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The Brewmaster's Mystery
By Mutt N Feathers

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Category: Post-Hogwarts
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Drama
Warnings: Sexual Situations
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 150
Summary: MMB is growing, Charlie and Seph are about to be parents and Harry and Ginny will be wed in mere months; life appears to be perfect. But when unexplained failures begin occurring around the brewery, Harry can't help but wonder if something is afoot.
Hitcount: Story Total: 88150; Chapter Total: 2413





Author's Notes:
Hello all, here it is the chapter where we unmask the Tormentor. I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations. The song is by Meredith Brooks, you can decide which woman it pertains to. Thanks to my team for helping me get to this point. It was always where this story was going, but it took careful planning to get there.




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Chapter 33:
Bitch

2 July 2000
Ministry of Magic
Seph POV:


I stood with Harry and Charlie, looking through the window charm Harry had cast into the interrogation room. It was the same room I’d watched my sister and brother-in-law attempt to explain why they’d gone after me. They hadn’t shared why they associated themselves with this woman. Looking at her now, I couldn’t figure out how they’d even found her, or persuaded her to work with them.

She wasn’t dressed in Wizarding robes, instead she was in high-end Muggle clothing. We might even procure our wardrobes from the same shops. She had on a fabulous plum coloured sleeveless sweater dress, which could have only been Vera Wang by the way it was draped. Absolutely amazing knee-high black boots complemented the dress; if I had to guess I’d say they were Chanel due to the stacking of the heel. I didn’t doubt the jewellery were real amethysts, either. Her dark sunglasses, jet black hair and perfect manicure made her appear to be a woman I would want to spend time with, rather than a witch who had been attempting to kill me and those I loved. To be honest, I coveted the outfit; it wasn’t all that different from what I was wearing.

“Who did you say she was?” I asked Kingsley. There was no one else in the room, so I felt no need to engage in formalities.

“Her name is Roswitha Lestrange. She’s the daughter of Thorsten Lestrange. We have no record of who her birth mother is, but we can say she isn’t from an Ancient House bloodline. She swears, however, that you’re her mama, but there is no biological evidence to support that.”

“If I didn’t give birth to her, how could I be her mama?” Charlie was seated next to me, still unable to stand for long periods due to his slowly healing injuries. The dragon venom was proving more challenging than we’d first thought. I fell into the chair next to him, gently laying my head on his good shoulder.

“She’s delusional, love,” my husband said, attempting to comfort me. “Has she told you anything else?” he directed the question to Kingsley.

“No, she says she will only speak to Seph,” the Minister responded.

“Absolutely not,” Harry said first. “The French Ministry is looking at her in connection to eleven other deaths in the last six years. Seph can’t be in there alone with her.”

“I agree, Harry. I’d never let a civilian in with a murderer on her own. However, Seph won’t be alone,” Kingsley responded. “There’s a disillusioned Auror already in the room, standing behind our suspect, who is also shackled and spelled to the chair.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Charlie told me. “There must be another way. Perhaps Polyjuice Potion?”

“We could do that,” Harry spoke before Kingsley could. “We’d need at least a day to prep whoever was taking Seph’s place. The replacement would need specifics about Seph’s life. It would take a fair bit of time to get them ready.” Kingsley sort of grunted in agreement. There was no good way for me to get out of having to confront this young woman, Lestrange’s daughter. How many different ways could he attempt to ruin my life? He had been dead for nearly twenty years, and he was still haunting me. Now it was through a daughter I didn’t know existed. She appeared to be Harry’s age or very close. Would she be taking up her father’s mantle? Was I ever going to stop paying for not marrying the freak? I had to take control.

“No, I’ll do it,” I told them. “I need to know what the hell is going on with this woman and why she went after everything I hold dear.”

“You sure you’re up to this, love?” Charlie asked me. I placed my right hand on his face and lifted his left with mine, twining our fingers together.

“See those rings there?” I asked, our wedding rings side by side. “The meaning of those rings, the love behind them, they give me all the strength I need. Once she is put away, we can get back to our lives. I want that more than anything. If this is how I get that, then so be it.” Charlie leaned forward and we kissed. I let my hand twine into his hair and we moaned simultaneously. It was the first truly passionate kiss we’d shared since the attack nearly a month ago.

I stood, straightened my dress and checked my hair for loose strands from the French knot Ginny had created this morning. Ms Lestrange looked as if she had stepped out of a French fashion magazine. I intended my appearance to be in her league as well. “Wish me luck.”

“You don’t need luck, Mrs MacPhearson-Weasley,” the Minister remarked, strangely calling me by such a formal name when we’d been informal the rest of the day. “After that press conference a while back, you definitely know how to hold your own.” I smiled at his kind words and understood his formality. A little reminder of how well I’ve handled women like her in the past.

“Go kick her arse,” Harry told me, which made me smile widely and laugh just a little. “Oh, and one swift one right to her left cheek for threatening my Ginny.”

“You’ve got it, Harry.” I pivoted slightly to see Charlie. He had nothing but pride on his face.

“This is why I fell in love with you,” he said. “You’re even wearing those boots which did me in the first time I saw them. I love you, and nothing said in there will ever change that.”

“I love you, too,” I replied as I bent down for one last quick kiss. I stood, withdrew my wand and fixed my makeup and then handed it to Charlie. Grasping the door handle, I went inside.

Roswitha looked up and removed her sunglasses, letting them rest on the top of her head. She had stunning violet-coloured eyes, the slightly upturned Lestrange nose and a heart-shaped mouth. She was beautiful. I had to assume most of her looks came from her mother as Lestrange wasn’t a good-looking man.

“It’s about time you arrived, Ms MacPhearson,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder if you wouldn’t come at all. At least the accommodations are above par. I have been detained in much worse places.” She was speaking perfect English, with proper pure-blood and British inflections. I had thought she’d speak French, having grown up there.

“I see,” I said as I dismissed Proudfoot with a wave of my hand. He furrowed his brow, but when I nodded he went past me and out the door. I pulled out the other chair and sat. As I did, I looked over Ms Lestrange’s head and quickly winked. I hoped to alert the Auror that I knew of his presence. “You wanted to speak with me; I’m here now. What do you want to talk about?”

“Hmmm, I suppose I will need to tell you about the attacks on your breweries and home and your husband. Does he know you ran out on your first husband?” she asked and I stared at her until able to speak.

“Charlie knows about the broken engagement in my youth,” I emphasised the word engagement to correct her.

“It was more than an engagement though, wasn’t it?” she mockingly emphasised the word back. “You were betrothed. There was a contract between Papa and you and you reneged.”

“Perhaps, but I was eighteen, he was in his sixties. I was in love with another --”

“Yes, you were involved with Auntie Bella’s blood-traitor cousin, weren’t you? She was so excited when she killed him. Honestly, she danced around the castle for two days, and then took me out on my second raid. It was fun to show those pure-bloods what happens when you don’t respond to a request my Auntie has made.”

Shivers went down my spine when she mentioned how excited Bella was about killing Sirius. She was attempting to provoke me, I would not let her.

“So, you were a Death Eater?”

She scoffed at my question. “Never, too restrictive. Regardless of what my brothers and aunt might have thought, Voldemort was a megalomanic. If he’d succeeded, they would have all been killed. He never would have allowed anyone with the power to hurt him to remain. I could see it when they couldn’t. Anyway, I preferred to work alone.”

“So, what would you call yourself then?” I had to ask, although from looking at the scroll they had on her I had my own suspicions.

“No, no, too soon for those answers. I want to go back to why you abandoned me.” Her voice and face became hard as she spoke.

“I didn’t give birth to you; I didn’t even know you existed,” I emphasised.

“Of course you didn’t give birth to me,” she said in a dismissive tone. “My birth mother was little more than a whore my papa had chosen for her beauty and French citizenship. He wanted another child, but he didn’t want to risk it having your flaming locks. He detested your hair and called your features ‘dull.’ Looking at you now, I wonder what he was thinking. You’re quite lovely, and your body is rather impressive, given your age. Must be why you snagged a younger husband,” she stated. I felt dirty from her comments. Ms. Lestrange just kept speaking.

“Papa impregnated her using magic to ensure I was a girl. He kept her around for the first few months after my birth, but he told me she had become clingy and wanted to know when they’d marry. Why she thought he’d marry anything other than a well-bred pure-blood is beyond me. From his memories, he’d planned an ‘accident’ for her; it had worked so well for him earlier that year when he needed to remove another obstacle. Unfortunately, the timing was incorrect, and he was injured as well. My papa entered a coma; he was successful in killing my mother, however. At this point it was just my nanny and me.” She spoke so casually of her mother’s death, it was extremely disturbing.

“I was nearly a year old when my father came out of his coma, only months before you were to come live with us. I’ve explored my Papa’s memories; you were feisty, weren’t you? Honestly, you and that barrister of yours, the pair of you made my Papa’s life difficult. Then, when you didn’t get your way, you went into hiding. He was sure that Potter knew where you were, but regardless of what he did to him, the blood traitor would not give up the information. For an old guy he was impressive in his ability to withstand pain.” I had no idea Mr. P had been tortured to find out about me. I felt ashamed and small. He never should have needed to withstand such things because of me.

“You didn’t know!” the girl said with delight. “Ooh, perhaps they’ll give me a Pensieve and I can show you what Papa did to him. Won’t that be fun?” Her last comment angered me.

“Enough,” I sternly spoke. “You’re right, I did everything in my power to keep away from old man Lestrange. Not only did the idea of my having to touch his wrinkly, droopy body disgust me, but it was well known what happened to his wives. He was nearly as good at offing them as Henry the eighth.”

“That’s a lie,” she snipped back. It didn’t deter me in getting the answers I wanted. She had the power to get me here, but I had the power to stay or not.

“I get it, you wanted a mother, you got a nanny,” I said back. “I had no idea you existed, but even if I did, I doubt I would have done anything different. Sirius and I had been together in our hearts for years, and when his father and my mother agreed we could marry, it was the best day of my life to that point. Enough with all of this. You’re going to answer my questions now, girl.”

Roswitha stared at me. I was fairly certain no one had ever stood up to her. She’d shown herself to just be a frightened girl with a big, scary shell.

“Aren’t you going to speak? You were so full of bravado a moment ago, where did it go?” My inner strength was returning, bolstering my heart and wiping out my fears. “Come on, little girl, you threatened to kill me but you’re too weak to give me the truth? Perhaps you’ve known all along you were nothing more than a mistake and I wasn’t there because I didn’t care to be.”

“Fine!”she roared. There was the hellcat who had made my life horrid. “I became a mercenary at fifteen, my brothers showed me the ropes. Lestranges have been known for centuries for their skill at the kill. Auntie Bella gave me tips which made little sense at the time, but after I completed my ‘degree’ they were understood.” The timbre of the conversation had changed. Gone were the niceties of our upbringings. I was a lioness, protecting my family from harm. She was the lone cat; hungry, lost and desperate.

“What do you hold a degree in?”

“Muggle forensic science,” she proudly answered. Small pieces of the puzzle were beginning to snap together. “I’d just completed the program when I was hired by Voldemort. Now there was one sick man. Anyway, he knew you were a courier for the Order, sure you were getting information into and out of the UK. He wanted you dead, and the Death Eaters couldn’t find you. None of the Order members they’d interrogated knew where you were. Even Black wouldn’t give you up.” My gut sank a little deeper; they’d tortured Sirius in Azkaban to get to me. How many more people had that bastard and his family hurt in my name?

“The magical brewery was right there, all out in the open. One night I was watching the place, and I saw a redhead inside, working away in the private area. I was sure it was you. I quickly set my spells and cast the hex to start the whole chain of events that would destroy the brewery. It was only a few days later, when the news reached France, that I discovered it wasn’t you inside.” I rubbed my forehead. She’d been responsible for the deaths of Sibéal and Fergus. Suddenly, I didn’t feel guilty for everything, I felt enraged. It wasn’t my fault. “We rarely make mistakes. If a Lestrange wants you dead, you will be.”

Something about the sentence sent my brain into overdrive. I remembered her commenting about a murder her father committed before he killed her mother. Suddenly a question which had dogged me since I was seventeen had an answer.

“You father murdered mine, didn’t he?”

“It took you long enough to figure it out,” she spat back. “Your father wanted to break the engagement and he had the power to do it. Papa arranged for that dumb trip to work on a dispute that didn’t exist. He paid one of the vampires the equivalent of two Galleons to push him over the side. How did none of you figure that out? It was so obvious. Guess Papa went to too much trouble for you.”

Anger and frustration bubbled up from my gut, and shredded the last bit of my calm. “I get it; you are pissed at me for not coming for you. Get over it, bitch. Your Papa was a crazy ass of a man who just followed a delusional murderer. What I don’t understand is why you came after me now. You knew where I’ve been for all these years; why now?”

“You weren’t easy to find before you ‘came out’ shortly after the war ended. I was contemplating what to do to you when I discovered you were in business with the boy responsible for the deaths of my entire family. It was too perfect. I could go after both of you at once. That I ran into your own sister and her husband doing the same thing was just a happy coincidence.” She was again mirthful as she spoke, but her eyes said she could strike at any moment.

“How did you do it, get around our charms and hexes? What did you do to my husband’s dragon? Why ruin the crops at the farm?”

“Anything which happened at your farm was all your brother-in-law’s idea. He was beyond obsessed with that place. A few times I caught him mumbling about treasure in the walls, then he’d speak of King George. I really think he was one slice short of a full pie.” She was calling someone else crazy? Pot, kettle, black.

“I helped him with some accelerants; no one would have thought to check the soil for them, so I brewed some specific oils to speed things along. I couldn’t get away with that in a Muggle investigation; they’d immediately check for such things, and since they’re catalogued it could have potentially led back to me,” she explained. “When he started talking about killing your kids, I pulled out of the mission. I don’t do minors.” This girl was becoming stranger as she revealed more. She did have some morals in there, she wouldn’t murder children. How magnanimous of her.

“Okay, but how did you get into the breweries, especially the Muggle one? We had enchantments layered on enchantments there, created by two curse-breakers for Gringotts. The dragon preserve has even more. What did you do?” I demanded.

“Magic is a bit like electrical current,” she said. “It flows, pulsates and the current can be broken.” She spoke as if she were lecturing on the subject. An odd thought of her recording lectures on forensics for the trainee Aurors while in the new prison came to mind. I refocused myself on what she was saying.

“I used a set of large Muggle batteries all linked through magic. When the circuit was closed, there was no disruption of the charms. If I opened the circuit, the initial pulse of energy disrupted your enchantments, and we could momentarily pass through. As for what appeared on your cameras, simple glamour charms can change your appearance for a short time. Yes, they can be hard to hold, but it’s necessary in my line of work. I have mastered the glamour, and can keep one in place for days if required. If it wasn’t for the magical suppression in this room, you wouldn’t be seeing my true visage either. You sister and her husband didn’t recognize me at all, which was pitiful, since they’d both seen me naked.”

The more she said, the more perplexing I found her. I was beginning to wonder how exactly the Ministry had found her. What mistake had led them to her? She’d killed at least eleven people, perhaps more. She had attempted to make my Charlie number twelve.

“What did you do to Charlie’s dragon? Tymestl is his dragon, raised since her egg cracked. We found the Moon Jellyfish fibres, which would have irritated her, but not enough to make her strike. The biotoxin would have made her sleepy and more docile and she would have wanted Charlie with her. What I want to know is how were you using the microchip?”

“Ooh-who,” she said while clapping. “Someone does know something about Muggle technology. I stripped it from a Muggle pacemaker and tinkered with it a bit. It was charmed so that when I flicked my wand, the pacemaker would send out a charge. The charge was tied to the fibres of the jellyfish. Instead of a small jump-start to the heart, she had a current racing throughout her body. I’d hoped the poor girl would die as well, but your husband and his sentimental thoughts saved her.” My stomach rolled at her callousness.

“If you’re so cautious, how did they catch you?” I finally had to ask. Yes, Hermione was using Muggle knowledge as well as Wizarding, but I doubted she’d integrated enough to capture someone like Roswitha.

“Apparently my urinating on your desk was my downfall. Someone knows a bit about forensics after all. My Papa’s bloodline was detected, and they’d already been in contact with the French Ministry. I’d left a bit of myself at another scene -- killed off an undersecretary that time -- and they matched the two. I forgot Auntie Bella’s number one rule about being a hired killer: Never assume you can’t be found.” She paused and thought for a moment before shrugging.

C'est la vie; when I get out, I shall remember this. There will always be work for someone like me.” She crossed her legs as much as her shackles would allow and leaned back. The look on her face was one of utter calm.

Unlike Phila and Angus, incarceration did not seem to upset her. In fact, she seemed utterly disconnected. I covered my mouth and closed my eyes; there was no way to understand her. Like my sister and Angus, they’d all made choices I couldn’t comprehend nor could I imagine a scenario which would have led me to be part of such a thing.

I looked at Roswitha and I wondered if I had been around her, if she would have turned out differently. Then again, how different would my life have been? I would have been surrounded by Death Eaters. The family I married into would have been actively fighting against the man I love and my brother in all but name. My heart ached from even considering being on Voldemort’s side, but with the ache came another thought.

The life I had chosen was mine, and it was good. I looked again to this girl, wishing I could help her, but I couldn’t. If there was anything redeemable in her soul, it wouldn’t be me to find it. I vowed I would not feel badly about it either, because I had three children at home whom I was responsible for loving and moulding into good people. They had been made out of love, not magic. I had carried and birthed them with excitement in my heart. They knew I was their Mummy and that I loved them. They would be raised to stand up to oppression and bigotry, just like their fathers and I had done in both wars. I’d heard enough. It was time to leave.

I stood up, stepped to the side and pushed my chair under.

“Where are you going?” Roswitha asked. I turned to face her.

“Home, to be with my children. They’re swimming with their cousins this afternoon. I think I shall enjoy swimming with them.” It was stated plainly and I turned to walk to the door.

“You can’t leave,” she screamed. “You haven’t said you were sorry for abandoning me!” One look at her face, and it was obvious she was becoming unhinged. Her calmness was gone, and she had stood and was now straining against her chains.

“I can leave you. I cannot apologise for something I did not do. I never abandoned you. I had no relationship to you, regardless of what that old coot might have said. I’m sorry his lies ruined your life, but you didn’t have to choose this for your career. I hope you find comfort while you’re incarcerated.”

I walked to the door, opened it and went into the small observation room. Auror Proudfoot passed me as he went in to help move her to her cell.

“You sure there isn’t more you want to know?” Harry asked, even as Charlie was slowly getting himself to a standing position

“No. I know all I truly required, gents. I just wanted to know they weren’t coming after my family ever again. All three of them are going to be guests of the new Wizarding prison for a very long time. They’re no longer a threat, and their reasoning was petty and a sign of an ill mind.” I was leaving my guilt behind as well. I wished I could thank Mr Potter and Sirius for protecting me, even under duress, but I was certain they already knew I’d appreciate it, which is why they defended me. I turned to look at the most important men in my life.

“Now, it is true that the children are swimming in the new pool their Harwy built for them,” I commented, using Connor’s pronunciation which had become the norm for Braden, Tingus and little Audra as well. Harry always joked with them when he heard it. With me he just smiled, feigning irritation. “I suggest we head back to the farm, have some fun in the water and tell the youngest four about their new living arrangements.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Charlie said as he put his arm around my waist. Kingsley smiled as he headed into the interrogation room, and we left.


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