Who: Rabastan and Ella What: dealing with the "George problem" When: Saturday afternoon Where: Rab's place. Warnings: violence, alcohol, Lestranges being Lestranges
It had been one hell of a morning. Rabastan had woken late as usual, and had his usual Irish coffee before checking his journal. He'd expected more notes from Barty, though there were none; possibly a bad sign? What he had not expected was a note from Augustus, informing him that Ella had made friends with an Outsider. Presumably via the journals, since he wanted them to meet in person.
It seems your niece has made a new friend. I assure you, it is nothing like her sister. In what universe Rabastan was supposed to find that soothing, or even amusing, he didn't know. And it went on. In fact, if things go well, we might be able to replace the loss.
It was only thanks to Rabastan's very great restraint that the exchange had happened politely. Probably George Weasley wouldn't be a bad influence on Ella, but that did not mean that she should be involved in influencing him; to suggest that a Weasley could take the place of the niece he had lost was much worse. And as if to add insult to injury, Vera herself chose that moment to write - of all things - about never being able to lose her family.
Needless to say, Rabastan was not in a good mood, though he'd had enough whiskey to temper his rage. The first thing he had done was hex all of Vera's public entries against Ella; he'd only added the rest of the Lestranges to the hex as an afterthought, a small kindness for his brother. Then he had gone out and rounded up three new pinatas for his niece, parents and teenaged son, all of them red haired and freckled to imitate Weasleys, and related to each other. Their actual relation to the Weasley family was debatable at best, however.
Finally, he had put a dose of the antidote to Veritaserum in his jacket pocket for later - his watch would take care of his own dose - and spiked what remained of his alcohol with the truth serum. There wasn't much left, after Barty had been here, especially of his favorite whiskey; he had already placed orders for more.
After writing a note for Ella to come home, he took his second to last bottle of whiskey and settled down on the couch, watching the pinatas hang from the ceiling by their hands. For the moment they were unconscious, but that was unlikely to last long. Rabastan had already drawn blood, making the capture a bit more fun on purpose, and had carefully spelled his current suit waterproof for the moment. This wasn't going to be pretty.