At least the kitchen cupboards seemed to provide an endless source of entertainment.

It would, however, Jonas couldn't help thinking as he jumped for the umpteenth time, be tremendously more funny if the sudden roar of the cupboard yeti didn't make him start every single time it went off.  Gwenna had discovered the enchantments on Archer Radley's kitchen cabinet within seeming minutes of their arrival at the big Auror's flat, and she had immediately taken to throwing them open and cackling villainously whenever her timid younger brother crept into range.

"Gwen!" Jonas said sharply.  He didn't get much farther before Artie had come streaking into the main room, shrieking with terror, and threw himself onto his father's lap.  Jonas let out an oomph, cut off as the wind was momentarily knocked out of him.

"It's gonna eat you!  It's gonna eeeeeat you!"  Gwenna, her mission of terror accomplished, let out another hideous cackle and began stomping out a tribal victory dance in the center of the entryway.  Terrified, Artie let out another shriek and tried to scramble up the front of his father, bursting into very loud tears as he threw his arms around the Auror's neck.

Jonas gritted his teeth.  There was no way that his daughter got this from his side of the family.   He adjusted his grip on the sobbing, shaking Artie, rearranging the boy so that he was no longer strangling him, and took a deep breath.

"Gwenna. Trevelyan!" he barked at the top of his lungs. 

The words immediately had their desired effect.  Gwenna froze mid-stomp, her eyes wide as she stared at her normally mellow father.

Jonas eyed her.  "Look, can't you -- I don't know, go play with Rufus?" he asked, suddenly feeling very tired.  There was probably no end to the chaos she could get into with the dog, but at least Artie would never believe that the good-natured canine wanted to eat him.  "You don't have to look so bl-- so amused," he muttered at Archer, wrapping both arms around his son as he shifted so that he could see the rest of Adon's map, spread out on the dining room table.  "You'll have them too one day."

Alright.  So. There was this idea, it was called schadenfreude.  And watching the little Trevelyans running around his flat, Archer could not help but be feeling it.  Jonas looked exasperated, Gwenna was cackling – Archer had never actually heard someone cackle before, but this - this was definitely cackling.  And then there was Artie who was petrified of the cabinet that, thanks to Hunter, was enchanted improperly, so any counter-spell Archer attempted did not work on the thing.  Never trust an idiot to do a fully functioning wizard’s job. 

Even Rufus was engaged, bouncing around the kitchen and barking at the cabinet, as though the roaring yeti was going to answer.  Archer had, briefly, thought about changing things around and putting a shocker on the cabinet door, but somehow, looking at Gwenna, he wouldn’t be surprised if that would make the experience that much better for her.  So, Archer let it alone. 

Didn’t seem like Jonas was able to do it though – which was strange, wasn’t is usually the childless friend that was frustrated with the monsters?  Maybe Archer was just numb – well, not numb, he wouldn’t be trying so hard not to laugh if he were numb. 

“Rufus’ toy, that one over there,” Archer pointed to a little person shaped doll-like thing on the floor, raising his eyebrows at Gwenna, “if you play tug-of-war with it, and it rips, it leaks fake blood.” Archer had to buy it when he saw it.  Way too cool to pass up. 

Of course, with that distraction, Archer looked at Jonas with a quirked eyebrow.  “Mate, I don’t mean this in any way that should get back to Ray, but… have you seen her?” He scrutinized Jonas for a moment, wondering where on Earth he had ever assumed Ray was fit maternally, and even then, what would possess him to wish something like this on him.  Yea, he found it amusing, and he himself had a gigantic family with a mother who would literally pay him her life saving’s in galleons to have children, but that wasn’t the point. 

“That does not get back to her,” he added again, in a hushed tone, glancing back at the map.  “Besides, we’re not here to talk about that,” he motioned to the tugging and squealing group over in the middle of the floor, and directed attention back at the map on the table, “we’re talking about this.” The spots marked with Dugan’s normal hangouts, plus the places he struck, were all over the map.  Archer sighed.  “Now to find the best place to start…”

'Fake blood' had apparently been the magic words.  Gwenna, who had been in the process of shrinking under her father's unusually stern glare, immediately lit up.  She snuck a look at Jonas to make sure that accepting the offer wasn't going to get her yelled at again and then darted off, letting loose an evil cackle as she pounced on the toy and then raced back into the kitchen. 

Another round of happy barking exploded from the other room.  Sighing, Jonas shifted his grip on Artie and leaned back in his chair.  Gwenna's likely debut at Hogwarts was just over three months away now, and even though they hadn't gotten her letter yet, he was already counting down the days.  He suspected that Anna was doing the same.  As much as they both loved their eldest daughter, a nine-month break from zombie attacks and cannibals at the dinner table was starting to sound like a proper holiday.

"Seen her?" he asked with tired bemusement, glancing back at Archer.  "Yeah, I have.  And you're apparently interested in her, Arch."  It was nothing personal against Tamis; as frustrated as he might get with her, he would still admit that he cared about the woman as long as she wasn't within earshot.  They'd been through too much together for him not to.  Tait's death.  The fall of the Ministry.  Even more recently, with the monthlong sojourn in Scotland and his subsequent return to the Ministry.  It was a brotherhood -- siblinghood, he supposed -- forged through hard times and suffering, as the barriers that had once been so solid between them had slowly broken down.

But through it all, he had never once considered that their interaction might be anything else.  Jonas had never quite gotten what Tait Aldridge had seen in the fiery, stubborn Ravenclaw, and though he had a better suspicion what Archer might find attractive in her now, he still couldn't entirely understand it.  The woman had spent most of her adult life building walls, and though his former partner had had a decade longer to practice breaking them down, she never entirely matched the dark-eyed, long-legged beauties that he'd known the big Auror to have a thing for, once upon a time.

Archer had pointedly redirected the conversation back to the map.  Jonas sighed, following the man's direction as he tiredly shifted his gaze.  He didn't even know how many times they'd been over this.  Looking for clues and patterns, trying to verify sightings -- despite Adon's best efforts, they still couldn't be certain that all of their information was even valid.  It was unbelievably frustrating.  And time was running out.  The full moon was in less than a week.

"How've things been with the two of you?" he asked thoughtfully, letting his gaze drift over the data points.  Artie had curled up against his chest; as long as he didn't start trying to wipe his nose in any unsanitary fashion, Jonas was content to let him stay there.  At least it made it easier to remember why he was doing this.  "Got to be a bit of a strain, yeah?  I've barely talked to Tam recently."