been bloody minded to do silly things for attention, but this has gone on too long." The two of the tramped through the field, navigating molehills and cowpats to clamber over a fence and onto a narrow lane, Francis offering his help to Gabrielle in clambering over.

"Thank you for coming with me to sort him out, my love, I don't quite know what I'd do without you." Both safely over the fence he reached for her hand. "I think the farm is just up here. Hopefully we're not too late and he hasn't already taken it for a test drive."

They had been in the middle of a good game of Which Witch post an excellent meal - Francis was truly improving his skills - when the owl came tapping at the window. Her smiles and laughter seemingly faded when Francis began to read the letter. Git. An absolute git. Where the two of them were in love and really needed to not keep it such a secret, Monty Pepper proudly wore the colours of causing a scene. As if Gabrielle expected anything less from the younger brother, hm?

"Idiot." She blinked, blushing ashamedly for a moment. "I apologise, but he really is making this situation quite difficult for all parties excluding his side. If Edwin catches wind of this, the Minister even as I keep up my own work on the matter, he's going to end up with more than a slap on the wrist this time."

She continued to shake her head in disappointment since disbelief was a bit long since gone. There was interest deep down how this all worked, but because of personal and work issues dividing the situation, the curiousity was often pushed to the side. Gabrielle took Francis' hand as they apparated, walked through the dark fields, listening to his rants that harkened to hers.

A grin returned as this situation gave a sense of slight adventure, even as her irritation towards Monty was still there, simmering away. The grin became softer, warm with Francis' gratitude of thanks for coming along. "You know I don't mind, love. After all, it's time spent with you, yes? And that's never been a real reason to start complaining." Squeezing his hand affectionally, Gabie gave a nod of approval. "Onward and upward, shall we?"

"Another adventure!" Francis agreed, squeezing her hand and leaning over to land a kiss on her cheek in the fading light.

It didn't take too long to walk through and a quick check of the paperwork from his sister in law and the name on the gate confirmed they were in the right place. Pushing the gate open into a gravel driveway, they could see a small barn with a tin roof annexed to a red-brick farmhouse which only had a lamp on above the front door.

Two big green doors were ajar with the barn though, and light was pooling out from the gap onto the gravel as they approached.

The doors opened suddenly and Francis grasped Gabrielle's hand, pulling her out of sight at the gate, pressing a finger to his lips. A man appeared, unmistakably a wizard by his less conventional dress and the pipe that was creating perfect smoke-rings as he walked over the gravel to the front door of the house and disappeared inside.

With a tilt of his head, the couple hurried across the front drive, and entered the barn where Francis was absolutely certain they'd find his younger brother.

Inside the brightly-lit barn was a gloriously huge beast of a machine[1]. Despite himself, Francis couldn't help but be ever so slightly excited at the sight, even if he was horrified too. The car looked far too over the top for any Muggle car - it wasn't like Edwin's car, nor like the Ford Orion that had been seen and reported in the paper.

The sight of two legs sticking out from underneath confirmed instantly to Gabrielle and Francis that the mischevious Pepper was underneath - those were familiar laced shoes and brown corduroy trousers.

"Octavius!" Francis hissed, setting himself and Gabrielle either side of the legs. "Get out from under there, right now!"

1.	Monty's Blue Silver cars are similar to the sort Clenet Coachworks made

Richardson was a good chap, Monty thought to himself as he adjusted the charms on the undercarriage. The invisibility charms would have meant the car wouldn't have got through the checks at import.

Luckily, he'd been sent the instructions on what standards and combinations should be applied by his employees back in America. He employed bright minds who were superb at charms for this very reason - and normally they were the ones who applied the layers of magic to the vehicles before they were received by their new owners. But importing into Britain was risky - too easy to get caught with the rules on not tampering with Muggle items.

Richardson had enough money to buy a fleet if he wanted to - more money than sense. A successful quidditch career, a family inheritance, invested in the right company at the right time - you'd have thought the man had liquid luck on tap in his house. Monty was initially jealous, but when he managed to convince Richardson to spend some of the money on buying from him, he'd been laughing all the way to the bank.

Now the car was here, and the man wanted to drive his daughter to her wedding day in it. His daughter was a few years older than Theta, Octavius knew, and he had already got an invitation to the wedding to see how his car looked, driving the happy couple off later for their honeymoon.

Richardson went off to find beer to christen the new car, of course, and Monty carried on with his work beneath the car until he heard a familiar voice who by all means, would not be there in a million years by his brother's reckoning.

Scooting out and managing to hold onto his wand in the process, Monty appeared on his back between Gabrielle and Francis.

"Hello!" He greeted them both brightly, oil smeared down his nose. His moustache and beard were purple again, as he occasionally decided to colour it. It added to his whole eccentric persona to his audience.

"Do you like it?" He gestured to the car above him, his wand in his hand. "She's a beauty and she'll fly something beautiful - give me another half an hour to finish the disillusionment."

Mmn, yes. Adventure. How she adored them with this man.

The squatting, bending, shushing, the whole works were like those adventures over the wireless in addition to the personal adventures she had taken in Romania with their government. Hiding amongst the fence and hedges was particularly exhilarating, she mused inside her head. Their feet carried silently upward to the barn, a smirk plastered all over Gabrielle's face. This truly was becoming a little too much fun.

Once they made it into the barn and she saw the pants, shoes, the desire to jinx the shoestrings was running exceedingly high. However, Francis' stern pronounciation of his brother's name got Monty's attention and when he came out from the car with that salesman's grin, Gabrielle's face continued to smirk away.

"Thirty minutes he says, Francis. Should we allow the pup to do such a thing?" Gabrielle mused teasingly away, an eyebrow raised with the situation given. "After all, he's worked so hard on this great mechanical beauty," she continued on, her eyes, smirk fixated now onto Monty and that dyed beard, eyebrow.

"He shouldn't be here at all." Francis replied, exasperated, and put his hands on his hips of his green velvet jacket, his boots inches from his brother's on the floor.

"Octavius, Catherine doesn't want to see you in trouble, this has to stop." Francis appealed with one hand, "you're going to end up getting carted off to Azkaban while they decide what to do with you."

"Nonsense!" His brother exclaimed from the floor, wiping his nose off on the sleeve of his black shirt - which at least wouldn't show the dirt. "Once I can get Zephyr in one she'll see the light."

And with that he slid himself back under and continued work from the sound and the flickering wandlight from beneath it the vehicle.

Francis looked to his beloved from the other side of the pair of legs jutting out from under the car.
"Brother! You're putting Gabrielle in a tricky position you know!"
"Oh, really? Thought that's what you two did when you were alone in the bedroom." A response came from underneath.
"Octavius!" His brother was chuckling underneath the car, and then continued to cast spells despite the warning.
"Don't be so crude - I mean as a Department Head."
"Keep your hair on, I knew that. Well, you brought her here, so that's not my bother. Oh, no offence sweetheart."

Outside the barn came a smash of glass which punctuated the conversation enough for Francis and Gabrielle to look round to the doors of the barn. Octavius, none the wiser, carried on with the dillusionment, scooting further down the car on his back beneath it, negotiating his legs around his brother's as he did.

"De- De- oh merlin!"

The voice of someone who was definitely not a Pepper, nor Gabrielle came from outside on the gravel, and footsteps scurried on the stones for a second before there was a hideous thump.

The temperature was noticeably dropping, and as Francis steeled himself to go to see, he flinched away from the doors of the barn as he put his hand to it, for the sheer fact they were icy cold to the touch.

Out in the now pitch black dark, the lantern above the front door of the house was just enough to reveal the sight of Richardson, and two smashed bottles of beer. He'd fainted, Francis hoped, as looming over them was something far worse - a dementor.

"OCTAVIUS! GET OUT FROM THERE!" Francis yelped, and seized Gabrielle's arm.

"Dementors!"

The shriek from his brother and also the appearance of ice beneath the car's body sent Monty skimming out from underneath the vehicle in a hurry, almost catching his head as he tried to sit up quickly.

He'd not had to cast a patronus in some years, though he'd tried one night at home to see if he still could. But now with the thought that they were there outside the door to the garage he felt as if all his hope had deserted him.

"Merlin, oh god, no, what do we, oh-." His wizarding roots and the phrases of his non-magical wife came to his lips automatically as the air appeared to fill with the sounds of his daughters and Catherine in pain and trouble, though he knew they were not there.

"The car!"

"Not the time, brother we have to get out of here now!"

"THE CAR!" Monty insisted, and threw open the door, getting inside. His brother gave a look of sheer disbelief, and grasped Gabrielle by the arm. Monty brought the engine to life with a roar and flicked on the headlights which burned brightly towards the icy doors to the barn garage. To hell with the Ministry and their rules.

With a heavy thump, the back doors closed, and without looking back, Monty reached his arm out of the driver's door window and blasted open the doors of the garage without a second thought. His foot hit the floor on the accelerator as he released the handbrake and they shot out across the gravel (thankfully missing Richardson).

The dementors were like a thick raggedy cloud up in the sky which had turned an ugly churned black, grey and green colour above the house, sucking away any light that might have remained.
"Hold on!" The car lurched into the air and began to climb at a rapid pace, the headlights burning into the wraith-like forms that swarmed around them.

Richardson's shout was matched with Gabrielle's shriek when the atmosphere went from brisk to down right damn chilly. Moments weren't spared as they jumped into the car, speeding off into the skies to avoid the dementors. Merde. Gripping her wand, Gabrielle put her head outside the window, trying to gauge their situation at hand. Clearly, it was not looking at all good.

"Monty, move your arse! They aren't letting us go this easily!" she snapped in annoyance at the dreadful creatures bothering them. Aiming her wand, she bellowed the patronus charm and the falcon burst forth, its cry shrill as it headed towards the dementors. The patronus began to tear apart a few dementors before it was swarmed, the illumination dimming right after.

No.

Letting out a shudder, Gabrielle slumped back into the vehicle, shuddering violently. Much like Monty had heard Catherine and the girls' voice, a shouted cry that eerily harkened to her mother's voice filled Gabrielle's eyes. Looking at Francis, she buried herself into him, mumbling 'happy thoughts' repeatedly in a mantra manner.

From the back seat Francis and Gabrielle untangled themselves enough to turn and look out of the back windscreen. Gabrielle was halfway out the window when Francis realised what she was up to, and feared for her falling out, and grasped her round the waist.

A bright falcon patronus burst from her wand but fell away quite quickly. The three of them were feeling the brunt of the dementors and Francis allowed Gabrielle to bury herself into his arms in the back seats, as he fought to try and summon happy thoughts to attempt much the same.

From the front, Monty adjusted the rear mirror and changed gears, turning the wheel to try and outmanoeuvre the dementors, a grim look on his face, and his usual upbeat demeanour lost.

"We can't just outrun them," Francis reasoned with his brother.

"We can try." Octavius suggested through gritted teeth. "But patronuses are better."

"But I haven't since Claire." Francis admitted, and his brother turned as best he could in his seat, unwittingly driving right at a dementor.
"Brother, you've got the love of your life in your lap, now is the time!"

He was exactly right, Francis realised, and drew his almond wood wand, the very same one he'd had since the beginning when he'd gone to Ollivanders before his sorting.

Francis grasped Gabrielle firmly with both hands.
"My love, come on, we can do this. It's just the dementors. I need you, we need each other. You have to try with me." He lifted her chin and kissed her as best he could in the veering car.

The two of them wound down the windows and Francis tried hard not to look at the faceless wraiths pursuing them, as he summoned happy thoughts - his mind raced past his wedding day with Claire, to the day he picked out an engagement ring for Gabrielle, and past that to dancing in her house just the two of them, to kissing for the first time again as a couple.

As he yelled the charm out into the night's sky, he did it with grim determination that Gabrielle was right there, and she was not crying in his mind. She was the one to first send her patronus at them, he would be able to do it.

From his wand tip burst a cuckoo[1] which flew fervently at the dementors as the flying car continued to speed through the sky, looping away from Muggle areas as best it could.

1.	RSPB - Cuckoos in Britain

A gasp left Gabrielle when Francis' hands snapped her out from the sudden fit of despair that held its sway on her. His warm, albeit worn, gentle hands holding hers - her eyes raised to face Francis. Yes, they needed to be strong and courageous, that they were fully capable of taking this threat down for now. They'd be able to do this. The confirmation was fully understood when their lips locked against one another in a tender yet inspiration driven moment.

Normally, she would have reveled in the moment, pleased to be kissing and not giving a damn Monty would be watching them. However, this was a serious ordeal and so when Francis pulled away, Gabrielle did the same. Gripping her wand with a great new bunch of moxie filled within, she watched Francis' patronus go in for the proverbial kill and then followed suit. Her own bellowed cry sent the falcon out once again, its piercing sound well heard as it began attacking the dementors anew.

Fury to have these creatures pushed back with hope and determination kept the ethereal form in attack mode, swiping and thrashing along side the cuckoo's. "Monty, let's go!" Gabrielle at last spoke, her wand remaining aimed at its intended target. Her free hand took Francis', squeezing it for moral support. They were a team now and an excellent one at that.

He didn't need telling twice. Dementors rocked the car as Monty negotiated a route through their floating forms, clipping them. The paintwork was going to be a mess, and he was furiously thinking about the love he had for his family as he drove, fighting off the negative thoughts and screams that were permeating his mind.

The car reached top gear and shot through the sky with the dementors in hot pursuit.
"I'm going to try and lead them out to sea - it's thirty miles!" He yelled against the engine and the voices in their heads. Oh Merlin the Ministry might have them all for this - he couldn't get the invisibility to work - he hadn't finished the job in the garage before they'd had to flee.

They'd have to hope nobody in Peterborough looked up and saw them and they could get out to the Wash at King's Lynn without too much of a problem.

The patronuses were circling the car keeping the worst of the swarm at bay.

The two patronus birds were doing their best to fight off the dementors, and although it wasn't clear at first, some of the dementors were dropping off and vanishing into the night as they drove. Each of them knelt on the back seats, leaning out of the window casting, holding their free hands out as they did to clasp each other's fingertips.

"Do it!" Francis agreed with his brother, not even giving a thought to the Muggles or to any potential trouble they were in. It was pointless to try and apparate out of where they were - too risky.

The had to hope hat driving them out to sea - literally - would do the trick, and they could summon help to drive them off collectively.

Gabrielle agreed with the plan, knowing fully well that they had to protect others even if it meant they put their own lives, their occupations and reputations on the line. Squeezing Francis' hand as best as she could due to Monty's navigation through the clouds, the witch was pleased to see the dementors falling to their patronuses determination.

Her eyes slid eventually over to Francis, smiling warmly, giving him a nod. They were going to make it through this and even if they were punished for stupidity via a flying car, Gabrielle felt honourable in saving lives from the dreadfulness of a dementor's chilly touch.

And so the car raced onwards through the night sky, and the wind picked up and tossed it about. It was exhausting to hold a patronus for so long, especially having not cast one for a couple of years.

In the moonlight it was possible to make out the waves below as Monty took them in a wide arc. Turning back to shore, in the full beam headlights he declared with relief,
"I think we lost them all!" Francis twisted and saw his brother stick his head out of the lowered driver's window and look below them as the car's engine puttered.

"Thank Merlin. I wasn't sure how long we were going to last." His cuckoo patronus faded away and he pulled inside of the car, collapsing on the back seat in a slump. He pressed his hands to the sides of his face, blinked hard and swallowed.
"You never quite remember how horrible it is to have one of those things inside your head, do you?"

"No one does, I'm afraid," Gabrielle replied matter-of-factly as she too slid back into the car, her own aviary patronus now faded away from the night sky and back into the core of the wand. Slightly chilled and absolutely exhausted on emotional as well as physical levels, she closed her eyes as her head reclined upon the back seat's head rest. Her body crested, fell slowly for a few moments, finding a way to regain strength it could and recharged her weariness. Not since a proper duelling match in a few years had caused this much exertion on her body and Gabrielle could note that she was hardly a spring chicken anymore.

But here they were. The three of them, safe and sound and potential saviours of a community from dreaded dementors. Her brain cringed at that word, urging to dismiss it instantly. Finally looking over to Francis, Gabrielle scooted closer to him, resting her head soon enough on his body, smiling. "I'm very proud of you, of Monty too, but it says something about your happiness, doesn't it?" she murmured, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "Clearly you're very, very happy."