Gina Smythe (glass_onion) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-03-19 07:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1980-03] march, georgina smythe, kate proudfoot, kingsley shacklebolt |
Who: Kate Proudfoot, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Gina Smythe
When: 19 March, 1980 - wee hours of the morning
Where: Diagon Alley, various places
What: Theiving!
Rating: PG (?)
Status: complete
Diagon Alley TheivingGina If Gina was anything as an Auror, she was efficient -- she did her job, and had a neatly written report on Rufus's desk by the next morning. Any flair for dramatics was saved for her social life. There was no point in making what was sometimes a very messy job even messier. She hadn't lingered for long in any of the buildings she'd been assigned to ransack: Her process after disabling the wards to Scrollduggery had been to throw as much as she could into her bag, the Undetectable Extension Charm she'd placed on it leaving more than enough room for all the supplies she could manage to grab. They could sort through things once they were back to camp. Her experiences in Madam Malkin's and Primpernelle's were even simpler, mostly due to the looming threat of Knockturn Alley being over with. It felt a lot less likely that there would be hidden wards anywhere in a clothing store or a beauty shoppe that would saw off one of her legs. Had it not been the buttcrack of dawn, and had the lights in the stores not been off, Gina might have forgotten that she wasn't there simply shopping on her own. Only this time, she wasn't on a budget. This was so natural to her (the browsing, not the thievery), and she'd missed it. Even though she had felt as though she'd spent quite a bit of extra time in Primpernelle's (not that it wasn't useful -- they would need some of the glamours sold in there for disguises; it wasn't entirely extraneous), Gina arrived back at the meeting place long before Kate and Kingsley. After lurking for several minutes, not wanting to chance getting caught by staying in one spot for too long, Gina headed back in the direction of Madam Primpernelle's. Instead of returning to the store, however, she began disabling the wards to get into Ollivander's. She knew that the shop keeper was still selling to muggleborns, and Gina had every intention of leaving money to pay for what she took in there. It couldn't hurt to have an extra supply of wands around, just in case, and Gina herself was in need of a new wand -- the one she'd been using since the Ministry takeover worked, but it wasn't nearly as nice as having one that was meant for her. After tossing about a dozen wands into her bag, setting the galleons to pay for them (as well as the Army of Albion calling card) next to the register, Gina was out of the shoppe in a hurry, replacing as many wards as she could before heading back to the meetup point once again. Unfortunately, just as she turned the corner into the alley between buildings, she ran smack into a much... much much much larger man who was pulling along a cart stacked high full of boxes. He looked just as surprised as Gina to run into someone this early in the morning. "Miss, curfew is still in session," he noted seriously, his deep baritone of a voice nearly seeming to echo within the small alleyway between the buildings. Shiiiiit, Gina silently damned her luck, praying that Kingsley would somehow psychically show up to yell at her for mentally stealing his catchphrase. Rather than peeling off in the other direction, though, she dropped to the ground, fishing around in the shadows of the pavement for nothing in particular while hoping that her acting skills weren't as terrible as she'd always thought they were. "I know, I know, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be out here, but -- John and I had a huge fight, and he's never been this mad at me before and I didn't even DO anything and he HATES me and he threw my wand out the window" (she gestured up towards Grindeylow Gardens just across the street) "and he locked me out of the flat and I was going to go stay with a friend, but I realised I COULDN'T because my wand is gone and I'm trying to find it and I KNOW I'm breaking curfew and I'm so so sorry, I don't want to get in trouble but I've gotta find my wand," Gina cried all in one breath, finally "giving up" on her search for her wand and leaning against the wall, curling her legs up and burying her face in her hands, wishing she knew how to make herself cry. She rubbed her eyes really hard instead, hoping that they'd look red enough to make her performance seem believable. "Are you going to take me into the Ministry?" she asked, looking up at the gigantic man, trying to give him the best sad puppydog eyes she could manage, nervously twirling her charmed blonde hair between her fingers the entire time. "I feel so stupid, I'm going to get in even more trouble because of stupid John and -- oh god, I don't have ANYTHING with me, my card is still upstairs and my wand is gone and-- and-- and--" she ended in a stutter, not able to think of any more bullshit and instead hiding her head in her arms once again, heaving deep sobs that she felt sounded extremely fake. "Honey, don't cry. Here, let me help you up," the man replied much to Gina's shock and amazement as he offered her a hand. "Tell you what. You got any money on you?" Gina shook her head no, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Some of her eye makeup seemed to have smudged off on her arm. Excellent. "Right. You take this, you head down the street and get yourself a room at the Leaky just for the night; clean yourself up some. Once it's light out, you come back here and look for your wand once you can see your hand in front of your face." Gina sniffed the loudest sniff she could manage, looking up a foot and a half to catch the man's eye. "You mean it? Oh thank you so much, sir!" she said, and -- taking a moment to work up the nerve to do so -- nearly pounced on the man, hugging him around the middle. Desperate times called for desperate measures. After a few seconds of pretending she didn't feel awkward as hell hugging a complete stranger, Gina dashed out of the alleyway and sped off in the Leaky's direction (luckily she was heading that way to meet Kingsley and Kate anyway), calling "thanks again!" to the fellow, thanking Merlin that had gone as well as it had. Kingsley The hardest thing about this all, Kingsley decided as he raised his wand up, poking and prodding to find any sort of weak spot, was the wards. Luckily there almost always was one, a fact he learned quite well in Auror Training. It seemed forever ago that he was just a Trainee considering everything that had happened since then, and now it was debatable if he was even still actually an Auror, but neither of those facts seemed to matter much at Gairloch. Well, not too much - they had decided that Kate and Gina would take the shops in Knockturn Alley because they were more experienced Aurors and they all knew those shops were riskier to break into. He didn't mind too much; if anything, being fresh out of training meant his lectures on wards and things were still fresh in his mind. He finally located the weak point in the ward and started to try to break it down - it wasn't the strongest of building wards (something he was grateful for) but it certainly was strong enough to prevent the average citizen with no training in wards from being able to enter. The last place he had been in - the Cauldron Shoppe - had extremely weak wards and it was a peice of cake for Kingsley to get in there and stuff as many cauldrons as he could into what he called the "Mary Poppins bag," which was simply a bag with an Undetectable Extension Charm on it. Ah, finally he was inside Quality Quidditch Supplies. "Homenum Revelio," he said immediately, the spell revealing there were no persons in the shop with him. It had been months since he'd been inside here, maybe even over a year, yet he still knew it well. The room looked different - more hostile - in the dark and things had been moved around a bit, but it smelled the same and he remembered the many, many times he would come in and see the newest models he could never afford, right up until they told him he was no longer welcome. He'd spent days daydreaming of having to go over there on duty and give them some smart remark, but it had never happened - a robbery, after all, was Hitwizard work, not an Auror's. He set the note Kate had made on the front counter - the one identifying themselves as the Army of Albion - and moved into the back room, knowing more brooms would be stored there. The storeroom was stacked with boxes of brooms, everything from Cleansweep Threes to a vintage Oakshaft 79 to the newest - the Nimbus 1500. "Shiiiiiiiiit," he whispered, going over to the Nimbus. It was beautiful. That was what he'd be taking, and sticking it to the man who wouldn't even let him inside the shop to look. He tested the broom for anti-theft wards and quickly disabled them, picking the broom up like it was made of gold. Yes. YES. YES! With his other hand he opened up the bag, still rather amazed at what the Extension Charm could do, and prayed it would fit a few broomsticks inside. Well, one fit. He chose the newest Cleansweep model, another Nimbus 1500 and a new Comet to fit into his bag and wondered how many he should take. One for each person at the camp? He needed to hurry, but brooms could be very useful. He picked up another Cleansweep and started to put it into his bag when he heard a rustle outside. Shiiiiiiit. Shoving the broom the rest of the way in, he slung the bag over his shoulder as he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself. That, at least, could buy him a chance to sneak out. He stole quietly toward the back door and paused next to it, listening. It was quiet, but he didn't want to take any chances. He stood there, listening for Helga knew how long before he finally poked his head out the door. No one. He pulled his cloak over his head and snuck out of the shop, slowly and quietly moving through the shadows behind the building and out of that part of Diagon, headed for Ouroboros Magical Supply. He couldn't have guessed how many galleons worth of brooms he had just stolen if he tried. Kate Kate had made the determination the night before to start at the Alchemist's Secret. The potions supplies seemed most important somehow, and so she'd worked her way through the list they'd come up with, placing a number of herbs, bottles, and pickled things she did not want to stare at too closely into the bags that they had prepared. A note left on the counter, right where the owner would see it, and she was on to the next place - Etoile's. She had been most nervous about wards - detecting them and bringing them down, and so it had been a relief when Etoile like Alchemist's Secret before it, had been simple enough to find the wards, bring them down, and then move unquestioned into the shop to take the things they needed. Now, those two behind her, she found herself faced with the final of the three: Twilfit and Tatting's just up the street from Etoile. Although she'd laughed about the lingerie with Kingsley the night before, staring at the maintenance entrance like she was, Kate was thinking that it wasn't a half bad idea. Silk - or really any fine material against her skin - sounded distinctly nice at the moment. Her eyes scanned the alleyway and seeing nobody, she raised her wand and went through the process for detecting charms and wards. She was nervous every time that she did this knowing that there were any number of wards that might not be detectable, and that if dismantled the wrong way, they might cause an alarm or draw attention to the fact that she was not meant to be there. At the end of the process, however, she drew a breath of relief. The wards were straight forward, and she should be able to bring them down. Should being the operative word, perhaps. The next part was more difficult, and she discretely glanced down the alleyway. She was almost done, and then she could meet Gina and Kingsley, and the three of them could get out of there before they were caught. Slowly she began the process of taking down the wards. She'd gone through this before, and even though she'd had some training as an Auror, she had never expected to use it on a legitimate business. She put it aside. Twilfit & Tatting's at least, served mainly Purists, or those wealthy enough to afford the ludicrous one of a kind designs that the shop catered to. The wards seemed to come down easily enough and after she took down the last one, she paused, gave one final - if quick - sweep of the building, and then moved towards the door. It didn't move and she frowned for a moment, but then realised that it was locked. She blinked. It was something she'd recalled from her training, that Muggleborns often locked doors even on highly warded properties, but that those used to the magical community and wards almost never did. She cast alohamora and pushed open the door, this time without any difficulty, and entered the shop. She could not get sidetracked no matter how pretty the robes were, she thought to herself. She was here to take some more practical things, and generally, to leave a message. So she made her way through the shop, touching some of the more interesting fabrics, taking some of the simpler robes, and some of the basics that although they did not look particularly more elegant than something one might find at Malkin's, were priced three times as much. It was the lingerie in the back that did finally side track her for a longer period of time. They were soft and pretty and completely unnecessary on any front other than to simply hurt the store, but Kate couldn't help lingering over them for a moment. She was spending too long on this, she thought as a noise outside the front of the shoppe caught her attention. She grabbed a red piece and a couple of others that might not fit anyone at the camp (and was she really going to show them to Rufus anyway?) and after slapping down one of her hand written notes on the desk, she took a short cut through the storage area to make her way back towards the maintenance entrance. That was a mistake. In her haste to get out, she had paid no attention to additional internal wards that might have been placed in the area. As she stepped to move between a large stack of wooden crates, she felt just a moment too late, the stinging that accompanied a needle hex. It was all she could do not to cry out and as she moved to escape it, she stepped backwards into another ward that all but forced her, by way of flying across the room, out of the area of the storeroom that it was protecting. She landed on the floor, hoping that it hadn't yet set off an alarm (she didn't hear one) and that she had not broken every bone in her body. Regardless, she couldn't wait to find out. She climbed to her feet clumsily and moved to walk only to realise that her ankle didn't want to completely carry her weight. She cursed softly, and waved her wand at it, trying to force it to hold her. She had to get out of here and before someone apparated in. As she moved (giving a wide birth to the storage area) her wand was at the ready and she pushed her way out through the door and into the street. No one was there, Thank Merlin. No matter how she tried to avoid it she was still limping, so she simply tried to suppress the ability, keeping her face as normal as she possibly could, and she moved back into the main street, and back towards the meeting place on Diagon Alley. With any luck, Kingsley and Gina would already be there so that they could return to Gairloch before anyone arrived to notice things had been taken, and surely someone at Gairloch would know how to heal up her ankle. Everyone meets up at the end: Kate approached the meeting area, trying to remain inconspicuous. Like an early morning exerciser - someone who simply always was out this early. Where were Gina and Kingsley? She knew that they were only supposed to wait for so long before they would return without someone and she checked her watch, pretending to examine the open window of a nearby shop. She still had a moment. They would be here. Gina was still sprinting as she met up with Kate, feeling a little breathless now that her nerves upon almost getting caught were catching up to her. "Hey," she nodded at Kate, pushing her bag up on her shoulder and glancing about to be sure she hadn't been seen (again). "Is Kingsley back yet?" "Not yet," Kate said, trying to remain calm and not worry too much. She took another glance at her watch, knowing that only moments had passed since the last time she looked at it. It was almost time to when they had agreed to leave - where was Kingsley? Kate was torn between wanting to Apparate right at that moment so she could get off of her ankle, and wanting to keep waiting until Kingsley showed up. But it was a silly wish, because Kingsley would be there in time. He had to be. "You all right then?" she asked Gina. She had barely finished speaking when Kingsley rounded the corner, strolling into their meeting spot with an ice cream cone in his hand. He'd been on his way back and a few minutes early, so when he passed by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, he couldn't resist the temptation of stopping in for a cone. It had been quite a while since he'd had one anyway, and what was one more theft? The wards had been easy since, after all, they didn't have valuables and Kingsley doubted they kept much money in the safe. It had been worth it - there was now an entire carton of ice cream in his bag. "Hello, ladies," he said, grinning at them. "All right?" Kate breathed out a sigh of relief at Kingsley's voice. "Oh, thank Merlin," she exclaimed. "Yes, I think we're all good - well, my ankle, but I think that'll take care of itself when we get back. We should-Kingsley, ice cream?" She shook her head with exasperation. Kingsley shrugged and looked a bit sheepish. "I had a few minutes to spare." "You could have brought us some, prat," Gina rolled her eyes. "Nevermind. We should probably get out of here. The delivery-types are lurking around." "All right. Let's go." |