thrill_seeker (thrill_seeker) wrote in an_ill_wind, @ 2009-08-16 23:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | 1980/08 august, alecto carrow, daniel wilkes, leoben yaxley, sturgis podmore |
WHO Daniel Wilkes, Alecto Carrow, Leoben Yaxley, Jeremy and Celine Podmore
WHEN 16 August 1980
WHERE Jeremy and Celine Podmore home
WHAT A murder of sorts
RATING R for Violence
Danny was ready to go. He had his cloak on and his mask in hand as he stood in the living room of his flat waiting for the other two to arrive. It was very apparent to him how both Alecto and Leoben felt about one another and he would not tolerate any sort of childish or cheeky behavior from either of them. If anything, he was not in the mood for it. He had made it quite clear that they are on the same side and hoped that they had each taken that into consideration if for only one night. Last night was the first in many that he had finally got some sleep. Granted it was just three hours or so on the sofa, but it was sleep nonetheless. However, not even sleep eased his troubled mind -- everything was a mess at the moment and he needed this night to go like clockwork to gain any sort of trust back from Rodolphus. For Alecto too. Alecto. On top of everything, she was still plaguing his already ailing mind. He worried for her and about her. Every now and again her face appeared in his mind and he couldn't help but wonder.
He suddenly shook his head and glanced up at the clock. They'll be here soon, he told himself as he set his mask down on an endtable and adjusted his cloak.
With her masked stowed carefully in her pocket, Alecto apparated directly to Danny's doorstep and knocked lightly. She was early, but she wanted to beat Yaxley there, even if by just a few minutes. Though she couldn't quite articulate why. But no matter, she told Danny that she would put her hatred for Yaxley aside to get the job done. Regardless of any ill feelings, he was right. They desperately needed a victory.
When he opened the door, she stepped in swiftly, and any desire to shout at him for inviting along the man who tortured her was gone. Instead she just leaned her head against his chest for a brief moment before tearing herself away. If she allowed herself to actually let go of appearances, she might give in to all her worries and fears. And that would not do. Not tonight. They had work to do. Shrugging off that quick moment of weakness, she looked up at him and said with an air of business as usual, "So, everything's all in order, it seems."
Leoben sat idly in his study until exactly 11:50. His robes were all here. There was a reason no one was ever allowed into his study, after all. Not without some warning, anyway. He changed quickly, quietly, and only pausing to secure three knives to his person. His favourites.
Little more than a shroud of black robes, he pulled on his gloves and apparated, mask held loosely by the eyeholes.
He appeared on the ground, still three minutes early and nudged the door open. He had no desire to spend very much time in a common flat and it took rather impeccable and precise control to avoid looking around in relative distaste for the environment. He hardly spared a glance for Miss Carrow. Perhaps she would remember her lesson.
"Come, then," was his simple greeting - or distinct lack thereof. Strictly business. There was no need to exchange niceties.
To say that Danny didn't think much of Ally being that close to him, touching him, would be an understatement. He absentmindedly brushed his hand against her side, wanting so much to hold her ever closer, but she had moved away before he could full place his palm on her. For such a brief moment, everything was okay.
"Yeah," he replied very simply. "Everything will go accordingly," he added, his tone filled with confidence and determination. He decided that he would refrain from making any mention of Yaxley to her. It would be best not to add to the fire. Just as he finished his last sentence, the door to his flat opened once again and he looked up to see Ben entering the room. Without so much as even acknowledging the other man, he grabbed his mask from the endtable and pulled up his hood. "So we're all clear, we kill them there, then take them to your place Yaxley," he said to the both them, nodding in Ben's direction.
With that, he put on his mask and immediately apparated from his flat, arriving just outside the Podmore's home. Once there, he glanced around the area for a moment before stepping up to the property. He knew it would be a waste to check for wards, but he did anyway and to no surprise, there were. "No shit," he said rather sarcastically to himself.
Alecto's eyes darkened when Yaxley entered Danny's flat, but she didn't give any other reaction to his presence. She wasn't about to give the man any satisfaction. So she gave a quick nod to Danny, donned her mask, and apparated to the edge of the Podmore property. She walked up close beside Danny, and grinned to herself at his remark. "Wards?" she said, with a bit of sarcasm before she tested them for herself. Determining they shouldn't be too difficult to break, Alecto began the work of slowly stripping down the Podmore's wards. Alecto felt the magic weaken and then dissipate as the wards broke. They were extensive, but the Podmores should be asleep and hopefully didn't notice that their defenses had been tripped. Without hesitating further, she simply said, "Let's go," before walking towards the house.
Leoben took only a moment to push his mask to his face and adjust his hood, and then he too, apparated once again. He slid into the air around the Podmores home and, without a work, set to help strip away the wards. Between the three of them, it hardly took but a moment, and as soon as it was done, he stalked silently toward the house, wand grasped firmly in his right hand.
The doors opened effortlessly. The home was dark and quiet, the mirror of any common home in England at this time of night. Ben carefully shut the door behind them, lest anyone take notice to an open house at midnight and think to notify authorities. Which was almost humourous, considering, well, they were the authorities. Or at least, the ones that mattered.
He pressed on, and up the stairs slowly, intent to keep the wood from creaking or groaning under his feet. Not that it would matter very much at this point. They were in the house now.
Celine woke up first; she'd always had a light sleep, from the moment that Sturgis had been born. Most mothers grew out of it once their child became a teen, but she never had. She still woke at the slightest sound, and tonight again she did when the wards broke. Stu's friends had come to strengthen them over the last months - the pregnant Auror, Alice something, and also another man before her, Edgar Bones. Knowing that an Auror had put up her wards had always made her feel safe, despite the war raging around them and what had happened to the Weasleys. It was awful, really, poor Molly and Arthur and their boys, and Merlin, poor little Percy. But here, here they were safe.
Or so she thought, but the wards were giving up now and she got up and walked to the window. If she had done so just a few seconds earlier, she would have seen hooded figures walking up to the house and would have had time to wake Jeremy and Apparate away, but they were hidden by the porch's roof by the time she looked, and so she brushed off her worry. She was returning to bed when she heard the door open and her blood froze in her vein. "Jeremy, Jeremy, wake up," she hissed, panic in her voice, as her husband woke up groggily. "There's someone in the house."
Danny had already begun to ascend the stairwell, slowly taking it one... step... at... a... time. Even though the house was dark, the light of the moon softly shining through the windows gave them ample light to find their way to the second floor. The house was eerily quiet except for their gentle footsteps climbing the stairs, the rhythmic ticking of a clock in the hall and his heart pounding in his ears. His heart thumped loudly in his chest, pounding rapidly as he continued on up. It wasn't because he was afraid, oh no. It was the rush, the thrill of a kill that awaited him. He switched his wand from his left hand to his right and held it out to the side. The tip of his wand clicked against the pillars of the railing, hitting them one by one by one, matching the beat of the clock. Tick, tick, tick.
Once he reached the top of the stairs, he stopped for a moment to listen carefully. A wicked smile stretched across his features as he heard the muffled sounds of a woman's voice emanating from behind a door not too far from where he stood. Slowly he turned his head and carefully made his way down the hall towards the door where the voice had come. It always brought him amusement to tease his prey and so he dragged the tip of his wand, once again, along the wall until he reached the door. At that point, he poked the door with his wand with a light tap. To be safe, he stepped to the side of the door, unaware of the two inside the room would have their wands ready for when one of them would open it. He glanced over to Alecto then to Ben and nodded towards the door. He reached for the doorknob and slowly turned it. Once he heard the gentle click, he shoved the door open. In one full swoop, without warning, he turned into the door, wand drawn and shouted, "incarcerous!" Ropes suddenly bound themselves around Jeremy's wrists and ankles very tightly, ensuring that he would not be able to move, even from within the bed. At that, he turned his wand onto Celine.
Alecto followed Danny carefully into the house, and was directly behind him with her wand out when he burst into the room and bound the husband. Doing a survey of the room, Alecto stood for a moment in thought. She was never one for torture, and preferred hurting people in the abstract by blowing them up. Even on assignments, Amycus was always the one who used the cruciatus, while she preferred the imperius curse. Tonight however, the assignment was a hit, and while she knew the men with her wanted to play, she would not allow them to torture a defenseless woman, especially not Yaxley. So with a quick gesture, Alecto waved her wand at the woman, and spoke deliberately, "Avada Kedavra." Once the woman's body fell over on the bed, she trained her wand on the man, and gave a nod to Danny, as if to say do what you want to him. Really, she had no qualms about hurting men.
Leoben watched impassively, standing still enough in the doorway. The best part couldn't take place here, anyway. That was not to say though, that nothing could be done here. He stepped forward and with a flick and a murmur of incarcerous, bound the man to his dead wife.
"My grounds," he said simply, only just refraining from reminding them not to go near the actual manor. His wife was pregnant after all. With that, he apparated himself and the bodies to what was once a stable. He had since cleared out the majority of the individual stalls, so that in the middle of the building was a 30 x 30 expanse of clear floor. Four tables, two on either wall. In the corner, a small incinerator. And at least a dozen knives, obviously set for different tasks, from heavy cleavers down to four inch precision blades. Ben had always had a weakness for knife play.
Here now though, he separated the husband from his wife and left her cooling on the ground. With a flick, the man was tied tightly to the nearest table. For now, he'd let him scream. No one was around to hear him after all. The entire building was warded for sound and security. No one got here unless he wanted them to. Now though, Ben shed his mask and gloves, and then rolled his sleeves up as he waited for Daniel and Alecto.
It was the rudest awakening of Jeremy's life, as Death Eaters barged into his bedroom, tied him up before he was even fully awake, and murdered his wife before his helpless eyes. "Celine!" he screamed when she fell lifeless, wishing with every fibre of his being that it was nothing but a terrible nightmare but knowing, with a crushing despair, that it wasn't. "You bloody bastards," he spit, interrupted as he was tied up once more. His wife's still warm flesh against his, he felt tears roll down his cheeks and drop on her face, so close to his and yet gone forever. He was both crushed and furious beyond any measure, disgusted with these two men and woman who attacked behind masks, cowards who meant business and didn't waste any time, immediately Apparating Celine and him away to his grounds, wherever that may be. As his bedroom disappeared from his vision, he wondered why they'd been targeted. Was it because they were haflbloods, or because they had hosted Stu's friends after they'd been attacked? Tied to his dead wife, part of him wished that they had never helped the Weasleys, while another part knew they couldn't have turned a blind eye to this family in need. It wasn't how they lived, wasn't how they had raised Sturgis - and oh Merlin, please let them not have taken his son as well!
The sucking feeling of Apparating loosened up as they arrived and Celine was immediately wretched away from him. "No!" Tied up once more, ice gripped his heart as he saw that they were now in what looked like a torture chamber. Thankfully he could not see Stu anywhere, turning his head in every direction to ensure that his son truly wasn't there, relief fighting with panic. At least Celine had been saved from whatever they would do to him now... "Monsters, why us? What did we ever bloody do? Tell me!"
Danny watched Celine's body loosely tumble onto the bed out of the corner of his eye. His focus was fixed on Jeremy, wanting to make sure the man did not make any sudden moves. While it would have been more than enjoyable to torture both husband and wife, he wouldn't argue with Alecto's decision to kill her right away. Perhaps it would be better this way. As soon as Yaxley had the man bound to his dead wife, he gave his fellow Death Eater a curt nod before following suit and apparating to the old stable as well.
Once there, he looked over the place as he stepped in further and removed his mask. He pulled his hood back to get a better look at his surroundings as he strode through the now horseless barn. As he approached the table where Jeremy was now strapped to, he quickly snapped back to the here and now upon hearing the man go on and on with the usual fucking questions. "Why us?" He mocked. "What did we ever do? Shut the fuck up..." he added in a very smart ass tone. "It's the same bullshit questions every time." With that, he set his mask down and rolled up his sleeves just as Yaxley had. He glanced over his shoulder to look at Alecto and he almost didn't want her here. She was a Death Eater and should be treated like any other, but mutilation and torture was not something he wanted any woman to participate in -- it just wasn't their place. "You can go," he told her somewhat sternly, but there was a slight undertone of concern in his voice, one that he knew she would pick up on. Just then, he whipped around and pointed his wand directly at Jeremy's mouth. Before the man could speak again he uttered the word crucio.
Once Yaxley apparated away with the couple, Alecto followed without a word. She arrived and slid into the barn right behind Danny. When she arrived, the man was already tied to the table, and begging for his life. She wasn't exactly comfortable in this environment, and looked around at her surroundings with a careful eye. She did not dare betray any emotion in front of the men, but it was disconcerting. She too, removed her mask, but did not address the man. In all honesty, she wanted nothing more to do with this scene, but she did not want to appear weak. Alecto didn't take pleasure in torture and killing; she looked at it as a job. She preferred to kill quickly, and only took pleasure in setting things on fire.
Danny's words brought her back to reality. Part of her was insulted, but the other part knew it was out of concern. He knew her well enough to know that she wanted to leave. And this way they both saved face in front of Yaxley. Laying a hand on his arm, she said, "I'll leave. You men have your fun." While she agreed that some torture was fair game (after all, Rabbit was probably enduring some in captivity), she didn't want the man to be mutilated while still alive. She leaned in close and whispered so only he could hear, "But don't let this get out of hand. End it if he gets carried away." With that, she gave his arm a quick squeeze and apparated home without giving Yaxley so much as a nod.
Leoben eyed his colleagues with some degree of interest before turning away and letting Daniel have his way with the cruciatus. Pain was one thing, yes. A very convincing tool, if nothing else. But it left no marks. It was clean, at least as far as methods of torture went. There was no real precision and if Leoben ever obsessed over anything, it was always the details. Fine cuts that could still cause massive amounts of pain.
He said nothing as Alecto left and instead considered the knives on the wall. They would butcher him later, certainly, perhaps even after he was dead. But simply hacking off limbs was again, imprecise and lacked finesse. He would die too quickly from massive blood loss.
"You spawned a fool," Leoben answered the man calmly, between his screams. "Mr Podmore, your son is in quite a lot of trouble." It was off-hand and almost eerily polite. It wouldn't do to forget his manners, after all.
Jeremy could deal with the first Death Eater's comment, but his Cruciatus curse was another matter entirely and he twisted on the table in agonizing pain, his screams forcing through his throat, his pulse rushing as if his heart would jump out of his ribcage, his body covered in sweat. He could barely notice the woman leaving or hear the other man's comments about Sturgis, pain taking over. Still, it took some time but the words did register and fear for his son joined the physical pain to make it even worse, if that was possible.
Danny didn't bother responding to Ally's request, unable to promise her anything of the sort. He neglected to show any reaction to her touching him, although he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't like it.
He could hear Yaxley talking, but he didn't pay much attention to the words. His concentration focusing on the cruciatus that flowed from his wand and into Jeremy's face. After several minutes, he pulled his wand away and tilted his head to the side as he studied the man's features. "It's not so much as punishing you as it is punishing him," he sneered with a slight grin that curled at the corners of his mouth. Slowly he leaned in closer so that Jeremy could get a better look at his face -- he wanted this man to see who would be taking his life tonight. "You are nothing but filth that has become a fair bit of convenience..." he trailed off, his tone drenched in venom as he spoke slowly enunciating every word.
Leoben let Daniel talk as he finally picked a knife from off the wall. A thin, five inch goblin made blade. He took his time, reaching for a honing rod and carefully refining the edge of the blade as Jeremy screamed. When he was done, he turned to the man on the table and tore his shirt open. An open an canvas. Oh, torture was such an art form. A deeply neglected one.
With a tap of his wand, he carefully heated the blade, letting it warm and then turn searing hot. The edge nearly glowed under the strain and Ben stopped before he actually damaged the instrument. And then simply pressed the flat end against the man's abdomen, letting it sizzle and burn. The smell of burnt hair and cooking flesh rose from the body and still, he persisted, just turning the blade over and moving it here and there. Best to start simply.
Jeremy knew that the Death Eater was right: torturing him would be torture for Sturgis. He could hardly think, the pain omnipresent, but he couldn't forget those words. When the man finally lifted the Cruciatus curse, Jeremy let out a short breath, trying to regain control of himself though he couldn't stop wondering why they wanted to punish his son. Would they kill him tonight, like Celine, or would they use him to reach Stu? He wished he could save his son, even if it meant dying. When the second Death Eater burned him with his scorching hot knife, Jeremy amended his thoughts: he would probably wish to die tonight rather than be kept alive by those two monsters for their sadistic amusement.
Danny moved away from the table and walked along the wall of knives, admiring each one as he passed them. They were so clean and pristine that they softly glinted in the light. He didn't want to mar them by touching one and getting his finger prints on it. So instead, he returned his attention to both Yaxley and Jeremy. Just as turned his head, he saw Ben pressing a rather impressive knife that glowed a brilliant red, to the filthy halfblood's skin. Glancing back to the wall, he decided to pick up one of the medium sized knives and gave it a quick look over then rounded the table. Turning the blade so that it was facing him, he gently dragged the tip of the knife up along Jeremy's leg, scratching the skin as he walked forward. Once he reached the head of the table, he held the knife above Jeremy's face. The blade shined and showed a rather impressive reflection of Jeremy's face, almost as good as a mirror. "Lovely tool isn't it? Their purpose is so simple," he said in a low and dangerous tone. Again, he took the tip of the knife and dragged it down Jeremy's arm, stopping at the man's hand. At that, he looked at Yaxley, almost in a way to make sure that what he was about to do wouldn't disrupt any organization to this play on torture.