Authors Note: Hello all, only a few hours behind schedule today. Great news, my parents are returning to the US and my hometown (and theirs) today! While my father will need to be hospitalized here, at least he will be closer to home. I will continue to stay here with them until he's well on the mend, but at least we won't be dealing with multiple time zones and different countries!

Okay, since I had such an interesting response to pulling out The Fixx last week, I went for both old and somewhat obscure this week. The title is taken from the song by Souixie and the Banshees. Yes, I am totally showing my early Modern Rock passion. Take a listen to the song, its pretty interesting. Thanks for your messages of support and love. I really appreciate them.

Oh, if you're not signed into FF, your review will be listed as guest and I will not be able to respond. If you want answers to questions, you need to sign in. Thanks, MNF

Chapter 25:

Spellbound

June 1, 2000

Seph POV:

"The entire barley crop is gone," I said sadly as I sat down in my home office with Charlie and Harry. We had just returned from touring the fields with Harry. The kids were over with Molly and Arthur. Apparently not seeing them for a whole five days had been unbearable for her. We had only been back in England for one day before she'd decided they needed a night at Grandmummy and Pop-Pop's house. Given what was happening here, I decided not to argue.

"I can't figure out what fungus the seedlings were attacked with, but there's no saving the plants. I wonder how long that hideous lime glowing will last," I added.

"It is ugly," Charlie agreed. "Annoying too, I finally had to charm Connor's bedroom windows so it didn't keep him awake last night." We all looked out and noticed the ugly green glow; even in the daylight it was distracting.

"The investigation team is out there right now, taking samples and whatnot. I'm concerned about the soil. I don't know if the fungus will be transferred to the ground or not. If it is, we won't be able to plant anything there. Fields that large, being left fallow, will cut into the profits." I could only imagine what my sisters would say if their payments were slimmer come fall.

"You don't really think it will come to that, do you?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "However, if the glow is any indication, the fungus goes into the roots. Pull a plant up, and completely iridescent."

"And completely distracting," Charlie added with a grumble.

"When the Ministry folks are done I'll put some sort of light blocking charm on the whole thing," I said absent-mindedly. There was something about the whole situation which left me confused.

"Is there even time to replant?" my husband asked.

"No," Harry replied. "But it isn't necessary. We can procure local barley without any problem."

"I've already reached out to Madame Gilster down the road," I interjected. The Gilsters were a Muggle family whose farm bordered ours on the north-west side. The farm had been in the late Mr Gilster's family for nearly as long as the Engelsleys had owned this place. Madame Gilster was a bit of a character herself, including her insistence that she be called Madame, rather than Mrs She managed her farm with efficiency, superior standards, and a tad of whimsy. Last year she planted rows of sunflowers in-between the rows of green beans. I had asked her why one day, and she replied that she'd prefer the birds ate the sunflower seeds than her beans. I had no doubt in the quality of the product we'd receive in late summer or early fall. We'd need the barley for the holiday ale. "Her grain will prove to be well produced."

"Is her crop as large?" Harry asked, probably calculating the grain bill in his head.

"No, but it won't be an issue," I responded. "We'll just multiply with a charm until we've reached our needs."

"Won't that affect the taste or texture?" he probed.

"It won't. We used to do it all the time at the magical brewery. It only worked for the beers which were entirely magical in nature, not the Muggle ones we'd charm once brewed. I only abandoned the practice a few years ago when the magical brewery was attacked. I guess I wasn't thinking about it when MMB was rebuilt as I set it up the same way the Muggle one was set up"

"Do you know the charms?" Charlie asked and Harrysniggered.

"I might not have been Sirius or Sibéal, but I did get an O in Charms. Even if I didn't remember them, they're written down in the original recipe book we had. That is safely locked away in Gringotts, should I ever need it."

"I thought you kept that in the vault at MMB," Harry pressed, somewhat confused.

"When we started having problems, I decided I didn't want our proprietary information near the building. If someone got hold of it, all of our brewing secrets would be out. The competition would kill us. Don't think I don't realise why we do so well, being the only truly Magical Brewery. Others have tried, but they don't have the Marauders combined intelligence and skill. Anyway, if the breweries were subjects for break-ins, Gringotts seemed much safer than either of the breweries or any of the homes." The men nodded and silence fell on us. I looked out to the destroyed crop field again, my brow furrowing into a confused knot. Something about all of this wasn't setting well in my mind.

"Seph, what's troubling you?" Charlie asked, his hand coming over to squeeze mine in comfort.

"Why the barley?"

"Because it's important to the beer," he responded, but I shook my head.

"True, but if you wanted to really inhibit the brewing process, attacking the hops houses would have been far more detrimental," I explained.

"You're right," Harry agreed. "We would have been crippled without the speciality hops we grow. We'd need to abandon the holiday and winter beers for sure, maybe even stop production on the year round brews as well."

"Even the seasoning gardens by the hops houses would have been much worse," I added.

"What about the bee hives?" Harry added, his tone rising in agitation. "If they were destroyed, our mead production would have stopped as well." I slid my hand out from Charlie's and leaned back in my chair. Running my hands over my face and into my hair, I just couldn't get my mind around why someone would set off alarms at two of the properties, and then attack the least important crop on our farm.

All of this was beginning to feel like an attack of Gingerfanged Gnats. While it was annoying and the individual bites were noticeable and somewhat itchy, there was no real harm done. Whoever was behind the recent rash of attacks, it was almost like they were bi-polar. We'd have horrible taunts and death threats with dire consequences and the flip side being physical or verbal attacks which were just somewhat insipid and diversionary.

"Love, what is it?" Charlie asked and I was roused from my mental musings.

"What?" I responded out of reflex.

"Something is going on in that beautiful head of yours," he explained. "You've got your deep thought face on." I smiled and shook my head at his description. He got the idea from Connor, who said I didn't need a 'thinking cap' as I had a 'thinking face'. Connor said he wouldn't disturb me when I was like this, as I was good at thinking.

I went on to explain what I was thinking, and both of them agreed with me.

"What if the first two attacks were to gauge my reaction time or something?" Harry suggested.

"Might be. Or, perhaps someone was checking who would come if the enchantments were engaged. Conversely, someone might have been seeing if you'd leave your wife at home. Or, they could have been at the farm and they were meant to distract you. There's a myriad ways it could have played out. I'll bet the destruction of the barely crop wasn't this Tormentor's only goal that night. How did it work out, Harry?"

He went on to describe the events, explaining they were spaced just far enough apart that he was able to relax between them. "I was beginning to think I'd gone mad," Harry explained. "Because of it, I seriously considered staying home and in bed with Ginny when the third notification rang. It reminded me of that kids' story, about the little boy calling wolf." Charlie and I both nodded in agreement. "Can you imagine what might have happened had I not come?"

"I suppose it could have spread," I said after some thought, "but it would have taken ages to stretch to the crops which matter. The corn and vegetable fields are first, then the orchard and orangery; although the latter is charmed to keep it warm and protect it from rain so I don't know if it would have been blighted. We would have been home long before the other brewery products would have been attacked."

"Why are they so far from the house?" Harry inquired. "Wouldn't you want them up here, where you could keep watch over them?"

"While I had considered it, with the enchantments on the greenhouses and fields their proximity is irrelevant. I settled on the south-west quadrant because of its secluded nature. By placing the hops houses and seasonings gardens there, they are surrounded by cornfields and the orchard. Unless you know where you're looking, they're not noticeable from the road or from the forest beyond," I explained. I really was beginning to wonder if whoever did this really didn't know anything about what they were attacking. Maybe they didn't even destroy what they were thinking they did? Lost in thought, I was ignoring the quiet conversation between Harry and Charlie, not hearing any words which seemed to pertain to this latest attack. There wasn't much we could do about it now; we'd protected things as well as we could, short of putting the farm under a Fidelius Charm. That wouldn't be practical, as we had neighbours who might notice if we disappeared.

"Seph, I think we need to go on the offensive," Harry stated and I looked at him, confused.

"Have you learned something I haven't? Last we knew the Ministry didn't have any leads as to who was behind all of this."

"That's true and I know the same things you do," he answered. "However, there's a way to get a message to this Tormentor person, and I think we should utilize those friendly contacts we've developed with The Daily Prophet."

"Mr Smithers?" I asked, knowing if there was anyone who would be sympathetic to our plight it would be the Food and Drink editor, Nolan Smithers.

"You read my mind," Harry said with a smile. He levitated a bit of parchment and a quill from my desk while I whistled for my owl.

TBM TBM TBM TBM TBM

"Well, that was well written," I said, laying the paper aside after reading Mr Smithers fine article about the breweries, Harry and me, and the recent attacks. "He seemed to portray our conversation with him yesterday quite well."

"That he did," Harry agreed. We were in my office at MMB, awaiting the beginning of the work day. We casually finished our breakfast; we wanted to be here before the Prophet arrived so we could avoid everyone else. Our family knew about the article, and we'd alerted the staff as to the nature of what they'd read.

I was already prepared for the onslaught of mail we were liable to receive today. Unfamiliar owls would have to turn back, as they'd be unable to pass through the new enchantments. Anyone whose opinion we cared about already knew what we'd been through. I'd also closed the Floo, and the staff that used it would be arriving via a different form of transportation.

"We did the right thing by going public, didn't we?" Harry asked, and I nodded.

"Why wouldn't it have been the right thing?"

"I don't know," he confessed. "I just think about how some Death Eaters reacted when I called them out on their half-truths. It wasn't pretty. I want people to come forward if they saw something." Harry paused. "I guess I'm worried about nothing."

I shrugged and wondered if Harry was right. Would we upset this person? Exactly how much worse could all this get? While the threats were frightening, this Tormentor had proven to be all talk and irritation. I wanted this over, and I truly believed going to the press would accomplish that. I believed in my heart someone might have seen something, dismissed it at the time but with our story out there, they might better understand it now. I could only pray if someone had witnessed anything, they would come forward.